Veena Arangetram

[veenajj]

Veena Arangetram of Veenavaadhini students Jayash and Manash Ramanathan on July 10,2011 at Tattvaloka, Eldams Road, Chennai at 6:30 pm.

Chief Guest is Sri Neyveli Santhanagopalan.

Accompanying artists are Sri Neyveli Narayanan (Mridangam) and Sri Trichy Krishna (Ghatam).

We wish to thank Sri Santhanagopalan and the senior musicians for having agreed to participate in the event.

Rasikas welcome.

Jeyaraaj and Jaysri

[tkb]

Wishing the concert every success.

[srikant1987]

Best wishes to Jayash and Manash.

[thanjavooran]

Blessings to Jayash and Manash Ramanathan and
wishes to Gurujis too

Thanjavooran 07 07 2011

[cienu]

wishing the youngsters Jayash and Manash Ramanathan all the very best.

[PUNARVASU]

Best wishes to the youngsters and to the gurus.Happy to note that youngsters are into learning veena. The Veenavadhini School is doing a great service . I think Brhaddhwani is another organisation which is into nurturing veena playing.Best wishes to them.

[gardabha_gana]

Best wishes!! Can someone post a snippet of their performance on YouTube or such?

[rshankar]

Best Wishes to Jayash and Manash! Hope they make J and J proud!

[Nick H]

Best wishes to J, J, J and M I'm sure that Jayash and Manash will be successful, not only for their arangetram, but for the future, having J & J as teachers.

[rbharath]

My best wishes to Kumaris Jayash & Manash and their gurus..

[bilahari]

Best wishes to Jayash and Manash! And to J and J too! I hope they do make not only their gurus but the veena proud as well!

[tkb]

Congratulations to the New Vainikas, their Gurus and their Parents!

I am happy to have attended this wonderful concert of Twin sisters which was indeed very pleasing to the ears all through out! To me it never looked to be an Arangetram concert right from the time i entered the hall when they were playing raga alapana for Hamsadwani. They followed it with a krithi in Anandha Bhairavi which to me was the highlight of the evening! Well the rest with krithis in Rvichandrika, Panthuvaral, Sama were also equally well presented but the sound of veena for Ananda Bhairavi was very moving!

I do not remember the name of all the krithis but thoroughly enjoyed the music presented by the Twin sisters which was indeed enhanced to their best by Sri Neyveli Narayanan and Sri Trichy Krishna. The raga presentation on Thodi, Thanam and the krithi Sri Krishnam was indeed soulful! It was a evening i think i was blessed to listen to some good Veena recital! Kudos to the guru Smt Jaasri Jayraj for the way she has shaped her sishyas! Also even though they were handling two veenas it was sounding in Unison and this feeling was reflected by Sri Neyveli Santhanagopalan sir also during his Chief guest Speech.

Sri NSG sir was really spontaneous and praised the artistes of the day with his great blessings. To get good remarks - "I was hoping that the Thanam in Thodi will be going on for ever as it was so well presented" from artiste of his stature reflects the way the artists has played today. He was also congratulating their guru for ensuring to teach and bring them to this performing stage after they had actually learnt all the nuances of presenting a good concert. Our Vainikas JJ have truly announced the arrival of two more of their sishyas, who i am sure have made their guru also feel very proud of!

I felt the artists lost little of their concentration after a short break during the felicitation, still performed their best! The presentation of Enna thavam in kaapi, Thillana in Revathy and the Mangalm were equally good but i am sure both the artists and the audience would have been much more delighted if it was in one go! IMO felicitation should be made either in the beginning or to be carried out as the last item, if possible.

I sincerely have the satisfaction of having attended a good concert and the music is still in my ears even after reaching home and preparing myself to watch the Cricket match!

[PUNARVASU]

tkb, thanks for the nice review of a wonderful concert.Being a veena lover myself, it gives me great pleasure that youngsters are taking up veena playing. Gr8 service by JJ!

[Sreeni Rajarao]

TKB Sir,
Thanks for the report!

Congratulations to the young performers and their Guru-s!

I am wondering if they performed on the traditional (Saraswati) veena or the electronic veena.

[tkb]

tks PUNARVASU &Sreeni Rajarao.

I forgot to mention about the learned audience who were present for the occasion in Smt Mala Chandrasekar, Sri Melakaveri Balaji, Sri Trichy Murali to mention a few names. The ambiance of the auditorium was also one of the reason for the success of the concert as mentioned by the Vainika's Mom. I also loved to hear the thalam sound of the audience of the in unison with the artists on stage, in particular during the thani, which was soothing and hope did not disturu the artists on stage, which is normally rare now a days!! The performance of the artists was with Radel Veenas. Hope we can listen to one of their concerts in future, with regular veena soon!!

[srikant1987]

Ah! The electronic veena is a very, very commendable invention, helping portability tremendously and also lessening the difficulty on the mic people and hall acoustics considerably. However, I have begun to fear that the new-found ease of louder and sustained volume might show in reduced plucking azhuttham, which will reflect in musical azhuttham as well. Once disciplined plucking practice is attained, the vainika must carry forward the same on to the electronic veena.

[rshankar]

Sri TKB, thank you! Congratulations and best wishes to the artists (in all my ignorance, I had assumed them to be brothers!)! And kudos to our friends, VeenaJJ! I think Rajani may have attended the concert as well.

[arasi]

Congratulations to the sisters! I think highly of J&J's playing. I know they're dedicated in their in teaching and it shows in these pupils. Rajani's daughter is getting ready for her arangERam in the near future, I hope!
Thanks TKB for being there and for sharing your experience.
I have heard J&J play both the RAdel and the regular vINA. The first time I saw the Radel on the stage, I wondered how it was going to sound. I liked it!

[rshankar]

The first time I saw the Radel on the stage, I wondered how it was going to sound. I liked it!

Not for nothing is it called sunAdavinOdini! As explained by Radhika, her mother-in-law named it.

[Radhika-Rajnarayan]

Thank you for the kind words.
Jeyaraaj and Jaysri have played a very significant role in the continuous improvement of the Sunadavinodini. We have spent many hours with them, and discussed the possibilities of improvement - they have given so many suggestions which we have incorporated into the instrument. If the electronic veena has gained popularity today, it is to a great extent, due to the improvements made according to JJ's suggestions, as well as their role in popularizing the instrument by playing concerts on it.
Plucking Azuththam is practised at the beginning of the learning activity, and continues throughout. What changes is that the extra hard pluck which vainikas need to resort to, just to generate the volume (sometimes this works counter-productively!) - that is rendered unnecessary. The azuththam and nuanced plucking - all of these remain.

[Radhika-Rajnarayan]

Many congratulations to the new vainikas in the concert circuit and to their gurus! All the very best to them for a successful career in music.