Trichur V Ramachandran. music Academy 21 December 2011

[mohan]

Trichur V Ramachandran - vocal
MA Sundareswaran - violin
Umayalpuram Mali - mrudangam
EM Subramaniam - ghatam

Music Academy 21 December 2011 9:15am

1. era napai, todi, adi, Patnam Subramania Ayyar (s)
2. ne nendu, karnataka behag, adi, Thyagaraja
3. madurapuri kalyani, purvikalyani, misra capu (vilomam), GN Balasubramaniam (r,n,s)
4. inkevaru, sahana, adi, Annaswami Sastri
5. jaya jaya guha, sudha dhanyasi, adi, Papanasam Sivan (s)
6. hiranmayim lakshmi, lalita, rupakam, Mutuswami Dikshitar (r)
7. enduko ni manasu, kalyani, adi, Thyagaraja (r,n,s,t)
8. RTP, Brindavana Saranga, adi khanda gati
shyama sundara madana mohana, brindavana vihara muralidhara
9. vegani, surati, rupakam,
10. nanda nanda paramanda, desh, tisra gati, Swati Tirunal
11. bhajare gurunadam, pilu, adi, Jayendra Saraswati

Enjoyable concert. I'll post my views later

[CRama]

Thanks for your immediate song list. Hope you enjoyed the concert immensely. Nice selections. Pl post a detailed review at your leisure.

[mohan]

Senior vidwan, Sri V. Ramachandran presented a very enjoyable concert this morning at the Academy. He started with the todi varnam and rounded it off with some brief swarams before presenting the short piece in karnataka behag.

The first alapana came in the form of purvi kalyani. It was a short and crisp presentation followed by the rarely heard madurapuri in viloma capu - a composition of the artist's guru. There was neraval in the first caranam line followed by kalpana swaram. Annaswami Sastri's masterpiece, inkevaru in sahana came next. This was a serene rendition which brought out the bhAva of the raga.

Sri TVR sang an alapana in lalita followed by hiranmayim. This was a nice prelude to the main piece in kalyani. The alapana was delivered in full glory with Ramachandran excelling in the higher registers bringing out those briga-laden nagaswaram phrases that is characteristic of the GNB school. The vocal alapana went for close to 20 minutes. Enduko ni manasu was presented with neraval and swaram at the line 'tyAgarAja hRdaya sadanuDu ...'
The percussive team followed up with a neat tani.

A short RTP in Brindavana Saranga came next. Sundareswaran especially excelled here in alapana and tanam. The concert concluded with three lighter pieces.

All in all a very nice concert by one of the stalwarts in the field. No gimmicks or unnecessary frills.

[bilahari]

Thanks for the report, Mohan. KalyANi seems to be TVR's pet ragam!

On a separate note, it is encouraging to see that TVR has many concerts scheduled this season. He is a vidwan well worth listening to repeatedly!

[rshankar]

Thanks Mohan...is there an audio link to the purvikalyANi piece, by any one else. I have not had a chance to listen to this, or to the one in Suddha dhanyAsi.

[pvs]

A very lovely Kalyani! I'm one of those people who kalyani doesn't stir as much as other ragas. But I thoroughly enjoyed it today. Especially the higher registers. And yes, Kalyani is his cup of tea. I expected (hoped) himagiri tanaye, but jaya jaya guha was a neat replacement, especially the swaras. The RTP was enjoyable too. Love the timbre of his voice. Especially in some places where it sounds like GNB. I haven't heard GNB live, but this is the closest, I think.

@rshankar: I have a bootleg record of today's purvikalyani. Will try to upload soon.

@mohan: minor detail: It was bhajare gurunatham...he mentioned today is the aradhana day of maha periyaval.

[kssr]

TVR's forte is his high speed long string swara prasthaarams. Hope he is still maintaining that. A great vidwan indeed. The last couple of times I heard him more than a year ago, the voice was a bit coarse. But there was no letting up of his powerful rendition style. I repeat the great regret of the entire rasikar kuzhaam that he is yet to be given SK. Hope 2012 will be his year.

[rajeshnat]

Mohan
One of my periappas who likes GNB attended this concert and he was gA gA with shri ramachandran's kalyani. I also have great respect for his ghana rAga renditions.

PVS,
I would love to hear those that ravi had asked for

[pvs]

@ rajeshnat
@ ravi
I have just now moved the recordings to my computer and have reduced them to a single 2.5 hr run. It is the full concert with about 30 seconds missing at the beginning of 'jaya jaya guha' when I hit pause accidentally. To facilitate upload and slow speed bottlenecks, I reduced it to 128 kbps. It could use some enhancement work, but I am short of time, running between concerts. Please send me a message from your email and I will give you the mediafire link. If you want I can give you the original MP4s to clean up.

@ kssr
I agree. I hope 2012 is his year for SK! I have heard a few commercial recordings of his and the only thought that crosses my mind is 'What a majestic voice!'. He still strings the swaras at express speeds. The suddha dhanyasi and kalyani were examples. I was hoping for 'vasudevayani' which belonged to GNB...