Ramakrishnan Murthy-Charulatha Ramanujam-Arjun Kumar-Sukanya

Review the latest concerts you have listened to.
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srikant1987
Posts: 2246
Joined: 10 Jun 2007, 12:23

Ramakrishnan Murthy-Charulatha Ramanujam-Arjun Kumar-Sukanya

Post by srikant1987 »

Sri Ramakrishnan Murthy - Vocal
Smt Charulatha Ramanujam - Violin
Sri Arjun Kumar - Mridangam
Smt Sukanya Ramgopal - Ghatam

08 January 2012
Sri Rama Lalitha Kala Mandira, Basavanagudi

padavini - sAlagabhairavi - Adi-1 - T (sketch, S)
Ananda naTana prakAsham - kEdaram - cApu - MD (R, NS @ sangItavAdya)
himAcalatanaya - Anandabhairavi - Adi-1 - SS (RS)
kAlait tUkki ninRu - yadukulakAmbOdhi - Adi - Marimutha Pillai (.)
shrIkAnta nI - bhavapriya - Adi - T
dakShiNAmUrtE - shankarAbharaNam - jhampa - MD (R, NS @ nivikaLa)
tani
iDadupadam tUkki - khamAs - Adi - PS
mauLava gangA - viruttam in mAyAmALavagauLa, sahAna, kApi, darbAri kAnaDa
candra cUDa - darbAri kAnaDa
tillAna in pUrNacandrika by Poochi Shreenivasa Iyengar
mangalam


sALagabhairavi did not have much grr and ndd, but nonetheless made for a different and interesting beginning. kEdAram was good. I love kEdAram. :D The AlApanai was somewhat tailored for the krti, which is a good thing. The neraval's mElkAlam was a little too brief for my liking, but was good nonetheless. I'm guessing Ramakrishnan feels people are yet to even accept neravals without swarams following them, so I, having seen much evidence of it in this forum, sympathise. The kOrvai finale in kEdAram was very nice.

Anandabhairavi rAgam was very good. The percussion department was a little aggressive during this composition, and I liked it. ;) I felt more feeling could be put into the rendition of the caraNam. I also felt that the swarams were unnecessary, and somewhat hurried, with no pauses to contemplate on how to bring rAgabhAvam better.

The rendition of kAlaittUkki was soulful.

The shankarAbharaNam AlApanai was beautiful. It had the sAranga snnd, which seemed deliberate initially, but was repeated again towards the end. Smt Charulatha's AlApane included it too. There were occassionally some long kArvais in Ramakrishnan Murthy's AlAp, which weren't followed by something which should have come after contemplation during the kArvai.

The percussion was rather intrusive during the neraval for dakShiNAmUrtE. What with the tALam being jhampa, it must have been difficult to anticipate what Ramakrishnan or Smt Charulatha had in mind during the "normal" (as opposed to mElkAla) neraval, since it was not entirely according to the song's meter either. A sarvalaghu accompaniment would have been comfortable for Ramakrishnan, Smt Charulatha as well as the listeners during the normal neraval. However Ramakrishnan made interesting usage of the pa sa in the sAhityam turning them into svarAkSharams once or twice. I wasn't able to read the lyrics in Smt Charulatha's replies, this krti not being familiar to me ... she might have done that too.

The mElkAla neraval was excellent.

Swarams were sarvalaghu and very nice. There was also a beautiful usage of r-p-r by Ramakrishnan, which Smt Charulatha also included in her reply. Shankarabharanam is such a beautiful rAgam. :D

The tani was very enjoyable. In particular, Smt Sukanya's replies corresponded to what Sri Arjun Kumar played, and were very impressive.

The sahAnA in the viruttam was marvellous. I felt so sorry to leave ... but it was getting late for me.
Last edited by srikant1987 on 09 Jan 2012, 09:31, edited 4 times in total.

rshankar
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Joined: 02 Feb 2010, 22:26

Re: Ramakrishnan Murthy-Charulatha Ramanujam-Arjun Kumar-Suk

Post by rshankar »

Srikant, I think the SlOkam should be 'mouLava gangA' (one of Sri SSI's trade-marks)...

squims
Posts: 447
Joined: 04 Feb 2010, 22:10

Re: Ramakrishnan Murthy-Charulatha Ramanujam-Arjun Kumar-Suk

Post by squims »

Had to miss this because of a family function.
Great to read the report Srikant! Is 'srIkAnta nI' the Bhavapriya composition that Neela maami sang in her Unnati concert?
Shankarabharanam is such a beautiful rAgam. :D
I shall second that! :D

arasi
Posts: 16873
Joined: 22 Jun 2006, 09:30

Re: Ramakrishnan Murthy-Charulatha Ramanujam-Arjun Kumar-Suk

Post by arasi »

srikant,
Good to get a detailed review from you!
Yes, I love kEdAram too!
And SankarAbharaNam, and all the rest of the rAgams out there, I suppose ;)

gardabha_gana
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Joined: 24 Dec 2006, 07:44

Re: Ramakrishnan Murthy-Charulatha Ramanujam-Arjun Kumar-Suk

Post by gardabha_gana »

Nice Report! Badly wanted to attend this having read about Vid. Ramakrishnan murthy on this forum but couldn't :(

arasi
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Joined: 22 Jun 2006, 09:30

Re: Ramakrishnan Murthy-Charulatha Ramanujam-Arjun Kumar-Suk

Post by arasi »

The same here :(

bilahari
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Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 09:02

Re: Ramakrishnan Murthy-Charulatha Ramanujam-Arjun Kumar-Suk

Post by bilahari »

Yes, I'm all for more kEdAram too! It is especially rare to hear a neraval in this ragam, so kudos to Ramakrishnan. There is a beautiful recording of MDR singing this kriti with a neraval.

IIRC, Sanjay recently sang an RTP in this ragam, which seems well suited for tAnam.

kssr
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Joined: 30 Nov 2009, 15:28

Re: Ramakrishnan Murthy-Charulatha Ramanujam-Arjun Kumar-Suk

Post by kssr »

A good team there. Must have been enjoyable.

Sankarabharanam- yes - is a very nice raagam. But in my experience there are very few artists who can present it in a brilliant way. Mostly it is too much of dragging stuff. One of my friend (mamas) remarked that the raga is like uppuma- a large quantity can be produced easily. Also, some people relish it too :)

I think there is Sandeep Narayan today in the same venue. Wanted to make it to this series. But distance and traffic puts you off.

srikant1987
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Joined: 10 Jun 2007, 12:23

Re: Ramakrishnan Murthy-Charulatha Ramanujam-Arjun Kumar-Suk

Post by srikant1987 »

But distance and traffic puts you off.
Banashankari isn't that far from Koramangala. :grin:

semmu86
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Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 09:39

Re: Ramakrishnan Murthy-Charulatha Ramanujam-Arjun Kumar-Suk

Post by semmu86 »

srikant1987 wrote:Banashankari isn't that far from Koramangala.
Depends on which stage of Banashankari you are put up at. Banashankari extends till Mysore road and its quite a vast area.

srikant1987
Posts: 2246
Joined: 10 Jun 2007, 12:23

Re: Ramakrishnan Murthy-Charulatha Ramanujam-Arjun Kumar-Suk

Post by srikant1987 »

Semmu,
I know which part of Banashankari I'm talking about. ;)

What I don't know is, which part of Koramangala -- and even whether it's Koramangala! :$

annamalai
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Re: Ramakrishnan Murthy-Charulatha Ramanujam-Arjun Kumar-Suk

Post by annamalai »

Excellent analogy - kssr.
There are several upmas - Rava upma, and also rice upma. Rice upma is even less liked .
Rava upma can also be souped up ... with tomato, onion, peas etc.
Kara bath in Vidyarthi Bhavan is in another league.

Initially I found as a raga Kamboji much more easy to enjoy than Sankarabaranam.
But over the years, the raga grows on you - sort of like Rice upma with Vettal Kuzhambu.

ganeshkant
Posts: 963
Joined: 05 Feb 2010, 11:59

Re: Ramakrishnan Murthy-Charulatha Ramanujam-Arjun Kumar-Suk

Post by ganeshkant »

RKMurthy has sung a song in the film 'Nanban' released today.Listened to it.Its just o.k.Hope he gets better songs in future where he can show his skills.Wish him all the best in his new venture.

srikant1987
Posts: 2246
Joined: 10 Jun 2007, 12:23

Re: Ramakrishnan Murthy-Charulatha Ramanujam-Arjun Kumar-Suk

Post by srikant1987 »

A recent post reminded me -- I wished Smt Charulatha Ramanujam opened her eyes open during her AlApanais.

arasi
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Joined: 22 Jun 2006, 09:30

Re: Ramakrishnan Murthy-Charulatha Ramanujam-Arjun Kumar-Suk

Post by arasi »

srikant,
I know that Sri Rama Lalitha Kala Mandira holds concerts at Gayana Samaja in Basavanagudi. At the top of this review, you have brought Basavanagudi in, while Banashankari is where the sabha is, and has held this concert ;)

srikant1987
Posts: 2246
Joined: 10 Jun 2007, 12:23

Re: Ramakrishnan Murthy-Charulatha Ramanujam-Arjun Kumar-Suk

Post by srikant1987 »

Arasi, indeed I made a mistake. :$ This concert was held in SRLK's own hall in Banashankari 2nd Stage. It's the old Madras habit of combining Adyar, Besant Nagar and Thiruvanmiyur into one single chunk ... Anna Nagar, Vadapalani, KK Nagar into another, etc. I do see Banashankari & Basavanagudi -- even Jaya Nagar and JP Nagar -- as one single chunk. Bad habit. Since, then again, Basavanagudi is as good as the City Market itself! :o

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