A 3.5 hr concert. with H.K.Bhaskar on the violin and Manoj Siva on the mridanga.
Song list, Corrections welcome:
evari bOdhana-AbhOgi varNa-Patnam
sharaNu siddi vinAyakA-saurASTra-Purandaradasa-S
panniru kaN malarnda-kAmavardhini-Ramalingasvami-A,N @ en iru kaN, S (and a beautiful ciTTasvara)
mOkSamu galadA-sAramati-Tyagaraja
marakatavallIm-kAmbhOji-Dikshitar-A,S,Tani
mAravairi ramaNI-nAsikAbhUSaNi-Tyagaraja
RTP rItigauLa in t/tripuTa, khaNDa naDai. pallavi line (from tirukkuraL): paNiyumAm enrum perumai sirumai aNiyumAm tannai viyandu-svarAs: janaranjani, mOhanakalyANi , kApi, sindhubhairavi
viruttamcombination:kAdalAgi kasindu (sambandar)in bilahari, tirunAnam anjETrum (appar) in amrtavarSiNi and khamAs followed by
tEruvdeppO nenjE-khamAs-Nilakantha Shivan
krSNAni bEganE bArO-yamunAkalyANi-Vyasaraya
kamal mukh rAm bhajan-durgA-Kabir bhajan
sharaNa sharaNa EkanAth-pIlu-Tukaram abhang
Ranjani & Gayatri at Toronto-May 26, 2012
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mahavishnu
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Re: Ranjani & Gayatri at Toronto-May 26, 2012
L-ji. Thanks for the song list.
The pallavi line was from thirukkuRaL.
It was a superb concert by the two sisters. The successful concert was in so small part due to their extraordinarily powerful vocals; technically brilliant but with enough appeal to involve the puritans, prudes and plebeians alike. They engaged the Toronto audience for 3 1/2 hours like no one else has managed to in recent memory.
The vocals were perfectly synchronised, yet each of their individual styles came out conspicuously. Ranjani's fidelity to the structure in the lower octaves is almost as wonderful as the facility with which Gayatri handles the high-octane content in the tara stayi. On top of all that, there is the "je ne sais quois" factor... a combination of shruti suddham, bhavam, manodharmam and choice of songs that makes a good concert great. The sisters had it all yesterday.
Their singing has a certain diligence to it as well, they always sing sangatis twice, they do not deviate from the textbook parts in the kalpita sections, but reserve all their creative energy for the right places.Their "maragathavallim" had all the SSI school sangatis, even in the way they handled the swarams. However, the expert trade-off they use in optimizing their individual efforts reminds me of the Alathur tradition. In my opinion, this is what separates R-G from all the other duet-vocalists of their generation and the ones preceding. Perhaps it is their violin duet experience that contributes to this also.
Excellent choice on the pallavi line, the 3+4 of paNiyumAm enrum perumai (end Lagu) sirumai aNiyumAm tannai viyandu (end drutam) was perfectly suited for tisra triputa, with the syllable structure of the kuraL a perfect backdrop for Khanda nadai.
HN Bhaskar is a violinist of the highest calibre. He rose to the occasion of the inspired performance of the vocalists with his own sensitive and technically proficient accompaniment. His handling of the swarams in Kamboji, neraval returns in pantuvarali or embellishments of the hindustani-oriented tukdas were all uniformly superb. The MSG style tanam was also exquisite.
Manoj Siva accompanied with competence. His followed the main artistes like a shadow. If April was a month for the Pudukkottai school in Toronto, the merry month of May has been the show of Palghat Raghu's disciples. We have had Ananthakrishnan, Trivandrum Balaji and Manoj, all play here in quick succession. Each of them plays with such different personality, although the sollus, nadais, and tone of their mridangams has much in common. Manoj's kappi at the high-sruti sounded like a tabla at times, especially since he seldom uses the arrai chappu. Manoj plays deceptively simple tanis, but yesterday he played some very advanced algebraic passages in his korvais.
The highlight of the evening (for me) was Trichy Sankaran's presence at the concert. In all my time here, I have never seen him attend a concert that he is not physically involved with. He and Smt Sankaran stayed all the way to the end of the show, a testament that requires no elaboration. I think his presence brought something out in the musicians.
At the end of the concert, as I was telling Sri TS about how much we all enjoyed his unusual presence at the concert, he said: "Appaidiye ennai madakki okkarthi vachutale" (roughly translates to: their music had me glued to my seat, so how could I leave?). That about sums it up.
Ranjani-Gayatri rocked the house in Toronto! They are in superb form.
The pallavi line was from thirukkuRaL.
It was a superb concert by the two sisters. The successful concert was in so small part due to their extraordinarily powerful vocals; technically brilliant but with enough appeal to involve the puritans, prudes and plebeians alike. They engaged the Toronto audience for 3 1/2 hours like no one else has managed to in recent memory.
The vocals were perfectly synchronised, yet each of their individual styles came out conspicuously. Ranjani's fidelity to the structure in the lower octaves is almost as wonderful as the facility with which Gayatri handles the high-octane content in the tara stayi. On top of all that, there is the "je ne sais quois" factor... a combination of shruti suddham, bhavam, manodharmam and choice of songs that makes a good concert great. The sisters had it all yesterday.
Their singing has a certain diligence to it as well, they always sing sangatis twice, they do not deviate from the textbook parts in the kalpita sections, but reserve all their creative energy for the right places.Their "maragathavallim" had all the SSI school sangatis, even in the way they handled the swarams. However, the expert trade-off they use in optimizing their individual efforts reminds me of the Alathur tradition. In my opinion, this is what separates R-G from all the other duet-vocalists of their generation and the ones preceding. Perhaps it is their violin duet experience that contributes to this also.
Excellent choice on the pallavi line, the 3+4 of paNiyumAm enrum perumai (end Lagu) sirumai aNiyumAm tannai viyandu (end drutam) was perfectly suited for tisra triputa, with the syllable structure of the kuraL a perfect backdrop for Khanda nadai.
HN Bhaskar is a violinist of the highest calibre. He rose to the occasion of the inspired performance of the vocalists with his own sensitive and technically proficient accompaniment. His handling of the swarams in Kamboji, neraval returns in pantuvarali or embellishments of the hindustani-oriented tukdas were all uniformly superb. The MSG style tanam was also exquisite.
Manoj Siva accompanied with competence. His followed the main artistes like a shadow. If April was a month for the Pudukkottai school in Toronto, the merry month of May has been the show of Palghat Raghu's disciples. We have had Ananthakrishnan, Trivandrum Balaji and Manoj, all play here in quick succession. Each of them plays with such different personality, although the sollus, nadais, and tone of their mridangams has much in common. Manoj's kappi at the high-sruti sounded like a tabla at times, especially since he seldom uses the arrai chappu. Manoj plays deceptively simple tanis, but yesterday he played some very advanced algebraic passages in his korvais.
The highlight of the evening (for me) was Trichy Sankaran's presence at the concert. In all my time here, I have never seen him attend a concert that he is not physically involved with. He and Smt Sankaran stayed all the way to the end of the show, a testament that requires no elaboration. I think his presence brought something out in the musicians.
At the end of the concert, as I was telling Sri TS about how much we all enjoyed his unusual presence at the concert, he said: "Appaidiye ennai madakki okkarthi vachutale" (roughly translates to: their music had me glued to my seat, so how could I leave?). That about sums it up.
Ranjani-Gayatri rocked the house in Toronto! They are in superb form.
Last edited by mahavishnu on 27 May 2012, 19:54, edited 1 time in total.
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Lakshman
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Re: Ranjani & Gayatri at Toronto-May 26, 2012
Thanks Ramesh for the correction. I have edited my post.
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harimau
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Re: Ranjani & Gayatri at Toronto-May 26, 2012
Ha!mahavishnu wrote:
.... technically brilliant but with enough appeal to involve the puritans, prudes and plebeians alike.
You seem to forget that I am still around. And that they sang an abhang!
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rajeshnat
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Re: Ranjani & Gayatri at Toronto-May 26, 2012
panniru kaN malarnda-kAmavardhini-Ramalingasvami was tuned by their guru PS Narayanaswamy. Tx Mahavishnu and Lji (Looks like toronto is having a right feast of concerts all 3 + hours)
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mahesh3
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Re: Ranjani & Gayatri at Toronto-May 26, 2012
One of my favorites in panthuvarali - the cittaiswarams are also by the composer - or by PSN mama?
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Lakshman
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- Joined: 10 Feb 2010, 18:52
Re: Ranjani & Gayatri at Toronto-May 26, 2012
I don't think Ramalingasvami composed any ciTTasvarAs for any of his songs.
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gardabha_gana
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- Joined: 24 Dec 2006, 07:44
Re: Ranjani & Gayatri at Toronto-May 26, 2012
Nice report mahavishnu. I too enjoy RG a lot - and here in bangalore - despite chits (with guess popular numbers) raining they always try and deliver a balanced concert that appeals to everyone. I enjoy their singing very much.
BTW - somehow I thought you were in the Philly area - didn't know that you were in toronto.
BTW - somehow I thought you were in the Philly area - didn't know that you were in toronto.