Sriranjani Santhanagopalan @ New Jersey on May 28th, 2012

[tyagarajadasa]

Sri Ranjani Santhanagopalan (SSG from now) gave a fabulous 2.25 hour concert at New Jersey yesterday. Here is the list:

1. varnam - purnachandrika - Adi - SSG
2. kamala - hamsadhwani - Adi - NSG
3. ivanArO - kAmbodi - Misra chapu - Kavi kunjarabharati
4. RTP - purvikalyani - khanda triputa with ragamalika swarams in bahudari, rasikapriya and behag
5. rAmanai bhajitAl - mAndu
5. anjuvida - sindu bhairavi

SSG's varnam is really good and displays her vidvat (Need to learn it soon!). I have heard that TNS himself has sung the Hamsadhwani composition. One definitely missed a kriti of the trinity but everything was replaced by the stellar manodharmam, the extensive RTP and the emotive rendition of ivanArO. SSG's singing is highly mature - all I can say about my first cousin is that she has her father's jnAnam in full (be it laya jnAnam, sense of aesthetics and proportion or measured full throat singing ).

I thoroughly enjoyed Smt. Charumati Ramanujam's accompaniment. How sensitive she is!! And she reproduced all of SSG's aesthetic laya exercises beautifully!
Ganapatiraman on Mridangam is, needless to mention an excellent Mridangam player. He embellished every interpretation of SSG with his powerful, assertive but admirably soft strokes!

The icing on the cake was however, Shri NSG's koNNakOL exchange with Shri Ganapatiraman during the tani. (Shri NSG played kanjira during rest of the concert)

[mahavishnu]

SSG, a composer? Nice! I think the field badly needs a varnam in purnachandrika, which is just perfect foil for janta prayogams and creative muktayi and chittaswarams. Are there other varnams in similar ragas (janaranjani for e.g?)

And such wonderful accompanists too! Including the khanjira vidwan

Edit: Just realized after googling this that there are purnachandrika varnams by Swati Tirunal, Subbarama Dikshitar and MDR. And janaranjani varnams by MDR, KSK and Spencer Venugopal (among others).

[mahesh3]

I enjoyed the concert - particularly the RTP - her voice was in such better shape compared to what i heard in December. Purvikalyani was wonderful - thanam and the pallavi handled creditably! Sriranjani has a really fun stage presence - enjoyed the fact that she sings per her age and not aiming for some false "sowkyam" - she had several tries either in the nadais or on vocalization aspects - some which came off really well, and others not so much - very positive to see. She does have the pedigree of her dad - what is wonderful is that she is still young, and he is still very much active - so wish her all the best! The accompanists were outstanding - not only supportive but enhanced the concert - great that they also seemed to enjoy her performance and gave her the bandwidth. When we say giving youngsters opportunities, and encouraging them - this is the sort of talent we should encourage and give solid, meaningful stage opportunities to.

[rajeshnat]

Gokul /Mahesh3
What was the pallavi line in poorvikalyAni?
Also I just googled to find out the last anjuvida is a AGN thirrupugazh.

[VijayR]

SSG's singing is highly mature - all I can say about my first cousin is that she has her father's jnAnam in full (be it laya jnAnam, sense of aesthetics and proportion or measured full throat singing ).

Completely agree... There is no doubt that it runs in the family for you have inherited plenty of that from your chittappa too. Your recent vAchAma gOcharuDani and nee pAdamulE gathiyani formed quite a potent one-two punch! I was on Skype, remember!

[rshankar]

Great list - bad miss for me...
Wonderful to see young artists get into composing as well.

[tyagarajadasa]

@Rajesh:
The pallavi line was madhurApurI nilayE maNivalayE pAhimAm gashagamakakriyE

@Vijay:

Of course I remember you! How are you!

[rshankar]

The pallavi line was madhurApurI nilayE maNivalayE pAhimAm gashagamakakriyE

perfect one for pUrvikalyANi - I guess you meant dashagamakakriyE.

[fuddyduddy]

I really wanted to hear her but dint know of this program! Is she doing more concerts in the tri-state area?

[venkatpv]

SSG, a composer? Nice! I think the field badly needs a varnam in purnachandrika, which is just perfect foil for janta prayogams and creative muktayi and chittaswarams. Are there other varnams in similar ragas (janaranjani for e.g?)

And such wonderful accompanists too! Including the khanjira vidwan

Edit: Just realized after googling this that there are purnachandrika varnams by Swati Tirunal, Subbarama Dikshitar and MDR. And janaranjani varnams by MDR, KSK and Spencer Venugopal (among others).

There is also Patnam's Ata tala varnam in Purnachandrika, and Tiger's brilliant varnam in Janaranjani set to Jhampa tala.

[mahavishnu]

Thanks, Venkatpv.
Patnam -> Tiger -> MDR... Seems to run in their musical lineage!

[kssr]

Her name is Sriranjani Santhanagopalan.

(Mod note: Fixed the title of the thread accordingly )