Lalgudi GJR Krishnan & Lalgudi Vijayalakshmi, NJ, 9/28/2013

[alpajnani]

Dear hnbhagavan: You raised a valid point--FYI the Siblings are preforming in NJ on this coming Saturday with the Book release. I will be attending it and I hope to report on it. Also I am trying to find out how the Washington D.C. event went.

Both GJR and Viji are handling their monumental loss with exemplary grace and stoicsm and would be pleased with wellwishers in the Forum. I had mentioned to Viji recently about the thread in the forum.

I attended the NJ event. It was a time constrained concert given a very busy schedule of concerts that day for CMANA (Akkarai sisters at 1PM followed by Vijaya Siva @6PM!! and that too at a different venue from the morning program!!!). A quick review:

Song list:
1. Varna. Hamsavinodini - LGJ
2. Sogasujuda tharama - kannadagowla -Tyagaraja
3. Nerarochara - Simhavahini - Adi -Tyagaraja
4. Chetasri balakrishnam - Dwijavanthi - rupaka - Dixitar
5. Shankari shamkuru - Saveri - Adi -shyama shastri
6. nee kela -Devamanohari - poochi srinivasa iyengar - Adi
7. Dharmavati (RTP) in khanda triputa taala + Tani
8. ???
9. Muruga muruga - bharatiar - raaga maalike
10. venkatachalanilayam - Sindhu bhairavi - purandaradasa
11. Elu maileri -jayadeep - tiruppugazh
12. Tillana. Karnaranjini Adi
13. Mangalam

I found the concert quite scintillating and was, as always, very beautifully rendered. The RTP was a little too short for my taste (given the time constraint....) but very well executed (with griha bedha). The short raga outline of Devamanohari was impressive (and left me cursing the clock). I was expecting more Lalgudi favorites (Enna Thavam Seidanai, Nadaloludai, etc.) but with the selection of kriti's and ragas being so good (meticulously planned concerts - another Lalgudi hallmark) GJR and Vijayalakshmi didn't leave any room for me to miss them!

Mrdangam by Ananth was good (I last heard him playing was along with his grandfather, Palghat Raghu many years ago at some concert in New Jersey). Absolutely loved his playing (reminded me of his grandfather) - the only issue I had was sound level. He either didn't hold back, or he was amped up a little too much for such a "close quarters" concert hall. Further, the thoppi was being picked up by one of the violin mics, which blurred it up.

This was the first time I was hearing KV Gopalakrishnan - he is very good.

Dear MKR: Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on the concert.

[arasi]

Alpajnani,
Thanks for the review!

Mods,
Could you please post this review on its own under Concert Reviews? Those who like to read this review may not be able to locate it under this title. Thanks.

(Mod note: Done)

[rshankar]

11. Should be Eru mayilEri.....

[mahavishnu]

Thanks for your report, Alpajnani. Living vicariously through this review, since I will be missing their performance here due to travel commitments (as mentioned earlier).

# 3 is nenaruncarA nApaini cAla. The siblings excel at this song. I heard them play this at MMA in 2006 and it is one of my favourite renditions of all time.

[manisubramaniyan]

There is a concert in Bay area this coming Friday, Oct 4th 7.30 pm. at Santa Clara University.
Here is a link: https://www.facebook.com/events/2880226 ... r=upcoming

[rajeshnat]

11. Eru mayileri -jayadeep - tiruppugazh

is that patadeep or is there a raga called jayadeep

[mahavishnu]

Rajesh, this is actually a raga called Jayadeep (a ragam in tribute to LGJ).

More about it here in the Lalgudi reminiscences thread (info from Prof. Pasupathy).
http://www.rasikas.org/forums/viewtopic. ... ep#p243650