Ramakrishnan Murthy in Tiruvanmiyur, 11/01/2014

[sankark]

For Astika Samajam @ Amarabharathi Kalyanamantapam next to temple

Mysore Srikanth violin
Tiruvarur Bakthavatsalam mridangam
V Suresh ghatam

calamEla - nAttakurinji - Adi - mUlaivIttu rangaswAmy nattuvanAr
ranganAthudE - saurAshtram - rupakam? - ?
mAru balla - srIranjani - Adi - T (rns@dAri nerigi)
srI krishnam - thOdi - Adi - MD (rn@vEnugAna lOlam krpAlavAlam)
swarams right now in progress

Wow so far!

percussion is top notch - both. How many variations!

[sankark]

tani and then wrapped with
UrilEn kAniyillai - pAsuram in senchurutti followed
by
ninyAkO ninna hangyAkO - rAgamAlikai (senchurutti, punnAgavarALi, sindhubhairavi?, kApi)
then
mangaLam

+ excellent to outstanding music all around
+ vocal + ghatam & violing + mridangam at times was different and increased the appeal (only ever time heard similar playing is in a MMI concert with LGJ & PMI, PMI leaves MMI's suddha saveri & kambhoji alone but joins for LGJ's replies and creates magic)
- started 20 mins late (6:30 stated, 6:50 started) & 10 mins speech by sabha official after tani so altogether 2:30 got cut to 2:00 hours
- while percussion was very good and at comfortable sound level for the lyrical portions and exhibited numerous different patterns, during swara exercises and tani showed tendency to get loud
- the tani was quite long (about 20 mins in a 2:00 hour concert) what with all kanakku and alternating plays

Guess too much singing, voice went into karakarappu zone frequently.

[Rsachi]

Thanks, Sankark.

Good observation on the voice+ghatam and violin+mridangam combo.

I love singers like Abhishek, Ramakrishnan Murthy, Aishwarya Vidya Raghunath...and really hope and pray their voices should remain strong and pliable and melodious. Hope science and art combine to make it happen.

[vasanthakokilam]

>vocal + ghatam & violing + mridangam at times was different and increased the appeal

Definitely. It provides for the necessary variations and breaks the monotony. The fact that they do this in the manodharma portion of the song is quite special. The entry of the mridangam is usually quite dramatic. Do they do vocal + mridangam and Violin + ghatam too?

[rajeshnat]

>vocal + ghatam & violing + mridangam at times was different and increased the appeal

Definitely. It provides for the necessary variations and breaks the monotony. The fact that they do this in the manodharma portion of the song is quite special. The entry of the mridangam is usually quite dramatic. Do they do vocal + mridangam and Violin + ghatam too?

sankark
This is quite common and not that rare , typically you see that in main swaras for a big krithi.

[sankark]

Do they do vocal + mridangam and Violin + ghatam too?

yes, that was also there but mostly the other way around IIRC

This is quite common and not that rare , typically you see that in main swaras for a big krithi.

haven't seen it in live concert except for the MMI concert in cassette or am not able to recall an instance where it was predominantly this way.

For the chittaswarams for varnam too, mridangam and ghatam alternated and elevated the overall listening pleasure very much indeed. RKM didn't sing the sahitya portion of chittaswarams either, just the swarams.

Bakthavatsalam's mridangam tone is sooo good and he doesn't even seem to put too much effort or move his hands that much but produces so good music.