Vittal Ramamurthy-Padma Shankar@ragasudha on Jan 15th,2014
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Violin : Vittal Ramamurthy and Padma Shankar
Mrudangam : Melakaveri Balaji
Concert Type : Nirvana - no concert to follow
Day/Duration : Monday / 2 hours inclusive of 5 minutes of speech
Concert Type/Crowd : Free concert - about 50 to 60% full (may be 100)
Occassion : Sangeetha kalanidhi Marungapuri Gopalakrishna iYer Memorial Concert
Hall: ragasudha hall
1. varnam -shyamA- LGJ
2. subramanyEna rakshitOham (S) - suddadhanyasi -MD
7 mins swaras
3. smara sadA mAnasa(R N S) - bilahari - ST
5 mins alapana
neraval and swaras for 8 mins
4. enta muddO - binduMALini - T
5. Janani ninnuvinA - reetigowlai - SubarayaSastri
6. sobhillu?? - jaganmOHini??? - T
7A. etAunarA(R S T)- kalyani - T
10 mins alapana and 13 mins swaras
7B. tani for 16 minsa
8. mAnasa saNchararE - shyamaa - SB
Speech break by vittal
9. thillana -dwijAvanti - LGJ
10. nee nama roopamulaku(mangalam)
Vittal Ramamurthy-Padma Shankar@ragasudha on Jan 15th,2014
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rajeshnat
- Posts: 10121
- Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 08:04
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rajeshnat
- Posts: 10121
- Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 08:04
Re: Vittal Ramamurthy-Padma Shankar@ragasudha on Jan 15th,2
While everyone inclusive of me is guilty in generally favouring to hear vocalist ,the sabha system also is in general always pro-vocal . While few violinists especially quite a few supersenior artists and very well recognized sons and daughters of great maestros have more opportunities to present violin solo concerts, for sure quite a lot of very prominent violin accompanists do struggle to showcase their solo capabilities.
I have not been to this Marungapuri gopalakrisna iyer (MGI)memorial violin concerts which are held regularly in ragasudha hall . MGI has been awarded sangeetha kalanidhi in 1955 and vittal spoke a bit about the organizers . Vittal said MGI's disciple Venky from Malaysia(I hope i got the name right)conducts this festival and after him presently few violinist/mrudangam artists like BU Ganesh Prasad ,Manoj shiva are conducting this . Nevertheless a wonderful gesture. TO the best of my knowledge there is only 2 exclusive violin festivals in chennai- one is this and the other is conducted by V sanjeev in shanmughapriya.Let it not go the veena tear jerk way where they invite 30 artists for 20 minutes each for a day. Also vidwan vittal thanked LAte shri SVK who has also helped him in accomodation(recollected the same thing that was said to me few years back by vidwan Pattabhirama pandit on SVK's generosity)
The chennai season dried on Jan 15th-Pongal. There was just this one violin concert in mylapore , one nagaswaram in Mambalam and the third sudha raghunathan in madipakkam- one can see all three are varied and none of the concerts will cannibalize the other which was a feature for the previous margazhi season. The crowd in ragasudha was about 100, not bad but could have been better.
A day back VV Ravi and BUGP paired , yesterday Vittal-Padma paired , today RKSK and tomorrow IIRC it is Varadu- certainly all extremely proficient violinists are taking turns to present violin solo.I personally like Vittal a lot , there is a real nidhanam in his bowing and I see him getting the mellinam side of Lalgudi school where gamakas in lower and middle octaves is played in an impeccable fashion .
This concert could have been better planned is the impression that i got when mangalam was played in the end. The start in shyama varnam of LGJ was lovely, I have not heard this LGJ varnam in a vocal concert yet and to the best of my knowledge it was the first time that i am hearing . I came bit late and still enjoyed shyama, possibly the rasa of shyama is always enticing .
The second in sudda dhanyasi was a pick to me, Vittal played fast and his general tone was more sobre where as Padma was more in the high register side , nevertheless the sudda dhanyasi krithi with a real fast swaras was lovely. TO me personally atleast in this song I disovered a new facet of vittal and padma.
Lalgudi school is known for bilahari and they played well . I liked it more in the first part of bilahari, my ears missed a certain degree of aesthetics in the second half during bilahari swaras. Enta Muddo and Lalgudi school are made for each other. I would have liked bindumALini better if the number had been played a shade slower.
Reetigowlai was played wonderfully with a real crisp bowing in line with the sahitya rasa of Subbaraya sastri's gem janani ninnuvinA .The next fast filler was jaganmohini??, I could not get that much from that jaganmohini song, it just came and went too fast.
The main alapana in kalyani was played in its usual topology- and there was no artistic chase of any hindustani pidis. THe krithi yetaunarA was lovely with the swaras being the best for the whole kalyani, vittal played with a lot of force towards the end and overall i felt the presentation was nice.
Apart from the talk, the shyama came again with manasa sanchararE with a well known vittal nidhanam , the last was a thillana in dwijavanthi - assuming it is lalgudi thillana.TO the best of my knowledge i have not heard a dwijavanti thillan of LGJ
Overall the concert was exactly played for just 2 hours. THe planning could have been better with perhaps a slow number in the first 5 ,also with the start being 06:15 pm ,i was thinking they could have gone for a pallavi . It is quite rare to catch these solo violin concerts - wish they played more .Melakaveri Balaji played wonderfully, lots of fast strokes soaked in sarvalaghu in early half and his tani just went with the gentle kalyani flow - avoided strokes of flamboyance that went well with the overall concert.
All said and done there was a touch of Lalgudi perfection in both vittal and Padma's bowing- the aesthetics avoided any kind of extra garnish and was anchored in carnaticness.This was my first concert of listening to both of them in a solo violin concert .
Overall a very good to excellent concert for 2 hours
I have not been to this Marungapuri gopalakrisna iyer (MGI)memorial violin concerts which are held regularly in ragasudha hall . MGI has been awarded sangeetha kalanidhi in 1955 and vittal spoke a bit about the organizers . Vittal said MGI's disciple Venky from Malaysia(I hope i got the name right)conducts this festival and after him presently few violinist/mrudangam artists like BU Ganesh Prasad ,Manoj shiva are conducting this . Nevertheless a wonderful gesture. TO the best of my knowledge there is only 2 exclusive violin festivals in chennai- one is this and the other is conducted by V sanjeev in shanmughapriya.Let it not go the veena tear jerk way where they invite 30 artists for 20 minutes each for a day. Also vidwan vittal thanked LAte shri SVK who has also helped him in accomodation(recollected the same thing that was said to me few years back by vidwan Pattabhirama pandit on SVK's generosity)
The chennai season dried on Jan 15th-Pongal. There was just this one violin concert in mylapore , one nagaswaram in Mambalam and the third sudha raghunathan in madipakkam- one can see all three are varied and none of the concerts will cannibalize the other which was a feature for the previous margazhi season. The crowd in ragasudha was about 100, not bad but could have been better.
A day back VV Ravi and BUGP paired , yesterday Vittal-Padma paired , today RKSK and tomorrow IIRC it is Varadu- certainly all extremely proficient violinists are taking turns to present violin solo.I personally like Vittal a lot , there is a real nidhanam in his bowing and I see him getting the mellinam side of Lalgudi school where gamakas in lower and middle octaves is played in an impeccable fashion .
This concert could have been better planned is the impression that i got when mangalam was played in the end. The start in shyama varnam of LGJ was lovely, I have not heard this LGJ varnam in a vocal concert yet and to the best of my knowledge it was the first time that i am hearing . I came bit late and still enjoyed shyama, possibly the rasa of shyama is always enticing .
The second in sudda dhanyasi was a pick to me, Vittal played fast and his general tone was more sobre where as Padma was more in the high register side , nevertheless the sudda dhanyasi krithi with a real fast swaras was lovely. TO me personally atleast in this song I disovered a new facet of vittal and padma.
Lalgudi school is known for bilahari and they played well . I liked it more in the first part of bilahari, my ears missed a certain degree of aesthetics in the second half during bilahari swaras. Enta Muddo and Lalgudi school are made for each other. I would have liked bindumALini better if the number had been played a shade slower.
Reetigowlai was played wonderfully with a real crisp bowing in line with the sahitya rasa of Subbaraya sastri's gem janani ninnuvinA .The next fast filler was jaganmohini??, I could not get that much from that jaganmohini song, it just came and went too fast.
The main alapana in kalyani was played in its usual topology- and there was no artistic chase of any hindustani pidis. THe krithi yetaunarA was lovely with the swaras being the best for the whole kalyani, vittal played with a lot of force towards the end and overall i felt the presentation was nice.
Apart from the talk, the shyama came again with manasa sanchararE with a well known vittal nidhanam , the last was a thillana in dwijavanthi - assuming it is lalgudi thillana.TO the best of my knowledge i have not heard a dwijavanti thillan of LGJ
Overall the concert was exactly played for just 2 hours. THe planning could have been better with perhaps a slow number in the first 5 ,also with the start being 06:15 pm ,i was thinking they could have gone for a pallavi . It is quite rare to catch these solo violin concerts - wish they played more .Melakaveri Balaji played wonderfully, lots of fast strokes soaked in sarvalaghu in early half and his tani just went with the gentle kalyani flow - avoided strokes of flamboyance that went well with the overall concert.
All said and done there was a touch of Lalgudi perfection in both vittal and Padma's bowing- the aesthetics avoided any kind of extra garnish and was anchored in carnaticness.This was my first concert of listening to both of them in a solo violin concert .
Overall a very good to excellent concert for 2 hours
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sureshvv
- Posts: 5542
- Joined: 05 Jul 2007, 18:17
Re: Vittal Ramamurthy-Padma Shankar@ragasudha on Jan 15th,2
What added to the initial monotony in the concert was that the first 4 items were all in adi tala. Vittal did mention in his touching speech that they had little time to plan/prepare.
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sureshvv
- Posts: 5542
- Joined: 05 Jul 2007, 18:17
Re: Vittal Ramamurthy-Padma Shankar@ragasudha on Jan 15th,2
Melakkaveri Balaji's most excellent thani was a clinic of sorts. The first part was an extended slow speed section with plenty of usage of both sides with a lot of standard syllables.
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rajeshnat
- Posts: 10121
- Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 08:04
Re: Vittal Ramamurthy-Padma Shankar@ragasudha on Jan 15th,2
Got the name wrong - MGI's disciple is Jagadeeshwaran from malaysia (not venky as mentioned in the post above)rajeshnat wrote: Vittal said MGI's disciple Venky from Malaysia(I hope i got the name right)conducts this festival