Ramakrishnan Murthy@Mudhra on Mar 02nd,2014

[rajeshnat]

Ramakrishnan Murthy@Mudhra on Mar 02nd,2014
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Violin : VVS Murari
Mrudangam : NEyveli Narayanan

Concert Type : Non Nirvana - concert to follow
Day/Duration : Sunday / 1 hours and 10 mins
Concert Type/Crowd : Free ccloncert - around 75
Occassion : One rAga one krithi concert

The choosen raga was melakartha 65

1A.Kalyani rAga alapana in 3 parts
part 1 - 4 mins vocal alapana and 2 mins violin return
part 2 - 8 mins vocal alapana and 8 mins violin return
part 3 - 6 mins vocal alapana and 4 mins violin return

1B. kamalAmbAm bhajarE (R N S T) - kalyani - MD
neraval for 9 mins in nirvAna nija sukha pradAyinim
11 mins swaras

1C. tani for 10 mins

Ramakrishnan Murthy had an afternoon slot where he sang just after SRJ lecture . I attended the last 15 mins of lecdem of CM's walking encyclopedia SRJ .SRJ's theme was on kalpana and kalpita where he choosed kalyani ragam to illustrate.RK Murthy had initially planned to sing bhairavi but in order to continue the concert in the same raga of srj lecdem he with mudhra bhaskar input, had changed the raga to kalyani .

One raga one krithi has indeed helped me a lot in appreciating ragas that incidentally gets always short charged on a typical ariyakudi fashioned concert . Historically I have heard mudhra conducting the same theme where GG sang kalyani in their previous venue in a hotel at nungambakkam . ALso TV Ramprasadh once sang Todi in a one raga one krithi.

In each of these concerts i did have a feeling where vidwans/vidushi have taken more time to present the hidden and grandeur raga swaroopam of the respective raga. Ramakrishnan Murthy in my opinion could have worked bit more in presenting the grandeur of the raga so that he could he done justice to one raga one krithi bit more .

His alapana had initially started on the very usual kalyani muse . His voice did not open up and it was quite a good thinking for him to quickly hand over for the violin return in the first round. The second round of kalyani had his voice opening bit more and he presented very well with an excellent touch of brighas . The polish of brighas indeed goes well with kalyani. VVS murari's second round of alapana was very nice with long jarus . The third round came out well but not as well as second round - little more manodharmam could have helped more . THe violinst in his 3rd round had a touch of not that pleasant bowing .

The dikshitar krithi kamalAmbAm was presented very well , his voice really taking bit more control there . THe neraval could have been bit more detailed , particularly little more higher octave sangathis may have added more aesthetics of this oceanic kalyani. Swaras were well presented- just as alapana I felt he could have discovered bit more sangathis to make it more relevant to the theme.

The violinist played overall very well , i particularly like his long jarus and at times his azhuttam in his bowing was a sharp contrast to a slightly thinning voice of the vocalist . THe pick of the artist indeed that day was neyveli narayanan, mrudangam sruthi was perfect and there was lovely anticipation .

One raga one krithi is implicitly a More Raga and more krithi but that indeed did not happen is my only nitpick. Certainly RK Murthy had a nice sowkyam and there was quite a lot of young TMK vocal touch especially when his voice at times dries out and definitely one could also spot a kvn there.

Overall a very good concert for 70 mins.

[rajeshnat]

Mudhra and Radha Bhaskar,
I indeed missed this series of one raga one krithi for the last few years , to the best of my knowledge you had it much more till say 2008 or 2009. IT is nice of you to hold this one day mela of different themes . Also you holding at an afternoon time indeed suited me to just be for this concert and also do some home errands in the evening time. Keep up your great work of holding this theme .

[Rsachi]

Thanks Rajesh!
Will this be available on a web archive for viewing/listening please?
I heard RKM sing this same raga and kriti at BGS some time back and I think he did very well (reported here)...

[CRama]

Watch for the webcast