Ramakrishnan Murthy 15-Apr-14. Vani Kala Kendra, Bangalore

[prahalad_rag]

Vocal: Ramakrishnan Murthy
Violin: H.M Smitha
Mridanga: H.S. Sudheendra
Morsing: M. Gururaj

Song list:

1. Upacharamu - Bhairavi - (O, N@Vakitane padi, S)
2. Enta vedukundo - Saraswathi Manohari
3. Meenakshi memudam dehi - Poorvi Kalyani (Gamakakriya) - A, N@Mdhura puri nilaye, S)
4. Ranga pura vihara - Brindavana Saranga
5. Samaja varada - Shuddha Saveri
6. RTP - Keeravani - Chatushra Triputa 2 kalai
Ghana raga thana (Naata, Gowla, Aarabhi, Varali, Sri)
Pallavi line - "Dasharathe karunapayonidhe inakula tilaka"
Edupu 2 akshara after sama.
Ragamalika swaras in Keeravani, Shahana, Behag.
7. Kandu dhanyanade Udupi Krishnana - Behag - Composition of Kamalesha Vittala
8. Janati (something) shloka in Ahiri, Neelambari, Sindhu Bhairavi, Surutti
9. Vanga Kadal Kadainda - Surutti
10. Magalam kosalendraya - Surutti

Remember when Yuvraj Singh hit those 6 sixes in one over in 2007? This concert was like that. From the first ball 6 (Upacharamu), it went on until the mangalam was sung. What a talent, this Ram is! When he outlined Bhairavi, I was prepared for Viriboni. Out came the Thyagaraja composition which surprised even the artists on stage. He dived straight into the sub-main, if you can call it that, with elaborate but superb nereval and some lightning swaras.

A filler in the form of Enta Vedukundo was sung before he launched into superb alapana of Purvi Kalyani (or should I call it Gamakakriya. AFAIK, PK has PDPS prayoga while Gamakakriya allows only PDS phrase. And if you are singing the Dikshitar krithi, you should be singing PDS and not PDPS, right? Experts here can comment on this). Blessed with a superb voice, he traversed all octaves comfortably and brought out all shades of the raga with great ease. The krithi had all the makings of the main item. Superb neraval at the standard charana line and excellent swaraprasthara again.

Ranga pura vihara was trance inducing. Sung at a leisurely pace, he literally had the audience swaying to the krithi. Another filler in the form of Samaja Varada before he took up Keeravani. Again, the alapana traversed all octaves, great use of brighas and jaarus. The full colour of Keeravani was brought out. After a quick consultation with the accompanists on stage (was the RTP an impromptu decision?? wow!) started the thana in Keeravani and effortlessly slipped into the ghana raga thana malika and ending in a flourish where each piece of the ending was in the reverse order of the ragas he had just sung. Brilliant it was.

Pallavi was simple. No trikalam done. Instead ragamalika swaras in 2 speeds and repeating the ragas in reverse order as he had done during the thanam was quite effective.
Smitha, well, what can I saw about her except that she impresses every time. Here, too, she followed the singer like a shadow, playing every sangathi verbatim and when the solo chance came, sparkling away, especially during the thanam.

H.S. Sudheendra and Guruaj played a wonderful tani. After a longish first round, they quickly finished it by just playing 1 avarta each. Very nicely done.
Then followed a blade speech about how the sabha is paying equally well for all accompanying artists, some story about how one person gave 1 lakh for this concert etc etc. Took almost 15-20 minutes. One more song could have been accomodated here.

After the customary garlanding and vote of thanks, Ram quickly finished the concert but not before a superb recitation of the shloka in ragamalika again.
I met all the artists and congratulated them. Ram seems like a very nice bloke. I wish him all the best.
Ok, I have to go now and collect pieces of my brain at the venue.

[rshankar]

Great review - keep 'em coming!

[Rsachi]

Thank you, Prahlad.ever since I heard RKM first in 2012, I have great faith in him and this concert seems one more "memorable" one. He sang Upacharamu in that SRLKM concert, too.

The song list you give is so KVN-like! And I cannot help remembering KVN every time I hear RKM. God bless.

[sumram_99]

I think it should be Samaja Varada in Shuddha Saveri. Please correct me if I am wrong.

[badari]

Completely agree with you on all points

sAmaja varada was in shudda sAvEri

shlOka jAnAti rAma tava nAma kim..

except :
the speech was indeed an eye opener to the kind of people whom we listen on stage. the content of the speech was completely genuine and content had a high degree of humility.
This is one of those places, where you would get quality Vote of Thanks.
And it lasted just 11 mins !!

[Ramam]

Ranga pura vihara - Brindavana Saranga
Is what text says, yet it was sung in Brindhavani.

Yet again another concert with not a "sound " sound alignments. Feedback must have been below par
(looks of the artist) and on listener's end hum sound was showing up more often.
From my listening Keeravani alapana could have had more building blocks / visitaram and vishayam( considering it was
RTP) ; though it was quite good.

[Rsachi]

21 Keeravāni S R2 G2 M1 P D1 N3 S S N3 D1 P M1 G2 R2 S

57 Simhendramadhyamam(Sumadhyuti) S R2 G2 M2 P D1 N3 S S N3 D1 P M2 G2 R2 S

Which M did he sing? There is only one note difference between these two scales.

(But the way each raga is sung and the key phrases are actually VERY different...)

[prahalad_rag]

Samaja Varada in Shuddha Saveri indeed. Had Shuddha Saveri in mind but fingers typed out "Dhanyasi". It was past 11pm, you see. Thanks for correcting, folks.

[prahalad_rag]

Rsachi sir, it was KeeravaNi and not Simhendramadhyama. When sung correctly, the two have very different bhava and easily distinguishable. And Ram did a great job right from the first KeeravaNi phrase.

[prahalad_rag]

Badari sir, do you live around that area? We should meet up sometime. Would love to have a chat with you.

[sappri]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=p ... Hk_V2-YOxs - right now live via Parivadini - concert at Naada Inbam, Chennai

[Rsachi]

Sappri, I can watch you watching it live
... Bhairavi has begun very well. Before, that Gowla Pancharatna was sung extremely well.....

[sappri]

@rsachi

[arvenky]

I am waiting for Ram at Seshadripuram on 22nd Tuesday. Have listened to him many times in Madras. Wonderful talent. He used to give 4 hours concert couple of years ago.

[arvenky]

Does anyone have this concert recorded and shareable? TIA.

[sappri]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Hk_V2-YOxs - it is still available on this link - thanks to Parivadini

[arvenky]

@sappri - I am referring to Vani Vidya Kendra concert not the one you mentioned which happend at Nada Inbam, Mylapore.