Chitraveena Ravikiran at Gayana Samaja on 2nd Feb

[munirao2001]

Great Maestro Chitraveena Ravikiran presented a concert at the Gayana Samaja on 2nd Feb,15, as a part of Spring Festival of Karnatic Music Series of Sri Ramalalita Kala Mandira. CRK was accompanied by Vid. Smt.Ranjani Ramakrishnan on Violin, Vid.Patri Satish Kumar on mridangam and Vid.B.S.Arunkumar on Rhythm Pads ( not morching, as planned ).
CRK and other immensely talented and experienced team gave a concert of very high standard of pure and pristine sampradaya music. CRK's firm adherence to the classicism, which ever aspect of creativity- raaga aalapana, patanthara conformance of the composition, neraval(handled with brevity), svarakalpana and vistara, taanam-turita kaalam-inspires the rest of the team also eschew liberties for creating excitement and pre meditated applause. He adheres to the set high standards and achieves success. His handling and treatment are good lessons for the other young performing maestros and the students. No doubt, his class is cerebral demanding the total observation and attention of the rasikas. For the discerning rasikas, it is simply blissful. A very relaxed CRK was in a mood to offer the compositions requested by the initiated rasikas and also announced the raga and composition details for the benefit of uninitiated rasikas, if any. All the ragas-Vasanta, Nata, Kalyanavasantam, Neelambari,were majestic. Bhairavi came to make every one savor the resplendent beauty in glory as a major raga for the pallavi composed, instantaneously, for this concert and also included other ragams-Sudhasaveri and Vijayasri. I will leave the details for other(s) to post.
Very well known and well respected Vid.Ranjani Ramakrishnan superbly accompanied and also revealed the vidwath in her solo interlude of raga aalapanam and svara prastaram. Her command and skills of bowing and fingering techniques were very much evident in her dignified playing, while enjoying herself the excellence of CRK's music. Patri's mastery revealed with controlled playing to the kalapramanam with highly imaginative korvais and also the tani showcasing his vidwath. Immensely talented and also experienced percussionist, Vid.BSA was in admiration of PSK's imaginative and creative playing, playing in line with him also with his own imagination and creativity in making use of the tough rhythm pads playing for KM system.
When Sri Krishnaprasad, SRLKM bemoaned at the lack of best support of rasikas with great numbers, similar to Vid.Bombay Jayashree, he just reflected at my desire for the time of rasikas commitment to deep classicism and supporting the meritocracy and excellence, while continuing to support the popular, to happen.

munirao2001

[badari]

Completely agree with you. Audience who were not there really missed a treat of a concert.

[arasi]

Badari,
Where you there? I missed seeing you...

Munirao,
Yes, what a concert! Another recent thread about Varnams discusses their merits and qualities, their importance. With Ravikiran, every note that he played was a perfect note, packed with beauty--each and every note of that Vasantha varNam, its gist, simply essence...

Thus began a tremendous concert.

Through all this perfection, rAga bhAvA found expression in every note he played. What kind of a music is it, I often wonder on hearing him. The simhEndra madhyamam was majestic, so was bhairavi which to not a bhairavi-phile like me, brought immense enjoyment.

Ravikiran's music has the power of putting one in a trance at its best. This one had many such meditative moments and also a lot of lively playing. KalyANa vasantham, Shuddha bangALa, the RTP's rAgAs which followed bhairavi...upto the final bindige song were redolent with bhAvam.

What mastery! What involvement! Thanks RK for a feast which is hard to come by, at least for me!

Ranjani Ramakrishnan makes us north americans proud. As Krishnaprasad said, we are used to having Akkarai Subbulakshmi ably accompanying her guru. Ranjani, in her own way, gave great support to RK's playing. Her essaying of some rAgAs were so impressive.

Parti is Patri. I look forward to hearing him every time he is featured in a concert. The morsing replacement was a novelty and a pleasure to hear!

[hnbhagavan]

The crowd in the concert of Sri Ravikiran was way better than many other concerts conducted by Gayana samaja.During concerts conducted by Gayana samaja,the members of Sri Rama Lalita Kala Mandira do not participate.In this concert there were people from both the sabhas.In fact for Sri H V Srivatsan's concert organised by the Gayana Samaja,the crowd was just one third of the crowd for Sri ravikiran's concert.
Generally Bombay Jayashree,RaGa sisters,sudha Raghunathan etc attract better crowd mainly patronage by a sort of mob culture.In fact Sri ravikiran had very good accompaniments compared to the first day-bombay Jayashree.Ranjani ramakrishnan on the violin was simply superb with Sri ravikiran giving ample scope for her.
Perhaps the sabhas feature Bombay Jayashree,RaGa etc each year mainly due to crowd patronage.

[Ramam]

There were other concerts in Bangalore.
OST with Trichy Sankaran was there at Seva Sadan Karnataka college of Percussion
The hall was full and more, some probably whom would have turned up here
It was a great Karaharapriya, Chakkani Raja,Niraval, Swaram and Thani - this went for 90 minutes

[Thalaivarda]

OST sang dhenuka, kalyani and a darbar... before the kharahapriya.. excellent concert..

[arasi]

At Gayana Samaja, the large hall was three fourths full except at the beginning and at the end (late comers and early leavers). I was really happy that on a weekday there were so many there for a classical instrumental concert!

Of course, if count is what we are looking for, a fusion (by name, and in whatever form) draws more of a crowd. Pristine music like this should happen more, from chamber music to concerts held in big halls like this. Who knows, it may become the 'in thing' among the young in a big way. Hope the day will come...

[munirao2001]

arasi,hnbhagvan, badari

The volume set for all the Vidwans was very high. Owing to the very high volume, the unique richness of naada of chitraveena was partially affected, the meettu and gottu disturbing the melody and aesthetic of the great creativity of CRK in visradhi. When CRK asked for a feed back on the sound status, surprisingly many gave the feedback that the volume level is OK. This obsession with unnatural high volumes unnecessarily, taking away the subtlety and nuances of KM. Having attended this concert, please give me your observation on this aspect.

munirao2001

[arasi]

Munirao,
Yes, Ravikiran did ask the audience about the volume. I was sitting in the sixth row, and my hearing not being that keen, I did not think it was loud. Coming to think of it, it could have been reduced a little, I guess.

[badari]

@Munirao,

I took one of seats of the underprivileged group in 6th row. The volume was quite OK !

I only felt the base of the rhythm pad was high and it created the bounce effect. As a result some of the micro-tones of chitraveena was not heard.

Overall, with new set of speakers specially arranged for this concert series, the sound quality in the auditorium has been far better than normal concerts happening at Gayana Samaja

@ Arasi Maam,
Spotted you yesterday too.. will catch up with you one of these days.. I will be there for full series of concerts at Gayana Samaja