Rama Ravi, Carnatica's Samarpanam

rbharath · Post by **rbharath** » 06 Dec 2006, 23:40

Rama Ravi - R K Shriram Kumar - Mannarkoil J Balaji

Carnatica's Samarpanam. in association with sruthi mag.
Tattvaaloka Auditorium. 6th December 2006. 6:15 pm

ninnE kOri - kAnaDA - Adi - TT varNam
tuLasi daLamu - mAyAmALavagauLa - rUpakam - T (NS)
sItA vara sangIta - dEvagAndhAri - Adi - T
dalacina vAru - danyAsi - Adi - Subbaraya Sastri (RS)
tyAgarAjAya namastE - bEgaDa - rUpakam - MD
mAmava mInAkshI - varALi - cApu - MD (RNS)
mansAvruta garvamEtikE - AbhOgi - Adi - PSI
shankarAcAryam - shankarAbaraNam - Adi - Subbarama Dikshitar (RNS)
tani Avarththanam
vidhi illArkku - kharaharapriyA - trisra Ekam - Anai Ayya
nI mAtalE mAyanurA - pUrvikalyANi - catusra Ekam - Pattabhiramayya jAvaLi
payyAda - nAdanAmakriyA - tisra tripuTa - kshEtragna padam
vazhi maraittirukkudE - nATTaikuranji - cApu - GKB
ElarAdayanE kAmini - bhairavi - Adi - Chinnaiah jAvaLi
tillai ambalathAnai - suruTTi - cApu - GKB
nI nAma rUpamulaku - saurAshTRam - Adi - T

Smt Rama Ravi started the concert with a neat rendition of the kAnaDA varNAm. The next mAyAmALavagauLa piece was rendered very well with nicely structured neraval and svarams at 'sarasIruaha punnAga champaka pAtala kurupaka'. The one Avartana svarams were good. Every time she sang the pallavi line, she ended it as 'tuLasi daLamu'. The dEvagAndhAri kriti was rendered well.

The first major elaboration of the evening, danyAsi was nicely rendered. The kriti was rendered very well with nicely half avartana svarams and a nice kOrvai. The bEgaDa kriti was rendered very soulfully with a nice ciTTai svarams. The varALi AlApanai was very good. The kriti was rendered nicely with neraval and svarams at 'shyAmE sankarI digvijaya pratApini'. The AbhOgi kriti which followed was good.

The main shankarAbaraNam AlApanai was rendered with quite a few nice sancarams. The kriti was rendered with a lot of bhavam and neraval and svarams at 'parama gnAna latA AlavAlam'. The neraval was done in a very scholarly fashion. The svarams were good also.

The kharaharapriyA piece was very moving. The pUrvikalyANi jAvaLi was good. The nAdanAmakriyA padam was just too good. The rendition was very soulful. The nATTakuranji and bhairavi pieces were very well rendered. The suruTTi kriti led to the mangaLam.

Smt Rama Ravi gave an amazing concert with all pieces rendered very well. All the AlApanais were done in a scholarly fashion, and so were the neraval parts. The svarams, especially the single Avartanam svarams, were rendered very well. Smt Nandita Ravi who accompanied her, was good. Her neraval and svarams parts in mAyAmALavagauLa and varALi were good.

Sri Shriram Kumar was awesome all thro' the concert. He followed the main artist like a shadow and played all the pieces well. His replies in all the manOdaramam parts were good. His shankarAbaraNam reply was probably better than that of the main artist.

Sri Balaji was good in following the pieces. He played well for all the sangatis. His timely thoughtful playing according to the piece and the pace presented and the sangatis needs a special mention. His playing for the tani was too good.

bharath

mahesh_narayan · Post by **mahesh_narayan** » 06 Dec 2006, 23:55

I have never heard Smt. Rama Ravi live, but from concert reviews I can surmise that she has a vast repertoire and profound scholarship. Very good song list !!!

Does anyone have a recording of Sitavara Sangitajnanamu in Devagandhari other than the one rendered by Shri Maharajapuram Santhanam? I listened to his version and didn't care too much for it.

I have versions of Ni Matale and Elaradayane by Nedunuri Garu. The bhairavi especially, as rendered by him, is excellent.

Also, isn't Tyagarajaya Namaste in Rupaka tala?

ramanathan · Post by **ramanathan** » 07 Dec 2006, 10:15

Bharath,
'Manasavrita' is in Abhogi and the composer is Patnam. The pUrvikalyANi jAvaLi is by Pattabhiramayya. Tyagarajaya Namaste is in Rupakam. The Nattakurinji composition is 'Vazhi Maraittirukkude'

'Sitavara' is one of the gems mastered by the Dhanammal school. I would urge you to listen to the Brinda-Mukta version of this as well as 'Nee Matale'. Of course, Rama mami's rendition last night was top class, she being a faithful disciple of Brindamma.

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 07 Dec 2006, 11:00

I googled to see elaradayAne is a javali.Who is the composer??

meena · Post by **meena** » 07 Dec 2006, 11:23

ela radayane kamini is chinniah's.

mridhangam · Post by **mridhangam** » 07 Dec 2006, 13:59

Dear members this is Mannarkoil J.Balaji. I have the recording though the quality is not that good. You may have to wait for Carnatica to release the CD may be at a later date since they have done professional quality. I did the recording on Stage from Dhanyasi piece onwards till the end while the concert was on progress through my I-Pod. anyone interested please mail me i shall send them. I also caution that in my recording which i did for personal use, mridangam sound will be louder as i did it from my side of the dias.

rbharath · Post by **rbharath** » 07 Dec 2006, 14:37

Quite a few goofs indeed

apologies for all of them.

Have corrected'em all.

I shouldnt write reviews while people sit around me and comment.

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 07 Dec 2006, 20:10

mridhangam wrote:Dear members this is Mannarkoil J.Balaji. I have the recording though the quality is not that good. You may have to wait for Carnatica to release the CD may be at a later date since they have done professional quality. I did the recording on Stage from Dhanyasi piece onwards till the end while the concert was on progress through my I-Pod. anyone interested please mail me i shall send them. I also caution that in my recording which i did for personal use, mridangam sound will be louder as i did it from my side of the dias.

Balaji,
Welcome to the forum...and thanks for letting us know who you are. I am sure the discussions between you and Sarma gAru in the tALa-laya thread will be very informative for the rest of us.
I do have one comment: if Carnatica have recorded the concert, then they may have the rights to the concert recordings, and posting your personal recording maybe in violation of copyright rules.
Ravi

rajagopal · Post by **rajagopal** » 07 Dec 2006, 21:23

ninnE kOri - kAnaDA - Adi - TT varNam
tuLasi daLamu - mAyAmALavagauLa - rUpakam - T (NS)
sItA vara sangIta - dEvagAndhAri - Adi - T
dalacina vAru - danyAsi - Adi - Subbaraya Sastri (RS)
tyAgarAjAya namastE - bEgaDa - rUpakam - MD
mAmava mInAkshI - varALi - cApu - MD (RNS)
mansAvruta garvamEtikE - AbhOgi - Adi - PSI
shankarAcAryam - shankarAbaraNam - Adi - Subbarama Dikshitar (RNS)
tani Avarththanam
vidhi illArkku - kharaharapriyA - trisra Ekam - Anai Ayya
nI mAtalE mAyanurA - pUrvikalyANi - catusra Ekam - Pattabhiramayya jAvaLi
payyAda - nAdanAmakriyA - tisra tripuTa - kshEtragna padam
vazhi maraittirukkudE - nATTaikuranji - cApu - GKB
ElarAdayanE kAmini - bhairavi - Adi - Chinnaiah jAvaLi
tillai ambalathAnai - suruTTi - cApu - GKB
nI nAma rUpamulaku - saurAshTRam - Adi - T

I have the following grouses against Rama Ravi generally. I have heard several of her concerts in the past and find her repertoire getting a bit repetitive over the years. Dalacina vaaru, Tyagarajaya namaste, Sankaracharyam, Mamava minakshi, Nee maatale, Elaradaayane and Payyada are all hackneyed compositions of the Dhanam school that gets repeated in their students' concerts. Some of the rarer gems in their repertoire get ignored. For instance I would have liked to hear some rarer javalis like Nera mora in Hamsadhwani or Gnayamu gaaduraa in Reetigowla. Similarly the Brinda version of Nee chittamu in Dhanyasi is an excellent song but the school always prefers Dalacina varu. Vidhi illaarkku is a typical Viswa addition to the Brinda school repertoire. Viswa has managed to add a lot of songs of his own from written notation that have not been handled by others in the school like Brinda/Mukta etc. Of the padamas I would really like to hear songs like Neyyamuna in Ghanta, Poosadara in Todi or Maname bhooshanam in Sankarabharanam.

As for Seetavara the Maharajapuram school and TNS have done a far superior job. I would have liked to see Kshitijaramanam rendered instead. Overall Rama Ravi is a very jaded version today. She also unnecessarily ventures into unwarranted kanakku exercises in her concerts. We listen to Rama Ravi because of her school background etc. We can look for laya at more competent musicians who can delight us with complexities and variations. We don't have to waste our time listening to elementary exercises when another padam or javali could have been sung!

gundakriya · Post by **gundakriya** » 07 Dec 2006, 23:26

Moron! :rolleyes:

ramakriya · Post by **ramakriya** » 07 Dec 2006, 23:30

mahesh_narayan wrote:Does anyone have a recording of Sitavara Sangitajnanamu in Devagandhari other than the one rendered by Shri Maharajapuram Santhanam?

Smt S Sowmya has sung this composition in one of her commercial releases - A very nice rendering.
The album is titled 'sangeetham' or 'nAdham' (or something like that

). All the compositions are about music. I think it has nAda tanumanisham, sogasugA mRdanga, mOkshamu galadA etc in addition to sItAvara.

A very nice collection IMO.

-Ramakriya

MaheshS · Post by **MaheshS** » 07 Dec 2006, 23:42

There is a MMI concert with TNK[?] and Palani where he has rendered Sitavara. IIRC the thani is after thsi song, Palani is brilliant. I'll try and see if I can upload the song for you.

mridhangam · Post by **mridhangam** » 08 Dec 2006, 10:26

Mr.Rajagopal -- > Repetition LENDS CHARM ...

rbharath · Post by **rbharath** » 08 Dec 2006, 23:03

rajagopal,

It is but natural for any musician to show all his/her skills in a concert. Just because a certain somebody else can do it better, doesn't mean one should abstain from doing it.

Why should somebody be branded as 'padam-javali singer' or
'pallavi singer' or 'kanakku expert'.

If all that exists has been accomplished in the past and are available in records, why should one go to concerts? Sit at home and listen to the recordings. People can stop performing as well...

PS: This is just something i feel. I dont wish to hurt personal feelings of anybody. I hope i am not wrong in making some of the statements i have made.

sankirnam · Post by **sankirnam** » 09 Dec 2006, 00:36

yea I have that MMI concert too... mrudangam in that is Ramabhadran, not Pazhani. It was actually quite difficult for me to identify VR conclusively, becuase back in the day he used to play like Pazhani. Their nadham is quite similar. But, VR does play his trademark characteristic korvais in the thani, and that is how I identified him. The concert has lathangi RTP as well right?

rajagopal · Post by **rajagopal** » 09 Dec 2006, 16:11

It is but natural for any musician to show all his/her skills in a concert. Just because a certain somebody else can do it better, doesn't mean one should abstain from doing it.

Agreed. But if the skills are far too basic and mediocre they will be subject to criticism also! After all we all look for excellence when we appreciate art.

Why should somebody be branded as 'padam-javali singer' or
'pallavi singer' or 'kanakku expert'.

Of course they will be branded as such becasue that is what they are good at. Unfortunately when their other skills are not that great and they make up for it with their speciality, they will get branded thus. Unless they improve their overall skill sets this cannot be avoided.

If all that exists has been accomplished in the past and are available in records, why should one go to concerts? Sit at home and listen to the recordings. People can stop performing as well...

We go to concerts because we expect more from capable artistes. When they do not deliver we get disappointed. I have heard many concerts of Rama Ravi and I feel she is not doing justice to her talent and musical upbringing. Just a personal opinion. Take it or leave it.

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 10 Dec 2006, 00:53

rajagopal, when you quote portions from another post, indicate it clearly somehow ( e.g. use the quote button ). It is a bit confusing otherwise. Thanks.

On the topic, can you please clarify if you attended this particular concert?

meena · Post by **meena** » 10 Dec 2006, 05:08

mahesh_narayan wrote:I have versions of Ni Matale and Elaradayane by Nedunuri Garu. The bhairavi especially, as rendered by him, is excellent.

mahesh
the javali clip if its not commercial track can u pl. u/l. thanks