Ranjani and Gayathri @ Chinmaya Heritage centre on 30 12 2015

[thanjavooran]

Ranjani and Gayathri
H N Bhaskar
Arun Prakash
Chandrasekara Sarma
Sarasuda varnam in Saveri
Ramabakthi samrajya in Sudhabangala- Theagaraja
Bhudhamasrayami- Nattakurinji- M D
Ramakriya mini Aalapana by Ranjani and Korinavara- Patnam
Eppadi manam thunindado -Huseini- Arunachalakavi
Bilahari byGayathri followed by violin for 20min.
Sri Chamundeswari-Mysore vasuvachar 25 min, Thani for 10 min
Indhanusu- Gundanakriya- Theayagarajar
Saramathi- RTP Pallavi Madhiyani Eason Magani dhinamum ninai manasaara
swaram in saramathi Kalyanavasantham, another, and Basant ragas
Slokam porpadham kaanalam ina raga(?), and Kunithapuruvam in B.Saaranga.
Kaanavendamo in Sriranjani
Marathi abhang Ekandha
Mangalm.

In total the 3 Hrs concert was excellent. The accompanying artistes did their best in keeping the tempo of the program. This was the first concert that I attended this season.
Thanjavooran
31 12 2015

[rajeshnat]

Ranjani and Gayathri
H N Bhaskar
Arun Prakash
Chandrasekara Sarma
Sarasuda varnam in Saveri
Ramabakthi samrajya in Sudhabangala- Theagaraja
Bhudhamasrayami- Nattakurinji- M D
Ramakriya mini Aalapana by Ranjani and Korinavara- Patnam
Eppadi manam thunindado -Huseini- Arunachalakavi
Bilahari byGayathri followed by violin for 20min.
Sri Chamundeswari-Mysore vasuvachar 25 min, Thani for 10 min
Indhanusu- Gundanakriya- Theayagarajar
Saramathi- RTP Pallavi Madhiyani Eason Magani dhinamum ninai manasaara
swaram in saramathi Kalyanavasantham, another, and Basant ragas
Slokam porpadham kaanalam ina raga(?), and Kunithapuruvam in B.Saaranga.
Kaanavendamo in Sriranjani
Marathi abhang Ekandha
Mangalm.

I was there for the 2 hour and 50 mins concert of the sisters. It was a ticketed concert with 150 to 200 rasikas .ONe third of the hall was full.Few additions to the song list by thanjavooran

# Ramabhakthi in sudda bhangala also had swaras for brief 2 minsutes

# ramapriya alapana was not mini sir . Ranjani sang for 7 minutes and violin return for 3 mins

# Chamundeshwari bilahari neraval was in the usual raaga nishadhara sanni bhavadhanE rAjeeva lOchanE for 8 mins and swaras for 7 mins

# saramathi RTP in kanda jathi triputa dwi nadai
madhi aNi eesan maghanai
dhinamum ninai manasAra

# The ragamaliga ragas were Kedaram(sung by ranjani) + kalyAnavasantham (sung by gayatri) + nalinakAnthi (sung by ranjani) and basanth(by gAyatri)

# virutham in porpAtham kAnalAm - simmhendramadhyamam + kunita puruvamum- brindavanasAranga + kunita puruvamum - shree ranjani . Ranjani sang the brindavana with gayatri taking the previous and next

# ekanAtha sharanA - Abhang- no idea about ragam

[kamalamba]

This was a great concert. The abhang was in pIlu, I think.

[rajeshnat]

The experience of acoustics of this tapovanam hall is not as great as the rani sangeetha hall in gemini which kalarasana used to rent before .I casually asked the organizer as to why he is not holding it there- he said we are not able to afford the rates of that hall anymore. It is very sad we lost the best acoustics hall for featuring CM . Few pluses and minuses in this concert

Pluses:
-------
+ Bilahari alapana sung by gayatri was well done . There was also a shruthi bedham into yamunA kalyani. The krithi was sung with good synchronization . Personally it is not a very favourite raga or a main for me - but i still enjoyed

+ Saramathi RTP was well built in alapana by both sisters . Taanam was mainly handled by gAyatri and she sang impressively . Ragamaliga swaras were well practised and they did a fine job exhibiting the same.

+ Easily the highlight for me was the viruththam raga maliga - especially the winding part in shree ranjani to stress the word KAna and jump into KAna vendAmO . Gayatri truly rocked there.

+ Ramapriya is a tough raga and I had no doubts with either vachaspathi or poorvikalyani to be sure that it was ramapriya. Again the krithi was well synchornized

+ Two vilambit the budhan krithi was well sung by both sisters with high shruthi . And also the eppadi manam in huseni was well sung with a nice sAhitya bhavam

+ Slight squeekyness by bhaskar in ramapriya alapana but he settled very well from bilahari. He enhanced it beautifully in pallavi with a lovely serene saramati return.

Minues:
------
- Usually gAyatri soars with more open throated and more power packed sangathis . To an extent i found that only from the second half. Ranjani was bit struggling in swaras to sing more in ramapriya - gayatri could have bailed out which generally happens but it did not happen

- Referring the notes is okay - but i felt in krithis like gundakriya because of the referral it became very cliched and homebaked . They can add bit more dynamism in the stage. At times instead of bit more exertion in music , they end up with a synchronized smile .

- In ragamaliga swaras generally gayatri goes for more sangathis and she loses herself . But i felt it was not that high there with gayatri. Noticed a high share of hindustani music like phrases than carnatic phrases in almost all the ragas in swararagamAliga

- Very very few abhangs i Like . This i dont like not because it is from north india or any sociology related crap. IT is only because they sang this like bhajanai.

Why such excessive sparseness in mrudangam ?
-------------------------------------------
# Arun Prakash mrudangam . He was almost doing a dharna - like geoffrey boycott in a test match. With zero or one tap for every few seconds in songs like nattaikurinji and huseni - I felt i was listening to a suprabAta sangeetham of the sisters with tamburA. Also even when he plays it is after a long time when the krithi has gone past the anupallavi midpoint. I just donot get as to why he bends so much and just taps with one finger and at times presses or gently strokes the thoppi. For very few numbers that he played he had lovely nAdham .

One cannot blame chandrasekhara sharma he was also lost perhaps on discovering if Arunprakash would play. I did not hear their full tani.

The crowd clapped and gave a good round of ovation at the end of mangalam , I felt mrudangam could have made it more memorable .

Overall very good concert for 2 hours and 50 minutes

[arasi]

Thank you Thanjavooran and Rajesh for the reviews. Kamalamba too was there. Did you three meet?

Rajesh,
How can you expect Ra-gA eschewing an abhang? Most of the rasikAs would have returned home disappointed without one. Well, not your abhang, you say. Mine used to be bhUt mOTe. But I couldn't hear that one forever. So, a change of an abhang is nice.

Minimalist at his minimum? My! That's nil Such good sound too for us to miss all through the concert

I see intanutsu varNimpa gaining popularity

[mahavishnu]

# Chamundeshwari bilahari neraval was in the usual raaga nishadhara sanni bhavadhanE

rAkA nishAkara sannibha vadanE (face resembling a full moon)

[jodha]

It seems KAP has sent an application to MA requesting them to consider for SK next year. His defense is that he has created a bhani in mridangam playing. Let's wait and see.

[devan]

Kanyakumari has also given.my sources.