Ranjani and Gayatri - Boston - 29th April 2016

[bilahari]

Ranjani and Gayatri - Vocal
M. Rajeev - Violin
Sai Giridhar - Mrudangam

Chinmaya Mission, Andover, MA
3 h 15 m

Approximate List:

siddhi vinAyakam aniSam - Sanmugapriya - rUpakam - MD (S @ prasiSTa jananAyakam)
nI irangAyenil - aTANA - Adi - PS
ADadella oLitE - pUrvikalyANi - Adi - PD (R, S @ pallavi)
janani ninnuvina - rItigowLa - miSra cApu - Subbaraya Shastri
O rangasAyi - kAmbOji - Adi [2] - T (R, N@ bhUlOka vaikunTam, S, T)
sEvikka vENDum aiyyA - AnDOlika - Adi - Mutthu Thandavar
RTP - sindhu bhairavi - Adi [khaNDa] [eDuppu +1]
Pallavi: sindhu gangai kaNDa nAgarIgamE - mozhi kalai thantha bhArathamE
RM swaras in nATTai, abOgi/vaLaji [graha bEdam pair], hamIrkalyANi
ullAsa nirAkula [vruttam] - bilahari, sAvEri, bEhAg
muruganin maru peyar - bEhAg - khaNDa cApu
barasE badariya - mEgh malhAr
Abhang
nI nAma rUpamulaku (mangaLam)

It was a splendid concert from start to, well, almost the end. The Chinmaya Mission auditorium offers a lovely ambience for music, even though the assigned seating relegated me to some far corner. Hearing the strains of the tambUra before the curtains went up set the mood for the concert. And a rather punctual start was also much appreciated. The concert began with MD's beautiful composition in Sanmugapriya adorned with some peppy swaras around praSiSTa jananAyakam with Ranjani's final round of panchamam-eschewing swaras being especially noteworthy. Sivan's aTANa I have not heard on the concert stage in years, and the sisters sang it well, although I was left wanting an alapanai or some swaras for this piece. Ranjani's pUrvikalyANi alapanai was classical and sung with the intensity that ragas like PK and PV need, and the subsequent PD composition was sung at a fast clip with a few rounds of swaras, all in packing quite a punch early on in the concert. As is typical in their concerts, the sisters next sang a vilamba kAla piece, and we were all drenched in the beauty of rItigowLa. Janani ninnuvina is always a spiritual experience for me, and one of thatha's favourite compositions of all time, and the sisters did full justice to the composition. I think R-G's vilamba kAla singing is highly underrated - some of the most memorable pieces in their concerts for me have been their slower renditions like vazhi maraittirukkudE and kAlai tUkki, sung with bhAvam, involvement, and their impeccable shruti shuddam and coordination.

Gayatri next sang kAmbOji, which was probably the highlight of the evening for me. Starting around the madhya gandharam, she immediately worked magic with beautiful kArvais and brushes of the madhyamam. She did not use brighas and fast passages until well into the tAra stAyi, instead exploring the ragam in gradually lengthening phrases emphasizing the gamakams and important sangatis of the ragas as she methodically ascended the octaves. Gayatri's imagination and sense of aesthetics often amaze me, and both came to the fore last night. What impressed me most, however, was her pristine sense of proportion, minimizing brighas even though her voice can produce them so effortlessly, avoiding filmy N3 sangatis, but focusing on the real life of the ragam in the madhyamam and nishadam. It was completely absorbing. I was hoping for anything but O rangasAyi, but it came anyway, and I particularly enjoyed the sisters' neraval in the first speed, which was very meditative and particularly evocative in the upper registers. By the way, the sisters appeared to sing 'pilacitE' as 'pilicitE' - did anyone else notice this and is there any reason one might pronounce it that way? The swarams were good and had a pretty standard koraippu. SEvikka vENDum aiyya came as a bullet train next decorated by Gayatri's beautiful flourishes at the end of each section of the composition. The sisters sing a different sangati in 'vENDum' that I have not heard - something like RM(P)NDM,. It was enjoyable.

I was plenty surprised when Ranjani took up sindhu bhairavi for elaboration. The raga alapanai shared by the sisters was thorough and beautiful, covering many of the popular phrases in the ragam and veering off into the pretty vast landscape afforded by its scale. There were times where I felt the alapanai was in no man's land, but isn't that where an RTP is supposed to take you sometimes. And I was up for the ride. Here, I thought Ranjani's version was a little more recognizable to me and I enjoyed it very much. Ranjani has a sense of classicism that really grounds the sisters' presentations given Gayatri's flights, and I think this is a duo that is really strengthened by the partnership. Gayatri, in her essay, did a delightful graha bEdam to tilang in the upper octave. The tAnam was fully in madhyama kAlam and very well presented. The highlight of the RTP for me was the sisters' pallavi - the neraval in the pallavi, which as others have pointed out is the true mark of a musician's competence in this exercise, was so beautifully sung introducing initially minor variations in the melodic setup of the pallavi, and then completely launching it off the ground, and running the kite skywards. It was another highlight of the evening. The swarams were also beautiful, although I have to say that I'm entirely biased towards MMI's sindhu bhairavi swarams and find it hard to be impressed by these when I have MMI so firmly equated to the ragam (and to ragamaliga swaras! And, well, swaras in general) in my mind. The ragamaliga swaras were noteworthy for Gayatri's pick of AbOgi and vaLaji, the one transformed from the other via graha bEdam, and I'm thankful that Gayatri explained it because when she started, I had no clue what was happening.

After the RTP, my wishes for a vruttam were fulfilled, and the sisters' here provided another highlight of the evening. The vruttam - especially Gayatri's bilahari - was such a breath of fresh air, and brought out the essence of the ragas so beautifully. Muruganin maru peyar is one of my favourite compositions in bEhAg, and the sisters sang it with utmost azhagu. Since I was stuck in a corner of the auditorium, I couldn't abscond before the bhajan and abhang. BarasE badariya was sung beautifully but to me, the benchmark rendition of this bhajan is: https://youtu.be/lBZflL9L_Vk?list=PLFFY ... XVanalVsBY

All in all, it was an absolutely lovely concert, marked by the sisters' standard of excellent planning combining ragas, talas, composers, languages combined with their incredible shruti shuddam, verve, understanding, the balance of chaste classicism and creativity. The accompanists were also up to the task. I thought Rajeev was quite good on the violin - he had an even tone, clarity in his sangatis, and his responses were on point, though I sometimes felt without much flair. I liked his kAmbOji in the upper octave, and enjoyed his sindhu bhairavi ragam a lot. Rajeev might consider using a full, slow bow for kArvais, rather than quickly bowing across and having to switch directions multiple times, which I think detracts a little from the beauty of a kArvai, which benefits from continuity. His shruti was great. Sai Giridhar was also impressive - his strokes had clarity, and he played thoughtfully, often allowing silence at the beginning of anupallavi and charaNam before chiming in appropriately, and I liked his sarvalaghu as well. Sometimes his playing reminded me of Patri - I don't know if the two have any relationship or if I'm just imagining things. His tone did sound a little metallic sometimes, though - I wonder if that was an artifact of the sound system.

I'm driving back for Sanjay this evening - stay tuned.

[Sivaramakrishnan]

Excellent notes. Seems to be a mega-hit concert!

[rshankar]

Awesome, Bilahari! Great report...
Looking forward to your next review!

[rajeshnat]

Sai Giridhar was also impressive - his strokes had clarity, and he played thoughtfully, often allowing silence at the beginning of anupallavi and charaNam before chiming in appropriately, and I liked his sarvalaghu as well. Sometimes his playing reminded me of Patri - I don't know if the two have any relationship or if I'm just imagining things.

sai giridhar is the disciple of patri satish kumar. great to see your review after a long time

[mahavishnu]

pullAsa nirAkula

It would just be ullAsa nirAkula yoga... referring to various emotional states.
pullAsa would be more in the realm of Walt Whitman

Thanks for your review, Bilahari. Look forward to your Sanjay review.

[vsarmaiitm]

Sai Giridhar was also impressive - his strokes had clarity, and he played thoughtfully, often allowing silence at the beginning of anupallavi and charaNam before chiming in appropriately, and I liked his sarvalaghu as well. Sometimes his playing reminded me of Patri - I don't know if the two have any relationship or if I'm just imagining things.

sai giridhar is the disciple of patri satish kumar. great to see your review after a long time

Sai giridhar is a disciple of Parupalli Phalgun and initally learnt from Late Sri M.L.N. Raju

[bilahari]

I did not know Sai Giridhar learnt from Patri. The two names they announced in the introduction were Parupalli Phalgun and M.N. Raju (?).

Mahavishnu, whoops! Thanks for the correction. Although I do love me some Leaves of Grass.

[rajeshnat]

I did not know Sai Giridhar learnt from Patri. The two names they announced in the introduction were Parupalli Phalgun and M.N. Raju (?).

my mistake bilahari , googled to find patri is not the guru of sai giridhar. Few years back some one told me so, i recollect writing that wrong information in a review. sorry all for the wrong information.

[bilahari]

I guess somebody else made the connection I did! Thanks for clarifying, Rajesh.

[Jigyaasa]

siddhi vinAyakam aniSam - Sanmugapriya - rUpakam - MD (S @ prasiSTa jananAyakam)

prasiddhagaNanAyakam