-------------------------------------------------
Vocal : Raji Gopalakrishnan
Violin : M R Gopinath
Mrudangam : Tanjore Ramadas
Ghatam : N Ravichandran
Morsing : Krishnan
Concert Type : Partial Nirvana - concert to follow (but it does not matter between morning and evening it is same exact 150 mins)
Day/Duration : Thrusday/ 2 hours and 30 mins (9:00 am to 11:30 am)
Concert Type: Free Concert
Hall : Music Academy
1.saraguna nannela-varnam - madhyamavati- Thiruvottiyur Thyagayyar??
2.ee vasudha (S)- sahana - T
3.ardhanAreeshwaram - kumudakriya - MD
4. neekEla dayarAdhu (R,S) - sarasangi -ramaswamy sivan
8 mins alapana and 5 mins violin return
10 mins swaras
5. devi brOva samayamiddhE - cintamani- SS
6. nee valayinchE entha (R,CS) - chAyaranjini - GNB
7A. manasu vishaya (R N S T) - nAttaikurinji - T
13 mins alapana and 5 mins violin return
7 mins neraval in mArAmuni kripA kalgunO
swaras for 9 mins
7B. tani for 13 mins
8. RTP - suddhadhanyasi(main raga) for 40 mins
4 ragas in Taanam and swaras)-suddhadhanyasi + mohanakalyani + reetigowlai + Valaci
13 mins alapan and 12 mins taanam
pallavi talam mishra jAthi triputa
Pallavi --kannanai manivannanai madhura kuzhalisai mAyanai nee ninai kuraitheerkum
9A. viruththam rAma nAmamE thudhi - Desh
9B. rAmA nAma medudhi manamE - desh - Tanjore Sankara Iyer
Took a day off at work . For me to hear say my favorite male musicians -let me put a new pallavi line there (vijayA abhi surya sanjay namastE)is always available most of the time. But my favorite female artist it is a struggle to get access to them , incidentally most of my favorite female musicians donot have their domicile in chennai(Raji sangeetha swaminathan and pantula etc). Raji gopalakrishnan is somone I picked up perhaps after her best of days . I am assuming her best of music was sometime from 1990s to 2005 or so. She is still good that is the key her music is aging right . She is the disciple of TMT and TRS but it is just not that angle of TMT and TRS that she takes most of her music ,but there is a lovely typecast of the tigresss MLV in her. There is a heavy manaseega influence of MLV within Raji
She had one concert before I think in ubiquitous arkay hall and I am glad she did make it in Academy. The Main Morning slot is respected slot , there is just two categories of respected morning slot , type 1 :Lobby or push and still get top quality co accompanist and type 2
ut up a bit of not that high quality co artist who are bit past their best and see how it goes, there is a hit or miss luck here . I guess MR gopinath was quite good he is still in type 1 and has not gone to type 2 , but the percussion of Thanjavur Ramadas was a type 2 he just did not give that quality to an MLV manaseega varisu and did not pep that much.Raji started bit ok , the madhyamavati varnam I have no clue of the composer till i googled but it was quite good . Raji did have an early morning shruthi issues kind of voice did not reach that grip of that pitch . Ee vasudha was very good , I had to be out for 10 mins to get the ticket of RKMurthy evening concert so i missed a fair share of my dear sahAnA . Any way I sat with kamalamba (Mohan) and he just nodded to indicate that i missed a lovely sub segment of sahana . This particular sahana is kind of off beat sahana , the pace is a typical #2 number unlike most of the other numbers which show a significantly dominant slower gait of sahana. Raji latched with right pitch and did a nice swara kalpana but could have gelled well with percussion. Kumudakriya ardhanAdheeshwaram could have been sung better if she had repeated few oomph lines but she just passed , but it was a still not a kalaikuttified yet till #3.
The alapana of sarasangi came next , i and mohan both felt for few minutes the violin return was bit towards the cousin charukesi . Anyway alapana was well done and the rare ramaswamysivan krithi of sarasangi was elaborated quite well , the swaras were nice I mean it was limited to just nice without much percussion support. sarasangi alapana raji is hitting a better spot nearing her excellence with detailed swaras . devi brova samayamidhE was well sung and it was a bit of marked departure from the famous ms amma recording , her diction is clean and pristine. THe next was GNB created raga chAyaranjini , we were thinking if it was madhuvanti as the emotive haunt was close to it . She announced GNB creation and sang Grand new baani krithi . I liked it
Nattaikurinji as a main with R N S is quite a challenge and very rare . IIRC I heard once Brinda manickavasagam singing this as main anyway i like this raga a lot . Overall the alapana had a lot of serene feel with right pitch- serenity defines nattaikurinji. The krithi was sung well but neraval and swaras did get partly offset by not so good support by both percussionist . At times when mrudangam plays for violin the ghatam could have charged bit more for vocal but his play was bit light and rotation was not that great. As such raji did well in natttaikurinji with Gopinath.
She immediately jumped to the RTP , suddha dhanyasi alapana was nice but did it have some feel of an abheri here and there may be I am just right . Taanam was nice she started with suddhadhanyasi and then moved to mohanakalyani and it was concise and clean rasa. She requested mrudangam to play and the next two ragas were lovely the pristine reetigowlai and a definite headturner valaci came out well with lovely manodharmam . She said the pallavi was her own and she did well with a nice trikalam , the swaras in 4 ragas did go well all in short to medium burst . During taana maliga i was not sure if it was valaci or thillang but I think in swaras i got more clarity that she sang valaci (this has got to do with my ear not getting right and it was not to be mistaken for raji delivery). There was a lot of ease when she quickly traverses from one raga to another without any extra special effort - the RTP had a lot of MLV touches in transition of ragas.
She ended with rama nAma in desh , TRS mama used to sing and it is a fitting tribute to perhaps dedicate the eldest living vageyakkara tanjore sankara iyer and also her another guru TRS. She playfully took the same krithi and just tossed as a viruththam before in desh that desh was not besh
MR Gopinath was not that great for first few numbers . In pallavi he did very well . Tanjore Ramadas was way too slow and at times even the sound was not there at all , his best was in few pockets of taanam and may be tani. In neraval and swaras Raji was melodyum naanE rhythmnum naanE . Ravichandran was bit subdued he could have taken more aggresive role . The morsing Krishnan did play very well in tani , rest of the time like most morsing artist he had to take quite a bit of rest. I just wished the percussion of mrudangam was better , raji ideas were there but vocalist alone cannot make it as a success.When ramadas sir plays you should given him more time to settle in the same raga bhava pattern and go along with him he still has nice ringing sound if you allow to group in the same pattern for a little longer time .I just felt raji perhaps missed that strategy and was not aligning with this particular mrudangam artist.
On a side note as i walked i asked baby sreeram who is also the disciple of TMT and asked her the 4th raga of pallavi as i was not sure. I did not reveal if it was thillang or valaci as i was not sure within myself , she said she does not know , so i am happy even vidwan and vidushi are sailing in the same boat as rajesh the rasika.
Overall a very good concert for 2 hours and 30 minutes