When the violins sang

ram · Post by **ram** » 17 Jan 2007, 23:25

Venue: Raga Sudha Hall, 85/2, Luz Avenue, Mylapore, Chennai

Date: 17 Jan 2007

Organizer: Naada Inbam

Violin Duet: Sri R.K. Sriramkumar & Sri S. Varadarajan

Mridangam: Sri K. Arun Prakash

List of songs:

1) vanajAkshA (varnam) - rItigowLa - kanDa aTa - vINA kuppaiyer (O)

2) kanjadaLAyatAkshI - kamalAmanOhari - Adi - muthuswAmi dIkshitar (ONS)

3) sujana jIvana - khamAs - rUpakam - thyAgarAja (A)

4) birAna varAlichi - kalyANi - Adi (tisra gati) - syAma sAstri (ANS)

5) inta sowkhya - kApi - Adi - thyAgarAja (A)

6) viDajAladurA - janaranjani - Adi - thyAgarAja

7) pakkala nilabaDi - kharaharapriyA - misra chApu - thyAgarAja (ANST)

8 ) ini enna pEchu - sahAnA - rUpakam - subbarAmayyA (O)

9) kanDu danya - behAg - rUpakam - purandaradAsa ? (O)

10) anri ulagam aLandAi - sindhubhairavi - Adi - AnDAL (A)

11) nI nAma rUpa mulaku (mangaLam) - sowrAshTram - Adi - thyAgarAja

(Key: O=raga outline, A=raga alapana, N=neraval, S=kalpana swaram, T=taniavartanam)

It was a day when the violins literally sang. Two of the best violin artists of the present generation and celebrated accompanists - Sri R.K. Sriramkumar and Sri S. Varadarajan, came together and presented a violin duet concert at the Raga Sudha Hall in Mylapore. The concert started with a beautiful rendition of one of my favorite varnams, the rItigowLa aTa tALa varnam. It came very close to the best rendition of this varnam I have heard so far (by Sri T.N. Seshagopalan). Then came a beautiful outline of kamalAmanOhari done by Sri R.K. Sriramkumar followed by the kriti "kanjadaLAyatAkshi". A very good alapana of khamAs by Sri R.K. Sriramkumar followed this which was praised effusively by violin maestro Sri T.N. Krishnan, who was present among the audience for the first few set of songs. kalyANi and kharaharapriyA alapanas were done by Sri S. Varadarajan and to me the kharaharapriya alapana was the best portion of the great concert. Every song was played as though someone was sitting there and singing it.

Albeit belonging to different schools and having not given many public performances (to my knowledge) in the past, the two violinists played as though they have been performing as a pair for years together. They played in almost perfect unison and supported each other very well wherever required. I also somehow felt that they played with a lot of restraint. Personally, I have observed them take a lot more liberties and bring their imagination a lot more to the forefront when they play alapanas as accompanists. May be the presence of Sri T.N. Krishnan played a part in this.

Sri K. Arun Prakash was his usual self, tapping where required and enhancing the overall quality of the concert with his excellent accompaniment. The organizer SVK has this habit of summarizing the concert and commenting on the performance after the main item of the day gets over. He sometimes speaks very trickily and it is difficult to judge whether he is taking someone's ass or praising him/her. He summarized Sri Arun Prakash's playing as being highly efficient i.e, "something that gives maximum effect with minimum usage"

Today however, he clarified on which side he is when he said he is personally a fan of Sri Arun Prakash.

Sri Arun Prakash played the taniavartanam in misra chApu very intelligently. The taniavartanam was given in "pakkala nilabaDi" at "manasuna dalachi" which starts 3 counts (3/4th of a beat) after samam. To my (limited) knowledge, with this eduppu, it is not possible to play any naDais and end them with a kOrvai other than the chatusra naDai. Initially Sri Arun Prakash played a small chatusra naDai portion followed by a tisra naDai portion without any kOrvais. He played some interesting patterns in the tisra naDai. One of the patterns went like this (1 avartanam of misra chapu = 3.5 beats = 14 counts) : two lengths of that pattern which would have come to 10.5 beats (3 avartanams) in normal chatusra naDai were played within two avartanams (which is tisram). He played the tisram portions samam to samam. He ended the taniavartanam with a kOrvai that lasted for 71 counts one time and 213 counts when played three times so as to end at 3 counts after samam when started from samam. Silence intervals were beautifully used within this kOrvai.

Source: http://ramsabode.wordpress.com/2007/01/ ... lins-sang/

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 18 Jan 2007, 09:32

Just read this review. Double reportage on this duet performance! Well worth it. The 'singing 'element in their playing (some term it konjal) is true of both Varadarajan and Sriram Kumar. Nice to have such new directions in CM and the coming together of young vidwAns. We have enough of a medley of melodies in the name of fusion. This is different...

ram · Post by **ram** » 18 Jan 2007, 10:06

Forgot to mention ... the part that I loved the most was that unnecessary gimmicks of any sort were totally absent. It was pure and pure melody all through.

arasi,
Sorry for the double report .... I think I hit the submit button about a minute or two after bharath hit his. I would/should have continued in bharath's thread had I seen his post

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 18 Jan 2007, 14:06

ram,
Double delight, let's call it--though you and Bharath were the ones who listened to the concert...

vijay · Post by **vijay** » 18 Jan 2007, 17:48

Drat! Had to miss a concert that I have been itching to listen ever since it was first staged (IIRC by Mr. SVK himself) but thanks to Bharath and Ram, it is almost like I was there!

It is heartening to note that professional competitieness has not stopped these 2 Vidwans from engaging in a productive collaboration. Given their calibre, it should not be very difficult for them to emerge as a leading instrumental pair although I do hope that they also continue their role as accompanists...We are indeed fortunate to have so many talentyed violinists around!

Ram really appreciate your insights on the tani. Could you also elaborate on Arun Prakash' tani for Sanjay at Asthika Samajam - as I mentioned in another thread, I found it very difficult to keep pace with...

vijay · Post by **vijay** » 18 Jan 2007, 17:57

Ram, I presume he started at Samam to play 15 cycles of Misra Chapu + 3 matras which would lead him to the eduppu! How does one figure out such a korvai over so many cycles - I find it very confusing...something similar was played for Sanjay I think

mohan · Post by **mohan** » 19 Jan 2007, 07:43

This new dynamic duo, Shriramkumar and Varadarajan were planning a concert tour of North America in 2007. I am not sure if it has been finalised yet, however.

ram · Post by **ram** » 19 Jan 2007, 10:31

Vijay,

He played "5 cycles + 1 matra" three times to lead to the 3 matras shift.

One way to figure out when the korvai starts each time would be to follow the way it ends. For example, in this case, I think the korvai ended with a series of patterns that was played as follows: 5 matras (tha di ki na thom) + 5 matras gap + 5 matra pattern (tha di gi na thom) twice + 5 matras gap + 5 matra pattern (tha di ki na thom) thrice. Then the korvai started again. Of course, one can make out the first time the korvai starts by looking for the familiar "thalAm ka thom ka thAm - 3 times" or a similar ending of the mOrA that precedes the korvai.

Since the asthika samajam concert took place some time back and since I heard other taniavartanams in the days after that, I have unfortunately forgotten what was played by Sri Arun Prakash in the tani avartanam for Sri Sanjay's concert. The fact that I don't have a good memory and that I had to attend an extended call from office standing outside the samajam during the main kriti and taniavartanam doesn't help matters either

vijay · Post by **vijay** » 19 Jan 2007, 14:10

Ram, thanks once again.

Inetresting to hear about the planned US tour - should be very well received if it does happen although concerts in Chennai will suffer a little!