Ramakrishna Murthy- Brahma Gana Sabha, Dec 05,2018

[grsastrigal]

Ramakrishna Murthy
L.Ramakrishnan-Violin
Patri Satish Kumar-Mridhangam
Chandrasekhar Sharma-Ghatam

Date 5-12-2018

Brahma Gana Sabha

Let us take RTP first.
Pallavi line goes like this. The ragam is embedded in this pallavi.
It is composed by Sri.Bharat Sunder,
“வடிவேலனே சிவபாலனே ஒளியாக மன ஆஷ்ரமம் அமர்ந்தருள்”
(vadivElenE sivabAlanE oLiyAga mana Ashramam amarndharul”)

If you don’t find out, come to my review:

RKM Music defies any review. It is intense music. He gave a 3 hours “superlative” performance. Heavy downpour outside and inside the music too.

Suma sAyaka vidhurA ava mAdhava- Pada vaRnam- kApi- Swati Tirunaal
(Tisra jati Eka Taalam), showing the flashes of Kalyani, kamAs, Vasantha and Mohanam at the end. (Tisra jAti eka tAlam)

Shankaram abhirAmi ManOharam- ManOharam – Ragam and “N” in “pankajAsAnAdi …Ayushpradam” and Swaram.

mAlOn marugnai- Vrutham from Kandar AlangAram-in Abhogi followed by “Nekkurugi unnaip paNiA kal nenjan” a song on Sikkal SingaravElan by PapanAsam Sivan.

DhanyAsi- Main- DhyanamE varamainA gangA snAnamE- Thyagarajar –Aadi.-(S)

Tani

Ekkalathilum maravEnE- nAttakurinji- Ramasamy Sivan.
RTP-GamaAshramam- in Tanam, Pallavi line as above. He took YadukulakAmbodhi and Darbar in Tanam and Kadanakudoohalam and karaharapriya in Pallavi.

“kAdalAgi kasindu” vruttam followed by eppO varavArO- jOnpuri-GKB

vEzhamunda- Tiruppugazh on kAsi kshEtram murugan.- nIlAmbari.

Karuna jUda-Shyama Sastri- Sri rAgam

Mangalam

Surprising to see RKM took SumasAyaka as the first kriti and Syama sastri kriti as last. Flash of TMK came into my mind. (may be the heavy rain and the climate mood made him to start !!!!)……

With my little knowledge on rAgAs, Gamanashramam is one rAga I could not get hold of it till last. It does not come near any of the known raga. Good he told at the beginning of the concert. The Talam is kanda jAti Triputa, Kanda nadai.....

ManOharam looked like kamalA manOhari. Don’t know what difference both has ?!

You can go on writing about RKM’s concert. Each and every kriti, coming from RKM takes a different dimension and an aura of perfection.

I see more than dozen youngsters at his age singing every corner of Chennai during this season.. But RKM is different.

With the storm of TMKs, me too-s sweeping and shaking the CM world, here is an youngster like PrahlAdan/Dhruvan who stand tall and singularly holding the “nectar” of Carnatic music. It is like amudasurabi”. You go to his concert, drink as much as you can and live longer !!!! (to listen to his music).

L Ramakrishnan is a class apart. His perfect return and tani is awesome. Love to listen more from this youngster.

Somehow, Patri is never in my top 10 mridangam players. His “dOlki” banging and poor CSS tried that in his instrument and partially succeeded without breaking it.

Tani can be divided in to two, patri playing tani and other mridangists playing tani !!!

[rajeshnat]

Ramakrishnan Murthy@BGS On Dec 05th,2018
-----------------------------------------
Vocal : Ramakrishnan Murthy
Violin : L Ramakrishnan, disciple of A kanyakumari
Mrudangam : Patri Satish Kumar
Ghatam : Chandrasekara sharma

Concert Type : Nirvana - no concert to follow and Ticketed concert
Day/Duration : Wednesday ,3 hours - 06:05 to 09:05 PM
Sabha : Brahma Gana Sabha

01. suma sAyaka - Pada varnam - karnataka kApi - ST
02. Shankaram Abhirami (R,N,S) - manOhari - MD
6 mins alapana and 3 mins violin return
4 mins neraval in pankaja Asana Adi pUjita
6 mins swaras

03A. viruththam ... mAlOn muruganE - AabhOgi - kandar alankaram
03B. violin return
03C. nekkurugi unnai - AAbhOgi - papanAsam Sivan

04A. DhyanamE varamaina (R,S,T) - dhanyAsi - T
11 mins alapana and 6 mins violin return
13 mins swaras
04B. tani for 20 mins

05. ekkAlathilum maraven - nAttaikurinji - ramaswamy sivan

06. RTP in gamanashramam with ragamaliga for 50 mins
20 mins alapana inclusive of an early violin return for 5 mins
raagamaliga taanam for 20 mins in gamanashramam + yadhukulakAmbOdhi + nAyaki + kApi
Pallavi and swaras 16 mins
swaras in gamanshramam + kuntalavarali+ kharaharapriya + behAg

Pallavi line was vadivelanE shivabAlanE gunasheelanE , OliyAga manaAshramam amarNdha aRul
Pallavi was created by Bharath Sundar and taalam was kanda nadai kanda jAthi triputa

07A. kaadalAgi kasindhu - jOnpuri - tevaram from appar
07B. eppO varuvArO - jONpuri - GKB
08. vEdamunda..... kAsi gangaimEviya perumAlE - neelAmbari - thiruppugazh (AGN)

09. karuna joodu - shree ragam - SS
10. mangalam

The kutcheri season overdrive mode is at times active .Overdrive in the sense when you feel you have clashing choices ,this day I had RKMurthy@BGS to timeshare with SandeepNarayan@ragasudha . Also KBBK in NGS and IIRC gurucharan@meenakshi college. I went just on time to BGS @ 6pm buying tickets . I was looking forward not just to hear young rkmurthy but also patri .

RK Murthy modelled most of his numbers on KVN , one can say a lot of manaseega influence with the way he sings is always distinct . Start in sumasayaka in ragam Karnataka kapi was well done for most part.The padavarnam is quite a deep number it can be almost like a swarajati with lot of musical sahithya to cover . Murthy's VOice warmed up great but percussion gelling was not that perfect . This padavarnam raga in karnataka kapi has a kapi shade and also a bit of kharaharapriya or even KAnadA. Murthy did well but still felt he could have bit more kalaikattufied.

The second started with a Lovely raga alapana , i was mistaken for all the time for jaganmohini. Manohari ragam as alapana has not gone into my head deep enough or is it perhaps a perennial handicap to disambiguate jaganmohini vs manOhari . The krithi start was well done , i have heard one very very dear recording of shankari manohari by vidwan Balaji Shankar . Murthy sang well but the percussion drive was far more than what is required it raised beyond murthy's vocal muscle during significant parts of krithi .

RK Murthy planned beautifully , the plot was well prepared . Give a viruththam drop and have an alapana violin return save that time and give it to RTP that was very nice . In few historic past i have noticed these kind of sing virutham or slokham is very TNS or TVS approach . Viruththam drop on lord muruga with a very very dear abhogi was very enjoyable.The thrust of nekkurugi needs to have more throw and vocal muscle , murthy did quite well and i enjoyed . Bit more supersonic power in that divine line of anupallavi dhikku verillai dheena saranya would usually have musical thrust to call the raga as wow bhogi but it just stayed as a bhogi.

Dhanyasi was the main , restrained alapana , he brought consciously bit more throw . I felt his voice needed bit more warmup to give bit more throw . Krithi was nice with lovely suppporrt from L ramakrishnan. Dhanyasi swaras were measured in steps with the preceding neraval touching a limited dhanyasi landscape. He did well ,not much on spot monodharmam but he managed to impress me .

The filler before RTP was very close in rasa stature. Dhanyasi and nattaikurinji back to back was perhaps avoidable . The days best was indeed RTP. Gamanashramam is a raga which is parent of poorvikalyani. Thanks to few musicians in my listening past , musicians like vijaysiva have given little more stickiness to a distinct gamanashramam, it is indeed a nice raga which has at times a slight sivaranjani rasa apart from its predominant poorvikalyani . Taanam was well done after lovely reply from ramakrishnan. I am noticing RK Murthy is a musician who takes conscious choice to break with more fragments and prefers not to go in one cadooble . His breaks are definitely well practiced and definitely it does not appear as any on spot manodharmam. That does not take away any credit of his musical output that he gave in taanam and swara ragamaliga in RTP. Taanam movement from gamanashramam to a dearest lovely emote raga yadhukulakAmbOdhi was well done . The rasa of yadhukulakAmBOdhi has to be savoured and he did well and then he went to another rakthi beauty nayaki (hopefully not darbar) and he did well . The last kApi was not that excellent as yadhukulakambODhi he tried to give bit more power but he could not create that great rasa effect of a kVN protege there.

THe pallavi was brilliant . He told in microphone his friend Bharath sundar had composed this pallavi . Bharath sundar as a composer is surely making a mark in my head , lovely lines in thamizh to craftfully bring the raga mudra within the pallavi. The line was on Lord muruga possibly the second half is connected to tiruvannamalai , any way great job bharath. The Pallavi line was vadivelanE shivabAlanE gunasheelanE , OliyAga manaAshramam amarNdha aRul. Like last year in academy murthy rotated swara ragamaliga with different ragas , kuntalavarAli in a bit slow to medium pace was great, there was a distinct behag and kharaharapriya . He tried to sing and speed up a bit towards the end but he slipped a bit . Murthy has to develop bit more vocal muscle but within the confines of his distinct voice apparatus that he has, he produced a lovely RTP.

KVn tour continued with eppo varuvArO with a nice accentuation of jonpuri it was a limited viruththam of tevaram but the words kAdalAgi kasindu is quite moving . The last perumALe thirruppugazh in neelambari was nice , it did not sound too much of words too less of music thrirrupugazh , possibly neelambari made the trick . The missed trinity shyama sastri with his ishta devatai kamakshi made her shree ragam entry to close a nice 3 hours concert

The star in terms of consistency was indeed L Ramakrishnan . Lovely raga bhavam with nice tone , murthy gives a lot of rotation as he does not yet have more vocal confidence to sing longer patterns without rotation. I hope he works on it but in these spaces if you have a lovely shruthi and press from violinist L ramakrishnan, the concert still connects you in the zone of excellence. PAtri had his usual controlled aggression, I liked after 3rd song or so when he gave his best. Hariharasharma gave great support their tani was well done in patterns and fireworks, the first round of tani was patri in a bit of excess HIT mode.

Overall an excellent concert for 3 hours.

[Sachi_R]

Sounds like a digression. But a couple of days ago, in Amrutha Venkatesh's concert, I could see how well L Ramakrishnan enhanced the experience by great tonality and purposeful accompaniment.

And today 100.1FM broadcast a superlative RTP by Saketaraman kGayana Samaja concert) in Sindhubhairavi wherein Akkarai Subhalakshmi was OUTSTANDING in Tanam.
And Patri played the mridangam like a champion. For me he is a champion.

Mutatis mutandis, I am imagining my fav RKM doing great in gamanaahramam

[Sachi_R]

A moot point to debate is why we need to stretch, bend, break and morph the original गमनश्रमम् into something like गमन + आश्रमम् etc. Of course in Tamizh it may make sense and I don't understand it.

[HarishankarK]

Isn't the second song raga Kamala Manohari?
Or is this different one?

[rajeshnat]

Isn't the second song raga Kamala Manohari?
Or is this different one?

Harishankark,
Check this post that details manOhari vs KamalamanOhari difference.
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