I attended Ramakrishnan Murthy's (RKM) kacheri at Karnataka Sangha on Habibullah Road, T Nagar, Chennai yesterday evening. Keerthana Sankar was the violin artiste, and Akshay Anantapadmanabhan played the mridangam.
I don't think RKM requires any introduction here. I've been a huge fan of his ever since I discovered him on Youtube and had the opportunity to enjoy a live performance of his in San Jose (during his recent US tour; Charumathi Raghuraman and Manoj Siva playing the violin and mridangam, respectively) earlier this year. So, naturally, I was very excited for this kacheri.
Concert duration: 2 hours.
Setlist:
- Sami Daya Juda (Chooda?) - Kedaragowla
- Vaiyathu VazhveergaaL (Thiruppavai excerpt) - Gowlai
- Entani Ne - Mukhari,
- Neraval on kanulara sevinchi, ending in sarvalaghu swarams
- Short violin reply by Keerthana
- Yarukkagilum Bhayama Summa Sollattum - Begada,
- Exquisite Begada alapana. Trademark phrases elicited appreciatory exclamations from the audience.
- The length of the piece beguiled me into thinking that this was the main piece.
- Sri Kanthimathim - Hemavati,
- Abounding in sarvalaghu swarams, with some off-the-beat (don't know the technical term) experiments.
- Thani by Akshay: Calm, measured variations leading to a very enjoyable crescendo of fast korvais.
- This must have been the main piece/upa-main piece.
- There was a power failure at the end of the thani, and the mikes and the lights all got cut out.
- The concert continued mikeless.
- Ramanai TharuvAi - Sindhubhairavi,
- Prefaced by introductory ragamalika shlokam/virutham: Ragams X (don't know), X (don't know), Jaunpuri, Sindhubhairavi.
- Jagadadhorana - Kapi
- The End. No mangalam. 2 hrs up.
The concert was scheduled to start at 4:30 PM and it started right on time, which I appreciated a lot. The audience comprised mostly middle-aged people and retired folks, but there was a generous smattering of tweenagers and working professionals.
Confusion ensued when the power failure happened, but Akshay deftly continued his thaniyavarthanam and brought it to c a close, followed by RKM winding up as well. The A/V guys pottered around trying this and that in the orchestra well at the foot of the proscenium, while the elderly people in the audience lustily voiced their support for continuing mikeless. After a minute or two of the A/V guys speaking loudly on mobile phones unmindful of the fact that RKM had begun the next song, he told them to desist and beckoned the audience to approach the audience and occupy the front seats for better audibility.
The concert then continued mikeless, as noted above: the violin was inaudible, but the mridangam was adequately audible; and RKM's exquisite singing voice carried itself well into the mid rows. As if to reassure the performers that their music was being received with high fidelity, the audience members clapped harder and more heartily than usual at the conclusion of the subsequent songs.
I noticed the usual practices of people getting up and leaving during the thani and people pre-emptively and obstrusively clapping at slighly inappropriate junctures during the performance. I am not a fan of clapping between songs, or indeed, at any point in the concert other than the very beginning (a la Western classical performances) or the very end. But more on that in a separate post elsewhere in some other sub-forum on this site.
Personal appraisal of the kacheri:
I don't know enough to delve deep into the finer aspects that were on display, but I'll do my best. I love the quality of RKM's voice: it has great timbre, and his singing evinces great skill and mastery over the technical aspects of singing (as far as I know). I wasn't able to identify the ragams of #1 and #2 and had to google instead - but I knew the others, so yay me!
The Begada was really well done, both by RKM and Keerthana. In the San Jose concert (referred to above) he had sung Lokavana Chatura, and I half-expected him to do an encore of that song, but he sang something else instead. More Youtube fodder for me, I guess. Anyway, I was happy that I recognized the ragam.
I've heard so many versions of the well-known kriti, Jagadodharana, that I feel like I know enough to form an opinion on the way he sang this song. He chose a nice tempo, not too fast nor too slow, and he hit all the right gamakams and sangatis that I've come to regard as essential to this song (from KVN's renditions on Youtube). I thoroughly enjoyed this piece.
I can't comment much on Keerthana's violin playing owing to the limitations of my knowledge and listening experience. All I can say is that it was adequate and satisfactory. Although on second thoughts, (at the risk of appearing like an insensitive brute) I must say that I loved Charumathi's violin playing better (In San Jose). I enjoyed Akshay's mridangam; I felt that there are elements of studied and methodical playing as well as sprightly touches in his style of playing.
I was surprised at the absence of a formal Mangalam at the end. Every kacheri I've attended in the US has had a nice mangalam at the end - either Pavamana or some such other (and there a few delightful alternative Mangalams). Not sure if this is the format in December season kacheris where each performer is allotted a fixed time slot and hence does not want to waste time on a Mangalam.
Overall, a great kacheri. RKM was in full flow and I really enjoyed his singing.
Photos:
I took some good photos using my camera, but the internet at my place is piss-poor and upload speeds are abysmal. I will share the photos here when they finish uploading.
Footnote:
Please let me know your thoughts on this review of mine. I would love to know what I should focus on while listening to kacheris, and what I should listen to in my spare time to level up and appreciate Carnatic music better. I am planning to attend a few more kacheris this week and post reviews here.