Maharajapuram Ramachandran@Hamsadhwani (Adayar) on Mar 09th,2019

[rajeshnat]

Maharajapuram Ramachandran@Hamsadhwani(Adayar) on Mar 09th,2019
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Vocal : Maharajapuram Ramachandran
Violin : MA Sundareswaran
Mrudangam : Patri SatishKumar

Concert Type : Nirvana - No concert to follow , Ticketed concet
Day/Duration : Saturday / 2 hours and 45 minutes inclusive of 5 mins of lovely introduction by Shri Sundar
sabha/Hall : Hamsadhwani/Indira Nagar, Adayar
Time : 6:30 to 09:15 pm
Sponsor : Padma Narasimhan

1A. viruththam- pAlum theli thEnum pAgum paruppum (S) - sunAdha vinOdhini - AvaiyAr
1B. gana nAyakam(S) - varnam - sunAdha vinodhini - NS Ramachandran

• swaras for 6 mins

2. MoolAdhara moorthi (S)- Hamsadhwani - PSivan

• swaras for 5 mins

3. jAnaki ramana(S) - suddaseemanthani -T

• swaras for 2 mins

4. vazhi maRaithirukkuDhE(R) - nAttaikurinji

• 7 mins alapana and 4 mins violin return

5. himagiri thananayE - suddhadhanyasi- HMB

6.pada kamala brindaAvana vAsA (R) - mohanakalyani - Lakshmi Ramaswamy

• 7 mins alapana and 4 mins violin return

7. raghuveera ranadheera(S) - huseni -T

• swaras for 2 mins

8A. dinamani vamsa (R N S T)- harikAmbOdi -T

• 7 mins alapana and 4 mins violin return
• neraval in the same pallavi lines dinamani vamsa tilaka lavanya for 4 mins
• swaras for 4 mins

8B. tani for 9 mins

9A.bega bAro - sang like ugabhooga - yamunakalyani
9B.bEgabArO neela megha - yamunakalyani - vadirAjA Thirtharu

10A. viruththam - kanda guhA - kedaragowlai + Arumugamai - brindavanasaranga(?brindavani) + pArtharul seyyE pAramukham yEnO - mishra sivaranjani
10B. tom tom... va velava - mishra sivaranjani - maharajapuram santhanam
11. chinnanjiru kiliYE - ragamaliga - mahakavi bharathiyar

12. kandu kandu(raga sketch) - dwijAvanthi - Purandarasar
The dwijAvanti number was dedicated to Legend Manakkal rangarajan who is also from indiranagar , adayar
13. pavamAna - sowrAshtram - T

[rajeshnat]

Saturday- I had 3 choices which i could zero in.The first was the two 90 mins SKGS thamizh combo concerts of two musicians - Suryaprakash and Gayathri Girish. Second i was thinking if I could attend , my first time of the live concert of Sunil Gargyan@mudhra. But with Maharajapuram Ramachandran singing in a bit far way adayar , i was thinking let me hear him. The start of hamsadhwani was advertised as 06:15 pm , but the start was delayed to 06:30. It certainly turned out to be a great choice, with great assortment of numbers sung by the booming Ramachandran. More importantly there were two incidents that were way too dear that happened .

Mahararajapuram Ramachandran is absolutely terrific in sustenance. The sustenance is driven by his intense masculine voice texture and voice power . His voice in ookaram, eekaram , aakaram are just wholesome to give such a sustained classical muse . Around the time of 1992 to 1995 or so , I heard him once at that time I was not that happy , possibly the hangover of losing a great santhanam was there and possibly I made an erroneous choice of not liking ramachandran and I thought then ramachandran sir will not make it that big as santhanam sir which is so erroneous atleast as of last 15 years.

As years roll by from 1999/2000 and with the advent of internet forums . Ramachandran's thatha Vishwanatha Iyer made an ever lasting appeal in me for his manodharmam. Ramachandran sir in every concert is at the crossroads , he is leaping with brigas and emote . Brighas brimming with 80 percentile delivery of vishwanatha iyer .Ramachandran also keeps emote also say in 75 percentile of santhanam. He keeps his ideas so well polished where in every concert ramachandran gives a brilliant cocktail of two supernovas - his appa and thatha. Personally one feels so elated that how a 3rd generation ramachandran is preserving classical music with its purest nAdham despite so much of modern struggle that a musician has to undertake to preserve.

Ramachandran started with a great team , Patri was and is always spectacular , he at times slightly hits or overbangs , i am assuming without any share of upapakkavadhyam and with right volume adjustments that overbang just did not occur in this concert. MA sundareswaran is a live genius , he has his share of idiosyncrasy at times comes in as intrusion during course of the song. At the same time his plus point is his sudden bursts of patterns that keeps so aligned with the kalapramanam of booming vocalist, those become extremely handy in ragamaliga returns of viruththam and thukkadas .

Ramachandran started with avaiyar viruththam pAlum Thenum , nice words of avaiyar in a rare sunaada vinodhini .Voice boom was indeed there and he moved with his appa's favorite NS ramachandran varnam gana nayaka in sunaada vinodhini. THe number had its share of kalpana swaras , the kalpana was bit kalpitha nevertheless the voice was anchoring with sunaadam. Hamsadhwani flowed next it was bit off at few places , hamsadhwani swaras are usually long with most of the schools , ramachandran kind of curtailed it which I did not like it that much.

With power getting picked up till hamsadhwani, suddaseemanthani or asaveri cluster of ragas are always great choices . Thyagaraja's Janaki ramana with terrific brighas was superbly sung with patri adding special electric patterns . I was thinking ramachandran will move from his thatha maharajapuram vishwanatha iyer and go towards a neraval and swaras like two manaseeka sishyas of his thAthA - supernovas SSI or MMI. I did not have any bhagyam of neraval in raktha nalina dhala .The patterns of swaras were just quick and didnot give me a great impression of how much suddaseemanthani can potentially kalaikattufy.

I know vishwanatha iyer has sung few GKB numbers but I am not sure if either santhanam or vishwanatha iyer have ever sung vazhi maraithirukkude . What a lovely alapana in nattaikurinji, when nattaikurinji is sung with restrained power with more nadaswara pidi , i just adore this raga . Lovely rendition of nattaikurinji with gkb krithi makes me wonder if ramachandran has first taken vazhi maraithirukkudE that his appa may have missed .(If some one has heard santhanam singing this particular vazhi maraithirukkude please let me know). I liked the suddhadhanyasi himagiri tanayE for his aggression but it just fizzled with no swaras.

Mohanakalyani alapana was well done and he announced about a lady composer Lakshmi ramaswamy who was always a patron for this hamsadhwani sabha . He told that he has sung few compositions on Raghavendra composed by Late vaggeyakkara Lakshmi Ramaswamy . THe krithi was well sung , i atleast for that 10 mins placed Lakshmi Ramaswamy in the league of Kalyani varadarajan

What a joy to hear sadguru's raghuveera ranadheera and cute little swara poruttam of huseni . This raga and this raghuveera krithi is owned and patented by appa santhanam sir . HarikAmbodhi was the main. Alapana was concise and as most of us expected dinamani vamsa came in.He sang well but in general I am not for promotion of harikambOdhi as main in general .Ramachandran did not do adequate justice in bringing a better neraval in harikambodhi , considering it was the only neraval of the concert . I felt ramachandran can take an approach of building brick by brick in his neraval. With a short and electric 9 mins tani , ramachandran also extended another 15 mins past 9pm to give a solid tukkadas which were all weighty like his appa santhanam

The first bega baro had a ugabhooga like swirl as a precursor and the yamunakalyani bega baro of vadiraja was well done. The viruththam kanda guha shanmugha is my childhood rage , santhanam sings more with Maximum emote , ramachandran starts with more like is tatha . Kedaragowlai rush was not sinking that well with me , but with the combo of brindavana saranga(may be brindavani) followed by mishra sivaranjani, how can any one ever say that I did not love it .Ramachandran sang brilliantly and as expected his appa's thillana vA velava vadi velava in mishra sivaranjani was taken . The topnotch thillana that followed a detailed viruththam was rich in words and emote. The drive to another ragamaliga of mahakavi bharathiyar in chinnan jiru was well done , the finishing line again in shivaranjani like unkannil neer vazhindal just brings the right choice of words and emote with charged (?mishra)sivaranjani bhAvA.

MA Sundareswaran was great in pockets at times he bringing in parur cut bowing techniques with his speed did bring in charm. In tukkadas he values the main artist time and does not hog the vocal quotient. Patri was simply spectacular , 9 mins tani with no upapakkavadhyam and with his high exuberance brought so much classicism to the baritoned voice of ramachandran. Patri is a legend having the best gumkhi touches and with that there is always the best of laya poruttams which gives so much of performance oomph.

Two incidents worth sharing with you all
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1. During the mohanakalyani alapana violin return ramachandran sir was taking a pen and writing almost for the whole duraion of the mohanakalyani. I later asked him at the end of the concert ,Sir what were you doing in nattaikurinji violin return .

He said Athu onnum illla pA , i was initially planning to sing bhuvaneshwariya, then suddenly i decided to sing this song to dedicate to the recently departed Lakshmi Ramaswamy. I was not sure if i knew the entire lyrics , so i just took a chance to quickly rehearse by writing during violin vasippu and then I decided to take a plunge to sing. He said sila simayam words maruntharum athukkaga thaan ezhudinEn(some times we can forget words that is why i just quickly wrote.)

I just said towards the end , sir neenga madurai somu ayittangelOnnu ninaichen(I thought you have become a madurai somu). This is musical honesty at its best, certainly the muse of mohanakalyani in lakshmi ramaswamy krithi stayed quite close to bhuavaneshwariya.

2. Towards the end of the third tukkada chinnajiru kannamma post bega baro and viruththam with mishra sivaranjani .I was seated in 5th row or so and the conversation happened this way

Rajesh : Ramachandran Sir dedicate one song to manakkal rangarajan mAmA
Ramachandran Sir : ithuvarikkum avara dhan ninaichundu pAdinen (Till now i was only thinking about him and sang)
<< rajesh was not ok with that reply>>

Rajesh : Summa pAdunga sir . Dedicate a dwijavanthi number to him
Ramachandran Sir : Ok . periya vidwan manakkal rangarajan sirkkaga i will sing a dwijavanthi.

Ramachandran sir sang a brief dwijavanthi alapana and sang the song kandu kandu , a purandaradasar song. The beauty was that the song kandu kandu has lot of alankarams in the key phrase ranga . Some time in mid point of dwijavanthi rendition ,ramachandran sir took the phrase "rangA" and replaced with "rangA rAjA" . Towards the end, he again wrapped with rangarAja instead of rangA . Stunning musical aesthetics of dwijavanthi with ranga rAjA stopper at the end.

Hamsadhwani Sundar gave a lovely speech about all three artists, he was crisp and he did a great job.Personally glad to hear a dedicated song for the greatest vidwan /vidushi manakkal rangarajan who lived in indiranagar, Adayar from one of the most profound carnatic maharajapuram school. This concert could have had a better neraval but all said ramachandran voice finesse was there in every step, even his whisper raghuveera ranadheera had so much of voice power and sowkhyam.

Overall an excellent concert for 2 hours and 45 mins with an exclusive 5 mins speech.

[manakkalsriram]

I could not keep quiet after seeing Rajesh touching gesture showing his highest regard for my father in true action. Appa would have been so pleased and blessed Rajesh. I also thank Maharajapuram Ramachandran Sir for singing on the spot dwijavanthi and paying homage to my father by using his amazing presence of mind singing Rangaraja instead of Ranga. I also thank one and all for their kind words about my father giving us enormous strength to bear the loss( though it is impossible to overcome it as I have never been seperated from him even for a moment and my music bondage with him is something out of the world). As one dearmost Rasika put it to me as "THE VOICE WE LOVED IS STILLED".

[bhasi]

neenga madurai somu ayittangelOnnu ninaichen

@rajeshnat, could you please explain the reference to Madurai Somu for newbies like me?

[CRama]

bhasi, Madurai Somu is famous for his on the spot compositions. When Mah Ramachandran was writing on the paper, Rajesh thought he is composing some song.

[bhasi]

Very interesting! Will check him out on Youtube. Thanks for the info @CRama

[rajeshnat]

About 15 plus years back late hamsadhwani Ramachandran sir told me in person that he and Mrs Maharajapuram Santhanam (if my memory is right Gnanam is her name) are related . That day I had a brief talk with him when Late Nadopasana Srinivasan introduced . I am conjecturing that Hamsadhwani ramachandran , Mrs Santhanam and Maharajapuram Santhanam would have atleast heard one concert together of sangeetha bhoopathi ace manodharma master maharajapuram vishwanatha Higher

many many many years later

The 3rd generation Maharajapuram Ramachandran and Hamsadhwani Sundar are really doing a top class job preserving roughly 120 years of legacy of two great families of musicians and organizers . Special mention to Sundar he is doing a phenomenal prepared speech , personally very glad as in chennai not many sabha secerataries do speak with right preparation. I took few snaps in this concert post the kuthcheri .

Never Mind last match but they will only get better from left to right Ravindra Jadeja , MS Dhoni and Suresh Raina

[rajeshnat]

Never Mind last match but they will only get better from left to right Ravindra Jadeja(bit look alike) , MS Dhoni and Suresh Raina

[rajeshnat]

Joined by Hamsadhwani coach Stephan Fleming Sundar