Vittal Ramamurthy@ragasudha hall on Mar 15th,2019

[rajeshnat]

Vittal Ramamurthy@ragasudha hall on Mar 15th,2019
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Violin : Vittal Ramamurthy
Violin Support : Srihari Vittal (son of vittal ramamurthy)
Mrudangam : B Ganapathyraman

Concert Type : Nirvana - No concert to follow , Free concet
Day/Duration : Friday / 2 hours
Sabha/Hall : Ragasudha Hall
Occassion : Marungapuri Gopalakrishna Iyer Violin Festival

1. varnam - viribOni- bhairavi - pachimiriam AdiappA
2. mEru samanA (S) - mAyamAlavagowlai - T

• swaras for 4 mins

3. nannu kanna thalli??? - sindhu kannada - T
4. sree krishnam bhaja (R) - Todi - MD

• alapaana for 5 mins

5. gurulekha yetuvanti (S) - gowrimanOhari -T

• swaras for 4 mins

6. tamAdam tagadayyA - mohanakalyani - LGJ

7. devasri tapastheertha (R) - madhyamavati - T

• alapana for 4 mins

8. sobillu sapthaswara (2 rounds of CS) - jaganmohini - T
9A. shree kanthimathim???? (R NS T) - hemavati - MD

• 7 mins alapana
• neraval for 4 mins
• swaras for 9 mins

9B. tani for 6 mins

10. bArokrishnayya - mAnd + jonpuri - kanakadasa
11. enna tavam (raga sketch)- kApi- psivan
12. tirruppugazh??? - dwijavanthi -AGN

13. thillana??? - sindhubhairavi - LGJ??
14A. pavamana - sowrashtram - T
14B. snippet of bhagyAtha lakshmi - madhyamavati - PD

[rajeshnat]

Hearing exclusive violin concerts anywhere anytime is not easy. The events are too few and quite frankly the drive to hear a violin concert to pass that days vocal is quite a challenge for many inclusive of me . In chennai year on year in the name of violin vidwan Marungapuri Gopalakrishna Iyer , an annual Violin Festival is conducted . Patrons like Late SV Krishnan and one notable Malaysia based Jagatheesan are responsible for this . The reference to the two patrons at the end of few songs was done by vidwan vittal. VIttal thanked both of them, as few decades back he had to come from his home town in karnataka to chennai and without their support he would have found it difficult to learn and perform as a long term musician.

THis year in this violin series ,I missed VV Ravi, BU GaneshPrasad, S Varadarajan and RKSK but just lucky to hear the last day concert where vittal played . As i entered bit late ,viriboni got already got started I came to know that the young lad Sreehari is the son of vittal. He was the accompanying support violin artist . THe accompaniment was not in the genre of co accompanist sharing the stage but young sreehari did play noticeably well in quite a few pockets during the course of the concert.

I have respect for vittal taking up the divine nAdham violin , all the concerts that i have heard him as accompaniment- I have observed bit more restraint , his motto as an accompanist is to give a solid strength to raga bhavam and I have not observed him play even one restless sangathi ever.

VIttal started well with viriboni the grand bhairavi was more a bit missed bhairavi as i was bit late . The next merusamana was a lovely head turner . The raga MayamALavagowlai has a thriving bias for the legend semmangudi . Almost every sangathi to me was more like a well oiled lalgudi grabbing every slide and glide of semmangudi. No complaints when such a master piece meru samana is played to intense gamaka perfection.

Vittal does not have the habit of announcing songs , the next was sindhu kannda . During the course of the concert i knew it was around that harikambOdhi/ shankarabharanam janya cluster . It was a quick pass of sindhukannada. I dont like usually quick pass ragas where it is orphaned without swaras or raga alapana.

Vittal showed his intense class in todi with the master piece sree krishnam bhaja manasa. Nice long bowing with few intense cute short burst todi patterns gives me joy . Vittal just showed his class with todi. gowrimanohari was well done , vittal bow is quite uniform and he does not jerk that much at say fracture points like anupallai pallavi baton return . Mohanakalyani was out and out lalgudi delight and lalgudi school tamadam tagadayya made me wonder Vittal as Lalgudi Jayaraman Jr.

Lalgudi pancharathna krithi in madhyamavati - devasri was measured and well done , this krithi is rare and their school owns it . THe fast filler of jaganmohini came up next and he played well. Hemavati as a main is a tricky raga , even though this MD krithi is a fanta fabulous krithi the alapana of hemavati is quite tricky to engross and impress you especially with instrument. Vittal played well but did not give me much aha oho feeling there in the alapana . In krithi he did well but it was way too measured without much risks in both krithi and the neraval/swaram patterns

TUkkadas unfolded well , the enna tavam - kapi and the sindhu bhairavi thillana showed vittals padantara perfection to their lovely Lalgudi school. I dont recollect (may be i have forgotten)hearing lalgudi school playing baro krishnayya ,vittal played this tukkada with very intense quick turns showcasing lalgudi fairly quick laya patterns. THe dwijavanthi thirruppugazh did not interest me that much .

Young sreehari was watchful , he was at his best during the main hemavati . He had to be helped a bit in talam , todi was work in progress . He like his appa plays without rushing . Ganapathyraman had his moments of excellence when he went in a cruise control mode . I would have liked ganapathy showing bit more controlled aggression that could have helped say some songs like sobillu sapthaswara. Tani went with the flow of song.

I did spot S varadarajan who was there for say first 45 mins or so . I have heard few younger gen sishyas of Lalgudi jayaraman sir , but apart from Lalgudi siblings this is the first time I am hearing Vittal. Vittal gives so much of intense raga bhavam with great emphasis on his intense paddandhara suddham .I would have liked if there had been a bit more reduction in count of songs with bit more emphasis in alapana and swaras. He could have played bit more as the start was exact 06 15 and possibly taken up an RTP too.

Overall a very good concert for 2 exact hours.

[rajeshnat]

Best Wishes to young Stuart Srihari Marsh guided by Ganapathi and appA vittala