Maharajapuram Ramachandran at Hindu Temple of Florida, Septe

[latakumar]

After listening to Sri Ramachandran in a concert organized by Swaralaya in the year 2007 The void left in my heart by Maharajapuram Santhanam more than fulfilled. I promised myself I will bring him back to Tampa. So as part of my organization, Thaiya Thaiya, I organized the concert at the Hindu Temple of Florida, Tampa. It was a wonderful concert and we had more than a record audience. The audience sat spellbound not moving even for a glass of water. After a wonderful performance for 4 hours the rasikas were still wanting more. Ramachandran has a wonderful stage presence and audience interaction. He established a rapport with the audience and somewhere during the concert it was a joint performance of the audience and the artists, the artists performing and the audience so tuned to the performance. I felt I have to say my part even thought I am not a technical reviewer. I have requested Dr. Raghupathy Sharma to write the review for the memorable evening


The Hindu Temple of Tampa, Florida sponsored a concert of Sri Maharajapuram S. Ramachandran on Saturday, September 27 in their auditorium in Tampa. The concert was very well attended and very enthusiastically received. Ramachandran was accompanied by Ganesh Prasad on the violin and by Sri Mannargudi Eashwaran on the Mridangam.

It was a marathon concert that lasted for four hours. At the end the audience was asking for more and more. Ramachandran sang so many compositions, the main pieces were Mohana Rama in Mohanam and an excellent RTP in Karaharapriya. His rendering of Mayamma Nannubrova in Naattakuranji, a composition of Sri Shyama Shasthry was skillfully and melodiously rendered, it is not a composition that is you normally hear and so Ramachandran's presentation was very good. Ramachandran has an enormous repertoire of compositions, many made famous by his illustrious father, Sri Maharajapuram Santhanam. As always Ramachandran sang many of them. It is impossible not to compare the son's renderings with those of his father, but to simply dismiss it as"he sang like his father" is not fair for Sri. Ramachandran. Sri Ramachandran is a very gifted and talented musician and he did sing compositions that I had never heard Sri Santhanam singing. So it was quite refreshing to hear them. Ramachandran's voice has changed, matured I think, there was a time when he sang with his father, it was nearly impossible to distinguish between father and son. Now his voice sounds different from what it sounded some years ago and it is very pleasant to hear it.

My only criticism of the concert, in addition to its being very long is that the volume in the hall was just too loud, Ramachandran has naturally a very loud and clear voice even without too much amplification. In his enthusiasm, he sang two compositions in Bhageshwari, one composed by Sri Dayanda Saraswathi and another by Sri M. Santhanam. I felt that was unnecessary considering that the concert was already very long.

The accompanying artistes were excellent, I do not have to comment on the performance of the Master of Mridangam, Vidwan Mannargudi Eashwaran, he was simply outstanding. The violinist also was very good.

Ramachandran very proudly and deservedly carries the banner of the Maharajapuram tradition of Sri Vishwanatha Iyer and Sri Santhanam. Take advantage of his visit to US at this time and do arrange a concert in your town and do go and listen to him, you will enjoy it.


Dr. Raghupathy Sarma

[rajeshnat]

rAmachandran singing for 4 hours , I usually need to attend two concerts, very happy to see lot of your posts that rAmachandran is slowly considered as capable as his thAtha and appA. I would love to get the entire song list posted please, preferably with timings atleast for main and RTP in terms of minutes.