Prince Rama Varma's Concert: Austin,Tx on May 1st 2010

[shishya]

Accompanists: Violin:S. Varadarajan
Mridangam: Patri Satish Kumar

Here is the song list:

1. sarasuDa - sAvEri- Adi - Patnam Subramanya Iyer
2. gajavadana-hamsadhwani-rUpaka-M D Ramanathan- 2nd speed swarakalpana
3. endarO mahanubhUvulu - SrI- Adi- tyAgajAja- Started at mahAnubhAvulu
4. paramapurusham - lalitapancamam- khanDa cApu - maharaja swAti tirunAL - swarakalpana at pallavi
5. sarasIruhanAbha-dESAkshi-miSra cApu - maharaja swAti tirunAL
6. rAma rAma guNasIma- simhEndra madhyamam- Adi - maharaja swAti tirunAL Ragam (with brief grahabhedam to bhowli), swarakalpana at pallavi, Tani avartanam
7.nArAyaNatE namO namO - behAg- Adi- annamAcharya
8. hoDi nagArimEle kayyA- Anandabhairavi- miSra cApu- purandara dAsa
9.tillAna- kadanakutUhalam- Adi- bAlamuraLI krishna
10.bhujagasAyinO- yadukula kAmbhOji -rUpakam-maharaja swAti tirunAL

[cmlover]

Thanks shishya
As may be expected there is a good selection of Swathi...

[Enna_Solven]

Shishya beat me to the review. I had done the write up but went out to do groceries. Anyway, here is my take.

Prince Rama Varma @ Austin, May 01, 2010
(Lanier High School Auditorium)

Tribute to Swathi Thirunal
Prince Ram Varma - Vocal
S. Varadarajan - Violin
Patri Satishkumar - Mridangam

Duration: ~2 hours 15 minutes, stars: 4 (no RTP)

1. Sarasuda (Varnam) - Saveri - Kottavasal Venkatarama Iyer
2. Gajavadana Pahi - Hamsadhwani (extended swarams) - MDR
3. Endaro - Sri - Thyagaraja
4. Parama Purusham - Lalitha Panchamam - ST (R,S)
5. Sarasiruha nabhamudaram - Desakshi -ST (raga arohanam/avarohanam demo, brief alapana)
6. Rama Rama Gunaseema - Simhendra Madhyamam - ST (correction: not neraval but swarams at @ Rama Rama, got to be careful about what I write)
7. Narayanathe - Behag
8. Hodi NagAri - Ananda Bhairavi- PD
9. Thillana vadanamadE virisenE - Kadanakuthuhalam - BMK
10. Mangalam - Bhujaga Sayino - Yadukula Kambhoji, Madhyamavathi

Sorry for the long intro before I delve into the concert details.

I took my 6 year old daughter to the concert after extracting promise of good behavior. She kept her promise and in fact enjoyed the prince's swaram singing for Hamsadhwani and Simhendra Madhyamam, lost in wonder with her mouth gaping open I hope I can kindle some interest in her.

I met the prince before the concert. He was very humble and extremely nice to talk to. I thanked him for the Shankarabharanam clips on youtube. He said he went to the TV station for something else and they asked him to give a talk on some raga. He gave this talk impromptu. He invited me to sit in the front row, I declined saying I didn't want to be a distraction because of my daughter.

The concert started late because of 'technical difficulties'. PowerPoint presentation There was a presentation on Swathi Thirunal with statistics, photos, etc. The lady who presented it did a good job.

Rama Varma spoke briefly before each song giving details about the song. The kutcheri started well with the Saveri varnam; his voice was in good shape except for some warm-up trouble reaching the highs. (The sound system was perfect, from the last row.) Swaram singing for Hamsadhwani was very, very good. Sri Varadarajan's replies were equally pleasant. Hamsadhwani lifts up the mood.

The prince described how ST sent his court musician Shatkala Govinda Marar (who was an expert in singing at very slow to very fast tempos) to meet Saint Thyagaraja. Thyagaraja (some say composed on the spot, others say he had composed it earlier.) had his disciples sing Endaro to the delight of the visiting musician.

Rama Varma sang this krithi at a slower pace than I have heard so far. It was beautifully rendered, with clear diction and with words split cleanly. He sang the first lines of the last few swara sahityams and the caraNam twice. The way he ended the song was superb.

Parama purusham and Sarsiruha krithis were good. He commented about having to sing before they recovered from jet lag. Singing the slow desakshi song would make him sleepy. He said it was grammatically similar to Bilahari, but the character was totally different. It was.

'Rama Rama' was excellent. His voice suits heavy songs like this. My only crib was that alapana was done BMK style: a round of 'A'karam and then violin reply. It is not free flow. It prefer the normal style of alapana first by the vocalist and then by the violinist. So Varadarajan got to reply for RV and got his own uninterrupted alapana as well. I missed the grahabhedam to Bowli that Shisya mentioned. During the swaram phase, all the three alternated, Patri replying to the others' swarams with different strokes. It was beyond my comprehension, though it sounded good. Rama Varma's voice had warmed up nicely and he reached upper 'ma' easily.

Rama Varma sang a long Behag alapana (not the Simhendra madhyamam style, thankfully.) and then the beautiful krithi. He started it at 'Murahara Nagadhara.'

The concert last pieces were Purandaradasa's 'hoDI nagAri mEla kaiya' (I haven't heard this song till now.) and thillana. He ended the concert with the Bhujaga Sayino mangalam by ST.

Varadarajan's playing was crisp and he echoed RV in his solo essays nicely. Patri's playing was gentle except during thani, when it got a bit loud. At one point during the thani, he played strokes with the left side while his right hand kept rhythm. What do you call this? It was very interesting. It reminded me of Santoor Shivkumar Sharma's playing. (He does this beautifully with Zahkir Hussain. Kaushik Dhwani from Zakir's 5 CD set is this fantastic melody.)

On the whole it was a very good concert; only shortcoming was the absence of RTP.

I understand the hardship the artists go through with jet lag & lack of sleep. Looks like Austin is the first or second concert of a tour for many artists; and they do it within couple of days of landing. Two or three successive 2-3-4 hour concerts in spite of lack of sleep, jet lag and food at odd times I just wish them long, healthy lives.

The artists were presented with mementos. Sri Nagarajan, the organizer, invited Smt. Prabhavathi from Andhra - the first lady to play mridangam, to give them the mementos. As she was finding it hard to climb the steps, the prince came down the steps, touched her feet and accepted it. Others followed. It was a very nice gesture on his part.

[thenpaanan]

Shishya beat me to the review. I had done the write up but went out to do groceries.
.

Grocery shopping! How could you think that was more important than posting a review on rasikas?

Enna solven, Shishya:

Thanks for the reviews. Do you know if a recording was made and if so who will be selling it?

Thanks in advance
Then Paanan

[cmlover]

Nice intimate review. Apart from being a seasoned musician there is a lot to learn form the Prince by way of courtesy to Rasikas and accompanists. I thought endarO was composed at the behest of his guru!

[Enna_Solven]

Enna solven, Shishya:

Thanks for the reviews. Do you know if a recording was made and if so who will be selling it?

Thanks in advance
Then Paanan

Simple, no grocery = no food and I can't hear music amidst children's cries and my own ears closing up due to hunger!

The concert was professionally audio/video recorded. I am not sure if they would be commercialized. To my knowledge, typically only members can purchase a copy in US music circles/clubs. I have never asked my organization for past recordings.

[Enna_Solven]

Nice intimate review. Apart from being a seasoned musician there is a lot to learn form the Prince by way of courtesy to Rasikas and accompanists. I thought endarO was composed at the behest of his guru!

That is something I forgot to mention. He kept encouraging his accompanists by smiling, nodding vigorously and saying "bale" throughout the concert.

[shishya]

Well... I was out of town so no groceries business for me. I dragged my husband and daughter to drive 4 hrs to Austin. We all unanimously agree that the trip was worth every minute of the 8 hours back and forth. Thanks enna_solven for the review. I was just able to get the song list out. I was a little disappointed that he didn't sing neraval at all in the concert. But what he DID sing more than made up for our disappointments

I agree that he is a very humble and down to earth person. Was a pleasure to talk to.

[sreecons]

Thanks for the reviews. I have heard him render entharo and it definitely is out of the world. Can hear it again and again . . .

We all unanimously agree that the trip was worth every minute of the 8 hours back and forth.

Kudos to your dedication. . . kids et al!

[rajipar]

Shishya, I'm assuming you came from Dallas to Austin - if you ever need a place to stay (in the unlikely event you don't know anybody in Austin), just holler.

Next big one for us here is June 19, Bombay Jayashri, who is not performing in Dallas, so come on down!

Raji
(in Austin)

[shishya]

Rajipar,

Thank you so much for the invitation. I need to take a rain check this time as I will be travelling to India when Bombay Jayashree comes there.

I will pick up on your offer some other time though.