Ranjani Guruprasad@Vanimahal(mini)on July 09th,2010

[rajeshnat]

Ranjani Guruprasad@Vanimahal(mini)on July 09th,2010
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Vocal : ranjani guruprasad(once known as ranjani hebbAr )
Violin : V.V.SrinivAsa rao
Mrudangam : Thanjavur ???
Ghatam : Pudokottai N rAmachandran
Concert duration : ~ 2 hours and 20 minutes

1 & 2. Late by atleast half an hour ,missed the first two
3. bHAvayE paramaguru SadhAham (R S) - hamsAnandi?? - meesu krishna Iyer on Sadashiva brahmendra??
swaras for 7 mins
4. tAyE tripura sundari - sudda sAveri - PT

5A. swara rAga sudhA (R N S T) - shankarAbharanam - T
13 mins alApanai, 5 mins violin return
neraval in mUlAdhAra nAda merugutE mudamagu for 6 mins
8 mins swaras
5B. tani for 16 mins

6. ranjani mrudhu pankAja lOchani - (plain + shree + megha + jana)ranjani - Thanjavur shankara Iyer
7A. rAga alApana for 2 mins in gOrakh kalyAn
7B. pushpavatantu samarpivasaNthu (Is that vAchanA) - gOrakh kalyAn ???
7C. ninna hyAgE mEcchisAlaE?? - gOrakhkalyAn - PD

8. kara themilEdu (telugu translation of kuraiONrum Illai) - sivaranjani + kApi+sindhubhairavi - madurai bAlasubramaniam(?n)
9. geetu dhuniku "thillAnA" - dhanashri - ST
10. mangalam

The concert advertised to start at 06:30 pm, I went late at around 7pm to hear the start of violin reply of hamsAnandi by rao. A very rare krithi just popped up, I thought it was only hamsAnandi (some one prompted in the front that it was suNodhaviNodhini).As the hamsAnandi unfolded , my first impresssion of this vidushi was really top class. I did not have a chance to hear her,when Ms guruprasad was Ms hebbAr. She has all the right elements of classicism , a strong voice , good sowkhyam with a very high shruthi sense and she appears intensely classical. hamSAnandi??? swaras was the top pick to me she sang beautifully , manOdharmam was impeccable.

An assertive tAyE tripura sundari with the usual round of cittaswaras settled well, the main was the usually let go start bhAvam of shankarAbharanam . Her alApanais had the right madhyamakAla tempo settled very well and then she launched with some fast brighas and overall the alApana was scholarly and also had an aesthetic touch for the masses.The krithi of main started well , but I found her neraval bit incomplete , she lost a bit of steam and I could find a little sense of running out of ideas in the neraval , swaras were well made up , but certainly for the beautiful alApana that she sang I thought her neraval(especially) and swaras was a bit day and night.

Her tukkadAs were all impressive . I just love this shankara Iyer ranjani rAgamAliga with its bounty of cittaswaras , each time when you take a ragA you have to traverse it back to its parent , so kind of little more tough than other rAgamAligas .All the four ranjani's, she matched it beautifully with the right fast pace keeping change of tracks very distinctively and she showed her mastery there.

Ranjani guruprasAd must be specially congragulated for her successful hindustani import into carnatic. The raGA was well done and I thought it was one of those hindustani kAlyAns ,was that "puhapvatanu samarpivasanThu" a vAchana or an ugabhooga , I am assuming it was vAchana (srini and ramakriya clarify).The vAchanA?? was very emotive and the last finish of gOrakhkalyan PD krithi was well done . This was sung very detailed and it was not a lip service at all.

The telugu translated kurai Onrum illAI fell flat somehow the words did not have the same aesthetic sense as the thamizh krithi(I was surprised it had few phrases like sree devi in this krishna based song). Swathi's thillAna could have been postponed but she was showing signs with some one in the front row to end up the concert .The night was open but the close was imminent with the thillAna

The accompanists apart from the ghAtam artist had their share of mediocrity.VVS rao's violin sounded quite squeaky and the mridangist (thanjAvur ??, not kumar or murugabHuPathi forgot to note the name apologies)was just chugging along ,did not rob or add value. The ghatam artist P N rAmachandran was stroke filled and added lot of azhuttam for the booming voice of ranjani,their tani was bit long.

Overall a very engaging classical artist , I wish she had sung little more and I had come half an hour before .Overall a very good concert.

[Lakshman]

Item 3 is by Misukrishna.

[rbharath]

IIRC, the hamsanandi is a tune of Sri Chingleput Ranganathan.

[Sreeni Rajarao]

Rajesh,
Thanks for the review. I have not yet heard Ranjani in a full length concert, but based on listening to a CD brought out by Ananya (Bangalore), I have liked her music very much.

I am not familiar with the vacana you have mentioned, I am not even sure if it is a vacana - I will do some homework on this topic and get back to you.

Sreeni

Sreeni

[mahakavi]

>>The telugu translated kurai Onrum illAI fell flat somehow the words did not have the same aesthetic sense as the thamizh krithi(I was surprised it had few phrases like sree devi in this krishna based song). <<

It is easy to get misled by the words " maRaimUrttik KaNNA" and "gOvindA" and assume this song is on Krishna. Not so! This song is on Lord VenkatESwara of tiruppati/tirumalai. Listen to 'kunRin mEl kallAgi niRkinRa varadA", "vENDiyadait tandiDa vEnkatEsan...", "maNivaNNA malaiyappA.." "un mArbil Edum tara niRkum karuNaik kaDal annai enRum irundiDa..." etc. The last phrase refers to Lakshmi/Sridevi.

KaNNa and malaiyappA are used synonymously throughout the song.

[rajeshnat]

Item 3 is by Misukrishna.

Lji ,thanks for the reference of Meesu Krishna Iyer . In this krithi there was a line "sadAshiva brahmendra??" .With that when I googled I find that meesukrishna Iyer has composed krithis on sadAshiva BrahmEndra.

[rajeshnat]

>>The telugu translated kurai Onrum illAI fell flat somehow the words did not have the same aesthetic sense as the thamizh krithi(I was surprised it had few phrases like sree devi in this krishna based song). <<

It is easy to get misled by the words " maRaimUrttik KaNNA" and "gOvindA" and assume this song is on Krishna. Not so! This song is on Lord VenkatESwara of tiruppati/tirumalai. Listen to 'kunRin mEl kallAgi niRkinRa varadA", "vENDiyadait tandiDa vEnkatEsan...", "maNivaNNA malaiyappA.." "un mArbil Edum tara niRkum karuNaik kaDal annai enRum irundiDa..." etc. The last phrase refers to Lakshmi/Sridevi.

KaNNa and malaiyappA are used synonymously throughout the song.

Tx mahakavi, Some where only in those musical lines there was reference to sreedevi.

[rshankar]

Rajesh - many moons ago, we discussed it here...