Shertalai Ranganatha Sharma - Singapore - 6th Nov 2010

[bilahari]

Shertalai Ranganatha Sharma - Vocal
Nellai Ravindran - Violin
T.R. Sundaresan - Mrudangam
Sai Vignesh (?) - Tambura

Duration: 2h 30min

Approximate Songlist:

01. calamELa (varNam) - SankarAbharaNam - khanDa aTa
02. srI lambOdarAya namastE (R, S @ pallavi) - varALi - khanDa cApu
03. vinuta pAlini katA - sivasakthi - rUpakam
04. cerarAvadEmirA (R, S @ pallavi) - rItigowLa - Adi

05. smaraNa onDE sAladE (?) - malayamArutam - Adi
06. tillai cidambaram (sketch) - pUrvikalyANi - miSra cApu
07. marubAgadaiyya mOhanAganApai - mOhanam - Adi
08. rAgam tAnam pallavi - tODi - khanDa tripuTa (khanDa naDai)
(Eduppu in kitaTAkita in the first beat of the cycle)
Pallavi: kadirvaDivElan unadu pAdam tuNaiyE OrAru muganE dEvAdi dEvanE

09. enna tavam seidEnO - khamAs - Adi
10. tumabina mOdi...gOvardana giridArai - bhajan? abhang?
11. bhaja bhaja mAnasa (sketch) - sindhu bhairavi - Adi
12. nI nAma rUpamulaku (mangaLam) - sowrASTRam - Adi

The concert was co-organised by the Music Circle and SIFAS and billed as a Deepavali special concert held in memoriam of the late Alathur brothers. As such, SRS, who has learnt from one of the Alathur Brothers, launched into an unfortunately long-winded introduction about the brothers, and the concert started half an hour late. There was a decent turnout for the morning concert.

SRS began with the classic aTa tAla varNam in shankarAbharaNam, singing the pUrvangam in madhyama kAlam and the uttarangam in a higher madhyama kAlam. He then immediately launched into a brisk sketch of varALi, using the elongated gAndAram effectively. He sang a rare Thyagaraja krithi in varALi and appended kalpanaswaras to the piece. Interestingly, SRS sang a couple of one avarthana swaras and then sang a really long round of swaras. There was none of the usual, gradual buildup in kalpanaswaras. After a filler that didn't grab my attention, SRS moved on to sing a rItigowLa ragam. The ragam was classical and brigha-laden, but not arresting or moving. I attended the concert with Mohan (Kamalamba on our forum), who guessed correctly that Alathur favourite, cerarAvadE, would follow. The krithi was sung beautifully, and the usual kalpanaswaras were sung anchored about GGM (but surprisingly, not NNS). There was, however, a particularly beautiful halt at the mandra nishAdam.

After yet another filler, SRS sang a very brief pUrvikalyANi sketch and then sang Gopalakrishna Bharathi's beautiful krithi. Surprisingly, there was neither a neraval nor swaraprasthAram. I don't believe I have ever heard pUrvikalyANi without RNS! The next piece was in mOhanam and the krithi seemed rather bland to me (but I don't enjoy mOhanam that much, anyhow), and had some too-short-to-have-any-appeal kalpanaswaras.

SRS had mentioned earlier that the Alathur brothers were known for their pallavis, and he came good by delivering a solid RTP in tODi. The tODi alapanai was the only really probing alapanai of the morning. It had an interesting P,DPMP, refrain used about the panchamam, and the nishAdam was sung in an interesting manner - it was often emphasised and even sung flat on occasion. SRS's tAnam was good, overall, though he took a minute or two to get into a consistent kAlapramANam. The pallavi was rhythmically complex with a tricky eDuppu, but SRS and the accompanists navigated it well. There was no real neraval in the pallavi, and SRS quickly started trikAlam. While the trikAlam was done well, I perceived a slight disconnect between the mrudangam and voice in the first speed. The kalpanaswaras were the usual and concluded in a nice kOrvai that led to the thani.

Of the tukkadas, I enjoyed SRS's sindhu bhairavi.

SRS's voice was marked by good alignment to shruti. I do not think his voice is especially mellifluous and the brighas he sings do not have the tonal consistency of several other singers, but he does maintain his shruti even while singing brighas, which is admirable. SRS said his emphasis is on layam and his PhD dissertation was also about how to teach layam to students of the art, and true to his word, his pallavi was a laya connoisseur's delight. Interestingly, there was very little outright kaNakku in his kalpanaswaras this morning, and he seemed to prefer the MMI type sarvalaghu instead. SRS also has a good sense of kAlapramANam, and there was good consistency in kAlapramANam throughout his concert. Alas, there was little to no variation in kAlapramANam, with SRS opting for the same madhyama kAlam for the entire concert. As such, only the tODi had kalpanaswaras in two speeds. Additionally, I was not impressed by SRS's manOdharma - his alapanais were on the shorter side and not particularly moving or insightful. His kalpanaswaras consistently had this odd structure of a couple of short rounds and one mammoth round. As such, the nuanced construction of patterns in kalpanaswaras that comes with the classical format (of constantly increasing length of rounds) was entirely absent in SRS's swara singing. I have read Rajesh's review of this artiste and not much appears to have changed since. He did not present any real neraval during this concert. While he may certainly be entitled to Rama Varma-esque objections to neraval, a concert without neravals personally does not satisfy me in the slightest.

Nellai Ravindran was good on the violin. He had good shruti alignment, limpid bowing, and accurate fingering with minimal muffling. I was most impressed by his mandra stAyi accompaniment, which significantly enhanced the vocalist's singing. However, I thought he overdid the mandra stAyi playing in tODi, spending about half the alapanai in the mandra stAyi even as the vocalist had reached the tAra stAyi. I have also been wondering recently about accompanying in the different octave, and upon listening to the legendary violinists, I have come to the conclusion that it is only aesthetically pleasing (to me) when the difference in octaves is only one. For instance, if the vocalist sings a kArvai at the tara G, the violinist might play the madhya G but not the mandra G. Indeed, I found NR's mandra stAyi accompaniment to SRS's tAra stAyi singing somewhat jarring. I think the absence of the middle octave somehow plays on my mind. I am just rambling a bit here... these are just peripheral thoughts.

T.R. Sundaresan accompanied well and I have always liked his playing. He has good clarity and leaves ample pauses in his playing. I liked his playing for the tODi pallavi, especially, and his thani was crisp and engaging.

It was quite a pleasant morning and my best wishes to Dr. Ranganatha Sharma to keep on growing as a musician! His dedication to the art is certainly admirable.

It was very nice to catch up with Kamalamba, jananee, V. Shankaranaryanan and his wife, Vanitha, and meet csuresh from our forum for the first time, too. I think it's time for a local rasikas reunion again, folks!

(Apparently, at the same time, Trivandrum Smt. Seethalakshmi was singing an exceptional concert in my musical hometown - San Diego. Sindhuja or others, any chance of a review, please? I have heard it was an utterly brilliant concert from a lesser known vidushi.)

[csuresh]

Bilahari,
Your review was as expected.I also noticed the the concert was full of madhyama kala songs.
I feel fillers ,Sivasakthi,Malayamarutham and Mohanam deserved a good review from u.
Yes we should plan for Singapore "rasikas" reunion soon.
regards.
C.Suresh

[uscasdrs]

I will post the song list of San Diego performance of Smt. Seethalakshmi on a separate thread.
]

[sappri]

Singapore Carnatic music rasikas are indeed fortunate ... Sri Sharma is an outstanding musician, endowed with a great voice - does not ever resort to gimmickry; his music is truly classical, lots of depth and greatly satisfying; I remember an oustanding shanmugapriya pallavi that he had sung 4 years ago at Music Academy.

[ragam-talam]

05. smaraNa onDE sAladE (?) - malayamArutam - Adi

smaraNe ondE sAladE - Purandara kriti

I agree, Shri Renganatha Sharma is a top-class vidwan, known for classicism and erudition. His music has so much azhuttam and soukhyam.

I wish rasikas would support such artistes, instead of running after the celebrities.

[sappri]

ragam-talam - a *big* thumbs-up to you!! I understand he's singing at Indiranagar Sangeetha Sabha, Blr - on 27th (or may be 28th) - I'll get the exact date and post it.

I

[Sindhuja]

Shivashakti didn't grab your attention! Sad. Not sure how well it was rendered, though.

[rajeshnat]

02. srI lambOdarAya namastE (R, S @ pallavi) - varALi - khanDa cApu
He then immediately launched into a brisk sketch of varALi, using the elongated gAndAram effectively. He sang a rare Thyagaraja krithi in varALi and appended kalpanaswaras to the piece.

bilahari,
This krithi is by muTTuswami Dikshitar. Thanks for your another well written review. I am sure you all in singapore would have noticed , he is one vidwan who has exceptionally high voice power, when I heard him in vanimahal which I reviewed ,I just thought he did not need a microphone.

Hope he sings a more elaborate neraval, I guess not only you and me have observed ,even pattammaa from bangalore has given a passing mention about his curtailed neraval, it is perhaps not exceptions in few concerts,but a recurring feature .

[kartik]

Unfortunate I missed the concert. He is such a talented singer and easily cater to the elite. He sang an exquisite Sucharitra alapana on Asianet a few years ago and followed it up with an excellent Lilaganu Juchu in Divyamani. Hopefully I can find the information in time