Ramakrishnan Murthy@Swamy's hall on Nov 21st,2011

[rajeshnat]

Ramakrishnan Murthy@Swamy's hall on Nov 21st,2011
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Vocal : Ramakrishnan Murthy
Violin : V V S Murari
Mrudangam : R Sankaranarayanan

Concert duration/Day : 2 hours and 5 mins/Monday
Concert Type : Nirvana (open ended with no concert to follow)
Sabha/Hall : AmruthAdhwani Isai Vizha of ShanmughapriyA/ Swamy's hall

1. swaminAtha paripAlayAsumAm (S) - nAttai - MD
swaras for 4 mins
2. evarani - devAmruthavarshini - T
3. ETi janmamidhi (R N S) - varAli - T
5 mins alApana in varAli and 3 mins violin return
6 mins neraval in "sATi lEni mArakOTi lAvaNyuni mATi "
and 6 mins swaras

4. aNupama guNambuthi (R S) - atAnA - T
3 mins alApana and 1 min violin return
3 mins swaras

5. vA murugA vA - bEgaDa - spencer VenugOpal
6. nenaruncharA naapaini(S) - simhavAhini - T
swaras for 2 mins

I have been following the season for the last 10 years intensely .The margazhi season generally starts at Dec 15th till 1980's then it kind of gradually advanced to the beginning of December in mid 2003 or 2004 when few sabhas like NCA start bit early and then finish late .

THis year Officially the margazhi season started in Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan on Nov 20,2011 from Monday,though the name margazhi or december is already become a bit misnomer .

ShanmughapriyA is a fairly well established sabha , they have their hall Swamy's hall and this year I see a AmruthAdhwani Isai Vizha which I am hearing it for the first time . I guess with halls being in short supply, they advance and have few festivals in november itself,of course season is becoming more and more s e a s o n .

In all this over supply of music, what I gain as a rasika is I Get to hear another brilliant artist , Ramakrishna Murthy. I have been hunting for the last few years and atlast got hold of him to hear a proper evening concert which can be bit far fetched as during December he will be given a noon or afternoon slot as he is young and upcoming.

In short More power to more sabhas that in turn gives more nirvana exposure to more deserving artists.

Murthy started with a powerful sareeram and sang a nice nAttai krithi of Deekshitar . THere was very good swara patterns in nAttai , then he moved to a nice rendition of devaamruthavarshini (kharaharapriya minus minus), and he continued with a high degree of shruthi adherence with a nice power packed sangathis especially in that goosebump anupallavi line shivudanO .

The submain was varAli , the alApana was bit short but still precise with a moving rendition of a tough uphill krithi ETi janmamidhi . THe neraval line "sati leni" was well done though for few sangathis he was bit tentative.

From varAli as expected there was a change of tempo to atAna , his alApana was well done but the krithi anupama gunaMbuthi had a few little athattal (excessive thrust) sangathis and swaras were not gelling that well.

The begada that followed atanA was a spencer venugOpal krithi popularized by DKJ , vA murugA was well done but I did miss either swaras or neraval there ( being a "spencer" krithi I felt I needed "more"... ). The usually fast simhavani just passed , he and the mridangist had a difficulty to settle with the right kAlapramAnam for this simhavaHini krithi and it was gone, there was bit more athattal in this krithi.

[rajeshnat]

7A. sari evarammA (R N S T) - bhairavi -SS
12 mins alApana and 9 mins violin return
neraval in "mAdhava sOdaree gauri ambA" for 6 mins
6 mins swaras

7B. tani for 13 mins

8A. viruththam OOrilE kAni illai- suddhasArang?? - Pasuram(Thondaradipodi Azhvar)
8B. kalaya yashOdhE - suddasArang?? - NT

9. anRu iv ulagam aLandhaay - sindhubhairavi - ThirrupAvai (AndAl)
10.nee nAma rUpamulaku - sowrAshtram - T

Out came a wonderful alApana of bhairavi , he sang with a lot of aesthetic touch and he really landed with each sangathi in a clean sowkhyam filled muse bringing so much attention that bit sagged in me before.

SS krithi was expected , I was running my mind with the swarajathi instead I got another DKJ popularized sari evarammA , overall krithi was well done , neraval or swaras could have bit more extended than what he presented , but certainly there was pristine classicism in his bhairavi rendition.

The viruththam OOrile Kani was delightful , I thought I got the terrain of sumenasaranjani- madhuvanti -suddasArang quite well, I think he sang suddasArang only there and it was superb with he ending with a beautiful Narayana theerthar tharangam it was carnatic tukkada at its best . (I love this cluster of maduvanti-sudda sarang- shivaranjani as there is so much emote)

The contrast of sanskrit with a andal tirrupavai in sindhubhairavi was a great choice and he did a good job.

The Violinist murAri was good , for the early part the volume is bit high, but like his dad the press was near perfect. May be his bhairavi alapana had a shade of noticable repetition . THe young Srimushnam Sir's student ---> R Sankaranarayanan played well and like his guru always appears quite effortless. It is been quite few years since I heard him.Tani was a complicated tAlam I guess and he did pep up the concert.

Before this concert some of my co kutcheri hi bye friends who dont post here did say you have to hear him as he has a touch of KVN . For me when I heard him in this concert (being the first time )i felt the KVN touch was very minor , in bhairavi alapana I felt that landing was very very KVN'ish.

But to me he is more like 2000 TMKrishna , there is quite a lot of vocal power like TMK and at times just like TMK when his throat dries a bit you can see a lot of aural tinge of TM Krishna.

On a side note if there is a notable thing to nitpick at times there is a little excessive athatal in his music,and during that athatal phase there is a slight noticable vottam in his music.

But Ramakrishna Murthy is young,I am told for the sake of music he came and settled in kollywood from hollywood, though he gave a short hollywood concert(2 hours) despite having a rare nirvana slot . All said and done ,Ramakrishnan Murthy is a wonderful find for me.

Overall a very good to excellent concert.

[srikant1987]

It is good if Ramakrishnan is singing with a "powerful shArIram" with "vocal power" comparable to TMK. He sang with a thin voice, more along the lines of KVN, when I've heard him. I'm sadly missing him this Sunday in Bangalore. Open-throated singing is my favourite kind! Similarly for the violin. For anything in fact.

[malavi]

Recently i have attended 4 or 5 concerts of Ramakrishnamoorthy including the one for pallavi durbhar in mylapore fine arts and he is one of my favourite artists.he presents different ragas and kritis in his concerts,keeravani in one concert,sankarabharanam in pallavi durbhar,lalita in another and his bhairavi in this concert were exceptionally good.his niraval singing and raga alapana in the lower octave remind me of sri.KVN.His varali kriti was very good but he left the last charanam with the mudra which is usuall sung.
By the way rajesh you have mentioned the varali kriti as emi jesite in one place.the virutham and the tharangam were in suddha sarang.bhairavi kriti was in kanda jampa talam

[rajeshnat]

By the way rajesh you have mentioned the varali kriti as emi jesite in one place.the virutham and the tharangam were in suddha sarang.bhairavi kriti was in kanda jampa talam

Thank you I have correctly the varAli krithi, and nice of you to confirm on suddasArang
Shri Swaminathan has also reviewed in The Hindu (he always has a nice choice of words giving a balance in his review)
http://www.thehindu.com/arts/music/article2656200.ece