AVK Rajasimhan@BharatkalAchAr on Dec 03rd,2011

Review the latest concerts you have listened to.
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rajeshnat
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Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 08:04

AVK Rajasimhan@BharatkalAchAr on Dec 03rd,2011

Post by rajeshnat »

AVK Rajasimhan@Bharat kalAchAr on Dec 03rd,2011
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"In the game of cricket it has always been customary to accord more adulation to batsman than to bowlers".
I.A.R. Peebles,Talking of Cricket.


Vocal : AVK Rajasimhan
Violin : V V Ravi
Mrudangam : Srimushnam RajaRao
Ghatam : EM Subramaniam

Concert duration/Day : ~ 2 hours /Saturday
Concert Type : Non Nirvana (close ended with another program to follow)
Sabha/Hall : YGP Auditorium/Bharat kalAchAr

It was a saturday morning, decided to look at the hindu paper and wanted to finish off a morning concert at a nearby sabha as I had bit of work on saturday evening. Looked at the paper to see the name AVK Rajasimhan -vvravi-Srimushnam Raja Rao- EMS. I am a big fan of Srimushnam Raja Rao and I thought like all mrudangam artist who have a blue eyed boy vocalist in mind , that Rajasimhan must be a young vidwan coming out of the latest stable of 500 + sishyas.

I went to the sabha sharp at 10:15 incidentally the hall had half chairs facing the stage and the other half where the chairs were facing the right side . There were 3 or 4 seated facing the hall and the rest(about 50 or 75) were facing the right. I thought may be I saw the paper and made the usual mistake of reading fast where at times the itinery would say tomorrow instead of today and I misread it

But on close quarters I did realize that the right facing folks have all come to buy the admission form for the PSBB school and I have joined the 4 man rasika army. I asked an elderly man as to whether the concert is there. He said yes it is there wait and he told the vidwan is from akkarai or Angarai (I think the former is near kumbakonam and the later near Lalgudi )

Still I was thinking that the 3 known team members will play with a complan boy AVK Rajasimhan. The curtains opened and rajasimhan was a complete man possibly just in the verge of retiring and certainly not a complan boy.
Last edited by rajeshnat on 05 Dec 2011, 13:18, edited 3 times in total.

rajeshnat
Posts: 10121
Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 08:04

Re: AVK Rajasimhan@BharatkalAchAr on Dec 03rd,2011

Post by rajeshnat »

1. sarasooda - sAveri - patnam
2. siddhi vinAyakam - shanmughapriyA - MD
3. nIkEla dayarAdu(RS, N,S) - sarasAngi - Ramaswami Sivan(I am assuming vaiyAcheri Ramaswami sivan the name given in Kannan's book is the same, is that right Lji)
neraval in neratAta bhuvi mIda nijamuga for 3 mins
and 6 mins swaras

4. paralOka sAdhanamE (R N S) - poorvikalyAni - T
4 mins alapana each for vocal and violin
neraval in "jananAdi rOga bhayAdulacE ??? " for 4 mins
3 mins swaras
5. rArA seetha ramani manOharA - hindOla vasantham - T
6A. karuNa jUDavamma (R N S T) - tOdi - T
9 mins alapana for vocal and 7 mins violin
neraval in dharanu sariyu dorakani pancanada for 7 mins
swaras for 7 mins
6B. tani for 15 mins

7A. slokham "shree seshasaila divya moorthE narAyana achutA" - hamsAnandi - ??
7B. sreenivAsa tiruvenkata - hamsAnandi - PapanAsam Sivan

8A. ugabhooga "nAni yeNtha karayalirEnu??" - mAnD - PD
8B. yAgE ninna nAdiyO - mAnd - PD

9. thillAna "geetha dhuniku thaka"- dhanashri - ST
10. alApana in madhyamAvati

Long story let us move on to the concert . Rajasimhan had a sonorous voice and he sang with a bright start of sAveri , the 1st kalam and 2nd kalam had distinct play of percussion joining the vocalist . Certainly this vidwan rajasimhan is an anthakalathu palakkad/mysore/tanjore/tirunelveli/trivandrum/vizianagaram belt of musicians was my impression.

The next shanmughapriya was well done with a nice rotation with the second percussion also joining ,but bit disappointed that he did not sing swaras there . As the song got completed the crowd swelled triple from 4 to 12 - in 20 mins ,even great crowd pullers will not have that bubble in the first 20 mins.

The third song started with a brief alapana and when he sang the lines nIkEla dayarAdu , one of the gentleman sat next to me and asked me if it was chArukesi . I said I dont know it could be even sarasAngi. His rendition was brilliant with a beautiful neraval and my co-rasika helped me with his nalli book to tell it is sarasAngi. Looks this krithi in sarasangi is also a rare ramaswami shivan composition

For me the fourth no - poorvikalyani was a fantastic best krithi , simply because from then my eyes moved away from the middle leg side and totally focussed on Srimushnam Raja Rao .What an intelligence and what kind of patterns that mridangist produced is beyond words . When he launched the neraval , despite not the best of neraval by the vocalist it was one of the finest mrudangam support and an excellent shruthi suddamana return by VV Ravi . In short the quality of accompanist was extraordinary.

The filler was hindOla vasantham ,and it was just not that great.While the vocalist was not centric to me as a rasika, but in todi he got the attention back from the ever smiling mrudangam maestro . His alapana ,neraval and krithi rendition in general had the right elements of apportion and he did not ever overdo even one sangathi, a kind of anthakAlathu honesty in not bring any sort of gimmick . More importantly it was refreshing to hear karuna joodavamma after donkey years . The neraval was done and Raja Rao play had a deep musical intellect . Swaras were well began, went with more madhyamAkala patterns ,I love tara sthayi shoots in Todi but it did not happen.

The vocalist showed his class in tukkadas . Both the viruththam line on perumAl and ugabooga oozed with emotional feel with a standard srinivasa tiruvenkata in between . The last PD krithi was passable and the thillana was well done with the intelligent taps of srimushnam making it more enjoyable.

If there was something that Rajasimhan did not impress me that much was his swaras , tOdi was awesome , rest did not bring that feel. But however there is a touch of intense classicism where he is not overdoing any thing for the sake of say impressing that restless December rasika.

rajeshnat
Posts: 10121
Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 08:04

Re: AVK Rajasimhan@BharatkalAchAr on Dec 03rd,2011

Post by rajeshnat »

Srimushnam Raja Rao's play needs a special mention:
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Even though I did certainly go with a mind set to hear mainly Raja rao sir , certainly it was his play that day that brought the dynamism of Carnatic Music concert to a zone of intense classical purity .Please note ,Not every raja rao is a major hit, But if raja rao sir callibrates rightly and with his extraordinary sense of permutation you can see how he lifts any concert to extraordinary concert . In particular if you listen to his post tani , the last 20 minutes you see his extraordinary sense of energy and contrasting patterns that he blends with the sangathis of vocalist, a real maestro following few other mrudangam maestros who are also there in the field.

V V Ravi had a lovely shruthi suddham never tried to overtake with any unwanted sangathi and EMS gave a lovely manamadurai ghatam support ( Srimushnam Raja Rao sir said once to me that this manamadurai ghatam aches a lot ), but it indeed perhaps gives the more metallic sound.


Now coming back to the quote of I.A.R. Peebles "In the game of cricket it has always been customary to accord more adulation to batsman than to bowlers" , one can draw quite a bit of analogy to Carnatic Concerts

The batsmen generally are the vocalist and say the bowlers are violinist . The fielders toil at times more for the concert to click and I have a special liking to srimushnam raja rao like how once upon a time we all used to watch Jonty Rhodes .

One can extend the quote atleast this way "In the game of cricket it has always been customary to accord more adulation to batsman than to bowlers. But at times fielder(s) also deserve adulation". Certainly great Fielders are just not only Srimushnam but there are quite a few like him.


Few notes about Shri Rajasimhan
------------------------------
I talked briefly with him and confirmed with him few facts which was already told by one rasika who was with me . Shri rajasimhan brother in law is OST . Also Rajasimhan has learnt from Shri OV Subramaniam who is OST's father and DONOT Mistake that OVS son in law is rajasimhan . It is just that vidwan rajasimhan's sister is married to SHri OST .

Overall a very good concert.

mahavishnu
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Joined: 02 Feb 2010, 21:56

Re: AVK Rajasimhan@BharatkalAchAr on Dec 03rd,2011

Post by mahavishnu »

Rajesh, thanks for that excellent review. I'm embarrassed to say that I have never heard of Sri Rajasimhan till now.

I liked your comment about the stable of 500+ shishyas ;-) But I thought that number was only going to be reached in 2020, at least according to the editorial in Sruthi :)

Interesting observations about the Bharat Kalachar ambience! The sabha was just getting started in my last year as a student at PSBB (we lost all our playground space to make way for the first makeshift auditorium). I never understood the admission rush at the school; when I started there in the early 70s one just had to show up on the first day of classes and that was it!

And is the village aNaikkarai?

rajeshnat
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Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 08:04

Re: AVK Rajasimhan@BharatkalAchAr on Dec 03rd,2011

Post by rajeshnat »

mahavishnu wrote: I liked your comment about the stable of 500+ shishyas ;-) But I thought that number was only going to be reached in 2020, at least according to the editorial in Sruthi :)

Interesting observations about the Bharat Kalachar ambience! The sabha was just getting started in my last year as a student at PSBB (we lost all our playground space to make way for the first makeshift auditorium). I never understood the admission rush at the school; when I started there in the early 70s one just had to show up on the first day of classes and that was it!

And is the village aNaikkarai?
Mahavishnu
Shruthi magazine comment was "The 500th student restricted to the stable of great guru and vidwan P.S. Narayanaswamy ". But right now dont you think there are 500+ sishyas encompassing all guru's . :)

Interestingly the sabha patron SHri YGM who was seated in the sides came to the front row to listen to the tani.

Corrected the aNaikkarai part in my first post , though not sure if he is from akkarai or aNaikkarai.(Attn anandasangeetham , you can clarify)

arasi
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Joined: 22 Jun 2006, 09:30

Re: AVK Rajasimhan@BharatkalAchAr on Dec 03rd,2011

Post by arasi »

Rajesh,
A sizzling review about a senior vidvAn. Though the cricket parlance is a bit beyond me, the quote on the top and all the rest make it all very agreeable to me.
The same with SrimushNam. My faculty in layA has to get admitted to kindergarten, but as you say, even for a gnAna SUnyam in that department, Raja Rao's laya patterns which sing, strike a chord , when the mike is muted.

anandasangeetham
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Joined: 06 Feb 2008, 16:24

Re: AVK Rajasimhan@BharatkalAchAr on Dec 03rd,2011

Post by anandasangeetham »

the village is angarai..rajasimhan has changed his name from ramanujam....he is the son of Sri A L Krishnamoorthy who is well known in the sampradaya Bhajanai circle. he was earlier into sampradaya bhajanai and resonabley well known as ramanujam but after getting his name changed to Rajasimhan (mostly due to nameology ) most people get confused. he is known to Sri rajarao through the Gnanananda mandali. Swami Haridoss Giri used to have lot of bhajanai events and many present day artists would come to display their skills and be part of the music. Now Sri Raja Rao conducts the annual Gnanananda music series.

Rajasimhan aka Ramaujam is the brother in law of Sri OST.

A bit on OST family...where everybody sings....publicly known musicians..Sri OST, his daughter Aparna Balaji(earlier thiagarajan) also performs though she is based in the US she comes to chennai during the season. Sri OS Arun has a variety of genres from pure chaste carnatic to bhajans (not the sampraday one thouugh he does that also).. O S Sudha daughter of late Sri OS Sridhar (who was singing for top rated dancers and also into sampradaya bhajan) sings for dancers and also gives concerts. her husband Sri Raghuraman is a flautist. OST's other daughter Sr Bhavani teaches music. O S Sundar is the recently conferred Sangeerthana chudamani and he is into sampradaya bhajanai. OST only sister Smt Padma is a music teacher based in Delhi (Akkarai sisters are her students) her daughter Vidya Srinivasan sings for both dance and concerts and her son (vidya's) Raghunandan plays the mrudangam (disciple of Sri Bakthavatsalam). Every other member of this huge family sings (except me but fortunately my son sings).O S Mohan is a mrudangam teacher and he teaches at Kalakshetra.

ganeshkant
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Joined: 05 Feb 2010, 11:59

Re: AVK Rajasimhan@BharatkalAchAr on Dec 03rd,2011

Post by ganeshkant »

It was Jan'89 and I had gone to my elder brother's home @ Mayurvihar,N.Delhi where he took me to an open lawn nr.the Guruvayurappan mandir to witness Thyagaraja ArAdhnai by the east Delhi music club.The pancha Rathnam was recited and after wards the artists sang one kriti each.Ramanujam headed the pancha rathnam and also sang "bAla kanakamaya'.My brothers know them (ALK & family)very well.Even I had participated in a couple of bhajans @ the Guruvayurappan Mandir headed by ALK.There used to be one Subbarama Bhagavathar an elderly man who had a brigha sAreeram and used to sing very well.I also remember having listened to a chamber concert by Mr.VAgeesh in a house in R.K.Puram preceded by a bhajan session by ALK & Ramanujam.

Every Sat,there were bhajan sessions at the Iyappan Mandir @ R.K.Puram where the brothers of OST used to come from Karol bagh and participate and make the bhajan sessions lively.

Ramanujam alias rAjasimhan learned music from late OVS,F/O OST and he is also the brother in law of OST(his sister married to OST).

rajeshnat
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Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 08:04

Re: AVK Rajasimhan@BharatkalAchAr on Dec 03rd,2011

Post by rajeshnat »

anandasangeetham wrote:the village is angarai..rajasimhan has changed his name from ramanujam
Every other member of this huge family sings (except me but fortunately my son sings).
# Here you go Angarai (not angarai) is near Lalgudi where Shri Rajasimhan belongs
akkarai is a suburb of kumbakonam, IIRC
aNaikarai is different , famous for dam , part of tiruvidaimarudhur taluk near Kumbakonam

# I have heard OST,OSA, OS Sundar and also aparna balaji once in 2004 or so in rAgasudha. I remember her singing a nice ekambrEsa, a dikshitar krithi in shanmughapriya , and only thru her I knew this MD masterpiece.

# On a side note when shri rajasimhan sings perhaps swaras are not that breezy as a carnatic concert, but certainly his concert yesterday was a good showcase of carnatic samprAdaya that was not colored with any bhajana sampradaya type of rendition.

# While your own family toils to sing and enjoy, I guess you are lucky to just enjoy without singing. ;)

Thanks for all the info- Anandha sangeetham

Neeraja veni
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Joined: 26 Jul 2009, 00:05

Re: AVK Rajasimhan@BharatkalAchAr on Dec 03rd,2011

Post by Neeraja veni »

Rajeshnat,
I could have sued you if my laptop was broken. :) I burst out laughing reading your prelude - the concert scene with 4 people facing the stage and 75 facing the right who had come to get the LKG app forms!!! It was deliriously hilarious. My laptop slipped as I laughed and was trying to reach its destination namely the floor, before I had to use my lightning reflexes to halt it midway.
But the positive side of the story is that the vidwan might have been happy with the `head count ’alone even though more than half were looking the otherway, but then he might have even preferred to have their left aural profile than their direct frontal profile since only the ears were important in this scenario! And atleast 10 would have turned the chairs to face him and may even have decided to send their wards for training under him!

Yes, I too have mistaken sarasangi for charukesi in the lower swaras, but after the panchamam junction is crossed , the scenary changes. It is a lovely ragam with a lovely krithi Neekela daya raadu with its wonderful khanda chapu rhythm.

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