R K Srikantan, Music Academy

[rbharath]

R K Srikantan - Vocal
R S Ramakanth - Vocal Support
V V Ravi - Violin
Srimushnam Raja Rao - Mrudangam

Music Academy, 29th December 2006. 10 am

sarasijanAbhA - nATTai varNam - Adi varNam
panca mAtanga - malahari - rUpakam - MD (S)
manasA srI rAmacandruni - Isa manOhari - Adi - T
shyAma sundarAnga - danyAsi - rUpakam - T (RNS)
narasimhA nannu - bilahari - cApu - T (RS)
tanamIdanE - bhUshAvaLi - Adi - T (RS)
RTP - shanmukhapriyA - kaNDa tripuTA (2 kaLai) 3 akshara eDuppu
'sudA madura bhAshaNa candrAnanA - janakajA manOhara mAm pAhi'
tani Avarththnam
srI ragam short sketch

I had reached late. He was rendering panca mAtanga as i entered. It was very moving rendition with a nice round of svarams.

The danyAsi AlApanai was nice and the kriti was nicely rendered with neraval and svarams at 'dushTa danuja mada vidAra shiSTa jana hrdaya vihAra'. The bilahari AlApanai was done in a scholarly fashion and the kriti was rendered beautifully with an elaborative round of svarams at 'lakshmI narasimhA'. The bhUshAvaLi AlApanai was very good. He showed the essentialities of the ragam. The kriti was rendered with a quick round of svarams which were quite good.

The shanmukhapriyA AlApanai was good showing the rAga svarUpam. The tAnam and the pallavi were rendered nicely. The usual anulOma, pratilOma, tisra etc were all present. A quick round of svarams was there as well.

Sri Srikantan gave a very nice concert. For his age and stature, one even feels quite small to write such stuff and one only thinks that, the correct thing to do is to fall at his feet.

Sri Ramakant could have done better, if only he had little less explored. His part of AlApanai of danyAsi was quite shaky and his AlApanai for the pallavi was somewhat tentative, giving indications of other closely placed ragams in the melakarta table. His svarams had problems in reaching to lakshmi and they stood with narasimha.

Sri Ravi was good in most parts of the concert. He provided sensible support and was good in all his replies to Sri Srikantan. His svarams in bilahari and bhUshAvaLi were really good.

Sri Raja Rao was a bit loud. Also, he was a bit aggressive in places, were he needn't have to be. His tani was good.

bharath

[vijay]

R K Srikantan - Vocal
His svarams had problems in reaching to lakshmi and they stood with narasimha.

bharath

...but although I agree with you, I think he is a singer with potential to be a top-ranker if he can smoothen some of the knots in his delivery. His voice may be slightly nasal but it is very powerful and reminds one of the young TNS (not to mention the physical resemblance!). It is interesting to watch him sit on stage with one hand on his hips and the other waving at the audience - that couldn't be more different from TNS! Despite the occasional slips, I enjoyed his alaapanas.

Thanks for clarifying the identity of BHushavali. I went with Vachaspati myself although I did notice some distict PDS prayogas since I had no idea that it had a janyam. However on many other instances I thought I heard DNS phrases as well - since the 2 swaras are close I might well have been mistaken.

[gardabha_gana]

Srikantan's repertoire and adherence to tradition is one of the finest... He is/was extremely popular in bangalore along with veena Doreswamy Iyengar in the 70s/80s.
Probably he got noticed by the mandarins of chennai sabhas late. I noticed that he (and doreswamy) were conferred S.Kalanidhi rather late in their lives...
P.S: I don't want to start a chennai vs the-rest discussion/flames. merely making an observation.