Ramakrishnan Murthy@sarvani sangeetha sabhA on Feb 18th,2012

[rajeshnat]

Ramakrishnan Murthy@sarvani sangeetha sabhA on Feb 18th,2012
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Vocal : Ramakrishnan Murthy - disciple of Smt padma kutty, Delhi sundarrajan, vairamangalam
Violin : BU Ganesh Prasad
Mrudangam : Poongulam Subramaniam
Ghatam : N GuruprasannA

Concert duration/Day : ~ 4 Hours /Saturday
Concert Type : Nirvana (prime evening concert , no concert to follow)
Sabha/Hall : Music Academy - Mini Hall
Occassion : 4 Hour Concert that Sarvani Sangeetha sabha organizes(the best of occassion in CM is only when Time is given and no flash is made on occassion and theme )

Firstly, one has to praise the sarvani sangeetha sabha. They are conducting their 18th 4 hour concert as announced by the organizer. For me since I cannot go to kerala or US to hear these kind of concerts and with only two 4 hour concerts ever happening in chennai. One is the usually recurrent TMK in kalArasana in the first week of Jan and the other was last season when TNS sang in mudhrA . I really appreciate Sarvani sangeetha sabha in giving a fair chance to many more capable artists, those who are establishing /established to perform for 4 marathon hours .

In the historic past , I have heard Smt GV and SGC ,and I have also missed RSP way back ,prasanna and sakEtaraman in the last few years. If some one can post the 18 artists who performed the 4 hour concerts that was held that would be wonderful.

4 hours have atleast 4 segmented experiences to cherish.

Centered on Briskness:
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1. sarasijanAbha - kAmbOdhi - ST
2. sarasiruhA nana rAmaiyyA(S) - mukhAri - T
4 mins swaras
3. sAdinchanE - Arabi - T
4. vidulaku mrOkkedA (R N S ) - mAyAmAlavagowlai - T
5 mins alapana and 4 mins violin return
neraval in "kamalA gowri vAgheeshwari yaNi" for 5 mins
9 mins swaras

The first quarter experience showed Ram sticking to a very established tradition, I would not call it ariyakudi so that this thread goes haywire with hodge podge definition of art and music . But to me the first 1 hour is in general a showcase of commonsense that is needed for every musician . Try starting with a varnam in ata tAla and just tease the accompanist to get into right muse and mood and get that damn sound setting right, that was the case in kAmbOdhi , though Ram and team teased me by adjusting the mike again and starting the varnam bit again , after the percussion was adjusted.

After testing the kAmbOdhi the concert started really arriving , I just loved this mukhAri #2 rendition ,an arresting nadaswara touch of brisk swaras just adds so much charm to mukhAri.

Ram perhaps continued with more commonsense , having acclimitized with bit racy swaras and with time in premium , he went to what Ravikiran called in his lecdem the most bright pancharatna krithi sAdinchanE , the anchor line SamayAmikhi and a touch of lyrics and swaras was wonderful, Arabi in bit higher gear was slightly problematic as Ram struggled a bit in mEl kAlam, but nevertheless well presented .

The ariya commonsense continued with a nice submain in a very expressive and still contemplative mAyAmAlavagowlai, it was a fantastic presentation by Ram ,yes I generally like ragam,neraval and swaras as submain (this is not greed , but it gives more continuity to enjoy :tmi: )and Ram presented wonderfully.

[rajeshnat]

Centered on Intellect:
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5. arunAchala nAtham (R) - sArangA - MD
6 mins alapana and 5 mins violin return
6. vazhi maRaithiRukkuDE -nAttaikurinji - GKB
7A. dAsarathi(R N S T) - tOdi - T
15 mins alApana inclusive of 9 mins violin return
neraval in "prakAshimbha jEsina rasika shirOMani" for 10 mins
swaras for 9 mins
7B. tani for 21 mins

After the segment of commonsense to test his voice ,range and speed , Ram perhaps journeyed his second quarter more in the intelllect of the compositions. I liked brother sArangA which kind of negates sister kalyAni , the presentation of arunAchala NAtham was chiselled and well done . Sanskrit intellect is beyond me and I am only assuming MD must have presented an erudite composition, the next in nAttaikurinji was a pick in this segment . The intellect of GKB composition was very simple to understand he singing with Anupallavi line Pavi Nandan indha OORil vandu and then looping with a gentle pallavi line vazhi maraithirikkuDE sliding in nAttaikurinji just oozed with excellence

The intellect quotient form sArangA to Nattaikurinji entered into the ocean of ToDI. Here I have something to crib , he could have paid bit attention to changing the tempo with a fast song in between .TOdi dragged a bit not because of the presentation but more to do with him not going more with more mElkala neraval or swaras. He had a bit of voice problems and had to ameliorate his throat few times (I guess the new Mini hall of MA has to be blamed , the AC was bit high, while rasikas have greater comfort with cushions and better speakers, the vocalist have to brave the cold world, not fair to them 8) 8) )

Centered on Expertise:
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8. nennarunchi nAnu anniTiki - mAlavi - T
9. RTP in dharmavathi
rAgam for 19 mins in two stages with 9 mins violin return
tAnam for 11 mins

pallavi and swaras was quite long(forgot to note )

pallavi line is in Adi thAlam kanda nadai
Pallavi "pAlinchu baNgaru kAmAkshi bhagavathy guNavathy dharmavathi"

swaras in dharmavati + madhyamAvati+ varAli + bhairavi

This segment was more centered on his expertise , not that I am saying it was not there before .Pallavi always shows more demonstrable expertise which at times gets dissipated with compositions .mAlavi filler was just to get the tempo after tani and was just passable . The dharmavati rAga alapana in pallavi was well done , he just sang for few minutes to hand it over to violin , I thought he may go for multi raga pallavi but that was not the case. He came back with demonstrable expertise and dharmavathi was beautifully presented .TAnam was madhyamakAla delight , he could have gone with mrudangam support but he preferred to complete it fully without , nevertheless the tAnam was very interesting and classical. In pallavi I could more see a touch of KVN ,earlier in the first segment it was a TMK touch.

The pallavi line was a safe pallavi line and was well presented with nice support by accompanist. The swara ragamAliga was not reallly too detailed but the rasa was just there , incidentally as expected with the pallavi line having key phrases like palinchu and bangAru kAmAshi, the madhyamavathi and varali swaras were there . I am not sure if he sang one more raga(it is bhairavi as per malavi's future post) , but he indeed reversed and came without any fall, overall pallavi showcased his expertise .

[rajeshnat]

Centered on Emote:
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10. iDathu padam thooki - kamAs - psivan
11A. short viruththam in OOrilE kAni illai - karnataka devagAndhari -Thondaradipodi Azhvaar(divya prabhandam)
11B. paluku thEnela thalli pavalinchenu - karnataka devagAndhari - AC
12. aNri ullagam alanDAyAdi pOTri - sindhubhairavi - AndAl tirruppAvai
13. pavamAnA

The last segment was centered on emote , the kamAs was well presented , the viruththam was wonderful but unfortunately very short , his voice matched wonderfully and I liked the oorile Kani illai and then he continued with a rare AC krithi. THe finish of tiruppAvai was wonderful and I liked it immensely.

Few words about accompanist:
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BU Ganesh Prasad is a bit underrated violinist , usually he does not play with big crowd pullers but I found a lot of similarity with his physical stockiness and nAdham where I could see a touch of Nagai muralidharan. Every sangathi was having great nAdham and incidentally for few sangathis in tOdi he really upped when Ram was slightly having to struggle to complete the sangathi.Overall he added immensely to the success of the crt.

Poongualam was very good , his patterns never robbed the sowkhyam of Ram.I did not concentrate much on tani , guruprasanna also gave able support and did up the concert . It was wonderful for poongulam to ask the sound man to reduce the volume at the end of the first varnam for his valanthai, if he can also pass that good advice to many mrudangist that would be wonderful .

Few things could have been better:
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I would have loved if Ram had presented those long viruththams or slokham that Shri KVN presents and then jumped into any tukkada, that could have been a great experience .He had 7 more mins in 4 hours to present that, an oppurtunity missed .

The crowd was bit sparse only 75 max , with few vidwans like Shashank , Sundarkumar (kanjira) and B sivaraman (mrudangam) being present for just few hours each. It would have been nice if there were few senior artists or more importantly many upcoming artist to cheer Ram(his music does not need ,but the musician always needs ).

Conclusively
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What strikes me in Ram is his generally powerful voice and shruthi sense is very high. He did not sag much , though I sagged a bit during this long 4 hour concert .Ramakrishnan murthy appears very talented and as he builds his physical frame more from his present feather weight, We will get more and more of his gaNa sangeetham.

This concert was centered on briskness, intellect, expertise and emote , distinct in each of the 4 hour (not that i am saying in each hour the other three was not there).

Overall an excellent concert for nearly 4 hours.

[vsarmaiitm]

"vidulaku brOkedA (R N S ) - mAyAmAlavagowlai - T"

vidulaku mrokkeda
http://sahityam.net/wiki/Viduluku_Mrokkeda

" palukE thE nella kalli?? - karnataka devagAndhari - AC"

plauku thEnela thalli pavalinchenu

[rajeshnat]

vidulaku mrokkeda
http://sahityam.net/wiki/Viduluku_Mrokkeda
...
plauku thEnela thalli pavalinchenu

vsarmaiitm,
Made both corrections , you meant paluku thEnela thalli pavalinchenu, Tx.

[vasanthakokilam]

Very good review, Rajesh. Thanks. ( btw, what do you mean by 'blocked' in '4 hour concerts... blocked by...TMK and TNS'? )

Your interpretation of the four segments of a CM concert is interesting.

[cienu]

Very good review, Rajesh. Thanks. ( btw, what do you mean by 'blocked' in '4 hour concerts... blocked by...TMK and TNS'? )

In the "December" music season these are the two venues which usually hold 4 hours + concerts, one by TMK and the other by TNS respectively. That is what Rajesh meant , perhaps..

[malavi]

In the ragamalika swaram in RTP after varali he sang bhairavi perhaps for kamakshi.He had a concert in hamsadhwani on 16th with v.v.ravi and mannargudi eswaran.
Heard he sang in chidambaram on 17th and the 4 hour concert was on 18th.3 concerts in a row might have been the reason for his throat problem.on the whole it was a very good concert.
last year we heard abhishek in the same hall, it was little more than 4 hrs.

[rajeshnat]

Cienu and VK,
I have slightly edited that phrase of the 4 hr concert in my first post.

Malavi
There is a bangaru kamAkshi krithi in varAli , so not sure if there was a third raga bhairavi. Did he sing bhairavi too, if you can confirm for sure I will reedit that post. I think this pallavi was sung by DKJ .Last year if I am right there was a prasanna 4 hr concert . I did not know that even Abhishek sang a 4 hr concert

[vasanthakokilam]

Cienu, Rajesh, Understood. Thx.

[malavi]

Rajesh, yes he sang bhairavi after varali.i have also confirmed it from my friend who has recorded it.
Abhishek s 4 hour concert was in feb.i think.myself and my friend attended it.it was scheduled to be fom 4.30 to 8.30 but he had not finished by 8.30.we had to leave then.Prasannas was later ,i think april. the hall was full for Abhishek s concert.

[rajeshnat]

Rajesh, yes he sang bhairavi after varali.i have also confirmed it from my friend who has recorded it.
Abhishek s 4 hour concert was in feb.i think.myself and my friend attended it.it was scheduled to be fom 4.30 to 8.30 but he had not finished by 8.30.we had to leave then.Prasannas was later ,i think april. the hall was full for Abhishek s concert.

Tx, I have edited and added bhairavi in the swararagamaliga. So abhishek was in Feb 2011, I was not there in town at all . Can you send me a private mail if you have the 4 hr song list of abhishek. I dont think there was any review of that 4 hr concert.Smt GV sang a 4 hr 15 minutes cracker of a concert four or five years back, it is still ok to go bit more than 4 hours .