Chitravina Sri Ravikiran for SIFA, San Jose, Nov 1, 2013

[tanapp]

Chitravina Sri Ravikiran - Chitravina
Smt. Anuradha Sridhar - Violin
Sangeetha Kalanidhi Trichy Sri Sankaran - Mridangam

These were the kritis/items rendered. Ravikiran sir announced every kriti / raga after the piece was played. Sometimes, he did do an intro before the song began.

1. nATTai - sarasIruhAsana priyE - Puliyoor Sri Duraiswamy Aiyyar - (R, S)
2. simhEndta madhyamam - asaindAdum mayil Ondru - OottukkAdu vEnkaTa Kavi - (R, S)
3. Ahiri - sompaina manasu - Tyagaraja
4. nAsikAbhUSHaNi - mara vaira ramaNi - (not a Tyagaraja kriti)
5. rItigauLai - RTP - "dIkshitam guruguha dAsam varam bhajAmi muttuswAmi" in mishra chApu. No ragamAlika swarams were rendered. Instead only ragamAlikA tAnam was rendered in the order:

rItigauLai -> nIlAmbarI -> hindOLam -> vijayaSHrI -> Hindolam -> nIlAmbari -> rItigauLai

6. Khamaj - jAvaLi - Didn't record the song name
7. tIrAda viLAiyATTu piLLAi - rAgamAlikA - Subramanya Bharati
8. mangLam

The Gunn High School's Spangenberg theater/auditorium in Palo Alto has a good seating capacity but being a friday evening and that too eve of Deepavali, the attendance was sparse initially but the hall looked quite full as was the Music that filled the auditorium and our hearts.

The swarakalpana for asaindAdum at the pallavi line was embellished with an elaborate khanDa naDai detour (where one almost forgot that the song was set in a madhyama gati Adi tALam), which crescendo-ed all the way upto the 2 octaves high Shadjamam and then descended with a crisp finishing kOrvai. Smt Sridhar gave a brief but a fitting rejoinder.

RTP was the highlight. Sri Ravikiran announced that Deepavali was the day when Sri Muttuswami Dikshitar attained samAdhi. And hence the pallavi line. During the alApanai, Ravikiran sir signaled Smt Sridhar to hold off playing, where he completely stopped plucking the strings and went off just the sliding for about a minute. Again three octaves were traversed touching down to the lower Panchamam.

After the rAgamAlikA tAnam was over, the SIFA personnel announced 'hot dinner box' available outside for purchase. There were many tsk tsk and tongue clucking in the audience. And then Ravikiran sir turned it around saying 'let me serve the RTP first', which will be followed by a royal 'dessert' in the form of tani by Sankaran sir - the audience thundered with applause. The tani was indeed a royal dessert and being mishra chApu and samam eduppu, it was easy to follow it. The swarams and neravals were brief but had a lot of clever rhythmic syncopation. Smt Sridhar did a good job of keeping up.

After the RTP was over, Ravikiran sir announced that the main course is finished and we will now serve a few 'pickles' for you. )

Before the jAvaLi in Khamaj Sri Ravikiran informed that it was his guru Brinda-amma's birthday.

Ravikiran sir's concert was inspiring, enthralling and captivating - deeply melodic and rhythmic with an equal mix of both. I had the good fortune of meeting sir and singing 'ardhanArIshwaram' to him the day before the concert - his message to me was 'always learn for self-enjoyment and pleasure and never under pressure.' That mantra was amply evident in the concert. Glad I was able to attend it.

[mahavishnu]

*** My post crossed with Tanapp's reivew... So I am posting my thoughts here and I have deleted the other thread.

---------------------------

I have never seen two and a half hours go by as quickly as they did at yesterday's special Deepavali concert here in Palo Alto, California. Especially because I had been counting down to this event for a long time.

It is one thing to listen to the technical virtuosity of one of the greatest slide instrumentalists ever, but to listen him being accompanied by Trichy Sankaran, takes the experience to an entirely different level. The incredible thing about human skill is its the infinite capacity to keep on giving even at the most advanced levels of expertise.

The concert was marked by a superbly crafted aesthetic shared equally by all the performers on stage. The tonal quality and the richness of timbre of the instruments coming together was in itself a beautiful thing. There was so much beauty in just the perfect shruti alignment itself, a harbinger of great things to come.

The simhEndra madhyamam was carefully constructed, ending in swarams in repeat patterns of five. The sense of effortlessness in playing kaNakku that comes to seasoned musicians is visibly tantalizing.

The reethigowLa alapanai was one of the highlights of the concert. Ravikiran was able to get about 2+minutes of gamakas with just one pluck of the strings. Just as the string vibration would slow down, he would carefully adjust the amplitude of the slides to keep the nAdham going. It takes a certain kind of rakti rAgam to get the most of out of this technique; I have seen him do this in yadukulakambhOji as well and it was every bit as delectable as this one.

Ravikiran had planned a different composition after his reethigowla alapanai, but composed a quick pallavi while Anuradha Sridhar was sketching her raga essay. The pallavi was a tribute Dikshitar, Deepavali being the day of his passing. Just imagine the level of expertise to be able to compose a pallavi on the fly!

Listening to Trichy Sankaran play is always a true delight, but to listen to his misra chApu is transcendental. His accompaniment to the pallavi was spectacular; his tani took off from where the pallavi kOrvai ended. In about 10-12 minutes, he painted a beautiful picture of misra chApu, that included a "keezhkAla" tisram, a true specialty of the Pudukottai/Pazhani school. And the sarvalaghu patterns he played had the unique majesty that only his beautifully tuned instrument can bring out. His accompaniment was (as it always is) a textbook example of how to play: soft and delicate when playing for khamas or Ahiri, rich and exuberant when playing for pieces that demanded it. The jAvali in the end was icing on the cake, with perfect usage of thoppi to enhance the musical experience.

Anuradha Sridhar was very competent, she used a lot of the D & G strings and played modally on the lower octave, which I found to be perfectly suited for the chitraveena.

Overall, an amazing concert that keeps one yearning for more! But there is something to be said for musicians who understand proportion. As my old doctoral advisor used to say: Knowing when to stop is a greater skill than the skill itself.

[MV]

Nice reviews. Thanks. Sounds like an awesome concert.
@Mahavishnu-so many home truths there about 'kaNakku' and 'sense of proportion'-so true all of it.

[mahavishnu]

Khamaj - jAvaLi - Didn't record the song name

It was nArimaNi kainadirA by dharmapuri subbarAyar.

After the rAgamAlikA tAnam was over, the SIFA personnel announced 'hot dinner box' available outside for purchase.

My sincere wish is that these kinds of unprofessional interruptions (although well-intentioned ) are avoided in the future. I am glad that Ravikiran was about to spin some humour out of it.

[tanapp]

The interruption came at a time when Sri Ravikiran and the audience had enjoyed a double serving of the ragas and the former was getting ready to explain / talk. To put it mildly, the interruption was rude. I mean, who cares about food when the heart is brimming with fullness and satiation with the ethereal Music served. The organizers would do well to do such things more subtly - may be project it or pass a little flyer around into the audience to make the audience aware.

And what more, as if that was not enough, the same person gave vote of thanks and mentioned how 'mAyammaA' in Ahiri was still ringing in the ears!? #:-s I was desperately waiting for the vote of thanks to end.

Thanks mahavishnu for the jAvaLi song title.

[PUNARVASU]

Regarding the announcements of the 'snack boxes being available' I have this to say. I find that Shri Ravikiran had sung mAyamma in Ahiri. There is a 'belief' that if one sings Ahiri, one will not get one's food. May be the authorities thought it also also applies to the listeners. So , just to assure them, that their food is safe and at hand, they might have announced it, so that they need not fear whether and from where their next meal is coming. Just written in fun. No offence meant.
When I saw that Ahiri was sung, this came to my mind.

[mahavishnu]

Punarvasu: That is funny. But sadly, I don't think there was so much "gnanam" behind the move
Jest aside, the alternative interpretation is that Ahiri inhibits hunger and has no relation to food availability!

[PUNARVASU]

Mahavishnu, giving the benefit of doubt to them.
As I wrote, it was in 'lighter vein'.
I remember a story. It seems a vidwan wanted to disprove this. He sat under a 'tree' and started to sing Ahiri. But, before that , he tied his 'food bag' (saappaTtu mooTTai) to the branch of the tree. By the time he finished, it was midday and when he looked up, the branch of the tree(bamboo) had also risen up high and his food was beyond his hand reach. This , I have heard as a kid. Not much truth to it. Just a story and one that stays etched in one's memory.