Ramakrishnan Murthy for TMS Music Circle, 03/Nov/2013

[sankark]

Ramakrishnan Murthy - vocal
S Varadarajan - violin
K Arunprakash - mridangam
KV Gopalakrishnan - khanjira

Great music for 2:30 hours except for mOhanam (not musically, just not a big fan of mOhanam). Swaras for arabhi, chayatarangini were outstanding IMO. KAP was controlled aggression and a great tani with KVG. Have no clue on why KAP is being singled for not playing well.. I have listened to his accompaniment with RV and others and his playing certainly was a great enhancement to today's concert.

First time hearing an elaboration of chAyAtarangini. I had pegged it for kEdAragowlai.

calamu - pantuvarALi - k ata - ?
pAhi parvata - Arabhi - Adi - ST (ns@vanchi nrpAlaka)
sUryamUrte - saurAshtra - c dhruva - MD
krupajUchutaku vElarA - chAyAtarangini - Adi - T (rs@krupa)
gAna amudha pAnam - jyOtiswarUpini - Adi - KI (r), percussion was just great.
trilOka mAtA - paras - Adi - SS
mOhana rAmA - mOhanam - Adi - T (RS@mOhana T)
sAramaina - behAg - Adi - ST
srutvA gunAn bhuvana - ragamalika slokam (jonpuri? sindhubhairavi? hamirkalyAni, darbAri kAnadA)
gOvardhana giridhAra - darbAri kAnadA - triputa - nArayana thIrtha
vangak kadal - surutti - Adi - AndAL

2 questions
Why isn't Koteeswara Iyers Thodi/MMG/KHPriya/S'bharanam/other melas in circulation but few vivAdhi compositions only? He has composed in all the 72 melakartas, hasn't he?
Whats the deal with sAramaina and behAg? Seems to get sung more compared to other better uruppadis?

[arasi]

Sankark,
Thanks for the review. This young man seems to be popular (and his lec-dem on thODi we hear was a good one). Hope I get to hear him this season.

Yes, sAramaina is not the only behAg song there is.

If you rule out mOhanam, there were only Arabhi and saurAshtram and a quick SuruTTi for you which weren't of the exotic kind. So, you noticed them even more, I guess!

Kotseeswara Iyer's sAvEri kruti vElayyA dayavillayA is also a very appealing song in a mainstream rAgA..

[mahavishnu]

There are several other Koteeswara Iyer kritis, but strangely they do not seem to be in the general concert repertoire. Vijayalakshmi Subramaniam has released a commercial album with several non-vivadi (also non mela) compositions.

With S Rajam's demise many of these compositions will not see much airplay.

[rajeshnat]

Why isn't Koteeswara Iyers Thodi/MMG/KHPriya/S'bharanam/other melas in circulation but few vivAdhi compositions only? He has composed in all the 72 melakartas, hasn't he?

I am assuming for popular melas (especially big 6), musicians generally stick to trinity or at the most papanAsam sivan in most concerts. For vivadi melas , KI krithis are taken as usually musicians would have sung trinity based songs as main/submain in each and every concert and for the sake of dropping another new composer in that concert they drop KI krithi. It is perhaps a 50 to 70 year tradition/ conditioning.

ARI used to sing KI's kali theera in tOdi and even KVN followed that song , but now that song has gone out of circulation.

[malavi]

That was an excellent concert by Ramakrishnamoorthy.chayatarangini was really a wecome change.
varadarajan was also equally good.tani by arun prakash and gopalakrishnan was superb.
Ramakrishnamoorthy is getting the Shanmukha Siromani award from Shanmukananda Sabha Mumbai in december.he is also getting the MLV Award given by Sri Parthasarathy sabha chennai in december.
He really deserves theseawards.
the first ragam in the slokam was bhimplas.