Hyd-Kalasagaram-Ramakrishnan Murthy

[sivakami]

Kalasagaram- 46th Annual festival of Music, Dance and Drama

23rd Nov 2013

Sri Ramakrishnan Murthy
Sri Komanduri V. Krishna- violin
Sri. Mannargudi Easwaran-mridangam
Sri. K. V. Gopalakrishnan – kanjira


Song list:
1. janaki ramaNa – suddha seemantini -T ( Sw@ janaki ramana)
2. nI bhakthi bhagyasudha – Jaya manohari - T (Sw@ nadathmaka thyagaraja)
3. meenakshi memudam dehi - D - purvi kalyaNi ( R: 5 min, vio: 3 min; no N or S)
4. ongi ulagaLandha - arabi
5. dasarathi – thodi – T ( R: 8 min; vio – 5 min; N& Sw @ rasika sirOmaNi..)
6. tani - ~15min (excellent-o-excellent)
7. RTP – adi talam -R& T: nattaikurinji,
Pallavi: “nattai kurinji enbaar , engaladhu sirandha nattai kurinji enbaar” in nattaikurinji, nattai & kurinji
8. Slokam – “moulau, ganga sasanka, karacharana thale…”- sindhu bhairavi, hamir kalyani, kapi, ….?)
9. vangakkadal kadaindha – suratti
Mangalam

It was the first day of the 9-day annual festival of the sabha, Kalasagaram here at Secunderabad. That day was dedicated to the violin maestro Lalgudi Jayaraman garu. Originally, Smt.Lalgudi Vijayalakshmi & Sri. Mannargudi Easwaran garu were to be felicitated with the title of “Sangeetha Kalasagara”. As Vijayalakshmi could not come(her brother had been already honoured), only Sri. Easwaran garu was honoured that day. This was followed by the vocal concert of Ramakrishnan Murthy (arranged at a short notice), with accompaniment of the stalwart on the mridangam. After the felicitation function, speeches and all, the concert began almost around 7.50 PM.

Without wasting further time, Ramakrishnan murthy kick-started with the thyagaraja krithi, janaki Ramana( someone was saying he quickly has decided to leave out the 1st few warm-up items from his song list for that day). The brisk swaras round set the tempo for a nice kutcheri that was going to follow. Then came another thyagaraja kriti, well rendered. All the artistes on the stage were having a great time playing together, irrespective of their age and experience, trying to match the others performance. Easwaran Sir’s mridangam, was the special treat for us that day, as it is not so frequent that we get to listen to him here at Hyd. RKMurthy’s raga alapanai skills need a special mention, where he tried to cover all the scales cleverly, within that short duration. His clear diction and kalpana-swaras were fabulous. Needless to discuss about the Tani, which we enjoyed for 15 min. thoroughly.

After the tani avartanam, when people were getting ready to listen to tukkadas and leave, he started the raga alapana of nattaikurinji unhurriedly; then arises the dilemma for the listener, whether to be or not to be. Some brave folks who had determined to stay till mangalam( around 25) were fortunate to listen to the very beautiful RTP, the sweet 3-raga-cocktail pallavi mixed in the right proportion, in the appropriate raga in its place of the lyrics. It was delicious, though hurried towards the end. I may have missed out few more ragams, as I could not grasp so rapidly during the swaras-round. The mellifluous slokam rendition appeared prolonged at that late hour. KVKrishna’s violin return with his (mischievous?) smile on his face, as usual, is exactly like the vocalist, which enhanced the mood of the concert significantly. It was a delight to watch the beaming veteran-percussionists join and enjoy along with the 2 young artistes throughout the kutcheri. Only, some felt, it would have been apt to include atleast one Lalgudi composition as a tribute to the MASTER. In addition, I thought atleast one Annamacharya kriti or Bh. Ramadasu or the like (rather than 2 thiruppavai pasurams) would have satisfied the non-tamil-local-rasikas also. I missed Revanth very much.
Overall a short-n-sweet kutcheri.

[appu]

Sivakami

Thank you for the review. How many people in the audience were in attendance. I know you mentioned 25 towards the RTP section. Also was the original concert a violin solo by madam Viji.

Ram Murthy, although born and raised in Los Angeles has clear diction and works hard to clearly vocalize the syllables. Kudos to him. No trace of any accent. Los Angeles is producing some great talent. Another youngster and forumite Sandeep Narayan (deepsands) has clear diction and no trace of accent. Another forumite Aishwarya Venkataraman (aishuv) is performing in Hyderabad later on this month (dec 21st). Please attend and post a review if possible.

[sivakami]

appu,
yes, there was no accent.. I felt, perhaps his training in the US, which is rigorous with lot of emphasis on correct pronunciation were the reasons for the clear diction irrespective of the language of the kriti..
I also forgot to mention another important point, that RKM was so very simply dressed, with veshti and a plain white shirt, with vibudhi pattais on the forehead, hands etc, many were not able to believe that he was raised in LA...
About the crowd in the beginning, as RKM is new to Hyd audience, around 100 were there, in a venue where there were more than 800 seats arranged..

Also was the original concert a violin solo by madam Viji.

Originally both Lalgudi GJRK and Viji were scheduled to perform....

And, thanks for the info.about Aishwarya's kucheri on 21st.. Will try to go.. Have to find out the venue...

[appu]

Sivakami,

Thanks for the update. I got info on Aishu's schedule here. Look at post # 19

http://www.rasikas.org/forums/viewtopic. ... 74#p251571.

[rajeshnat]

Sivakami
Liked the drop of RTP despite a late start and a not so good turnout. keep it up RamakrishnanMurthy.
moulav ganga is by appaya dikshitar , mannargudi easwaran and appaya dikshitar have an ancestry connection.May be ramakrishna murthy took this number because of that connection. Tx sivakami for your review

[vs_manjunath]

Item no. 4 in Arabhi...who's the composer ?

[rajeshnat]

Item no. 4 in Arabhi...who's the composer ?

Andal ,this is one of the thirruppAvai.

[vs_manjunath]

rajeshnat- Thanks.