Ratipriya@Music Academy(Mini) on Mar 13th,2015

[rajeshnat]

Ratipriya@Music Academy(Mini) on Mar 13th,2015
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Vocal : Ratipriya (disciple of R Vedavalli)
Violin : Sandeep Ramachandran (disciple of RKSK)
Mrudangam : Tirucherai Kaushik Rajagopal (Disciple of kalakkad Srinivasan and Mannargudi Easwaran)

Concert duration/Day : 2 hours /Friday
Concert Type : Nirvana (prime evening concert , no concert to follow)
Sabha/Hall : MusicAcademy/Kasturi Srinivasan Hall(MA Mini)
Crowd : ~60
Ticket : Free
Theme : Monthly Concert series sponsored by HCL and called HCL Series

1. ....I was late ..... just ended with kamakoti sundara (not marakoti sundara) - shree ragam varnam
2. ganapathE mahApathE - kalyani - MD
3. shree narada (RS, S) - kAnadA - T
4 mins swaras

4. seethA vara sangeetha (R) - devagandhari - T
3 mins alapana and 2 mins violin return
5. Ramanatham bhajeham (R N S) - pantuvarali - MD
6 mins alapana and 4 mins violin return
neraval for 4 mins in kumara guruguha
5 mins swaras

6. Nannu brOva rAdA - janaranjani - Shayama Sastri
7A. nee pAdamula (R N S T) - bhairavi - Patnam subramania iyer
7 mins alapana and 6 mins violin return
neraval in Sri Panchanadishwaruni for 6 mins
swaras for 10 mins
7B. tani for 6 mins

8A. viruththam - eN thAyum enakku thanthaiyum - hamsanandi + kapi
8B. kanamaniyE solladi -kApi - mazhavai chidambara bharathi

9. Modi jeSevelaraa - kamas - pattabhiramiah
10. thillana ...nadhiru.... pavana thanaya???? - vasantha - Ammachatram Kannusami Pillai???
11. kaNmaNiyE sollaDi – kApi – Adi -mazhavai chidambara bhArati
12. pathikihaarateere sitapathiki (not Prathiki hAra theerE-) shurutti - T

[rajeshnat]

There are few corporate organizations indeed supporting CM. Gone are the days where ITC alone was considered as the organization that tailors for the least populist art - Carnatic Music. Particularly the IT organization HCL does immense support and indeed helps the biggest sabha rather the musical institution of chennai - The Music Academy. To the best of my knowledge ,month on month they invite an upcoming artist and they call it as HCL monthly series . While the Academy main hall barring season is used for few events where hall is rented by different entities ,for those concerts they are typically advertised in the newspaper as a 1/4 page banner with headlines that says 10 days to go, 9 days to go... 1 day to go.I take up that typically when i have no other place to go on that d day . In non december season ,MA Mini is used with less publicity and quite honestly there appears bit more core carnatic music content, MA- Mini has a monthly series of rare vidwans and vaggeyakaras and this HCL monthly series is another.I would humbly put MA-Mini is used two days a month and that's it .

I had no clue of the vidushi vocalist and the violinist . I had a lovely concert experience of mrudangam artist kaushik when I heard him play for abhilash at bharath kalachar last season- certainly he gave me a great first impression. I went late and just heard the last 10 seconds of marakoti sundara, i did not know about the varnam then and when I came out of concert i clarified with some one else.

Young vidushi Ratipriya must be in her college days or may have just finished college .The other two may be around the same age with possibly sandeep ramachandran the violinist a shade younger. After shree ragam , the md kalyani krithi was sung with little too much of pathantara tightness, i kept zoning immediately on her guru but still i was not sure . Kalyani went but never stayed that impressive.

Her voice texture moved from a bit of shrill to more rich timbre and kAnadA kept me intensely engaged . Ratipriya sang beautifully and particularly her swaras in shree narada was quite noteworthy with her giving few prastharams ending with shree narada , then another round of prastharams ending with saraseeruha were lovely. What can I say with KAnadA, i noticed that she had her own trajectory apart from the grounding of rigid pathantara.

She moved on with leisurely devagandhari vilambit and her voice weight was WEIGHT with no soft sangathis . Seethavara in devagandhari was lovely it stayed more in my head despite its brevity unlike kalyani. The submain pantuvarali with ramanatham bhajeham is a very standard submain-her contours were very guru teaching sishya repeating sangathis - not much to enjoy but also not much to crib. IIRC,The preceding alapana in pantuvarali had to a sudden stop. The filler in janaranjani was rare and I kind of zeroed on her guru - shyama sastri came out as rare janaranjani and was just ok- swaras would have added more charm.

Her class was exhibited wonderfully in bhairavi. She sang beautifully with lot of jiva pidis in both alapana and also in swaras . Every bhairavi krithi shows a majesty of its own and nee padamula showed city with hope sangathis - the krithi was created long time back by a city based patnam subramania iyer and ratipriya showed her class there.

Tukkadas were showing her language choices with the trinity gone and patnam being main , thamizh drop is always lovely- The viruththam was on lord muruga and the mazhavai chidambara bharathi krithi IIRC is also on lord muruga , you can easily mistake with the sangathis that it exactly follows the enna tavam seidhanai. Kamas javali bounced my head as there was not much from it . vasanta ragam was taken up for the tillana - I do know in the last 125 years to the best of my knowledge there are only two vasanta thillanas (one by ammachatram kannuswamy from 19th century and there is one composed by today's vidwan R suryaprakash). Vasantha ragam brings joy to me , and I am assuming she sang the tillana of kannuswamy pillai??? as i vaguely recollect some time back I heard this thillana. There could still be an outside chance that it is a 3rd thillana in vasanta . Ratipriya school is known for composition and language spread and that came up with shurutti utsava sampradaya finish-no usual followup with nee nama roopamulaku.

The violinist school was not evident to me . Sandeep Ramachandran played with lot of shruthi suddham during returns and enhanced the concert , but during the intra play of songs i found he was bit too cautious and the press was not strong enough. The man or woman of the match indeed goes to tirucherai Kaushik Rajagopal, hands rolled freely , he grasps the sangathis and the volume is no ear tearing hit. I have no clue about his earlier guru kalakkad srinivasan but with he learning now from mannargudi easwaran , one can see the same impressive mrudangam playing typecast - easwaran sir has a lovely student kaushik.

Appeal to Music Academy:
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This point can be treated as an orthogonal point . Chennai is known for many years as mecca of Carnatic music. I seriously doubt if that holds good any more in the non season times, if you read what is happening in bangalore there is more musical seriousness, i would humbly say chennai is getting into an excess antha kalathu patronage trace- chennai needs to be futuristic too and not lose its cm focus in non season times.

It is wonderful for HCL to sponsor and put lovely banners with tag lines like creative minds etc etc. I also saw five music academy office bearers (Smt malathi rangaswamy, Sumathi krishnan and three more whose names i am not familiar)coming and taking turns to encourage and giving lovely momentos (all sabhas have to learn from academy on their stewardship and how beautifully they facilitate).

Having said that If minds have to be really creative ,this habit of wrapping exactly at 08:30 pm has to go, another 30 minutes where a little egging from academy for an artist to sing RTP would do wonders . Academey does that for Dec season concert where artist sing RTP and that habit of MA should go to MA- Mini for the rest of the year for atleast this series(understand for vaggeyakkaras series may be we cannot do that ) . We have artists minds that are caged by time and with it demonstrable creativity becomes mutually exclusive . This point has to be worked on .

I do know one thing for sure if music academy does all other sabhas in chennai would do . Hopefully you will show us as you are a lovely musical institution and not just a sabha. By the way I only have great things to say in general with academy, last 2014 season i attended 6 or 7 concerts in academy where i paid for 4.

Conclusively :
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As i walked out I saw violin vidwan R Raghul-I was thinking that sandeep is also a MC mama devotee and asked whose guru is sandeep ramachandran. Raghul said sandeep ramachandran is learning from RKSK. I immediately quipped how come you are here, he said ratipriya is his sister. So one can say now that R Raghul is the brother of R Vedavalli mAmi devotee

If there is something that the young vidushi has to watch out is to perhaps showcase a bit more personal flair that did not resemble her patantara learning and recall which has a share of excess of rigidity. That certainly came in great shades in bhairavi and also in kAnadA .

It is a joy to see three young sishyas whose prominent gurus who are atleast quarter to half generation apart . Personally as the concert moved on i kept eliminating that ratipriya is not a guru of many gurus and when bhairavi krithi was on i was 100% sure she is learning from an extraordinary guru vidushi R Vedavalli.

Overall a very good concert for 2 hours.

[Nick H]

Personally as the concert moved on i kept eliminating that ratipriya is not a guru of many gurus and when bhairavi krithi was on i was 100% sure she is learning from an extraordinary guru vidushi R Vedavalli.

Had you know that from the beginning, then you might have taken a moment to wonder "Where is Nick?" I first saw Ratiprya only this December. Certainly I would have been there, had it not been for the Suguna Purushotaman Tribute --- where I took a moment wondering, "Where is Rajesh?"

[Lakshman]

The tillAnA is by Ammachatram Kannusami Pillai.

[malavi]

The surutti item is pathikihaarateere sitapathiki. and not pratiki

[mahavishnu]

Thanks Rajesh. I think I have seen this young singer on some TV competition.
1. would have been kAmakOti sundara (not mArakOti), if it is the standard sri rAga varnam.

[harimau]

Ratipriya@Music Academy

2. ganapathE mahApathE - kalyani - MD

Ganapathe Mahamathe.

This is considered to be spuriously attributed to Sri Muthuswami Deekshithar.

[MaheshS]

Thanks Rajesh. I think I have seen this young singer on some TV competition.
1. would have been kAmakOti sundara (not mArakOti), if it is the standard sri rAga varnam.

Marakoti Sundara - Behag varnam of TRS What a gem!

[mahavishnu]

MaheshS: Yes, it is a beautiful varnam by TRS.
Except the varnam in question was in Sri ragam.