Vivek Sadasivam @ Rama Seva Mandali Koramangala on 30.3.15

[kssr]

Vivek Sadasivam- Shankar Rajan- VR Chandrashekar- BR Ravikumar

- Durmargachara- Ranjani- R,S
- Mamava Pattabhirama- Manirangu
- Rama Rama... Rama enniro - Vasantha
- Ee naati nomu phalamo - Bhairavi Main R, N & S @Sundaresa suguna
- Thani
- Rama rama- Chenjuriti
- Rama manthravu japiso - Jonpuri
- Mangalam

Comments;
- Reached the venue a bit late. Vivek had just started Ranjani alapanai. Might have missed 2-3 songs earlier.
- The concert was very good. The youngster has a sweet young voice.
- Sound system had been adjusted this time, compared to the earlier concert. It was not jarring and quite balanced.
- Vivek sang Ranjani quite elaborately for a sub-main piece and he has got the ragam perfectly in all its facets. No neraval. Direct swaram, which was quite compact.
- Bhairavi ragam once again was sung brilliantly with bhavam essence in all the characteristic pidis. This is probably the 4th Bhairavi main I am listening to in the past couple of months. About the best. The song itself was not quite familiar. A good neraval too.
- I felt that the choice of violin could have been better to suit the main artist.
- VR Chandrasekhar is a veteran mridangam vidwan who is now predominantly playing for dance recitals and consequently travelling the world. Incidentally he is the founder President of Nadasurabhi during the struggling days - handed over graciously to a senior retired army officer Air Marshal Ramachandran, after which the organisation really took off. He gave good support to Vivek and also presented a pleasant traditional thani.
- Ravikumar's ghatam had a special ringing tonal quality. Very good support. He also used quite a large sized ghatam. I am not sure if for a particular sruti, the size of the ghatam is fixed or if it could vary, probably based on other parameters like thickness, etc., To me it seemed unusually large. Experts can comment.
- The audience who are more bhakthas than rasikas, used the concert time for a good chat. In the spot where I sat first there were chat ladies in the three slip positions. I changed my seat where I had quite a few close in fielders short leg, short mid wicket, silly mid off and so on chatting away. Finally I moved over to the front row directly in front of the singer. The wicketkeeper here had a heated technical discussion with first slip, on the raga being sung. I was pleased that things were moving in a more musical direction.
- Vivek, I think, is a student of Rudrapatnam Thyagarajan whose music is rooted in tradition, and it shows in Vivek's rendition. Also his parents are musicians. I got a feeling that his swarams are a bit sticky and does not have the fluency and sweep (veechchu) of a seasoned performer. I am sure that he can easily bridge these things. If only he passes through the music factory of a guru like the great Sri.PSN for a couple of years, he will be a star in the not so distant future. Our best wishes to the lad.

[kssr]

Seems that due to wrong submission there are two reviews of the same concert. Admin may kindly delete this one