Lalgudi Krishnan Vijayalakshmi@Karthik Fine Arts on Dec 19th,2017

[rajeshnat]

Lalgudi Krishnan Vijayalakshmi@Karthik Fine Arts on Dec 19th,2017
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Violin : Lalgudi Krishnan and Lalgudi Vijayalakshmi
Mrudangam : Patri Satish Kumar
Ghatam : Giridhar Udapa

Concert Type : Nirvana - No concert to follow
Day/Duration : Tuesday/ 1 hour and 45 minutes
Concert Type: Ticketed Concert
Hall : BVB hall

1.ennAdu jUtanO(S) - kalAvathi - T
swaras for 5 mins
2.ellAm sei vallavanAm (R S)- keeravani - Dandapani Desigar
8 mins alapana and 9 mins swaras

3. sujana jeevanA (R) - kamAs - T
4 mins alapana

4. RTP Ranjani for 37 mins
rAga alapanai 16 mins and taanam for 4 mins
Pallavi was Ranjani bayaRanjani pankaja LOchani lokha janani mAMpAhi
swara ragamaliga in ranjani + janaranjani + dhanyAsi + dwijAvanthi + ???

5. gAyathi vanamAli ??? - thillang ?? - SB???
6. manasa sanchararE ??- shyamA - SB
7. Thillana - hamsAnandhi - LGJ
8. Nee Nama roopamulaku

Personally in the last 14 years or so around this point i may have atleast heard 10+ concerts . This is just my 5th concert (after OST,Swathi Srikrishna, tNS krishna and Gurucharan). In pre concert season all the evening concerts in BVB sabha in the same hall will be full as it is free concert . Karthik Fine arts a fine sabha used to have it in 3 venues NGS Main hall, BVB and AnnaNagar. Looks they have folded AnnaNagar - NRIs are not taking annanagar and still come to mylapore is my calculated guess. But the crowd difference between ticketed KFA vs Non Ticketed BVB is quite a bit .

Yesterday I was thinking about Trichur brothers in vanimahal(06 15) , Pantula rama in Arkay(06 30) but commute killed that time . I just landed at 06 55 to hear Lalgudi siblings for their 7pm . The Mylapore diaspora in BVB Hall for a ticketed concert is a challenge and couple it with a general apathy for instrument must have made many not to come to sabhas . But as such for me there is a bit of extra leisure I get when I am left almost all alone with few patrons in the first floor of BVB hall with pristine Lalgudi baani.

Violin is actually the most divine instrument there is no god that is marketed unlike a veena saraswati or a flute krishna. I guess when there is not an excess press and if the amplification is kept right and with well regimented kalpitha even for kalpana swaras the shine of extra Raga bhavam comes very well with this sibling.

They started with kalavathi . Lovely raga the muse was intense , i would not claim that i know kalavati just like that , but the muse of controlled bow was well done . Swaras were just sprinkled right with nice touch by both the percussion artists. Krishnan himself thought sometime at the end of first or second song the volume could have been high , he volunteered to reduce the master volume . I guess those who paid more and sat in the ground floor were with Krishnan and the adjustment was done . But for me at the end of first floor it did not that much matter .

Keeravani came next , viji took up the alapana her bowing in alapana is not as silken as her brother . There was slight roughness in few turns ,out popped a rare dandapani desigar krithi in keeravani. Swaras were well done with nice poruttam deftly handled with nice rotation.

What a kamas it was , this is the second time that I am hearing play the same sujana jeevana . There is so much jeevan when they repeat just the pallavi line with so many kalpita patterns . particularly the alapana and the krithi of kamas was superb .

Krishnan anchored with a ranjani alapana . I just felt there were not too much of varying patterns in ranjani alapana, I aurally spotted quite a few repetitions . Taanam was measured. THe pallavi had a tishram and chatushram mix and it was well done . The raga maliga exchange was superb particularly dwijAvanthi(anchored by viji) stole my heart as much as kamas.The last raga i could not spot but was also well done and also the earlier dhanyasi was excellent. Krishnan carefully traversed and went back to ranjani and if i am right he did not go with all ragas.

In the tukkadas I think I heard gAyati vanamAli in thillang , for most of the time i was not very sure of the krithi or raga , for a brief time i was thinking did they play pibare ramarasam . THe next manasa sancharare was played tad faster and the shyamA was really not oozing with that great shyamA emote , may be I have to get out of my head the spb rendition of manasa sanchararE in the movie shankarabharanam that bhavam is still not found with any carnatic artist starting from late Dr balamuralikrishna.

It is a joy to hear thillanas of LGJ . LGJ thillana in hamsAnandi is quite rare . Lalgudi sir has composed this thillana not with that usual arresting throw of a typical hamAnandi , the nandi is bit less ferocious but nevertheless has enough accentuation to give a different flavor of hamsanandi swaroopam (I wish once I hear this vocal rendition of this lalgudi hamsanandi thillana)

Patri played well and at times his pattern during swara ragamaliga and pallavi neraval was superb , he has excellent left thoppi touch and fast right fingers gives a special lift. Udapa was bit subdued and that is just a generous heartfelt compliment . The tani was just there nothing to say as a usual PATRI tani fireworks. I would still think patri was under utilized as he did not have enough numbers to showcase his expertise.

Final Crib
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I went 10 mins before 7 pm which was the slated time for concert . Ritvik and RKSK was half way with Srimushnam and Anirudh tani . Looks Rithvik ended with nadopasana begada as main . He was wanting time which was perfectly understandable and just wrapped up 10 mins past his schedule with a very quick kamas fullstop thillana . A 20 mins time went for Lalgudi to do sound adjustment which is absolutely fine.

Krishnan asks the sabha patron what is the closing time at the start around 07:30 . The sabha patron says 09:15 . I donot know why should these artist ask and put themself in that dharmasangadam. The sabha patron may have not even seen the watch and he may he thought the time was jsut few mins after 7pm .When there is time cant lalgudi siblings atleast allocate another 30 to 60 mins for a prime evening open ended concert. They did not even play a main krithi and there was no lalgudi varnam. In general i see many artists just chug along for many concerts and just concentrate few biggie concerts . These kind of approach is widening the chasm between those who give more than 100% and those who give selected 100%. This sabha is almost a tier 1 sabha and it is a ticketed concert.Is there any incentive to pay and just hear a concert in evening where the quanta is even less than an afternoon concert ??.

I am just not on Lalgudi siblings. In general i am with many artists who have this slot of an open ended nirvana slot should look at atleast 2 and half to 3 hours despite the start time especially considering it is a ticketed concert.

Overall a very good concert for 1 hour and 45 minutes