maharAjapuram rAmachandran@IFA on July 7th,2007

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 09 Jul 2007, 10:12

Accompanied by MA Sundaresan - violin , KR Ganesh - Mrudangam and Sundar - mOrsing

Shri maharAjapuram rAmachandran sang a thematic concert on the less known trinity ShyamA sAstri. I had a chance to go the concert with another rasika (leave it to him to add more comments).

1. pAhimAm Shri rAja rAjeshwari (RS,S)- nAttai -ShyamA sAstri
2. pAlayAsumAm paradevatE (R,S) - Arabi-ShyamA sAstri
3. kAmakshi bangAru (R) - varAli-ShyamA sAstri

4. karuNa jUDu ninnu nammina(S) - shree rAgam - ShyamA sastri
5A. enneramum unnAmam uraipathE ennemam(R,N,S,T) - poorvikalyAni - ShyamA sAstri
5B.tani

6. thirukedEshwara mahalinga - kAnadA - maharAjapuram Santhanam
7. pavamAna - sowrAshtram - T

As a rasika, we have to look at every carnatic musician with atleast one of their core strength and possibly be considerably less critical with atleast one noticable weakness. The core strength of shri rAmachandran was his breath control in delivering music with a great voice pitch,ofcourse his weakness at times is his repetition of his krithis which sometimes gives an impression we can better hear his illustrious dad in a CD(perhaps the weakness is more attributed to the rasikA's excess love for santhAnam ). The weakness was comfortably mitigated as the concert was an exclusive shyamA SAstri concert.

Every number of ShyamaSAstri was sung with his core strength mudra, I just sometimes feel he just does not need a microphone, what a voice pitch. nAttai started with a bang , a very rarely heard krithi was delivered very well and a drop of swarams that went so well . The days best was his Arabi.His Arabi was sung lightning fast with a brilliant manOdharmam , the gentleman who sat next to me was supercharged ,perhaps we both connected him to his grand dad Shri vishwanatha Iyer who is known to have delivered Arabi with extraordinary ease and speed.On a side note, rAmachandran's face now just looks like vishwanAtha Iyer (only kudumi(tuft) is missing).

The next varAli could have been very heavy that too considering it was almost third AlapanA in a row . But rAmachandran delivered the essence of varAli ,his style of delivering Alapana is a bit unique more like the underwater sea explorer who takes one big breath and goes for many many minutes into the sea.Here was rAmachandran doing precisely that exploration getting the varAli drag in almost in one single breath. The krithi was sung very well.The karunNa juDu was perhaps not as great , but still very aesthetically presented.

The next he announced that he is going to sing a Thamizh krithi of ShyamA sAstri. Again his breath control was fantastic in poorvikalyAni .The delivery of his AlapAnai was a start of tara sthaayi piDi and then entering into a fairly regular pattern of karuna rasa that we are all comfortable to identify distinctively as poorvikalyAni, the swara sequence was flipped the other way more with a distinct karuna rasa piDi and then going into a lean pattern of kuraippu swaram and then his manOdharmam charged again towards a well rounded tara sthaayi piDi of poorvikalyAni.The neraval was in the lines "anbudan uNNai aDaikalam adaiNdheN akhilAndeshwari abhirAma sundari".

In thamizh there is a saying "Swami varam kuduthAlum poosari varam kudukkA mAttar(Even if grants a wish , the priest will block it)". Shyama Sastri's krithis was taking us closer and closer to goddess kAmakshi , the priest Indian Fine arts seceretary shri SrinivAsan who is so used to come at the end of main ,spoke briefly (thank god), but at the end started recollecting Shri santhanam and asked him to sing Thirukedeeshwara , after giving his usual kick start where he sang the pallavi of the krithi.

Shri rAmachandran perhaps could have politely skipped but keeping with maharAjapuram trandition of satisfying rasikas he did not mind and sang a good kAnaDa number . But what was surprising ,which was not to my interest was that he wrapped all of a sudden a mangalam as though he had a train to catch. He could have gone easily from a 1 hour 50 minutes to 2 and 1/2 hour concert .He could have atleast sung one Ananda bhairavi (atleast I knew Shyama SAstri's anandabhairavi even before I knew Shyama SAstri).

The accompaniment of violinist MAS was just good in phases. His nAdham was bit squeaky. Usually MAS repeats every return with very good precision , but I realized for the rare poorvikalyAni he was not able catch it that easily at the end where his return was more like a tAnam return. Shri GAnesh in mrudangam was a bit too defensive , the gentleman next to me liked his nadai change in the tani. mOrsing was just ok.

Thematic concerts can also be a complete rounded concert , but rAmachandran did not unfortunately feel so!!! Look at this url to see how many gems of this trinity can be sung. http://www.medieval.org/music/world/car ... hyama.html

bhaktha · Post by **bhaktha** » 09 Jul 2007, 10:20

rajeshnat wrote:In thamizh there is a saying "Swami varam kuduthAlum poosari varam kudukkA mAttar(Even if grants a wish , the priest will block it)". Shyama Sastri's krithis was taking us closer and closer to goddess kAmakshi , the priest Indian Fine arts seceretary shri SrinivAsan who is so used to come at the end of main ,spoke briefly (thank god), but at the end started recollecting Shri santhanam and asked him to sing Thirukedeeshwara , after giving his usual kick start where he sang the pallavi of the krithi.

:lol::lol:
Now, haven't we experienced this before in other concerts too?? I can see vijay smiling:D

-bhaktha

kmrasika · Post by **kmrasika** » 09 Jul 2007, 10:45

It's good to note that rAmacandran started in ghana rAgAs, certainly uplifting the concert, especially the nATTai piece which has the pace of the traditional tODayam. Wish he had ended "kAmAkshi lOkasAkshiNi" or "Shankari Shankari" as these are the mangaLa gItAs by ShAstri but anyways, a good concert. Thanks for the review.

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 09 Jul 2007, 19:41

My heading should read July 7th, instead of June 7th. Would appreciate if the moderators change the month .

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 09 Jul 2007, 20:30

Thanks, Rajesh. Waiting for your other colleague to add to the review. Perhaps, the gentlman who sat next to you too! You seemed to be impressed with his rasanA...

meena · Post by **meena** » 09 Jul 2007, 23:00

rajesh

i have changed the mth. for u.

vijay · Post by **vijay** » 10 Jul 2007, 11:05

Bhakta - everytime I think of Mr. Srinivasan's "renditions", I risk giving up CM for ever!

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 13 Jul 2007, 09:17

review of the same concert in the hindu.
http://www.hindu.com/fr/2007/07/13/stor ... 110500.htm