Ranjani Hebbar at Cleveland Aradhana April 18, 2009

mahavishnu · Post by **mahavishnu** » 19 Apr 2009, 09:55

Ranjani Hebbar - Vocal
Ranjani Arun- violin
Vasudevan Namboodiri - Mridangam

1. Viriboni - Bhairavi varnam
2. Soundararajam - Brindavana Saranga - Dikshitar
3. ?? - Kambodhi (had to leave for most of the main piece) - Tani
4. Eppo Varuvaro - Jonpuri
5. Basaveswara Vachanam - Maru Bihag (Nodidare muttina harandhatira beku - maybe a kannada speaker can correct me)

This was the afternoon kutcheri today that was featured in the one hour slot from 3-4pm. I really look forward to listening to these, since I never have he opportunity to hear such artistes elsewhere. This was the first time I am listening to Smt Hebbar and I thought I would share my views.

Ranjani Hebbar has a very distinct and distinguished sound with rich timbre. It is the kind of voice that has a certain gravity to it. Her performance today had much poise and her presentation was graceful and intelligent. I left shortly after the Kamboji alapana and walked back in during the tani. So, sadly I missed the main piece of the kutcheri.

RH's music has clarity and character. Her handling of the last piece in Maru Bihag was the highlight of the concert for me. It was very nice to hear the Kannada piece by Basavanna; sadly I know very little about this composer (and his vachanams) outside of the Amar Chitra Katha story I have read about him over 25 years ago. I have seen some discussion about it posted by Ramakriya and others on another thread.

I would definitely listen to RH again and I strongly recommend her to all of you. Ranjani Arun was excellent on the violin, as usual.

The mridangam player was another story. He played with the nadham of a tin drum and the finesse of a goat. Yes, you heard that right. Where did they get this guy? He had not even rehearsed his mora and korvai for his tani. He ended in the middle third of the drutham and didn't even bother to recover from there. He just stopped his tani when he realized that he had hit a brick wall and RH just picked up at the following samam. Come to think of it, he could not even play the tirmanam to close any kriti. He single-handedly destroyed what was a very effortfully put together concert. This guy does not belong on a concert stage.

If someone could tell me what the kambodhi piece was, I would really appreciate it.

Jayashri · Post by **Jayashri** » 19 Apr 2009, 10:10

Is there any way one can hear this concert? The compositions sound very rare.

saiganesh · Post by **saiganesh** » 19 Apr 2009, 10:27

i think its "Nudidare muttina haaradantirabeku,nudidare mANikyada deeptyantirabeku.."

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 21 Apr 2009, 01:09

Mahavishnu,
Yes, a miss on the main, but you got to hear the rest. I heard her for the first time last season and thought she was very good. I heard a whole concert in an afternoon slot, and wanted to hear more. Soothing singing.

arunk · Post by **arunk** » 21 Apr 2009, 01:20

I think the main was mA jAnaki

mahavishnu · Post by **mahavishnu** » 22 Apr 2009, 07:45

thanks, Arun. Were you at this concert?

mridkid · Post by **mridkid** » 22 Apr 2009, 23:46

I was also at the cleveland. R.H. was gave a soothing concert.

I also heard the mridangam player he was not bad. He followed the songs really well. The way he played for Viribony varnam and main krithi was superb. I have listend him last year too with Salem Sriram and was really good.

Also in the begining of the thani he played 3 complicated korvais to showed his ability. The final korvai he played after mora was in misra gathi and RH didn't understood the ending.

Also we should note that she sang one in ata but remaing were adi or ekam. nor chappu or rupakam or kandam.

harimau · Post by **harimau** » 23 Apr 2009, 04:36

arunk wrote:
I think the main was mA jAnaki

Hey, Kambodhi has got hundreds of krithis and y'all can start naming them one after another.

It was "Evari matta".

harimau · Post by **harimau** » 23 Apr 2009, 04:39

mridkid wrote:
Also in the begining of the thani he played 3 complicated korvais to showed his ability. The final korvai he played after mora was in misra gathi and RH didn't understood the ending.

I don't think the mridangist understood what he was playing.

I hear tell that he apologized to the organizers for playing something at random without any plan or purpose and ruining the concert.

mridkid · Post by **mridkid** » 23 Apr 2009, 17:01

Hi I am listening concerts for past 45 years. I know how much all these artists are. All are in learning curve and we should appreciate the organisers for the encouraging all of them.

1. RH has good layam but need to improve lot on prcision of her thalam (adichupodanam).
2. The violinist: She can play only ragam and kruthi she cant do more than that. I have listened many of her concerts. Did you listen her morning concert?. She always struggles at the main part-edam, korvais etc.(everybody knows it). But we need to encourage her to come up like Jayashankar Balan.
3. I am not saying mridangist is an expert he had few mistakes during thani but that has nothing to do while he played otherwise . He is also on the same line of learning curve as others. Since I sing and play mridangam I can really understand him and there was no need for him to apologise. If he appologised for what?. I have even saw many critical mistakes from some wellknown artists like running, adjusting thalam etc.

uday_shankar · Post by **uday_shankar** » 23 Apr 2009, 17:40

mridkid wrote: 2. The violinist: She can play only ragam and kruthi she cant do more than that. I have listened many of her concerts. Did you listen her morning concert?. She always struggles at the main part-edam, korvais etc.(everybody knows it). But we need to encourage her to come up like Jayashankar Balan.

I don't know which planet you live in but on this planet this is utter nonsense. Ranjani Arun has an excellent grip on laya. I heard her accompany the formidable Suguna Varadachari last year and she did an outstanding job, including a fairly complicated pallavi without any prior rehearsal. You cannot be allowed to get away with this kind of BS, pal.

mridkid · Post by **mridkid** » 23 Apr 2009, 18:33

I mentioned that she is in her learning curve and cleveland people are giving her maximum chances to improve to promote her/artists residing in USA. She needs to improve a lot to get into the real artist level. You can tell this is nonsense but it is the reality, shankar sir.
I also heard that concert , suguna madam camedown to other artists level and sang to make the concert successful. I respect the violinist since she is trying really hard to come up and trying to contribute to the music.

Always_Evolving · Post by **Always_Evolving** » 23 Apr 2009, 18:48

mridkid wrote: I also heard that concert , suguna madam camedown to other artists level and sang to make the concert successful. I respect the violinist since she is trying really hard to come up and trying to contribute to the music.

Whoa! I've been listening to concerts for some 20+ years and the 2008 Cleveland concert by Suguna Varadachari is right up there among the best , most memorable I've heard. That concert brought tears to not just mine but the eyes of many more "serious" rasikas than me. If that was Suguna mami "coming down to the other artist's level" that's really something.

I've heard Ranjani Arun on quite a few other occasions and she plays very very well.

mahavishnu · Post by **mahavishnu** » 23 Apr 2009, 18:56

Uday, Always_Evolving: thanks for saying what is right.

mridkid, I don't know what your agenda is. You don't have to trash two excellent performers (both Ranjanis) to defend the bad mridangist. There is no mishra gathi that will lead a korvai to conclude in the middle of the drutham cycle in adi talam. That is just poor math (kanakku: if there was any going on with him) and even poorer execution.

I really don't want to get into this. mridkid, you registered yesterday just to reply to this thread. I smell something really fishy here.

cienu · Post by **cienu** » 23 Apr 2009, 19:10

mridkid wrote: suguna madam camedown to other artists level and sang to make the concert successful. I respect the violinist since she is trying really hard to come up and trying to contribute to the music.

The concert stage is the ultimate level. At this level there are no mercies shown (small or big)

Either you perform or perish ! (Ofcourse you carry the experience to the next concert and life goes on

)

And yes, I agree with Mahavishnu.

doyoucare · Post by **doyoucare** » 23 Apr 2009, 19:16

harimau wrote:
arunk wrote:
I think the main was mA jAnaki

Hey, Kambodhi has got hundreds of krithis and y'all can start naming them one after another.

It was "Evari matta".

Evari matta? Must be a spurious / mattamAna krithi

mri_fan · Post by **mri_fan** » 25 Apr 2009, 19:55

There's clearly some sort of alterior motive at play. I attended Seeta Rajan's concert this year, and Ranjani Arun played very well for that. She is a very accomplished violinist.

cacm · Post by **cacm** » 26 Apr 2009, 05:45

I heard SEVERAL CONCERTS in Cleveland where Ranjani Arun accompanied Various ARTISTS AT VARIOUS LEVELS- UPCOMING TO SENIOR ARTISTS- & I must say she did a fantastic job in every one of them. I was so impressed- I had to propose vote of thanks for several concerts in which she played- I just simply ran out of adjectives! Finally I just said : I have now come to the conclusion that persons with certain names like Ranjani & Suguna are automatically great musicians! That was my vote of thanks.....VKV