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Conducted by sarvani sangeetha sabha with "Devi stuthi " as theme. Shri vermA was accompanied by Dr hemalAtha - violin and gaNapathirAman - mrudangam
Late by 15 minutes
1. Missed the first one in vakulAbharanam - T or BMK
2. nArayani dharmAdhike nannu ??? - kesari - T or BMK
between 1 and 2 one is T and BMK, shri verma spoke at the end of 1, but I am still not sure with 1 and 2 composer.
3. shree kamAlAmbhikE - shreerAgam - MD
4. sudhAmayi sudhAnidhi(R S) -amrithavarshini - HB
alApanai for 2 minutes , 1 mins violin and 14 minutes swaras
5. kamAkshi aNudhinamu - bhairavi - SS
** 6. vara veeNA mridhu pAni(geetham) - mohanam - appiah dikshitar
7A. devi pAvaNE(R S T) - sAveri - ST
9 mins alApanai, 7 mins violin , 9 mins swaras
7B. tani for 5 mins
8. sundari tripura sundari - ??? - grandfather of BMK( prAyaga raNga dAsA??)
9. thillAnA - kApi - MDR
10. bhujaga sAyiNam - yadhukula kAmbOdhi - ST
This is my first live concert experience of Sri rama verma . For sure there is a balamurali trademark everywhere, his voice was a typical keralite voice . But his delivery was having its ups and down, some I loved it , some I did not like it all and some somewhere in between.
What I loved:
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1.The amrithavarshini swaras were very manOdharmic ,there was a lot of flat note singing in alApana , but for his kind of male rich voice amrithavarshi suited him , the swaras were beautifully sung.
2.sAveri alApana had the right sedate tinge and his krithi rendition was clean with quite a good aesthetics in swaras (may be he could have gone more in swaras).
3. Even though I only heard the last violin return for the first no , I am assuming I would have loved his first vakulAbharanam because his deep male voice would have suited him.
4. There was a brief contextual speech for every krithi his communication was very good .
What I did not like:
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1. Sri rama vermA was not going at many places with the actual flow of the krithi or the alApanai , there were at times too much of "stop the train pull the chain" saNgathis. To that extent the music was not music4ever. :rolleyes:
2. vara veenA mridhu pAni is a geetham that I learnt , in my concert experience there was once TNS in his sangeetha kalAnidhi started with a geetham , but why he sang this number as a filler before main is not to my liking, I was atleast thinking all my life that vara veenA is generally taught to rasikas like me who will not make into concert league but still fake the family that he/she knows CM.
3. sundari tripura sundari was an unknown rAga (may be a janya of k'priya), it was appearing as a very filmish number(Please note film based songs are in plenty like say MS amma, MLV and GNB which gives a carnatic aura , but this no does not seem to be in that league)
Somewhere in between like and didnot like:
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1. For me bhairavi swarajathi can represent comfortably the chowka, madhyama and dhurita kAlam, the dhuritam was missing especially towards few sangathis in the second half.ramA verma in general does not comfortably sing well in dhurita kAlam he appears to restrict his open throated singing. It would help immensely if he just opens more and does not get too conscious with melody. At times melody of voice will kill the expressiveness of this beautiful CM.
2. Shree rAgam krithi had its moments of glory , but at many places he split the lines like as though it was like a slOkham, the same happened in the previous number narayani dharmadikhe where there was lot of emphasis on diction .
3. MDR's kApi thillAna was quite good.The last YK KAmBodhi was also nice, I would have loved if he had included a rAgamAliga slOKham. What is the point in having concerts end at 08:20PM when he started at 06:15pm.
The violinist Dr hemalatha did a very fine job, her returns were quite tough as the style of verma itself is quite difficult to follow, especially her long swara returns were very well done. THe mridangist gaNapathi rAman was playing very subtlely more in line with verma's time, his tani was very good more in line with sAveri sedateness.
Overall a good to very good 2 hours and 5 minutes concert from ramA vermA.
** for the geetham in mOhanam , he was just mentioning that the composer is under controversy, he pointed to TRS in the first row and said that he can help in telling all of us the composer. What is the controversy there for this varnam , karnatik lists that as appiah dikshitar.
