Sikkil Gurucharan @ German Hall, Chennai (07 Oct 2006)

[ram]

Venue: German Hall, Bala Gana Mandir, T. Nagar

Date: 7th Oct 2006

Occasion: Muthuswami Dikshitar Day organized by The Indian Fine Arts Society

Vocal: Sri Sikkil C. Gurucharan
Violin: Sri M.R. Gopinath
Mridangam: Sri J. Vaidyanathan
Khanjira: Sri B.S. Purushottam

List of songs:


1) swAminAtha - nAttai - Adi - muthuswAmi dIkshitar (NS)

2) panchAshatpIta - dEvagAndhAram - Adi- muthuswAmi dIkshitar

3) srI mAtrubUtam - kannada - misra chApu - muthuswAmi dIkshitar (A)

4) EkAmrEsa - shanmukhapriyA - Adi - muthuswAmi dIkshitar (AN)

5) nAgAbharaNam - nAgAbharaNam - Adi - muthuswAmi dIkshitar

6) mahAgaNapatim - tOdi - rUpakam - muthuswAmi dIkshitar (AS - main)

7) angaja tAtam (viruttam) - brindAvana sArangA

rangapura vihArA - brindAvana sArangA - rUpakam - muthuswAmi dIkshitar

8 ) gOvardana girIsham - hindOlam - rUpakam - muthuswAmi dIkshitar

9) mAmava pattAbhi - manirangu - misra chApu - muthuswAmi dIkshitar


It was an awesome performance by all the artists. It is not very usual to see the kind of bonhomie that existed at least between the vocalist, mridangam player and the khanjira player. Sri M.R. Gopinath, who was on the violin, also played well but since he is usually expressionless (actually much worser than even Arnold Shwarzenegger ) , with a total lack of body language, it is really difficult at least for a person sitting among the audience to decipher his mood. Sri J. Vaidyanathan on the mridangam and Sri Purushottam on the khanjira were awesome with each one appreciating what the other played with Sri Purushottam following and embellishing what Sri Vaidyanathan played most of the time. The taniavartanam played in rUpaka tAlam had just the simple chatusra nadai followed by a short kuraippu.

rangapura vihArA and mAmava pattAbhi were rendered soulfully. The first song that had attracted me towards Late Smt. M.S. Subhalakshmi’s voice long back was rangapura vihArA and I must say that Sikkil Gurucharan’s rendition of the song was, in my opinion, no less than that of MS.


http://ramsabode.wordpress.com/2006/10/ ... l-chennai/

[rshankar]

Ram,
I really enjoy reading your reviews and blogs...keep 'em coming - those of us who are not fortunate to attend these concerts in person get to vicariously enjoy them through the reviews that you, Bharat and Rajesh post. So, thanks for spreading atleast some of the joy around!
It is possible that SG was influenced by the rendition of Smt. MSS given the close association between their families....
J. Vaidyanathan is none other than Sri DKJ's son, and a superb mridangist to boot!

Question for DRS/CML/any other expert:
In the MD kriti in dEvagAndhAram, he refers to the dEvi as pancadaSakshari - what name of hers has 15 letters/akSarams?

Ravi

[arasi]

Ram,
Yes, thanks to all of you reviewers for spreading the joy around. Those of us who can't be there do savor the concerts though vicariously. You keep our memory of songs afresh by the song lists. Makes us feel nostalgic but also makes us look forward to the concerts we would hopefully attend during the coming seasons...

[jayaram]

2) panchAshatpIta - dEvagAndhAram - Adi- muthuswAmi dIkshitar

4) EkAmrEsa - shanmukhapriyA - Adi - muthuswAmi dIkshitar (AN)

Shouldn't 4) above be called 'Chamaram' under MSD scheme? Else, perhaps 2) should be called 'Karnataka Devagandhari'.

Just being consistent here.

[rajeshnat]

I was there for the whole concert from 6:45pm to 8:40 pm.
To me this concert started with an excellent ragA sketch in nAttai , swarams were lovely in nAttai. devagAndharam was good too. The kannada settled very well with a good alApanai and rendition , but without a swaram finish did not give me a great treat.

Shanmughapriya rAga alApanai was lovely. Sikkil gurucharan , a great singer shows restraint in general when he touches the upper sthayi. That is definitely evident and that in turn showed in both shanmughapriya and the forthcoming brindavana sAranga. The melakartha 30 , nagAbharanam was definitely a great treat to hear, as I have not heard.

tOdi was quite good ,the excitement to hear a new krithi was great, but definitely the swarams were not great , that too absence of neraval in tOdi made it quite ordinary.

HindOlam was quite poor in my opinion, he did not bring the usual effect of this lovely rAga. manirangu was very good. Tani was short only for 6 minutes , percussion was just ok. Gopinath violin was just good.

Overall the concert was between average to good . Definitely not in the league of what I have heard before , especially lack of swarams and R N S in atleast one krithi was felt.

Shri MS AnantharAman spoke ok as a speaker before the concert on Dikshitar. The best anecdote was when he explained a kedaram krithi where he touched the lakshana - lakshya aspect of this topmost vaggayekkara. Rest what he said you all know.

ram
In future if it is not bothering you let's use R instead of A for rAga alApanai.Choice is still yours.