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Vocal : Raji gOpAlakrishnan
Violin : Usha Rajagopalan
Mrudangam : B Ganapathiraman
Ghatam : Madipakkam Murali
Concert Type : Nirvana- no concert to follow
Day/Duration : Friday/2 hours
Crowd : The hall had about 60 rasikas
Sabha/Hall : BVN in association with Twin Promotion Sabha/bvB second , repeat second floor
Ticket : Free
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5. gAna naya Deshika (R NS S T) - rishabapriya - KI
the raga was for about 9 minutes and the violin less than 5 mins
The krithi with tani was over by 20 mins
6. kannanai kAnbhedappo - hamsanandi + nattaikurinji + suddhadhanyasi + ABhogi?? - Unknown(Lji help i do know gnb popularized it)
7A. vasudev sudham devam - slokham - madhuvanti - ???
7B. nAtha harE - madhuvanti - jayadeva ashtapadi
8. pampA theera vihArA - sivaranjani - PV Natarajan (raji's appa)
9. shree venkata gireesha - shuruTTi - MD
10. pavamAna
I was quite happy to hear that one of my favourite vidushi smt raji is singing at BVB and left bit early from work to attend her concert . Mylapore nightmare and traffic snarls brought me at 07:00 pm to BVB. I went straight without looking at any thing to the first floor of BVB mini hall to find it is locked . I thought maybe they moved to BVB main . From 1st floor itself i moved to BVB main hall first floor, i just thought then let me hear Smt raji all alone in main hall balcony
The chitraveena concert of Ganesh got over with the last numberin the main hall and then the lady announced a dance by madhusudhan of kalakshetra . I was wondering did I look at the paper rightly , called few and could not reaCH ANY ONE who had the paper - may be did i see yesterday paper was what i thought . OK i thought bad luck i missed raji and sat for dance.
Madhusudhan gave a fairly great performance for an ignoramus like me . Ganesha dance , then pushpanjali , then some dance on light and darkness(bit of modernity) and the fourth was the best - something on nataraja tandavam . I donot know madhusudhan but I am assuming he is the most prominent male who danced with three males and about 5 women .Dance needs a different rasanai and i like it some what -as usual I always get lost in terms of not knowing where to focus when more than two dance. The last nataraja tAndavam had lot of jumps from a male artist who gave his heart and soul - it just reminded me of salangai oli (saagara sangamam ) the song nAdha vinoDhangal nadana by kamalahassan.
Walked out and i saw the board which was placed on the back side , that smt raji is singing in 2nd floor
( . Damn it , i never knew there is a second floor in BVB at all -only yesterday i knew it. Went inside to somewhat correct my particular dosham . Raji welcomed with a rishabapriya a vivadi mela dosham ragam , quite apt for me - i did not know that mylapore sabhas are going vertically too (mela).Raji has a voice which is cultured and has a very strong and distinct pitch . YOu cannot find it with many of female musicians . Irrespective of the song the voice and its pitch guides us to some what shades of distinct ecstasy. The rishabapriya ragam was very nice , one cannot expect it to go more than that as she can tresspass on lakshanam . The violin return had a bit of not so good glide, i guess it is perhaps because of vivadi mela .
Raji sang a impressive krithi , did not like the aspect of neraval dodge for a minute, but swaras were very nice with a spread of assertion. The tukkadas were all fantastic . Raji ,i have seen has a liking to GNB school despite being TMT and TRS disciple (few more gurus in bombay whom i forgot). The galloping changes of ragamaliga in the 4 ragas hamsanandi + nattaikurinji + suddhadhanyasi + ABhogi in kannanai kAnbadeppO were bit too fast but lovely . Incidentally this krithi like most of gnb-mlv tukkadas appears too easy in pallavi line as charanams spread up the lines are quite dense and diction is tough.
The next in madhuvanti with small slokham i wish she repeated the lines more . She ending with jayadeva asthapadi natha harE always takes me to SKalyanaraman. She sang a brief tukkada on lord ayyappa in a soul stirring shivaranjani , i was thinking possibly it was k ramaraj composition. But she announced it was her appa , pv natarajan (sure of the name not sure of the initials). WOW her appa is just too great , he has gifted to his daughter an immensely janaranjakam number .Shurutti was bit ok , i could generally see a bit of rush the time was only 08:55 not 9 pm when she finished [-x .
The percussion team played well for all the songs , the tani was brief - i could bit spot more high decibel beats there . This hall BVB 2nd floor has nice AC and a good distributed speakers.
Wish I had heard the first half , considering that Raji is a very special female singer artist to me . But not a bad choice even to hear her second half.Musicians in general if they have a open nirvana slot should sing more . She sings next week at hamsadhwani i think jan 16 or 17 is what she announced. i am pretty sure there will be no second floor there.
Overall a very good to excellent concert.
, keep an eye there.