Ravikiran - chitravina
Lalgudi Vijayalakshmi - violin
Rajshekhar - mridangam
Papanasam Sethuraman - khanjira
Guruprasad - ghatam
1. Navaragamalika varnam - Patnam Subramania Iyer - Adi
2. Mosapogavinave - Gowlipantu-Tyagaraja - Adi
3. Muruga tirumal maruga - Harikambodhi - Tanjavur Shankara Iyer - Roopakam
4. Mamava meenakshi - Varali - Muttuswamy dikshitar - Mishra chapu
5. Samajavara gamana - Shuddha hindolam - Tyagaraja - Adi
6. Giripai - Shahana - Tyagaraja - Adi
Tani Avartanam
7. Vellai tamarai - Abheri - Subramanya Bharati - Adi
8. Mangalam
Ambattur is a long ways off from where I live, but it was worth it.
Ravikiran treated the audience in this northwestern suburb of Chennai to some exquisite classical music, supported by the excellent violinist Lalgudi Vijayalakshmi and a full bench of enthusiastic and highly accomplished percussionists, senior mridangam player Rajshekhar, Papanasam Sethuraman on the Khanjira and Guruprasad on the ghatam.
The rarely heard (first time by me, but that means nothing) Tyagaraja gowlipantu piece added some mystery up front. In fact gowlipantu always strikes me as a mysterious raga, even with well-known pieces. The exchange of nerevals in the Harikamboji piece was good (I was informed of the sAhitya of the nereval line but I'm blanking out due to old age). Ravikiran's varali alapana was vintage, it's a raga that belongs to Ravikiran and the chitravina. Vijayalakshmi's reply nicely highlighted the vadi-samvadi relationship between NSR and MPD.
Ravikiran worked a brisk and thrilling pace (goading the percussionists along) in Samajavaragamana. There were some really fine-touch sangatis executed with breathtaking speed. After the song, Ravikiran pointed out that singing this song in Shuddha Hindolam was part of his guru Smt T Brinda's school, which came to her via Kancheepuram Nayana Pillai who in turn belonged to the acclaimed Wallajahpet Venkataramana Bhagavathar school of Tyagaraja's shishya parampara. Shudda Hindolam uses D2 instead of D1. So the name "Shuddha" is doubly confusing, exactly like Shuddha Saveri and Saveri ! Ravikiran mentioned that Tyagaraja probably sang Hindolam with D2 and the use of D1 was introduced by MD who might have been influenced by Malkauns gathered from his northern travels. And I was thinking, perhaps the first south Indian reaction might have been "Arre ye maal kaunsa" ??
By the time it came to sahana, there was a slight time crunch but Ravikiran managed to play a short but unhurried and excellent alapana which Vijayalakshmi followed up very well. The shining jewel of a kriti Giripai among all the jewels bestowed by Tyagaraja, shone a little brighter last evening at hands of Ravikiran. There was no time for neraval. Afer the swaraprastharas (some exciting mel-kaalam passages) there was the tani, which was short and sweet given that there were three percussionists.
The organizers and audience were genuine rasikas. It was heartening to see that there are committed and knowledgeable rasikas everywhere. Shri Rajshekhar, the moving force behind the sabha, had rounded up all his young shishyas who all turned up wearing his music school uniform - maroon kurta and white pyajamas!
Chitravina Ravikiran @ Gandharva Gana Sabha Ambattur May 25t
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uday_shankar
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Last edited by Guest on 26 May 2008, 14:09, edited 1 time in total.
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mahavishnu
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gobilalitha
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The chitravina, a difficult and not so popular instrument, has gained new life in Ravikiran's fingures. Audience , world wide have appreciated Ravikiran's handling of the instrument. Excellent review.. yes as Prashantsaid samaja vara gamana in shuda hindolam(varamu,I think) is novel .Manasuloni in shuda hindolam is a masterpiece of Yesudas. GOBILALITHA
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ramakriya
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Yes, AFAIK.vijay wrote:Great to see Uday back his action - do keep them coming in! Suddha Hindolam is same as Varam?
In most of these 'shuddha' prefixes, the 'shuddha' often tells that the rAga in question had such a form in earlier times. (for eg, sAvEri, and dhanyAsi were pentatonic scales before attining the auduva-sampoorna status - and also used different notes. Those earlier rAgas have come to be known as 'shuddha' sAvEri, and 'shudda' dhanyAsi. Only in the case of 'shudda'sAvEri, the dhaivata has morphed again to become chatushruti)
I was always wondering if there was a tradition of singing manasulOni in 'shuddha' hindOLa (varamu), then why not sAmajavaragamana ... This is cleared now
-Ramakriya
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uday_shankar
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Gobilalitha Sir,gobilalitha wrote:difficult and not so popular instrument
Right and wrong if I may
.When the instrument is played on the concert platform, it is certainly popular. There are exciting young players like Ganesh and Vishaal Sapuram emerging.
What is not as popular is for amateurs to learn to play the instrument - while every locality in Chennai has some student practising the vina, violin or flute there are not as many chitravina players. Hence the instrument is labeled "rare".
Perhaps the "difficult" myth has something to do with it. Certainly it is much more difficult and daunting for a beginner in one sense - the chances of producing apasruthi is much higher than a fixed position instrument like the vina or the flute. But these can be minimised with some perseverence on the part of anybody with a some background in vocal or other instrumental music. For any person with gnyanam, the musical dividends are so much higher than most other instruments. The ability to "vocalize" is perhaps the highest among all instruments. It can play continuous pitches like the violin, thereby giving it the ability to reproduce every nuance of vocal gamakam with complete fidelity. At the same time it shares with the vina the advantage of the pluck. The pluck adds "azhuttham" and crystalline structure to the consonants...unlike violin and flute music which, without great vidvat, may permeate in amorphous ways and amoeba-like shapes.
I really wish many people will start learning to play the chitravina just for fun. There's great musical fulfillment there. In fact it can contribute to one's understanding of vocal music.