Prince Rama Varma @ Nadasurabhi , Heritage Academy, 24 Oct 2010

Vocal : Prince Rama Varma

Violin : H K Venkatram

Mrudangam : Anoor Ananthakrishna Sharma

Ganjira : Guruprasanna

Morsing : Bhagyalakshmi

Songlist:

01 ninnukOri ( varNam) – mOhanam – Poochi Srinivasa Iyengar ( O )

02 rakshimpavE – mAyAmALava gauLa – Thyagaraja ( S )

03 akhilAndESwari – dwijAvanti – Dikshitar ( O )

04 hariyum haranum – aTANa – M D Ramanathan

05 hoDi nagarimEle kayya – Ananda bhairavi – Purandara Dasa ( A )

06 sarOruhAsana jAyE – pantuvarALi – Swathi ThirunAl ( A,t,S,T)

07 srI rAma nAmam – kharaharapriya ? – Bhadrachala Ramadas

08 sarvam brahmamayam – junjuti ?  – Sadashiva Brahmendra

09 rAma rAma yennarAda – sindubhairavi – Prayaga Rangadasa

10 murahara nagadhara – behAg – Annamacharya

11 thillAna ( thilAna nAdru dhim tadara dAni ) – kuntaLa varALi – Balamuralikrishna

12 bhujaga shAyinO – yadukula kAmbOji/madhyamAvathi  – Swati Thirunal

The list look great, the accompaniment was in very good form, the vidwat was evident , so was his soothing  voice. With this ingredient, the concert should have been an outstanding one. But at the end of it, I was a bit disappointed. Concert started of very well. Beautifully rendered Varnam and a rarely heard Thyagaraja krithi in Mayamalavagaula with some fantastic swara singing set the expectations. But what followed was just a couple of songs. The first alapana came with Anandabhairavi, but a short one. The main pantuvarali alapana was detailed and so was the return by HK Venkatram. Commenting on the hangover of navarathri season, he chose to sing the 6th day krithi of the series, with tanam singing a la the mandapam concert. Tanam was very good. There was no neraval ( none for the concert), and the swara had the ‘passing the baton’ kind of singing ( from vocalist, to violin and to the percussion), which was interesting.

Tani avartanam was very good, with the veteran leading the team and the youngsters doing some brilliant stuff to the applause of the audience. The percussion in general was of very high standard. The post main had some of his usual krithis and a requested thillana of his guru BMK.

May be I sound cynical, it was a good concert. My disappoint is due to the absence of a neraval…

 

Price Rama Varma , Ramanavami Seshadripuram , 18th Apr 2009

Vocal : Prince RamaVarma

Violin : Dr Hemalatha

Mrudangam : Praveen

Ghatam : Omkar

Song list:

01 ninne kOri ( varNam ) – mOhanam – Poochi Srinivas Iyengar  ( O )

02 dEva dEva kalayAmi – mAyAmALavagauLa – Swathi Thirunal ( S )

03 manavi nAlaginca – naLinakAnthi – Thyagaraja  ( S )

04  pavana tanaya pAlayamAm – rasikapriya – BMK

05  nI valE daivamu  – yadukulakAmbOji – MDR 

06 rAvimchu vArevarurA – supOshiNi – Thyagaraja

07 rAma rAma guNasIma  – simhEndramadhyamam – Swathi Thirunal ( A,N,S,T)

    neraval & swara at ‘muni mAnasa dhAma mrgamada sulalAma’

08 srIrAma nAmam -  ?  – Bhadrachala Ramadas

09 hodi nagari mEle – Anandabhairavi - Purandara Dasa

10 sarvam brahmamayam - khamAs  – Sadasiva brahmendra

11 bhajan ( rAma rAma raghurAma ) – sindhu bhairavi -  Prayaga Rangadas (Grand father of Sri BMK)

12 bhujaga SAyinO – yadukulakAmboji , Sri – Swathi Thirunal

Poor mic and audio setting played spoil-sport,  otherwise a good concert by Sri Ramavarma at the Seshadripuram College.  Various attempts by the operators did not yield result till the main krithi was sung.  From his part, Ramavarma was composed and apologised to the audience for poor audio ( which the organiser did later).  Concert was of his traditional, unhurried, soft rendering of krithis.  His soft voice ( as if singing to himself or a closed circle of friends) could have made the life of the sound engineers difficult. He was harldy audible over the violin and the percussion. Praveen was the first to adjust and was soft with his fingers very soon. To me, he did a fantastic job yesterday.

After an elaborated swara prasthana for malamalavagaula , which could have been appreciated better if the sound was ok, he ventured into another sets of swaras for nalinakanti. The best of the day was the rendering of MDRs krithi in Yadukulakamboji. Very emotive and soulfilling, but the lines were bearly decipherable dampening the feeling. There was only one alapana , for the main krithi of the day, and that was detailed. So was the case with neraval.