Chitraveena : N Ravikiran
Violin : Vittala Rangan
Mrudangam : H S Sudheendra
List:
01. vAtApi gaNapatim bhajE – hamsadhwani – Dikshitar ( O,S )
02. mAyamma yaninE – Ahiri – Shyama Shasthri
03. maNavinAlakinca rAdadE – naLinakAnti – Thyagaraja ( S )
04. nIdu charaNamulE – simhEndramadhyamam – K V Srinivasa Iyengar (A , S )
05. brOchEvAravarurA – khamAs – Mysuru Vasudevachar ( started at anupallavi)
06. sarasija bhava jAyE – kalyANi – Oothukkadu Venkata Kavi ( A,N,S,T )
niraval & svara @ ‘karavara dhrita vInAsahitE sujana hitE’
07. rAgi tandIrO – nAthanAmakriya – Purandara Dasa
08. mangaLam – saurAshtram / madhyamAvati – Thyagaraja
New year concert and if this is going to be the measure, I am sure to have a great year of music. Sri Ravikiran ( I wouldn’t say the team) played a very good concert at the Surabharathi yesterday. Ravikiran ,especially was in his sublime form, through out the alapana and kalpana swaras.
Concert started, post the Samstha’s ‘Vishnu sahasra nAmam’and ‘guru vandanam’ just before the 7:00 pm with a brilliant vAtApi. Speaking in Kannada, Ravikiran made a remark that he will introduce the kriti and raga post the recital, allowing us to have our joy of identifying them. Vatapi swaras were top class, so was some of the sangatis around ‘pranaa svarupa’. Vittalarangan rose to the occasion with credible responses. Ahiri that came after was the dampener of the evening. Some thing was amiss. It could possibly be the over enthusiastic response from Sudheendra to a slower than usual playing of Ravikiran. Somehow,it sounded 3 people are playing 3 different kritis. But the tempo was quickly restored with the Nalinakanti kriti with another impressive rounds of kalpana swaras.
Simhendramadhyamam was the first alapana of the evening. Very stylish and measured alapana from Ravikiran which included a teaser of ‘grahabhedam’ to Bouli, lasted for a single or two phrases only. He also had a longish ‘un-plucked’ ( if I may use the expression) playing which received with a lot of positive response from the audience. He repeated the same feat during the kalyani alapana, which again was very impressive. Nidu charanamule was good with some intrinsic kalpana swaras. He later explained, this kriti was wrongly attributed to Thyagaraja, because of the ‘mudra’ but was another of those dubious ones.
Starting at the anupallavi, the next ‘brOchEvA’ was the other highlight of the evening. Undoubtedly,this was the pinnacle of the emotive beauty of the evening. HE played mesmerisingly here.
Main kalyani alapana was rather short and I thought he is planning a two phase alapana for a grand pallavi. However that wasn’t the case. Even the violin return was very short. He said, he is planning to sing a Oothukkadu composition on Saraswathi. Describing two choices ( OVK has composed two kritis in Kalyani on Devi) he decided to go with ‘sarasija bhava jAyE’in adi talam tisra gati. Kriti was good, neraval was very well done ( sang the line once) and had a majestic , fitting elaborate swara prasthana at the end.
Vittala Rangan played commendably through out the evening. Most of the time followed the complicated swara parlays of the Maestro with aplomb, played good return alapanas and played along well for the kritis. H S Sudheendra did not have one of his best day in the field. Even the tani avartanam was a bit long and along the same patterns. One could even see Ravikiran joining with ‘konnakkol’-ish sing along during tani. Post main had time for one dasarnama before the mangalam.
I am attending alive concert of Sri Ravikiran after a very very long time. Good concert to start the year.
Brain Drain 