Vocal : Maharajapuram Ramachandran
Violin : C N Chandrasekhar
Mrudangam : C Cheluvaraju
Ganjira : Vyasa Vittala
List:
01. vanajAkSA ninne kOri (varNam) – mandAri – Mysore Vasudevachar ( O,S )
02. praNamAmyaham shrI gaurIsutam – gauLa – Mysore Vasudevachar ( S )
03. chAla kalalADu – Arabhi – Thyagaraja ( N,S )
neraval & swara @ ‘iLalO sarivAralalO ‘
04. smaraNe ondE sAladE – malayamArutam – Purandara Dasa ( A,S )
05. muddumOmu ElAgu – sUryakAntam – Thyagaraja ( S )
06. upacAramulanu cEkOnavayya – bhairavi – Thyagaraja ( A,S,T )
07. sArangan maruganE – rAgamAlika – Yazhpanam Veeramani Iyer
08. RTP – brindAvana sAranga – khaNDa tripuTa x 2 kaLai , +1.5 eduppu
pallavi line : ‘nAthanai dinam ninai manamE, brindAvana sAranga ranga-‘
rAgamAlika swaras in ‘vAsanti, sumanEsa ranjani, srIranjani, janaranjani’
09. kSirAbdhi kanyakaku – rAgamAlika- Annamacharya
10. kELO satcharita – rAgamAlika – Purandara Dasa
11. nIrajadaLa nayana – mAND – M Sambashiva Iyer
12. thillAna – mishra shivaranjani – Santhanam
13. mangaLam – saurAStram – Thyagaraja
What a brilliant concert it was.Everything falling in place, with very anticipative and accommodating accompaniment, very energetic and enthusiastic audience immersed in some old fashioned , time tested classical music. The overall effect was so good, that the concert went on for more than three and half hours. I kept postponing the call which I was to attend from 7:00 to 7:15 …and I had to apologise for delaying it to 7:45. I did not want to miss any part of this, though the last few are in the expected lines.
Refreshing mandAri varnam to start with all the way to a cracking brindavana saranga pallavi, every thing was done with aplomb. Mandari varna, surprisingly, did not take long for me to decipher, was a pleasant choice. He extended it with few nice rounds of kalpana swaras. The concert moved to the higher pedestal with the gaula kriti. What splendid way to conclude the brilliant swara prasthana. Awesome ! Arabhi kriti had to be there with predictable neraval , elaborately and decoratively done at ‘iLalO’. Interestingly, Vyasa Vittala had some mesmerising play during the neraval and swaras of Arabhi.
Malayamarutam alapana was good in most parts and a few breathtaking sancharas. CNC played in the same line and had a couple of impressive twists n his turn. Again, smarane onde was predictable. Expected him to sing a neraval but he chose to start with swaras again. Suryakantam kriti before the main was again appended with few rounds of swaras.
Bhairavi alapana was very very pleasing, especially those starting moments. Sublime, magical in low octave, slowly unveiling the beauty , as if mildly opening the curtain after the ‘deeparadhana’ in the temple and having the glimpse of the deity adorned with garlands and shone in the lights from multitudes of lamps. From that mellifluous opening, he moved to some of the familiar patterns and phrases, exploring various forms in the middle and higher octaves, singing a few with closed lip, detecting various facets of the beauty of the raga. He came back to the lower octaves and sang another few rounds of moving sanchara in barely audible lower phase. One top notch alapana of bhairavi in many counts. CNC complimented the main alapana in a commendable way. His sojourn was equally impressive. Upacharamulanu was not my prediction, I was expecting the swarajati after some of his lower octave expositions. He sang the kriti very well. I was expecting a neravl at ‘kapata nataka’ and was disappointed when he skipped neraval and started swaras. Which, of course, he did elaborately and some enterprising final rounds ( Cheluvaraju anticipated and participated excellently here). Percussion duo was very pleasing yesterday. Cheluvaraju’s tani avartanam is usually done in few shorter plays alternating with the co-artist. Never trying to play hard or relying on speed, he played in his typical style along with Vyasa Vittala.
Sri Ramachandran had not done yet for the evening as he started a another impressive alapana in brindavana sarang, played in two phases. Very well done and the second part was even better than the first phase. Tanam was good. Good pallavi, coined pretty well with continuity in singing. There was trikalam done in detail, smoothly executed by the main singer and not so smooth by the violin , in his turn ( some shakiness, some confusion prevailed, possibly caused by an over enthusiastic percussion). Good ragamalika swaras especially the vasanti and sumanesa ranjani.
Few ragamalika from their ‘family tradition’ came in after the pallavi. No surprises there. Few requests came in and he obliged with a couple , including the thillana with which he concluded an excellent which lasted more than three and half hours.
Brain Drain 