Neela Ramgopal, Sangeetha Surabhi Concert, Nadasurabhi 08 Nov 2015

Vocal : Neela Ramgopal

Vocal Support : Yoga Keerthana

Violin : Charulatha Ramanujam

Mrudangam : K U Jayachandra Rao

Ghatam : Sukanya Ramgopal

List:

01. ugabhOga ( ninnanE bEDuve) – hindOLam

mAl marugan (varNam ) – hindOLam – T M Thyagarajan ( S )

02.  shivatraya mahAgaNapatim – nAta – Svarna Venkatesha Dikshitar ( S )

03.  nIvErA kuladhanamu – bEgaDa – Thyagaraja ( A,S )

04.  nIradasAma nIlakrSNa – jayantashrI – Oothukadu Venkata Kavi

05.  naDaci naDaci – kharaharapriya – Thyagaraja ( A,N,S,T )

neraval & swara @ ‘puDamisuta sahAyuDai celangE‘

06.  viruttam ( orumayuDan ninaindu) – hamsAnandi, thODi, kalyANi,sindhubhairavi

tirupati venkaTa ramaNa – sindhubhairavi – Purandara Dasa

07. thillAn ( tom dru dru dhAni dru dru dhIm ) – darbAri kAnaDa – Lalgudi Jayaraman

08. mangaLam – saurAshtram

The final day of Nadasurabhi annual festival belongs to Neela Ramgopal. She was presented with the ‘Sangeetha Surabhi’ title for this year by Nadasurabhi in a very well organised function in the morning. Her biography, written by Smt Harini Raghavan was released at the same function. She also gave a stupendous concert full of classicism after the felicitation function.

She had a vocal support by one of her disciple, but the young lady was hardly called for support. Vid Neela Ramgopal was full of energy and vigour and waned to make every piece signed with her own style. Starting with hindolam varnam and a quick nata kriti, she presented an awesome begada alapana, one of the best I heard in recent times. Nee vera kuladhanamu was again a fabulous choice. Surprised to see she singing the Jayantasree composition of Oothukadu, after hindolam varnam, but no complaints. Percussion team did some wonderful stuff for this kriti, especially Jayachandra Rao.

Kharaharapriya main was outstanding. What an alapana she sang. Pure bliss taken the audience to an entirely different level. Wht mastery , what class. Awesome. She did a fleeting shrutibhedam, which I could not identify ( it lasted for a brief period ). Charulatha was equally good in each of her returns. Nadaci Nadaci was again brilliantly sung with an outstanding neraval and some excellent kalpana swaras.

The accompanying artists contribution in making this a memorable concert is worth appreciating. Each of them played excellently well today. Charulatha was good as always. Jayachandra Rao and Sukanya Ramgopal not only elevated the concert, but played an excellent tani avartanam. One could see Neela Ramgopal nudging him to play more with a ‘I’m not going to sing a pallavi’. She said, it is already late and I’m ‘cutting’ the pallavi. But she sang a beautiful viruttam before the devarnama. She concluded the concert with a thillana.

My congratulations and ‘pranams’ to vidushi Neela Ramgopal.

 

Neela Ramgopal, Nadasurabhi Annual Festival , 13 nov 2011

Vocal :  Vidushi Neela Ramgopal

Violin : Vittala Rangan

Mrudangam : Renukaprasad

Ghatam : Ranganatha Chakravarthy

Thematic Concert on Lord Subramanya

List:

01 slOkam ( srIkAntO mAtulO yasya janani) – hindOLam

       mAl marugan murukan ( varNAm) – hindOLam – T M Thyagarajan

02  swAminAtha paripAlayA – nAttai – Dikshitar ( O , S )

03  vara sikhi vAhana vArija lOchana – supradIpam – thyagaraja

04  lambOdara sOdara – kalyANi – Muthaiah Bhagavathar ( A, N, S )

       neraval & swara @ ‘ nA kOrina varamunu nOsangi nannu brOvumu’

05  muruka tiru mAlmaruga – harikAmbOji – Papanasam Sivan ( A, N,S )

        neraval & swara @ ‘ karuNai kaDalE unnai kanamum upiriyEn kandA’

06  vElum mayilumE – sucharitra – Koteeswara Iyer ( O )

07  srI subramanyO mAm rakshatu – thODi – Dikshitar ( A, S,T )

08  viruttam ( vizhikku tuNai ) – mOhanam, kApi, behAg, sindhu bhairavi

        manathir kugandadu – sindhu bhairavi – Tanjavur Sankara Iyer

09  tillana ( tom dru dru tani dru dru dhim tanana dhim) – darbAri kAnaDa –  Lalgudi Jayaraman

10 mangaLam – saurAshtram ending with madhyamAvati – Thyagaraja

A thematic concert like this gives us ample reasons to attend. One, it gives you a lot of new kriti’s which are not often heard in regular concert.  It also gives you enough chances to speculate ( in turn rejig your memories with the kritis you remember) on the possible choices. In any count, today morning concert by Vidushi Neela Ramgopal was fantastic.  We were treated with many rare kritis and not regular ragams and some complicated talams too.

Hindolam varnam on lord murugan preceded a slokam, before the familiar nattai kriti by Dikshitar. There were short set of swaras but nothing to harp about.  A rare supradeepam krithi of Thyagaraja on Subramanya ( there aren’t many such) came in before the first alapana of the day. Kalyani is not my favourite, but the alapana was classy. Muthaiah Bhagavathar’s kriti was also new to me, with a detailed neraval and swara by Vidushi. 

The next harikamboji alapana was my take of the day. It was beautifully constructed and had some mesmerising phrases. Vittala Rangan did a good job with his return.  The neraval was outstanding with some excellent take at the line “karunai kadale” . Koteeswara Iyer’s kriti in sucharitra as a filler was again new to me,

Thodi alapana had all the typical phrases and was showcasing her vidwat. Kartikeya gAngEya could have been the easy guess, but she chose to sing Dikshitar’s heavy weight SrI subramanyO mam rakshatu’.  Another good round of swara singing with some tala intricacies, with apt support from the rest of the crew.

Renukaprasad was subtle and supported the singer spiritedly through out the concert.  The tani avartanam with Ranganatha Chakravarty was good, but was far too stretched for me. It was getting a bit boring, lasting over 25 mins. Otherwise, the percussion in general was of very good standard. young Vittala Rangan impressed one and all with a great performance.  To his age and concert experience, he played like a seasoned professional through out the day. I’m sure, he is going to enthral the listeners for many more decades to come.

Beautifully delivered viruttam stood out in the post main section, in ragamalika and a tillana in darbari kAnaDa. A nicely planned and delivered concert by the senior vidushi.

 

Neela Ramgopal, Rama Seva Mandali , Banashankari 29 Aug 2010

Vocal : Neela Ramgopal

Violin : R K Sriramkumar

Mrudangam : Patri Satishkumar

Ghatam : Dr.S.Karthik

Songlist:

01 intha chAla – bEgaDa – Veena Kuppaiyer

02 ninnE bhajanA – nAttai – Thyagaraja ( S )

03 gaurIshAya namastE – Arabhi – Muthuswami Dikshitar ( A,S )

04 EmAnaticheDivO –  sahAna – Thyagaraja ( A,N,S )

       neraval & swara @ ‘ yeshamAyuvu sadbhaktiyu EkAnta chittamu’

05 nIradasama nIlakrishNa – jayanthasrI – Oothukkad Venkata Kavi

06 gati nIvani nE kOri – thODi – Thyagaraja ( A,N,S,T )

       neraval @ swara @ ‘ rAkA shashivadanE sarvalOka nAyaki vinu mAya’

07 bhOgIndra shAyinam – kuntaLa varALi – Swathi Thirunal

08 RTP – hEmavathi – chatusra rUpakam misra gati  ?? ( 1+3+2 beats , each beat 3.5 counts ! ) 

           Pallavi line  ‘jagannAtha sahitE,  nAtha sahitE, sahitE’

ragamalika swaras in mOhanam? , chandrakauns , sindhu bhairavi

09 manda mathiyu nAnu – ? – Purandara Dasa

10 Erumayil  ( thirupugazh) – ? – Arunagirinathar

11 mangaLam – saurAshtram – Thyagaraja

Smt Neela Ramgopal gave a superb concert yesterday at Rama Seva Mandali.  You could not ask for a better accompaniment for such a concert and did they perform wonderfully well.  the Nattai swara especially towards the end, interesting alapana of sahAna – very different phrases from what is usually heard, an outstanding neraval for thodi were the sparkling point of the evening.

A look at the song list can reveal a lot to you. The concert had feel of ‘rare composition concert . Most of them are not often heard in concerts, these days. She was all energy until the end of RTP, post which I thought fatigue took over and she was sounding weak ( just a couple of tukkadas). RTP was very structured and in complicated talam, with detailed tanam and the trikalam and ragamalika swaras.

Accompanying artists did a fantastic job. R K Sriramkumar was fantastic in his reply of sahana and thodi. Patri Satishkumar and Karthik were consistantly good, and did a brilliant tani avartanam.