Vocal : R K Padmanabha
Violin : B Raghuram
Mrudangam : C Cheluvaraj
Ganjira : B Chandramouli
Tabla : Pt Vishwanath Nakod
List:
01 SLOkam ( tapO vidyA..) – AbhOgi – RKP ?
evari bOdhana – AbhOgi – Patnam Subramanya Iyer
02 gAnamUrtE – gAnamUrti – Thyagaraja ( S )
03 nannu pAlimpa – mOhanam – Thyagaraja
04 marukELarA O rAghavA – jayantasrI – Thyagaraja
05 hiraNmayim lakshmIm – laLita – Dikshitar ( A,N,S )
neraval & swara @’gIta vAdya vinOdinIm girijAm tAm indirAm – san’
06 nArAyaNA ennirO sajjanarellA – hamsadhwani – Vadiraja
07 tanam & pallavi – thODi – khaNDa aTa x 2 kaLai started at 3.5 beat before samam
pallavi line ‘pAhiAm SivE pAhimAm ambikE – pAhimAm’
rAgamAlika swara in ‘varALi, shubhapantuvarALi,darbAr,sudha sAvEri, dEvagAndhAri,nAtakurinji, dhanyAsi,darbAri kAnaDa, kAnaDa and thODi
tani Avartanam
08 SLOkam ( jwalatkAnti jagan mOhanAngi?? ) – rAgamAlika ( kalyANi, kharaharapriya,hindOLam,dwijAvanti,bahudhAri?, Ahirbhairavi,rEvati ) – ?
pArvati bhagavati(?) pAlisamma nI paramESwari – rEvati – RKP ??
09 SLOkam ( SrI rAmam sugrIvam ) – rAgamAlika ( ranjani, bEgaDa,rItigauLa, bauLi,sindhu bhairavi) – ?
thillAna ( tAm takiTa taku jhanuta dhIm dhiraNa) – sindhu bhairavi – RKP ?
10 mangaLam – surutti – ?
After a very successful annual Music Festival, Ranjani fine Arts celebrated their first birthday with a grand concert. Vid R K Padmanabha, who inaugurated this sabha last year, is back with a ‘scholarly’ concert yesterday. I would say scholarly because, it was more appealing to the intellect than to the heart. Let me hasten to add that it was not lacking any aesthetics per se.
He started the concert with the abhogi varnam, sang in multiple speeds. I thought he did 7 speed singing ( or was it eight ?) creating and immediate excitement in the percussion department, which continued through out the concert. Multiple speed varnams are an interesting exercise, but the traditional 2 speed or three speed is my personal preference.
Ganamurti was brilliant. He started off very well, and spend considerable time around mAnini maNi’ with some great singing with extended ‘eee’, and a similar improvisation at ‘ navanIta chOra’. He started the swara singing with only sa and ri for a few rounds, gradually moving to the next swara and similarly building it up. While the smoothness of gAnamUrti was at stake, the overall attempt was fabulous. He concluded it with a long round of swaras structuring it around ‘pivoting’ on each swara.
Nannu palimpa came next, which he said was a request from a friend in the audience, and was followed by a fast Marukelara in jayantasree. The first ( and ONLY) alapana came in the form of Lalita, which was elaborate and had a lot of hindustani styled phrases. He later explained that the Dikshitar’s composition has a lot of ‘viLambit’ phrases and is inspired by hindustani music. Alapana was brilliant in phases, but I thought it was stretched a bit towards the end, which could have been cut short. The violin return was rather short, but good. Hiranmayim Lakshmin came in its grandeur with a good neraval and longish kalpana swaras.
A Vadiraja composition ( set to tune by RKP himself?) came in as a filler, before the main. He hummed the thODi alapana but switched soon to an elaborated tAnam. Cheluvaraj joined in immediately, and the others did the same eventually. Typical to his style ( I’ve seen this in multiple times), he ventured into an exhibition of tAnam singing styles ( mayura tanam, shankha tanam, ghanta tanam etc etc). Pallavi was set to a complex talam and a more complicated ‘eduppu’. The total count was 2 x 14 ( khaNDa aTa) and it started 3.5 beat before samam ( that is what I could gather, corrections welcome). He later remarked that the starting was 49 aksharam after samam ( which could mean 7 aksharam before samam in a 56 count beat. Pallavi started in a very very slow tempo, getting every one in the percussion into the groove. It reminded me of the slow thodi ‘padams’ in kathakali ( especially the kAlakEyavadham’ , in the early mornings of the full night kathakali program). Ragamalika swaras came in a flurry, effortlessly switching from one to the other.
The percussion trio, then played a spirited tani avartanam. I was interested to see the way tabla merging with the other two experienced performers in a tala that wasn’t to common to play. He did a great job in the end. Percussion team in general was apt and in high gear, at times having an upper hand in the overall decibel levels of the proceeding. This , while lifted the overall concert to a higher level, dampened the balance to some extend. B Raghuram, was hardly heard and was physically shifted from the usual position. He hardly got any chance to show his mettle. There was only one alapana, and that too was very short. The only time he got a chance to be heard was during the swaras of ganamurti and lalita. The tanam or the ragamalika swaras were sung with all participating hence, no violin only play.
Post main had a couple of beautiful ragamalika slokams followed by a devarnama and thillana respectively. He ended the concert after wishing the young organisation all the very best and thanking the fellow artist and audience for allowing him to present some of the difficult and not common items in the evening’s concert.
Overall a very good concert to mark the 1st anniversary of a well managed organisation.
Brain Drain 