Concert at Shruti Laya New York

This was a thematic concert on Sadashiva Brahmendra kritis. Smt. Sandhya Anand and Shenthuran Tharmaraajah supported me on the violin and mridangam respectively. Here is the list:

1. khelati mama hrdayE - aThANa - Adi
2. prativAram vAram - tODi - mishra chApu (R,S)
3. tatva jIvatvam - kIravANi - Adi (RNS)
4. RTP in tishra jAti rUpaka tAlam, khanDa naDai
pallavi line: cEtah shrI rAmam chintayE jImUta shyAmam
5. cEtah shrI rAmam - suruTTi

Highlights of the concert were:
1. Aditya Venkatesh's presence
2. Shenthuran playing tani for the pallavi - he insisted that he wanted to do so - and a good job he did!
3. Keerthana and Sahitya giving vocal support - they learnt all kritis well and memorized them too!
(we had prepared a total of 8 kritis, of which we sang only four due to shortage of time)
4. The post concert session at Shenthuran's place with Aditya Venkatesh.- Thanks to Shenthuran's dad and mom for allowing us to practice till late in the night.

I must thank Sunil and Priya for driving us to NY, and also Shankar and Cristina for having me (and the others) over. A memorable weekend!

--Gokul--

Sriranjani Santhanagopalan @ New Jersey on May 28th, 2012

Sri Ranjani Santhanagopalan (SSG from now) gave a fabulous 2.25 hour concert at New Jersey yesterday. Here is the list:

1. varnam - purnachandrika - Adi - SSG
2. kamala - hamsadhwani - Adi - NSG
3. ivanArO - kAmbodi - Misra chapu - Kavi kunjarabharati
4. RTP - purvikalyani - khanda triputa with ragamalika swarams in bahudari, rasikapriya and behag
5. rAmanai bhajitAl - mAndu
5. anjuvida - sindu bhairavi

SSG's varnam is really good and displays her vidvat (Need to learn it soon!). I have heard that TNS himself has sung the Hamsadhwani composition. One definitely missed a kriti of the trinity but everything was replaced by the stellar manodharmam, the extensive RTP and the emotive rendition of ivanArO. SSG's singing is highly mature - all I can say about my first cousin is that she has her father's jnAnam in full (be it laya jnAnam, sense of aesthetics and proportion or measured full throat singing ). 

I thoroughly enjoyed Smt. Charumati Ramanujam's accompaniment. How sensitive she is!! And she reproduced all of SSG's aesthetic laya exercises beautifully!
Ganapatiraman on Mridangam is, needless to mention an excellent Mridangam player. He embellished every interpretation of SSG with his powerful, assertive but admirably soft strokes!

The icing on the cake was however, Shri NSG's koNNakOL exchange with Shri Ganapatiraman during the tani. (Shri NSG played kanjira during rest of the concert)

Pantula Rama @ SSVT Maryland

The first thing that struck me as I listened to Dr. Pantula Rama was her beautiful, deep and classical voice (much like that of Rama Ravi and the like). Her alapanas were amazing. The continuity in the phrases, the links, the jArus and the perfect balance between aakaram and gamakam based ideas made the experience very aesthetic. 

Here is the list (May not be complete)

1. shrI vEnkata girIsham - surutti (R- short sketch)
2. tuNai purindaruL - varamu (R,S)
3. paramAtmuDu - vAgadIshwarI (viruttam - verses from bhagavad gItA)
4. vEnkaTashaila - hamIr kalyANi (R,S)
5. bhOgIndra shAyinam - kuntalavarALi 
6. O rangashAyI - kAmbOdi (R,N,S,T)
7. RTP - kApi - khanda triputa (laghu in tisram and dhrutam in chatusram)
Pallavi line: nandabAla navanIta chOrA AnandalIlA gOvinda mAm pAhi 
Ragamalika swarams in kadanakutUhalam, durgA, darbAri kAnaDa
8. srInivAsa tiruvenkaTa - hamsAnandi

9. An Annamacharya kriti in mAnDu tuned by Pantula Rama
10. kandarpa janaka - kalAvati (not sure of the composer)
11. Tillana in sindhu bhairavi

All the post RTP items, except the hamsanandi song were new to me. Smt. Rama's alapanas were so fulfilling. Especially the hamIr kalyani, kAmbodi and kApi ones. Extremely refreshing, new ideas interspersed with popular phrases made the alapanas delightful! The pallavi was really good. The way Smt. Rama moved on from kApi to kadanakutUhalam was amazing. I also thoroughly enjoyed her kriti renditions, paramAtmuDu in particular.

The highly aesthetic and "jnAnamaana" ideas and the "hAy" (extremely relaxed way of singing) in Smt. Rama's music made my day! 

The volume for the violinist (Smt. Rama's husband) was way too loud for my comfort level. That in fact even drowned the volume of the Mridangist (Shri Trivandrum Balaji). Balaji's accompaniment was superb. His khanda nadai was especially stellar. 

Overall, it was a memorable experience - one that will stick on for a long time.