CONCERT REVIEW - VIOLIN ARANGETRAM OF ARJUN CHANDRA

Review the latest concerts you have listened to.
Post Reply
radash1120
Posts: 20
Joined: 23 Aug 2018, 04:24

CONCERT REVIEW - VIOLIN ARANGETRAM OF ARJUN CHANDRA

Post by radash1120 »

Violin Arangetram of Arjun Chandra,
on Aug 4th 2019
Student of Guru - Vidushi Smt Bharathi Gopalakrishnan
Under the auspices of CHARUBALA MOHAN TRUST
(Founded by Sangita Kalanidhi Violin Maestro M Chandrasekaran, Est. 1998)

Artists for the day:
Violin - Chiranjeevi Arjun Chandra
Guru - Vidushi Smt. Bharathi Gopalakrishnan
Mridangam - Vidwan Shri. Ramesh Srinivasan
Ghatam - Vidwan Shri. S.V. Ramani
Talam support - Chiranjeevi Ashwin Chandra

Chief Guest: Shri. Sainath Kala, Former president of Shiva Vishnu Temple, Livermore, CA
Guest of Honor: Smt. Vasanti Venkatraman, President, SIFA

Venue: Lakireddy Auditorium, Shiva Vishnu Temple, Livermore, CA
Date: August 4th 2019
Time: 4pm to 7pm PST

Songs and renditions performed:
Kalyani Varnam - Vanajakshi - Adi Talam - Poochi Srinivasa Iyengar
Vathapi Ganapathim - Hamsadwani - Adi Talam - Muthuswamy Dikshitar
Nannu Vidachi - Reethigowla - Misra Chapu - Saint Thyagaraja
Marivere Dikkevaru - Lathangi - Khanda Chapu - Patnam Subramania Iyer
Brochevarevarura - Kamas - Adi Talam - Mysore Vasudevacharya
Kanda Naal Mudhalai - Madhuvanthi - Adi - N.S. Chidambaram
Sai Bhajan - Mrutyunjayaya Namah Om
English Notes - Sankarabharanam - Muthiah Bhagavatar
Bhagyada Lakshmi Baramma - Madhyamavathi - Adi - Talam - Purandaradasa

On August 4th 2019, a day when the temperatures were soaring in the Bay area, doyen and living legend, Violin maestro, Sangita Kalanidhi Dr. M. Chandrashekaran mama’s esteemed organization, “Charubala Mohan Trust” celebrated its first major program overseas, a debut program of its student Chiranjeevi Arjun Chandra, trained by Guru Vidushi Smt. Bharathi Gopalakrishnan at Livermore temple in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Arjun appeared very poised and composed on stage. Arjun started his performance with an effervescent Kalyani Varnam followed by the Dikshitar masterpiece Vathapi in Hamsadhwani. Beauty of the hamsadhwani ragam is always in the kalpana swarams exchange. It was very soothing to hear Arjun navigating seamlessly through the kalpana swarams section, under the watchful guidance of his Guru Smt. Bharathi, ably supported by the percussion vidwans, Shri Ramesh and Shri Ramani, and ending the kriti with an ardhi on a high crescendo.

Then followed Reetigowla, one of the favorite ragams amongst the youngsters. What better one could ask for, when Arjun sang the Pallavi of the Thyagaraja Masterpiece Nannu Vidachi in Misra Chapu Talam. It was nice to see Arjun relying on his twin brother, Ashwin for tracking talam while playing these kritis. Next, Arjun moved on to a complex kriti, Marivere Dikkevaru composed by Patnam Subramania Iyer in Lathangi Ragam set to Kanda Chapu Talam. Arjun brought out the sweetness and nectar of this composition very beautifully.

Absolutely calm and composed after having traversed all the enchanting ragams, Arjun started the main composition, another masterpiece of Mysore Vasudevacharya, Brochevarevarura. It definitely appeared that Kamas is his favorite ragam and this kriti, in particular, is his favorite rendition. Immaculate swaram placing, laced with the perfect placement of gamakams, certainly brought out the emotion and deep devotion of the composer towards Lord Rama. The percussion Vidwans, Shri Ramesh and Shri Ramani had their thani portion as part of this rendition. Shri Ramesh, the torch-bearer of Sarvalaghu style of mridangam accompaniment initiated by Vellore Ramabhadran Mama had many signature Korvais of his guru as part of this Thani. Shri Ramani mingled and intertwined his korvais in his thani around these patterns. Both seasoned Vidwans kept their thanis crisp, short and sweet without taking the limelight away from young Arjun. Koraipu exchange between the percussion vidwans was a treat to watch. It was a hawk-eye’s moment for Arjun to grab the baton back from the percussionists after the final korvai and deliver the ending of this main piece.

Arjun moved on to play the soft piece, Kanda Naal Mudhalai in Madhuvanti, a beautiful ragam and a nice choice in playing this piece in the latter half of his concert. Arjun and his family being Sai Baba devotees, it was very apt for the occasion to play the Sai Bhajan - Mrithyunjayaya Namah Om. The surprise that was about to come was the popular English Note Swaram in Sankarabharanam. This is very close to what Arjun would have played in his school band. Arjun was a rockstar throughout. He ended his debut concert with the enchanting, highly emotive Bhagyada Lakshmi Baramma in Madhyamavathi.

Vote of thanks was given by Guru Smt. Bharathi’s husband, Shri. Gopalakrishnan, making very interesting observations about Arjun’s urge to pursue this divine art form and getting to the debut concert level in an exceptionally short duration. Chief Guest, Shri. Sainath Kala, former Livermore temple President, blessed Arjun for a bright future. Finally, Guest of Honor, Smt. Vasanti Venkataraman from South Indian Fine Arts (SIFA) congratulated Arjun for steadily starting to imbibe the rich bani of Charubala mami and Chandru Mama, in making the violin sing, and congratulated Bharathiji on how the joy, smile and affection that radiated out of her was in itself a great encouragement that brought the best out of Arjun, and how fortunate Arjun was to get a Guru of this calbre.
It was a very proud moment for Arjun’s family, his parents, Aruna and Chandra, brothers, Ashwin and Aneesh, grandparents and their extended family and friends.

rajeshnat
Posts: 9906
Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 08:04

Re: CONCERT REVIEW - VIOLIN ARANGETRAM OF ARJUN CHANDRA

Post by rajeshnat »

Radash1120,
Nice to see after roughly 6 months a proper concert that is not happening with any of the sagging traits like facebook live for 90 mins, youtube upload of 90 mins , limited audience live , 90 mins constraint of not having pakkavadyam . The concert was hooray from 4 pm to 7 pm and the songlist does not appear in first pass as such as a 3 hour concert that too considering there is no violin return for a violin solo concert. May be being arangetram the speech could have been bit longer.

Best wishes to young arjun chandra . MC mama must be elated to hear the concert and his wishes must have traveled from mylapore through vidushi Bharathi. With global pandemic and a localized inferno glad that you pulled out a great arangetram for Arjun Chandra. Best wishes for Arjun to continue with a commas filled longer musical innings with no fullstop.

Would be nice if you mention the ragam of the bhajan.

Nick H
Posts: 9379
Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 02:03

Re: CONCERT REVIEW - VIOLIN ARANGETRAM OF ARJUN CHANDRA

Post by Nick H »

rajeshnat wrote: 25 Aug 2020, 12:09 May be being arangetram the speech could have been bit longer.
I have never heard anyone say that before! :lol:

Nice to know that life goes on, and that an arangetram was held. Was in front of an audience? Were the numbers limited?

Best wishes to the young performer of the future :)

thanjavooran
Posts: 2972
Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 04:44

Re: CONCERT REVIEW - VIOLIN ARANGETRAM OF ARJUN CHANDRA

Post by thanjavooran »

Good selection of songs. Wishing the budding artiste for a bright future. With blessings.
Thanjavooran
26 09 2020

As regs to speech it is customery for SIFA for lengthy introduction bringing out pravaram of the performers. May be missing in this..

HarishankarK
Posts: 2216
Joined: 27 Oct 2007, 11:55

Re: CONCERT REVIEW - VIOLIN ARANGETRAM OF ARJUN CHANDRA

Post by HarishankarK »

Best wishes to young artistes
Kalyani, Hamsadhwani and Reethigowla back to back seems too sweet :D

Post Reply