R K Shriram Kumar Vocal Concert.

rbharath · Post by **rbharath** » 12 Sep 2006, 00:41

R K Shriram Kumar - Amrita Murali - K Arun Prakash

11th sept 2006. 6 pm.

dayAnidE - bEgaDA varNam - Adi - SS (S)
sankaram abirAmi - manOhari - rUpakam - MD (S)
parulanu vEDanu - balahamsa - Adi - T
tyAgarAja mahA dvajArOhaNa - srI rAgam - Adi - MD (R)
mAmava satatam - jagan mOhini - Adi - T
dalacina vAru - danyAsi - Adi - SubbarAya sAstri (RN)
evaru manaku samAnam - dEvagAndhAri - Adi - T
mAmava raguvIra - mAhuri - misra cApu - MD (S)
sariyevvarammA - bhairavi - kaNDa jhampa - SS (RNS)
tani
'kunkumapankasamApAm' slOkam in nIlAmbari
karuNananda - nIlAmbari - Adi - kumAra eTTendrA
'thanthaiyum thAyum' viruttam in kApi, bEhAg, sindhubhairavi, senjuruTTi
gangai kodu malar - senjuruTTi, punnAgavarALi - misra jhampa, kaNDa tripuTa alternating
jaya mangalam - ghaNTA - kaNDa cApu - NT

amazing concert. awesome song selection. just mind blowing it was.

The bEgaDA varNam was rendered well with nice svarams. The manOhari kriti and svarams which followed was beautiful. Next in line was the balahamsa kriti.

The first elaboration was srI rAgam. Something I have been wishing to listen for ages now. It was done marvellously and the kriti couldnt get rarer. The way the artist presented it, one had a full darshan of Lord tyAgarAja's brahmotsvam. jaganmOhini piece which followed was good also.

danyAsi was elaborated skillfully, and the kriti was rendered with neraval at 'sura ripu damana kumAra janani karunArasAkshi kaumAriyani sadA' with the dEvagAndhAri kriti to follow. The next in line was a MD kriti in mAhuri. It was rendered very well with good svarams.

The main course bhairavi was good. The kriti, a personal favourite, was handled very well. The absence of mEl kAla neraval and korappu svarams added to the effect of the concert.

The post tani session was good also. All the kritis were rendered soulfully with a lot of bhavam. Being a chamber concert, the absence of microphones and other paraphenlia added to the advantage of the rasikas who could hear music without any disturbances.

The accompanists were very much in tune with the main artist all thro' the concert both in their solo parts and their accompanying. It was a really awesome concert.

A more elaborate review of the concert in tamil can be found here:
http://me-and-music.blogspot.com/2006/0 ... st_11.html

bharath

srkris · Post by **srkris** » 12 Sep 2006, 00:58

Interesting

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 12 Sep 2006, 02:18

When Vijay Siva sang here many years ago, the gentleman who introduced the artists commented that the vocalist (VS) and violinist (RKS) could very easily switch places because they were well versed in each other's discipline - The audience assumed that it meant that VS could play the violin well, and RKS could sing well...thanks to Bharat we know that at least one part of that is indeed true!

drshrikaanth · Post by **drshrikaanth** » 12 Sep 2006, 02:20

What you say is interesting Ravi. I was aware that Sanjay Subrahmanyam plays the violin, VijayaSiva plays the mRdanga and Sriramkumar sings. In fact Im told they gave an impromptu concert somewhere(Truchy?). But I did not know that VijaySiva could play the violin as well.

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 12 Sep 2006, 02:30

Shrikaanth, That was my take on the statement. He did not elaborate it further. I did not know him well enough to ask him about it later on.

Nothing surprising in Vijay Siva's playing the mridangam, right? After all he must have been around when Manoj Siva was learning/practicing!
Ravi

drshrikaanth · Post by **drshrikaanth** » 12 Sep 2006, 02:35

rshankar wrote:Nothing surprising in Vijay Siva's playing the mridangam, right? After all he must have been around when Manoj Siva was learning/practicing!

hmm. If learning an art was that simple

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 12 Sep 2006, 03:10

Well, for some one of Vijay Siva's caliber...

venkatpv · Post by **venkatpv** » 12 Sep 2006, 03:15

Amritha Murali plays the violin and sings as well... arun prakash, i guess, the only one dimensional person on stage!!! unless he can play the kanjira right-handed

mohan · Post by **mohan** » 12 Sep 2006, 07:30

Taking after his composer-father, L. Krishnan (disciple of GNB), Arun Prakash too has composed music - I think for a tele-serial.

Sanjay started learning the violin from Sri V. Lakshminarayan (L. Subramaniam's father) but later switched to vocal music.

Sriramkumar is a treasure-house of knowledge, especially of Dikshitar krithis. He has learnt vocal music with D K Jayaraman. He will be touring the US shortly accompanying Sangeetha (Sivakumar) Krishna

prashant · Post by **prashant** » 12 Sep 2006, 09:44

Man, how I wish I could have heard this concert!

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 12 Sep 2006, 12:58

Bharath
Wonderful review especially in your blog.

Can you throw some light on mAhuri .I see it is a janya of harikAmbOdhi.How close was that to your ears, was it falling under shyAma,kedAragowlai zone etc.?

Also if you know, is RKSK warming up to take up vocal.DKJ-DKP is a great school, I wish he takes up vocal bigtime ?

Vocalist · Post by **Vocalist** » 12 Sep 2006, 13:03

I'm with prashant. A fantastic list, with a musician we never hear vocally!!

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 13 Sep 2006, 04:57

Bharath,
Let me ask what others have not asked yet - was this concert recorded?
If so, I am sure we'll all be willing to pay a king's ransom for copies.
Ravi

venkatpv · Post by **venkatpv** » 13 Sep 2006, 04:58

bharath,
lovely review in tamizh on ur blog...

and yes, what would i not pay for this concert???

meena · Post by **meena** » 13 Sep 2006, 05:36

Let me ask what others have not asked yet - was this concert recorded?

:lol::lol:

prashant · Post by **prashant** » 13 Sep 2006, 08:51

I'll pony up whatever it takes to get a recording of this gem...

rbharath · Post by **rbharath** » 13 Sep 2006, 09:51

rajeshnat, it is indeed a janya of harikAmbhOji. The ArOhaNam however had shades of sAvEri like phrases. Otherwise, it wasnt in the domain of any other harikambhoji janya ragams. On whether RKS is going to take up performing vocal music, he is the only person who can answer.

others, the concert was recorded by a couple of friends. I do not have a copy yet. Also, i am not sure of the quality of the recording. Will let you guys know in due course, if a good recording is available and prolly would put it up somewhere so that all of us can enjoy the concert.

prashant · Post by **prashant** » 13 Sep 2006, 12:22

Bharath: it would be amazing if we could listen to some of Shriramkumar's music through some of these recordings. Thanks.

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 13 Sep 2006, 18:37

Bharat,
That would be of great service if you could acquire the concert and post it if RKS has no problems with it, even if the audio quality is not very good. We have magicians on the forum who can work on enhancing the tracks.
Ravi

thenpaanan · Post by **thenpaanan** » 13 Sep 2006, 20:19

I once had the good fortune of having Sriram Kumar visit me at home and that was when I found out that he could sing very well. I remember he sang a beautiful Ehi Annapurne and it was quite clear that he knew a lot many Diskhitar kritis but one had to poke and prod him to get it out.

What I also remember was his statement that he never wrote any kritis down and that he had everything memorized in his head. Given his repertoire that is an outstanding talent. Just to check whether he was exaggerating I even asked him some questions on random kritis I could think of and he seemed to have not only a large memory but also random access to the lyrics in his heard. Normally I have to remind myself the pallavi and anupallavi sequentially in order to remember some phrase in the charanam but not so for our lad here. That and his sweet personality almost to a fault made for a memorable meeting for me. I am also quite sure he does not remember me.

-thenpaanan

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 14 Sep 2006, 08:27

thenpaanam,
I am sure he does remember you. His phenomenal memory extends to people as well!
Ravi

prashant · Post by **prashant** » 14 Sep 2006, 09:41

Ravi: yeah, he is a real 'computer brain' to paraphrase Semmangudi

mahesh3 · Post by **mahesh3** » 13 Oct 2006, 02:59

recording would be much appreciate