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Vocal : G Ravikiran
Violin : Parur Anantha Krishnan , son of MA sundareswaran
Mrudangam : Akshay Ananthapadmanabhan
Concert Type : Nirvana - no concert to follow / Free Concert
Day/Duration : Sunday/ 2 hours
Hall : KamakOti hall, skgs mini hall
01. pavanAthmagacha (RS,S) -nAttai - MD
- swaras for 5 mins
- 7 mins alapana and 6 mins violin return
- neraval in saranamjugambula ?? for 4 mins
- swaras for ?? mins
03. evarikai - devaamruthavarshini - T
04. paranthAmavati jayati parvati (S)- dharmavati- MD
- swaras for 2 mins
06A. saraguna pAlimpa (R N S T) - kedaragowlai - Poochi
- 11 mins alapana and 7 mins violin return
- 8 mins neraval in venugAna seshadri venkateshwara
- 11 mins swaras
07. tanana dhirana ...athanaikkum thAy avalE thAi potruvum - hameerkalyani - K Arunprakash
krishna gana sabha has more dance weightage than many of the surrounding sabhas in atleast mambalam. This sabha is quite a bastion for few schools like Lalgudi, Chitravina Ravikiran and TMK just like how BGS is bastion for Sanjay disciples. They have decided not to open way too many concerts in mini halls of SKGS which they did few years back . This particular hall skgs mini hall or kamakoti hall is the best hall - cane chairs with right sound system and very intimate feel of proximity for rasikas and artists.We need more and more concert opportunities and I wish SKGS brings back bit more count of vocal concerts and kind of get back to their support of bit more music- after all this sabha has their own premises.Just look at Parthasarathy sabha which does not even have its own hall.
Putting all that aside heard G Ravikiran is the disciple of Late RK Shrikantan and TM Krishna. G Ravikiran gave a very sampradaya concert to me , he paced all numbers bit in slower pace or atleast not much fast pace at all. He started with brief alapana in nattai and sang the first number paramathmaja , this number is on Lord Anjaneya. This does not have that much anjaneya Nattai balam like as much as other krithis of nAttai. He did well bit slow in second half more to do with the kalapramanam mismatch of mrudangam, certainly good impression.
Saveri came next , very clean alapana with lovely krithi rendition. The raga and muse of saveri has always a bit clouded and gloomy texture . This particular saveri came out right and he sang a nice neraval and swaras , he just went with the flow of what the krithi Tulasi jagathjanani gave .
The dharmavati krithi parandamavati of MD with apt short pattern of swaras did keep his muse in the zone of saveri. The krithi preceding dharmavati and post dharmavati was not that great at all.Devamruthavarshini krithi evarikai was just not gelling with mrudangist that cleanly in kalapramanam. The bhooshavali krithi had the same problem , it was not that great when he decided not to end with even swara patterns there was hardly much to cherish for that song.
The days best was indeed kedaragowlai. Excellence was spread evenly and G Ravikiran showed his deep vidwat and right spread of aesthetics . The influence of Semmangudi was also shown with a focus also a bit on MDR in this kedaragowali masterpiece saraguna pAlimpA. The krithi was a clean rendition and his spacing of neraval with lot of musical curves without rushing got more drama for this usual dramatic raga kedaragowlai . He did continue very well with kedaragowlai swaras with nice thoughtful patterns to take along both violinist reply.
He had to refer his gadget for the last thillana . He could have avoided it but I liked Arunprakash thillana in hameerkalyani . THe curves of hameerkalyani was slightly Not that high as a krithi like manamu ledha but I liked both the jatis and few thamizh words that i caught up . G Ravikiran sang very well , a little more repetition would have helped to give more hameerkalyani stickiness .
Parur MS Ananthakrishnan is son of MA sundareswaran and grand son of MS anantharaman. If you look at this 3 generation of vidwans (I have no clue of how Parur sundaram iyer plays)there is a son MAS who has a completely different approach when compared to father and grandson. Alapana returns by ananthakrishnan were bit slow and no approach to bring a ?wanted/?unwanted flair like MAS that is a good thing. But every alapana return was bit too long , I love MAS for these typical 2 hour concerts ,he gives the baton quite quickly to vocalist by just playing a quick alapana with right pidis. I wish Ananthakrishnan takes a bit of passing baton quickly attribute from his lovely appa sundareswaran during violin returns of alapana.
Akshay Ananthapadmanabhan has nice sound but almost every krithi irrespective of the song tempo that the vocalist takes , akshay leashes to his medium tempo kAlapramAnam. His patterns are nice , i am making an assumption in few years post he graduating with cleaner patterns he will also make good headway in tempo especially for bit faster touchpoints during krithis.
There is one viewpoint of me that says that This lovely vidwan G Ravikiran can also focus bit more on janaranjakam . There is another viewpoint of me which says with his strong voice and a bit relatively higher steadfast to sampradaya music with less brighaaches, he may soon buildup more and more count of intense rasikas. On this concert day Sunday there was parallel same time events happening .They were Mudhra-Dance, BharathKalachar-Dance ,also vanimahal only had Jayanthi kumaresh-kumaresh veena and violin duet. I am hopeful that this lovely singer G Ravikiran would take the best side of two viewpoints .
Overall a very good to excellent concert for 2 hours.