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Flute : VK Sivakumar
Violin : KR Suresh
Mrudangam : Madipakkam Suresh
Ghatam : Madipakkam Murali
Concert Type : Non Nirvana - concert to follow
Day/Duration : Sunday/ attended only half of the two and half hour concert
Hall : Indira Ranganathan trust,Alwarpet
Sabha : On behalf of Late Sk Balasubramanian (gobilalita of our forum)
01. varnam - - ???
02. vAthApi gaNapathim (S) - hamsadhwani
- ?? mins swaras
04. dunmarga charA - ranjani - T
- 5 mins alapana
- 4 mins violin return
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someone can fill the rest
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Flute N Ramani ruled till few years since he passed away. Every sabha will generally feature a concert of flute and usually N Ramani will take that concert of that series atleast in chennai . As early as year 2001 once when I went to US on work , one of my collegues said he is learning flute and he told he learnt from Ramani Academy.He told me then that there are around 50 students learning from Ramani academy in Bayarea. Possibly N ramani may have more students than guru in general PS Narayanaswamy or may be if I am wrong just 15 or 20 percent less than PSN.
Just like nadaswaram where we cannot identify post karaikkurichi and TNR period , we to an extent have that problem in flute too as of now. Blame it on more count of vocalist , rasikas feel we have to hear the RKM, Bharathsundar,amru(i)thas and sriranjani also -In that mindshare to hear one more vocalist there is not enough drive to hear flute . Shashank is still there but I am assuming not as steady as last year. Possibly Jayanth is taking few critical sabha opportunities ,his alignment with Sanjay and v sriram is helping for sure . There is this JB Srutisagar who is really good but keep your finger crossed mostly he is paired with his sister keerthana and at times even nAgaswaram . Appears the next gen Srutisagar and Jayanth are our future- they both are really good. For sure Flute is bit endangered not enjoying the Veena and violin status which i think is bit more in rasikas hearing zone . I am not sure if KV Ramanujan , a brilliant flute vidwan was ever featured anywhere this year.
Vk Sivakumar is the disciple of N Ramani Sir. I have heard his name and I just googled to find that he was for few years in singapore. He plays beautifully such sowkhyam and very clear nAdham . A well played flute is the best detoxifier for excess carnatic concert doze . I wish I had time to hear his full concert ,but i only heard the first half of his two and half hours concert after sahana vasudevan concert
VK Sivakumar started with a varnam , forgot the varnam and I did not catch it . That was serene blow to start with.The next two back to back DIkshitar and Tyagaraja was brilliant Both were very janaranjakam unlike the previous concert. VathApi with swaras was lovely ,nice krithi rendition with short burst swara pattern .There was remarkable tightness in layam. The mahanubhavulu in flute delicacy continued with ragam shree ragam and he was really superb. The blow was serene and there was a touch of my all time favorite flute artist KS Gopalakrishnan there. Ranjani wiht raga alapana and dunmarga chara was bit different in paddantaram , he continued his zone of excellence . He did not annnounce even one of the krithis and I am wondering if by any chance i got the ranjani krithi wrong . Poornachandrika with cittaswaras with telisirama was nice and balanced , he kept the same flute and did not ever go with any modern pyrotechniques yet.
The violinist KR Suresh was just there , bit very cautious, he could have tuned his violin bit more better . The divine violin nadham was not there .Both the madipakkams played very well. Suresh had well tuned nAdham and he played appropriately without drowning the flute nadham . Murali gave great support bit hard at times nevertheless suresh gave enough rotation to him .
Special thanks to kamalamba, He conducted a near 75% concert attendance for this concert which is a great achievement. Looking forward to hear a full VK Sivakumar concert soon.
Overall a very good to excellent concert for the half concert (1 hour and 15 mins) that I attended.