R K Srikantan, R K Venkatarama Sastry Birth Centenary Celebrations

R K Srikantan - M Chandrasekharan - Umayalpuram Sivaraman - B S Purushottaman

R K Venkatarama Sastry Birth Centenary Celebrations.
Raga Sudha Hall.
13 Nov 2007. 6:30 pm

sarasija nAbha - kAmbhOji - aTa tALam (R)
srI mUlAdhAra - srI rAgam - Adi - MD (RS)
jaya mahishAsura mardini - hamsadvani - rUpakam - HMB (RS)
harihara putram - vasantA - kaNDa Ekam - MD (R)
rAmA ika nannu - sahAnA - rUpakam - PSI (RS)
jEsinadella - tODi - Adi - T (RNS)
tani Avarththanam
smarisuva janakella - suruTTi - Adi - Pd
mangaLam kOsalEndrAya
nI nAma rUpamulaku - saurAshTram - Adi - T

The concert was good. All the AlApanais of Sri Srikantan were very classical and ripe with innovative phrases. The svarams in srI rAgam and hamsadvani and sahAnA were all done very beautifully. The kriti renditions were nice also.

Sri Ramakanth was far from impressive. His versions of the AlApanais had a lot of flimsy phrases and the svarams not upto the mark at all. Though there were some good phrases, his style of singing and the lack of 'azhuttham' made them a little less enjoyable.

Sri Chandrasekaran was good in all respects. His AlApanais, svarams, kriti renditions were all very good.

Sri Sivaraman was good thro' the concert and played very well, though one felt he could have given more space for the kanjIra. Sri Purushottaman was enjoying the mrudangam playing of Sri Sivaraman more than playing the kanjIra.

I left after the tODi AlApanai.

R K Srikantan, Nada Inbam

R K Srikantan - R K Shriramkumar - Umayalpuram Mali

Nada Inbam, Raga Sudha Hall
2nd Jan 2007. 6:30 pm

sAmI ninnE - srI - Adi - KDI (short sketch)
vandE nishamaham - hamsadwani - Adi - MV (RS)
sArasa daLa nayanE - sAramati - Adi - HMB (short sketch)
samayamidE - kEdAram - rUpakam - PSI (RS)
sari evvarE - srIranjani - Adi - T (RS)
narasimha mAmava - Arabhi - kanDa chApu - ST (short sketch)
ElAvatAram ettukoNTivi - mukhAri - Adi - T (RS)
sri nArada nAda - kAnaDA - Adi - T (R)
rAmA ninnu - shankarAbharaNam - misra chApu - Mysore sadAsiva rAo (RNST)
Ishwari rAjEswari - AbhEri - Adi - HMB
nanda tanaya - yamunAkalyANi - Adi - PD (short sketch)
mangaLam kOsalEndrAya - madyamAvati
nI nama rUpamulaku - saurAshTram - Adi - T

i was unfortunate to have left as Sri Srikantan began the neraval for the sankarAbaraNam kriti. It was an awesome concert. I can never forget the 'ElAvatAra'...

His AlApanais of kEdAram, srI ranjani and sankarAbaraNam were good. The mukhAri AlApanai was awesome. It was very good. Sri Sriramkumar was in full form. some of the subtle gamakkams he played for the mukhAri were just tooo good.

PS: a more detailed review is available on a frnd's blog, and hence m posting only a few lines...

R K Srikantan, Music Academy

R K Srikantan - Vocal
R S Ramakanth - Vocal Support
V V Ravi - Violin
Srimushnam Raja Rao - Mrudangam

Music Academy, 29th December 2006. 10 am

sarasijanAbhA - nATTai varNam - Adi varNam
panca mAtanga - malahari - rUpakam - MD (S)
manasA srI rAmacandruni - Isa manOhari - Adi - T
shyAma sundarAnga - danyAsi - rUpakam - T (RNS)
narasimhA nannu - bilahari - cApu - T (RS)
tanamIdanE - bhUshAvaLi - Adi - T (RS)
RTP - shanmukhapriyA - kaNDa tripuTA (2 kaLai) 3 akshara eDuppu
'sudA madura bhAshaNa candrAnanA - janakajA manOhara mAm pAhi'
tani Avarththnam
srI ragam short sketch

I had reached late. He was rendering panca mAtanga as i entered. It was very moving rendition with a nice round of svarams.

The danyAsi AlApanai was nice and the kriti was nicely rendered with neraval and svarams at 'dushTa danuja mada vidAra shiSTa jana hrdaya vihAra'. The bilahari AlApanai was done in a scholarly fashion and the kriti was rendered beautifully with an elaborative round of svarams at 'lakshmI narasimhA'. The bhUshAvaLi AlApanai was very good. He showed the essentialities of the ragam. The kriti was rendered with a quick round of svarams which were quite good.

The shanmukhapriyA AlApanai was good showing the rAga svarUpam. The tAnam and the pallavi were rendered nicely. The usual anulOma, pratilOma, tisra etc were all present. A quick round of svarams was there as well.

Sri Srikantan gave a very nice concert. For his age and stature, one even feels quite small to write such stuff and one only thinks that, the correct thing to do is to fall at his feet.

Sri Ramakant could have done better, if only he had little less explored. His part of AlApanai of danyAsi was quite shaky and his AlApanai for the pallavi was somewhat tentative, giving indications of other closely placed ragams in the melakarta table. His svarams had problems in reaching to lakshmi and they stood with narasimha.

Sri Ravi was good in most parts of the concert. He provided sensible support and was good in all his replies to Sri Srikantan. His svarams in bilahari and bhUshAvaLi were really good.

Sri Raja Rao was a bit loud. Also, he was a bit aggressive in places, were he needn't have to be. His tani was good.

R K Srikantan, Jnarnava Trust

R K Srikantan - M Chandrasekaran - T K Murthy - V Suresh 

jnanArNavA Trust, MA Mini Hall. 

20th Feb 2006 

srI mUlAdAra - srI rAgam - Adi (R) 

candram bhaja - asAvEri - matya tALam 

Ananda naTana prakAsam - kEdAram - cApu (RS) 

srI gurunA pAlitOsmi - pADi - rUpakam 

srI bAlasubramaNyA - bilahari - cApu (RNS) 

taniyAvaradanam 

bAlakrishNam - gOpikA vasantam - Adi 

srI kamalAmbikE - srI rAgam 

The concert was preceeded by the CD release function of dikshitar kritis as in SSP. Dr. N Ramanathan, Dr. Seshasayee, Dr. V V Srivatsa, Sri R K Srikantan and Smt R Vedavalli spoke on the occasion. All of them emphasised on various aspects of the SSP and the supremeness of Sri Muthuswami Dikshitar for his compositions, of Sri Subbarama Dikshitar and Sri Chinnaswami Mudaliar for coming out with the SSP for all the tough times they had gone thro'in the process. 

The efforts of Music Academy in translating the SSP into tamil, the works of Dr. S. Ramanathan, Sri B. Rajam Iyer, Sri T L Venkatarama Iyer, Mudicondan Sri Venkatarama Iyer and Dr. V. Raghavan towards the same, the work of Prof. S K R Rao in translating SSP into Kannada and Sri Udupa who has handwritten the SSP in kannada, and the efforts of Dr. P P Narayanaswami and Smt Vidya Jayaraman for the English Translation were all mentioned and given credits. Sri T M Krishna compered and said this is a venture to preserve what that is given and not to say that all else is wrong. He also said its not a commercial venture. Earlier the evening started with a moving rendition of 'srI nAtAdi guruguhO' by Amritha Murali and two others. The Trust also felicitated Sri Srikantan and Smt Vedavalli. 

The concert started at about 15 minutes to 8 pm. The opening srI rAgam AlApanai and the kriti were superb. The asAvEri kriti was rendered with a lot of bhavam. kEdAram flashed from the first sancAram and there was no ambiguity anywhere in the rendition. It was all rendered very well and was the pADi kriti. bilahari yet again was filled with rAga bhAvam from the word go and it was a very good rendition of the kriti with neraval and svarams at 'A pAla gOpa vidita dIna caraNyA'. The gOpikAvasantam kriti was nice and the srI rAgam mangalam led to curtains for the one-and-half hour concert. Sri Srikantan has been growing young with time when it comes to music. His ideas for manOdarmam and his kriti renditions were very good. Sri Ramakanth who provided vocal support would have done a lot better if he learns to sing only wherever necessary. Sri Chandrasekaran was his regular stuff. His playing was good. Advancing age was very evident in the playing of Sri Murthy. Though the vigour is still there in his fingers, age takes count on memory and hence the kaNakku. This was seen once during the tani. Sri Suresh was very good and the percussion dept was well handled by both of them.

R K Srikantan, Nada Inbam

R K Srikantan - Vocal
R S Ramakanth - Vocal Support
M A Sundaresvaran - Violin
Guruvayur Durai - Mridangam
T V Vasan - Ghatam

Nada Inbam, Raga Sudha Hall. 14th December 2005. 4 pm

sAmi ninnE - srI rAgam varNam - Adi (R)
sri mahA gaNapatI - gauLa - misra cApu - MD (RS)
canitODitEvE - harikAmbhOji - Adi (2) - T (S)
kamalAmbikE - tODi - tisra Ekam (2) - MD (RS)
hariharaputram - vasantA - kaNDa Ekam (2) - MD (RS)
taniyAvardanam
summana baruvudE - Anandabhairavi - tisra Adi - PD
smarisO sarvada hariya - hamIr kalyANi - Adi - PD (R)
mangaLam kOsalEndrAya - madhyamAvati

The concert started off with a brisk shrI rAgam AlApanai and the varNam rendered in fast pace. The gauLa AlApanai was good and the kriti was rendered with beautiful svarams at the pallavi line.

The rare harikAmbhOji kriti was a rare treat to hear and so were the svarams in the pallavi line. The tODi AlApanai was very good. The kriti was a surprise to me, it was rendered with a lot of bhavam and the svarams were too good.

The main was yet another surprise. One was quite sure that there is another main to come, when vasantA was taken up for AlApanai. The AlApanai was a bit short but very nice. The kriti was again a masterpiece, rendered with a lot of bhavam and the svarams were too good. The two dasar padams rendered well led to the Mangalam.

Sri Ramakanth was rather struggling to keep pace with Sri Srikantan. He was less creative when it came to AlApanai or svarams in all piece. During the main piece, he was more of the drone kind, than as support.

Sri Sundaresvaran was too good in all parts. His AlApanais and svarams were good. He was found singing the lyrics and the songs along side playing the kriti.

Sri Durai was too good on the mridangam. He literally played the kritis on his mridangam and the tani was good as well. Sri Vasan was his usual self being good in accompanying. The tani which was rather short was well structured and enjoyable.

R K Srikantan at Smt Mani Krishnaswami Memorial Concert

Smt Mani Krishnaswamy was remembered last evening at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan on her 3rd Memorial Day. Justice S Mohan, Smt Sundari, Smt Leela Samson, Smt C Saroja, Sri Kootapiran, Sri Ramachandran (Hamsadwani) were amongst those dignitaries present at the function and spoke on their fond memories about Smt Krishnaswami. The rather long function was followed by an amazing concert by Sangeetha Kalanidhi R K Srikantan.

R K Srikantan - S Ramakanth (vocal support) - R K Shriram Kumar - J Vaidhyanathan

12th July 2005 - Smt Mani Krishnaswami Memorial Funtion

paga vA - hamsadvani varNam - Adi - PSI (R)
karikalAba mukham - sAvEri - Adi - MD
nE jEsina nEramulu - pUrNacandrikA - Adi - PSI (RS)
O jagadambA - Ananda bhairavi - Adi - SS (RS)
nA morAlakimpa - dEvagAndhAri - T
kAmAkshI srI varalakshmi - bilahari - Adi - MD (RS)
taniyAvardanam
nara nAda - nAdanAmakriyA - PD
smaraNa ondE - mOhanam - PD
mariyAda teliyakanE - suruTTi - PSI
nI nAma rUpamulaku - saurAshtram

The concert started with a beautiful rendition of the varNam with a nice AlApanai to start with. The sAvEri kriti which followed was rendered with a lot of bhavam.

The pUrNacandrikA AlApanai was beautifully structured and showed a lot of scope of exploring this rAgam which is usually used for a filler kriti. The svarams were also good.

The starting phrase of the Ananda bhairavi AlApanai was indicative of a shyamA sAstri kriti to follow. The AlApanai was indeed vintage to hear with some really beautiful sancarams. O jagadambA was just pouring with bhavam and bakthi. The song was rendered amazingly while beautiful svarams followed at the caraNam line 'kanna talli'.

The rare dEvagAndhari kriti of tyAgarAja was good to hear. The main bilahari AlApanai was rather short, probably for want of time. It was beautifully built and would remain in memories for years to come. The kriti was rendered very well and svarams were also very good.

The small sketch of nAdanAmakriyA was so good that one kept wondering why Sri Srikantan did not do an elaborate AlApanai, the dEvaranAma that followed and the mOhanam dEvaranAma was also elegantly rendered.

The final suruTTi piece was well rendered showing essential raga lakshnAms and the mangaLam kriti for once did not have the regular 'pavamAna suthudu paTTu...' line. It was just 'prahlAda nAradAdi...' and then 'rAjIva nayana...'

The range of the Sri Srikantan's voice, who is an octagenarian, is just amazing. The ease with which he could travel from thAra pancaman to mandara pancamam was just beyond words. It was just another proof to the fact that age does not hinder the flow of music.

Sri Ramakanth who supported the main artist was good all thro' the concert. He had partly elaborated all the AlApanais and in the svara prastArams.

Sri Shriram Kumar on the violin provided very good support to the concert. His elaborations of Ananda bhairavi and bilahari need a special mention. One particular phrase in Ananda bhairavi, a simple jaNTai on the ArOhaNam, was just superb and filled with the rAga bhavam that it would linger in the minds for very many years to come. There were many more such phrases worth a mention.

Sri Vaidhyanathan provided very good support to the concert also. His playing was good. The mrudangam playing and the tani had a lot of cycles involving the thoppi. The tani had a good usage of thoppi. It was rather amazing to see the tani ending with a tIrmAnam using the thoppi.

Vidwan Chingleput Ranganathan who offered felicitations after the concert recalled the amazing reportiore and vidwat of Sri Srikantan. He said that Sri Shriram Kumar's playing was recalling that of Sangeetha Kalanidhi Papa K S Venkatramaiah.

An amazing concert with a good satisfaction to musically thirsty mind. It was worth the wait for the concert.

R K Srikantan, Carnatica

RK Srikantan (vocal)
Rudrapatnam S Ramakanth (vocal support)
Sriram Parasuram (violin)
Palghat Raghu (mrudangam)
Abhishek Raghuraman (kanjira)

Carnatica, Rasika Fine Arts and Viswa kala kendram at JGHV on 1st
January 2005, 5 pm

pagavA - varNam - hamsadvani (AlApanai)
siddhi vinAyakam - cAmaram (svarams)
E vasudA - sahAnA - tyAgarAja (AlApanai and svarams)
gangAdhara tripurahara - pUrvikalyANi - rUpakam - maisUr sadAsiva rao (AlApanai, neraval and svarams)
taniyAvardanam
tOli janma - bilahari - tyAgarAja (AlApanai)
Isvari rAjEsvari - dEvagAndhAram - HMB (AlApanai)
smraNE ondE - mOhanam - purandara dAsa (AlApanai)
mangaLam kOsalEndrAya - madhyamAvati

It was very nice concert. Sri Srikantan's voice was good and he was singing very well. The AlApanais were all nicely rendered. It was a very fulfilling concert on the new year day. His son on vocal support was always trying to reach to his father. One cannot describe the musical experience in words. It was so moving.

Sri Sriram on the violin did a good job. His rAga essays, svarams were all very good. Sri Raghu on the mrudangam did an excellent job accompanying all thro' the concert and the tani was wonderful. Sri Abhishek on the kanjira was also good.