Mellifluous vocal concert by Ramakrishna Murthy
The Hindu
Ramakrishna Murthy's captivating vocal concert at Ragapriya featured classical gems with violin and mridangam accompaniment.
Ramakrishna Murthy presented a mellifluous vocal concert on the second day of the 55th annual series of Ragapriya (Chamber Music Club) with the able support of Trivandrum Sampath on the violin and Kishore Ramesh on the mridangam on Saturday at Fortune Pandiyan Hotel.
He commenced with a salutation to Lord Ganesh (who is the embodiment of kindness (“Karuna Sadana”), “gajavadanaa” in shree ranjani by Papanasam Sivan. This was followed by “samayamidhe nanu brova” in raagam kedaaram by Patnam Subramanya Aiyyar on Lord Venkateswara, whose delay to protect him he could not bear.
With a steady sense of rhythm the vibe was set with a brief Alapana for “kancadalaayadaakshee” in raga kamalaa manohari (the original name is manohari) by Muthuswamy Dikshidar. The beauty of the raga and the pace of the lyrics just took the audience breath away.
Gopalakrishna Bharathi’s “vazhi maraittirukkude malai pole” in his Nandanar Charithram ( in which Nandanar says view is blocked by a mountain-like bull which is lying down) in Nattaikurinji was sung melodiously and the speed at which it was sung came in with a round of applause.
Next, Ramakrishna murthy went on to sing the rarely sung “enna vidam pizhaippom”(how will we survive) by Neelakanta Sivan in salagabhairavi, was a nice selection considering today’s life.
The vocalist showcased the lyrical beauty and social acumen of Neelakanta Sivan through the raga exposition touching the main features of the raga.
The main raga todi for Thyagaraja’s “kaddanuvariki kaddu kaddani morala” was rendered in its aesthetic charm, versatility and profound expressiveness.