Although he is only two years old on the kutcheri circuit, young musician Ramakrishnamoorthy impressed music lovers at a concert held in memory of Vidwan Kalyanasundaram, a doyen among Carnatic musicians in Kerala. The concert was at Rugmini-Ramakrishna Kalyana Mandapam, Tripunithura.
Moorthy, trained by stalwarts such as Delhi Sunderrajan, Chengalpet Ranganathan, Vairamangalam Lakshminarayanan and Pala C.K. Ramachandran, proved his mettle, without being influenced by any baani.
An A grade artiste of All India Radio and Doordarshan, Moorthy began the concert with a Tyagaraja kriti, ‘Guruleka etuvandi guniki’ in raga Gaureemanohari. A short alaap in Todi raga proved his competence and it was followed by ‘Enthuku daya raadura Sreeramachandra’, another Tyagaraja krithi. Moorthy proved his proficiency in ‘swaraprasthara’.
An alaap in ‘Suddhadhanyasi’ softened the mood of listeners. He was well-supported by T.H. Subrahmaniam on the violin. The popular Dikshitar kriti ‘Subrahmanye Rakshithoham’ was chosen by Moorthy, again with a good swaraprasthara.
‘Saanandam Kamalamanohari’, a ragamalika by Swati Tirunal, was his next number. This Chathur Ragamalika slokam, comprising Kamalamanohari, Hamsadhwani, Revagupthi and Tharangini ragas, with rhythmic chittaswara between charanams, proved the capability of the singer. K.V. Prasad on the mridangam and Vaikom R. Gopalakrishnan on the ghatam played well to complement the chittaswaram.
Kalyani was the main raga of the day. Moorthy rendered a deep alaap of the raga with the support of Subrahmaniam. This was followed by a Tyagaraja kriti, ‘Ethavunara nilakata neeku’. Here, some ‘prayogas’ of Prasad and Gopalakrishnan during swaraprasthara and niravel were superb. This was continued during tani too along with varied korvais. ‘Itathupadam thookki aadum Natarajan’, a composition in Kamas by Papanasam Sivan, and ‘Sagarasayana Vibho’ in Bagesri, composed by M.D. Ramanathan, were sung surprisingly well. He concluded with a a popular thillana.
Earlier, the programme, which is in its tenth year, began with a group singing Thyagaraja Pancharatna Keerthana.
