He came, performed for the first time in the Capital, and conquered the hearts of music lovers. Chennai-based youngster Ramakrishnan Murthy’s Carnatic vocal concert was organised on the second day of a fest titled “Young Musicians Festival” by a city-based organisation Kalaikoodam at the India International Centre. Ramakrishnan Murthy’s short recital of about an hour was very impressive. He structured his short recital brilliantly and sang to the utter delight of the rasikas.
Murthy began his concert straightaway with Tyagaraja’s “Brochevarevarey” in raga Sriranjani. The kalpanaswaras that he suffixed to this rendition was indicative of the depth of the young vocalist in creative music, even at the outset of the concert. While singing Papanasam Sivan’s “Kavava” in raga Varali, Ramakrishnan not only brought out the emotive contents of the lyrics to the fore, but also presented a scintillating alapana of the raga.
Ramakrishnan then went on to delight the assembled music lovers by presenting another composition of Tyagaraja“Endukupeddala” in raga Sankarabharanam, this time in a detailed manner. The detailed exposition of the raga that he presented in an unhurried manner, the riveting tempo that he kept and the flow of creative patterns during the neraval of the phrase “veda shastra purana tattvarthamu delisi bheda rahita” as well as kalpanaswaras, pointed towards the musical talent of a most promising youngster. Murthy ended his concert with the Tamil composition “Parukkulle nalla nadu” in raga Jonpuri. Ramakrishnan Murthy was ably assisted by P. Nandakumar on the violin and P. Jayabhaskar on the mridangam.
Murthy started learning Carnatic music from Padma Kutty of Irvine CA, USA and took advanced training from Delhi P. Sunderrajan. He has also learnt from Vairamangalam Lakshminarayanan, Chengalpet Ranganathan, Palai C.K. Ramachandran, C.R. Vaidyanathan and Vaikom T.V. Jayachandran.
On the whole, a recital that will linger long in the memories of the music lovers of the Capital.
In another concert in the same festival, Andhra Pradesh-based Tulasi Vishwanath too presented an impressive recital. Tulasi’s recital too was a short one, of about an hour. But even in this short recital, Tulasi managed to take up a ragam-talam-pallavi. She presented the pallavi, “Sivasankara harahara mahadeva gourimanohara saranam”, in raga Gourimanohari and in Kanda jati tripuda tala.
Earlier, Tulasi began her concert with a neat presentation of Patnam Subramanya Iyer’s Adi tala varnam “Evari bodhana” in raga Abhogi. She also took up two of Tyagaraja’s compositions “Tulasidala” in raga Mayamalavagowla and “Bantureeti” in the raga Hamsanadam for detailed presentations. Apart from singing a scintillating alapana of raga Hamsanadam, Tulasi’s manodharma talents came to the fore while she presented the neraval and kalpanaswaras for both these compositions. Tulasi concluded her recital with a t h illana composed by M. Balamuralikrishna. Tulasi was assisted ably by her two brothers, P. Nandakumar on the violin and P. Jayabhaskar on the mridangam. While Nandakumar played a delightful alapana of raga Hamsanadam, Jayabhaskar’s taniavartanam in kanda jati tripuda tala was enjoyable.
Tulasi had her initial training in music from Sagi Venkateswara Rao and later learnt from the renowned Annavarappu Ramaswamy.
