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Chennai Dec. Season 2003
Reverence for tradition
Ranjani and Gayatri satisfied in every department, but what lingered in the mind was the haunting viruttham. Every word was enunciated clearly, with a feel for the import. The melodic swirls around the phrases, whether in Hamsanandi or Sindhubhairavi, were rendered in a manner that belonged exclusively to this specialised genre.
.....In Gayatri's Subhapantuvarali no Hindustani Todi was needed to create the mood. The singer's emotion, imagination and intelligence combined in right proportions to delight and move listeners.
........Good programming made for contrasts in melody and pace
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Breath of fresh air
If music is not merely to be heard and comprehended but experienced in the rapturous dimensions of the listeners' hearts, it was provided to the hilt by Ranjani and Gayatri. Their recital breathed the eternal fragrance and the perennial freshness of Carnatic music. Remarkably at their hands the surfeit of feeling in the songs "Entanine" (Mukhari) "Evarimata" (Kambhoji) and "Bhuvanidaasudane" (Sriranjani) was conveyed to rasikas with interpretational resplendence. Mukhari alapana shared between the sisters laid the foundations for Gayatri's later alapana of Kambhoji. With her sparkling voice she added a new reflective domain to the raga. When the raga's vista was spreading, one felt that while others sing from the throat, music pulsated in every capillary and fibre in her body. Documenting the enriching charms of Kambhoji, each sanchara glimmered with tonal eloquence to be enjoyed with ecstatic pleasure by the rasikas in the packed auditorium. The alapana moved in the exalted sphere of lyrical musings on Kambhoji's swaroopa, shades and shape, peeling layer after layer of the raga's Vakti.
The depth of exposition carried the richness of the deep sensitiveness of her manodharma. The sisters saw to it that the kutcheri was made intense, glowing and exceptionally exquisite.
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Delectable package
The varnam in Durbar, "Teliyajaleru Rama" in Dhenuka, a briga studded alapana in Bilahari, rich in moorchchana, gamaka, sangati, and raga lakshana oozing from every pore, followed by an enlivening kriti ("Tuni Chelma") in Khanda chapu - all within 40 minutes from the start - gave the 300-odd listeners at the R. R. Sabha Hall in the early evening hours of December 17 the promise of whatever they were looking for....
Poorvikalyani, introduced by Gayathri, commencing with the common sanchara pa-ma-ga, ri-sa, nidha-sa, ri-ga, was painted rich with its vital hues and taken gradually through exquisite emphasis at effective passages till it sky-rocketed to the highest ranges of the upper panchama and dhvaita in most enjoyable sweeps, until Poorvikalyani was executing ecstatic dance steps for the listener.
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The art of presenting a duo
concert
The sisters, Ranjani and Gayatri, were featured in a concert
recently for Hamsadhwani. They can be easily rated as the
best duo singers in today's cutcheri circuit.
The sisters excelled in their performance. There was never
a dull moment. The kalapramana was neat and tidy. There
was healthy competition between the sisters taking up the
challenge to outwit each other at every opportunity. Naturally
this made all the rasikas present happy and fulfilled. It
was verily a healthy demonstration of how a duo concert
has to be presented as cutcheri fare.
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A Question of Expression
In the Ranjani-Gayatri performance for Laya Lavanya Fine
Arts Foundation, Gayatri sang a Sahana that refused to leave
the hearts of rasikas. She flung open the windows of sensitive,
refined and mellifluous Sahana where the rakti of the raga
was imaginatively conceived and laid out in aesthetic sancharas...
The response from Akkarai Subbulakshmi (violin) was equally
discerning mature delineation with rare charm. The intensity
of her insight into the sweetness of Sahana was deep and
deft. The kirtana was "Emaanaditchevo" marked by delightful
delicacy truly reflecting the fine sentiments of the sahitya.
Earlier, the Mayamalavagowla song, "Meru Samaana" had
a reverential treatment at their hands. Later Ranjani and
Gayatri shared an elaboration of Todi that could not make
a dent on Sahana's impact..... Ranjani-Gayatri concert revealed
the blessings of refined musical impulses.
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The Hindu, 03.01.2003
At the Music Academy, 2002 Season: In the performance
of Ranjani and Gayatri, they were absolutely in command
of kritis and raga alapanas.
The right keys were used to unlock the inherent beauty
of Bhairavi to place before the audience its resplendent
shades.
The contours of Kalyani and Bhairavi stood out in the
array of phrasings, which represented musical perception
at it's best.
Intuition and delicate musical instincts ruled the cutcheri
from the start to the finish.
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The Hindu, 06.09.2002
At the Kishna GanaSabhi, 2002"
It was not stereotyped fare that Ranjani and Gayatri provided
in their recital for Krishna Gana Sabha. There was complementativeness
in themodest expressionism of Ranjani with the lightning
pace of Gayatri.
The flashes of sancharas that Gayatri released from her
throat were overwhelming illuminating the facets of Begada
and Todi. Ranjani's Pantuvarali ws more sedate in effect.
Gayatri's Begada and Todi were pictures of rare charm mainly
from the thick and thin brushstrokes.
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The Hindu, 28.09.2001
AN ARTISTE'S excellence depends on the innate ability to
introduce the gracefulness of fast passage, in relation
to karvais in an alapana of a raga....
This aspect was very much in evidence in the Kambhoji alapana
of Gayatri in her performance with her sister Ranjani at
the Festival of Music organised by ICICI group jointly with
the Music Academy....
Their nourishment of the kirtanas to bring out the structural,
aesthetic and sahitya bhava is commendable. It is here that
their music has depth.
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The Hindu, 13.07.2001
To their felicitous expressiveness the sisters brought the
weight of their planned programming, in which the alapanas
of Begada and Bhairavi helped to uplift the performance
to a memorable level. Marked by passion, zest and self-confidence
there was not only professional charm but equal merit in
their interpretative effort.
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The Hindu,
09.02.2001
In Sri Thyagaraja's compositions, the devotional values
enhance the melodic aesthetic sangita. If a musician can
do justice to both - even to pay attention to the latter
has become rare - he deserves to be worshipped by rasikas....
The cutcheri by the sisters, Ranjani and Gayatri, for
Sarvani Sangeetha Sabha celebrating Thyagaraja aradhana
bound the listeners in the luxurious bondage of the saint
composer's classicism.
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The Hindu,
05.01.2001
While the sisters get full marks for their programme plan
(variety in raga, composer, kriti, tempo) their highest
score was for the viruttam. Here the choice of ragas did
not matter. What mattered was that they had completely grasped
that this form requires entireIy different and specialised
skills, an approach which differs from other kinds of improvisations
like neraval and alapana. They also knew that here the sahitya
plays an important part in evoking the mood. While Gayatri's
voice is perhaps the more striking, Ranjani has what the
north Indians call "dard". The combination moved you.
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The Hindu
, 23.06.2000
The powerful qualification in the recital of Ranjani and
Gayatri, held under the auspices of Sunadham and in the
memory of Soolamangalam Vaidyanatha Bhagavathar, was their
earnestness to give their best. There was zest and confidence
in handling the ragas and kirtanas. There was not only charm
in their crisp presentation, but equal merit. The peak of
the performance was the Todi alapana.
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The Hindu,
28.04.2000
The Sri Thyagaraja Seva Samithi presented Ranjani-Gayatri
sisters in the Bahulapanchami concert, who painted an entire
image of the core of Carnatic music. Ideas that bring out
the quality of expressions played a prominent part. In their
method of rendering kirtanas, instead of the mechanical
approach, their interpretation was a reflection on the sahitya
and structural aesthetics. The great success of the performance
was due to the sincerity and lucidity with which Ranjani
and Gayatri placed before the rasikas the beauties of Sri
Tyagaraja's compositions.
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The Hindu,
16.04.2000
Bombay Gayatri and Ranjani, the popular violinists in a
vocal concert at Hamsadhwani, Adyar on April 8 commenced
with some jet-set items like Darbar varnam, Ninnu Joosi
(Sowrashtram), Seethapathi (Khamas) and Ananda Nadamaduvar
(Poorvi Kalyani).
Ranjani's Poorvi Kalyani alapana and later Gayatri's Rama
Neeyeda (Karaharapriya) deserve special appreciation as
the sisters made their presentation with delectable proportion
of long, short, quick and crisp phrases.
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The Hindu,
14.04.2000
If the concert by Bombay Ranjani and Gayathri at Hamsadhwani
was gripping all the way it was due to the exquisite planning
by the artistes. There were no musical excesses, nor unsavoury
exhibitionism of vidwat.
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The Hindu,
18.02.2000
The impressiveness of the alapanas of Pantuvarali by Ranjani.
Mukhari by Gayatri and exposition of Sankarabharanam in
segments by both had to be seen in the arrangement of sancharas.
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The Hindu,
06.06.1999
Quality is never an accident sisters Ranjani and Gayathri,
in their new found roles of vocal duos achieved surprising
intensities of classicism in their recital for Asthika Samajam,
Thiruvanmayur. They are well-trained vocalists with an established
name, yet they do not allow mere expert craftsmanship to
prevail over the need for vocal perfection and overall streamlined
presentations of raga alapana, kriti rendering and neraval.
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The Hindu,
09.05.1999
A four-hour Carnatic music recital is rare today. And even
more rare is the ability to sustain audience interest. It
calls for great skills from the performer. But B Ranjani
and Gayatri managed just that in their brilliant four-hour
music recital for Sarvani Sangeetha Sabha at Music Academy.
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The Hindu,
11.10.1997
The working in unison of the voices is very important for
the success of a duo performance. Endowed with different
types of voices it merges very well and makes a good impact
on the audience.
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