Abhishek Raghuram@Vani Mahal on July 08th,2012

[rajeshnat]

Abhishek Raghuram@Vani Mahal on July 08th,2012
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Vocal : Abhishek Raghuram
Violin : Mysore Shrikanth
Mrudangam : B Ganapathiraman

Concert duration/Day : 2 hours and 25 minutes / Sunday
Concert Type : Nirvana (prime evening concert , no concert to follow)
Occassion : In memory of Smt D . Pattammal (Smt PattammAl dandapani)
Hall : Vani Mahal
Sponsors : thejus

1. sami ninnE (varnam) - shree ragam - karur devudu Iyer (garbhapurivAsar)
2. mahagaNapathim(S) - nAttai - MD
swaras for 2 mins

3. inta parAkA (N S) - nAdanAmakriyA? - Anai ayyA
neraval in "kannatalli taNDri sujanulanna tammu" for 7 mins
swaras for 7 mins

4. anantha sayananai aravinda (R S) - nAtakapriya - D PattammAl
11 mins alap and 7 mins violin return
9 mins swaras

For the past 7 years there is an exclusive yearly concert in memory of Smt pattammal dandapani that is organized in vanimahal . I did attend the last year concert of Smt GV and this year Abhishek sang . Abhishek is blessed with one of the best voices , the voice that is deep and always manages to fully cooperate to the unbridled manodharma of abhishek's musical intellect .

In this concert it was not abhishek at his usual expressive best but certainly there was charm in his presentation. There was a perennial problem with Ganapathiraman' mrudangam , his right (valandai ) was never heard till the start of the neraval in main, it frustrated many in the audience but we all had to put up with that "no mridangam right turn" annoyance, just like one way roads of chennai.

Abhishek voice took his usual deep sareeram when he hummed shree ragam and sang a great varnam to start with , i always noticed in general abhishek sings shree ragam well. The next in nattai was a bit of disappointment the swaras were just too short and just did not bring his excellance that much.

Inta paraka by anai ayya is a striking composition that gets you too engrossed and indeed he was in an aesthetic zone , where there was always a degree of restraint with lot of controlled aggression. His parama guru semmangudi came before me with inta parAkA rendition, neraval was lovely with a touch of remorse to start with and then a 2nd degree speed , all coming from the pattantara of semmangudi without any transmission loss of 2 full generation. Swaras were neat and very nice . Few years back in a concert tmk sang this and said the raga is nadanamakriya , I vaguely recollect he avoided mel sA to make it only as nAdanamakriya and Abhishek if i recall it right only sang in nadanamakriya (not mayA malava gowla).Hope it was only nadanAmakriyA.

As expected a number of smt d pattammal was pending . His raga alapana was in nAtakapriya and was well received . A tricky raga to me when alapana was sung , as i could hear many whispers where few rasikas say that as todi.Abhishek neither announced the composer nor the raga so I guess many would have gone home thinking it as todi. Nevertheless natakapriya alapana was sung very methodically and I indeed enjoyed and there was absolutely no drama in natakapriya .The krithi anantha sayananai of smt d pattammal was sung nicely, in swaras,he took a little excessive kanakku route with line ending in pachai karpoora vasam. Kanakku is nice but I guess each rasika has his own personal lakshman rekha , to me abhishek pushed the kanakku bit too far and it was indeed a little more vocal gymnastics, that did not suit my taste.

[rajeshnat]

5A. smara sada mAnasa (R N S T)- bilahari - ST
14 mins alapana and 7 mins violin return
neraval in garuDa turaGgam, kanaka sucElam for 8 mins
10 mins swaras
5B. 8 mins tani

6. ramakrishnanai pani manamE (Raga sketch) - kamAs - D PattammAl
7. kalyAna gopalam karunAlavAlam (R) - sindhu bhairavi - NT
6 mins alapana and 4 mins violin return

8. thiruppugazh - sindhu bhairavi - AGN
9. pavamAna

Till before main, it was frustrating to not hear the right side of b ganapathiraman , the sound was too feeble and it was almost only abhishek and mysore shrikant. Few rasikas did voice at the end of natttai to raise the volume of mridangam but only the voice of abhishek was raised which abhishek asked to correct during the mid course of inta paraka. Nevertheless even without mrudangam if one can enjoy abhishek, it is a testimony of his classicism .To me personally his voice is always a delight to hear and it was wonderful till the end.

The main was awaited . bilahari heaviness unfolded and he sang the alapana and krithi well. The neraval was nice he certainly goes for more explosion in main but that was not the case . The best thing happened at the beginning of the neraval, I could spot OS Sundar in the first row getting up and telling the mrudangam was not heard. Ganapathi did the right thing , he swapped his left mike and moved it to right , it worked and atlast(not alas) we could hear mrudu angam.

bilahari swaras was nice but still it just did not have that extra main effect of a typical abhishek.In the tukkadas the kamas stood out and he rendered the second D pattammal composition of the day and I liked it . There was a long sindhu bhairavi alapana and his hindustani pursuit was well established , it is sindhu bhairavi one cannot complain . THe NT krithi was bit too slow and was quite good . He took an aesthetic choice of continuing with a high speed perumAle with a string of words before perumalE in the same sindhu bhairavi.For me the continuation of thirrupuggzh in sindhubhairavi misfired as it robbed the previous sindhubhairavi taste that he bought it out quite well.

Mysore shrikanth played very well , especially few sangathis of his alapana had a more pracheena touch of raga bhava than abhishek (few sangathis expecially in bilahari). Ganapathiraman may have played well in first half (it was difficult for many as we heard less his right side).

Abhishek could have gone bit more and I wish I heard the mrudangam more in the first half .Overall a very good to excellent concert for 2 hours and 25 mins.

[appu]

Ganapathi did the right thing , he swapped his left mike and moved it to right , it worked and alas we could hear mrudu angam.

Rajesh, Nice review. I am quoting the above line because it caught my attention. The usage of the word alas in this contest signifies disappointment as in alas the mrudungam dound was now heard and it screwed up the rest of the concert.

I realize that was not the case reading the review, may be you meant "at last" the mrudungam was now heard and the concert was awesome from there on.

[narayan]

Thank you for clearing the matter regarding "alas", possibly! It was bothering me, too. rajeshnat does not seem to have the pessimistic outlook to say "alas", as he is generally quite positive, in my experience.

[rajeshnat]

appu
gave alas a tt injection and made it as "atlast". Tx . We all actually felt more like appAdi. Tx

[PUNARVASU]

appaDiyA?