Suryaprakash@VaniMahal on Aug 31st,2014

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rajeshnat
Posts: 9906
Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 08:04

Suryaprakash@VaniMahal on Aug 31st,2014

Post by rajeshnat »

Suryaprakash@VaniMahal on Aug 31st,2014
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Vocal : Suryaprakash
Violin : H N Bhaskar
Mrudangam : TR Sundaresan
Ghatam : Trichy Murali

Concert Type : Nirvana - no concert to follow
Day/Duration : Sunday/ ~ 2 and 1/2 hours
Occassion/COncert Type : sri jayanthi (Not Gokulashtami )celebrations/Free
Crowd : ~200 - atleast 80 to 90 % hall was full
Hall : Vanimahal Mini Hall - Obul Reddy Hall
Sabha : Sree thyaga brahma gana sabha


1A.slokham vakrathunda mahAkAya - darbAr
1B. vEzhamugatharasE (S) - darbAr - Ambujam Krishna
3 mins swaras
2. vasudevayani (N,S) - kalyanai - T
8 mins neraval in rAga tALa gatulanu pADucunu
6 mins swaras

3. enna punniyam - reetigowlai - OVK
4. Shree krishnam (R,S)- todi - MD
18 mins alapana and 8 mins violin return
12 mins swaras

This concert was an exhibition of how a team can collectively add excellence by each of them excelling .The vocalist Suryaprakash music has always a highest degree of spontaneity and he is always in control of pace and tempo of the performance. There is ownership in the performing stage and the space and that stays always important for the main artist .THe violinist H N Bhaskar has a sharp response for every sangathi - there is always a continous thrust from his sunaada violin contributing immensely to spontaneity especially in pallavi . THe Percussion team of TR Sundaresan (a real dark horse as I know very less about him) and TRichy Murali had their play in a filling manner and more importantly didnot overbang at all. When the team gells well you certainly have not much to crib in a concert

The start in darbar with a ganesha slokham and a fairly rare ambujam krishna was really well done . Durbar start brings to me a lot of carnatic azhuttam . I certainly did not like Suryaprakash voice that much, as it was bit off in base atleast till first half of krithi.But the percussion team hit the ground running.

After customary ganesha ,From second krithi all the numbers were on krishna in line with the gokulashtami theme.Kalyani krithi , neraval and swaras were wonderful , voice settled with real throw and more importantly shruthi suddham and the team never looked back from then on . I particularly like the minimalism of words in neraval with maximum ragha bhavam , for most of the neraval he just took two phrases . These kind of taking just sub phrases for a neraval is very typical of MMI School , there are many krithis like itavu mAta(kapinarayani) , caduvulanni(charukEsi ) and yesterday it was just two phrases "raga tAlamu" - kalyani oozed with immense classicism with very varied patterns. Swaras were well done - Of late I am noticing for few prati ragas he anchors lot of notes with Just nishadam at the end- definitely lot of onstage creativity. THe contrast of a thamizh OVK krithi in vilambit was definitely a great contrasting choice - what a raga reetigowlai is and gives so much emotive feel that too with few sangathis having longer jaarus.

He advanced the main, todi had all the gamuts of a typical nadaswara bani - to start with short cycle keezh kala sangathis giving a meditative touch and then a salvo of brigas in all shapes made tOdi wonderful .The majestic todi fell to the dictum -The more the sangathis and less the breath cycles for a vocalist,makes todi a real majestic raga . I was also expecting a nice neraval but he skipped it and the swaras were more well done in the second half . THe first half had a slightly high kanakku but it got faded with a lot of fast ,furious and longish sangathis with very minimal returns by Bhaskar.
Last edited by rajeshnat on 02 Sep 2014, 07:58, edited 2 times in total.

rajeshnat
Posts: 9906
Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 08:04

Re: Suryaprakash@VaniMahal on Aug 31st,2014

Post by rajeshnat »

5. RTP in dwijAvanthi for 40 mins
9 mins alapana and 5 mins alapana return
taanam for 15 mins
pallavi neraval and swaras for 10 mins
pallavi line - eNguindhO vandAn iDaiccAdi nAn eNrAn
5. tani for 7 mins

6A.viruththam
kaarAya vanna manivannA kanna - kedaragowlai +
seerAya thoozha - ranjani +
taarAya vazhvu - sindhubhairavi +
narAyanAya nAma vAmanAya - behAg - tiruvarutpA (ramalinga adigal)
6B. natavara nAgaranandA??... krishna - behag -meera bhajan

7A. slokham yOgeendhrAnAm - nAdanAmakriya +
krishna karunya sindhO - yamunAkalyani
7B. krishnA nee bEganE - yamunAkalyAni - vyasarAya

8. bhujaga sAyinO - yadhukulakAmbOdhi - ST
9. alapana of madhyamAvati


With all the heavy carnatic ragas having served as foundation , the voice of the vocalist was beaten enough . And what a lovely pallavi that he sang in dwijAavanthi . If you hear many of the dwijAvanthi ragas and few pallavis that are circulating around , you can hear lot of dwijAvanthi sangathis are kind of hovering around few hackneyed sangathis of popular krithis like akhilAndeshwari. . Raga alapana was excellent but what followed was an extraordinary taanam . Both vocalist and violinist were ideating without any alapana phrases , performing 15+ minutes of taanam in only dwijAvanthi is not easy at all, unless you dont have that high skills .They rightfully earned applause for every round.

The pallavi line was eNguindhO vandAn iDaiccAdi nAn eNrAn. I have heard this pallavi line some where before in some old thamizh black and white song sung by sirgazhi govindarajan anchored in melancholy(memory is bit hazy cannot recollect more), some one next to me whispered that it was a mahakavi bharathiyAr line (I am not sure about that). The pallavi line amaippu had a nice leisurely dwijavanthi structure . The asymmetric jumps in vakra swaras makes dwijAvanti one of its kind and I enjoyed that too. I was thinking he will follow with ragamaliga swaras but looking back it was fairly complete as he sang for 40 minutes . The duo of SP and HNB by performing dwijAvanthi as a single raga rtp gave a nattaikurinji like stature to dwijAvanthi.

The percussion team were sweet to perfom a 7 minute tani and he came up with a detailed ragamaliga viruththam and slokham as tukkadas. I was assuming ramalinga adigal with tiruvarutpa was written mainly on Lord shiva and few social themes like caste etc, it was news to me that he has composed even on Lord Krishna. I have not heard this viruththam sung by anyone else , perhaps Suryaprakash researched to sing this - kaaraya vanna manivanna kannA in kedaragowlai , ranjani , sindhubhsairavi and behag and he ended with meera bhajan(natavara nagara nandA ). THere was a listener request for krishna nee beganE and he sang that with lot of emotive oomph and I particularly liked the preceding yOgeendrAnAm slokham in nadanamakriya and yamunakalyani before. The thrust of nAdanAmakriya was superb very much like his another paramaguru semmangudi.

HN Bhaskar showed the MSG way all the way. He earned lots of applause for dwijAvanthi and I liked his play immensely. Each of his returns had so much sharpness and he passed the baton back to vocalist staying in that intense kAlapramanan. The dark horse singapore based TR sundaresan(His guru is Yella venkateshwara Rao) was very filling with patterns and there was not an iota of overbang . Trichy Murali as a ghatam artist was more expressive than a typical upapakkavadhyam artist - kudos to the throw of vocalist voice and perhaps more importantly mrudangam artist did not use any remote control to control upapakkavadhyam.Every one inclusive of upapakkavadhyam had a free hand.

IF there Were two things that I missed in this concert , they were these:
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1. A long fast filler with swarakalpana is one thing I immensely look forward especially with this artist. Looks Suryaprakash had to cut that to give way to pallavi .
2. The attendance was nearly full and Most of them stayed till bhujaga sayinO, quite a rarity . I wish if he had another 20 to 30 minutes ,there would have been definitely a neraval for the main tOdi too.I just love the neraval line sanga chakra gadhA in this MD krithi.

About Vanimahal:
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Vanimahal this year is very professional in conducting the sri jayanthi (NOT gokulashtami)concerts . They start on time and the announcement is just over within a minute - only names of artists(not even any guru paddantara introduction) and the sound engineer goes around and checks like ragasudha hall . They are also making it as a habit to even introduce the tambura artist .

All of the days, the sound adjustment was excellent . As i walked back , I overheard few of my acquaintances speaking those who attended many concerts in this series, telling this concert only had a pallavi and it went till 9 pm. Bottomline people are willing to sit and listen . On a side note , I attended another 40 mins of TNS krishna concert few days back and the crowd was about 150 +TNS Krishna sang with lot of energy . TNS krishna sang Abhogi varnam- evaribodhana, deva deva kalayAmithE(MMG with N and S),mundu venugA (darbar with detailed Raga alapana) and I left when he started with nada murali (hameerkalyani OVK krithi) as there was some urgent errand for me to attend at home . Rasikas are staying till end , I wish they give 3 hours time in the future for all artists.Let there not be a barrier for musicians to sing without the pressure of time constraint.

Overall an excellent concert for 2 hours and 30 minutes, the team clicked with their musically intensity.
Last edited by rajeshnat on 02 Sep 2014, 07:57, edited 2 times in total.

Nick H
Posts: 9379
Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 02:03

Re: Suryaprakash@VaniMahal on Aug 31st,2014

Post by Nick H »

2.5 hours is short for Suryaprakash! He likes to sing for at least three!

Had meant to go, he has been away for such a long time. Stuff got in the way.

sridhar_ranga
Posts: 809
Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 11:36

Re: Suryaprakash@VaniMahal on Aug 31st,2014

Post by sridhar_ranga »

An excellent concert to round off this year's Sri Jayanthi series at Vani Mahal.
(Rajesh to please note: it was not Gokulashtami series :) ....... time you started paying as much :-! attention to matters of "saahityam" as "oomph" factors ;) ... just kidding, my friend! )

Image

Got to agree with ace reviewer Rajesh :ymapplause: on most counts: notably the sweet bowing of HN Bhaskar which made the concert extra special, how I too wished to hear a neraval in Sri Krishnam Bhaja Maansa, my equal surprise to learn that vaLLalAr's tiruaruTpA has verses on Lord Krishna (there...I take back my silly comment on Rajesh and his attention to Sahityam :) .. ), the top-notch sound settings in Vani Mahal mini-hall throughout this series, etc. I saw the sound technician (I'm assuming its him!) walk down to the middle of the hall every now and then to check the sound levels himself in every concert I attended here. :-BD

P.S: To me, the Krishna image at Vani Mahal seemed much sweeter and more mischievous in looks than the one at Krishna Gana Sabha of 'Gokulashtami' series fame :D

rshankar
Posts: 13754
Joined: 02 Feb 2010, 22:26

Re: Suryaprakash@VaniMahal on Aug 31st,2014

Post by rshankar »

Rajesh - the pallavi line is from one of the mahAkavi's great pieces - "engirundO vandAn iDai jAdi nAn enRan, ingivanai yAn peRavE enna tavam seidu viTTEn" - part of the 'kaNNan en sEvakan' series of poems.

sridhar_ranga
Posts: 809
Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 11:36

Re: Suryaprakash@VaniMahal on Aug 31st,2014

Post by sridhar_ranga »

... pronounced in lovely proper Tamil as 'iDaiccAdi' by Suryaprakash- ji

arasi
Posts: 16774
Joined: 22 Jun 2006, 09:30

Re: Suryaprakash@VaniMahal on Aug 31st,2014

Post by arasi »

Sridhar,
Good to know that you could be there to savor the concert.
Great that Surya took up Bharathi for the pallavi line. KaNNan pATTu, that too referring to his naissance in Ayar kulam!

Did not know either, of vaLLalAr singing on Krishna. Good that Surya brought it to the concert stage.

Yes, kalyANi, tODi and a rarely sung Ambujam Krishna song, one of her early compositions.A long time ago, I remember singing it as an invocation with Sujatha Vijayaraghavan (I learnt it from her mother Ananthalakshmi Sadagopan)!

A jujAvanthi pallavi too. Look forward to listening to him in December...

rajeshnat
Posts: 9906
Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 08:04

Re: Suryaprakash@VaniMahal on Aug 31st,2014

Post by rajeshnat »

sridhar_ranga wrote:An excellent concert to round off this year's Sri Jayanthi series at Vani Mahal.
....
To me, the Krishna image at Vani Mahal seemed much sweeter and more mischievous in looks than the one at Krishna Gana Sabha of 'Gokulashtami' series fame :D
Tx Sridhar- I changed it to Sri Jayanthi. SKGS krishna face and the pot of butter had nearly the same size, at least in vanimahal Krishna Bhagawan was on diet.Even his namesake guest Murali from Trichy had come up with an empty pot. :D
Ravi , tx on your confirmation of mahakavi on the pallavi line.

rajeshnat
Posts: 9906
Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 08:04

Re: Suryaprakash@VaniMahal on Aug 31st,2014

Post by rajeshnat »

Vocal : Suryaprakash
Violin : H N Bhaskar
Mrudangam : TR Sundaresan
Ghatam : Trichy Murali

Concert Type : Nirvana - no concert to follow
Occassion/COncert Type : sri jayanthi (Not Gokulashtami )celebrations

...............
5. Single Raga RTP in dwijAvanthi
pallavi line - eNguindhO vandAn iDaiccAdi nAn eNrAn


What can I say on Gokulashtami 2020:
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This palllavi is still fresh in my mind. I just now thought about it after 6 years when we are right now having a bleak jayanthi or gokulashtami. Vanimahal surely would have had their 2020 series.

Stand alone RTP Is very very rare. I think Suryaprakash took this keeping obviously Lord krishna in mind . I am assuming he took Dwijavanti as the lovely HN Bhaskar being a fine student of the great MSG as one another reason. Trichy Murali is rocking ghatam star as always. One gentleman who is always a dark horse in concert circuit is this extraordinary mrudanga vidwan TR Sundaresan . He has to be talked much much more.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fS9ciN-B1GE<<< eNguindhO vandAn iDaiccAdi nAn eNrAn RTP in dwijavanthi

Thank you team ,this dwijavanthi stand alone RTP was for the record books with cute little mahakavi bharathiyar lines. Certainly I am assuming Suryaprakash bit modelled on the RTP superstar Semmangudi who sings RTP only as a standalone raga with very minimal lines bringing so much of raga bhavam .If I am allowed to make a fun statement Suryaprakash like SSI was not hiding behind ragamaliga swaras and also having a longer cycle of taanam like navarathri mantapam with very distinct mel kala taanam like SSI.

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