Suryaprakash@RR Sabha on Dec 15th,2020

Review the latest concerts you have listened to.
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rajeshnat
Posts: 9906
Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 08:04

Suryaprakash@RR Sabha on Dec 15th,2020

Post by rajeshnat »

Suryaprakash@RR Sabha on Dec 15th,2020
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Vocal : Suryaprakash
Violin : M A Sundareswaran
Mrudangam : Shertalai Ananthakrishnan
Ghatam : Trichy Murali

Concert Type : Nirvana - no concert to follow
Day/Duration : Tuesday /2 hours and 15 mins
Hall : 2nd Floor Hall , Sundareswarar hall
Occasion : Atlast atleast to me Kutcheri Season 2020

The last live concert I attended and put a review was Palghat Ramprasad@Vanimahal On March 16th,2020
. Just as we wish how artists have to be in the groove even rasikas have to be in the groove.I did see sankark review of VijaySiva @ RR Sabha few days back and i also saw the paper yesterday morning where it was put in the engagement column of The Hindu.

Not 100 percent sure of how long the concert would be . I assumed it may be 90 minutes or 120 minutes as the start was advertised . On March 2020 , corona was just coming in , atleast on that day vanimahal was closely watching till the last and then they called off. R R sabha with few more sabhas are conducing live concert .

RR Sabha did well, They collected our mobile did do a temperature monitoring and then enforced mask and eveyalternate seat was blocked with a redtape so that we maintain social distance . There is absolutely a great joy for me to attend live concert as there is sustained attention from me and more importantly no impulsive click with another tab or a calling bell ringing at home despite the stream that happens

Neyveli is singing today on 16 Dec, K gayathri on 17th Dec and Nisha on 18th Dec , if you have time please do go . Corona is fading for sure .


Moving on with the song list and concert

1A. viruththam - nanmaiyum selvamum naalum nalgumE - bahudari - Kambar
1B. brOva barAma (S)- bahudari - T
6 mins swaras

2. kadalE vaadu (R) - narayanagowlai - T
5 mins alapana and 3 mins violin return

3. mAmava meenakshi (RS, N ,S) - varAli - MD
8 mins neraval in shyamE shankari digvijaya
4 mins swaras

4. shree kAmAkshi katAkshi (R, CS , S) - vasantha - tiruvarur ramaswamy pillai
9 mins alapana and 5 mins swaras
5. sudhA mayee (CS) - amrithavarshini -HMB

6A. kAna kann kOTi vEndum (R N S T) - kAmbOdhi - psivan
16 mins alapana and 6 mins violin return
3 mins neraval mAnikkam vairam and 9 mins swaras
6B. tani for 17 mins

7A. viruththam - kunram eRindadum - rasikaranjani (wow) + nAyaki?? + sindhubhairavi
7B. Manadhirku ugandhadhu Muruganin - sindhubhairavi - Tanjavur sankara iyer (perhaps the most eldest legend who has braved covid)

8. Thillana - naadhru dheem - yaaridum murai iDuvEn - suddaSArang - Suryaprakash

9A. pavamana - sowrashtram - T
9B. slokham in madhyamavati -forgot to note the line???

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

Re: Suryaprakash@RR Sabha on Dec 15th,2020

Post by rajeshnat »

Every performing musician takes always good things from guru and the paramaguru school. If concerts have a significant primary stamp that too more earlier it is better . If you observe musicians in the era of ARI-SSI to say KVN - Santhanam they have not sung that much of slokham and viruththams to start a concert .

Based on my analysis this trend of including slokhas viruththams whereever possible like a raga sketch only two brilliant musicians have done it extensively They are undoubtedly TVS and TNS and to an extent may be madurai somu . It is nice to start with a flash of bahudari which gives a great start, certain swirl towards the end of viruththam where suryaprakash sang rAma enra irendu ezhutinal gave bahudari plus plus status . Post viruththam it was a brillinant supernova madurai mani cracking start that took over . Swaras were bit like TRS mama to me almost zero violin return till one last play by MAS . What a joy it is to hear kalpana phrases like ga ma pa da ni almost dodging MAS not to play where suryaprakash just continuing to have lovely kalpana in swaras without any fragmentation was great for me.

The #2 was leisurely i did not go thru a phase of disambiguation from kedara to narayana gowlai. Madurai somu / Chitoor school was the style that Suryaprakash adopted and did came out well. I thought go for it dont stop at just krithi kadale vaadu but he did not register the telepathy as it was just plain krithi.

Varali came as submain . I usually like prati submain as some times when skipped usually melakartha 65 comes as main. Anyway i was wondering why only a sketch of varali without violin return but it was ok. Mamava meenaskhi particularly neraval was really well done . Full open throated with nyasa rasa in varali gives me joy , i just dont like a soft varali at all and thank god Dikhshitar ensured that in varali. Varali swaras were short kanakku typecast with mostly one avarthana . i assumed he is going bit longer from there post single avarthana like swaras, but no luck there

The days best was to me his vasantha. Suryaprakash in certain ragas like bhairavi , vasantha has taken a higher shade of his secondary paramaguru Semmangudi. This vasantha was fluid and it just flowed . I at that point of end of alapana knew it would not be seethamma in vasantha as T was done . I also knew hariharaputram may not be the krithi as MD was also done . I forgot this ramaswami pillai masterpiece then but only that came . This is the concise joy of being at live concert where you pay attention in guessing in your mind. I would like to particularly mention the lovely response from MAS in vasatha . Vasantha was concise and he gave completely the baton quickly to suryaprakash. I did notice MAS showing shades of his chittappa MSG there in vasantha. The Tiruvarur ramaswamy pillai with his shree kamaakshi is a beautiful krithi , it bit starts like a sanskrit krithi and then suddenly it goes in and out as a pureplay thamizh krithi. I am wondering did papanasam sivan took a lot of leaf from ramaswamy pillai to create so many sanskritized thamizh krithi. Swaras were well done and I am not complaining when that also had 1 or 2 rounds of cittaswaras in vasantha.That was vasantha For its due VASANTHA sake .

Sudha mayi in amruthavarshi was a slight let down , no swaras from MMI school he sang just a fast krithi . NO NO that is what most of the musicians do . I hope he makes a point always to sing fast filler prior to main with swaras . That is the USP of ganakaladhara school which is so unique. Amrithavarshini was a good drizzle .

The main stormbOdhi ragam was well done , very pracheena kAmbOdhi and very detailed .The grand main krithi was expected and i got kAna kann koti vendum which was superb. MAnikkam vairam neraval was time boxed nope not that satisfied . The swaras were fantastic again the same dodge as though you give to MAS but still not give to Violinist any turns with almost main vocalist not fragmenting . The joy of longer swaras is just fantastic home run for both the percussionist those 9 mins were fantastic.

IN the tukkadas i was surprised to hear a bit detailed RasikaRanjani. I assumed it was quite close to chakravakham. I am not familiar yet with this raga rasikaranjani. I only know Illayaraja creations with this extraordinary ragam rasikaranjani as this ragam has not had much currency in Kutcheri circuit. It is evident that he took rasikaranjani ragam as the sabha RR stands for RasikaRanjani. THis RR sabha was established in 1929 but i Hope more people sing RasikaRanjani. Towards the end of rasikaranjani viruthtam i also noticed a shade of bhatiyar raga some thing in my mind popped then where ranjani gayathri once sang the bhatiyar raga . Anyway looking forward for more RasikaRanjani. The next 2 segments in nayaki?? and sindhubhairavi were just quick pass and he landed with the anupallavi of Tanjavur sankara iyer manadirkku ugandhadhu.

The last sudda saaranga sodhari thillana of his is a well composed thillana . Sudda saarang is emotively high and can get into the zone of say shivaranjani or kalyanavasantham or madhuvanti and I think his choice was good closure considering he sang a fairly grand stormbodhi.

MAS was great in proportion and his play in few returns like bahudari and vasantha was well done. Shertalai ananthakrishnan was sarvalaghu champ and nice naadham throughout . Trichy Murali is a truest team player , passes most of the time but also comes with assertion when he enters into playing zone. Well done Murali , he always smiles and you can be in mute and just look at his face to know how the concert is.

Few things that would have been better
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In increasing order

1. Suryaprakash was bit singing away from microphone especially me not hearing portions of amruthavarshi was disappointing

2. MAS could play bit more pracheena touches with bit more gamaka suddam for ragas like kAmbOdhi during alapana return. At times with such excessive flat notes gamakas are way too hidden

3. The tani was long . Murali did not overrun. Ananthakrishnan could have shortened significantly. Quite a long one that too with Ananthakrishnan taking full 10 mins for even his first round

Overall a very good to excellent concert for 2 hours and 15 mins.

shankarank
Posts: 4043
Joined: 15 Jun 2009, 07:16

Re: Suryaprakash@RR Sabha on Dec 15th,2020

Post by shankarank »

rajeshnat wrote: 16 Dec 2020, 21:27 It is nice to start with a flash of bahudari which gives a great start, certain swirl towards the end of viruththam where suryaprakash sang rAma enra irendu ezhutinal gave bahudari plus plus status .
It depends on musical / emotional continuity. A yati filled madyama kAla sAhityam is not the one to follow an emotional viruttam. Unless the rendition is also slowed down. A raga like bahudhAri is not that much of an emotional vehicle.

It suits slow paced tyAgaraja kritis in aTANa, yadukulakAmbodhi, an utsavara sampradAya kriti or naya rAgA kritis sung in the upa vinyAsam ( good word for tukkaDA), not when you are setting a pace for the concert.

A virtuous Alapana is better I would think.

CRama
Posts: 2939
Joined: 18 Nov 2009, 16:58

Re: Suryaprakash@RR Sabha on Dec 15th,2020

Post by CRama »

That was a lovely review from you Rajesh, after so many months. Good that you have ventured into attending kutcherys and you have started with your own favourite musician Suryaprakash. Hope to get more reviews from you. Did you venture towards Egmore for the Bhavan kondattam.
I have to get satisfied with virtual cutcherys this year.

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

Re: Suryaprakash@RR Sabha on Dec 15th,2020

Post by rajeshnat »

CRama wrote: 17 Dec 2020, 16:44 Did you venture towards Egmore for the Bhavan kondattam.
Crama
No i did not go to Bhavan. I am assuming that is 90 mins . I attended one more concert yesterday in RR Sabha . RR Sabha with the third floor auditorium is excellent in acoustics . They have given 2 hours and 15 mins each for the 2 concerts that i attended .

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