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Vocal : Suryaprakash
Violin : MA Sundareswaran
Mrudangam : Melakaveri Balaji
Ghatam : Karthick
Concert Type : Nirvana - no concert to follow
Day/Duration : Thursday/ 3 hours - 6:15 to 09:15 pm
Hall : RKM School, T Nagar
Mudhra as a sabha is one of the finest curators of content . They bring a level of classical seriousness , certainly they are not just interested in performance to performance hopping . This year Post their concert schedules and a 4 hr concert that is held today they came up with a 4 concert series with tAla as the theme. The 4 talas Adi, rUpakam, Khanda chapu and misra chapu was given as themes for 4 days with 4 balajis(nellai, melakaveri,trivandrum and mannarkoil)taking up the lecdem . The lecdem was considerably short and crisp and followed by the concert. I attended the roopakam talam theme where melakeveri balaji presented for the first 45 to 50 mins and then the concert was dedicated to that talam in this case roopakam .
Lecdem Brief
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Melakaveri Balaji started with brief explanations of the sapta thalas and said roopakam is unique as it is starting with drutham . He said it is better to call the usual roopaka tala as chatushra jAthi roopaka talam. He explained beautifully how roopakam can be put in two ways and the formulation of korvais in geometrical progression rather than arithmetical progression. He then explained the construction of several mohara, korvais in roopaka thalam with nadai variations. Then he illustrated a very difficult strategy of going from samathalendu to 2 thalli idathukku using symmetrical and asymmetrical patterns in korvais.
Some explanations with illustrations of how to approach the above with magic number 14 was done. Few illustrations by brief singing of the many roopaka thala krithis which have 2 thalli eduppu. He sang few snippets of deva deva kalayAmithE (jatha Roopa), tulasi dhala mulache (saraseeruha punnaga), Rama nee samanamevaru (paluku paluku). Then he moved on to other eduppu and korvais for 'vadivelan' in krithi senthil andavan and 'prasiddha gananayakam' in krithi Siddhi vinayakam were also demonstrated. Lecdem was well done possibly he could have cut a lot of thanks and disclaimer part in the early half.
Concert Review
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1. Ninnarul iyambalagumo (R N S) - pantuvarAli - Psivan
- 2 mins alapanai with no violin return
- neraval in innal kooti inbam ooti indrajala viddai kaati for 3 mins
- 4 mins swaras
- 2 mins alapanai with no violin return
- 12 mins alapanai with 6 mins violin return
- neraval in tumburUnuta shreekantam dhuritApaka vaikUntham for 7 mins
- 4 mins swaras
- Pallavi in tisra JAthi roopakam
- Pancha nadai (3,4,5,7,9) pallavi
- Pallavi line --> kA guHA murugA neeyE ! bhairavi priya sEyE
- swaras in bhairavi , behAg and rasikaranjani
6.DattAthreyam DyayAmyaham (Raga sketch) - bilahari - ghatam karthick
7A. kAdalAgi kasindhu - sindhubhairavi - tevaram
7B. vishwEshwara darshan - sindhubhairavi - SwatiTirunal
8. Madhyamavathi sketch
The start was not the best as the sound balance was not right and there was quite a lot of sound problems . Pantuvarali settled towards the end of neraval and swaras were all well set . The second tOdi was a weighty krithi , sung a bit slow but definitely todi had details.
The best of best was indeed brindavanasaranga . Suryaprakash certainly excels and stands out a lot with brindavana sAranga . Voice was opening out very well and this dikshitar krithi does have a structural gestalt to give nice oomph with power .Neraval was topclass and was intensely satisfying.The fast filler in gowdamalhar was quite well done especially with a downpour of sarvalaghu swara patterns .
Pancha nadai pallavi in tisra JAthi roopakam was well done after a brief explanation. This was a well planned execution of tricky pallavi. The pancha nadai was transitioned very well with superb support by both percussionists. The pallavi amaippu did setup a nice neraval , in swaras i particularly enjoyed that longish rasikaranjani swara patterns. RasikaRanjani is lovely raga and the patterns were a fresh quote of sarvalaghu with a definite ganakaladhara touch. I was surprised to hear a fine bilahari composition of ghatam karthick. Ghatam karthick as a creditable composer was well demonstrated . The tevaram with vishweswara especially bought a solemn I semmangudi touch.
Violinist MAS played very well for bhairavi RTP , his violin return in brindavana saranga was bit of a mixed bag. His returns were crisp and I particularly liked his rasikaranjani return. Both the percussionist did a great job. Volume was bit high for karthick but Balaji balanced without drowning .Balaji did not play during his preceding lecdem and he adequately explained and incorporated his theory in the krithis. I particularly liked his samam to idam korvais, quite a challenge.
Mudhra and Radha Bhaskar have to be congratulated in bringing this challenging theme and most importantly giving recognition to mrudangam artist. I also spotted patri satish and mannarkoil balaji in the crowd. In particular the pallavi by suryaprakash was noteworthy to showcase panchanadai in roopaka tala.
Overall an excellent concert with lecdem for close to 3 hours.