Palakkad Ramprasad@Pallavi Darbar on June 19th,2022

[rajeshnat]

Palakkad Ramprasad@Pallavi Darbar on June 19th,2022
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Vocal : Palakkad Ramprasad
Violin : L Ramakrishnan
Mrudangam : Neyveli Narayanan
Tambura : YOung Manasa
Shruthi Box: Younger Tejas

Concert duration/Day :Forgot to note / Sunday
Concert Type : Nirvana (no concert to follow)
sabha/Hall : Carnatica with Parthasarathi swami sabha /MFAC Hall
Occasion : Yearly Pallavi darbar is back after few years of covid break

0. Sashikiran introducing with a medlay of raga names giving choice to Palakkad Ramprasad
1. 6 mins talk of pallavi explaining why he choosed this pallavi
2. Appa rAma Bhakthi (RS,N,S) - pantuvarali - T
neraval in trippaTalanu tIrci kaNTi reppa valenu for 5 mins
4 mins swaras

3A. RTP in Kharaharapriya for 1 hour and 10 mins exclusive of tani
Mishra Chaapu Pallavi
Pallavi line was alamEl mangai manaalA , ambuja nAbha dayAlA
21 mins alapana with two rounds of violin return
3B. 15 mins taanam with lot of violin returns

3C. Pallavi with swararagamaliga for 34 mins
Pallavi line was alamEl mangai manaalA , ambuja nAbha dayAlA
Swara ragamaliga was in kharaharapriya + varAli + malayamArutham?? + Hameerkalyani + BegaDa
3D. tani for 14 mins

4. ninyAkO ninna - brindavana saranga?? - PD
5. nee nama -mangalam

Ramprasad has extremely pliable masculine voice . His sareeram particularly touching leisurely mid to lower octaves is extremely pleasing to listeners. As i sat for the last concert of the series on sunday evening 2 slot, sashikiran in his usual style introduced the participants and also announced a bunch of ragas chosen by audience for vocalist to pickup

Ramprasad quickly gave a long introduction. He kind of introduced which can be also thought of bit intrinsically marketing his style and his lineage and possibly his limitation to not to dwell too much in pallavi especially with detailed layam. He kind of started by saying his tatha the doyen PMI used to say of how pallavi has to be musically rich and not mathematically rich . He sang two snippets to build a case that the line should go well with ragam. Then he also said being econometrician he can also go with reduced count of math and he said the pallavi ragam has to be soothing to the ears .

Then he said he will go with pracheena ragam and picked the ghana ragam Kharaharapriya and also said the mishra chaapu is what he would take. He also said the pallavi line that he has taken is bit like antha kalathu pallavi where second half has more space for neraval . <<I kind of felt many antha kalathu pallavi also has even spaced lines where even first half is more space for eg sri rama jaya jaya rama of ssi>>.

Any way all said he generally has a marketing strategy that he follows truly sampradayam and he is a pracheena vidwan

All said who cares what one talks as long as we get in pallavi is what i thought .Then he rolled with a first krithi for getting enough momentum. The ragam chosen was right as it brings a lot of momentum and with a brief raga alapana he rolled with pantuvarali krithi appa rama bhakthi. The krithi sound setup had a slightly high volume of mrudangam and also violin , bit voice was bit behind. Mrudangam got adjusted post the first krithi .The neraval was not too clear possibly at some distinct point his voice was bit nasal too. All said pantuvarali gave a bit of hit and miss momentum

Kharaharapriya RTP alapana was an anchor of madhyamakalam with a typecast of so much of leisurely sangathis bit reminding of KVN for me . I personally did not like his breaking alapana with two violin returns the second was not taken where alapana generally follow taanam . IT was during alapana itself he just segmented with two rounds of violin return. He surely sang well but i would have preferred a bit more vocal homogeneous and vocal continued sangathis . Also i missed a little bit of mel kaalam shoots of a typical kharaharapriya alapana. Semmangudi came and went too fast with Ramprasad

Taanam was not metered with percussion. He really sang well ,violinist was a sampradaya assertive pidi team player . L Ramakrishnans was at many places like the legend V V Subramaniam , what azhuttam in play and he really did a great job.

The pallavi line was cute with non laya expansion but had more raga bhavam anchored neraval . IN the swaras i missed a bit more khp detail in swaras but his ragamaliga in Malayamarutham and Hameer was well done . Varali was bit average and the last begada could have been bit more expansive. All said choices were good and i am assuming he took it on his strengths .

The last brindavani or brindavana saranga was very emotive and was a great finish. I did not get the pallavi line of last PD Krithi, but i enjoyed the last meditative and soothing rendition

L ramakrishnan played exceptionally well. His volume was slightly high. There were two microphones for Ramprasad, i am assuming one was for video live relay and the other for the hall. Possibly if the microphone volume of violin and vocal was interchanged i would have been happier .

Neyveli narayanan played very well and went with the flow of Ramprasad voice . KVG had limited role, their tani was well done and went with the flow of pallavi . They kept it bit simpler possibly because it was the last slot of the 3 day pallavi darbar .

All said in a career of carnatic artists, i am not sure if there is any event other than pallavi darbar for exclusive pallavi. I thought Ramprasad could have packed bit more in raga alapana and also bit reduced little excess violin return. This pallavi was not appearing like a pallavi darbar concert but a bit like 3 hours plus concert where a very detailed RTP was sung.

Overall a very good to excellent concert of a 1 hour and 10 mins Kharaharapriya Pallavi

[adambakkam]

Dear @rajeshnat I am surprised you are referring to PRP from a layam standpoint as someone

possibly his limitation to not to dwell too much in pallavi especially with detailed layam

.

His penchant for layam and complex swara patterns and intricate kanakku in neraval and swarams is well known and perhaps one of the very few current senior artists who expands as much in layam based neraval. Coming back to quote about the RTP talam selection, in last year's Pallavi Darbar he sang one of the most challenging Sankeerna nadai pallavi of Alathur brothers and he brilliantly explored it with even different nadais within Tanam which is seldom sung. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DITqeVP_6Qo. You should also listen to his many dwi-nadai pallavis.


Personally, I enjoyed the depth of Karaharapriya which was made possible by the multiple exchanges between vocalist and violinist which you can usually notice in past masters concerts and I feel it allowed him to explore it in detail along with the brilliance of LRK. They make such a unique combo with depth, layam, following and feeding off of each other. I personally appreciate when brilliant violinists like LRK are offered the extra turn without the main vocalist trying to hog it all. Who would say no to one more turn by LRK ?

Given PRP's command over layam, I also expected him to choose a more complicated pallavi but nonetheless, I felt the pallavi darbar effect was not necessarily diluted because of the simplicity. A complex nadai/talam pallavi can be sung in a regular concert. But elaborate multiple turn exploration of ragam and tanam can be done only in such pallavi darbar setting

KVG and Sri NN showed their experience in embellishing the concert and made it enjoyable. An open question! Just because it is Pallavi Darbar should they make it too complex and sometimes not enjoyable vs still trying to provide wholesome experience to the audience? In another darbar concert this year, the artist was trying some stuff which didnt fall in place and the trial and error went on forever which i felt was uncomfortable. It might have been still academically OK for musicians in audience due to the artist. But at what cost ?