Ashwath Narayanan@Swamys Hall on Nov 12th,2015

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

Ashwath Narayanan@Swamys Hall on Nov 12th,2015

Post by rajeshnat »

Ashwath Narayanan@Swamys Hall on Nov 12th,2015
-----------------------------------------
Vocal : Ashwath Narayanan(disciple of Shri KVN and Smt Padma narayanaswamy)
Violin : B.Ananthakrishnan
Mrudangam : Kumbakonam Swaminathan

Concert duration/Day : 2 hrs and 5 minutes/Thursday
Concert Type : Nirvana (Open ended no concert to follow)
sabha/Hall : Shanmughapriya/Swamy's hall

...
...

3. marivere dikkevarayya rAmA (R N S)- shanmughapriya -patnam
11 mins alapana and 6 mins violin return
5 mins neraval in sannuthAnga shree venkatesha
8 mins swaras

4. mAmava pattabhi rAmA- manirangu - MD

5. nee kelanA - devamanOhari- Poochi
6A. paridAnamichittE(R N S T) - bilahari - Patnam
11 mins alapana and 8 mins violin return
7 mins neraval in rokkamicchutakunE mukkaNTi celikAnu
7 mins swaras
6B. tani for 6 mins

7. vishwesharu (Raga sketch) - sindhubhairavi- ST
8. JalajA bandhu - shuruTTi- ST
9. pavamANa

Halls halls halls they are not found in plenty in line with aspiration of sabhas and musicians during 3 months in chennai. So many sabhas in chennai indeed have a season from november onwards. One can say From nov mid to jan mid is the season. Shanmughapriya sabha is run by Smt brinda venkataramanan (mother of V sanjeev the violinist , disciple of s kalyanaraman and mother in law of vidushi gayathri girish). They encourage youngsters and starting Nov 12th they are holding a series for upcoming youngsters , one slot at 04:30 pm and the other at 06:30 pm. The sabha calls this series as amruthadhwani.

I had so far two or three chances to hear Ashwath both were some kind of non nirvana boxed concert where he had to sing and vacate and give room to more senior artist. I had time but just did not make it on time being a working day. Ashwath has a voice that is extremely masculine and very prominently one can guess even without knowing his guru upfront that he is the disciple of KVN in the first 30 seconds .

As I entered he just began the shanmughapriya alapana ,certainly a great submain to me . The alapana certainly had a lot of aakaram phrases and it oozed with classicism . His attempts to add extra briga towards the end came quite well. THe krithi was sung very well and the customary neraval in the line was well done . Swaras were well done , certainly a great start for a little late rasika.

He moved on to mamava pattabhi rama, i am particularly very fond of this MD masterpiece and he indeed sang well the start was magical but towards the end it was not as magical as the start. The filler devamanohari with its chittaswaras were limited and there was a bit slight vottam by mrudangam artist.

Bilahari was the main. Very sampradaya touch and i enjoyed . My mind was racing towards shri chamundeshwari, but he singing a paridanamichittE as a main was definitely bit surprising . THe krithi has an intense speed and I felt the sowkyam and excellence that he bought in alapana gradually tapered from krithi to neraval to swaras . Little more swaras would have added more charm.

Two thukkadas were top class , vishwesharu by kvn is very special his sonorous voice hits pitch perfect sowkyam and aswath hit the same sowkhyam . THe last shurutthi padam had a nice shruthi padam(balance in shruthi).

The violinist B Ananthakrishnan is making strides and his play had a lot of azhuttam .In shanmughapriya he showed contrast to what the singer sang but in bilahari it was quite in line with ashwath. His returns did pep. THe mrudangist kumbakonam Swaminathan was a sarvalaghu champ and i enjoyed his play , the tani was quite loud and the hit was not that enjoyable.

Few things could have been better:
---------------------------------
1.There was bit more expectation from me for ashwath considering that it is an open ended evening concert, he could have gone more but he just ended faithfully perhaps on the organizers dot time.

2. He has a lovely kvn sublime pitch which is a plus but he can take bit more risk to have more brighas with sowkhyam

3. Mel kAla swaras , he seems to give it up bit too soon.

Overall a very good to excellent concert for 2 hours and 5 minutes.
Last edited by rajeshnat on 13 Nov 2015, 23:34, edited 3 times in total.

mahavishnu
Posts: 3341
Joined: 02 Feb 2010, 21:56

Re: Ashwath Narayanan@Swamys Hall on Nov 12th,2015

Post by mahavishnu »

8. is jalaja bandhu by Swati Tirunal. (Beautiful rendition by Semmangudi/KVN here: https://soundcloud.com/anantha-padmanab ... dhu-suruti)

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

Re: Ashwath Narayanan@Swamys Hall on Nov 12th,2015

Post by rajeshnat »

I made a mistake on mrudangam artist name. He is kumbakonam swaminathan and not kumbakonam ramakrishnan. I have corrected the post now .

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

Re: Ashwath Narayanan@Swamys Hall on Nov 12th,2015

Post by arasi »

Rajesh,
Good to see you getting warmed up for the season. Hope we get many more reviews from you in the coming weeks.

Ramesh,
What a delight! The two stalwarts in sync! Is it PMI playing? Very little of the violin to hear, but what you hear just goes so well with what's happening there :)

Post Reply