Suryaprakash@Indian Fine Arts on Dec 25th, 2022

[rajeshnat]

Suryaprakash@Indian Fine Arts on Dec 25th, 2022
--------------------------------------------------
Vocal : Suryaprakash
Violin : V V Ravi
Mrudangam : Melakaveri Balaji
Morsing - AS Krishnan
Tambura : His disciple Dheeraj Venkatachalam (I think he is based out of New Zealand)

Concert Type : Non Nirvana Ticketed concert- evening 2 to follow
Day/Duration : Sunday /2 hours and 25 mins
Sabha / Hall : Indian Fine Arts/Ethiraj kalyana mantapam

Every concert has a structural angle and a functional angle . The functional angle is always one that interests me a lot. The Raaga alapana , Neraval , Swaras and Taanam and to an extent slokham/viruththam is all musical magnificence where quite likely the musician has to stay very focussed with the present moment . There is also a fluke angle that possibly comes from unexpected quarters, today fluke was indeed there.

How was Raaga
————————
R1- Kalyani - It was evident that he started with the submain just to ensure that there is more musical weight . Kalyani alapana was essence with no sag bit reminding throughout GNB possibly the Kalyani krithi being GNB special did come out well away from the prime two schools of this Vidwans .Suryaprakash paramagurus is MMI and SSI

R2- Umabharanam - Umabharanam and thyagaraja krithi nijamAmarmulanu are fairly twins . The alapana was short but in the alapana he set the krithi gait of the early kalaikatttufying krithi of Thayagaraja.

R3- Abhogi alapana was very leisurely . Bit more reminded of KVN than his parama guru MMI. Definitely well done with a lot of jaarus and leisurely squats

R4- CharukEsi is a fantastic main Ragam if the voice bit opens very heavily . The cruise of charukEsi appears perfect . Alapana had a lot of semmangudi flashes

R5- The raaga alapana of RTP in kaapi was exceptional . The coffee flavoured raga has a lot of classical hueness and it has near zero latency to reach the intense classicism status. He will go in the history of CM as one of the finest Coffee singers like his paramaguru MMI or Sowkhyam star KVN.

How was Neraval
—————————
N1 - Raaga Taalamu in Kalyani submain was fantastic . Really lovely roll of Balaji helped in a zone of very focussed intensity. The brigas of GNB bit got jettisoned to have a shade of more fantastic madhyamakAla focus with a steady anchor to add more centre point Shruthi suddham like his paramaguru MMI.

N2- ABhogi neraval in calling shiva chidambaram is a bit marked departure towards KVN ish sangathis . I was having a steady roaring of the boat feeling but the deep raga bhava rasa of words meeting music was intensely classical. Thamizh Chidambaram and GKB and ABhogi all go too well.

N3- Pallavi neraval and the amaippu was almost like Semmungudi like structure few words no necessity of Laya balti with too much of words in uttarangam . His most gurus who are all from less marketed SSI school must have trained him well and that helped in Pallavi .


How was Swaras
—————————
Say Yes to Kalpana and absolutely no to Kalpitha or any well ironed practice at home and delivery at sabha swaras.

S1 - Kalyani was rocking with a little dazzle to bring a more MMI school touch with a bit more usage of patterns like ri ni ga ri ga ga had a lot of charm .There was absolute tightness of melacauvery Balaji and a short arc of violin return was well done. Thank you Ravi for a short arc

S2 & S4- umabharanam was cute Thyagaraja flash ,but I was most impressed with the KI rasikapriya with TRS like breezy landings with lot of swara poruttam in the lines rasika Priya arasE

S3- CharukEshi main swaras were wonderful , I felt he could have gone bit more , his swara Kalpana was bit shortened possibly he had RTP in mind

S5 S6 S7 - IN the RTP more than the RTP prime ragam kApi , it is the joy of hearing an extraordinary about 4 mins of rasika Ranjani that made my day. What an idea of Kalpana - I have never heard this long idea of rasika Ranjani swaras. I briefly connected one popular Illlayaraja song in rasika Ranjani the song amudhE thamizhe where I think he anchored for few fleeting seconds sa ri gA with amudhE thamizhe but the polish of absolutely going with zero violin return in one long cadooble was simply fantastic . Rasika Ranjani got a ragamaliga hamsanandi anthastu . The intermediate mohanakalyani was also well done, but right now I am just taken over by the rasika Ranjani.

How was taanam
————————
Taanam with mrudangam is just a joy and has became very very rare. For a continuous non stop superb sarvalaghu touch of melakaveri Balaji it was a double Decker engine that was speeding at 90 to 100 kms per hour. I was thinking did he short circuit with more ideas or does he need bit more lung space , but nothing happened like that . To sing 7 mins Mruduangam taanam with almost minimal arc of violin was well done. taanam was packed with intensity.

How was viruththam
——————————
The divyaprabhandham was detailed and despite just one raga the contours of Sindhu Bhairavi was well covered

Violin- mRudangam- Moresing
———————————————
I would humbly say that V V Ravi is a bit reluctant violinist for a significant part .He had a lousy microphone and he had to replace . But his Shruthi had so much deep Carnatic sampradaya purity . In aabhogi and charuKEsi where he played the most he brought in so much of distilled essence of raaga Bhavam.

Melakaveri Balaji will reach few big four stars of todays mrudangam. Last few yeas back HE had few weakness where at times he suddenly stops playing , but his play was bit like the best of vellore naadabadran. He listens a lot to his own play where he focusses on the quality of sound . The patterns of his right always showcased richness with a lovely control of volume. For sure he was the best of three accompanist

Morsing gave more sing time to all , his play was really detailed in tani and for a strong patterns of neraval and swaras he skipping and giving more airtime to only V V Ravi did help Ravi showcase more Sruthi fidelity .

VV Ravi as I stated before is a hesitant violinist but that hesitancy did help in few krithis like Abhogi he gave very rich melodious patterns . He was playing a lot like as though he was playing for KVN.

What I did not like
—————————
1. This sabha like Parthasarathi Sabha has thrown away big central front speakers but they can have bit more focus on the placement of speakers inside the mEdai side . VV Ravi was not heard in first song but that was a blessing and he skipped the violin return. HE was about to play umabharanam then long twitch sound was bit frustrating. The sound engineer was bit late in making corrections. IFA can instruct better to the sound engineer.

2. Melakaveri balaji could have bit reduce the tani . The concert was extended by 15 or 20 mins as the next artist could not reach on time that way I did not feel that much.

3. Each of the artists adjusted sound for about 10 mins but all four did not sing anything together and did not do sound check . Sound check in tandem where all of them play along with singer singing few snippets of some song or swaras will be the best sound test . Hope Suryaprakash Take a leaf out of Trichur Brothers (especially)or Abhishek or Sanjay or Raga they do that always. I have not noticed Suryaprakash doing that for tandem sound check.

At last the fluke angle
——————————
1. OST who was the next vidwan had an award in some other sabha and he had to come late so suryaprakash and team got full 2 hours and 30 mins nearly. For sure that may be a reason I got a RTP as 15 mins time was not allocated for the subsequent microphone setup

2. For 2 out of 3 songs, violin reply was passed saving some time. Courtesy microphone malfunction , also VV Ravi bit botched up where he took the second violin and played his best violin from Abhogi. There violinist may have given another 5 mins

[rajeshnat]

No musician can only sing R , N or S or taanam for sure without the structural foundation of krithis .Krithis indeed have minimal to significant functional rasa . Spread of language and composers speaks for itself. The only krithi I did not like is the last minimal functional rasa krithi Venkata Chala Nilayam (I am not a big fan of this thukkada). I have graduated away from not liking this MLV Venkatachala nilayam or MS amma Korai Onrum Illai.

Here is the scaffolding of structural krithis

01. Vasudevayani (R N S)-kalyani -T
3 mins alapana with no violin return
Nerval Raaga Taala mulanu for 5 mins
Swaras for 7 mins

02. nijamArmamulanu (R ,S) - umabharanam - T
3 mins alapana with no violin return
Swaras for 4 mins

03. sabhApathiku veru deivam (R N) - Abhor -GKB
8 mins alapana and 5 Mins violin return
Neraval in sivachidambaram enru sonnAl pOdumE for 5 mins

04A. krupAya pAlayE shaurE - CharuKesi - ST
9 mins alapana and 4 mins violin return
11 mins swaras
04B. Tani for 17 mins

05. aRul seyya vendum(R S ) - rasikapriyA - KI
2 mins alapana and 3 mins swaras

06. RTP in kApi for 29 mins
10 mins alapana with lovely short 2 mins violin return
Taanam of 7 mins with mrudu angam
Pallavi line was Manda hAsa vadanA Hare Krishna
Swaras in kApi + Mohanakalyani+ Rasika Ranjani

07A. Divyaprabhandham - sindhubhairavi - Azhwar Pasuram
07B. Venkata Chala nilayam - sindhubhairavi - PD

The joy of manodharma Sangeetham was in abundance especially coffee Mrudu angam taanam and rasika ranjani flash flood swaras) and Tanjor S Kalynaramanish arul seyya vendum ayya were my top 3 picks that had uniqueness in this concert

GLICSPAWES 2022 "Goto LIve Concert Show PAtronage Without Excuses Series" concert #10 of 12 is done.

Overall an excellent to outstanding concert for 2 hours and 25 mins(04 35 to 7 PM).

[rajeshnat]

Suryaprakash@Indian Fine Arts on Dec 25th, 2022
-----------------------------------------------------------
Vocal : Suryaprakash
Violin : V V Ravi
Mrudangam : Melakaveri Balaji
Morsing - AS Krishnan
Tambura : His disciple Dheeraj Venkatachalam (I think he is based out of New Zealand)

www.rasikas.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=378355#p378355