Abilash Giriprasad@mahalakshmi Hall(R A Puram) on Oct 06th,2018
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Vocal : Abilash Giriprasad - 4th generation disciple of Semmangudi-> PSN->As Murali
Violin : Pappu Gyan Dev - violin disciple of vidushi pantula rama
Mrudangam : Akshay Ram - disciple of UKS and ghatam suresh
Tambura : Abilash sister Abhinaya
Concert Type : Nirvana - no concert to follow
Day/Duration : Saturday/ 2 hours and 15 mins
Hall : mahalakshmi association , off a street in cp ramaswamy road , RA puram
Sabha: aanmajothi , conducted by Saraswathi Vidyalaya school trust , vadapalani, chennai.
I was late by 10 mins , assuming first was vathApi
1. vAthApi (?,S) - hamsadhwani - MD
7 mins swaras
2. nekkurugi (R,S) - AbhOgi - Psivan
3 mins alapana without violin return
swaras for 4 mins
3. ElarA shree krishnA (R) - kAmbOdhi - T
3 mins alapana
4. sambhO mahAdeva (R N S) - paNtuvarAli - T
5 mins alapana and 3 mins violin return
6 mins neraval in parama dayakarA
6 mins swaras
5. karuna jooda ninnu nammina - shree ragam - SS
6A. RTP in nattaikurinji for 42 mins
RTP line was alathur brothers creation of Nattai kurinji enbAr , ethilum siranda engal
taalam chatushra jAthi triputa taalam
9 mins alapana + 5 mins violin return in alapana
7 mins taanam without mrudangam
pallavi neraval with swaras for rest of the time ,
neraval and swaras as expected in all three -nattaikurinji + kurinji +nattai
6B. tani for 9 mins
7.chandrachooda - darbAri - PD
8. kurai onrum illai - shivaranjani + kapi + sindhubhairavi -rajaji
9A. shree ramachandranukku jaya mangalam - madhyamavati - Arunachala kavirayar
9B. kalithuvura sethubandha - shreerangam -??? (who wrote this that was popularized by MDR)
9C. shree padmanAbham - shree ragam - ST???
Abilash Giriprasad@mahalakshmi Hall on Oct 06th,2018
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rajeshnat
- Posts: 9927
- Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 08:04
Abilash Giriprasad@mahalakshmi Hall on Oct 06th,2018
Last edited by rajeshnat on 07 Oct 2018, 20:16, edited 3 times in total.
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rajeshnat
- Posts: 9927
- Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 08:04
Re: Abilash Giriprasad@mahalakshmi hall on Oct 06th,2018
Chennai is known as Tirupati of CM(why should we call chennai as M***a of CM or V*****n of CM).Pluralism can be brought into Tirupati of CM , in the past we have successfully imported Vakulabharanam and shankarabharanam notes, we can find more and more imports like that in the future without losing the core fabric.
At times few years back, atleast I used to wonder during non kutcheri season possibly bangalore may have just overtaken chennai in terms of having newer sabhas,newer venues and more count of concerts . Chennai was not undergoing sabha enhancement it is still stuck with way too much of legacy, that too considering nadopasana srinivasan , safe ramabhadran are all not there with us even successful continuation of legacy is not definite. My conjecture during years from 2010 to 2016 was that chennai is bit losing out to say bangalore . But it is no more a right hypothesis . We still have to see how chennai still sustains as CM center . One thing for sure it needs is more count of first class zamindars like Nalli kuppuswami chettiar more into next 50 years .Of late definitely this year more counts of concerts are happening in chennai in non kutcheri season which is nice .
I love when i as a rasika have more choice to choose especially on a saturday or sunday . Yesterday there were atleast 5 to 6 concerts i could take. Amritha murali in adayar hamsadhwani which i thought i should skip as it is three in a row in three weeks for me . K gayathri in age old sastri hall , Excello in music academy with a pre evening flute slot of vijayagopal followed by visaka hari, one Mohan santhanam in Mambalam Mudhra and O gosh what was there in the ubiquitous arkay and ragasudha hall , i just forgot now.
There is a new saraswati vidhyalaya school trust which has just sprung up in recent years, that school is in vadapalani but this trust sponsors concert in the banner aanmajothi . This trust if my memory is right conducts concerts in vadapalani, certainly may be a nice pocket to try CM since madurai somu sang in vadapalani temple . I think few weeks back i saw some print in the hindu engagement where this school trust had a concert in vadapalani of one upcoming madurai sivaganesh (I did not go to that concert).I think they also conduct in RA Puram in mahalakshmi welfare association in RA Puram which is where i went.
I was initially thinking may be it is a makeshift pandal done by some flats association .I was assuming i have to compromise significantly with R A puram sound and traffic . But what a surprise this hall is just way too good , it can only seat may be 60. The hall has AC which is bit bad but hey i moved away from the AC vent . WHen the pallavi line ethilum siranda engal nAttai SummerLand enbAr, i decided to move out of useless AC. The acoustics of this hall has nice speakers distributed in space which is nice and the halls have walls drilled with sufficient holes for better acoustics. This hall kind of resembles a preview theatre. If any of you want a change away from mambalam or mylapore give a try with this hall. The beauty of this place is it is just walkable from mandaveli station which is nice.
i lost half the tank of petrol when vathapi was on as i had to park in that small street . As i entered ,i saw the kutcheri songlist nalli book creator Shri Kannan leading from the front participating in this sabha. Infact shri kannan gave the closing MC speech post mangalam , he speaks only senthamizh which is nice too .Infact shri kannan told 3 things which i only knew after he told in the microphone .The first was pappu gyan dev is a violin student of pantula rama and he also informed about abilash sister's name as abhinaya who strummed very heavily the tambura. He also made a passing mention that just few days back that abilash had his birthday few days back . He just moved from kharaharapriya to gowrimanohari in age.
I came few minutes late and just entered with vathapi anupallavi just getting started . vathapi is quite a biggie krithi and hamsadhwani is a brilliant opening raga . Usually one gets a heavier shower of swaras and abilash indeed gave quite a bit , innum konjam swaras like his grand paramaguru semmangudi would have been better , but still ok.I did spot a lot of onspot creativity where he adjusted very beautifully with bit relative low speed of mrudangam artist in hamsadhwani.
What a lovely nekkurugi in Abhogi , alapana was very concise and the best he did is he skipped violin return and moved to DKJ popularized nekkurugi. For the first time in my life i heard when aruna sairam sang this abhogi krithi nekkurugi , sivan's words mesemerized me with this krithi that day. Sivan as a composer has given run for money for sadguru thyagraja atleast in few krithis in my assessment and this nekkurugi gives run for money coming quite close to manasunilpa and sabhapathi. What a joy to hear nekkurugi with that extra thrust dheena saranya , phrases like subramanya O gosh what a lovely ah ah ah bhogi it was . Next was surely a slight gentle drizzle with the alapana in kAmbODhi i was assuming mA jAnaki as sub main and i also assumed the alapana may be slow but the krithi may be bit faster mA jAnaki submain.Abilash surprised me with a very rare Sadguru thyagaraja krithi elArA shree krishna . I just googled to find that this krithi was taken by Shri DKJ , may be he took from that . This krithi is bit very very slow the stormbOdhi is bit down with dengue fever and is just calmbOdhi , at times those uninitiated can easily even mistake this number as yadukulakAmbodhi. i have not heard this krithi elArA shree krishna at all.
It was just time for submain. Abhilash took a submain in pantuvarali with a very weighty krithi. The alapana was not a semmangudi downpour as it had less whilwind tour .Abilash did well with lovely azhuttam . I loved his neraval which had great diction with very adequate stresses with keywords parama dayakara etc- sahitya muse was right there. He distinctly went to second stage neraval where neraval had more musical muse rasa than diction rasa, voice was very strong and pantuvarali neraval was enjoyable. Swaras in panutuvarali was in shortburst cycles almost every sangathi when he sang the neraval ,plot was always with no mrudangam play. He did not go more deeper in higher register like semmangudi but he covered enough ground to create a great pantuvarali .
One rasika asked in the audience for him to plan and sing a RTP. Abilash consulted the mrudangist and akshayram gave a green signal. He quickly sang with a clean sAreeram the shree ragam shyama sastri krithi -karuna jooda krithi and it was very nice and very weighty. He asked then the violinist whether he can sing an RTP in nattaikurinji . Double thumbsup went up with pappu gyan dev and it was nattaikurinji pallavi
The hallmark of most great musicians in past present and foreseeable future is to have more and more sangathis centered in madhyama kAlam . Abilash sang a beautiful nattaikurinji alapana , personally i feel in nattaikurinji the voice has to slide with power possibly pantuvarali sowed the seed and abilash harvested with the nattaikurinji fruit. The pallavi neraval and swaras were well done . The kurinji segment was really superb , about a decade back there was one mahavidwan TNS exclusive casette that i bought where he sang the same nattai kurinji enbar, the segment where abilash sang kurinji was very comparable to what mahavidwan TNS sang.In nattai he did not impress me possibly he went so quickly there where he and mrudangist bit slipped . All said considering the team did not plan nattaikurinji pallavi at all, that was a good testimony of GREAT YOUNG talent to provide live manodharma music.
In the tukkada just about when he started with darbari alapana, at the same time shri kannan asked kurai onrum illai . Abilash gently smiled sang a great darbari chandrachooda which is so much of ooomph and also went to kurai onrum illai which is a big janaranjakam number.Personally i am not a big fan of kurai onrum illai which over the years i am feeling it is extremely over rated song.In the most easiest sindhu bhairavi segment of kurai onrum illai ,abilash bit lost thala with mrudangam but overall well done. He seems to have a bit more interest with MDR , the mangalam was a madhyamavati -shree combo and I liked his azhuttam in all the segments there.
Pappu gyan dev was introduced by kannan sir as Pantula rama student , infact he proudly said some thing like you all would not know that pantula also plays violin. Gyan dev could have been bit more puntual in returning baton to the vocalist like how msn murthy does to pantula . In general he has a nice shruthi sense and he is kind of playing with a bit more nidhanam touch and takes his time . AkshayRam needs bit more muscle , he is cautious to get the patterns right which i am assuming is not a bad idea considering the stage in his career.
Abilash is slightly lacking in voice quality , there is great power and definite azhuttam but at times the melody quotient atleast as to have a faint paint .This problem is bit there with almost many first and second generation male students of the great PSN Sir .I am assuming since he is just 23 now , he may soon get it as this age there is a vocal metamorphosis that is happening OR may be I am wrong in being so liberal there ,may be he has to consciously work on that aspect of voice quality . All said best wishes to this lovely young musician ,he has got musical stuff deep inside him.
I am personally going to up my radar with this lovely sound proof venue @ RA puram. In aural experience you can name this hall as mini kamakoti hall or micro skgs main hall.
Overall an excellent concert for 2 hours and 15 mins.
At times few years back, atleast I used to wonder during non kutcheri season possibly bangalore may have just overtaken chennai in terms of having newer sabhas,newer venues and more count of concerts . Chennai was not undergoing sabha enhancement it is still stuck with way too much of legacy, that too considering nadopasana srinivasan , safe ramabhadran are all not there with us even successful continuation of legacy is not definite. My conjecture during years from 2010 to 2016 was that chennai is bit losing out to say bangalore . But it is no more a right hypothesis . We still have to see how chennai still sustains as CM center . One thing for sure it needs is more count of first class zamindars like Nalli kuppuswami chettiar more into next 50 years .Of late definitely this year more counts of concerts are happening in chennai in non kutcheri season which is nice .
I love when i as a rasika have more choice to choose especially on a saturday or sunday . Yesterday there were atleast 5 to 6 concerts i could take. Amritha murali in adayar hamsadhwani which i thought i should skip as it is three in a row in three weeks for me . K gayathri in age old sastri hall , Excello in music academy with a pre evening flute slot of vijayagopal followed by visaka hari, one Mohan santhanam in Mambalam Mudhra and O gosh what was there in the ubiquitous arkay and ragasudha hall , i just forgot now.
There is a new saraswati vidhyalaya school trust which has just sprung up in recent years, that school is in vadapalani but this trust sponsors concert in the banner aanmajothi . This trust if my memory is right conducts concerts in vadapalani, certainly may be a nice pocket to try CM since madurai somu sang in vadapalani temple . I think few weeks back i saw some print in the hindu engagement where this school trust had a concert in vadapalani of one upcoming madurai sivaganesh (I did not go to that concert).I think they also conduct in RA Puram in mahalakshmi welfare association in RA Puram which is where i went.
I was initially thinking may be it is a makeshift pandal done by some flats association .I was assuming i have to compromise significantly with R A puram sound and traffic . But what a surprise this hall is just way too good , it can only seat may be 60. The hall has AC which is bit bad but hey i moved away from the AC vent . WHen the pallavi line ethilum siranda engal nAttai SummerLand enbAr, i decided to move out of useless AC. The acoustics of this hall has nice speakers distributed in space which is nice and the halls have walls drilled with sufficient holes for better acoustics. This hall kind of resembles a preview theatre. If any of you want a change away from mambalam or mylapore give a try with this hall. The beauty of this place is it is just walkable from mandaveli station which is nice.
i lost half the tank of petrol when vathapi was on as i had to park in that small street . As i entered ,i saw the kutcheri songlist nalli book creator Shri Kannan leading from the front participating in this sabha. Infact shri kannan gave the closing MC speech post mangalam , he speaks only senthamizh which is nice too .Infact shri kannan told 3 things which i only knew after he told in the microphone .The first was pappu gyan dev is a violin student of pantula rama and he also informed about abilash sister's name as abhinaya who strummed very heavily the tambura. He also made a passing mention that just few days back that abilash had his birthday few days back . He just moved from kharaharapriya to gowrimanohari in age.
I came few minutes late and just entered with vathapi anupallavi just getting started . vathapi is quite a biggie krithi and hamsadhwani is a brilliant opening raga . Usually one gets a heavier shower of swaras and abilash indeed gave quite a bit , innum konjam swaras like his grand paramaguru semmangudi would have been better , but still ok.I did spot a lot of onspot creativity where he adjusted very beautifully with bit relative low speed of mrudangam artist in hamsadhwani.
What a lovely nekkurugi in Abhogi , alapana was very concise and the best he did is he skipped violin return and moved to DKJ popularized nekkurugi. For the first time in my life i heard when aruna sairam sang this abhogi krithi nekkurugi , sivan's words mesemerized me with this krithi that day. Sivan as a composer has given run for money for sadguru thyagraja atleast in few krithis in my assessment and this nekkurugi gives run for money coming quite close to manasunilpa and sabhapathi. What a joy to hear nekkurugi with that extra thrust dheena saranya , phrases like subramanya O gosh what a lovely ah ah ah bhogi it was . Next was surely a slight gentle drizzle with the alapana in kAmbODhi i was assuming mA jAnaki as sub main and i also assumed the alapana may be slow but the krithi may be bit faster mA jAnaki submain.Abilash surprised me with a very rare Sadguru thyagaraja krithi elArA shree krishna . I just googled to find that this krithi was taken by Shri DKJ , may be he took from that . This krithi is bit very very slow the stormbOdhi is bit down with dengue fever and is just calmbOdhi , at times those uninitiated can easily even mistake this number as yadukulakAmbodhi. i have not heard this krithi elArA shree krishna at all.
It was just time for submain. Abhilash took a submain in pantuvarali with a very weighty krithi. The alapana was not a semmangudi downpour as it had less whilwind tour .Abilash did well with lovely azhuttam . I loved his neraval which had great diction with very adequate stresses with keywords parama dayakara etc- sahitya muse was right there. He distinctly went to second stage neraval where neraval had more musical muse rasa than diction rasa, voice was very strong and pantuvarali neraval was enjoyable. Swaras in panutuvarali was in shortburst cycles almost every sangathi when he sang the neraval ,plot was always with no mrudangam play. He did not go more deeper in higher register like semmangudi but he covered enough ground to create a great pantuvarali .
One rasika asked in the audience for him to plan and sing a RTP. Abilash consulted the mrudangist and akshayram gave a green signal. He quickly sang with a clean sAreeram the shree ragam shyama sastri krithi -karuna jooda krithi and it was very nice and very weighty. He asked then the violinist whether he can sing an RTP in nattaikurinji . Double thumbsup went up with pappu gyan dev and it was nattaikurinji pallavi
The hallmark of most great musicians in past present and foreseeable future is to have more and more sangathis centered in madhyama kAlam . Abilash sang a beautiful nattaikurinji alapana , personally i feel in nattaikurinji the voice has to slide with power possibly pantuvarali sowed the seed and abilash harvested with the nattaikurinji fruit. The pallavi neraval and swaras were well done . The kurinji segment was really superb , about a decade back there was one mahavidwan TNS exclusive casette that i bought where he sang the same nattai kurinji enbar, the segment where abilash sang kurinji was very comparable to what mahavidwan TNS sang.In nattai he did not impress me possibly he went so quickly there where he and mrudangist bit slipped . All said considering the team did not plan nattaikurinji pallavi at all, that was a good testimony of GREAT YOUNG talent to provide live manodharma music.
In the tukkada just about when he started with darbari alapana, at the same time shri kannan asked kurai onrum illai . Abilash gently smiled sang a great darbari chandrachooda which is so much of ooomph and also went to kurai onrum illai which is a big janaranjakam number.Personally i am not a big fan of kurai onrum illai which over the years i am feeling it is extremely over rated song.In the most easiest sindhu bhairavi segment of kurai onrum illai ,abilash bit lost thala with mrudangam but overall well done. He seems to have a bit more interest with MDR , the mangalam was a madhyamavati -shree combo and I liked his azhuttam in all the segments there.
Pappu gyan dev was introduced by kannan sir as Pantula rama student , infact he proudly said some thing like you all would not know that pantula also plays violin. Gyan dev could have been bit more puntual in returning baton to the vocalist like how msn murthy does to pantula . In general he has a nice shruthi sense and he is kind of playing with a bit more nidhanam touch and takes his time . AkshayRam needs bit more muscle , he is cautious to get the patterns right which i am assuming is not a bad idea considering the stage in his career.
Abilash is slightly lacking in voice quality , there is great power and definite azhuttam but at times the melody quotient atleast as to have a faint paint .This problem is bit there with almost many first and second generation male students of the great PSN Sir .I am assuming since he is just 23 now , he may soon get it as this age there is a vocal metamorphosis that is happening OR may be I am wrong in being so liberal there ,may be he has to consciously work on that aspect of voice quality . All said best wishes to this lovely young musician ,he has got musical stuff deep inside him.
I am personally going to up my radar with this lovely sound proof venue @ RA puram. In aural experience you can name this hall as mini kamakoti hall or micro skgs main hall.
Overall an excellent concert for 2 hours and 15 mins.
-
arasi
- Posts: 16787
- Joined: 22 Jun 2006, 09:30
Re: Abilash Giriprasad@mahalakshmi Hall on Oct 06th,2018
Rajesh,
I'm sure the youngsters are very happy that you took as much time and interest (not surprising for us, knowing you) in writing in such detail about this concert...
Abhilash sounds like someone who needs to be heard, among the upcoming young musicians.You say azhutham--a quality which has to be appreciated even more so, in today's speed-oriented ways in music.
nekkurugi is as much my favorite (you have typed it right in the review, but not in the list
). An on-the-spot RTP
speaks well of his abilities.
Such a good hall you say. Accoustics too. News to me.
I'm sure the youngsters are very happy that you took as much time and interest (not surprising for us, knowing you) in writing in such detail about this concert...
Abhilash sounds like someone who needs to be heard, among the upcoming young musicians.You say azhutham--a quality which has to be appreciated even more so, in today's speed-oriented ways in music.
nekkurugi is as much my favorite (you have typed it right in the review, but not in the list
). An on-the-spot RTPspeaks well of his abilities.
Such a good hall you say. Accoustics too. News to me.
-
rajeshnat
- Posts: 9927
- Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 08:04