Abhishek Raghuram@Parthasarathy Sabha on Jan 02nd,2019

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rajeshnat
Posts: 9907
Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 08:04

Abhishek Raghuram@Parthasarathy Sabha on Jan 02nd,2019

Post by rajeshnat »

Abhishek Raghuram@Parthasarathy Sabha on Jan 02nd,2019
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Vocal : Abhishek Raghuram
Violin : H N Bhaskar
Mrudangam : Anantha R Krishnan
Tambura : Only Electronic Gadget

Concert Type : Nirvana - no concert to follow
Day/Duration : Wednesday/ 3 hours and 15 mins - 6:30 to 09:45pm
Hall : Vidya Bharathi, Mylapore

01. BuddhamAshrayAmi(R,S)- nattaikurinji- MD
  • 3 mins alapana with no violin return
02. pAlayamAm pArvatIsha(R,CS,S) - kannada - MD
  • 4 mins alapana with no violin return
  • 5 mins swaras
03A. raksha bEttarE(R,N,S,T) - Bhairavi - T
  • 15 mins alapana with 9 mins violin return
  • neraval in vaksha sthalamuna velayu lakshmI ramaNunik for 11 mins
  • 16 mins swaras
03B. tani for 17 mins

04. aparAdhamula norva (R,S)- rasAli - T
  • 4 mins alapana with 2 mins violin return
  • 4 mins swaras
05. rAvE parvata rAjakumArI (R,CS)-kalyani -SS
  • 2 mins alapana
06. nagumOmu ganalEni - AbhEri - T

07. RTP in dwijAvanthi for 31 mins
  • 11 mins alapana
  • taanam completely given to HN Bhaskar for 7 mins
  • pallavi line --> shAradE karunAnidhE! sakala da vAmba sadA janA
  • neraval for 9 mins with a brief detour to behag and back to dwijAvanthi
  • Swaras for 4 mins in behAg+ kamAs + dwijAvanthi
08. thillana - ni ra ga ma - poorvi - Tirukokarnam Vaidyanatha Bhagavathar
09. pavamAna - sowrAshtram -T

rajeshnat
Posts: 9907
Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 08:04

Re: Abhishek Raghuram@Parthasarathy Sabha on Jan 02nd,2019

Post by rajeshnat »

In year 2018, i first noticed one musical datapoint . There was this vidwan sanjay subrahmanyan who went on a tour to USA on a saturday to seattle then the next day he was given a chance in sankritilaya-bayarea where it was a 4 hour concert. Even for a 4 hour concert with two successive concerts there was no upapakkavadhyam .We had a review of sankritilaya in the forum that way i was educated.

In the last few years i am observing when concerts are boxed with less time atleast quite a lot of artists donot feature upapakkavadhyam. Also as a rasika I have observed at times the upapakkavadyam artist generally have a bit dil maange more volume tendency . Also have observed some artists who donot have clout in academy they are also featured with two upapakkavadhyams in a 2 and half hours that is another flip side. Bottomline ,As such with a solid pakkavadyam like say NEyveli Venkatesh or in this case Anantha R krishnan , one thing surely happens the quantum of vocal is usually the right dose and the non core musical aberration gets bit reduced. Ofcourse I am not writing this to question the role of upapakkavadhyam , if done right they surely enhance the concert- but volume and proportion is key.

Abhishek almost made it his concert - even for the first two numbers - natttaikurinji and kannada there was no violin return . Towards the last when pallavi was on abhishek even cut the raga alapana and just gave a brief one avarthana taanam and gave the violin return for taanam to HNB.

Moving ON being wednesday with a gentle and strong aroma ,Abhishek started with nattaikurinji. His voice was strong and he is usually the best in the circuit for the alapana. Abhishek rocked with alapana of nattaikurinji. No sruthi pEtti or even tambura,his appa was also not seated ,there was direct feed of shruthi gadgets to microphones .As such I never felt absence of tansen or Issac Newton tambura,possibly the costly gadget sound was really great. Abhishek and muttuswami dikshitar krithi combos are my latest passion and what a joy to hear when he sang this beautiful krithi buddhamAshrayAmi.

He moved on next to a difficult raga to elaborate . The raga was kannada with a detailed alapana he used HNB as his tambura by not giving violin return . Abhishek started with the anupallavi malayathwaja part of the rare krithi pAlayamAm pArvatIsha. Deep classicism was very much there with krithi and there was cute swara rendition in kannada . The sibling Mark Waugh (Anantha) was already in full form and did not give Steve Waugh any letdown with sag . After all Mark Waugh is from the sishya parampara of Muttuswami Dikshitar

What a joy it was to hear the bhairavi . Without the tani it was for just 1 hour. Bhairavi rendition of abhishek was a clever mix of GNB aggresion(minor) and SSI nayana and anusware piDis(ssi) to me . The krithi rakshabettarE was superb, this is a DKJ-DKP famous number and I am assuming SSI has not taken. Abhishek demonstrated what is depth with his bhairavi . What a lovely neraval with so much takeoffs his ideas flowed . In swaras (which sometimes he rejects when compared to alapana and neraval)he was brimming with so much ideas . Glad to say that his bhairavi did not have much kanakku but had so much of great sarvalaghu pidis with a brilliant set of beats by Anantha . Bhairavi one hour made it my day.

Rasaali alapana was detailed with swaras and I am assuming he took up this song as a Lalgudi special , I did also spot bombay jayashri in the crowd. Kalyani came in next with another heavy krithi with a brief alapana. He initially sang like a viruththam with some intermediate phrases like neeve gati and then started the krithi ravE parvatha. I did not like that first part but definitely the krithi rendition was well done . SS was registered as heavily as MD and T despite that having only one number.

Abhishek annnounced in the microphone that he is going to take an RTP and before that he will take one more song . I was just telling my corasika why one more song and a short RTP , let there be no song and only RTP. Abhishek surprised with that one more song -O Boy what was that . It was nagumOmu in Abheri , 90 percent musicians when they take nagumOmu will struggle with their voice and will play safe around it . Here is Abhi taking naguMomu as a filler before RTP. nagumOmu rendition was like M balamuralikrishna nalla spacing to give a bounty of strokes for his sibling brother who reached double century there.

RTP started with dwijAvanthi. I have personally heard an extraordinary pallavi of dwijavanthi when the same HNB played for suryaprakash in vanimahal many years back. Bhaskar and MSG-Parur school rock in this raga dwijAvanthi and I am hearing again dwijavanthi excellence from the great MSG-Parur school violin artist. Abhishek sang a brilliant alapana in dwijavanthi voice was soaring with beautiful touches , he even sang a brief one line of taanam immediately.Unfortunately he gave his taanam completely to violin . MSG lovely musical varisu HNB rocked with his taaanam , so many patterns it just oozed with style and substance like MSG. THe pallavi line was well done he did a lateral movement briefly to behag and quickly came back to dwijavanthi. Swara ragamaliga in RTP was not that intense it was touch and go with a brief detour to both behag and if i got it right the intermediate raga was ,,,,,

The last poorvi thillana was pouring with classicism.Abishek had a MDR deep throated voice with a firepower of semmangudi. I personally love swaras in general and when those basic building blocks are sung as thillana, I just get double joy. PavamAna was a closure to demonstrate how much one can sing with intensity the whole 3 hours and 15 mins.

The violinist HNB had most role in bhairavi and dwijAvanthi. Bhaskhar also did great with a brief rasali , infact his rasali was more pointed than abhishek. He is a A plus artist and he lived wiht that reputation

What can one say about A Plus Plus artist Anantha R krishnan. After 1 hour with a brief of 9 mins violin return he played as A Giant Robot. His patterns are just brilliant , sound quality , left-right balance and above all in this case without upapakkavadhyam there was no sag at all. We are witnessing possibly the next giant after UKS , TS and the rare and obscure KM in our concert circuit with Anantha R Krishnan . Anantha elevates and asserts that mrudu angam is a very dynamic vadhyam, at no point he stops being watchful.This season I have heard Anantha the most.

Parthasarathy sabha and its lovely legacy
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They are into 118 years as of this season. Possibly Poochi Srinivasa Iyengar may have sung too then with the legacy Partha sabha is my calculated guess .Then they continued with lesser known stars like ariyakudi, GNB, MMI and SSI etal . I am happy that they gave time for Abhishek to continue till 09:45 PM. Abhishek strategically cut a lot of violin return and possibly the two brothers also wanted to not to have upapakkavadhyam to give partha its century legacy its right due.

Carnatic Intensity especially in alapana is abhishek forte . To sing such weighty number uruppadis is not easy at all- relook the songlist with minutes. He continues to amaze me. These brothers anantha and abhishek(Mark and Steve) will leave such a big legacy that no one can match ever .

If i was disappointed it was abhishek not singing Taanam and may be bit more swara ragamaliga in RTP. Abhishek has shown an MDR, GNB and certainly lot of SSI in this concert. Next time fellow violinist if you are reading this post donot take his offer for taanam JUST REJECT IT .

Overall an excellent to outstanding concert for 3 hours and 15 mins.

SrinathK
Posts: 2477
Joined: 13 Jan 2013, 16:10

Re: Abhishek Raghuram@Parthasarathy Sabha on Jan 02nd,2019

Post by SrinathK »

God, no, no, no, I can't believe I had to miss this!

SrinathK
Posts: 2477
Joined: 13 Jan 2013, 16:10

Re: Abhishek Raghuram@Parthasarathy Sabha on Jan 02nd,2019

Post by SrinathK »

@rajeshnat I sent you a mail.

rbharath
Posts: 2326
Joined: 05 Feb 2010, 10:50

Re: Abhishek Raghuram@Parthasarathy Sabha on Jan 02nd,2019

Post by rbharath »

very nice to see rAvE parvatarAjakumAri in a concert list.

it also leaves one wondering why are two cousins being compared to twin brothers...

rshankar
Posts: 13754
Joined: 02 Feb 2010, 22:26

Re: Abhishek Raghuram@Parthasarathy Sabha on Jan 02nd,2019

Post by rshankar »

The pallavi sounds a bit weird. I think it’s missing a few syllables at the very least...

rajeshnat
Posts: 9907
Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 08:04

Re: Abhishek Raghuram@Parthasarathy Sabha on Jan 02nd,2019

Post by rajeshnat »

rshankar wrote: 03 Jan 2019, 18:01 The pallavi sounds a bit weird. I think it’s missing a few syllables at the very least...
Ravi
The second half of his pallavi sakala da vAmba sadA janA was not lyrically clear. I struggled to get those lines , some one has to help. I am sure of first half shAradE karunAnidhE.

HarishankarK
Posts: 2216
Joined: 27 Oct 2007, 11:55

Re: Abhishek Raghuram@Parthasarathy Sabha on Jan 02nd,2019

Post by HarishankarK »

Pallavi line is taken from below Keith tuned by Sri RKSK

shAradE karuNAnidhE. rAgA: hamIrkalyANi. cApu tALA. Composer: Chandrashekhara Bharati.

P: shAradE karuNAnidhE sakalAnavAmba sadA janAn
chAraNAdima gIta vaibhava pUritAkhila dictate
C1: bharma bhUSaNa bhUSite vara ratna mauLi virAjite
sharmadAyini karma mOcani nirmalam kuru mAnasam
2: hasta sandhrta pustakAksha paTI sudhA ghaTa mudrikE
kasta vAsti hi varNane caturO narakha carOtava
Meaning from the net:
P.Oh Mother Sarada! Treasure of all mercy! Protect all the people always, You whose holy benign grace sung by the Vedas, the demigods and the human beings reverberates all over the quarters (directions) (Chaaranas are believed to be the divine singers and also are the bards in the King’s court).
The reading chaarana also can be interpreted as the taddhita form of charana – her holy feet.
C1. Decked with glittering gold ornaments , a crown studded with precious stones, the giver of all comforts, reliever of people’s bonds of karma, please help us to keep our hearts blemishless.
C2. Also adorned by a book, a garland of rudraaksha and the pot of nectar! Who on earth among (men) or elsewhere (the bards or the Gods) is capable of describing you in totality
Audio by Archana ana Aarti is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tclDLPHtlas

rajeshnat
Posts: 9907
Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 08:04

Re: Abhishek Raghuram@Parthasarathy Sabha on Jan 02nd,2019

Post by rajeshnat »

SrinathK wrote: 03 Jan 2019, 15:36 @rajeshnat I sent you a mail.
Srinath
I did reply a day back. Take it from there.

SrinathK
Posts: 2477
Joined: 13 Jan 2013, 16:10

Re: Abhishek Raghuram@Parthasarathy Sabha on Jan 02nd,2019

Post by SrinathK »

I saw it just now @rajeshnat . Sorry. Will contact you soon.

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