Suryaprakash@rathnagirieeswarar temple (Besant Nagar)on Feb 19th,2019

[rajeshnat]

Suryaprakash@rathnagirieeswarar temple (Besant Nagar)on Feb 19th,2019
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Vocal : Suryaprakash
Violin : BU Ganesh Prasad
Mrudangam : Tiruvarur Bhakthavatsalam
Ghatam : Adambakkam Shankar

Concert Type : Nirvana - No concert to follow , Free concet
Day/Duration : Tuesday / 2 hours and 30 minutes exclusive of 20 mins break for speech
sabha/Hall : Rathnagirieeswarar Temple, Besant Nagar
Occassion : Mahasivarathiri Celebrations

1A. vakrathunda mahAkAya - slokham - nattai
1B. swaminAtha paripAlayasumAm (S)- nAttai - MD

• swaras for 5 mins

2. innamum sandeha (N) - keeravani - GKB

• neraval for 5 mins in tannai ariginra tavamE peridenru

3. pAhi jagajjanani (R N S)- hamsAnandi - ST

• 9 mins alapana and 5 mins violin return
• 5 mins neraval in saarasakrutanilayE paramasadayE
• 6 mins swaras

4. angArakamAshrayAmi (R) - shuruTTi- MD

• 6 mins alapana and 4 mins violin return

5. enta vEDukONdu - saraswati manohari - T
6A. enneramum Oru kAlai thooki (R S T) - tOdi - Marimutha Pillai

• 18 mins alapana and 8 mins violin return
• 6 mins swaras

6B.tani

7A. Speech break by Aastiga samAjam narasimhan Sir
7B. Small award for tiruvarur bhakthavatsalam

8. sArasamukhi(S) - gowdamalhar -HMB

• 3 mins swaras

9A. viruththam - murugA therku disai - neelamani
9B. ennakavi pAdinAlum - neelamani - AnAyampatti Adisesha Iyer
.......
I had to leave towards the end before mangalam
......

[rajeshnat]

As a rasika I surely go to live concerts so that there is no uninterrupted joy of hearing sangathis and sancharas. Every concert is kind of a soccer match .There are usually musicians in a standard lineup .One can say there is a center forward (vocalist), Left flank(one or two percussionist) and Right Flank (violinist). I guess the key is to have the relative amplification balanced with a little higher amplification share for the center forward and a bit lower amplification especially for the left flank that too considering that there were two percussionists. All know the absolute truth of relative sound balance but in reality it is not that easy to correct the amplification imbalance due to 'various issues'!.

Being a Lord Shiva temple and the rathnagirieeswarar temple having all gods the rotation of songs was definitely sensible choice. Choice of Gods is a low hanging fruit, but more than that the choice of songs to suit the relative imbalance of amplification was well done by the center forward . The start in nattai with the brisk slokham vakrathunda followed by swaminatha paripAlayamAm had a high entropy.The left side imbalance particularly was very high . I had to hear nattai where center forward was drowned by all sides inclusive of expected left and unexpected right, quite shockingly. I could notice that while the poor the center forward was adjusting his miraj tambura prior to the start, each of the three artists in left and right balance were repeatedly asking dil maange more volume from sound man (on the sly) and as a result nattai suffered with ballistic beats and booming strings. It was a left and right punch for the center forward but he endured and came back in second round!

The second round was a great choice in keeravani , the poignant lyrics, the placid ragam and the kalapramanam ensured that volume of left flank was subdued a bit for sure. The song is also wonderful what a joy to hear this extraordinary masterpiece innamum sandeha padalama .This vidwan takes some krithis where neraval line is unique,where he only has taken that unconventional line for neraval . All the musicians take neraval in ponnambalam thannil tandavam in the masterpiece krithi innamum sandeha padalAma . I am at the crossroads where for the past 5 years trying to balance religion and spirtuality. This krithi is on Lord shiva and has religious lines for most of the krithi, but this vidwan takes neraval in the line tannai ariginra tavamE peridu which is very spiritual . More than the religion and spirituality combo linguistic mix, the joy of hearing keeravani with an elongated stress of words of neraval was very very intense . The center forward and right flank rocked with the neraval , to an extent the left flank was also in check with amplification. If I were a musician I would have converted that as a submain with some swaras there itself with the same muse of tannai ariginra thavamE peridu

The submain came next but, and it was hamsanandi raga . This raga gives the joy of aggression with right smoothening . I am yet to hear any abrasive tearing rendition of hamsanandi .Most of the time hamsanandi is demoted to tailender slot , at times it gets lucky for a curtailed RTP, hamsanandi right place is prathi submain .There is certainly joy to hear hamsanandi with this swathi tirunal gem - pahi jagajanani . The alapana was really brilliant and oomph of hamsanandi did not drop a bit with Right FLank Ganesha with his stocky violin returns . Lovely neraval and rendition ,the neraval line sarasa krutha nilaye is a joy ,the center forward is brilliant in splitting with minimal words like sarasa krutha -you get atleast 50 percent more hamsanandi there when compared to most non MMI schools . Hamsanandi was abundantly showcased with brilliant swaras . Here too the amplification was tamed successfully.

Shurutti alapana followed next and was well done both the centerforward and Right Flank both faithful to their schools , although I found some touches of secondary school of SSI with Centerforward , RightFLank played intensely and quickly untangled the shurutti . The amplification from LeftFlank that was bit in check for the keeravani and hamsanandi got bit whacky in the lines towards the end .THe next was a fast and racy number enta vendukO , when the centerforward soared in the anupallavi cinta dircuta , the density of strokes from there on in anupallavi and charanam was so dense with beats in left flank ,I felt I was being interviewed in a TV Channel .

Todi was great in alapana . Voice was in prime condition as it was beaten to submission enough till then and as astika samajam narasimhan observed bit later the sangathis had a lot of mandara sthayi. My mind was racing for a taaaye yashoda or karthikeya kangeya . I have not heard this marimutha pillai krithi-enneramum oru kalai thooki in a live concert yet . This krithi has dense words in thamizh but this centerforward gets those lines right without the loss of todi rasa. I was expecting a third detailed neraval but i did not get it . THe swaras in todi were crisp , I would not rate todi swaras very very high it was not very expansive but it had a bounty of manodharmam . In todi krithi both the left flank percussionist did play beautifully.

Strategic timeout was declared with Aastika samajam narasimhan praising all the artists and comparing the well sung todi to TNR with his anecdotes of he hearing his SuperHero TNR . Narasimhan sir speech was crisp. There was also a timeout extension where tiruvarur bhaktavatsalam got an award from besantnagar mandali trust. Bhakthavatsalam sir was sincere in thanking the sabha and praising each of the artist. One information which I did not know was BU Ganesh Prasad is also a vocalist and Shri bhaktavatsalam said he has also played for him as reason.Now i know the reason of why Right wing Ganesh prasad is so steady and immaculate in return

Suryaprakash introduced for few mins one extremely elderly rasika by name Houston Ramakrishnan who has learnt music from him.He dedicated to Mrs Ramakrishnan (who is no more) the next song sarasamukhi in gowdamalhar in language kannada. THe krithi was nice with a flash of swaras , volume problems were rectified from todi onwards . THe last viruththam in neelamani was superb with phrases praising Lord Muruga and was followed by madurai somu popularized Enna kavi pAdinAlum. THe urukkam of somu was there with suryaprakash , the raga neelamani with madurai somu touch is a killer there.

I did not hear the full tani as I had to leave to attend the call. All said I would have been bit happier if the amplification was corrected fully in nattai, partly in shurutti and significantly in saraswati manohari. THe upapakkavadhyam LEft flank had a slightly higher volume and at times he joined as a laya vadhya concert artist with the more senior Left flank pakkavadhyam artist. Bhaktavatsalam is a genius in right side with a flurry of patterns but at times the extremely excess energy towards the end of the song like saraswati manohari with excessive theermanams creates a strong head feeling. Nevertheless,Bhakthavatsalam's play for neelamani,keeravani , hamsanandi and todi song were superb. This temple in besantnagar has not raised to tiruvarur kamalAmabA temple in acoustic setup, that is the design that we have to live up.

IF some one had attended post neelamani do include the songs please

Overall a very good to excellent concert for 2 hours and 30 mins.

[rajeshnat]

@sureshvv
I saw you. Your freewheeling and elaborate thoughts on this concert please.

[bhasi]

Loved the football analogy you developed fully to fruition! Great review.

[sureshvv]

I attended this concert in part but unfortunately had to leave midway. Loved the first part of the concert. Particularly impressive was the choice of kritis and their bhava laden delivery most suited for a temple concert. Hamsanandi alapana was a bit of a tease and off the beaten track. Glad he took it up for submain.

I was happy that there was no fall back to the "old MMI greatest hits" at least in the early part of the concert. Personally I feel SP short changes himself when he does this, but the audience seems to relish it anyway.

[Sundara Rajan]

This excellent concert is now available in Youtube.com for all rasikas to enjoy.

[ram1999]

Outstanding concert. Mellifluous music ....
Keeravani was simply the best.