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Vocal : SuryaprakAsh
Violin : Suresh Babu
Mrudangam : Melacauvery bAlaji
Keyboard : Sundar
Tabla : Ganapathi
After 5 full days of drought (courtesy viral infection), I wanted to go to TMKrishna's 4 hour concert (I love 4 hours concert), but that was slightly far and the AC of kalarasana which is hosting TMK worried me. I went to suryaprakAsh thematic concert of amudhum thenum,near to my house in a non ac hall.
Interesting prologue to start with. In 1980's with the advent of black and white tv was a very popular programme on Fridays titled Oliyum OLiyum in doordarshan(all thamizh songs will be played for about 45 minutes to 1 hour),that was the time when my love for melody based thamizh film music just got started .The obsession to Oliyum Oliyum on Friday was for atleast 10 years till 1990, and this obsession was kind of the same for about 80% of my school class mates (We all watch tv only on fridays).
In all those days when the classical music psyche got developed ,when we hear illayaraja songs we were all zapped and were in cloud nine, to an extent i used to like all the melodies of PBS and AM rAja and those melodies we used to call them "pazhaya pAttu(old songs)" , at times they used to also telecast very very old melodies of MKT, MS ammA,MLV,SG kittappa and there was one by name TR Mahalingam and my favourite that melodious musician by name Ghantasala ,we used to call them as "romba Pazhaya PAttu"(very very old songs).Every song from ghantasala to illayarAja I used to love if there is melody and my psyche was more centred on a bit of melancholy based songs preferably sung by single singers (SPB, Yesu and PBS were my favourites).
This concert was divided into two parts , the first half not connected to that psyche but the second half connected to that psyche of "Romba pazhya pAttu" which was called vintage melodies. Few characteristics which are mandatory to render that romba payaya pAttu is
1. Voice has to open out.
2. No hiding behind violin returns.
3. Pitch has to be consistent , that means you have to be full open throated and have high energy.
4. Every number was purely carnatic and each of the numbers are purely mapped to a rAgam in the sense it is either a rAgam or a rAgamAliga but all of them are crystal clear in RAga bhAvam
These were the numbers that were sung in the second half:
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5A. thirumAlin sOdhAri - pantuvarAli viruththam
5B. ambA manam kaNindu - pantuvarAli - popularized by MKT (MK thyagaraja bhagavathar)
6. aNNaiyum thanthaiyum thAne - KApi
I have heard in a pure carnatic concert where few musicians sing this popular amBA maNam , it is a fabulous no, open throated at its best. The annaiyum thanthaiyum in kApi was slightly off color , i did not like it that much
7. krishnA mukundA murArE - navarOz ,popularized by MKT
8. manamE kanamum -bhimplas , popularized by MS subhalakshmi
Both were well sung , suryaprakAsh was giving few words about USi thalam or something and then sang the navarOz number
9.pArkAdal alaimELE - rAgamAliga with cittaswaras in atleast 6 ragas (shanmughapriya, atana , kAnadA, madhyamavati and two more ), this number was sung ML vasanthakumAri
To me the pick of the second half was this number , close to 12 minutes or so non stop singing , MLV amma sang this in MFAC in 80's which I have heard it live when I was in school but suryaprakash tuning for every rAgamAliga with a round of cittaswaras is just awesome. Amazing range of voice this whole number is like olympic 110 meter hurdles race you just leap one after another
10.dheena karunAkaranE - mishrayAman
11.ingum angum engum inbamE - madhyamavati ??, both MLV and MKT have sung this as duet
The dheena karunAkaranE was first sung by DKJ in proper concerts and suryaprakash sings consistently well. The next number the MLV and MKT duet in madhyamAvati , I have not heard that at all(possibly I may have had exams during that oliyum oliyum when this was telecast
) was just good12. KOdaiyilE iLLai Patri - pAntuvarali + bilahari + kaPI + Neelambari + madhyamavati , popularized by SG Kittappa
THis number is a mesmerizing number , it oozes and oozes with classicism , SG kittappa has mesemerized the audiences with this number then, suryaprakash did it excellently
13. manamE eesan nAmathai- kuntalavarAli - MKT one
14A. nanmaiyum selvamum - ?? + shivaranjani
14B. sadguru shree sathya sAyee mayam - shivaranjani
15. shivaperuman kripai vEndum - shuruTTi
18. pavamAna and vAzhiya senthamizh
Love the kuntalavarali , i remember in the movie MKT will be blindfolded by a piece of black cloth and he sings it (think the movie is thiruneelakantar), a rare and unheard sai bhajan was well done , shurutti was a good closure not the best.
And congratulations to Suryaprakash on a wonderful performance.