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Vocal : Suryaprakash
Violin : M R GopinAth
Mrudangam : Neyveli Venkatesh
Ghatam : Trichy Murali
Concert duration : 2 hours and 20 minutes
Theme : rAma navami
1. mahAganapathim (RS S) - nAttai - MD
swaras for 6 mins
2. rAmAbhi rAma ramaNIya(raga sketch) - durbAr - T
3. O rAmA nee nAma(R N S) - poorvikalyAni - BR
8 mins alApanai, 4 mins violin return
5 mins neraval in "tumburu nAradulu Dambu mIraga"
swaras for 9 mins
4. kAna vEnDAmO (RS)- shree ranjani - psivan
5. ramA neevE gaTi yani niranammu(R) - shuruTTi - Ambujam KrishnA
alApanai for 6 mins and 4 mins violin return
6. sarasa sAma dhAna(S) - kApinArAyani - T
swaras for 6 mins
7A. yArO ivaR yArO (R N S T)- bhairavi - ArunAchala kavirAyar
11 mins alApanai , 7 mins violin return
11 mins neraval in "candra bimba mukha malarAlE ennait tAnE pArkkirAr orukAlE"
10 mins swaras
7B. tani for 6 mins
8. dheena karunAkaraNE - mishrayaman - psivan
9A.slokham "rAmAya rAma bhadrAya" - subhapaNtuvarAli + hind kApi?? -????
9B.nAchE ragunAtha - hind kApi - ST
10. kandan karunai pozhiyum vaDivEl - bheemA plus
- guhan11. pavamAna (sowrAshtram) + vazhiya senthamizh (madhyamAvati)
Just a brief review only in terms of what was super exciting or new :
# I have not heard this Ambujam krishna number in shuruTTi at all. He announced that it was tuned by KR kedaranathan, this composition is perhaps in a rendungattAn kAlapramAnam , in between vilamba and madhyama kAla , this number of Ambujam KrishnA was very much like a shyamA sAstri number .
# Swara patterns of KApi narayani was brilliant and very very manodharmic , 'so much of rAga bhAvam tightly leashed with rhythmic laya patterns' a.k.a as s a r v a l a g h u, suryaprakash's sarvalaghu is very kAleidoscopic in nature ,every time it is different than the previous ones especially the premain filler.
# Bhairavi neraval and swaras , the neravals was sung in single and double speed and for the last minute or so if I can add the fourth speed .The swaras had lot of nAdaswara piDI style , in the sense with lot of force and finesse in his voice, classicism at its best.
# A rare Swathi tirunAl tukkadA, he said it is a dhun??? or something , this number was like a bhajan and a thillAna combo and I liked it , though nothing exceptional .Was that piloo or hind kApi dont know for sure?
# All the rest were well done , especially with the tAra sthAyi crescendo annai parAshakti arut-shuDar vEl , a bheemA plus sangathi popularized by mmi of guhan .
Accompanists:
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THe percussion was in great form neyveli venkatesh's sarvalaghu gelled very well with the singer and had the right rotation of ghatam, tAni was brief ,they gave more way to the vocal . kumbakonam M R gOpinAth was excellent throughout especially poorvikalyANi and shuruTTi returns, I did spot very few patterns of mukhAri in his bhairavi return.Overall his proportion sense is always great in every concert and indeed gives a big boost to the concert.
Shortcomings:
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1.THis concert was on a sunday ,the start was at 06:40pm (10 minutes delay is fine), why should it wrap up at exactly 9pm, why cant there be a pallavi and why cant the concert go for close to 3 hours. Only temple concerts need tohave a hard stop at say 9pm,this is not one of those types, Open ended concerts on a weekends can go certainly more than this.Would love to hear ,atleast half of a typical madurai somu concert in duration, than just this lovely madurai somu popularized submain o ramA .
2.The violin was very feeble for the first two numbers,this hall acoustics is always mediocre in general.
Overall a very good to excellent concert.