SaketarAman@annanagar on June 20th,2010

[rajeshnat]

SaketarAman@annanagar on June 20th,2010
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Vocal : SaketarAman
Violin : Vittal rAmamurthy
Mrudangam : Poongulam Subramanian
Concert duration : 2 hours and 30 minutes and 15 minutes speech by sabha secy
Venue : ayyappan temple in annnanagar

1. varnam "Inta tamasamela" - Kannada - Lalgudi Jayaraman
2. appan avatharitha (RS , S) - kharaharapriyA - psivan
7 mins of swaras

3. AdamOdi galadA (R) - chArukesi - T
7 mins alApanai and 4 mins violin return
4. sarasa sAma dhAna - kApinArAyani - T

5A.EnATi nOmu phalamO (R N S T) - bhairavi - T
11 mins alApanai 6 mins violin return
neraval in sundarEsha suguNabrnda dasharatha nandana aravinda nayana pAvana for 9 mins
11 mins swaras
5B. tani for 9 mins

6. nEnendu vEtukudurA(S) - karnAtaka behAg - T
7. RTP in vasantA in Tisra Ata thalam- Chatusranadai
11 mins alApanai in two stages
tAnam for 7 mins
pallavi "Ananda natana prakAsha sAbEsha naTesha aNudhiNam aRuLpuRivAy" and swara rAgamAliga for 15 mins
swara rAgamAliga in rAgas vasantA + kEdAram + toDI + poorvikalyAni

Speech break for 15 mins

8. teerAdha vilayAttu pillai -sindhubhairavi + kamAs + mAnd?? - bhArathiyAr
9. tAm tAm thaka tOm tOm thaka .. "EnRum niraiNdha vElavA" - vAsanthi - Lalgudi jayarAman
10. pavamAna

Annanagar music circle is championed by Smt. Padmavathy Ananthagopalan , who is the sister of vidwan Shri Lalgudi jayarAman. They usually hold concerts in chinmaya vidhyalaya school in annanagar . This lady always amazes me because everytime when I go there ,in each of her short speeches she always make a clarion call so that one can build a hall exclusively for annanagar . But for without her and a battery of sishyas (she runs a music school), you dont have music there in that belt of annanagar.Incidentally this was held in a hall above the ayyappan temple and it had very good acoustics hall.

SAketarAman being the disciple of LGJ started and ended with two lovely Lalgudi creations the varnam and thillAnA , kannada the rAgA that usually has very few krithis , one has to appreciate the choice of this rAgA in varnam, perhaps shri LAlgudi always had that in his thought process when he crafted each and every one of those as a vageyyakara to create numbers that generally are not created by vaggeyakkaras before him and/or not popularly sung by vidwans.

SAketarAman sang very well for most of the time though the sound adjustments were not perfect in kannada. Being an ayyappan temple , the submain in kharaharapriyA was the famous appan avadaritha and sAketharAman sang the krithi and swaras very well, the dash of kharaharapriyA could have been slightly more open throated to give more rAga bhAvam to kharaharapriyA(O gosh why is that I always think of semmangudi here??).

chArukEsi was bit handled differently , he sang it with a little less aggression with not much azhuttam , but definitely there was lot of sowkhyam in his rendition , the alApana was really well done and the krithi was sung very well. The concert took a little dip in the kApinArayani, sAketharAman lost a bit of breath there and the turns of kApi NArayani were not that quick and fast.

Concerts should have more spread in all contours of carnatic rAgAs.SAketarAman taking bhairavi after kharaharapriya(main and submain) was perhaps not the best of choices .But I liked his bhairavi a lot , the alApana was very well done , the krithi rendition was clean and really top notch neraval with he traversing distinctly in all octaves . Swaras build up was nice , if he had managed to sing higher speed swaras , it would have been better .

The main being early , it was evident that he would take up RTP. Just to build momentum , he took up a fast nEnEndu , the krithi was done quite well , thought the turns can be much faster and quicker , he sang just one avArthanam of swaras and just cut short abruptly. The days best was indeed the RTP

To a great extent , the kalpana aspect and variety always come out the best in RTP . I am not sure how many yesteryear vidwans have taken vasanthA for rtp, the choice of vasanthA for the rtp was really top notch. Very impeccable shruthi was real vasantham , liked his alApana and the tAnam(non metered), the pallavi line was bit long and the choice of ata thalam -tishra jathi came out well with very good trikAlam done . Swaras were bit measured in all four rAgas , I particularly liked the kEdaram the most for his sowkhyam ,when he traversed back from poorvikalyAni , he did not land well and goofed up the tOdi a bit .

TukkadAs were a typical Lalgudi fare , teerAda vilayattu pillai could have had more expression , but I loved that lovely vAsanthi thillana, another gem of shri lAlgudi .

Violinist vittal:
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My pull for this concert was to hear not just sAketarAman but more to hear vidwan vittal rAmamurthy who is a disciple of LGJ. Vittal for some reason is not found much in chennai circuit, possibly he shuttles between his rural karnataka hometown and I am told that he travels to US too . His style is always very gentle and his play gives a lot of impetus to mandara sthAyi, his play in bhairavi was superb and also the early kharaharapriyA return, also his pallavi anticipation was top notch. Vittal in short showed Lalgudi class and I enjoyed it a lot, with a nice touch of sensitive bowing without any aggression. Vittal is quite different and distinct from many of today's violinist and I enjoy that style a lot.

The mridangist poongulam played good , his tani was not that great . Overall both the accompanist lifted the quality

Shortcoming of SAketharAman:
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1.sAketharAman has a really high shruthi suddham , but at times he focusses little too much in the melody aspect of music . At times the sangathis dont have that much vocal power , he is able to build up well during alApanai, but during krithi rendition the azhuttam and sangathi weight is taking a back seat. If he gets that , he will be one of the finest musicians in years to come.

2.A dose of viruththam or slokham would have been better.I always keep wondering why Lalgudi students just generally restrict to only popular lalgudi tukkadas?

Overall a very good to excellent concert.For vasantA and vAsanthi itself , the concert was worth it.

[Abhishek]

Rajesh sir,

Thanks for the wonderful review.
Within two and a half hours, he was able to fit in a proper sub main, main and a pallavi? Quite impressive.
I guess Saketaraman would get a high score in your panic index.