SuryaprakAsh@vAnimahal on July 10th,2010

[rajeshnat]

SuryaprakAsh@vAnimahal on July 10th,2010
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Vocal : suryaprakAsh
Violin : V V Ravi
Mrudangam : Tjr K murugabhUpathi
kanjirA : Our forumite NerkuNram shankar

Concert duration : 2 hours and 35 minutes
Sponsor : SouthZone Cultural association, govt of India sponsored concert + thyaga brahma sabhA
Theme : GNB and MKT centenary

The sponsors of the concert were SouthZone Cultural association, a govt of India organization .They usually hold yearly concerts in mylapore ,this time with thyaga brahma ghana sabhA they moved it bit closer to my home at vanimahAl .The curtains went up at 06:29 and I thought wow it is exact start 06:30 pm as advertised.The sponsor secy spoke very briefly about his association for about 5 minutes and asked suryaprakash to give an intro about MKT and GNB , he spent about 5 minutes (I did not know MKT learnt from one of the Alathur brothers).Well 10 minutes did not bother me , but what bothered me immensely was when the secy told , suryaprakash will take us to GNB and MKT music for the next "1 hour and 50 minutes" , I guess he was obsessed with 08:30 pm being the closing time.

GNB to me was one musician who always had an extreme sense of urgency, with that dictate the musicians went with a high sense of urgency, but thank god the concert just got extended from 08:30 to 09:10 pm.Overall it was a very memorable concert

GNB starts with an extreme aggression always till main , his krithis have a viRuviRuppu and suryaprakAsh faithfully followed that style ,Nattai was not I instead it was we together , the team just gelled excellently to end with a very brisk round of swaras .

GNB's reetigowlai is bit non leisurely with a plenty of usage of brighAs , and suryaprakAsh sang beatufifully the krithi and swaras were well done ,though I felt he could have gone little more with the swaras . It was a fantastic kalyAni , the sense of urgency made kalyAni very very interesting , no sangathis were parked in that no parking still boredom zone of kalyAni , he just went in a cruising speed with a superb brigha uruttal , krithi had the punch with an extraordinary neraval and very very manodharmic swaras . In this kalYani there was no violin return at all for R N (just one sketch)and S and I enjoyed the team's support immensely.Infact from here onwards the violin return was practically zero when every krithi started .

HinDOlam was brilliant .GNB has a knack of taking rare composers and has given an extraordinary polish and this vedAnAyakam pillai krithi karunAlaya nidhiyE is really superb right words not robbing the sowkhyam of hindOlam with a speed that was tailored for GNB's omnipresent approach that is usually the norm .

The next bilahari as rAga demands was quite heavy to me , I felt the heaviness little more as paridanamachiTTE is one krithi that I dont like that much.The pick of the day was his pAntuvarAli . My mind raced to year 2003 or 2004 so when I heard this ambA maNam kAnindhu ,this pantuvarAli was sung in a type set more like semmangudi's sArasAksha , this number sparkles with energy and exuberance . The neraval in intha vaRam thAruvAy jagadEEshwari with an extraordinary support from bhUpathi was really top class ,swaras of pantuvarAli always have a symmetry and he took advantage of the same. Classicism was at its best in this paNtuvarAli.

The next was a detailed alApana of ToDI and I was thinking about some GNB main like taMadam enswami.Instead he announced that he is going to sing a MKT number that is from the movie sivakavi, this ToDI krithi was very very uphill somehow I felt it was more wordsworth than it being musically worth. The first pallavi line was itself "eLLAm sivan seyAl eNNI mannathiN sAntham inbuTrirrOppOm", phew phew too much karadu moradAna thamizh , a number that could have gone to coimbatore ullaga thamizh mAnAdu and may be stayed away from vanimahAl.

1. swaminAtha paripAlayasumAm (R,S)- nAttai - MD
2 mins alApanai and 7 mins swaras
2. paripAlayamAm (R,S)- reetigowlai - ST
5 mins alApanai , 2 mins violin
3 mins swaras

3. vAsudevayani (R,N,S) - kalyAni - T
3 mins alApani
neraval in "raaga taaLa gatulanu paaDucunu" for 3 mins and swaras for 4 mins

4.karuAlaya niDhiyE (R,S) -hinDOlam - vedanAyakam pillai
7 mins alApanai 3 mins violin return
swaras for ?? mins(forgot to note)
5. paridAnammichittE (R) - bilahari - patnam
4 mins alApana and 2 mins return

6. ambA maNam kaNindhu (RS, N,S) - paNtuvarAli - psivan
2 mins alApanai sketch
6 mins neraval in "indha varam tharuvAy jagadEEshwari" and 5 mins swaras
7. eLLAm sivan seyaL (R)- tODi - psivan
7 mins alApanai and 4 mins violin return

[rajeshnat]

After the wordsworth tOdi the musicalworth RTP followed .KAmbOdhi Alapaana was really well done , he built in three stages(ala GNB style) with just a minute of violin return especially few tAra sthAyi touches earned lot of applause for him. The tANam was more taken in the top gear and he sang very well with no mridangam support. THe pallavi was gnb popular pallavi line but he sang more like TNR style one , in the sense the pallavi was more an ethUkadu pallavi where rAgaMAligA was more pronounced with the pallavi line being brief. THe swara rAgaMAligA was really superb with very minimal violin return particularly liked his nalinAkANthi and KApi , weaved great swara patterns,manODharmam at its best, it was spot on brand new in imagination.

The tani was very brief (I enjoyed it), they just gave more time to the vocalist. All the tukkadas were well done . There were few requests from the audience that he had to oblige like the navarOz krithi . For me ,the pick of the tukkadA was the elaborate GNB popularized slOkham VandE mAtarama ambikAM , every rAga in the rAgamAligA was detailed with lot of gnb like vigour and I liked his diction and music there .Incidentally I always used to wonder what are all the rAgas sung for dhikku teriyAtha kAttiL , I got all of that for the first time as he went exactly with the same rAgas of the slOkham or rather he must have planned the sloKHam to be in the same rAgas of the bharathiyAr masterpiece. ShuruTTi was well done .

Few shortcomings:
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1. I dont like any musician repeating the same rAgas twice or thrice , to an extent he taking mishra yaman one for GNB (rAdha sametha)and the other for MKT (dheena karunAkaranE) should have been avoided . Perhaps if he had taken say another GNB krithi like rAdha mukha in kApi , it would have been better

2. The overlap of bilahari and tOdi was both heavy to me that too with the pallavi in kAmbOdhi to follow, he could have dropped either one of them and allocated that time more for the pallavi neraval and/or hindOlam swaras.I just lost a bit of interest very slightly there.

Accompanists:
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Accompanists were extremely accomodative , V V Ravi played well .For almost all the songs he sacrificed his swara and neraval return all because of the initial time bomb by the organizer.Nevertheless he gave more way to Great New BAni vigour.

Mridangists make or break a concert .This one was a make concert , he was brilliant , for the rigour and fast kAlapramAnam and the aesthetic brigha uruTTal of GNB emulated concert , this murugabhoopathy played more like vintage cs murugabhoopathi azhuttam and bountiful strokes, both suryaprakash and murugabhoopathy have a reservoir of energy.At many times with such manOdharmam of suryaprakash, the mrudgangist callibrating with the vocalist patterns was indeed very commendable.

Our fellow forumite nerkundram shankar support was gracious pass as most of the time there was no violin return , but for whatever he played he played with nice azhuttam .As such the entire pakkavadhyam lifted the concert.

8A. RTP in kAmBodhi
kAmbOdhi alApanai for 15 mins
tAnam for 4 mins
pallavi "EEsanai kAna eNNa punniyam sEidhEnO thiLLai" and swararAgamAliga in kAmbOdhi + behAg + kAnadA + nalinakAnthi + KApi for 11 mins
8B. tani for 4 mins

9. oru nAl oru pOzhudAkilum - mishra kamAch - psivan
10. rAdhA samEthA krishnA - mishra yaman - Unknown composer
11. dheena karunAkaranE - mishra yaman - psivan

12. krishnA mukundA murArE - navarOz - psivan
13A. slokham "vanDe mAtaram ambikAm bhagavathim" - yamunAkalyAni +
kamalApthi kamalaptikAm - bowli + kailAsanAthapriyAm - kuntalavarAli + vedAnta prathipAta -sahAnA + vidhyun manOranjani - kApi + ?? -pharaz + shree chakrAngi peethA - behAg
13B. dhiKKu theRiyAtha kAttil - rAgamAliga in the above rAgas starting with behAg - mahakavi bharathiyAr

14. sivaperumAn kripai (RS) - shuruTTi - psivan
15. pavamAna

GNB defined classical purity and MKT defined voice purity , and both of them had a lot of vigour .SuryaprakAsh kept the finesse without a sag coming close to the altruistic purity of classicism and voice of GNB and MKT .His voice had a lot of bass yesterday, the sound was adjusted very well in vAnimahal . I only wished he had another hour or so for his volley of brisk paced sangathis.It was overall an excellent concert.

[fduddy]

GNB to me was one musician who always had an extreme sense of urgency, with that dictate the musicians went with a high sense of urgency, but thank god the concert just got extended from 08:30 to 09:10 pm.Overall it was a very memorable concert ???????????????

Complete lack of understanding and lack of substance has resulted in making such open ended statement

[Nick H]

As ever, I enjoyed Surya Prakash's singing enormously. This was one of my "fortuitous" rather than planned concerts, as my wife was attending a discourse nearby, and music is the obvious, if not only, way I would be filling a few evening hours away from home. Whereas fortuitous concerts often lead me to new musicians, this time I picked a favourite from the Hindu listings.1

The introducing secretary requested people not to come to late. Of course, those who had not arrived yet did not hear this, and still came late! He also requested people to turn off, or at least silence, their cell phones. A number of people must have been on the phone when he said this, thus missing it

I enjoyed Suryaprakash's performance as always, and very much agree with rajeshnat about the accompanists. Tjr K murugabhUpathi produced some lovely touches of gumaka in his playing.

I was disappointed, and a little frustrated, with the general sense of rush during the whole concert, with the lack of violin returns and with the absence of a tani. The few minutes percussion solo, with mridangam and kanjira playing together, could not really be called a tani. If the concert had had to finish by 8.30, then perhaps I would have understood, but it actually went on until after 9.00pm. I would have gladly sacrificed all the items after the RTP, which I felt to be too many, for more filling out of the main pieces. There was actually no violin return for the thanum.

GNB to me was one musician who always had an extreme sense of urgency, with that dictate the musicians went with a high sense of urgency, but thank god the concert just got extended from 08:30 to 09:10 pm.Overall it was a very memorable concert ... GNB starts with an extreme aggression always till main...

Of course, this history was not known to me until reading Rajeshnat's review. I t goes a long way to explaining why the concert was presented in the way it was.

[mankuthimma]

Of course, this history was not known to me until reading Rajeshnat's review. I t goes a long way to explaining why the concert was presented in the way it was.

No wonder it was not known to you .I is a figment of imagination in the first place...
GNBs Music is difficult to express through such simplifications. Even while conceding that such concerts cannot hold a candle to the likes of GNB and MKT . We will have to wait till December for this centenary farce to exaust itself though .. :devil:

[bilahari]

I really don't understand what the need was for the violinist to 'sacrifice' his returns and for the mrudangist to play such a brief thani in a 2.5 hour concert.

[Nick H]

No wonder it was not known to you .I is a figment of imagination in the first place...

I have no doubt that rajeshnat knows more about carnatic music than I do. I don't dispute that you probably do too.

Nor do I have any doubt that Suryaprakash presents his concerts sincerley (oh dear, I just used one of carnatic music's most overused words!)

Bilahari, no... in this instance, I don't understand either. Whatever the reason, I feel that too much was crammed into the program to the detriment of individual items.

[rajeshnat]

Nick,
I did see you in a distance you were seated in the front , I was bit back, forgot the wave.The artists had planned to give these preplanned numbers from say 18:30 to 21:00 hours or so (usual vanimahal time), when the secy put that timing they just decided to go bit fast which happens in many concerts at chennai. Also since you may not know , MKT is a musician who is more known to have sung vintage thamizh movie songs , he has given very few carnatic concerts , all the numbers are fairly fast and quick .Hence you felt the rush than a typical cm concert. You may have noticed some time around the pallavi the secy came up to the dais and extended the concert , I just wished he did that in the start that would have given better spacing opportunities to the musicians.

Bilahari
I am assuming The 2 hrs and 35 minutes was only known at the end of 2 hours.Many concerts in chennai unlike san diego have this time constraints set by sabha patrons . Having said that when the time is reduced(though I hate that in first place), I generally enjoy a bit reduced tani and censored violin returns .There was one concert few years back some senior artist (I am unable to recollect),the tani was over in just 2 minutes with only two violin returns each for swaras and alApanas, that musician who planned to give a 2 and half hour concert in a 1 hour 50 mins allocated time .I guess in chennai atleast sabhA patrons are in the drivers seat(it is sabhA market).

[Nick H]

Thanks rajeshnat. Yes, I sat alone, with a full packet of sesame balls!

Indeed, I did not know about MKT, in fact, my wife, who joined me after her discourse was over, had to tell me who he was. I noticed the secretary going to the stage --- and wrongly assumed that he was probably telling them to finish! You are right, this should have been done at the start.