SuryaprakAsh@NGS(Mini) on April 30th,2011

[rajeshnat]

SuryaprakAsh@NGS(Mini) on April 30th,2011
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Vocal : SuryaprakAsh
Violin : M R GopinAth
Mrudangam : Srimushnam raja rao
Ghatam : E M subramaniam

Concert duration/Day : 2 hours and 30 mins/ Saturday

Vidwan PS Narayanaswami was invited as a chief guest who just took briefly 5 minutes to speak about the concert at the end of the main and before the pallavi. He told this concert was on the nostalgic route where he compared these four artists to Ariyakudi-pApa Venkataramiah - palakkad Mani Iyer- Kothandarama Iyer. PSN sir said rajaRao and EMS paired as much as PMI and Kothandarama Iyer.I have no clue about kOthandarama Iyer in ghatam, can't place his excellence to EMS . Certainly I could place the level of excellence of what PMI did to rolling rao where there was adequate spacing and really lovely patterns especially in the combination of main and submain, that too the patterns varied so beautifully one with the vidwan singing and the other for the violinist returning that too for two krithis.

MR Gopinath in general is a crisp violinst and he has really the best sense of proportion is what I thought long ago and made a post about him and PSN exactly said that. Usually lot of vidwans have talked about papa's proportion and I go with PSN's observation .

Coming to the comparison of Ariyakudi and suryaprakash , PSN mentioned that it is 1 hour and 45 minutes , there is always a sense of fast and quick sequencing and he mentioned ata tALa varnam , a quick swaras in a brisk fashion , an alapana measuring with the right proportion and then a thamizh krithi and a grand main in ghana rAgam, his mind raced to 40's to 50's is what he said. In general I find that with suryaprakash music is always inbuilt with a sense of briskness , but not every concert he follows this ariyakudi pattern . But certainly this one was pracheena concert . (Quite honestly I still dont get ariyakudi , he is to me a bit of puriyAtha vidwan , one of the main reason is that I dont have the musical intelligence and more importantly the recordings of ariyakudi is not in match what a typical anta kAlathu rasika says about him , any way there is a general consensus that ariyakudi and his guru poochi bought in kutcheri paddhati)

Back to the concert , I came up with few AhA feelings and a nagging doubt that perhaps should get more reassured with suryaprakash as he moves on.

The skeleton songlist adhering to ariyakudi tradition :
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1. ata thAlam varnam - vanajAsha ninnE (raga sketch) - reetigowlai - veenai kuppaiyer
2. sitA pathE nA manasunA (S)- khamas - T
swaras for 5 minutes

3. shree satyanArAyanam (R N S)- subhapaNtuvarAli - MD
6 mins alapana and 3 mins violin return
5 mins neraval in "sathya Gnana nanda mayam sarvam vishnu mayam"
3 mins swaras

4. thamizh krithi cittam iRanga villayO... starting with uttameNen nAn (S)- shreeranjani - PSivan
swaras for 5 mins

5A. endukku pEddala (R N S T)- shankarabharanam - T
13 mins of ariyakudi alapana serve of shankarAbharanam
6 mins papa violin return of shankarabharanam
9 mins neraval in "veda sastra tatvartamu thelisina" and 11 mins swaras
5B. tani for 15 mins

ata thalA varnam perhaps can be called AttA tAla varnam (talking about pilsbury AttA), to an extent these kind of 2 kalai varnams give a lot of fills and buries strength and warmup for the voice so that sangathis have a fairly high vocal strength to the whole concert. The varnam alapana of reetigowlai is well done , perhaps this must be one rAga where no one can say I just dont like this and was indeed a bright start varnam.

The rollicking run of mrudangam and suryaprakash started beautifully with a lot of quick commas in prema juicy fulltosses in sitapathE and with voice reaching a comfortable shruthi and with rolling rao in control of layam with a minimal touch by MR Gopinath and EMS I really loved the commas wish it had a little delayed fullstop.

The contrast of khamas with subhapantuvarAli and in the alApana of subhapantuvarAli suryprakash was entering into a zone of bit richer and more masculine timber , there is a bit more pronouncable heaviness and with that heaviness gives a more sowkhyam . The krithi rendition with diction was well done and it was bit nostalgic for me that I traced to about 15 to 20 years to mahavidwan TNS who is the rolemodel of subhapantuvarAli,when he sang few swara kalpana patterns ending with sarvam and quick roll with another short burst patterns ending with sarvam. Overall the contrast of kamas and subhapantuvarali gelled beautifully especially with smashhim rajan rao in different avatars of PMI roll and with EMS being an occassional troll.

When he started a fast number with the uttamEneN nAn uNadhuaDimal allavO my mind raced here and there and I was just trying to figure out what the song was (though I knew it was shree ranjani rAgA) and as I was banging my mind to know the krithi , I just bit giggled when he went from anupallavi to pallavi when he sang "cittam iranga villayO", this number is popularized so much by only DKJ and when he sang swaras at high speed it was really well done.

THe main was ariyakudi big 5 shankarAbharanam. I would say the alApana and krithi were well rendered , missed a bit of expansion in alapana (possibly ariyakudi's proportion was a limiting factor). The krithi is a lovely one and one of the finest lines to sing neraval, one can bring different shades of emotions with different eduppu in veda sastra or tatvartamu . The swaras were quite original and I would have preferred him to have dwelled a little more in the madhyamakAla meditative zone of shankarabharanam or perhaps dont go to kanakku after entering sarvalaghu.

Tani was really good , it was a very different rhythmic combinations and there were just a flurry of patterns from maestro raja rao and really finest remote control mute and volume by ghatam artist EMS , not just for tani but for the whole concert .

Overall till main and tani the concert was more a pracheena antha kalathu nostalgic trip.

[rajeshnat]

Different Skeleton songlist - ariyAthakudi list :
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6. RTP - kApi
9 mins alapana 2 mins violin return
tanam 7 mins
pallavi "manda hAsa vadana harE krishnA" for 6 mins
swaras in kApi + candrakowns + kannada + gOrakhkalyAn for 12 mins

7. chandEEshwaram bhAvayE sadA hridayE - behAg - ?????(Lji help)

8A. veyuru thOli pangan - sindhubhairavi + bhimplas + punnagavarAli - Thirugnana sambandar "KOlOru paDigam"
8B. ayyE metta kadinam - punnagavarAli + nAdanAmakriyA + brindavana sArangA + shenjuruTTi - GKB
9. nee nAma roopamulaku - sowrAshtram - T

post tani , the RTP was to me personally the suryaprakash that I have been acclimitized and more importanly there were some very noticable fireworks in his concert. THe pallavi was in kApi and it was a really too good . With him adding more bass to his voice the kApi sounds more well grinded with aroma and there was some flamboyance and a degree of musicality in his RTP. More than Raga ,and after few minutes of non metered tanam , when raja rao joined with metered patterns in tAnam the kApi was rich in carnatic aesthetics the right blend of layam correctly measuring the raga anubhavam of kApi.

I think he sang the pallavi in catushra jathi(7 beat is what I saw) and three ragamaliga swaras were really authentic, authentic to bring very distinctively his music . THe first of them was in chandrakowns with some high speed patterns with raja rao rolling it was well done , the next was bit rare as a swara ragamaliga he sang that also for 3 to 4 mins , the rAga was kannada , the third was for again 2 to 3 minutes I was thinking it was AndOlika with a hindustani slant , he announced the raga was gORakh kalyan . I recollect I heard that haunting gOrakh kalyan once when ranjani hebbar sang some vachana , I am not too acclimitized with this raga but the patterns were good.

Post pallavi there was a detailed viruththam in sindhubhairavi and bhimplas and ending with ayyE metha kadinam ragamaliga, with a fairly known unknown behag number in between which was well rendered.

Few ahA feelings:
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1.Every musician usually takes a fast filler before main with a well tested half century rehearsed song like say manavyAlakinchara (nalinakanthi), orajupu(kannadagowlai), kAvAvA(varALi) , bantureeti (hamsanAdam). Infact he also does the same usually .Taking a song like cittam iranga villayO is not a great thing , but usually they take it as a submain , I have heard DKJ singing this a lot , but to take this krithi and sing very fast swaras in sreeranjani like the above usual 4 was quite a unique musicality.

2. SwararagamAliga he decides at that moment and I admire that guts . He sings a copious patterns in few unheard ragas of increasing order like kannada , candrakowns and gorakhkalyAn really brings a touch of creativity which possibly becomes more mainstream as years roll on.

A nagging doubt that perhaps should get more reassured with suryaprakash as he moves on:
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A voice can have two significant textures one with a broader bass that brings more sangathi weight and sowkhyam and another a bit of more sharpness where there would be more agility and swiftness .THis vidwan had a texture say till 2008 or so more sharpness that brought in more agility, but in the last one or two years he is bringing more bass to his voice (the shrill is slowly melting away) which is good news .

But with more bass heaviness can he also retain more sarvalaghu swiftness, he has to work and get that sweet compromise so that he can successfully bring in or even fake that he has got both . He bought that up definitely more in the pallavi swara ragamAliga but i prefer him to bring more distinctively even in the ariyakudi skeleton song list structure, which may make me happier but not necessarily the guest of honour .

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

[musicfan_4201]

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[rajeshnat]

7. chandEEshwaram bhAvayE sadA hridayE - behAg - ?????(Lji help)

The composer is Meesu Krishna Iyer

[gee]

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???

[chetants]

Rajeshnat: You would have definitely listened to Sri Umayalpuram Kothandarama Iyer. The scintillating Thani after the evergreen Thamadamen in Thodi by Sri GNB along with Sri Chowdaiah is by Sri Palani Subramania Pillai and Sri Kothandarama Iyer, to the best of my knowledge. His ghatam's shrill beats in unison with Sri PSP's mrudangam keep resonating in your ears much after you have listened to it. That one recording alone is enough to prove his mastery, in my opinion.

[semmu86]

The scintillating Thani after the evergreen Thamadamen in Thodi by Sri GNB along with Sri Chowdaiah is by Sri Palani Subramania Pillai and Sri Kothandarama Iyer, to the best of my knowledge.

The thani is after the krithi "brOchEvA" in khamas.....

[chetants]

Thanks for the correction, semmu86.