Abhishek Raghuram, Broomfield, CO, October 21 2011

[ksrimech]

Oct 21, 2011 - 6:45-9:35pm
Broomfield Auditorium, Broomfield, CO

10th Anniversary Celebrations of Bhairavi School of Arts - Sampradaya

Vocal: Abhishek Raghuram
Violin: Vittal Ramamurthy
Mridangam: Thiruvananthapuram Balaji

Legend: r - rAga sketch; R - rAga Alapana; N - neraval; S - svaraprastAra; T - tani Avarthanam

01. erA nApai (varNam) - todi - Adi - paTnam subrahmaNya iyer (r)
02. vatapi gaNapathim - hamsadhvani - Adi - muttusvAmi dIkSitar (rS)
03. ka va va - varali - Adi - pOlagam rAma iyer (RS)
04. sujana jIvanA - khamAs - rUpaka - tyAgarAjasvAmi (RN)
05. mOkSamugaladA - sAramati - Adi - tyAgarAjasvAmi (RST)
06. Vote of Thanks & Questions for Artistes
07. nan oru viLaiyATTu - navarasa kannaDa - Adi - pOlagam rAma iyer (r)
08. adi deva paramAtmA - revati - Adi - annamAchAryA
09. idu tano tillai stalam - hindustani behag - Adi - gOpalakRSNa bhArati (r)
10. pavamana sutaDu (mangaLam) - sourashtram - Adi - tyAgarAjasvAmi
11. Artiste Felicitations

Abhishek Raghuram is a young artiste who possesses deep knowledge in laya and rAga. He enthralled us with his mathematical wizardry, voice culture and perfect Sruti (Sruti Suddham). He traversed freely in all the octaves possible with out any loss of Sruti. He sang very nice rAga sketches/AlApanA to most of the songs. The nerval and svaraprastAras were also fairly elaborate. He also sang some extra sangatis in some of these songs some of it was very innovative. His moving rendition of the line "ammA! ammA! enRu alaruvadai kETpadu AnandamA!" navarasa kannaDa kritis left some tearful mAmis and mAmAs. I personally loved the rEvati uruppaDi. VR and TB accompanied AR ably like shadows and did not over step any where (aDakka oDukkamaga vAsittArgal). TB played a sweet tani after an elaborate sAramati svaraprastAra.

IMHO, AR is has a long way to go. In the process of all his arithmetic calculations on stage in rAgAlapanA and svaraprastAra, the bhAva in singing was lost in many of the places. Due to this, his svaraprastara at some places sounded like he was fighting with someone (reminding me of the famous comment from Semmangudi Mama).

I should also say that the only part of the concert which was disappointing to me was item#4. His khamas AlApana showed a lot of kakali niSadam where as the song he chose to sing after has only kaiSiki niSAdam prayOgam. Even VR followed him faithfully with kAkali niSAda phrases. I don't think tyAgarAjasvAmi ever composed in khamAs as a bhASAnga rAgam. The bhASanga versions belong to muttusvAmi dIkSitar (with sAdharaNa gAndhAra) and mahisUru vAsudEvachAr (with kAkali niSAdA). He could have chosen santAnagOpalakRSNam or sArasadalanayanA or SaDAnanE sakalam or brOcEvArevarurA. (http://www.parrikar.org/raga-central/khamaj-page2/)

Both hamsadhvani (kriti and svaraprastAra) and the khamAs Alapana was sung mostly like their hindustani equivalents and were no where near tiruvArur or tiruvayyAru, respectively. At the most, we can call all this "the liberty of the Artiste". Of course, there will be other opinions about this and I have no qualms with those.

I am sure there is a lot of scope for improvement for AR and I am sure he will become a great vocalist in the future.

[arasi]

Krishna,
Thanks for the review (and nice to hear from you!).
So, the Colorado listeners went without listening to an RTP form Abhishek? Suji got to hear one in WA.
Look forward to listening to Abhishek this season. I couldn't catch him last year. It'll be interesting to hear him after two years. As you and others say, he's going to be one of the super stars in he CM firmament in the coming years, I suppose.

[mahesh3]

Oct 21, 2011 - 6:45-9:35pm
Due to this, his svaraprastara at some places sounded like he was fighting with someone (reminding me of the famous comment from Semmangudi Mama).

His khamas AlApana showed a lot of kakali niSadam where as the song he chose to sing after has only kaiSiki niSAdam prayOgam. Even VR followed him faithfully with kAkali niSAda phrases.
I am sure there is a lot of scope for improvement for AR and I am sure he will become a great vocalist in the future.

Ofcourse, I disagree with the first characterization. SSI mama spent his life fighting with everyone, so I won't comment on that.

You definitely pick it up quickly don't you...impressed with the sAdharaNa gAndhAra comment. Maybe Abhi changed his mind, and decided to sing sujana jeevana after seeing Vittal play only kAkali niSAda phrases...who knows?

You speak as if kakali niSadam vs. kaisiki nisadadam prayogam usage is something criminal by Abhi, and as if it is the universal dimension in Khamas. Neither are true, and infact...the usage of N3 very much started with Mysore Vasudevacharya and after GNB sang it, remains very much in vogue. To expect consistent N2 in my opinion, is even more controversial..basically, whether he used kakali or kaisiki nishadam, it was still khamas....which is well within the field of play. Too bad you could not enjoy the khamas!

[ksrimech]

@arasi - Thanks! Yes this is the third concert in the last year without an RTP. May be I'll will request Nityashree to sing an RTP when she is here next year.

@Mahesh3 -Thanks! Yes I agree. I have heard other "Dishum-Dishums" on the Stage too. Could be VR's accompaniment influence to choose that song. I don't know. But it was not at all criminal by any means. I am aware of how MV changed it and how GNB popularized it. There is nothing wrong in that. I have heard that AIR recording of GNB. It is still khamAs by all means. I would have been very satisfied with the concert had he picked up one of the other compositions. Its a rant based on disappointment and not fault finding! His sujana jIvanA was still very nice. No complaints about that.

[anantha]

Oct 21, 2011 - 6:45-9:35pm
Broomfield Auditorium, Broomfield, CO

10th Anniversary Celebrations of Bhairavi School of Arts - Sampradaya

Vocal: Abhishek Raghuram
Violin: Vittal Ramamurthy
Mridangam: Thiruvananthapuram Balaji

Legend: r - rAga sketch; R - rAga Alapana; N - neraval; S - svaraprastAra; T - tani Avarthanam

01. erA nApai (varNam) - todi - Adi - paTnam subrahmaNya iyer (r)
02. vatapi gaNapathim - hamsadhvani - Adi - muttusvAmi dIkSitar (rS)
03. ka va va - varali - Adi - pOlagam rAma iyer (RS)
04. sujana jIvanA - khamAs - rUpaka - tyAgarAjasvAmi (RN)
05. mOkSamugaladA - sAramati - Adi - tyAgarAjasvAmi (RST)
06. Vote of Thanks & Questions for Artistes
07. nan oru viLaiyATTu - navarasa kannaDa - Adi - pOlagam rAma iyer (r)
08. adi deva paramAtmA - revati - Adi - annamAchAryA
09. idu tano tillai stalam - hindustani behag - Adi - gOpalakRSNa bhArati (r)
10. pavamana sutaDu (mangaLam) - sourashtram - Adi - tyAgarAjasvAmi
11. Artiste Felicitations

Abhishek Raghuram is a young artiste who possesses deep knowledge in laya and rAga. He enthralled us with his mathematical wizardry, voice culture and perfect Sruti (Sruti Suddham). He traversed freely in all the octaves possible with out any loss of Sruti. He sang very nice rAga sketches/AlApanA to most of the songs. The nerval and svaraprastAras were also fairly elaborate. He also sang some extra sangatis in some of these songs some of it was very innovative. His moving rendition of the line "ammA! ammA! enRu alaruvadai kETpadu AnandamA!" navarasa kannaDa kritis left some tearful mAmis and mAmAs. I personally loved the rEvati uruppaDi. VR and TB accompanied AR ably like shadows and did not over step any where (aDakka oDukkamaga vAsittArgal). TB played a sweet tani after an elaborate sAramati svaraprastAra.

IMHO, AR is has a long way to go. In the process of all his arithmetic calculations on stage in rAgAlapanA and svaraprastAra, the bhAva in singing was lost in many of the places. Due to this, his svaraprastara at some places sounded like he was fighting with someone (reminding me of the famous comment from Semmangudi Mama).

I should also say that the only part of the concert which was disappointing to me was item#4. His khamas AlApana showed a lot of kakali niSadam where as the song he chose to sing after has only kaiSiki niSAdam prayOgam. Even VR followed him faithfully with kAkali niSAda phrases. I don't think tyAgarAjasvAmi ever composed in khamAs as a bhASAnga rAgam. The bhASanga versions belong to muttusvAmi dIkSitar (with sAdharaNa gAndhAra) and mahisUru vAsudEvachAr (with kAkali niSAdA). He could have chosen santAnagOpalakRSNam or sArasadalanayanA or SaDAnanE sakalam or brOcEvArevarurA. (http://www.parrikar.org/raga-central/khamaj-page2/)

Both hamsadhvani (kriti and svaraprastAra) and the khamAs Alapana was sung mostly like their hindustani equivalents and were no where near tiruvArur or tiruvayyAru, respectively. At the most, we can call all this "the liberty of the Artiste". Of course, there will be other opinions about this and I have no qualms with those.

I am sure there is a lot of scope for improvement for AR and I am sure he will become a great vocalist in the future.

Thanks Krishna for the review. This is the first time I have attended a Abhishek Raghuram concert. The concert was well organised by Bhairavi School of Music. However, the attendance was a tad dissapointing. Hopefully, things will improve in the future. Regarding the music in the concert, I totally agree with Krishna. Here are my observations and 2 cents -

A. The entire concert was in Adi talam except for Sujana Jeevana in Rupakam. One would expect a mix of talams in any concert to keep us tapping our foot differently, but again I guess this is another aspect of artistic liberty.

B. Coming to the Sujana Jeevana rendition, AR displayed his prodigious talent at math but somehow I felt, lost out a bit on the bhava part.

C. I felt that AR tried too hard to impress in one showing. Sometimes, trying too many variations in one song or rather one neraval might not work in the artists favour.

AR is highly talented and possesses many of the needed qualities to be a op singer. Hopefully, he improves himself and stays on track to becoming a top artiste.