Abhishek Raghuram@Music Academy on Dec 19th,2012

[rajeshnat]

Abhishek Raghuram@Music Academy on Dec 19th,2012
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Vocal : Abhishek Raghuram
Violin : Mysore Shrikant
Mrudangam : Ananth R krishnan
Kanjira : GuruprasannA
Concert duration/Day : 2 and 1/2 hrs /Wednesday

Concert Type : Nirvana (no concert to follow)- but a time caged one

Abhishek Raghuram is a very creative artist , if one can say considering his age his creativity is amazing . He presented in academy with a conviction that went exceptionally well , though had its share of unforeseen truncation of few critical segments that got caged by a 09:30 pm sharp closing time of Academy. Numbers were too less but the creative quotient was more

1. karunimpA (varnam) - sahAnA - patnam
2. veDalenu kOdaNDapANi(R N S)- tOdi - T
alapana and violin return for 4 mins each
neraval in surucira vAdyamulu mrOya surusellaru for 11 mins
swaras for 6 mins

3. tAmadam tagadayyA dayAparA thunai(R S) - mOhanakalyAni - Lalgudi gOpAla Iyer
10 mins alapana in mOhanakalyAni
6 mins violin return
swaras for 7 mins

In the music academy souvenir which I glanced during monday's concert of sumitra -vijay , I saw for quite a few musicians the songlist part of the artist was blank. Abhishek page also was blank, perhaps few artists keep it that way to not let excitement of discovery. But if all musicians do that , than who would buy the souvenir?

Putting that aside , the team of abhishek ,his usual stock mridangist cousin Ananth, some what stock violinist mysore shrikant along with guruprasannA teamed up very well . Abhishek is capable of presenting with lot of sowkhyam , in this concert barring a few sangathi pyrotechnique balTi in todi swaras everything was in my zone of carnatic aggression - sowkhyam intersect.

Sahana was nice , the raga's serene bhAvam was indeed there and karunimpa settled more well for the two cousins.I did not hear the violin effect much and abhishek launced into Todi as a submain.Nice alapana for 4 mins with a somewhat still not well settled violin return. A rare krithi of T was done well , his focus was more in presenting a neraval and it was well presented .Swaras flowed well barring a patch of little excess kanukku it went well

MOhanakalyani is indeed a lovely raga. Acclimitized to this raga from santhanam's few renditions in my school days like bhuvaneshwariyA and sangeetha samrajya krithis.I have heard one mohanakalyani pallavi where I heard a detailed one presented by suryaprakash few years back in kalakruthi.Rest of the mohanakalyani has not registered that much in me . Abhishek was just superb in mOhanakalyAni. His voice was just perfect , he revealed so many facets of raga's muse that I totally discovered thru in him.His alapana in first few phrases had a lot of Balamuralikrishna like voice . His adherence to shruthi,singing in a very very manly voice had a very matured Hindustani UStad effect . The lalgudi gopalaiyer krithi was lovely , he kept up the momentum with the cittaswaras and then amazing swara poruttam with a repeated anchor in thA ma dha mA connecting the pallavi line of his great grand uncle was exceptionally creative.

[rajeshnat]

4A. RTP in kharaharapriyA
Raga alapana for 26 mins
violin return for 9 mins
TAnam for 12 mins
pallavi for 9 mins
Pallavi line was "nee PAdamulE gaTiyani nammiTi shree rAmachandrA"
neraval rAgamAliga in kharaharapriyA + ?? + bilahari + nAttaikurinji
4B. tani for 8 mins

4C. swara rAgamAliga for 3 mins in ??? and kharaharapriyA

5. rAmananai bhajithAl(RS) - mAnd - psivan
raga sketch for about 2 mins in mAnd

6. mangalam

1 hour was gone and he launched into an exceptionally creative, a long rather detailed alApana of kharaharapriyA .His voice was just obeying his musical imagination and it rained and rained . Thank god it was not like few other big 6 ragas like kalyAni , but kharaharapriyA I always enjoy when it is detailed. With about 9 mins violin replay which was very good , abhishek's real strength in alapana was manifested without an iota of doubt.

Taanam was non metered but his voice quality and his imagination was again wonderful. Yes with about 47 minutes gone with Raga and TAnam, some thing was headed for unforeseen truncation. While the pallavi segment with its ragamaliga in bilahari and nAttaikurinji(was there another raga) was excellent desptite bit of rush .The swara rAgamAliga was just too rushed he appeared as a student who wrote the last long question in the last 10 mins where he did not apportion his time before .

Abhishek said at the end of Tanam that he had originally planned to present swararagamaliga and tAlamAliga, he also said let me see what I could do. He was packed with intensity and manOdharma for pallavi and swara ragamAliga but with a very very long alapana he got caught with the cindrella pre-fixed closure time of 09:30 which is always enforced in academy. The only tukkada was also sung exceptionally well with a nice rAga alapana. When It was Sharp 09:30 mangalam rolled and the cheque arrived from academy office bearers

Mysore shrikant could have played better.There was a bit of not that good tone from his violin till atleast tOdi. He kept going well from mohanakalyAni.
Abhishek is gifted not just with his maternal grand uncle who is LGJ and his paternal grandfather who is palakkad raghu . But his best gift is that he has a very capable cousin who is always his stock mrudangist . It is going to be a real boon for Abhishek's musical career. There was exceptional anticipation by ananth and he has very fast and nimble fingers. Most importantly he continued his smile even when he had to really cut short his tani after a near 50 minute dharnA of percussion.KanjirA was good .

The entire mohanakalyani and the kharaharapriya alapanA was just exceptionally rich in creative pursuit which is always a key pull to me to attend Abhishek concert. Glad that I had time to be there post work more importantly i was near academy .The academy's setting of sound is too good .I wish we have a 3 hour concert slot for the evening II slot in academy .Overall Excellent concert for 2 and half hours.

[mahavishnu]

Incredible!
I always think it is not possible to outdo his 2010 academy concert, but he keeps doing it again and again.

neraval rAgamAliga in kharaharapriyA + ?? + bilahari + nAttaikurinji

There was purvikalyani, shanmukhapriya, bilahari and nattaikurinji.

I wish I could have been there in person for this live experience with the impressive acoustics.

[mahavishnu]

with the cindrella pre-fixed closure time of 09:30 which is always enforced in academy.

At which time the tamboora turns into a pumpkin.

[sairaam]

Nice write up..

I think its Talamalika and not Tanamalika.. Am not so sure, coz he actually presented Talamalika as well in variious gathis resulting in the eduppu to be changed for each gathi.. Even in the thani , for the last korvai, they played three gathis resulting in three different eduppus which he sang..

I think the whole team had practised this together.

Anyways, Confirmation needed on this.

[mahavishnu]

I think its Talamalika and not Tanamalika.. Am not so sure, coz he actually presented Talamalika as well in variious gathis resulting in the eduppu to be changed for each gathi.. Even in the thani , for the last korvai, they played three gathis resulting in three different eduppus which he sang..

I think the whole team had practised this together.

Anyways, Confirmation needed on this.

They did vary the eduppus although the pallavi itself was atIta eduppu with the arudhi always on the syllable "ti" from nammiti. The final korvai of the tani resulted in multiple eduppus due to gathi variations. That was beautifully orchestrated. Not sure if this was rehearsed. Abhishek and Anantha have performed together so many times that this kind of thing just emerges in their interactions.

However that does not qualify as a talamalika. He did announce that the original plan was to do a raga and talamalika though. No mention of varying anything for the tanam.

The thing that was not clear from not being at the concert physically was if they switched from 2-kalai to 1 kalai somewhere in the middle...

Another thing worth mentioning is the extensive sankirna nadai that Anantha and Guruprasanna played in the tani. It was absolutely superb!

[rajeshnat]

Nice write up..

I think its Talamalika and not Tanamalika

I typed it bit late , it was my typo,the fact at the end of Tanam he said only means tAlamAligA. Tx will edit my above post

[rajeshnat]

mahavishnu
He squeezed lot of ragas in swara rAgamaliga , I did not like that much of fuse all because of time shortage .May I know what ragas he sang

[mahavishnu]

Rajesh, he used the same sequence as in the neraval ragamalika. some of the ragams lasted one avartanam or less.

[hema]

I went to the concert skeptical -- since I did not enjoy his concert last year very much.

Yes, it was an amazing concert. The swarams in RTP were indeed less than an avarthanam long in different raagas.

There were so many unusual phrases in Todi and Kharaharapriya. Although I never got bored in Kharaharapriya, I wish he
had cut down on the alaap and given us a treat on the talamalika and raagamalika. Taanam, swaram and tani -- were very short
and sweet -- but just a sampling -- leaving the audience to figure out what it could have been!

The only complaint that I have:
Given his voice range I would have liked a greater portion of sancharas in the mandara--madhya stayi rather the madhya--taara stayi, and
also in vilamba kaalam -- I feel music sounds more wholesome here.

[MV]

I came in at Thodi. Mohanakalyani throughout was awesome. I actually enjoyed Mysore Srikanth's violin as well. AR sang the whole concert in some 6th speed-as though he needed to catch the night train out of Chennai, forget the 9.30 deadline. I would have loved to hear a slow song from him which he also does beautifully. No doubt of the bags of talent though