Palghat R.Ramaprasad @ Parthasarathy Swamy Sabha - 24th Dec

[thathwamasi]

The concert happened at R.K.Swamy auditorium at 7 PM

Vocal - Palghat Ramaprasad
Violin - Nagai Sriram
Mridangam - Shankaranarayanan
Kanjira - Guruprasanna

1. Varnam - Begada - Adi
2. Enduku Dayaradura - Thodi - M.Chapu - Tyagaraja - NS@Tyagaraja Vinuta
3. Arunachalanatham - Saranga - Rupakam - Dikshitar - R
4. Polla puliyinum - Mayamalavagowlai - Adi - Papanasam Sivan
5. Paramathmudu - Vagadeeswari - Adi - Tyagaraja - RST
6. RTP - Lathangi - Adi - Kanda Nadai
"Venkata ramana sankata harana - Rangapathi Tirupathi"
Ragamalika - Atana, Ranjani, Sindhu Bhairavi
7. Bhavayami - Ragamalika

I am thankful that I made the decision to skip office for a few hours and attend this concert. It was full of class. After a brisk Begada varnam, Ramaprasad sang just an outline of thodi and started Enduku Dayaradura. The neraval at Tyagaraja Vinuta was epic. The control he has over singing melkala neraval is really admirable. He then cleverly chose to sing mel kala swaram to ensure that the tempo doesn't slow down. Sriram responded brilliantly in side stepping some of the mines that Ramaprasad placed in his swarams. He then dived into singing Saranga. It was really well elaborated with a lot of emphasis on the jeevan of the ragam. Sriram's response for crisp. Ramaparasad then announced that there are some special prayogams in this kriti which are not found in other saranga kritis such as "Pa ma ri sa" or "pa ma ga ri sa" or "Sa Ni Pa". He then sang Arunachalanatham in a very slow tempo (what is funnily called as the 1.5 kalapramanam). Sankaranarayanan did struggle a bit to get used to the tempe and hence was out of shape for the keerthanai. To set up the audience for the main item, Ramaprasad sang a quick "Polla puliyinum" and then started with Vagadeeswari, to the surprise of many. His raga elaboration was tranquil and to the point. He treated it like any other ragam and thus not over emphasising on the Vivadi aspect. Sriram's response to that was so brilliant that I felt he should continue playing.

Ramaprasad then sang Paramathmudu with so much "nidhanam". He sang a few avarthanams of keezhkala swarams, and chose not to sing mel kalam to go along with the mood, and asked the percussionists to start the thani. It was slightly over 8'O clock at that point. I am sure there would be a pallavi coming up and hence expected the thani to be over soon. But to my surprise (and Im sure to Ramaprasad's surprise as well) Shankaranarayan chose to play a 20 minute thani. To be honest, I was not happy with that for two reasons - One is, there are many artists, who will allow thani avarthanam in the last 10 minutes of the concert. Here is one artist who has given enough respect to the percussionist by allowing a thani early. But, the percussionist, kind off over stayed the welcome. Secondly, given that he chose to play 20 minutes, atleast he could have played more variety, or played with more stuff in it. That was not the case either. It was pretty much boilerplate stuff. Guruprasanna, did play well.

The thani took up the time Ramaprasad had allocated for singing latangi ragam. So he just chose to sing a few lines, followed by Sriram. And then sang an abridged Tanam, which was effective. Then he dived into the pallavi. He sang excellent neraval, able supported by Sriram and went on to sing trikalam. Then he sang swarams at three spots - "Venkata ramana" in sama kalam, "Rangapathi" in samakalam and then "venkata ramana" in mel kalam. Sriram pretty much followed him clearly. I really loved the way he sang Atana and Sindhu bhairavi. It was clearly an exhibition of his control over the respective ragams. Post this he started with "Bhavayami" and I had to leave to get back to work.

Overall, it was an excellent concert, well concieved and well executed.

Regards
T

[CommonMan]

Nice representation, thathwamasi.
It was very insensitive and unprofessional to use up 25 minutes of time in a 2 hour concert for thani...was waiting for it to get over.....but for the fact that the vocalist has been singing for years now (thats what I read somewhere, not sure though), he could have enforced seniority by conveying thru the middle of the thani that this guy was going over-board on time...anyways, a nice gesture misused to the most!

Concert reminded me of Alathore - with endhukudhaya: hearing after years (or decades)...the manthra pidis - upto Ma and Ga was very majestic...so was the ease in which he handled upper ocatves - on the whole a very vibrant and real "aambala" saareeram, which I haven't come across recently (since Balaji Shankar).

Saranga could have been better.....again he could have used his judgement better to have chosen a different song with this mridangist - mridangam was just all over the place - could not even maintain the kalapramaanam: it was embarassing even for me as a listener.

Alathores' masterpiece Vagadheeswari was very nice - but I liked the vioilin turn even better....Sriram was just amazing...in this era where violinists believe to use up more time than the vocalist, Sriram followed the tradition of using up about 1/2 to 3/4 of vocalists time.

The understanding betweeen the vocalist and the violinist was great in wrapping up the RTP in less than 30 minutes and still bringing out the entire flavor and completeness of an RTP.
Concert ended sharp at 9 (thathwamasi - after bhavayami, mangalam), guess he was to catch a train or something....but nothing to beat his devagandhari or asaveri of last season: if the singer is reading the post, and has a concert to follow, pls try to sing one of those.

[rajeshnat]

It is a 7pm concert -open ended nirvana concert.The vocalist can always extend , but if he had a train to catch or something else which forces him to have a hard stop at 9pm , then it is a different story. Few years back I heard this musician just once , he has a real nice sAreeram. Hoping to hear him soon

[dhanurasi]

real "aambala" saareeram, which I haven't come across recently (since Balaji Shankar).

Wondering where Balaji Shankar is nowadays?

[sangeetham]

Learned from a very reliable source that Balaji Shankar is very much in Madras, and by choice, has stopped performing. Pitty that there are not much "aambala" saareeram going around in the circuit..

[thathwamasi]

Dear Commonman - I think he is singing on the 30th December, at Hamsavinodini - I am not sure of the venue. Regarding the artist's choice of saranga keethanai, I don't find it wrong. I am not sure if Ramaprasad has sung with the same mridangist before, but going by how he played for varnam and enduku dayaradhura, one would not be in a position to judge that he will miserably fail for arunachalanatham. Also regarding the on-the-dot finish, having observed Ramaprasad over the past 14 years, he is a thorough professional. I haven't seen him arrive late for a concert, nor have I seen him go over the allotted time slot unless the organiser requests him to do so. May be if the Sabha representative at the venue had requested him to sing more, he surely would have.

Regards
T

[thathwamasi]

Oh and one funny incident in the concert which I wanted to share. I was sitting in the last row and there was another gentleman sitting next to me. He must be above 60 and he seemed so engrossed in the Enduku dayaradhura neraval swaram. He was vigorously shaking his head and actively putting thalam (the thalam was wrong though), and he uttered lots of sabash and bale in the process.

Once Saranga ragam began, he turned to me and asked "idhu Palghat Raghu peran dhane?" (This is palghat raghu's grandson right?". I said "Illa sir. Idhu Palghat Mani Iyer peran ramaprasad" (No Sir. This is Ramaprasad, grandson of Palghat Mani Iyer". The man then said "Oh. Idhu Abishek raghuram illiya?", I said "No". He showed instead disappointment...and with in a few seconds, he left.

Regards
T

[CommonMan]

Regarding the artist's choice of saranga keethanai, I don't find it wrong. I am not sure if Ramaprasad has sung with the same mridangist before, but going by how he played for varnam and enduku dayaradhura, one would not be in a position to judge that he will miserably fail for arunachalanatham.

I completely disagree, Thathwamasi. If an artist, who I believe has been performing since 1987 (which is a solid 25 years - alright! take away the 4 or 5 initial years) cannot judge the capabilities of a mridangist in the first 5 or 10 mts, then his judgement is miserble and attrocious. Doesn't matter if it is the first or the 100th time the mridangist is accompanying him....Moreover, the mridangist did not follow the kanakkus of Ramprasad in endhukudhaya either, as you suggest...

[thathwamasi]

Sir - The issue here was not with the kanakku. Any mridangist can miss kanakkus, on a given day. Its the kalapramanam that we are talking about. The mridangist's playing for the varnam and enduku dayaradhura did not have any kalapramanam related issues. However, whilst I disagree at one level, I do concede that you are not wrong in saying that he should have used better judgement.

Regards
T

[sureshvv]

Sankaranarayanan is definitely one of the more capable young mrudangists in the circuit today. It is unfair to cast non-backed up aspersions.

[thathwamasi]

Sir - My intention isn't to cast aspersions. I'm merely reporting what happened in the concert. I completely agree that he is a very capable mridangist. I am not commenting on his potential sir. I am merely commenting on his output in that particular concert. I view it only as constructive criticism.

Regards
T

[CommonMan]

Sankaranarayanan is definitely one of the more capable young mrudangists in the circuit today

Even the most capable of mridangists that we know of, Sri PMI or PS, would have thought twice to use 25 mts of a 2 hour concert for thani...Just because he is capable, he cannot take away so much time, IMO.....He is not at a stage where people attend a concert for his playing, or so to say, his advanced capabilities....I may not be an extremely knowledgeable rasika, but for the fact that I've been listening to concerts for decades, I did not get any inkling of outstanding capabilities in Sankarnaraynan...he was just about good as any other mridangist today is! This opinion of him is not based on this one concert alone....

[Purist]

Sir - My intention isn't to cast aspersions. I'm merely reporting what happened in the concert. I completely agree that he is a very capable mridangist. I am not commenting on his potential sir. I am merely commenting on his output in that particular concert. I view it only as constructive criticism.

Regards
T

I agree with Thatwamasi. Recently in a vocal concert of G Ravikiran, the mridangist in question was totally
out of sync with the kalapramanam of the vocalist many a time, as a result marred the overall effect of the concert.
I have noticed this tendency of playing independently (may be techincally comptetent) in quite a few mridangists.
which can only turn noisy. Sri M V Iyer had once jokularly remarked, when asked how was the thani , ' avar thaniya daan
vasichar' (meaning -what thani, he was playing alone all through). This aptly describes what happens when Mridangist
doesn't follow the vocalist's way of singing.