Suryaprakash@rAgasudhA on Nov 13th,2013

[rajeshnat]

Suryaprakash@rAgasudhA on Nov 13th,2013
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Vocal : Suryaprakash
Violin : MullaivAsal Chandramouli
Mrudangam : Palayamkottai Guru Raghavendra

Concert type : Nirvana (no concert to follow)
Day/Duration : Wednesday / 2 hrs and 50 mins concert
Sabha : naada inbam

The city of chennai over the years has morphed as a heavy concert recurrent city(quantity is surely yes - but quality is always debatable) . For sure there is a geometric progressive growth of vidwans and vidushis in the last decade . While the sprawl has happened in count of performers - the opportunities for musicians to get more time to perform even after getting a concert is indeed coming down.

Out of this space & time constraint ,few musicians of today(not all) are adopting few strategies to give a more wholesome concert experience . One noticable thing is perhaps slowly taking the submain-main-pallavi doctrine(of yesteryear type cast) and recallibrate it as submain-x - pallavi doctrine(which is today's typecast).

In this typecast the noticable thing is perhaps extending submain as submain-x (submain-extended). In submain-x the submain goes bit more than submain but definitely less than main. However the time for pallavi is the same as yesteryear concert where the tradition of presenting a vistarAmana RTP remains the same. This approach is definitely a pragmatic compromise as it is not simply possible to present submain,main and pallavi when concert gets shortened where usually you feel shortcharged very likely RTP falls as a victim.

3. marivErE dikkevarayya rama (R,N,S) - shanmughapriyA - Patnam
10 mins alapana and 4 mins violin return
7 mins neraval in "sannutAnga shree venkaTesha neevu"
7 mins swaras

6A. RTP in shankarAbharanam
pallavi in dwi nadais - tisram and chatushram
swara rAga sudha rasa(purvAngam)
sangeetham sadAnandam (uttarAngam)

Raga alapana for 26 mins in two parts with 8 mins violin return
taanam for 10 mins
pallavi and swararAgamAliga for 27 mins

swara ragamAliga in shankarAbharanam + kAPi + AndOlikA + dhanyAsi + bahudAri

6B.tani for 9 mins

The submain-x that was presented was the shanmughapriya krithi marivErE . Suryaprakash presented with an amazing tempo and had sound backing from a really charged mridangam pattern by this young palayamkottai guru raghavendra . With a really short return by chandramouli , it was a very delectable one . The submain-x had a bit longer alapana and intense & dense swara patterns in general . I particularly liked few nishadam centric piDis in swaras which goes very well with shanmughapriyA.

The pallavi was grand ,the reason was probably because the raga chosen was shankarAbharanam . The raga alapana was indeed bit long , though he dwelved in two parts like a semmangudi typecast. THe first half was more on the slumber side of shankarAbharanam , in the second half it had more volleys in brigas . THe taanam was spectacular ,metered right from the beginning and he really sang it so well - peeling it layer by layer. The pallavi in two nadais demanded more intense concentration from the mrudangist and he played well. The pallavi line had a ragasudha mudra too and he kept up with four longish swarakalpanas in kApi (swara raga ) , raga sudha rasa (Andolika) for the first tisra nadai. THe last two was in dhanyasi and bahudari in chatushram. The choices of ragamaliga ragas were quite unique - i cannot recollect if I have heard dhanyAsi fast swaras in ragamAliga RTP in the recent past . In short for the submain-x and pallavi (3rd and 6th number)the concert was worth it.

[rajeshnat]

1A. slokham - vakrathunda mahAkAya - bhairavi
1B. varnam - viribOni - bhairavi - Pacchimiriyam Adiyappa

2. deva deva kalayAmithE (RS,N S)- mAyAmAlavagowlai - ST
4 mins neraval in "jAtarUpa nibhacEla janmArcitam mamAkhila"
6 mins swaras

...
4. soundararAjam - brindAvanasArangA - MD
5. rAmA ninnE (S) - husEni -T
4 mins swaras

...
7. kAna vEndAmO - shree ranjani - psivan
8. parulanna mAta - kApi - dharmapuri subbarayar

9A. slokham vandE mAtaram - mohanam +
kalyani gamaneeya kalpalathikAm - hameerkalyani +
vEdanta prathipAthyamAna -sivaranjani +
shree chakrAdhi - shree rAgam
9B. karuna joodu - shree rAgam - SS


The start in viribOni was not the best , i did not hear the mridangam right side that much. naadainbam sekar went round and adjusted it right. Suryaprakash dedicated the second number to vidwan V subramaniam for his gurubhakthi (who passed away yesterday). When he sang sketch of mAAyamlavagowla and started with deva deva kalayAmithE, the concert latched into early excellence . The patterns in neraval and swaras were rolling in amazing tempo with a high dose of manOdharmam . One RS,N,S in mmg was followed with R,N,S in shanmughapriya - that indeed warmed up his voice well to present a real long vilambit dikshitar krithi, soundararAjam. For the rakti effect his husEni was really top notch - husENi to me is more excelled by nayana vidwans than vocal vidwans and suryaprakash took a cue from a lot of nadaswara piDis in husEni.

In the tukkadas the energy never sagged and I particularly liked the long slokham the most and the jump from shree ragam to karuna joodu was indeed covering the last of the most forgotten trinity(shyama sastri). Parulanna mAta was just good .Interestingly all the 4 ragas in ragamAliga slokham (mohanam,hameer kalyani, sivaranjani and shree) had a lot of expansivenes .


Mullaivasal chandramouli followed faithfully the pakkavadhya dharmam , a bit of more expressive nAdham like VVS came more towards the second half. At times there is a touch of little excess melancholy in his violin nAdham which I thought if he had avoided would have been better for this concert.

The revelation in this concert for me was this mrudanga vidwan palayamkottai guru raghavendra(his guru is tinniyam Krishnan- I have no idea about his guru) . I think i am hearing him for the second time . He has a phenomenal speed and his patterns were controlled aggression at its best .He certainly gelled exceptionally well with so many myriad patterns of the vocalist and without any upapakkavadhyam it was a challenge that he really took up well.


Few things that did not go well:
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1. May be the shankarAbharanam alApanai could have been better if suryaprakash had trimmed a bit . This remark is certainly a reflection of my taste where few ghana ragas like kalyani and shankarabharanam - i would prefer to have a bit of reduced alapana.

2. In pallavi which i managed to follow some what , i think for purvangam and uttarangam alternation the mrudangam anticipated well and really took it as a challenge to present both nadais in one go . But in the beginning of swaras I was thinking when suryaprakash was presenting swaras in full for every round in only one nadai - whereas mrudangam played in two nadais . To an extent i could sense a dissonance of mrudangam and vocal in few sangathis in shankarabharanam swaras.

3. A bit more sharper nAdham from chandramouli in the first half and I wish if his take off in neraval and swaras return happens without any delay that would bring more excellence.

AN observation on metereed taanam:
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On a side note , in general when taanam is accompanied by mrudangam i have generally observed that the mrudangam meter can reduce the vocal sangathi quotient of taanam . Despite the metered taanam with very very minimal violin return when vocalist present a vistarAmana taanam that goes for full 10 minutes it is lovely. IT is just a wow moment.

As i typed the songlist I also noticed that the spread of composers was really nice .Coverage of trinity,ST , patnam ,psivan etc was like vijaysiva esque.

Overall an excellent concert for 2 hours and 50 minutes.

[Nick H]

Arrived late, and detected that it must be the alapana for the third song going on. Enjoyed heartily from the first moment. Suryaprakash manages to inject so much energy into his music without loosing any serious aspect. With Suryaprakash, one does not have to choose between exiting and deep: both are there! It is not just exiting energy, either. Suryaprakash brings happiness to the stage, infecting his fellow musicians and the audience.

This third song was not just a third song. Alapana, niraval and swaras were substantial enough for a main. A thani would have been the final clue, but there wasn't one, and it was not until the pattern of the alapana, combined with a glance at the clock, that I realised that we were in for an RTP of some length. What a treat!

I am not a great fan of mridangam accompaniment for taanam, but, in this instance, Guru Raghavendra's play was so subtle that it didn't seem to interfere at all. The violin taanam replies did not work so well for me: the num ta phrasing seemed to be lost and it was more like alapana. Maybe it was his intention to downplay that taanam nam taa --- but is it then still taanam?

Suryaprakash likes to include an RPT in every concert, even if it is short. This one was wonderfully not-short . He also likes to sing for three hours (and obviously has the energy for four or five!) and did so yesterday.

For me, a really great concert.

[sureshvv]

Found it interesting that the ragas chosen for the RTP swaras was based on the words of the pallavi, with a hint of the corresponding kriti at the end of each round.

[Ponbhairavi]

thinniyam Y. krishnan Was a senior mridangist who was a station artist of A I R pondicherry .He was the disciple of thinniyam venkatarama Iyer and was a regular accompanist for Sathur AG Subramaniam. He has two disciples in the field now:karukurichi Mohana Raman and Guru Raghavendra.(I too learnt mridangam under him for sometime and out of respect not to spoil his name, I have not gone anywhere near any performing stage.

[rajeshnat]

I am not a great fan of mridangam accompaniment for taanam, but, in this instance, Guru Raghavendra's play was so subtle that it didn't seem to interfere at all.

Nick,
The start of taanam was subtle, but as it progressed he distinctively raised the volume of his play. It is as though he had a remote control volume button. That was very nice , late vellore ramabadran was an expert in this kind of play where distinctively he raises the volume.

ponbhairavi sir,
Interesting that you also learnt mrudangam.Tx for the info about tinniyam krishnan.

[tanapp]

I listened to Sri Suryaprakash on Carnatic Radio internet streaming sometime back. I was quite moved by one of the ragamalikas that he rendered in that concert. One raga after the other sprang forth, with some clever and witty lyrics, culled from popular kritis and some even pointing to the mundanity of our lives (especially when it came to Kaapi!). The ragamalika pallavi line is "dEvargaL aruL seida rAgangaLe'.

His website has more information and it seems like he is a gifted composer as well.

http://www.rsuryaprakash.com/composer.php

[Nick H]

The start of taanam was subtle, but as it progressed he distinctively raised the volume of his play. It is as though he had a remote control volume button. That was very nice , late vellore ramabadran was an expert in this kind of play where distinctively he raises the volume.

He went back to subtle for violin return too, playing, but waiting to see what was required. It was great control of mridangam