Abhishek Raguram- Vani Mahal

[grsastrigal]

Place : Vani mahAl. Date-19.12.13
Thyaga brahma Gana sabha

Before the programme started, there was a serious comedy happened. Doordarshan brought the video camera and set everything ready for a video shoot. When the screen unfolded, AR saw the video man and called the organiser and asked about that and finally, he refused to have his concert video-shot and the DD people packed their camera and left.

I was really surprised

how an organiser can arrange DD to come without the artist approval. ? Or
Is it possible for a sabha to organise Video without the consent of the artist.? Or
Is it possible for the artist to remove the “well known” DD, Govt Telecasting Organisation just like that ?

My backside mAmA was blasting AR for his “misbehavioir (of removing the DD person). I did not know what was correct ? So, I moved to some other seat !

Abhishek Raguram-Vocal
Anantha Krishna- Mridangam
Sundara kumar- Ganjira
B U Ganesh Prasad- Vilolin

vanajAksha- nayaki-??

meru samAna-Maya m.Gowla- N@galamuna sObillu and Swaram
Gowri manOhari-Ragam followed by KoumAri gouri-MD kriti Swaram in "hemAmbari shAtodari sundari” –MD calls it as “ kaurivELavaLi”

Lalitha rAgam followed by ‘chAaladaa hari naama sowkya mrutamu” –Annamacharya

Sriranjani- 1 min rAgam followed by “mArubalga”- neraval in “dAri nerigi santasilli naTTi”

RTP-Sindu bairavi- Pallavi- ‘maalmaruga shaNmuga muruga guHaa mahapatiyum vidhiyum tozhum”- Behag, revathy, kalyani (a piece from karThikEya kAngeya)

Mangalam.

8.30 PM tp 9.30 PM- only Sindu bairavi RTP. What a rendition ? World class. Gowri manohari/Laltiha- Agmark- Abhishek raguram- He is there to delight us.

Marubalga- He reminded me of SSI in the neraval. What a speed of brigAs ?

BUG- though good, was not like mysore srikanth. Again “Anantham and sundaram” made hovoc in Tani and made us ecstasic.

More reviews, please read my previous review of AR in brahma gAna sabhA. Iam gasping for words to write about his concerts.

How can a sindu bhairavi be taken as RTP and an almost 30 minutes rAgam by AR. ? He was mixing hindustani style, may be. Unbelievable. Listen to this.

<mod note: link to recording removed>

[rajeshnat]

Abhishek Raghuram@Vanimahal on Dec 16th,2013
---------------------------------------------
Vocal : Abhishek Raghuram
Violin : BU Ganesh Prasad
Mrudangam : Ananta R krishan
Kanjira : BS Sundar Kumar

Concert Type : Evening - 06:45 to 09:30pm
Day/Duration : Monday / 2 hrs and 45 mins
Crowd : Ticketed concert - about 700

01. varnam - was that nayaki - came bit late
02. mEru samAna (N S) – mayAmAlavagowlai – T
8 mins Neraval in “galamuna shObillu kanaka bhooshana mula”
11 mins swaras

03. kaumAri gowri velAvali(R) –gowrivelAvali (gowrimanOhari) – MD
7 mins alapana and 3 mins violin return
04. chAlada(sAlara?) harinAma (R) –lalita – AC
6 mins alapana and 4 mins violin return

5A. mArubalka kuna vEmrirA (R N T)–shreeranjani – T
2 mins alapana
Neraval in “dAri nerigi santasilli naTTi” for 8 mins
5B. tani for 20 mins

06. RTP in sindhubhairavi for 58 mins
20 mins vocal alapana
9 mins taanam in violin
Pallavi for 16 mins in “Maal maruga muruga guha shanmugha mahapathiyum vithiyum thozhuvum”
Swara kalpana for 16 mins with most footprint in sindhubhairavi
With few sangathis in behag + revati + ?? + sindhubhairavi

7. mangalam

[rajeshnat]

Vanimahal hall and the thyaga brahma gana sabha has one of the best access to those who live at T Nagar which is the second biggest pocket of carnatic Chennai after mylapore. The concert started 15 mins late with an ensemble of musicians who have the highest rasikas acceptance, considering their age of atleast three of those it is a really exceptional achievement .

Abhishek Raghuram is certainly gifted being born as a paternal grandson of Shri Palghat Raghu and Shri Lalgudi Jayaraman as his maternal grand uncle. Many a times this pedigree gets mentioned and what escapes many of the rasikas is how much of personal hardwork that he puts in every concert that is independent of his birth status. . Abhishek started with a varnam which did not come out that well, with one possible reason being the violinist bow was not heard . But from the next number in Thyagaraja’s krithi in mAyamalavagowlai he zoned into a high intensity that kept all of us glued with his on spot adaptability. The mAyamAlavagowlai was a fantastic demonstration of his voice culture, few sangathis in neraval were slow and also racy and the same approach towards especially few slower touchpoints with pA ma pA ma gA was really superb

Two very rare numbers came next with an alapana which is always his strength. The first one in gowrivelavali (asampoorna equivalent of gowrimanohari) with the muttuswamy dikshitar kaumAri gowri velAvali was well done , though the alapana of abhishek bit dipped in quality and his swaras were just there. The second in lalita was wonderful with a very soulful alapana, the krithi being an annamacharya krithi chalara harinAma(did he sing that as sAlara harinama)
His approach to main in shree ranjani was brief in alapana and went with his parmaguru semmangudi srinivasa iyer typecast missiles in dAri nerigi. The neraval was very racy and at times the slightly excessive brigas were bit high on your aural sense.

With a short neraval in shreeranjani and tani, it was evident that he was to sing RTP . The pallavi rAga sindhubhairavi was sung in one go for about 20 mins and indeed he peeled layer by layer to certainly unravel its muse . I have heard the same pallavi twice before , but the alapana was one of the best . It was slightly annoying where he gave the taanam in full to the violinist BU ganeshprasad as Abhishek not singing taanam was a sure letdown. The pallavi followed with a line “Maal maruga muruga guha shanmugha mahapathiyum vithiyum thozhuvum” and the contours of sindhubhairavi were rehashed so wonderfully in pallavi with the ideas of his preceding alapana. The trikalam itself came only at the end of 15th minute of his pallavi rendering . Swaras were well done in sindhubhairavi and he sang brief ragamaliga swaras in behag , revati and another raga and traversed back to sindhubhairavi.

The violinist BU Ganesh Prasad (disciple of shri VV Subramaniam) had recently toured to US with Abhishek and he had extremely high shruthi suddham and incidentally the raga bhavam of his gowrivelavali signal was notably more than vocalist

The percussion department of Anantha krishan in mrudangam and BS Sundar Kumar were simply spectacular . Anantha krishnan being a grandson of shri Palghat Raghu In his play was not in raghu typecase , one could spot a controlled aggression of living legend Shri UKS there . The racy beats in marubalka with a lovely aadi taalam tani and his gumkhi heavy touches in sindhubhairavi amazed me the most . BS Sundar kumar is one of the best kanjira artists reminding of Late kanjira vidwan G Harishankar(His guru is Guru Karaikudi mani and not Harishankar) . His control in tani earned equally or even more applause than the mrudangist . I could spot more of UKS-Harishankar in Anantha – sundarkumar tani.

Abhishek has at times a tendency to over use brighas , but with he taking two lovely emotive ragas like lalita and mAyamAlavagowlai with its serenity did intrinsically cut the over use of brigas .I felt it was perfect. However as mentioned before with Abhishek skipping taanam did not go well to me.

Overall an excellent to outstanding concert for 2 hours and 45 minutes.

[vs_manjunath]

Thanks for your detailed report.

[Rsachi]

GRSHASTRIGAL and Rajesh (another post - mods. Pls merge)
Many thanks.
The creative volcano is at work again!

"All the stars stand on their toes so high
And sparkle in salute, truly
As sparks everywhere fly
Tongues of fire paint the sky
Abhishek is aboil, what Sindhu bhairavi!"

[VijayR]

Before the programme started, there was a serious comedy happened. Doordarshan brought the video camera and set everything ready for a video shoot. When the screen unfolded, AR saw the video man and called the organiser and asked about that and finally, he refused to have his concert video-shot and the DD people packed their camera and left.

I was really surprised

how an organiser can arrange DD to come without the artist approval. ? Or
Is it possible for a sabha to organise Video without the consent of the artist.? Or
Is it possible for the artist to remove the “well known” DD, Govt Telecasting Organisation just like that ?

My backside mAmA was blasting AR for his “misbehavioir (of removing the DD person). I did not know what was correct ? So, I moved to some other seat !

Without a doubt, Abhishek had complete right (from a legal/performer's right sense) to turn the videographer away. Unless specifically stated in the contract between the artists and sabha, the performers are the only ones who can authorize an audio/video recording of the performance.

[sankark]

Is the link shared from this concert? If so, was it authorized?

[vasanthakokilam]

Threads merged. Link posted by grsastrigal removed.

[rshankar]

Isn't the pallavi from Sri Sivan's kArtikEya gAngEya kRti?
makapati - indra.

[vs_manjunath]

True....the pallavi appears the same line of kArthikEya.............

[thathwamasi]

B Sunderkumar is not a disciple of Sri G Harishankar. He learnt Mridangam from Shri Karaikudi Mani and he picked up Kanjira on his own, to my knowledge. In my opinion he is the best current kanjira artist and certainly befits the title of the flag bearer of Sri Harishankar. But, just clarifying that he never formally learnt from the Man.

Thanks
T

[rajeshnat]

Thank you thathwamasi,with your clarification i have reedited the post.