Suryaprakash@Music Academy on Dec 24th,2014

[rajeshnat]

Suryaprakash@Music Academy on Dec 24th,2014
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Vocal : Suryaprakash
Violin : TKV RamanujAcharyulu
Mrudangam : Manoj Siva
Morsing : Srirangam Kannan

Concert Type : Nirvana - No concert to follow
Day/Duration : Wednesday/ 2 hours and 32 minutes concert
Concert Type/Crowd : Ticketed concert - ~250 peak in first floor (no idea on the ground floor)
Sabha / Hall : Music Academy/ TTK Hall

01A. vakrathunda mahAkaya - slokham -
01B. shree mahisAsura mardhini - varnam - AndOlika - HMB??
02. SwaminAtha paripAlayasumam (RS,S) - nAttai - MD
3 mins swaras

03. andavanE unnai nambinEn (R N S) - shanmughapriyA - PapanAsam Sivan
6 mins alapana and 4 mins violin return
4 mins neraval in tandAvam aDum kunjitha saranamalarai POTri
5 mins swaras

04.paramapurusha (S) - vasantA - ST
swaras for 4 mins

05. O RangasAyi (R N S) - kAmbOdhi - T
16 mins alapana and 7 mins violin return
11 mins neraval in BhoolOka vaikunta
11 mins swaras

Suryaprakash with an extremely supporting team in academy had his share of intensity and uniqueness. THe start was a rare varnam in andOlika , IIRC I have never heard this rare varnam it had a harikesa mudra. Nattai kalaikattufied with right balance where vocal volume was exactly right when compared to other supporting artist, I always have a bit of eye brows raised within me whenever morsing and violin combine as the chance for shruthi going for a toss is likely to happen in many cases , but kudos to violinist he kept the shruthi aligned .

Post nAttai the submain was an expressive shanmughapriya . THe alapana was bit short nevertheless planned considering the two biggies that is coming . I loved the shanmughapriya neraval so much in the lines tandAvam aDum kunjitha saranamalarai POTri which gave a lovely voice throw , what a prathi raga is shanmughapriya that too this masterly composition of papanasam sivan . The next fast filler brings out so much of his ganakaladhara school and i liked his 5th speed rendition of extraordinary swara fluency in paramapurusha in vasantha. I have heard more patterns of fast filler swaras in vasantha but being 2 and half hours concert he had to cut short .

KambOdhi alapana was so detailed and I enjoyed his alapana very much , the violin return was just half and was concise to give no drag feeling . The magnum opus O rangasayee was a marked departure as to the best of my knowledge neither mmi or tvs have sung this . However his other paramaguru ssi has taken to himalayan heights . The kAmbOdhi was sung with open throated sangathis and without an iota of shouting or yelling the kambOdhi appeared very complete(courtesy to be given to academy sound system) . The neraval was superb in the usual bhooloka vaikunta line with lovely nAdham support by manoj. THe swaras were spirited , i did not spot the usual ga ma pa ma ga as he did not sing , I was thinking it is a defining kambOdhi typecast , still the swaras were lovely with manodharma ruling .

[rajeshnat]

06A .pancha nadai RTP kApi - Taalam tishra jAthi roopakam in pancha nadai (tishram, chatushram, ...,...,sankeernam)
He mentioned sankeernam offset of six aksharam
14 mins alapana with 5 mins intermediae violin return
Taanam for 10 mins

Pallavi line was kA guhA murugA neeyE gathi yEna nambinEn
ragamaliga swaras in kApi + mohanam + ganamoorthi?? + behAg + shree ragam??

pallavi trikalam with swarasa for 14 mins
Overall pallavi was for 43 mins

06B. tani for 9 mins

07 . mOdi jEsevelara - kamAs - ??
08A. viruththam kAdalAgi kasindhu - tevaram - sindhubhairavi + jonpuri
08B. eppo varuvArO - jonpuri - GKB
09. nee nama roopamulaku

The best of best was his 43 minute kapi pallavi . While kapi alapana and taanam had the excellent melliflous touch,certainly when one beats the voice with a heavy raga like Kambodhi the pallavi indeed runs with the momentum.The taanam did not have metered mrudangam but had both speed with an intermediate violin return which was the case for alapana too .

Personally I have not heard any pancha nadai pallavi at all either thru recording or any thing from any contemporary artist . I would love to know if any of you have heard this pancha nadai concept . The pallavi was briefly explained for less than 30 seconds before his start of pallavi neraval .

The pallavi amaippu was very wonderful with poorvangam being kA guhA murugA neeyE and uttarangam being gathi yEna nambinEn and I think he also alternated the talas to make it as a talamaliga(not sure though, he announced briefly but I could not catch it).

The violin and mrudangam support was lovely -particularly the palakkad raghu school that manoj siva represents came handy for sure. He did all the pallavi vinyAsam for roughly 7 or 8 mins - pallavi for pallavi sake . THen his ragamaliga swaras were wonderful with really short essence violin return - the regurgitation return of swaras in one go from shree ragam???, behag, ganamoorthi?? ,mohanam and back to that right spot landing was successful coffee break.Incidentally all of the swaras had a distinct gA finish , kind of swaraksharam to kA guhA.

Post tani i liked the tevaram viruththam the most - I was thinking it was a right choice of god too in Lord shiva after the srirangam ranganatha tour and murugan pallavi. The violinist TKVR is really a dark horse , one has to give it to him, there was pracheenam , pracheenam as in giving intense carnatic idioms , he teamed up with srirangam kannan in morsing .He showed his class by being concise , just see his return proportion in violin .

Manoj had nice sowkhyam and I liked his play in pallavi the most - it must have been a great demonstration for him to show his guru bhakthi to his beloved guru Palakkad raghu in the pancha nadai pallavi . His tani being 9 mins was a clean extension to the pallavi and I liked it . Morsing artist kannan was minimally playing which is always the best thing to happen as his twang can interfere with shruthi suddham , particularly with violin that can have a snake and ladder effect.

If few things did not go well they are these

# In kapi swaras there was a slip at one place with the violinst TKVR .

# In paramapurusha the roll of manoj could have been faster

# Suryaprakash in the first varnam did not come out that convincingly as much as what followed in nAttai , possibly HMB varnam being rare I may need more hearing to get acclimitized.

I like audacious concert in general . The audacity should be preferably defined by the main vocalist and if the fellow accompanist donot overshoot their time it becomes wonderful. The minutes of accompaniment indeed shows that and the accompanist indeed lifted the vocalist concert . The start of concert was 06:45 pm and the tani was at 09:01 pm with andavane -submain, O rangasayee - super biggie main , rtp in pancha nadai coffee etc , it was packed with verve, vigour and passion with lovely azhuttam .

Overall an excellent concert for 2 and half hours.

[HarishankarK]

thanks for the review, you don't have to try so hard, we can deduce from the song list that all aspects that are usually mandated for MA concert are covered.
With every concert and season SuryaPrakash seems to be ascending higher and higher !

[devan]

The sangithakalanidi of this right honourable men only supporting August org.will get sk within five years from academy.

[Lakshman]

The AndOLikA varNa starts with mahiSAsura mardhini mahAbalAdri. It is by Muttiah Bhagavatar.
mODi jEsEvElarEA is by Pattabhiramiah.

[cacm]

The sangithakalanidi of this right honourable men only supporting August org.will get sk within five years from academy.

LIKE the other immortal devan your astute observation will come true. LIKE his spiritual & musical mentor MMI, Suryaprakash has WORKED VERY HARD for years WITHOUT COMPROMISING on ANY ASPECT of that PURE School of Carnatic Music, Technical aspects as well as the STRENGTHS OF MMI'S APPROACH TO OUR MUSIC - I MIGHT ADD M.S.Amma too. He is showing like MMI did that SCHOOLS OF MUSIC like MMI will be supported by the discerning public as well as expert Rasikas. LIKE MMI he is triumphing without gimmicks, misrepresentations, and right connections of the Power Brokers of our music who will be forced by the PUBLIC to reassert the SIMPLE TRUTH that he is altready GREAT & DESRVES TOP BILLING...... I REQUEST THE RASIKAS to ENCOURAGE THIS ARTIST & COMMEND him for keeping the flag of our music flying high....VKV

[arasi]

An excellent concert by Suryaprakash.

My computer connections are pathetic and I could not post I could not get a good seat either

Let me be brief so that I can at least use the connection when it's here!

Rajesh,
The program had bhairavi and devagandhari listed. Yes, rangaSAyi and kApi stood out...

[hamirkalyani123]

Excellent review by rajeshnat. I wish I could get hold of this album.