Abhishek Raguram- MA- Ambujam Krishna Remembrance

grsastrigal · Post by **grsastrigal** » 13 Sep 2015, 22:16

Abhishek Raguram
Ambujam Krishna-Compositions
Sumesh Narayanan-Mridhangam
Anantha Krishnan-Tabla
Mysore Srikanth-Violin
12th Sep 2015
Music Academy- Main hall

“The Hindu” carried, the concert details on that day, did not have Anantha’s name and Tabla. When I entered the Hall, I could hear some table sound, behind the screen, and was wondering whether I came to a wrong place. TMK flashed in my mind for no reason !

As Garden City is hosting excellent concerts like Sanjay, Bombay Jaishree & TM Krishna and we, chennaites have been starving for water and a good concert. Yesterday, I had, at least, a good concert. Tabla, mridhangam for a concert was new to me and was wondering how it would work ?

Thinking of Ambujam Krishna, I, immediately, remember three songs-

GuruvayoorappaNe Appan- Maharajapuram Santhanam’s beautiful Ritigowla. I started liking ritigowla only after listening to this.

Aravinda Padamalar- Pitamaha’s tukkada piece in kApi. His kapi is always Semmangudi village degree coffee.

Somewhere, TNS’ “punnagai onrE pOdhumE” in Hamsanandhi.

When Smt AK’s son & daugther gave an inaugural speech, how Smt created those immortal kritis- “She wrote the pallavi and after a month or two, finished the pallavi and saraNam. She always felt it was He who wrote these kritis. “ a la Jayadevar . It was poignant start of the concert. I was wondering the contributions of Papanasam sivan, Ambujam Krishna, GKB, koteeswara Iyer and others- the world of Carnatic Music without Tamil krithis of these Greats.

• KaNamum maRavadhE- Sama- Two minutes rAga.
• kAnadA rAgam for 5 Mins-followed by Enna solli Azhaitthal..
• Ragam-pUrvi kalyAni followed by “Inidhagilum ninai manamE”- Neraval in minnal vAzhvu…..agala”
• AtAna rAGam for 5 minutes and immediately followed by –“ThiyagarAjaswamy padhambujam dinamum pani manamE”
• MariyE nEE kavalum- it was a not a Tamil kriti- in Raga kannada.- A beautiful 5 minutes rAga elaboration. Masterly.
• Bageshree-rAgam-in Hindustani style- “kahO rAma nAm hardham” – sort of Hindi bhajan type.
• Main kalyani- “un padha malarinai maRavEn”- Neraval in “Annai tan mazhalai tannai maRappinum….. kaividinum”
• Tani – Mridhangam only
• Kapi-Ragam for two minutes- Aravinda padamalar….
• Behag-– “Nayan se Nayan milanE Aavo nandakishore” Ragam for 4 minutes.- The space AR gave for violin and violinist acknowledged beautifully. Anantha took centre stage in this kriti and played to his full potential. Bravo…. Also swaram in “nayan sE” echoed beautifully by Anantha.
• pavamAna- Mangalam

I did not know “enna solli” is ambujam Krishna’s and also penned Hindi bhajans too.

Concert started at 6.40 PM and ended at close to 9.30. I was always feeling that AR is overexposing his voice and singing a rAgam for 45 minutes with all octaves, which was not my way of liking. But yesterday, surprisingly, AR did not venture into that line and each and every ragam was carved beautifully. Even in kalyAni, he had a sort of “controlled aggression” which was very nice.

Over to Ananthakrishna- I know he also plays Tabla. Unfortunately, he was not given more opportunity and Sumesh blasted all the way , Like Dravid-Sehwag combination. Even Tani was really a Tani by Sumesh and was good.

At the end of Beghag kriti, Anatha was given a three minutes mini-tani and it was a real treat. Actually Bhageshree and behag- Anantha and AR combination was very good.

When Abhishek’s bAgeshri sounded confusing, Violinist cleared my doubt. The way he followed with Abhishek, in each and every kriti, shows his experience and it was a week end pleasure for all the rasikas.

Rarely you get a free Music Academy Main hall concert with Star Artists.

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 13 Sep 2015, 22:49

grs,
Thanks for the review. Came to know about this concert a while ago. Wasn't sure about the date.

Sheik seems to have given a great concert--no excesses (of his nevertheless brilliant ideas and expositions).

All songs special to me, coming from someone dear to me.

maryEmi kAvalanu marakata varNuni krupa in telugu is a sprightly kannaDa rAgA song.

guruvAyUrappanE (as CRama reminded us recently, was tuned by TNS, though popularized by Maha Santhanam).

TVS at one time sang iniyAgilum ninai manamE very often in his concerts.

arvenky · Post by **arvenky** » 13 Sep 2015, 22:55

Sumesh is from Tiruvarur Bhaktavatsalam school I think. I found him little noisy. No offence meant.

Lakshman · Post by **Lakshman** » 13 Sep 2015, 23:05

Does the Hindu article mention the names of the son and daughter?

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 13 Sep 2015, 23:34

Sumesh Narayan is Sandeep's bro.

Lakshman,
The daughter is Radha Parthasarathy and it would have been Suresh Krishna, her eldest son.

VRV · Post by **VRV** » 14 Sep 2015, 00:27

Arasi,

Sandeep's brother is Nirmal Narayan. Not Sumesh.

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 14 Sep 2015, 01:05

Oops Vinod, my mix up with modern names!

Is Sumesh from India or from NA?

harimau · Post by **harimau** » 14 Sep 2015, 04:00

arasi wrote:Oops Vinod, my mix up with modern names!

Is Sumesh from India or from NA?

Suresh is very much from India. NRI mridangists are content to stay in North America pursuing advanced academic degrees and fusion opportunities with world-famous musicians, if you know what I mean.

kvchellappa · Post by **kvchellappa** » 14 Sep 2015, 08:32

Harimau,
Everyone knows Suresh (Krishna) is from India. What about Sumesh (Narayan)? Why 'rodan' in between?
Dup, Dup!

mahavishnu · Post by **mahavishnu** » 14 Sep 2015, 08:48

Sumesh Narayanan is a Chennai-based mridangist disciple of Tiruvarur Bhaktavatsalam. More about him here: http://srutimag.blogspot.com/2013/03/young-voices.html

He is an excellent young mridangist. In the last couple of years, he has been accompanying Abhishek quite frequently. Another mridangist featured quite often with Abhishek is Vijay Natesan (disciple of TVG). Look out for both of them...

Sumesh has also engaged in fusion performances (just for the record). See for e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvUAVFwrD1A

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 14 Sep 2015, 08:48

Chellappa,
I would think it was a typo...

Mahavishnu,
Thanks! Got to know the young man and his music along with other musicians and their work. Quite (quiet?) a pleasing junket, that.

harimau · Post by **harimau** » 14 Sep 2015, 09:04

kvchellappa wrote:Harimau,
Everyone knows Suresh (Krishna) is from India. What about Sumesh (Narayan)? Why 'rodan' in between?
Dup, Dup!

Ah, autocomplete/autocorrect is the gremlin here.

As the current joke goes, the man at the computer says,"Google, please stop behaving like my wife and let me complete my sentences!"

kvchellappa · Post by **kvchellappa** » 14 Sep 2015, 09:43

Arasi,
I knew as much.

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 14 Sep 2015, 11:01

It is totally incompatible to have a tabla for any carnatic concert. In jaya tv many years back anantha krishnan had both mrudangam and tabla now looks after many years he is back with tabla for abhishek concert .CM gets immensely diluted with tabla- atleast my 0.02 cents. Hope he does not make a tabla an unwanted feature for his future concert

priyaram78 · Post by **priyaram78** » 14 Sep 2015, 14:48

My parents attended this concert. It was a very good concert according to them. Since it was a concert of Smt.Ambujam Krishna's compositions, there is a bhajan in the list Bageshree-rAgam-in Hindustani style- “kahO rAma nAm hardham” – sort of Hindi bhajan type. Also another Hindi song in Behag. So I presume Tabla is indispensable for this concert. My parents could not stay till the end. They really wanted to listen to Azhaga Azhaga in Suddha Dhanyasi. Hope to attend one AR concert in future.

grsastrigal · Post by **grsastrigal** » 14 Sep 2015, 17:42

I also felt the mridangam was a bit louder. I am not favoring tabla in a carnatic concert, even if couple of songs are of Hindustani style. I think Abhishek might have included Anantha in the last minute because he wanted to include couple of HIndustani-styled ragas. But as a rasika, this is something new. Many times, I felt Anantha found it very difficult to intrude mridhangist and play his Tabla. Even, when violin played, Tabla had to stop abrubtly to give way for mridhangam. There was an uneasy Federer-djokovicrelationship between mridhangam-Tabla. But, it is also true that when his turn came, Anantha showed his brilliance in tabla.
priyaram78- AR did not sing azhaga- Did ur parents want to request for it ?

priyaram78 · Post by **priyaram78** » 14 Sep 2015, 18:43

No Sir, they did not want to request for it. They just hoped Azhaga would be in AR's concert list.

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 14 Sep 2015, 19:10

Priya,
In a way it worked out all right--they left early but he did not sing azhagA azhagA after that!

Ambujam Krishna has many more songs as appealing as azhagA, but only that and a few like enna solli
azhaithAl nI varuvAyO? caught the imagination of performers in the past. I'm glad Abhishek sang a few not so well-known ones. Hope they get picked up too by vocalists. Still, it doesn't cover many of my favorites

priyaram78 · Post by **priyaram78** » 14 Sep 2015, 19:23

Yes Arasi Madam my parents said actually they could not sit till the end because it was a 3 hours concert. And yes wish many unheard songs of Smt.Ambujam Krishna are made popular by vocalists.

harimau · Post by **harimau** » 14 Sep 2015, 20:04

arasi wrote:Oops Vinod, my mix up with modern names!

Is Sumesh from India or from NA?

'Suresh', short for 'Sureswaran', the name for Ganesha.

So what is 'Sumesh' short for? And who is 'Sumeswaran' anyway?

How about 'Rakesh'? God of rocks?

Why can't people name their kids Raman and Krishnan, failing which Thomas, Richard and Henry are attractive options? Will these people wait till they hear of Robert Vadera before they start naming their kids Robert?

Arrrrgggghhhhh!

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 14 Sep 2015, 21:22

A propos, your Dog-ESvari amuses me. How did you think of coining it? Makes me wonder if there is a dattAtrEyi too

CRama · Post by **CRama** » 15 Sep 2015, 18:04

I attended this concert. To me it looked like a recording for production of CD. For, the time was exactly managed like that. The first three songs upto Poorvikalyani took one hour. The next few songs upto Bagesree took another one hour. I thought the concert is going to end. But then Abhishek took up Kalyani- the main song. Abhishek is not TMK. So there is no other reason for including that Bagesree bhajan at that juncture. With all this, the manodharmam of Abhishek was restricted. But Kalyani brought the usual manodharmam of AR to the forte. I am surprised to know that the song- Un perumai is a composition of AK. For, Chembai has recorded the song in 1940s-50s in the small record of that era. That means AK songs were popular even in those times.

TNS has set to tune many compositions of AK. That Mariyemi kavalannu was also tuned by him and he had sung that in many concerts. Apart from Guruvayoorappane appan, another song which is very popular is Ododi Vanden Kanna in Dharmavathy and who can forget the ragamalika Kannaa Vaa Mani vannaa vaa.

Tabla was remaining idle for most of time. Abhishek rendered all the songs without any note book or ipad. That is commendable.

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 15 Sep 2015, 18:11

Arasi, isn't gAna mazhai pozhiginrAn also Smt. AK's?
And, if I remember correctly, you had said that Smt. Anantalaksmi Sadagopan has also tuned several of her compositions, right?

VijayR · Post by **VijayR** » 15 Sep 2015, 20:13

harimau wrote:
'Suresh', short for 'Sureswaran', the name for Ganesha.

So what is 'Sumesh' short for? And who is 'Sumeswaran' anyway?

How about 'Rakesh'? God of rocks?

Why can't people name their kids Raman and Krishnan, failing which Thomas, Richard and Henry are attractive options? Will these people wait till they hear of Robert Vadera before they start naming their kids Robert?

Arrrrgggghhhhh!

Harimau: Of late, you seem to be (unintentionally) putting your foot in your mouth quite often.

Raka means moon in Sanskrit. Suma also means the moon (although the more commonly used meaning for Suma is flower). So, Sumesh and Rakesh both refer to Chandra, the moon God.

While we are on the topic, Sura refers to the gods. So, Suresh refers to the lord of the Gods. In various scriptures, the name has been used while referring to Vishnu, Shiva, Indra, and Ganesha.

kvchellappa · Post by **kvchellappa** » 15 Sep 2015, 20:24

Raka means night (on the full moon day) and rakesh is moon. RakAsasivadana , rakAchandrasamAnakAnthivadana, etc.

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 15 Sep 2015, 21:50

Rakhesh with an 'h' too makes sense? God who protects?

Ravi,
Gana mazhai, one of AK's very popular songs was tuned by V.V.Sadagopan. nI pOi azhaithu vADi in kApi and kaNNaniDam eduthu chollaDi from this first volume of Geethamala are among the popular songs of hers, though there are some not so well-known ones which are my favorites.

As CRama says, TNS and Dr.S. Ramanathan tuned the songs beautifully in Volume 3.

SS tuned the songs in Vol two, his brilliant disciple Kedaranathan tuned them in Vol four.

Ananthalakshmi Sadagopan and recently SK Vedavalli tuned others also sang them in a CD. The very popular Om namO nArAyanA in karNaranjani was tuned by Charumathi Ramachandran.

Ananthalakshmi Sadagopan, Sujatha Vijayaraghavan, Sumitra Nitin and Ra-gA and Aruna Sairam are the artistes who have sung them on cassettes/CDs.

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 16 Sep 2015, 02:32

Thank you, Arasi!
If I remember correctly, kaNNan iDam eDuttu sollaDi is probably the only song of Smt. AK's that Smt. MSS has sung. (Ceinu will be able to confirm or deny).

harimau · Post by **harimau** » 16 Sep 2015, 08:47

arasi wrote:Rakhesh with an 'h' too makes sense? God who protects?

"Raksha" means "to protect" so that should be "Rakshesh".

From there, it is nt too big a stretch to "Rakshasesh"!

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 16 Sep 2015, 08:57

Well,
'Dogesh' can do the samhArA of Rakshashesh along with the canines which surround him, feline

kvchellappa · Post by **kvchellappa** » 16 Sep 2015, 09:08

Harimau, there are books on suggested names for Hindus, Christians, etc. There is none as far as I know of forbidden names. You can make your mark there.

CRama · Post by **CRama** » 16 Sep 2015, 09:58

rsankar. Yes. Kannanidam eduthu cholladi is a very beautiful song sung by MSS in 50s-60s. A favorite of dancers too.
But some other songs also come to my mind- There is one song Karunai pozhiya nalla tharum iduve Marakathavarna Manamirangayo in Sreeranjini which MS has sung in some concerts. Excellent song and the neraval (I don't remember the lines) is simply awesome. In the VEnkatesa Suprabhatham Tamil CD, MS has sung one song of AK- Varuga varugave in Mohanam.
Dr.S.Ramanathan- One song I immediately recollect- Aravinda lochanane in Nitimati- My early exposure to Nitimati. Dr. SR has sung this as main piece in a few concerts. Sowmya also used to render this often.

sureshvv · Post by **sureshvv** » 16 Sep 2015, 10:43

VijayR wrote:
Harimau: Of late, you seem to be (unintentionally) putting your foot in your mouth quite often.

As opposed to the norm of intentional putting of foot in mouth?

VijayR · Post by **VijayR** » 16 Sep 2015, 18:36

sureshvv wrote: As opposed to the norm of intentional putting of foot in mouth?

Mea culpa, brother.

Sivaramakrishnan · Post by **Sivaramakrishnan** » 17 Sep 2015, 09:58

A highly informative thread this.
Congrats to Charumathi Ramachandran, tunesmith of Om namo Narayana(karnaranjani). Never knew about this!
Thanks to the contributors.

kvchellappa · Post by **kvchellappa** » 17 Sep 2015, 11:17

Highly informative on the side-context also?

harimau · Post by **harimau** » 27 Sep 2015, 08:30

VijayR wrote:
harimau wrote:
'Suresh', short for 'Sureswaran', the name for Ganesha.

So what is 'Sumesh' short for? And who is 'Sumeswaran' anyway?

How about 'Rakesh'? God of rocks?

Why can't people name their kids Raman and Krishnan, failing which Thomas, Richard and Henry are attractive options? Will these people wait till they hear of Robert Vadera before they start naming their kids Robert?

Arrrrgggghhhhh!
Harimau: Of late, you seem to be (unintentionally) putting your foot in your mouth quite often.

Raka means moon in Sanskrit. Suma also means the moon (although the more commonly used meaning for Suma is flower). So, Sumesh and Rakesh both refer to Chandra, the moon God.

While we are on the topic, Sura refers to the gods. So, Suresh refers to the lord of the Gods. In various scriptures, the name has been used while referring to Vishnu, Shiva, Indra, and Ganesha.

So Rakesh is Moon Good! I did ask if Rakesh means god of rocks and clearly it means god of the moon rocks!

What is wrong with Chandran, Balachandran, Chandramouli, Chandrachuda, Chandrasekharan, etc., all good names incorporating 'moon'? Names good enough for your grandfather aren't good enough for you?

Even NASA named a satellite Chandra and not Rakesh!

Just like when Rajiv Gandhi came to power a bunch of South Indians with a deep inferior complex rushed to name their kids Rajiv or Sanjay, now you are chasing after Rakesh.

I was wondering what would be the equivalent if one wanted to choose a name relating to the sun.

In the good old days, it would have been Suryanarayanan. I was wondering if it was going to be Suryesh.

Fortunately NDTV came to my rescue.

The other day there was this discussion on NDTV and the NDTV editor/anchor was named Ravish.

The only meaning for Ravish in the English language is 'sexual assault'!

So I suppose we can soon expect South Indian kids named Sexual Assault and Rape.

It is enough to give our fellow forum-poster Nick apoplexy and decide, "Bugger all, I think I will name the little bugger Bugger" should he have a male child.

The other thing that bugs me is the rush to spell names the way North Indians spell.

Take Ramanathan Iyer of Carnatica/ARTery fame.

Here is a name that I can handle. Most of us have a Ramanathan among our family, close associates or neighbours. This man is part of the team that changed the spelling of Bharat Sangit Utsav.

Shouldn't his name be Eier rather than Iyer since according to his preference for transliteration 'I' is 'ee'.

Then I will be able to address him as 'muttai', with variations such as 'kozhi muttai', 'kakka muttai', 'vatthu muttai', etc.

Some persons have decided to carry this naming to further depths.

The folks running the Bharat Sangit Vaibhavam decided they were going to adopt North Indian spelling for their banner this year.

It read "Dikshitar Akhandam".

Since the ending "r" is really a honorific, I expect it to morph into "Dikshit Akhandam" in a couple of years making Muthuswamy Deekshithar share his last name with the former Thief Minister of Delhi Sheila Dikshit.

I had hoped I would die before that but that is not likely to happen.

Wisely, Sri Deekshithar's descendants adopted Iyer as their surname.

Surely, all of you guys can adopt Dikshit as your surnames!

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 27 Sep 2015, 09:04

Harimau dixit

varsha · Post by **varsha** » 27 Sep 2015, 09:07

The only meaning for Ravish in the English language is 'sexual assault'!

wrong by a mile. it is not even one of the meanings

varsha · Post by **varsha** » 27 Sep 2015, 09:08

Dont forget to look at a ravishing moon tonight . A spectacle that will repeat in 2033

harimau · Post by **harimau** » 27 Sep 2015, 09:46

varsha wrote:
The only meaning for Ravish in the English language is 'sexual assault'!
wrong by a mile. it is not even one of the meanings

It is the first meaning given in Merriam-Webster Dictionary.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ravish

harimau · Post by **harimau** » 27 Sep 2015, 09:59

I guess I should blame http://www.rasikas.org too!

http://www.rasikas.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=8750

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 27 Sep 2015, 23:19

arasi wrote:Harimau dixit

Like Roseanne and Cher, Harimau doesn't need a last name!

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 27 Sep 2015, 23:56

Ravi,
I meant it not in the sir name sense.

Harimau uvAcha (in Latin) was it...

kvchellappa · Post by **kvchellappa** » 28 Sep 2015, 09:39

Many parents give their children nice names, some children however adopt names like Harimau.

harimau · Post by **harimau** » 02 Oct 2015, 08:02

kvchellappa wrote:Many parents give their children nice names, some children however adopt names like Harimau.

Not everybody is blessed with a name like Chellappa and thus have to take refuge in a name like Harimau!

harimau · Post by **harimau** » 02 Oct 2015, 08:04

varsha wrote:
The only meaning for Ravish in the English language is 'sexual assault'!
wrong by a mile. it is not even one of the meanings

Like the teachers of good old days, I hereby sentence you to imposition.

Write the following sentence 100 times:

"The ravishing young maiden was ravished by a rake(sh)."

kvchellappa · Post by **kvchellappa** » 02 Oct 2015, 08:33

Mr Harimau,
Though I don't know, I am sure your parents have given you a lovely name of Vishnu, better than Chellappa, which does not figure in scriptures and is secular.