R Suryaprakash, Tambaram Astika Sabha, 12/Jan/2017

[sankark]

And Saraswathi Vaggeyakara Trust

MVijayganesh, UmayalpuramMali, MadipakkamMurali

sArangA sketch entha bhAgya s@pallavi

kalgadA samayamu E marakE manasA s@pallavi
pantuvarALi unleashed some fine brigaa passages of stunning virtuosity and beauty sambO mahAdEva ns@parama dayAkara mrgadhara hara gangAdhara

I feel he is unique in terms of kalpanaswarams - they appear an organic outgrowth to the song and roll off nonchalantly. Nothing labored about

[sankark]

nArayanagowLai - rAgam seems to have an identity crisis showing sAmAish/kEdAragowLaish shades - innAlu dayarAkunna s@pallavi

OrajUpuchu, started from anupallavi nIrajAsamu s@pallavi beautiful sarvalaghu and Mali/Murali chugged along very well!

Swarams for kalgadA and n.gowLai were for just couple of rounds

bhairavi

[sankark]

upachAramulanu chEkonnavayyA ns@kapata nAtaka sUtradhArivai, tani

that was one fine & exquisite elaboration of bhairavi both AlApanai & ns. If it were earlier times, I reckon one or two grAmams would have been granted to him immediately

[sankark]

slOkam vaidEhi sahitam, kApi, sUryasrI* (dvimadhyama panchamavarjya rAgam, TSIs creation) nIlAmbari segueing into

ennaga manasu

mangaLam (pavamAna)

A thyAgarAja ArAdhanai before the actual ArAdhanai day

*sounds discordant to me

[rajeshnat]

Suryaprakash@Tambaram Aastika Samajam on Jan 12th,2017
-----------------------------------
Vocal : Suryaprakash
Violin : VijayaGanesh
Mrudu angam : Umayalpuram Mali
ghatam: Madipakkam Murali

Concert Type : Nirvana - No concert to follow , free concert

Day/Duration : Thursday - 2 hours and 35 minutes
Sabha : Tambaram Aastika SamAjam and Saraswathi Vaggeyakkara Trust

Patron : Shri NV Subramaniam - a fine person (if you want to know more about him read one of the samudra magazines released by Mudhra , he continues with his infectious enthusiasm ). He is also dad of vidwan V Shankaranarayan

Hall : Sita Devi School, Tambaram East

Occassion : Thyagaraja aradhana

All are Sadguru Thyagaraja compositions excepting the slokham

1. Missed and was late for entha bhagyamu (s) - sAranga
2. samayamu EmarakE (R,SS) - kalgada
3 mins alapana and 1 min return
Only swara sketch

3.shambhO mahAdeva (R N S) - pantuvarali
7 mins alapana and 4 mins violin return
5 mins neraval in parama dayAkara mrgadhara hara gangAdhara
10 mins swaras

4. innAlu dayarAkunna(R S) - narayanagowlai
4 mins alapana and 2 mins violin return
2 mins swaras

5. Ora jUpu jUcEdi nyAyamA(S) - kannadagowlai
5 mins swaras

6A. upachAramoolanu (R N S T) - bhairavi
16 mins alapana and 7 mins violin return
neraval for 13 mins in kapata NAtakA suTra dhAri
swaras for 14 mins
6B.tani for 13 mins

7A. Slokham - vaidehi sahitham - kAPi + suryashri + neelAMbari
7B. ennagamanasuku - neelAmbAri

8. nee nAma + mangalam kosalendrAya

[rajeshnat]

It is the second week of Jan . Few sabhas continue their dream run of margazhi season and continue , few of them start their 2017 with a sathguru thyagaraja aradhana. This sabha run by perhaps the most intense connoisseur shri NV Subramanian of chennai offers a lovely opportunity to those in the fairly parched carnatic land of tambaram, east tambaram and selaiyur.

A day before my ears was also to hear Karur krishnamurthy, just to taste his music , karur krishnamurthy is appa of New Jersey gone Sangeetha swaminathan, but I could not make it(if some one reports that concert, that would be great). I did go to the school almost on time at 06:45pm only to realize the school that i went was jai gopal garodia which is near tambaram station. Kutcheri thedinEN in jaigopal , some school authority said the kutcheri is held in another school sitadevi and gave me the usual direction that can be for most sabhas , you go straight and you will hit Tasmac shop and you take a left . Arrived late to miss the sArangA.

As i entered and sat kalgada alapana got settled . I did not settle as I struggle to generally identify kalgada , still with respect to alapana of kalgada i am not there yet. The alapana was well done , and for a change I got acclimitized with this krithi samayamu EmarakE which I think I have heard only from him in sabhas.
Pantuvarali was bit of mixed bag , while in alapana and krithi he sang very well I did not get the best of experience in neraval and especially swaras especially because of the drag in kalapramAnam in mrudangam. The vocalist sang so many patterns in swaras and even gave the final longish return and that became Pantuvarali - Part 1. He tried reconstructing with a second round with another longish pattern with zero violin return - the pantuvarali swaras - Part 2, but the kalapramAnam of mrudangam in both parts was not right and I just did not enjoy it that well.

THe narayanagowlai alapana and this rare krithi is becoming one of his rare exclusive krithis , the texture of narayanagowlai was nice and disambiguated enough from his colonial cousin kedaragowlai.

His best USP is always fast filler. It was in kannadagowlai, the ora jupu with the start in anupallavi nirajAksha , it goes from 5th gear to a 6th gear speed . I was very glad that umayalpuram Mali took all attempts to keep up with the high speed kalapramanam and it was intense ganakalAdhara mastery of keeping intense swarasthana suddham

The days best was indeed bhairavi. THe alapana was intense and also the rendition of song was like semmangudi in a tight integrated fashion. The best was his flair in presenting neraval and swaras that made my day. THe neraval was very very anthakAlathu musiri type . In todays excess splash oriented neraval where it becomes a myriad variety rice where it goes in an unstructured random way . He went in a structured way like musiri that adds so much of charm . Like Musiri the neraval first stage was like the words stitched together in alapana like way (no alapana sangathis but one can decipher the alapana that he sang). The second stage is adequate keezh kalam to madhyama kaaalam . THe third stage is the mel kaalam that gives the widest scope of improvisation , the upper Madhya and tara sthayi defines the weight rather the true carnatic weight of Bhairavi. What can one say when Sadguru gives so much of bhairavi music when he gives the gamaka/ornamental puases with words like kapata .... sutra dharivai where the .... nAtaka that gives so much of manoevarability to express goosebump bhairavi .Swaras continued with the same excellence with second stage and third stage , the first stage was rightfully jettisoned .Every bhairavi krithi especially of trinity and patnam is one of a kind to express in a truly heady and heavy way the ocean of bhairavi. ON a side note I am pretty sure that UpachAramoolanu was not sung by MMI and SSI , it was only taken by my third vocal trinity GNB. One can say the Upacharamoolanu had the forgotten semmangudi- madura mani quote

Post main the slokham was nice with the M1 M2 swirl of suryashri bringing shades of the sunaada vinodhan, the start of leisurely long duraion kApi and a touch of last neelambari was well done . This neelambari krithi I have still not got that much stickiness from the bygone vocal masters , I always think of Lalgudi Jayaraman and ennaga manasuku and neelambari - I atleast assumed that it was a good finish not just to sadguru but a great finish to NV Subramanian who I believe has also played as a violin accompanist to few of the celestial greats like TRS, DKP,DKJ and santhanam.

Umayalpuram Mali has near umayalpuram sivaraman nAdham . When it is the perfect long madhyamakala tour he is lovely. I was surprised that he also played fast for the long swaras in ora jupu and he disproved my assumption. That also means he can play fast too, but in pantuvarali he played in his comfort zone and speed not suiting suryaprakash and vijayaganesh. If he improves bit more in maintaining a steady kalapramanam in suiting each and every song as per the design of that song that would be lovely. Madipakkam Murali had so much of opportunity to express in pantuvarali andbhairavi and I liked his play. Tani I did not focus as I zoned out a bit.

Vijayaganesh has steady caution to bring clean ragabhavam . HE must have grabbed the dwi madhyama S kalyanaraman teaser when suryaprakash offered in viruththam but he just passed .I am assuming the dwi madhyama ragas requires bit more grasp to play in violin. He is steady and is settling in the direction of BU Ganesh prasad or more like Vittal Ramamurthy of his Lalgudi school.

Tambaram is not mylapore but the intensity is lively as there was not much attrition. It does not suffer from attention deficit syndrome of a mylapore sabha. Thank you especially for kapata nAtaka sutra ... the joy of my favourite vageyakkara is one where he has defined the abstraction of carnatic music and distilled with right words - all i can say is what the god of film music Illayaraja who once said of Vaali that he is like a sculptor who removed all the unwanted stones to present the musical sculpture .

Overall a very good to excellent concert for 2 hours and 25 minutes

[rajeshnat]

Ravi or some one else of that mindset
May I know who is the author of the slokham vaidehi sahitham. I am googling but getting multiple references

[arasi]

Rajesh,
In my week's stay in Chennai, I'm glad I could at least hear a whole concert of Suryaprakash. Missed you because it was a working day for you (the morning concert at NGS) ?

In all the years I have heard Surya, I cannot think of a single concert of his which was not exuberant, not one which did not keep me engaged. His imagination, his understanding of rAgA and sAhitya bhAvA and his voice are assets of his. Add the gAna kalAdharA stamp to it!

Your 'akku vERu, ANi vERu' (very analytical) reviews delight, and I learn a bit from such reviews. I am merely a listener. Yet, I venture to say that his singing is gaining more strength, a more deep delving quality.

Hope he comes to Bengaluru before I leave, if that's possible

[MaheshS]

Ravi or some one else of that mindset
May I know who is the author of the slokham vaidehi sahitham. I am googling but getting multiple references

It's from Valimki Ramayanam - Sundara Kandam.