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Vocal: Abhishek Raghuram
Flute : JB SrutisAgar
Mrudangam : Anantha R krishnan
Tambura Support : ??
Concert Type : Nirvana - no concert to follow / Ticketed Concert
Day/Duration : Thursday/ 2 hours and 15 mins ,7 t0 9 15 pm
Hall/sabha : Gnanananda Hall/ Narada Gana Sabha
01.vandEham jagathvallabham(R,S) -hamsadhwani - AnnamAcharya
- 3 mins alapana with no flute return
- 5 mins swaras
- 6 mins alapana with no flute return
- 7 mins swaras
- 15 mins alapana and 7 mins flute return
- 15 mins nervals in two places Kamitha Phala Prada Devam and Kumaara Guruguha Mahitham
- 16 mins swaras
04. Ela rADAyanE kAmini -jAvaLi(raga sketch) - bhairavi-Chinniah
05. Chanrachooda (R) - darbArikAnadA - PD
- 2 mins alapana with no flute return
Real 06. pavamAna -sowrashtram- T
This day roughly last year there was a clash of Sanjay@Academy and Abhishek@NGS with both of them taking evening II parallel slots . Last year ,It was then a Working day I did have tickets for both concerts .I thought i could not come on time for 06 45 academy and instead choosed 7pm NGS. Hearing Sanjay is especially difficult as I usually just arrive anywhere from 2 to 30 mins prior to start of any concert .
This day Academy pushed Sanjay to evening I slot .Usually mostly male artists take up evening II in academy and vidushis take up evening I slot. There is a slight departure of norms this year .What is the big deal both slots in evening at academy are exact 150 mins. I was thinking sanjay did the right thing as there is more crowd retention for evening I in academy.
Few words for Narada Gana sabha
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But can NGS be a sabha as great in acceptance as academy .It is already a greater sabha than academy as it conducts year long activities. But in terms of musical quotient during season, i think NGS should do better for evening II slot. Having talked in lot of occassions with late NGS krishnaswamy, i was not able to convince him to also open NGS main hall for morning . Now Morning Main Hall is ON that is great .
But why is NGS not ending the concert of evening II with the same exact 150 mins and instead ask them to wind in 135 mins . 15 mins loss is huge loss of music just look at the imagined song thatvyou lost. I only hope NGS follows Academy , they should just give exact 2 and half hours and have same parity for evening slots .
Academy cannot ticket evening I and II separately as there is no way folks attending evening I can come out in time , also they have constraint of the hall itself having two stories. But NGS tickets both evening I and II seperately , they are great that way.The nexus of SO SO musicians tagging with a star musician racket goes away that way.
The previous slot of Ganesh Kumaresh in this concert started at 4pm and ended with 06 30 pm (I just heard last 5 plus mins of GK ). I am just imagining say in this concert from the time 09 15 to 09 30 pm this brilliant Abhishek could have taken either a kumudhakriya(ardhanadheeshwaram) or kharaharapriya(navasiddhi).ABhi did not sing kumadakriya or kharaharapriya at all he went to nee nAma roopamulaku as time was 09:15PM.
Of late I am getting a hunch that sabhas of chennai are intently listening to rasikas feedback .I am assuming my sincere request to extend by 15 mins to NGS is fulfilled in future so that both evening I and II concerts are same. NGS starts from morning so no need of 3 hours concert ..
Abhishek and his manOdharma
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THe start with hamsadhwani raga alapana was nice . Abhishek attimes has a slightly strained voice , but yesterday not a chance anywhere anytime. The krithi of annamacharya in hamsadhwani was well done. Sahana followed next , it is a heavenly raga for #2 with eevasudha drop.eevasudha is a bit offbeat sahana when compared to other sahana . I am assuming GNB took eevasudha for the first time and he slightly raced and gave a great speed anthastu where it can be dropped as one of the best two downs. Sahana krithi and swaras by both abhi and sruthisagar were well done. IIRC, Abhishek didnot give flute return for sahana ,i think that was a fabulous idea
They say all squares are rectangles , but every rectangle is not a square. Similiarly when I write 15 mins alapana and 7 mins flute return,15 mins nervals in two places and 16 mins swaras with just 7 mins accompanist return, it should mean a lot if you take a pause to get that musical datapoint.
What a joy to hear this kind of detailed pantuvarali . Pantuvarali took off in all directions with intense musicality and spellbound vidwat. Alapana showed the mastery of nAbhi voice texture . When the alapana was done and as Shruthisagar was giving a return , i was thinking Abhishek- VendAm pA sArasAksha , VendAm pA sivasiva enarAdha , please go with bit slower ramanatham bhajEham . I was thinking flute intrusion with different shruthi , ramanatham bhajEham is best choice . I and Abhishek connected with telepathy and indeed it was ramanatham bhajEham.
There were two neravals in pantuvarali, both brilliant with superb contrast of speed , the Kumara guruguha was a bullet train and kAMitha was a great passenger train, the pantuvarAli rasa never got dropped anywhere. Towards the second half of the swaras konjam kanakku Pottan Abhi , I am musically not inclined to much kanakku .With so many nadai variations this pantuvarali is one of a kind especially the neraval- Abhishek sings a muttuswami dikshitar krithi as thought it is 5 pancharatna thyagaraja krithis in succession. I love it.
I shouted at the end of tani pallavi please but i lost my voice because of pantuvarali in my ears. Abhi did not hear , i myself was bit half hearted in my shout . For a brief time post tani when he sang a bhairavi alapana, at that moment i though hey he is singing a grand bhairavi RTP. Unfortunately this time telepathy with Abhishek did not work,abhi unfortunately moved to a nice javali in bhairavi. Some one rushed forward and asked chandrachooda with a great alapana in darbAri he sang and wrapped with chandrachooda .darbari never lets you down
Anantha and his laya poruttam
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Anantha R Krishnan had extraordinary speed and balance for pantuvarali , from where does he get such energy. It is logical for me to conclude that upapakkavadhyam is purposely dropped to give more air time for core songs as it is NGS 135 mins concert. But to play with such energy the tani after roughly 31 mins of neraval and swaras and may be 10 mins krithi it is intense mastery. The tani was really great with great sound quality and azhuttam, he is very effortless and does not give a feel of how much energy he is spending, that is indeed Mark Waugh endurance .
Shruthisagar and his Flute
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Sruthisagar is one of my favourite flute artist .His blow is bit more serene to me than another of his counterpart Jayant. I get very mad when most of the time he is featured with his sister JB keerthana and some times he also plays with nadaswaram . This concert he gave a great nAdham . When there was swaras his turn was well thought out with a delay so that flute was heard more and as a rasika we dont miss the violin. His alapana was kept to minimal time it was almost abhishek concert . But in the course of the song , i was not happy for a certain pockets , this flute sarathi had a bit different sruthi . At times the flute is way too sharp and in higher shruthi and the continuity of voice like violin is not achieved by flute. Shruthi indeed did well to carefully balance but the effort was not very successful during course of krithi. In short I missed say an akkarai or bugp during the course of song .Violin has won the race as an accompanist super irreplacable vadhyam.
All said it is not an easy combo for any flute and vocalist to try .The vocalist generally gets into shruthi inadequacy due to wear and tear of concert performance, when there is no violin coverup it is quite a tall challenge. I will hear anantha and abhishek again and again for sure(Abhi-Anantha is always a joy as Steve and Mark Waugh). The suitability of flute instead of Violin during the course of the song is simply not there.I am glad i took the second abhishek concert this season.
Overall an excellent for 2 hours and 15 mins.
