Prasanna Venkatraman@Hamsadhwani(Adayar) on Oct 02nd,2019

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rajeshnat
Posts: 9907
Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 08:04

Prasanna Venkatraman@Hamsadhwani(Adayar) on Oct 02nd,2019

Post by rajeshnat »

Prasanna Venkatraman@Hamsadhwani(Adayar) on Oct 02nd,2019
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Vocal : Prasanna Venkatraman
Violin : M. Vijay- learnt from some guru whom I forgot , but presently he is under S Varadarajan
Mrudangam : J. Vaidyanathan
Ghatam : Ravichandar
Tambura :

Concert Type : Nirvana and free
Time/Day : 6:25 pm to 08:45 pm ,Gandhi Jayanthi Day
Sabha : Hamsadhwani
Occassion : I am assuming it is their monthly series , not advertised as either Navarathri or any Special Mention of Gandhi Jayanthi

01. varnam - mAthE malayAthwaja - kamAs - HMB
02. vinata sutava (S) - jayanthasEnA - T
4 mins swaras
03. shankari shamkuru (N) - sAveri - Shyama Sastri
neraval for 5 mins in shyAmakrSNa sOdari shyAmaLE shAtOdari

04. unai allAl vErE gati illai ammA - kalyAni - PSivan
5 mins alapana and 4 mins violin return
05. kanna thaNDri nApai (R,S) - devamanOhari - T
7 mins alapana and 4 mins violin return
swaras were there briely forgot to note the time

06. ambA neelAmbari - neelAmbari - Tanjore Ponniah Pillai
07A.koluvamaragathA (R N S T) - tOdi - T
11 mins alpana and 10 mins violin return
neraval for 8 mins in tambUra jEkoni guNamula
swaras for 4 mins
07B. tani for 14 mins

08. KAnbedEnrO nAm inimEl gandhiyai pOl oru shAntha mahatmAvai - Piloo (Hindustani KAPi) - Periasami Tooran - Tunesmith was TK Govinda Rao . Tooran wrote when he heard that Gandhiji was assassinated.

09A. viruththam - nittam unnai POl pithanai pOl - darbAri Kanada - ?????
09B. Nee Nenaindal Agadadu undO - darbAri KAnadA - Periasami Thooran (may I know who was the tunesmith)
10. mangalam

rajeshnat
Posts: 9907
Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 08:04

Re: Prasanna Venkatraman@Hamsadhwani(Adayar) on Oct 02nd,2019

Post by rajeshnat »

It was a holiday being Gandhi Jayanthi . I guess folks like me have gone bit older . We have lost our brain cells to remember the father of nation .May be there is still the movie of Gandhi of Ben Kingsley/Richard Attenborough shown in few TV channels especially Doordarshan . Anyways choice of Navarathri with a gandhi jayanthi holiday was nice one to working class folk like me . Opening the newspaper that paper that Gandhiji would have read often , i mean The Hindu paper there was a chinmaya sisters in Arkays , Sikkil Guruchcharan in Vivekananda college and one more in Sringeri Temple which i forgot. Personally to me Hamsadhwani is far for sure if concerts are jacked up as strict 06 30 to 08 30. But hamsadhwani is great sabha, start is advertised as 06 15 pm which is great and of late the concert with few artists that i attended like maharajapuram ramachandran etc, madurai somu day by Lalitharam etc made me go to this sabha . Also the sabha patron Hamsadhwani Sundar is doing a fine job. Ofcourse more than anything Prasanna is certainly a classical , rather immensely classical singer.

I went sharp at 06 15 pm to see the red curtain ,walked out to have a tea near by and came at 06 25 pm as i thought this would be atleast 2 hour 30 mins concert(not a 2 hour and 45 mins concert) . Missed the start of ,,,,,,,,, but this varnam mAthE malayathwaja is quite a long one so no issues the full stop of this varnam is only a delayed procrastinated ,,,,,,

Kamas varnam was well done but Microphone setup was very bad . We heard aarOhanam and avarOhanam sound volume from JV and Prasanna . M Vijay was on mute , ravichandran was just warming up. Kamas went past with atleast I and another lady felt violin kEtkavE illai and the lady rasika took it up with the sound engineer. JayanthaseNa came up next, the sound mixer just got adjusted better , swaras were short and crisp . Prasanna has a great masculine voice throw and I was just catching up his intense sangathi throws . M Vijay's Microphone was replaced at the end of second krithi , but throughout irrespective of microphone replacement , during songs I heardly heard vijay.

From Saveri everything zoned to near perfection the team was rocking . Saveri neraval was well done with some real great balance of layam and neraval. Prasanna finds music without losing the sahitya bhava , infact he does not even do any brighaAches which is absolutely fine for me as he gets a strong shruthi with very basic steady layam in place . Everywhere and any time he has the great masculine voice . Shyamakrishna SOdhari neraval had a roaring effect and i liked prasanna from there on .

THe next was kalyani.Saveri and Kalyani back to back is not the best of choice . But with the neraval which was done with much more charge in saveri , the meditative kalyani was well done . Kalyani is chasing me big time three days of concerts in a row with a detailed vanajAkshirO varnam (Sandeep), kamalAMbA Main (Suryaprakash) and this near submain-unnaiallAL , O gosh something is happening to me in the last 12 months , i am beginning to like kalyani far more than what i used to .Kalyani alapana was very classical and personally to the best of my knowledge i have not heard this unnnai allAL veragathi illai krithi in a live concert . My early days of hearing this song was maharajapuram santhanam singing this unnnai allAL , iirc i heard him in a live concert also singing this . This song is very special for kalyani there is a special phrase ammA in that krithi where you can dazzle with so much of kalyani raga devathai with just so many tosses of ammA.

Devamanohari alapana was one of a kind . I think last time i heard pantula rama singing this raga devamanOhari . I am a flickering tubelight and i take a lot of time to recognize devamanOhari which is another superb janya of the gigantic MElakartha #22 . This kharaharapriya child devamanOhari alapana was very enjoyable to me . There is an overlap in rasa with say darbAr/nayaki cluster yes but it has so much of distinct raga swaroopam in it . I expected kanna tandri and i only got that and i enjoyed prasanna . Prasanna showed his class there

THe next in neelAMbari was well done . I have personally heard few times the recording of Sanjay singing in kerala after very early forgotten acclimitazation from Santhanam/KVN/DKJ etc.This ambA neelAmbari by Ponniah Pillai is as great as say janani ninnuvina of subbaraya sastri . What a round of cittaswaras in neelambari i was fresh and did not even doze off in neelAmbari. Superb contrast and arresting classicism with ambA neelAmbari.

I expected only Todi as main and prasanna sang a very pracheena tOdi . alapana was layered systematically and the masterpiece Koluvamaragatha was sung with great finesse . Neraval in todi was not that perfect towards the second half , from madhyamakaalam(KVN like) zone he could have taken a little mel sthAyi route (GNB like) . Prasanna was showing some signs in neraval to JV about tani .During swaras prasanna got into a zone he was conveying something like "let me wrap up quickly and give JV the chance to play Tani " . Todi swaras was unprasanna and i did not like it that much as there was not much to say . JV tani was a clean tani which was an organic extension to koluvamaragatha, ravichandran was adequate.

The tukkada of tooran on mahatma gandhi was one of a kind . I had tears listening to this piloo version .Prasanna announced that this number was tuned by Tk Govinda Rao (Prasanna's guru). What a great feeling in words that Tooran has conveyed when he wrote this small krithi when he knew mahatma was assassinated . This song was half equivalent to watching Richard Attenborough Gandhi. The viruththam in darbari was well done , but prasanna did not give a clean darbari rasa to the rare follow up song nee ninainDAl . I remember hearing that song nee ninAindal in darbari from two north american sisters(forgot their name now) in a youtube recording .

M Vijay is classical in his play , when devamanohari alapana was sung and announced by Prasanna , VIjay kind of refused to play but prasanna egged and Vijay indeed played well . In todi alapana though classical, VIjay was not showing pakkavadhya dharmam of proportion . During the play of songs M Vijay needs more press for sure. J Vaidyanathan rocked he is so good in getting the words and emote and he is surely a fine vArisu of TK Murthy and the great Tanjore Vaidyanatha Iyer school where he goes so much with the flow of song. Ravichandran gave nice support with no extra vitamin supplement of excessive play. The concert reached excellence primarily due to lovely mrudu support from JV's angam.

Few thoughts for Prasanna (he has registered and made few posts and he is our forumite)
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1.Prasanna is intensely classical . If some one says I have not heard DKJ, KVN and Nedanuri take them to prasanna live concert . Prasanna could have practiced civil disobediance movement by ending at 09 :00 pm instead of 08:45pm , his todi swaras would have got into better shape. But that did not happen.

2. Prasanna zones in competition with musicians like sikil gurucharan, Palakkad RamPrasad , RK Murthy where music intersects with nice shruthi, decent layam and great emote with sAhitya . When compared to the other 3 musicians , I am not seeing in general any marketing from Prasanna . CM is a crowded space and even these musicians are formidably challenged by quarter generation younger musicians like Vignesh Ishwar, Abilash G, GirijaShankar, Vishnudev Nambuthiri etc. Mere music is just not enough. THat era of 1970 to 1990s where with sub optimal crowd KVN, DKJ and Nedanuri had a longer staying power. I am noticing prasanna is anti marketing not even half as close as gurucharan , palakkad RamPrasad or RKM. On a side note ,last year Dec 2018 when Gayathri Venkat was indisposed in her academy concert , Prasanna replaced GV in the evening slot , this year dec 2019 i see Prasanna getting positioned with an awesome prize catch Trivandrum balaji in 2019 academy schedule on a friday night.Even big sabha music academy Prasanna has sufficient backing . THe two top stars as of oct 2019(in count of rasikas, music debatable, starvalue is bound to change usually once every 5 years) are say Sanjay Subrahmanyan and Ranjani GAyathri sisters who are big time marketers . Discrete Promotion and Shameless Exclusive Marketing is the key. Best wishes for Prasanna to have far more (?h)ears than hamsadhwani.Hopefully Prasanna gets into 5G Marketing Mode(prasanna should know 5G more than me) and doesnot continue as 3G Mode musician (DKJ + Nedanuri + KVN divided by three )

Overall an excellent concert for 2 hours and 25 mins.

arasi
Posts: 16774
Joined: 22 Jun 2006, 09:30

Re: Prasanna Venkatraman@Hamsadhwani(Adayar) on Oct 02nd,2019

Post by arasi »

Rajesh,
This review of yours is typical Rajesh, from the heart, with an eye on the time element--of the length of the concert and of each piece, and details, of course.
I notice that the third class citizen in your rAgA land, KAlyANi, is winning and gaining your favor :)

Bring in Gandhiji too, and it reminds me of the movies of my younger days-- a bit of all rasAs possible, in one go.

I still emember Prasanna's mukhAri and muripEmi at MFA one afternoon long years ago, when a number of us buddies from Rasikas enjoyed his concert.

song line: vinatA suta vAhana (garuDa)

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