Abhishek Raghuram@Karthik Fine Arts (NGS Main Hall) on Dec 10th,2022

[rajeshnat]

Abhishek Raghuram@Karthik Fine Arts (NGS Main Hall) on Dec 10th,2022
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Vocal : Abhishek Raghuram
Violin : HN Bhaskar
Mrudangam : patri satish kumar
No upapakkavadhyams

Concert Type : Nirvana - no concert to follow /Ticketed
Day/Duration : Saturday/ 2 hours and 15 mins - 06 45 to 9 pm
Sabha/Hall : Karthik fine arts/ NGS main hall
Occasion : As part of Dec 2022 concert series

1A. viruththam - ODi ODi utkandu jothiyE - gowlai -??
1B. varnam - Chelimi kori vachiyunnadi - Gowlai - Vinai Kuppier

2. kanugonu sowkhyamu - nAyaki - T
4 mins alapana and no return

3. TeliyalEru rAmA(R,S) - dhenuka -T
4 mins alapana and then violin return
4 mins swaras

4. karuna joodavayya (R) -kalyani - T
forgot to note

5A. Ragam saramathi
17 mins alapana and 8 mins violin return
5B. Atlast after decades taanam by abhishek along with violinst
Taanam for 8 mins
5C. mokshamu galadhA (R,Taanam, N,S ,Tani)
neraval in sAksha kaarani sadbhaktthi sangeetha gnanamu
9 mins swaras
5D.tani for 11 mins

6. samayamiDhE rArA - behag- Dharmapuri subbarayar
7. appalam ittu paaru - dwijavanthi + poorvikalyani + ?? + Saramathi + khamas - Ramana maharishi???
Who is the tune smith i am assuming some one else other than ramana maharishi, some one can help

8. piravi athu.. thirruppugazh - sindhubhairavi - AGN
9. nee naama - mangalam

[rajeshnat]

Saturday and Sunday i went to same sabha - same hall(KFA-NGS main) one to hear Abhishek and the next day to hear sanjay. Both paid , the extraordinary team especially patri who plays for so many artists who played for abhishek,unlike neyveli venkatesh who apart from playing only sanjay he hardly plays for any one else (i see some concerts with sid sriram). Also this abhishek concert was a sharp closure at 9pm where as sanjay went extra 25 mins .I hope everyone is given the same time as sanjay .

All said two phenomenal days of concerts where certainly both abhishek and sanjay pushed the boundary of CM surely to great heights where concerts of these type can be benchmarked to all the legends who are all no more with us

The start of abhishek was in gowlai, the ragam that brings an effect of sure success. Abhishek started with some lines in praise of ramana maharishi or arunachala deepam but it is well done. Viruththam start like late TVS or legends of today like TNS saves time and abhishek voice was rich with harmonics . The viruththam moved on to a rare varnam , with venugopala mudra looked like abhishek throat and ideas were indeed blessed that day by Lord Venugopal

Nayaki is a difficult ragam to elaborate as an alapanai . Nayaki elder brother darbar and few cousins like madhyamavti manirangu confuses all those who are hearing nayaki. Abhishek sang so well , bought a shade of slight thinness which atleast distinctly takes nayaki big brother darbar out of my heads. The joy or the originality of abhishek is he drops less numbers and does not clutter with too many numbers and from next that was a strategy .

What a joy it was to hear dhenuka. Abhishek paramaguru SSi with his recordings brought to my ears the frist strike of dhenuka teliyaleru rama , but i attended some special class to hear an out of the world TRS dhenuka . Abhishek took up more of TRS mama dhenuka . Alapana was tricky with slight folkish or magudi touch and he did very well . Abhishek approach is to purosely tease by taking some lines other than the usual pallavi , i think that was TRS style too... Go with bhakthi margamu toss it with gamaka few times and then come to teliyaleru , dhenuka with swaras was well done and a great submain

Kalyani was detailed with just a standalone krithi , abhishek poured his ideas in alapana , for sure he is the alapana prime #1 superstar. The big kalyani krithi of T was done well ,usually i get zoned out in kalyani but Abhishek kept me engaged in kalyani

What ah .... what a joy to hear Abhishek saramathi main. They say you have to take main krithis in ragas where there is far more scope to elaborate alapanas ,usually they say take it with todi or kalyani alapanas as there is a scafflolding of ideas with different T and MD krithis . But what is there in saramathi one mokhsamu galadha ,Abhishek took both alapana and neraval direction of juiciy phrases of the main mokshamu krithi and he clandestinely imported krithi ideas into a collage of saramathi musical hues. Even the great thyagaraja swami has poured all his ideas into one krithi mokshamu galadha. What a lovely rendition and pouring ideas . There is sAram ATHIL(distilled essence in this saramathi) . Neraval and swaras were well done. Abhishek general idea in swaras is to give few singles and then go one long boundary 1 bounce four or a six. Abhishek saramathi can be compared to many great saramathis like TRS or Santhanam or TK Rangachari.

Behag was well done post tani . The ragamaliga long number appalam ittu paaru can be reworded by some musician abhishek maathiri paadi paaru , beautiful engaging and difficult composition as some times words in thamizh donot suit musically well with the core raga bhavam. That is where ABhishek uses real time technique where he may turn his neck away holdhands with the mike and keep shifting to octaves all along the undrained battery will give continous layam power. All said his ideas were intact to rasikas and there was no drift to any neighbouring ragam for me . I also see he does a bit of adjustments to evaluate that days vocal throw where he moves his neck away from microphone, all this is stage craft- bit annoyance is indeed there when he moves away from microphone .

HN Bhaskar played very well. During course of song i have heard better versions but in return he was very sharp. what a joy to to hear the undrained duracell patri.patri has tremendous control and signal is continous . Abhishek few years back had anantha and now patri in the same big hall NGS slots.The concert is just 2 hours and 15 mins . Sanjay used his connections next day to sing another 25 mins.Abhishek saramathi and dhenuka will be a joyful combo for years to come.

GLICSPAWES 2022 "Goto LIve Concert Show PAtronage Without Excuses Series" concert #5 of 12 is done.

Overall an excellent to outstanding concert for 2 hours and 15 mins.

[rajeshnat]

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Abhishek Raghuram@Karthik Fine Arts (NGS Main Hall) on Dec 10th,2022
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Vocal : Abhishek Raghuram
Violin : HN Bhaskar
Mrudangam : patri satish kumar
No upapakkavadhyams

Day/Duration : Saturday/ 2 hours and 15 mins - 06 45 to 9 pm

www.rasikas.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=378258#p378258

[rajeshnat]

I took nearly 100 mins to continously write two reviews of 2 stars abhishek and sanjay who sang in two days ,same sabha same hall concerts. Certainly both of them are not my #1 favourite but they are in my top #4. But i was just asking a question to myself as to tell me one number out of this 2 concerts that stood so much out of the world. Unquestionably the answer is as below

The joy that this Abhishek Raghuram brought me with his saramathi the whole R Taanam N S of the most noteworthy krithi of sadguru. Well done Abhishek, your guru and paramaguru(psn and ssi) and all your family of esteemed late musicians like LGJ and palakkad raghu must all be thinking like me .

They must be telling Abhishek Raghuram rendtion of the mOkshamu galadhA with saramathi ragam was RaghuramanukkE Abhishekham.

please do sing bit more taanam , 9 out of 10 concerts when you take taanam you give to violinist so atlast i heard you sing taanam but bit more detailed will be my only request

[KKishore]

Who is the tune smith i am assuming some one else other than ramana maharishi, some one can help

Yes i have read in Ramana maharishi site as well as heard that he himself wrote lyrics in it for his mother when she stayed with him in his ashram. It was said He was hesitating or reluctant to allow her stay at first as he felt she may look for certain little comforts which he was not willing/liked to give/allow her there but then agreed. During her stay she started preparing papaddams/appalam and she had the habit of singing during that exercise of preparation. It was then he composed it for her to sing with philosophical meanings as well as with familiar words she can sing easily.
I think it's tuned by Abishek himself though not sure,
The 3rd ragam is Saranga in the list (Dwijavanti, Poorvikalyani(though sometime i thought as kamavardhini) ,Saranga,Saramati and Kamas )
https://www.karnatik.com/c32966.shtml

[shankarank]

Abhishek saramathi can be compared to many great saramathis like TRS or Santhanam or TK Rangachari.

There are multiple version of SrI SKR that you may want to check out. But this one takes the cake. I remember the appreciation showered by a party of musicians in tow being ferried to Cincinatti on a rainy dark evening when we listened to this recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTy8iu2Byg4

Particularly how weight was being lent without descending to madyama kaalam by SrI Karaikudi Mani.

It is interesting that both this kriti Mokshamu and the one in natabhairavi by SrI Papanasam Sivan mostly ascend with a cursory attention given to descent.

Next gen rasikas need to update themselves on all these old renditions to be able to deepen their appreciation of current generation as well.

[rajeshnat]

There are multiple version of SrI SKR that you may want to check out. But this one takes the cake.

Particularly how weight was being lent without descending to madyama kaalam by SrI Karaikudi Mani.

Next gen rasikas need to update themselves on all these old renditions to be able to deepen their appreciation of current generation as well.

Indeed a great one by SKR. IIRC, there is an exclusive Sadguru Thyagaraja thematic concert where SKR has also taken this . There is a likely angle that may be SKR was the first daring vidwan to take the mokshamu galada as main . What can one say with this krithi, Sadguru tried to create so many krithis in say todi ,varali , kalyani but later decided let me just have one solid krithi in saramathi. I would rate this number as surely as one where words meet music so nicely, and the fact is I dont even understand few words other than say moksham bhuvi ... etc , still you can draw your own words in your head to get the meaning.