PrasannA venkatrAman@Swamy's Hall on Sept15th,2007

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 16 Sep 2007, 12:47

Accompanied by V.Sanjeev - violin and Nellai balAji - Mridangam, conducted by shanmughapriya sabha at RK Mutt Road,Mandeveli.

1. sarasijanAbha - kAmbOdhi - vadivelu(TQ)
2. siddhi vinAyakam(S) - shanmughapriya - MD
3. jaya jaya padmanAbha(R,S) - sarasAngi - ST

4. samukhaana nilva - kOkila varaaLi - T
5. sukhi evarO(R,N,S) - kAnadA - T
neraval in "O rAmA nAma sukhi evarO"

6. tAmadham thagAdhaya dayA parA thunai - mOhana kalyAni - Lalgudi VR Gopala Iyer
7A. nee paadamulE (R, N, S, T)- bhairavi - Patnam
neraval in "shree ranjitha ...ishvaruni???"
7B. tani

8A viruththam - rAgamAliga -???
"mannAthi bhUtham??" - nAttaikurinji + "peNNum nee Anum nee" - dhanyAsi + "bOdhika vandha guru" - sahanA +"eesane sivakAmi" -sindhubhairavi
8B. vishveshwaru dharishAnu - sindhubhairavi + pahadi + kOsalam - ST

9. thillAna "na dhiru theem" - shankarabharanam - Patnam
10. pittam theliya - shenjuruTTi - GKB
11. pavamAna(mangalam)

I am hearing for the first time ,this very young musician . Prasanna choose to start with a bang ,a very expressive kAmbOdhi of vaidvelu(ST?)sang with an excellent voice control. PrasannA's assertive musical expressions continued with one of the best rAgas that can challenge any musician to express more "shanmughapriya" , the assertions were felt even in the alankArams that were evenly spread in the krithis. The swara prasthAram of shanmughapriya was very good , but certainly not the best.

The musical expressions of PrasannA continued with the best of the day "sarasAngi". sarasAngi was sung excellently to me avoiding lakshya overlap of its closest cousin chArukesi. The entire krithi from the alApanai to the swarams was sung excellently . It was time for him to slow down a bit in aggression , and he cooled well with the sumukhaana in kOkilAvarAli.

There are few rAgas I would characterise as "Positive Excellence Override(PEO)" where in general the rasikas do get carried away when any performers sing those rAgas assuming excellence . KAnadA is one prime example of PEO . To me kAnadA is a rAga that has to exhibit what all critics call as ghana naya technique (ghana means thick and naya means thin).Eventhough prasanna sang beautifully in the ghanam mode , left a desired feeling that there could be also more nayam(thin mode) in it. Perhaps I am so sold out with few renditions of jAmbhavans like MMI,TSK,TNS etc.. that my mind races towards that.

The lack of nayam was equally compensated with a neraval in sukhi evarO (only heard one neraval by TSK...in sukhi evarO as usually no one sings neraval in sukhi evarO).There was quite a lot of emotive appeal in the neraval line "O rAmA nAma sukhi evarO" and prasanna performed very well. Swaras were very good in KAnadA using the usual ga gA as a pivot for most swaras at the end , but if you discount the PEO effect , I felt he could have gone more.

The filler before main was a rare mOhanakalyAni and it was just average . I was expecting an RTP as I felt he sang an early kAnadA main. THe bhairavi rAgam was rendered very well could spot possibly a lot of SSI style pidis. THe krithi rendition was just OK , perhaps it is very difficult to sing this patnam no, but he did have problems in diction which he did not have it till then. The neraval for 8 minutes was excellent soaking me in bhairavi rasam(a ghana rAga that I always cherish to hear), swaras were measured more in madhyama kAlam and was very good.

The viruththam in thamizh was excellent in nAttaikurinji && dhanyAsi, the emotive appeal did dip in sahAna considerably what sahAna rAgam intrisically possesses. The wrap up in sindhubhairavi was excellent . Swati's famous krithi vishweshwaru was excellent , there was a pahadi and kOsalam too there(I heard for the first time those rAgas in this krithi and prasanna told that pahadi and kOsalam was tuned by nAgai murali and Sanjay respectively).ThillAna was just good ,the famous shenjuruTTi "pittham theliya" was sung just good.

Sanjeev's reply was good with a good nAdham , but he was always missing out on the proportion sense in the alApanai return .He took too much of time to play every alApanai phrase and to some extent the concert quality did dip because of slower play . nellai balAji's play was just good ,tani was very so so(not much strokes).

On a personal note,having acclimitized to hear atleast 2 concerts per week in the last 7 years,a 2 month sabbatical from CM and Madras gave me a feeling that I have forgotten everything in CM.I slipped even in recognizing a sitter nAttaikurinji:( and had to ask someone next to me.

vijay · Post by **vijay** » 16 Sep 2007, 13:04

Good to know you are back - keep the posts coming in!

bhaktha · Post by **bhaktha** » 16 Sep 2007, 17:30

rajeshnat wrote:The neraval for 8 minutes was excellent soaking me in bhairavi rasam(a ghana rAga that I always cherish to hear), swaras were measured more in madhyama kAlam and was very good.

Where was the neraval done? At Shri Pancanadeeshwaruni (AP)?
-bhaktha

rajaglan · Post by **rajaglan** » 16 Sep 2007, 17:37

Prassana venkatraman is my fav in growing artists. I heard him twice and he is very good to listen. Sarasangi and kokilavarrali... great picks. I think being in Blore, we have to miss these. Thanks for the neat and balanced writeup.

rbharath · Post by **rbharath** » 17 Sep 2007, 12:21

yes. neraval for bhairavi piece was in the anupallavi.

very nice concert. The AlApanais of sarasAngi, kAnaDa and bhairavi were all very good. The way he started each of the rAgams were absolutely unambigous. The svara patterns were all nicely structured.

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 18 Sep 2007, 08:51

bhaktha
The neraval is in AP(tx to bharath)

Lji or anyone else
Can you let me know who was the composer of the viruththam.

saveri · Post by **saveri** » 18 Sep 2007, 12:05

Nee paadhamule is not by Patnam as is popularly believed. it is by Anai ayya

Similarly Nijadasa varada in kalyani is attributed, when it is a composition of Sonti Venkataramayya, guru of St.Tyagaraja.

bhaktha · Post by **bhaktha** » 19 Sep 2007, 16:37

saveri wrote:Nee paadhamule is not by Patnam as is popularly believed. it is by Anai ayya

Similarly Nijadasa varada in kalyani is attributed to Patnam, when it is a composition of Sonti Venkataramayya, guru of St.Tyagaraja.

This IS indeed news to me!!:o I have heard both being featured in an-all patnam-kritis concert sometime back by an eminent artiste.
Can somebody confirm? Lakshmanji?
-Bhaktha

prashant · Post by **prashant** » 19 Sep 2007, 16:47

I'd also like to have further hard evidence on the above claims

Lakshman · Post by **Lakshman** » 19 Sep 2007, 18:53

rajeshnat wrote:

Can you let me know who was the composer of the viruththam.

I don't know.

Lakshman · Post by **Lakshman** » 19 Sep 2007, 18:57

Both nI pAdamulE in bhairavi and nijadAsa varadA in kalyANi are attributed to Patnam in Kritimani Malai of Rangaramanuja Iyengar.
Hope saveri can cite some other reference(s) to back the claim.

kmrasika · Post by **kmrasika** » 20 Sep 2007, 11:05

bhaktha wrote:
saveri wrote:Nee paadhamule is not by Patnam as is popularly believed. it is by Anai ayya

Similarly Nijadasa varada in kalyani is attributed to Patnam, when it is a composition of Sonti Venkataramayya, guru of St.Tyagaraja.
This IS indeed news to me!!:o I have heard both being featured in an-all patnam-kritis concert sometime back by an eminent artiste.
Can somebody confirm? Lakshmanji?
-Bhaktha

Firstly, I checked the lyrics for the Anai-Ayya brothers' signature (umAdAsa) but it wasn't there. The inferences to the deity dharmasamvardhani to whom quite a number of their compositions are dedicated could be a hint however T viShvanAthan's book doesn't include the notation for the song.

Svaapana · Post by **Svaapana** » 21 Sep 2007, 07:14

One leading violinist told me the other day that Prasanna V is the brightest emerging star today.