SuryaprakAsh@kalAkruthi on Dec 04th,2011

[rajeshnat]

SuryaprakAsh@kalAkruthi on Dec 04th,2011
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"More honoured in the breach than the observance."
- William Shakespeare


Vocal : Suryaprakash
Violin : KumbakOnam M R Gopinath
Mrudangam : palghat krishnarajan

Concert duration/Day : ~ 2 hours and 15 mins /Sunday
Concert Type : Nirvana (open ended with no program to follow)
Sabha/Hall : kalAkruthi /SankarAlayam

1. varnam "erA nApai" - tOdi - Patnam
2. nAdathanu manisham(S) - cittaranjani - T
swaras for 4 mins

3. paridAnaminchittE (R N S) - bilahari - patnam
8 mins alApanai and 3 mins violin return
4 mins neraval in "rokkamicchutakunE mukkaNTi celikAnu"
5 mins swaras

4. janani ninnuvinA (ragasketch)- reetigowlai - subbarAya sAstri
5. ramanukku mannan mudi(S) - hindOlam - ArunAchalakavi
swaras for 7 mins

Kutcheri season always has musicians attempting some kind of novelty that is only noticable , more especially in sabhas that dont have that much print-internet-people presence . While all musicians attempt to master the big rAgas like Todi, bhairavi, kalyAni etc to present as a main , at times in that process what they search is to polish a new krithi and present it , nothing wrong but to me that at times gives a more conditioned presentation(Not that I am saying it is always a case).

In that conditioned honourable presentation of only "observance" todi krithis , what gets cannibalized is some wonderful krithis like KalyAna rAmA in ragas like hamsanAdam which are more considered as "breaches". As a rasika for me it is not that the breach has to happen everytime , but as long as the paddhati and presentation of a varnam,submain, main etc is adhered in right proportion it is just a welcome sign . In short I welcome the drop of todi to favour the selection of hamsanAdam (Perhaps all that was implanted into my musical psyche when I heard isaignani illayaraja's thendral vaNdu ennai thodum song in the film thendralE ennai thodu in 1980's which was tuned in rAga hamsanAdam)

The start was the presence of usual varnam in the honourable tOdi , patnam's varnam is lovely and the team gelled well in both speeds, MRG is always good and I did not know anything about mridangist palghat Krishnarajan(some one can throw more light, is he related to PR or PMI) but he certainly gelled. The swaras in cittaranjani cascaded in sarvalaghu with the vocalist really presenting it wonderfully with palghat krishnarajan showing more and more his competence and I was assured from then on that the team would click.

The third was a sub main in bilahari. THe alApana in bilahari was scholarly and the krithi though not my general favourite was presented well. I liked the neraval with some wonderful exchanges coming from MRG and some time during the swaras I just had to walk out of hall for few minutes to attend an important oficial mobile call. Swaras in bilahari was very long . Nevertheless the crowd lapped it up though I missed the full action (I wish I dont get any calls during swaras, cannot bury the black berry, atleast happy that the ringing tone has vibrate)

The vilambit reetigowlai was wonderful and brought me and my mobile to a quite mode , the monumental janani ninuvinA was presented next.This krithi alone showcases in general the musical maturity of the artist . WHile the aggression is always there with suryaprakash, over the years me hearing his rendition gives me a confidence that he is slowly getting more and more sowkhyam, that right aggression and sowkyam (Xaxis and Yaxis) intersect that I had mentioned some time back in one of the reviews.

Ramanukku mannan Mudi was a nice janaranjakamAna choice that too considering the time was nearly 8pm ,he presented well in the krithi . There was a blip which I didnot like in swaras , little too much kanakku which was ok when he rendered but when violin and mrudangam attempted together as return it kind of bombed .

[rajeshnat]

6A. kalyAna rAmA (R S T)- hamsanAdam - OVK
13 mins alapana each for vocal and 6 mins violin
14 mins swaras
6B. tani for 10 mins

7A.viruththam pachai mAl pOL meni - mohanam - +
Ayar tham kozhundE - Jonpuri +
Achuvari perinum venDEn - Kedaragowlai +
aranga ma nagarulanen- sindhubhairavi
7B. venkatAchala nilayam - sindubhairavi - PD

8. thullumatha(R) - hamsAnandi - tirruppugazh
2 mins alapana
9. pavamana + vazhiya senthamizh


For me the day's best was indeed the "breach"ful hamsanAdam rendition . What a wonderful alApana it was , for this rAga,this length of alapana is a rarity but definitely it was really superb, brighas were shining like a pAl vadiyum mukham -full moon sky. That too with MRG who never intrudes it was superb rendition . The krithi that was a "breach" today was kalyAna rAmA , OVK's choice of words and suryaprakash singing with passion and wonderful diction bought sustained excellence. When there are more and more denser sangathis as it is in this OVK krithi, there is more scope for gelling too by the team, the swaras were breezy,wonderful, very long as much as a honour krithi .

The tani that followed was well done by krishnarajan.Considering this hall has got not the best of acoustics, all musicians generally keep the mikes bit far .I wish krishna rajan during tani moved the mike bit forward which usually musician does ,but as such it was a good tani in line with the mood of hamsanAdam krithi.

The medlay of ragas in azhwar pAsuram was long with Kedaragowlai and mohanam being the pick ended with a janaranjakamana krithi in sindhubhairavi , followed by tirrupuggazh.

If there was a disappointment in the crt , apart from slight non gelling of percussion in hindOlam swaras. But that was kind of completely offset by very precise and short alapana returns by this brilliant accompanist MRG. He is a real gem of a violinist, absolutely "no imsa intrusion and only hamsa shruthi suddham" to help vocalist produce more sangathis.

[rajeshnat]

Now coming back to the quote of "villiyam Seshagopa Iyer" of the last century in Hamlet "More honoured in the breach than the observance.". It is always wonderful to really have a lot of artistic freedom in expressing music , may be there was a breach in presenting OVk(hamsanAdam), so what the music was more honoured than the usual observance of presenting another regurgitated 6th no of PS which resembles the more popular model T ( By PS I meant Probable Symmetry, and T I meant tODi --> not your conditioned abbreviation of vaggeyakkara PS and T that you generally think)


Overall a very good to excellent concert.