Suryaprakash@Karthik Fine Arts on July 23rd,2012

[rajeshnat]

Suryaprakash@Karthik Fine Arts on July 23rd,2012
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Vocal : Suryaprakash
Violin : nAgai Sriram
Mrudangam :Tanjore Murugabhoopathy
KanjirA : K V Gopalakrishnan

Concert duration/Day : 2 hours 45 mins /Monday
Concert Type : Nirvana (prime evening concert , no concert to follow)
Sabha/Hall : KFA /Held in MFAC hall
Occassion : Dedicated to parents of Mridangist Chidambaram Balashankar. Balashankar's amma is Ms Mythili who is a student of Mudikondan Venkataram Iyer and TiruvengAdu Jayaraman.This is the 4th yearly series that balashankar family is organizing , there was sowmya, MC and another concert in the last 3 years.(all these were told in the brief speech post tani)

1. Karunai Seivai (RS S) - hamsadhwani - PSivan
8 minutes swaras
2. arunAchalanAtham - sarangA - MD
3. paridAnammichittE(R N S) - bilahari - paTnam
7 mins alApanai and 4 mins violin return
4 mins neraval in "rokkamicchutakunE mukkaNTi celikAnu"
7 mins swaras

4. mAyammA - Ahrii - SS
5. sevikka veNdum ayya (S) -AndOlikA - MT
7 mins swaras

6A. kArthikeya gAngeya (R N S T) - tOdi - papanAsam sivan
17 mins alApanai, 9 mins violin return
neraval in "maalmaruga shaNmuga muruga guHaa mahapatiyum vidhiyum tozhum" for 5 mins
swaras for 12 mins
6B. tani for 21 mins

The concert was superb and there is so much to write mainly on that extraordinary pallavi , For that reason , I will keep the review brief before pallavi. The chief highlights were tOdi alapana which had brigas sparkling with a mohanakalyAni bedham dive and swaras in general for all songs .The slow paced Ahiri was also very emotive .There was a bit of sound hiccup where violin and mrudangam sound was higher than vocal for the first number.

[rajeshnat]

7. RTP in four ragas
The pallavi in misrachapu talam had these lines

Anandi ni sadhA pAhi
dhwani swaroopini
nAda niranjani
sAma gAna viNodini
shree hamsa

Suryaprakash announced that he composed this pallavi for the occasion .Coming to pallavi this 4 string hamsa pallavi is extremely creative for atleast few attributes.

1.Many think that stiching popular words from popular krithi is not a pallavi thing but this was original as there was no lift up of any lines from any krithis.

2. All the 4 ragas of hamsa (Anandi+dhwani+nAda+ViNodini) were segmented with those respectives subphrases of pallavi with raga names etched in it.

3. In recent few concerts that I attended when three or four ragas were taken in pallavi the vocalist takes one or two and rotates the others to violin . To an extent that is not giving me a cohesion as much as vocal singing and then violinist playing the same raga. Little more dwelling by vocal and reinforcement by violinist adds more charm as your mind is settled to enjoy the raga and not going thru another stress of identifying the next raga .

Coming to the Quad Core Pallavi :
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In the rAga alapana all four ragas starting with hamsAnandi was sung with minimal violin exchange .I particularly liked the sequence wherein the seperation of hamsanAdam and HamsAnandi with hamsadhwani was lovely as it provides aesthetic contrast. The pallavi raga alapana was excellent in raga swaroopam and lovely concise exchange by Nagai sriram just added more charm.

Taanam was more exciting , he took the first two in madhyamkAlam (hamsAnandi and hamsadhwani)and the next two hamsanAdam and hamsaviNodini in Mel Kalam. hamsAnandi was taken again in super high speed a thing that vidwan TNS does very well, (one can say 5th gear nandi driving hamsAnandi)

In Pallavi each of the line was sung in that respective 4 rAgas for atleast two rounds, with shree hamsa used as pivotal key to unlock the raga devadais .
Anandini sadhA pAhi
dhwani swaroopini
nAda niranjani
sAma gAna viNodini
shree hamsa

I just loved as it got more and more aesthetic as it moved on . He took each raga in an ascending progression from there on taking all four lines in hamsAnandi , then jettisoning the first line Anandi ni sadhA pAhi.

Then with hamsadhwani as a rAga bAse , he anchored with the key Shree Hamsa and went with the next 3 lines .
shree hamsa
dhwani swaroopini
nAda niranjani
sAma gAna viNodini

Then the second jettison happened where with hamsanAda(m) ragam , he took lines shree hamsa nAda niranjani sAma gAna viNodini and then finally keep one last line sAma gAna viNodini with shree hamsa .

Incidentally there was a quite a bit of kanakku / layam orientation without losing rAga bhavam , in this asending rAga with jettisoning drops. Prof TNS says Laya kanakku enhances rAga bhavam, this pallavi was a testimony to that.

IN the swaras all 4 were sung in first and second kAlam(definitely short could have been longer) but when he came back in reverse from hamsaviNodini to hamsAnandi it was wonderful.

Post pallavi which had 4 distinct moonjis he ended with a soulful moonji illa Manji and madhyamavati.

8. varugalAmo - mAnji - GKB
9. karpagamE - madhyamavati - Psivan

The accompanists were brilliant . Nagai sriram is a sure star in the making just reminds a lot of antha kalathu lalgudi(his precision ) and may be VVS(his press ) . Certainly with RSP reminding and extending madura mani it had shades of anthakalathu MMI - Lalgudi like concert

MUrugabhoopathi played beautifully, may be the tani was bit long . But his nAdham and his anticipation was excellent .Especially I like in the rollicking run of todi and that fast AndOlika bullet speed sangathis. This combination of RSP-Nagaisriram-Bhoopathi conditioning in regular concerts is indeed producing great results . I am pretty sure their recent North American tour has helped them to gel better. KVG gave able support and there was great rotation in the todi . Tani went with the mood of song and they teamed very well.

For this pallavi the concert was worth the gold (I feel like writing 4 raga pallavis in general may be I will write them soon)

4 ragas taken for all 4 segments of R T P and SWaras and more intelligently using shree hamsa as an anchor to intelligently sing all 4 ragas with their names.It is Simply WOW .To me this pallavi is an "exemplary demonstration of brahmippu as well as astuteness in composing this gem" .

Overall an excellent to outstanding concert for 2 hours and 45 minutes.

[mohan]

Sounds like a great concert with a wonderful pallavi. Looking forward to his concert in Sydney in a couple of weeks!

[rshankar]

Wow! Would certainly like to hear the RTP...

[mahavishnu]

thanks for the nice review, Rajesh. Sounds like an excellent concert with a top-class RTP.

[srikant1987]

Were the words 'shrI haMsa' sung in shrI? That would have substantially added to the fun!

[rajeshnat]

Were the words 'shrI haMsa' sung in shrI? That would have substantially added to the fun!

Good one shrikanth, haMsa was the prefix that was joined with the 4 rAga names to sing in that respective raga. If he had to sing shrIragam too as you have suggested , he has only the keyword "shrI" to complete the raga , it is certainly possible to bring the rAga bhavam but tAlam may go for a toss(hamsa can turn out as laya himsa).