Abhishek Raghuram@Bhavans kilpauk on July 27th,2014
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Vocal : Abhishek Raghuram
Violin : MYsore Shrikant
Mrudangam : Neyveli Narayanan
Kanjira : Anirudh Athreya
Concert Type : Nirvana - no concert to follow
Day/Duration : Sunday/ 2 hours and 30 mins
Concert Type/Crowd : Nirvana and Donors welcome concert - around 100 to 125
Hall : Bhavans vidyashram school, kilpauk
Sabha : Annanagar music circle
1.evari bOdhana (RS) - Abhogi - patnam
2.mapala velasi ika-Asaveri-T
3. shree nArada (RS ,S)- kAnadA- T
4 mins swaras
4A.neeku tanuku(R N S T)- BEgaDa - T
10 mins alapana and 6 mins violin return
9 mins neraval in ee janma una radhu???
swaras for 8 mins
4B.tani
5. RTP dual raga pallavi with swaras in suNodha viNodhini and shuruTTi
pallavi line mArajanani(m) (m)ashrayE sunaada vinodhini sukumara
15 mins alapana in sunaadavinodhi and shurutti
taanam for 14 mins
pallavi for 9 mins and swaras for 14 mins
6. Medlay of krithis in nA pAli shree rAma - kurinji + shree rAma shree rAma- sahana + rama jogi - kamas and again few lines of nA pAli
7. bhujaga sAyinam - yadhukulakAmbOdhi - ST
Abhishek Raghuram@Bhavans kilpauk on July 27th,2014
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rajeshnat
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rajeshnat
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Re: Abhishek Raghuram@Bhavans kilpauk on July 27th,2014
Annanagar music circle also conducts concerts quite recently in another neighbouring zone of kilpauk . Kilpauk known for madness has just started to pick up on carnatic madness 
. THe crowd of 100 to 125 did certainly overall enjoy abhishek and his team concert . The hall in this school has good parking facilities and it is nice for me to hear in a new venue the glorious carnatic music.
Abhishek concert was slated to start at 06:00 pm as I entered at 06:10 pm they were doing mike testing - perhaps they over did it as they adjusted right and also did not get it right at the start of first few songs . The auditorium is excellent but the sound man and his room is in the other side - I am not sure if the sound engineer did act on what he was asked to .
Abhishek voice was in a fine condition with the start of abhogi , for me evari Bodhana is one of the finest varnams to give a pinch hitting start , however the violin was not heard it was abhishek and his tambura with a slightly ok percussion support which did also have a problem in sound adjustment . Abhishek continued with a nice asaveri , he is a terrific singer of asaveri but the krithi was just too short , he just ended very quickly. KAnadA as a submain came out well the ragasketch was to the point in all the typical jiva pidis of kAnadA and I immensely like this krithi shree naradA. There was still some kind of light hissing noise but kAnada krithi and swaras had his usually high creativity .
The airconditioned auditorium did have a lot of fans swirling and thank god a lady went and asked to switch off the fans and the hiss went with it-so the lady was the right sound engineer. Begada as a main requires significant mastery and to me it is one of those ragas that i prefer to hear as first few numbers , Some where when Begada is sung as a main I lose out my concentration . Abhishek's begada alapana was very nice , during the krithi rendtion of neeku tanuku there was a little non stop kanjira support which kind of gave a little discomforting percussion overdrive effect that also bit drowned the fast moving fingers of narayanan's mrudu angam. But from neraval with the spacing and rotation of percussion , abhishek sang beautifully. Few sangathis in just "ee janma" phrase in neraval kept me quite intensely engaged . Swaras were bit too measured and I felt he could have gone more.
With a farily early main and a tani , It was evident that Abhishek would go for RTP . And what a masterly ~1 hour RTP that it was . The combination of ragas was sunAdavinOdhini and shurutti . The tussle of one raga sunadavinodhini is grounded in more hindustani slant and another raga shurutti that refuses to go an inch way from carnatic ground and what an aesthetic creativity from abhi there :-! . He started with sunadavinOdhini and then moves to shurutti with an alapana which is always his forte , with a nice return from shrikanth , taanam was simply superb . HIs voice has reached such sunaadam and with his head directing sangathis it was a really superb thanam , that too with too bedhams from one raga to another it was like a chinese diver in an olympic pool a swirl that you notice and you go wow and then a splash. The pallavi line was also intelligent he sang a paripoorna pallavi neraval.Swaras were also very exciting with some few breathtaking pidis in sunadavinodhini . PArticularly I enjoyed towards the end of both neraval and swaras where for the higher speed he sang lovely sangathis of sunAdavinodhini. HIstorically I have heard Dr BMK singing a sunadavinodhini pallavi and to me apart from hearing that pallavi, I think I started hearing this sunadavinodini ragam where santhanam used to sing a varnam gana nayaka . But Abhishek mastery in this two raga pallavi was a real treat to me.
Post pallavi there was definitely a sense of abhishek going overboard which kind of fell flat to me . He announced he is singing a medlay of krithis and he started wonderfully with naa paali in kurinji then he sang suddenly few phrases of sahana krithi (i just googled to find now that it is a krithi shree rama shree rama) and then he sang few phrases of rama jogi in kamas and then again he came with few lines of naa paali , it was a chinese soup with all kinds of tastes that sounded very mechanical - Abhishek in rtp vs abhishek in medlay was two poles apart , certainly he should have not sung this kind of medlays - it just robs sowkhyam and he cannot meddle that with krithis.
The last was a swathi tirunal bhujaga sayinam which was just good a little more leisurely pace would have been better for yk kambodhi. The violinist mysore shrikant was best in pallavi , may be the sound was not adjusted that right till first half. THe percussion team played a wonderful tani. Narayanan had a fast roll but the tone was not that perfect in first half.
For the dual raga pallavi it was worth to go to this concert . Overall an excellent concert for 2 and 1/2 hours.
. THe crowd of 100 to 125 did certainly overall enjoy abhishek and his team concert . The hall in this school has good parking facilities and it is nice for me to hear in a new venue the glorious carnatic music. Abhishek concert was slated to start at 06:00 pm as I entered at 06:10 pm they were doing mike testing - perhaps they over did it as they adjusted right and also did not get it right at the start of first few songs . The auditorium is excellent but the sound man and his room is in the other side - I am not sure if the sound engineer did act on what he was asked to .
Abhishek voice was in a fine condition with the start of abhogi , for me evari Bodhana is one of the finest varnams to give a pinch hitting start , however the violin was not heard it was abhishek and his tambura with a slightly ok percussion support which did also have a problem in sound adjustment . Abhishek continued with a nice asaveri , he is a terrific singer of asaveri but the krithi was just too short , he just ended very quickly. KAnadA as a submain came out well the ragasketch was to the point in all the typical jiva pidis of kAnadA and I immensely like this krithi shree naradA. There was still some kind of light hissing noise but kAnada krithi and swaras had his usually high creativity .
The airconditioned auditorium did have a lot of fans swirling and thank god a lady went and asked to switch off the fans and the hiss went with it-so the lady was the right sound engineer. Begada as a main requires significant mastery and to me it is one of those ragas that i prefer to hear as first few numbers , Some where when Begada is sung as a main I lose out my concentration . Abhishek's begada alapana was very nice , during the krithi rendtion of neeku tanuku there was a little non stop kanjira support which kind of gave a little discomforting percussion overdrive effect that also bit drowned the fast moving fingers of narayanan's mrudu angam. But from neraval with the spacing and rotation of percussion , abhishek sang beautifully. Few sangathis in just "ee janma" phrase in neraval kept me quite intensely engaged . Swaras were bit too measured and I felt he could have gone more.
With a farily early main and a tani , It was evident that Abhishek would go for RTP . And what a masterly ~1 hour RTP that it was . The combination of ragas was sunAdavinOdhini and shurutti . The tussle of one raga sunadavinodhini is grounded in more hindustani slant and another raga shurutti that refuses to go an inch way from carnatic ground and what an aesthetic creativity from abhi there :-! . He started with sunadavinOdhini and then moves to shurutti with an alapana which is always his forte , with a nice return from shrikanth , taanam was simply superb . HIs voice has reached such sunaadam and with his head directing sangathis it was a really superb thanam , that too with too bedhams from one raga to another it was like a chinese diver in an olympic pool a swirl that you notice and you go wow and then a splash. The pallavi line was also intelligent he sang a paripoorna pallavi neraval.Swaras were also very exciting with some few breathtaking pidis in sunadavinodhini . PArticularly I enjoyed towards the end of both neraval and swaras where for the higher speed he sang lovely sangathis of sunAdavinodhini. HIstorically I have heard Dr BMK singing a sunadavinodhini pallavi and to me apart from hearing that pallavi, I think I started hearing this sunadavinodini ragam where santhanam used to sing a varnam gana nayaka . But Abhishek mastery in this two raga pallavi was a real treat to me.
Post pallavi there was definitely a sense of abhishek going overboard which kind of fell flat to me . He announced he is singing a medlay of krithis and he started wonderfully with naa paali in kurinji then he sang suddenly few phrases of sahana krithi (i just googled to find now that it is a krithi shree rama shree rama) and then he sang few phrases of rama jogi in kamas and then again he came with few lines of naa paali , it was a chinese soup with all kinds of tastes that sounded very mechanical - Abhishek in rtp vs abhishek in medlay was two poles apart , certainly he should have not sung this kind of medlays - it just robs sowkhyam and he cannot meddle that with krithis.
The last was a swathi tirunal bhujaga sayinam which was just good a little more leisurely pace would have been better for yk kambodhi. The violinist mysore shrikant was best in pallavi , may be the sound was not adjusted that right till first half. THe percussion team played a wonderful tani. Narayanan had a fast roll but the tone was not that perfect in first half.
For the dual raga pallavi it was worth to go to this concert . Overall an excellent concert for 2 and 1/2 hours.
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arasi
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Re: Abhishek Raghuram@Bhavans kilpauk on July 27th,2014
Rajesh,
Relished reading the review. 'paripUrNa pallavi neraval' was a pleasing phrase!
Wish I had heard this pallavi.
Sounds like an excellent concert, and the audience too, an impressive crowd.
I am glad yadukula kAmbOdi is appearing more in the lists! Still waiting for someone to sing my most favorite song in the rAgA
Relished reading the review. 'paripUrNa pallavi neraval' was a pleasing phrase!
Wish I had heard this pallavi.
Sounds like an excellent concert, and the audience too, an impressive crowd.
I am glad yadukula kAmbOdi is appearing more in the lists! Still waiting for someone to sing my most favorite song in the rAgA
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Rsachi
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Re: Abhishek Raghuram@Bhavans kilpauk on July 27th,2014
Abhishek is the eternal innovator 
Rajesh it seems you ate Chinese recently! My favourite in the 80's was in NH Road at Ganpat or Rajpat or... a hotel next to the Landmark shop that came up later. I know landmark closed recently I wonder about the Chinese place.
By the way in many many visits to China I never found food that tastes like Indian Chinese! So different that in Sydney you have Indian Chinese and Chinese Chinese.
Can't understand the Mara Ranjani word in the pallavi.
Rajesh it seems you ate Chinese recently! My favourite in the 80's was in NH Road at Ganpat or Rajpat or... a hotel next to the Landmark shop that came up later. I know landmark closed recently I wonder about the Chinese place.
By the way in many many visits to China I never found food that tastes like Indian Chinese! So different that in Sydney you have Indian Chinese and Chinese Chinese.
Can't understand the Mara Ranjani word in the pallavi.
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mahavishnu
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Re: Abhishek Raghuram@Bhavans kilpauk on July 27th,2014
RSachi: My guess is that the pallavi line is a play on the words of a composition of N.C. Krishnamacharyulu in nAtakapriyA.Can't understand the Mara Ranjani word in the pallavi.
Full lyrics and a more detailed discussion here: http://rasikas.org/forums/viewtopic.php? ... ra+jananim
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rajeshnat
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Re: Abhishek Raghuram@Bhavans kilpauk on July 27th,2014
It was not mAra ranjani , it was only mAra janani(m) (m)ashrayE sunAda viNodini sukumarA. Some times when he lands very distinctly with ashrayE when he sings shurutti , perhaps taking a cue from a well known md krithi angarakam ashrayE , At times he was roaring with an extra(m) before ashrayE to accentuate the sunAda vinOdini.Rsachi wrote: Can't understand the Mara Ranjani word in the pallavi.
Mahavishnu ,
Tx for the link and connection with NCK krithi , yes it was the same composition where pallavi line was taken with a phrase added.
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Rsachi
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Re: Abhishek Raghuram@Bhavans kilpauk on July 27th,2014
Mahavishnu
Thanks, I had read Rajesh's post wrongly as mAraranjanI,
The word mArajananI clearly means Lakshmi. sukumAra JananI implies Manmatha is a good/tender boy/baby.
Whereas the NCK kriti says sukumArapadAm which means her feet are tender like a baby's.
Thanks, I had read Rajesh's post wrongly as mAraranjanI,
The word mArajananI clearly means Lakshmi. sukumAra JananI implies Manmatha is a good/tender boy/baby.
Whereas the NCK kriti says sukumArapadAm which means her feet are tender like a baby's.
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mahavishnu
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Re: Abhishek Raghuram@Bhavans kilpauk on July 27th,2014
RSachi: The wrap-around (sukumAra feeding back to jananIm) poses some semantic problems, as you rightly pointed out.
I still don't understand the full import of the pallavi line But I can see its cosmetic similarity to NCK's kriti.
I still don't understand the full import of the pallavi line
But I can see its cosmetic similarity to NCK's kriti.-
KSJaishankar
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Re: Abhishek Raghuram@Bhavans kilpauk on July 27th,2014
mArajananI would be Mahalakshmi, as pointed out. kumArajananI would be Parvati - the Pallavi is a clever one, invoking both the goddesses. The concept is quite similar (though not the same) as Sri Papanasam Sivan's hindolam Kriti "mA ramaNan, umA ramaNan" which invokes both Hari and Hara with a clever play if words. The anupallavi is even more similar to AR's Pallavi "mAra janakan, kumAra janakan".
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mahavishnu
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Re: Abhishek Raghuram@Bhavans kilpauk on July 27th,2014
Thanks, KSJ. That clarifies things!
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Rsachi
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Re: Abhishek Raghuram@Bhavans kilpauk on July 27th,2014
I thought of this before, but KSJ, it's just my opinion, whereas Papanasam Sivan is a past master in handing the theme of Vishnu and Shiva, with the idea clearly fleshed out throughout the song, I wouldn't think this line is in the same class...
Another way to look at it is that Abhishek who is a Sarasvati Putra is pleading with Manmatha's mother and Kumara's mother. So its all in the extended family!
Important info. The epics state that both Manmatha and Kumara were born by mystic power and not as children borne by Lakshmi and Parvathi. But they are referred to as children of those two respectively, just as Krishna is also referred to as Nandagopa thanaya (cf. Mukundamala) whereas Nanda was only his foster father. (Thanu means body and thanaya implies blood link of parenthood, just as Janani comes from Janma or childbirth)
Another way to look at it is that Abhishek who is a Sarasvati Putra is pleading with Manmatha's mother and Kumara's mother. So its all in the extended family!
Important info. The epics state that both Manmatha and Kumara were born by mystic power and not as children borne by Lakshmi and Parvathi. But they are referred to as children of those two respectively, just as Krishna is also referred to as Nandagopa thanaya (cf. Mukundamala) whereas Nanda was only his foster father. (Thanu means body and thanaya implies blood link of parenthood, just as Janani comes from Janma or childbirth)