Abhishek Raghuram@Music Academy on Aug 29th,2014

[rajeshnat]

Abhishek Raghuram@Music Academy on Aug 29th,2014
-----------------------------------------------
Vocal: Abhishek Raghuram
Violin :MA Sundareswaran
Mrudangam : Anantha R Krishnan
Kanjira : BS Sundarkumar

Concert Type : Nirvana - no concert to follow
Day/Duration : Friday/ 2 hours and 25 minutes
Crowd : 600 , the main hall was full, I dont think any one used the balcony
Hall : Music Academy
Occassion : HCL Concert Series

1.karikalabA mukham (S) - saveri - MD
2. ananda natana (RS , S) - kedaram - MD
3 mins swaras
3. thyagarAjaya namastE - bEgaDa - MD

4. dunmarga charA (R,S) - ranjani - T
5 mins alaplana and 3 mins violin return
5 mins swaras

5. karunAnidhi ilalO (R,N,S)- tOdi - SS
3 mins alapana with no violin return
7 mins neraval in kamala bridhu bAshini amba devi
5 mins swaras

HCL Concert series sponsored by the IT conglomerate conducts their series usually at MA mini hall as a monthly series. For the last 5 to 6 years I think the winner of the kutcheri season's Yogam nagaswamy awardee also gets an opportunity to perform at MA Main hall.Abhishek having got the award last year did get this chance to perform in this special concert is what I assume. Glad to go to a concert in MA main hall during non season, usually we only have concerts which are high in marketing but less on music on non kutcheri season times at Ma main hall.

I went purposely late as MS swaminathan was invited to be a chief guest . But I still had to listen to half an hour speech of shri Murali and Swaminathan and there was longer time to adjust post the speech and the concert started at 06:55 pm.

Abhishek Anantha and Sundar have performed together on many occassions and I think this is the first time I am hearing MA Sundareswaran teaming up in violin . The concert had its share of mishits and I think possibly for the first few numbers there was an excess violin intrusion play by MAS that contributed where it was difficult to hear Abhishek's brimming music. Being vinayaka chaturthi he started with Karikalaba mukham and the shruthi of violin and tambura did not match. KEdaram - usually abhishek sings far better than what I heard , he started well kind of excessive violin intrusion did rob the sowkhyam. BEgada was No #3 ,it still had the same problem. With three MD krithis in a row , abhishek came into his usual form where his voice richness was heard and asserted from ranjani onwards . The ranjani alapana was excellent and the intrusion of MAS bit subsided and possibly the excess shruthi patti and tambura drone was also bit toned down. Dunmarga chara was sung beautifully with lovely swara porutttam and I liked his patterns , he could have gone bit more and that was not case but still ranjani was awesome.

Abhishek usually does not sing a fast filler with swara patterns dont know why. He started with a brief alapana in tOdi and jumped to SS karunAnidhi ilalO , his tOdi is usually one of its kind . THe voice was not falling that well with sangathis in the krithi ,But from neraval he sang beautifully , neraval had a lot of variations which I enjoyed ,swaras were measured in Todi - I wish he built up more.

[rajeshnat]

6. RTP for about 46 mins
16 mins alapana
6 mins violin taanam
pallavi line was lalithE vinuthE mAm pAhi bhagavathi gunavathi jagajanani
pallavi neraval was for 15 mins
swara ragamaliga for 8 mins
ragamaliga in neraval and swaras were in mohanam with minor touches in varAli , behag and sindhubhairavi
6B. tani for 12 mins

7. AdidevA paramAtmA(Raga sketch) - revati - AC
8. tarunai nyan - dwijAvanthi - ST
9. rAma jOgi - kamAs - BR
10. mangalam

The main was a RTP in mohanam . Abhishek voice has really lovely aesthetics , somehow his usual high standards of excellence just came only in mohanam alapana of RTP. THEre were plenty of sangathis in mohanam alapana he sang very well and to me it was the most intense part of the concert . For few occassions in the past he not singing taanam and giving to violin and that is certainly not to my liking . MAS played taanam in his parur cut bowing style and I liked the first half of his play more , his second half was high speed play lot of NEwyork philharmonic touch. MAS showed versatility and control of the instrument and his taanam was complete contrast to the idioms of carnatic music. The applause for MAS was high more than the share that I had given .Also I was very happy to hear abhishek sticking to mohanam without much touches of Bhoop.The pallavi neraval and swaras in Mohanam with a sprinkle of ragamaliga in three other ragas(varali, behag and sindhubhairavi) was a very intellectual demonstration of abhishek laya vinyasam. I certainly like his style but with he at times randomly singing in a jukebox manner the ragamaliga ragas were not to my liking . Even after going back to mohanam and again singing few phrases of other ragamaliga in jukebox fashion was kind of heavy for me to concentrate. Having sung a longish pallavi neraval , if there was longer patterns in swaras say in sarvalaghu instead of the same laya vinyasam approach , I would have liked it more. IN this concert there was less of swara quotient , abhishek please sing more swaras.

The tukkadas were lovely, the first revati and dwijAvanthi were really well sung . While revati requires a little extra power and with that raise , the contrast cooling effect in dwijavanthi was so much music that went straight to my heart. The last kamas krithi was not as best as the first two tukkadas, but nevertheless he sang well. The commas kamas RTP that earned him the coveted yogam nagaswamy award last year was the full stop krithi of today.

MA Sundareshwaran as a violinist has extraordinary spark during returns but in this concert there is a lot of intrusion during krithi rendition. MAS sir brings so much of MSG touch , I wish he gives more restrained bowing and gives more gaps during krithi .That too for the first three krithis till BEgaDa his play and shruthi misalignment with the tambura did become a barrier for me to hear Abhishek .

THe man of the match was unquestionably Anantha R krishnan . Every touch of his had extraordinary aesthetics , he is able to bring the mrudu in mrudangam like a typical antha kalathu vidwan of TS,UKS and PR in 1950 to 1960's. He has a remarkable sense of timing to go with the imagination of abhishek , his tani was really topnotch. There was also a mini round of tani at the end of todi where there was intense fireworks. Anantha is another left handed dhruva natchatram star of this millenium (like psp of previous millenium)

Sundar Kumar is one of my favourite kanjira artist , to an extent for most of the concert till first half the adjustment of his mike had perhaps had less of sharpness . HE played a wonderful tani where there was more sharpness and few patterns in tani were lightning fast reminding of kanjira supernova Harishankar . My guess is the shruthi of violin and kanjira just did not match that well and not aligned with tambura and shruthi patti.Tambura was played by another disciple of PSN (sunil gargyan,personally nice for me to put a face to his name ), the shruthi boxi was done by shri Vaidhyanathan

Abhishek , one of the highest creative musician could have gone with more swaras and also could have sung taanam. Overall a very good to excellent concert for 2 hours and 25 minutes.

[Rsachi]

Rajesh,
There is an interview of RKM linked elsewhere in which he says artists are sensitive to criticism but finally take it positively. Your detailed review would merit that approach from the artists.
Didn't know khanjira had a sruti tuning possibility.

[arvenky]

Thanks Rajesh Sir. And another Mohanam RTP (3rd in a row) in last a month plus from AR. But no complaints

[rajeshnat]

The Hindu review of the same concert
http://www.thehindu.com/features/friday ... 379554.ece

[thenpaanan]

The Hindu review of the same concert
http://www.thehindu.com/features/friday ... 379554.ece

Almost feels like a review of a different concert, only the artists'a names and pieces are the same. I enjoyed the review here much more than the pablum in the Hindu.

-T

[arasi]

Yet, the critics agreed on Ananthakrishnan and MAS too--well, in a sort of way

Then again, our AsthAna critic's way is to call a spade a spade