Kalyanapuram Arvind - RR Sabha Yuva Sangeetha Utsav - 16/8/2015

[sangeethadasan]

Sorry for back to back reviews - Just catching up with the missing reviews
After a long time, listening to this young musician. I am seeing a lot of polish in his rendition.
The concert set list for the day was as follows:

1) Nera Namiti - Kanada - Ata Thalam - Poochi Srinivasa Iyengar (Preceeded by Gnanananda Mayam Devam in Kanada).
2) Sri Raghukula Mandu Putti - Hamsadwani - Adi - Thyagaraja Swami (S)
3) Ananda Natamaduvar - Purvikalyani - Rupakam - Neelakanta Sivan (R,S)
4) Kanaithilam Katrerumai - Kedaragowlai - Adi - Andal (O)
5) Enduku Dayaradura - Thodi - Misra Chapu - Thyagaraja Swami (R,N,S,T)
6) Charanamule Nammiti - Kapi - Chapu - Bhadrachala Ramadasu (Nanmaiyum Selvamum Vrutham in Kapi)
7) Eru Mayil Eri - Ragamalika - Bageshri, Hamsanandi, Begada, Surutti - Adi
8) Mangalam

Overall a very satisfying concert. He took off the varnam with an apt tempo to set the ambience for the concert. The Sri Raghukula Mandu Putti in Hamsadhwani added to the tempo setting list. Knowing very well the audience strategy, he added a few rounds of fast paced swaras and gained much appreciation from the audience in form of an applause.

Purvikalyani Ragam was rendered with a lot of bhava laden phrases which reminded me of listening to his guru Sri TNS years back. And to add more to the embellishment, he took the Neelakanta Shivan's masterpiece Ananda Natamaduvar. Yet again, with the arithmetic poruthams to the places Ananda & Natamaduvar (alternatingly), he made the exercise enjoyable thoroughly. I think since it was Thiru Aadi pooram, he included a thiruppavai in kedaragowlai to the set list.

The main piece for the day was, Enduku Dayaradura of Thyagaraja Swami in Thodi. He sang a 7 min essenced thodi. I was very attracted to the way he developed the raga unlike the conventional way of building it up from each swaram. He directly established the panchamam and sang few phrases in the Dhaivatham and settled down to explore the upper shadjam. His long phrase rendition once again took me back to remind his Guru and very similarly, he too gained the audience appreciation when he completed the shadjam exploration after the breathless singing. He has a very flexible voice and probably, he can aim at singing at a higher sruthi to project better grip in what he sings. He was easily able to negotiate the thara sthayi dhaivatam and sang very attractive sangathis in the thara sthayi. Rahul on the violin, was amazing in his part and gave an able support to the main artist in playing the raga alapana with a sense of pure aesthetism. Arvind rendered the krithi in a moderate kalapramanam without spoiling the tempo of the overall concert and did great justice to each sangathi. Neraval singing is an art. I think, he has gained a lot of grip over the same. He sang few rounds of good neraval and jumped to Kalpanaswaras. Each note was given the right amount of gamaka to show the beauty of the Ragam. With few laya patterns and poruthams he left the stage for thani avarthanam. Kumbakonam Swaminathan on the Mridangam & (??) on the kanjira gave a treat to the ears of the listeners with the thani avarathanam. The sound of the kanjira could have been clearer, (may be a flaw in the audio system?) to have made it more enjoyable.

Followed by a vrutham in Kapi and a Thiruppugazh, he ended his concert with a lot of praise from the audience.

K Arvind - Vocal
Raghul - Vio
K Swaminathan - Mri
?? - Kanjira