Vignesh Ishwar@MA 30th Dec 2016

[hema]

Vignesh, Rajeev (violin), V Sriram (mru), Ranganathan (ghatam)

I came in about 4 mins late:

Latangi: aparadhamulan, adi, patnam S Aiyyar (svaram and niraval were really good).

Anandhabhairavi: marivere, misra chaapu, syama sastri -- a brief alapana, the song was really, really rendered well -- although he did speed up towards the end.

Malavi: nenarunchi, adi, tyagaraja -- this was also rendered well.

Kamboji: srisubramanyaya, eka talam (3 beats), Dikshitar -- rendered well, again speeded up towards the end, niraval svaraprasthara and tani. It was pretty good. The alapana was excellent. I always feel when there is a niraval that is like a korvai (typical of the TMK school), there is no need for a svaraprasthara.

Kaanada: RTP -- chit sabayil natamaadum, katharulum deivame -- kanta jati triputa talam. It was also in tisra gati (?). The ragam was good, the tanam was good. I feel he struggled in the vilamba kala rendition of the pallavi. There was bahudari (? - not sure) and varaali svarams. I feel sometimes that "perfection is doing ordinary things extraordinarily well." He has been upgraded to the sub-senior slot. There is unnecessary pressure on these young artists to perform RTPs in the sub-senior slot.

Vignesh has a great voice, excellent brig(k?)as, can stand at a svara for long -- be it "tara stayi, madya stayi or mandara stayi." Good potential -- shows promise. I wish he will let himself loose, and not worry about "powers that be in the concert circuit."

Rajeev was very good as always -- many a time he is as responsible for a good concert as the main artist. The percussionists gave ample support -- I do not remember anything untoward here -- except on one or two cycles (in the RTP) when the mrudangam artist did not play -- was there a miss? I do not know.

Although the concert was pretty good, I did feel at times that the practice was inadequate -- too many concerts?

[Madras-Talkies]

Undoubtedly Vignesh Ishwar is a very good musician. His Kambhoji was nice. What really amazed was his tenacity to deliver rtp in like twenty mins without any tension or nervousness.