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Vocal : SIkkil Gurucharan
Violin : HN Bhaskar
Mrudangam : Trichy Sankaran
Ghatam : Giridhar Udhappa
Concert Type : Nirvana - no concert to follow / Free Concert
Day/Duration : Tuesday/ 2 hours and 50 mins
Hall/sabha : Vidhya Bharathi Hall, Parthasarathy swami sabha
01. chalamEla jEsE - varnam -pancha rathna ghana rAgams - Vinjamuri Varadaraja Iyengar
02. sanAtana parama pAvana(S) - Phalamanjari - T
- 5 mins swaras
- 6 mins alapana and 4 mins violin return
- 5 mins neraval in ThEtramAi vaNdu
04. angarakam Ashrayam(ragasketch) - shuruTTi- MD
05. bhArama i bAluni(raga sketch, S) - hamsanAdam - GNB
- 5 mins swaras
- 20 mins ragam with 9 mins violin return
- non metered taaanam for 10 mins
- Rest of time for neraval and swaras only in kharaharapriya
- Pallavi line - rAmAnee samAnam evaru ! nee samAnam evaru samAnam evaru
07. Aasai mukham marandhu pOchu - jonpuri - Mahakavi bharathiyar
08A. Viruththam - AanAdhu selvathu aRam peyargal - chAlanAttai??? - pasuram
08B. AkEti vElana - chAlanAttai??? - Annamacharya
09. hOm thOm thathara - poornachandrika - Poochi Srinivasa Iyengar
10. tAmarum mAmarum ... kamala vimala - kalyani - thirrupuggazh
11. Shree rAmachandranukku jaya mangalam- shuruTTi -Arunachala kavirAyar
It was a bit of a no brainer for me to attend this concert despite one full page of THe Hindu concerts to choose from . I wanted to atleast hear one concert of super hero Trichy Sankaran sir in mrudangam . I Came around 06 20 thank god i got a ticket easily to hear the lovely team . gurucharan plans brilliantly in sequencing of songs and in this particular concert the spread of compositions was well thought out . He may had in mind the premium mrudangam artist to choose a grand pallvi . IT was a great treat to hear and also watch the brilliant team in the 100 year old sabha.
Gurucharan stared with pancha rathna gana raga varnam by Kamalakiran vinjamuri forgotten grandfather Vinjamuri varadaraja iYengar. This had all 5 ragas but bit different some had swaras some had only varnam words . I am not sure if Gowlai was sung very distinctly but overall the team got settled well , just possibly Tiger Sankaran had a definite high volume which immediately got corrected.
Gurucharan continued with a nice phalamanjari - a near duper of the dear KAnadA ragam . Nice rendition of rare T krithi with lovely patterns , sankaran started from there on with right fireworks. Todi alapanai by gurucharan was not that Weighty as a heavy duty big queen of raga todi status . He did well with tiruppavai , konjam words were bit unclear but with neraval he did well .HN Bhaskar musically communicated that I am also near equal to Trichy Sankaran and there was no ambiguity or miscommunication from me . ShuruTTi showcased the brilliance of how mrudangam can embellish these krithis and with some lines like dhanava??? sura ...dharani the accentuation of voice exactly meets the genius trichy sankaran laya poruttam. THis play can be given as a text book syllabus for future aspirants.
Gurucharan excelled in hamsanadam , the GNB krithi is way too good -bhAruni brOva BharAma and then some liberal words like parashkthi etc gave lovely muse to music . When GNB sang every one worried only about muse and not the lyrics , but when GNB composes every rasika started noticing how one can go the reverse where from lyrics with right spacing you can also get to muse.
Gurucharan did not go with any fast fillers but he went directly to Kharaharapriya, felt TrichySankaran could have been used for one fast number . He sang for 20 mins kharaharapriya alapana .I felt the alapana was not covering sufficient facets of grand stature of kharaharapriya rAgaswaroopam .Blame it on his guru vaigal gnanaskandan's guru srinivasa Higher , voice could have opened bit more to cover little more patterns of kharaharapriya . GuruCharan built way too methodically the kharaharapriya for long time with bit repetition, I would have been bit happier with more of onspot rasa in alapana.
Kharaharpriya taanam was complete and an intense madhyamakAla squat . There was always lovely return from MSG prominent varisu HN Bhaskar . Gurucharan announced the pallavi was TR Subramaniam . TRS pallavi had a lovely rhythmmic dance taking the lines from the popular ramanee samAnam evaru . Taala RAga Swaroopan import was well executed in neraval , swaras had great ideas in first half with sa ma swara poruttam but bit fizzled out in second half. There was great support from percussion team to give a great stature to the pallavi.
All the tukkadas were really great . The chalanattai with a brief raga gave a glimpse of SKR . PErsonally this raga is now handled very well in the recent past by Sanjay Subrahmanyan and Abhishek Raghuram, i will take this viruththam in near that league . Gurucharan did one thing great in chalanattai , he did not go to ragamaliga and continued with only chalanattai ,the followup annamacharya krithi in chalanattai was well done .A fast thillana was sung in poornachandrika and sankaran produced astounding arsenal of strokes there . The last mangalam by Arunachala kavirayar in shuruTTi brought the house to a great finish. The start of the tukkada - Asaimukham in jonpuri was very well received by me and the audience- gurucharan's emote and bharathiyar words match very well .
HN BHaskar is a great accompanist , the patterns were great but his tonal quality was best only in Pallavi .THe spectacular Trichy sankaran had brought in so much excellence in every step and every turn of the concert . From where does Sankaran Sir have the ability to play such density of strokes whether it is angarakam slow krithi of MD or a fast poornachandrika thillana .There was orderliness engineered with spectacular speed, precision and right-left balance . I am Particularly unable to make up my mind to state where Sankaran was best, but will state the tani especially the second round was spectacular. Giridhar Udhappa played very well with near great controlled aggression and showed his laya vidwat .Gurucharan song selection, sequence and execution with a gun team impressed me .
Overall an excellent concert for 2 hours and 50 mins.