Saketaraman@PS High School on July 25th,2013

[rajeshnat]

Saketaraman@PS High School on July 25th,2013
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Vocal : Saketaraman
Violin : Vittal Ramamurthy
Mrudangam : Bangalore Arjun kumar
Kanjra :Bangalore Guruprasanna

Concert duration/Day : 2 hrs and 5 minutes/Thursday
Concert Type : Nirvana (no concert to follow)
sabha/Hall : PS high school
Occassion : Tanjore Upendran Day

The concert was conducted as a rememberance to yesteryear mrudanga vidwan Tanjore Shri Upendran

1A.viruththam "taayE tandaiyE eNdrum" - shanmughapriyA - ???
1B. Devar munivar thozhum - shanmughapriyA - LGJ
2. ninnAda nEla(RS,S) - kannada - T
3 mins swaras

3. rAma rAma rAma rAma rAma yenniRO(R N S) - vasantA - PD
6 mins alapana and 3 mins violin return
neraval in Ihadalli iSTavuNTu paradalli sukhavuNTu vara for 3 mins
6 mins swaras

4. nannu vidachi (RS) - reetigowlai - T
5. Saravana bhavA samayamidhirA - pasupathipriyA - HMB

The occassion was the rememberance concert of Shri Upendran and as the curtains unfolded could see their two disciples in the stage -Neyveli narayanan and Tanjore Murugabhoopathi .Narayanan briefly introducing the artist . Nice to see the shraddhai of these two vidwans who are indeed very popular and definitely earning more laurels with their mrudhu angam.

The concert started at 7pm with a frail vidwan saketaraman , the frail vidwan certainly has built quite a vocal muscle power and it was indeed a nice gushing pop when he started with shanmughapriya . The viruththam had very emotive lines like thAramE kilai makkal Enrum perhaps he was referring his guru who just passed away recently ( the maestro Lalgudi Jayaraman). I have not heard this padavarnam - Devar munivar in a live concert , if I am right this varnam is quite popular for many dance concerts . Saket sang well but i felt the blending with the others in the team just did not happen in shanmughapriyA, the vocal volume was bit high which got adjusted from the next number.

Saket moved to kannada which was presented quite well more in the first half , in swaras when he had few laya kanakku based sangathis that demanded quick turns, saket was not able to have that tight leash in rhythmn. The submain was in vasantA .His strength in general is in the emotive side and vasantA bhavam was really nice ,for quite some phrases i could spot perhaps vasanta's close sister not just peeping but kind of residually staying to make me think if he is singing vasantA or lalita. The dasar krithi of rama rama yenirO was nice and i thought he could have built a more anchored neraval but he just touched few sangathis in neraval and moved to swaras .

The reetigowlai was nice and very emotive in the brief raga sketch ,but during krithi rendition when he tried to sing it in a little more vilamba kalam I could spot a kind of feeling where his voice strength was not going with the denseness of the sangathis , those sangathis where T pleads kalyana rama , kothanda rama etc were not that right for sAketa ramA. Pasupathipriya filler of HMB can compete to be one of the fastest song , Saket did not sing that well to my satisfaction.

[rajeshnat]

6A. shree sathyanArAyanam (R S T) - subhapaNtuavarAli - MD
14 mins alapana and 4 mins violin return
13 mins swaras
6B. tani for 20 mins

7. tunbam nErgayiL - dEsh- bharathidAsan
8. tatdhIm tanattadhIm?? ... kanru meittiDa gAnam pOzhivAn - yamunAkalyAni - LGJ
9. pavamAna

But the best of his best was his subhapantuvarAli , his alapana was really superb , nice shruthi suddham and a real good aakaram usage in alapana. He sang it beautifully and continued exceptionally well with the krithi . I was expecting a neraval but he went directly to swaras . IN swaras I could spot him singing quite a bit of sangathis that have a TNS style of manodharma , few kanakku sangathis there reminded few recordings of Shri TNS(TNS is an extraordinary singer of subhapantuvarali). Nevertheless Saket sang very well and whereever there was madhyamakAla segments he was very very impressive .

In the tukkadas I liked his Desh , how can anyone not like tunbam nergayIL ,incidentally Saket's emotive packed style suits him more . THe last tillana in yamunakalyani was his guru's and If I recall it right I heard it for the first time , nice thillana of LGJ but certainly not as intense as his other thillanas like revati, brindavani etc.

The violinist Vittal had a bit of problem in the first few numbers , possibly the vocal volume may have subdued his play in the first two numbers , but his play from sub main was extremely impressive. Vittal is a real lalgudi varisu in presenting patterns that have the razor thin style of presentation , his alapana was crisp, very very emotive especially subhapantuvarALi and definitely one can see his guru in him.

The percussion artists were new to me , incidentally when Shri UKS came half way into the concert I could seee they also peaking really well from there .
Arjun kumar had fast fingers and at times he gving contrasting patterns especially in main gave a great punch to the concert .I liked guruprasanna a lot his patterns were so good especially his energetic returns in tani was superb and had equally great applause.

Saketaraman has a real solid bhavam in the emotive side . I find his strength is more in madyamaKalam rendition where his sowkhyam is so prominent . However when there are some quick turns and when he tries to bring a more layam focussed sangathis in krithis, he appears bit off .Also for presenting very vilambit krithis which have very very dense sangathis I find his music is not as appealing as his madhyamkala rendition. Also in particular for this concert there was not much to enjoy in neraval , the only neraval in submain was a touch and go affair(I am sure Tanjore Upendran sir is a big fan of neraval).One more solid number or a rtp would have really been a great for this concert.

OVerall a very good concert for 2 hours and 5 minutes.

[mahavishnu]

Thanks for your review, Rajesh. Saketaraman has great potential and when his voice develops a little more gravitas and depth (which will come with age), he will rise to great heights.

Kudos to Neyveli Narayanan and Murugabhoopathy for organizing this in honour of the great Tanjore Upendran. He was a great mridangist and I am glad to see his legacy celebrated like this. The recordings of him performing with BMK, Chitti Babu, SKR etc. can now be entered into CM's hall of fame as all-time classics. I have heard him live only on a few occasions in the late 70s and early 80s. The last time I heard him was somewhere in the 80s when he was accompanying Mandolin Srinivas as well.

Arjun Kumar is a good mridangist for this occasion. He has a left-hander's elegance, which was a hallmark characteristic of Upendran.

[devan]

arjun kumar was trying to breake the mridangam with his very fierce beating.he was not playing, he was beating.saketh sang raga lalitha and start the song in vasantha. his starting of the raga is consistently artificial.he is trying to imbibe bhava but it is too contrived.over all a very loud and no vishranthi concert.

[kanchi perivaa]

After listening to this concert, I have to agree with devan's point on Saketharaman. His voice is also too nasal, for my liking. Would be nicer to listen if, along with some depth, he can significantly reduce the nasality and back up the lower octaves with more power and sound. In the beginning of the concert, when he hums the shruthi, it is often out of tune. Not sure if this is something common among artists in general during a concert warm up, but I found it particularly putting off.

I felt Vittal Ramamurthy could have been a little more pro-active on the violin, albeit he had a pleasing tone. I enjoyed the Arjun Kumar and Guruprasanna combination; two very vibrant percussion artists from Bengalooru.