Sikkil Gurucharan@meenakshi College (Kodambakkam) on Dec 07th,2017

[rajeshnat]

Sikkil Gurucharan@meenakshi College (Kodambakkam) on Dec 07th,2017
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Vocal : Sikkil Gurucharan
Violin : Shreya Devnath - disciple of LGJ
Mrudangam : Tanjore Murugabhoopathy
Kanjira : Anirudh Athreya

Concert Type : Nirvana - No concert to follow , Free concet
Day/Duration : Thursday / 2 hours and 20 minutes
sabha/Hall : Meenakshi Sundararajan trust / Meenakshi college , kodambakkam
Time : 6:20 to 8:40 pm

1. nera nammiTi (R) - kAnadA - poochi
2 mins alapana
2. shree shankara guruvaram (RS,S) - nAgaswarAli - Maha Vaidyanatha iyer
4 mins swaras

3. marivere dikkevaraiyya rAmA (R N) - shanmughapriya - Patnam
12 mins alapana and 7 mins violin return
neraval for 6 mins sannuthAnga shree venkatesha nannu

4. murugA murugA - saveri - periasami tooran
5A. dorakuna iTuvanti (R N S T) - bilahari -T
14 mins alapana and 8 mins violin return
neraval in rAma brahma tanayudai for 5 mins
8 mins swaras
5B. tani for 18 mins

6. varugalAmO - mAnji - GKB
7A. viruththam- kulamtharum selvam - hamsanandi - periazhwar pAsuram
7B. vadavarayai mathakki - ragamaliga (hamsanandi + Kamas + hindolam+ shanmughapriya + paras+ kapi) - illangaadigal (silappadikaram)
8. ni ri ga ma ... niravadhi - not the poorvi i think hamsanandi ??? - ???? - would love to know the thillana and ragam
9. shree rama jaya mangalam - shuruTTi - papanasam sivan

Meenakshi Sundarrajan trust has been conducting concerts for atleast a decade . In the past I did attend one concert during sangeetham days . They start at 06:00 pm or rather advertise to start at 06:00 pm. In the last 6 months this is my second concert where I am attending a week day concert after one from sandeep few months back. Concert live experience on a week day is killed by road rage and traffic snarls.I was lucky to take few hours off from work on Thursday.

I was there few mins before 6 pm , the microphone and the audience were all ready. The artists were also there in backstage , but they came to the stage at 06 15, after a brief introduction and set up the concert started at only 06 20 pm. Would be nice in general to start concerts dot on time that too when microphone and audience are ready.I atleast lot 20 golden minutes of prime time.

Gurucharan voice is not a very strong sareeram but certainly there is enough emote. Gurucharan started with a straight alapana of kAnadA and as expected the famous varnam popped up . The second speed was not that much gelling with the percussion. He moved to a nice nagaswarAli , the krithi and swaras were assertive in parts and I felt aurally he did not make that much of a great start.

Alapana of shanmughapriya was well done certainly lot of patterns had overlaps with few tanjore s kalyanaraman recordings that i have heard . The patnam krithi settled well with percussion beats only settled from shanmughapriya. gurucharan sang a nice neraval . I wish he had gone to swaras but he skipped. Filler saveri in muruga murugA was just passable. Bilahari as a main is usually rare and is generally taken for tier 2 sabhas. Bilahari alapana was good with shreya giving a contrasting violin return that had those famous lalgudi bilahari distinct punch . The krithi was well sung , but i was not that satisfied with neraval and swaras , gurucharan could not leash with more rhythmmic patterns and could not use the well set percussion team who were just peaking during main.

In the tukkadas the ms amma popularized vadavarayai mathakki was well sung , Possibly if he had let go bit watching the gizmo device he could have sung with more raga bhavam . I felt ragamaligas need bit more repetition to give more stickiness. The preceding varugalamO was sung well , i felt little more stillness for few sangathis may have given a more real mAnji lift. The thillana was resembling the famous yesteryear thillana in poorvi , but i think the raga was only hamsanandi . There was just a few fleeting lines other than jathi and few swara based passages in thillana(would love to know the composer and raga) . The last shurutti mangalam was a different one it was a rare closure .

I have heard few years back shreya devnath and reported her solo concert . I did not have the same great experience of shreya as an accompanist . While during the flow of neraval and swaras she settled well, but during alapana her support during the course of singing was not that clean . Shreya is certainly "work in progress" accompanist but she being young will improve for sure. The percussion team could have taken few more minutes to adjust , not a very satisfactory sound check , their tani only had the clean nAdham . Anirudh is adding more and more control with speed since the last time I heard , bhoopathy settled best only with bilahari main , first few numbers gurucharan and percussion did not gel that well.

Gurucharan sang a nice concert centered with sowkhyam but I did not have any high aesthetic experience in terms of on spot manodharmam other than parts of shanmughapriya.

Overall a very good concert for 2 hours and 20 minutes.