Abhishek Raghuram @ Tirumala Tirupati Devastanam Feb 15

[mahavishnu]

Abhishek Raghuram - Vocal
S Varadarajan - Violin
Anand Anantakrishnan - Mridangam

Muddumomu - Suryakantam (N, S)
Sarasaksha - Pantuvarali (A, N, S)
Sadandamu - Kharaharapriya (A, N, S, T)
Bruhi mukundeti - Surutti
?? - Behag
Mangalam - sowrashtram

Again, a short note about a concert that I really enjoyed on my recent visit to Chennai. I meant to write about this earlier, but somehow never got around to posting it.

Abhishek performed at the TTD to mark the release of his new album of Annamacharya compositions. The CD was produced by Kumaresh/Jayanti and their new company called Home records that is based out of Bangalore. There were a few speeches to commemorate the release by TRS, Spencer Venugopal and others. This was followed by an amazing concert by a very talented young man.

The concert was absolutely electric from the very first note. The Suryakantam raga sketch was masterly. Muddumomu was brisk and lively. The raga essay in Pantuvarali was very innovative. Abhishek brings out both the intellectual and aesthestic aspects of a ragam with such minimal effort. Varadarajan was in his true element and I really enjoyed his smooth bowing that day. The kalpana swarams for Sarasaksha were rich in rhythmic complexity; Abhishek's training in the percussive arts was evident all around. The kharaharapriya alapanai sounded quite experimental and it had moments of explosive brighas on a generally gamaka-oriented motif.

The star of the evening, in my opinion, was the young mridangam player. Anand was absolutely spectacular. His nadam was exquisite; he played with the authority of Palghat Mani Iyer and the subtlety of tone and nadai seen in the Pazhani school. Every gap in the song he filled with creativity. Every piece of sahitya was accompanied with great sensitivity. Every kalpana swaram seemed to be matched and anticipated by him. I usually stay away from hyperbole. But I have to say this, Anand is a star. He has the potential to be an all-time great if he can sustain this level of intensity. His tani following Annamacharya's Sadanandamu was simply superb. This was Anand's last concert of his India trip, before he returns to the US where he lives.

This was followed in the brief post-tani session with Bruhi Mukundeti sung in an unusual surutti version. Abhishek did take some liberties in his Behag sketch (sounded like Pahadi at times). I can't recall the behag piece for the life of me.

The concert lasted two hours. The fact that there were only 5 pieces underscores the elaborate treatment of every piece. A very satisfactory concert experience.

[mri_fan]

As I believe it, he prefers to be called Ananth R. Krishnan. He has some videos on you tube (http://www.youtube.com/user/misterdangam) He's one of my favorite young mridangam artists (along with R. Shankarnarayanan). Those of us in the US have seen his performances from a very young age. When he was 18 he played in a fantastic jugalbandi with Ravikiran, and Subhashchandran (ghatam). Initially, subhaschandran was hesitant to play with such a "junior" artist, but Ravikiran convinced him that he'd be more than up the task, and sure enough, he was more than capable of leading the accompaniment for the concert.

There are also a couple of Raghu-Ananth double mridangam thani's floating around which are a delight to hear as well.