Abhishek Raghuram @ Odukathur Mutt, Kalotsav-2011, 20 Feb 2011

Vocal : Abhishek Raghuram

Violin : Akkarai Subbalakshmi

Mrudangam : Ananthakrishnan

Ganjira : Guruprasanna

List:

01   karuNimpa ( varNAm) – sahAna -   Thiruvottiyur Thyagayya ( O )

02  yOchanA – darbAr – Thyagaraja ( S )

03   mAra jananim AshrayE – nAtakapriya – N C Krishnamacharyulu ( A,N,S )

.        neraval @ ‘kaitabhAri hrit pITha vAsinim kAtyayanyAdi santhOshiNim’

.        swara @ ‘  nAtakapriyanutam..’

04   tatvameruga taramA – garuDha dhwani – thyagaraj ( A,S )

05   challarE rAmachandruni – Ahiri – Thyagaraja

06   RTP – kAnaDa – tisra triputa , 2 kaLai

.        pallavi line ‘ sItApatE nApai, nIkabhimAnamu lEdA’

.        pallavi in rAgamAlika kAnaDa, khamAs, dharmavati? , gAnamUrty, hamanAdam?

.        tani Avartanam

.        rAgamAlika swaras in kAnaDa, khamAs, dharmavati? , gAnamUrty, hamanAdam?

07   rAmachandruDitaDu raghuvIruDu – dwijAvanti – Annamacharya  ( O )

08   uLLavaru shivAlaya mADuvarayya – yamunA kalyANi? – Basavanna ( O )

09  bhujaga shAyinO – yadukula kAmbOji – Swathi Thirunal

A brilliant concet by Abhishek Raghuram and the team of youngsters.  I haven’t heard him for a while now, and all the new found stardom was justified by the performance he gave yesterday, which was highly energetic and power packed. Started (behind schedule again) with the  popular Sahana varnam rendered in traditional 2 speed, followed it up with darbar and some fast paced swaras upping the tempo.

First Alapana came in the form of nAtakapriya, keeping mere mortals like guessing. Mara Jananim Ashraye was new to me. He executed the kriti beautifully, be it the longish alapana , neraval or the cracking set of kalpana swaras.  Akkarai Subbalakshmi to, was brilliant here. GaruDadhwani was interesting. I have a feeling this is more a ‘scalar’ raga with not much scope of improvisation. He did a good job with the alapana , however the super fast swaras were sounding mere exercise with swara patterns at multiple speeds and octaves. It was good, though.

After a very emotive Ahiri ( with some unnecessary bhrigas ), he started the alapana of kAnaDa. Very long and detailed with some complicated phrases, however failing to create any aha moments, similarly replied by the violin in her turn. Pallavi was set to normal tala and an baes on the charanam of the popular khamas kriti by Mysore Vasudevacharya.  Pallavi followed an interesting ragamalika pattern, easing from one to the other effectively.  He indicated to the percussionist immediately after, without singing any swara. The percussion duo gave a spirited tani avartanam, hugely enjoyed by the audiene, noting from their response.

As he was continuing the pallavi singing, the organisers came into the happening wanting to start their usual speech. While the person presented gave an enthusiastic speech and praises, it was an interruption at a wrong moment.  However, before it took long, the concert continued from where it was let off with ragamalika swaras in the same sequence as pallavi. Abhishek himself would have added to the confusion, by allowing tani avartanam before the ragamalika swaras. The second interruption came in after this with the felicitation of artists and fresh round of speeches.

He concluded the concert with a couple of songs post this, before the yadukula kamboji mangalam.  On the whole it was a brilliant concert, with some superb teamwork on the stage.

 

T N Seshagopalan at Odukathur Mutt, Kalotsav 2011, 13 Feb 2011

Vocal : T N Seshagopalan

Violin : M Chandrasekharan

Mrudangam :  Mannargudi Easwaran

Ghatam : Giridhar Udupa

List:

01   nAda tanumaniSam – chittaranjani – Thyagaraj  ( S )

02   nAdalOluDai – kalyANavasantam – Thyagaraja

03   Siva Siva Siva enarAdA – pantuvarALi – Thyagaraja ( A,N,S )

neraval & swara @ ‘ Agamamula nutiyinchi’

04   Ananda naTana prakASam – kEdAram – Dikshitar ( A , S )

05   ennEramum undan – dEvagAndhAri – Gopalakrishna Bharati

06   tiruvaDi sharaNam -  kAmbOji – Gopalakrishna Bharati ( A,N,S,T )

neraval & swara @ ‘ aDuttu vanda ennai taLLalAgAdu ara-harAvenru chonnAlum pOdAdO’

07   RTP – shaNmukhapriya – khanda jati triputa , 2 kaLai

pallavi line ‘ takadhimi tadhIm yenni sadA shivuDu ninai-  ??

no rAgamalika swaram

08    viruttam  ( taditha or maganai ?)- darbAri kAnaDa – Gopalakrishna Bharati ??

chandrachUDa – darbAri kAnaDa – Purandara Dasa

09   mangaLam – saurAshtram – ThyagarAja

Slokam ( SrIyay kAnthAya ) -  madhyamAvati

What an awesome concert ! Everything except the mike setting was perfect. One could not ask for more auspicious occasion, the inagural concert at this years Shivarathri Kalotsav. The best supporting artists on stage accompanying him , his voice was in clear fine form, the master himself seems to be in the mood, and prepared ( look at the list !).

concert started only by 7:00 after a delayed inaugural function, at which sri TNS spoke briefly but very well. He started with nAda tanum anisam in soft sublime voice and with some fantastic swaras to complete. Nadaloludai was submerged in the melee of mike-mans incompetence.  Every time he stars the anupallavi line, ‘svAdu phalaprada’ there wsa a big hooting form the mike,  irritating him to the core. to the displeasure of all , this continued 5-6 times, before the mike-man allowed him to complete the anupalavi with ‘sapta swara rAga’. Even at this time, the mrudangam wasn’t set properly. Sri Mannargudi Easwaran did bring it to the notice of the amplification team with some funny sound at the ‘thoppi’ side. However, through out the concert this wasn’t improved greatly.

Leaving aside all the unpleasant things, the concert was fabulous from there. An outstanding pantuvarali to come. He was traversing across all octaves at ease and was producing some beautiful phrases in alapana. Neraval and swara singing continued the same form superbly accompanied by Sri M Chandrasekharan.  Kedaram came in soon with a brief alapana and short sets of swara for Ananda natana prakasham.

Living upto the theme on shiva, it was sure to have thiruvadi sharanam, as soon as he started the kAmboji alapana. To be truthful, this isn’t one of the best thiruvadi sharanam I have listened. However, there was a 3 minute phrase during the kamboji alapana that gave my goosebumps and will remain fore ever in memory. That and the short neraval ( one always wanted more especialy for this kriti), where he used the  ‘AkAthu’, ‘thaLLalAkAthu’ ,’ennai thaLLalAkAthu’  words at one point and ‘ennai’ ‘vanda ennai’ , ‘aDuthu vanda enai’ words at the second time and similarly the ‘pOdAdO’, ‘chonalum pOdAdO’,  ‘ara harA ennu chonnAlum pOdAdO’  words in the neraval with some marvelous and innovative way.  Swara singing was also rather short for his standard ( hence I said, this wasn’t one of the best thiruvaDi sharaNam), but very good as ever.

Tani Avartanam was short, probably to accommodate a short Pallavi. Amidst the improper mike settings, they duo gave a decent tani avartanam. Sri Mannargudi Easwaran was otherwise in his usual self, adding to the overall effect of the concert.

Pallavi was there to come. Albeit short alapana of 7-8 minutes in shanmukhapriya, he did all that is possible during that time. A grahabhadam to ‘nAtakurinji’ , outstanding alapana moving into all 3 octaves with some instant applauses from the audience and multiple ‘aha’s from MC on the dais.  On his turn, MC remarked his need to catch a train back , hence reduced his play to mere 1 minute.  The rest was shortened by the time pressure. Tanam was very good, so was the pallai with trikalam and few rounds of swaras. There was no ragamalika swarams.

It had been long since I heard one such concert from Sri TNS and this made amends to all that was missed over last couple of years. This would have been a 4 hr concert had the concert been started on time.