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.
