Vocal : Ashwathnarayanan
Violin :Pappu Gyandev
Mrudangam :-H S Sudheendra
Ghatam : Phanindra Bhaskara
List :
01 nera nammiti (varNam) – kAnaDa – Ramanathapuram Srinivasa Iyengar
02 varAlanDu kommani – gurjari – Thyagaraja ( S )
03 jaya jaya jaya jAnaki kAnta – nAta – Purandara Dasa ( O,S )
04 jnAna mosaga rAdA – pUrvikalyANi – Thyagaraja ( A,N,S )
neraval & swara @ ‘paripUrNa niSkaLanka niravadhi sukhadAyaka ‘
05 mAmava pattAbhirAma – maNirangu – Dikshitar
06 rAma rAma rAma rAma, rAmA yennirO – vasanta – Purandara Dasa ( S )
07 nA moravina rAdA – gOpriya – Dr S Ramanathan
08 ELa nI dayarAdA – aThANa – Thyagaraja
09 nannu pAlimpa – mOhanam – Thyagaraja ( A,N,S,T )
neraval & swara @ ‘karamuna shara kOdaNDa kAntitO’
10 bArO krSNayya – rAgamAlika – Kanaka Dasa ( Short sketch of mAND)
11 anri ulagam ( tirupavai) – bhImpLAs? – Andal
12 thillAna – chenchurutti – Veena Seshanna
13 srIrAma chandranukku jayamangaLam ( mangaLAm) – madhyamAvati – Arunachala Kavi
Proximity is not the only reason I decided to attend to Ashwathnarayanan today over other established artists at other venues. This year, I have decided to listen to as many youngsters as possible. His name has been coming up for a while as a name to watch out for. And yesterday’s concert fit that bill, perfectly well.
He has a strong powerful voice, with ease of deployment. Very clear diction, synonymous to the school and lineage he belong to, and a solid stage presence. He is very young and a bit of experience and polishing can catapult him into the big league.
He and the crew did a commendable concert yesterday. Very interesting choices of raga, some memorable swaraprasthana for the main, very moving melodious gurjari and some classy neraval for both Purvikalyani and Mohanam.
The area he might need to focus on ( for that matter most of the youngsters) is the kalapramanam. I guess, they carried away with the excitement and tends towards speed over ‘soukhyam’. Manirang, vasanta and aThana suffered from this. It could also possibly due to an over enthusiastic percussion support. Many times, I found HSS playing the beats different from the sahitya pattern, unsettling the flow. Also, each song ended with an unnecessary longer ‘theermanam’ ( or whatever it is called).
Only two alapana ( barring a short mAND sketch) in the evening. He can definitely organise it better. But both were scholarly. Mohanam especially was very good. These youngsters have a lot of ideas, but will have to sort of ‘organise’ these into a smoother delivery. Neraval for both purvikalyani and mohanam were very good. He has such a strong control over the laya, which was evident even in the singing of ‘sahitya’. His kalpana swara patterns were also very impressive, especially the mohanam.
Mamava Pattabhirama was all over the place. For one, he started with some unusual sangatis. The whole song was a bit ‘aggressive’ to my taste. It lost its natural beauty, which is not expected/accepted from some of of KVN’s lineage. He introduced the raga gOpriya to the audience, paying tribute to Dr.S.Ramanathan, whose birth centenary was yesterday. Gopriya is an interesting raga, with notes spread evenly across, making it impossible to do a grahabhedam. A janya of Rishabhapriya, and not many composition available, apart from the one by Dr.SRamanathan. A nice gesture from the young lad.Post main was a beautifully rendered bAro krSNayya , a tirupavai and Chenchurutti thillana, before mangalam.
Very talented singer with a good voice, clear diction and well groomed manodharma. We will hear more from him and about him in the future.
Brain Drain 