R Suryaprakash @ Suswaralaya Festival, Sri Rama Lalitha Kala Mandira , 29th Oct 2017

Vocal : R Suryaprakash

Violin : Mathur Srinidhi

Mrudangam : Srimushnam Raja Rao

Ghatam : Trichy S Krishnaswamy

List :

01 shLOkam ( vakratuNDa mahAkAya) – rItigauLa

vanajAkSa ninnE kOri (varNam) – rItigauLa –  aTa –  Veena Kuppiyer

02 brOva bhAramA – bahudhAri – Adi – Thyagaraja ( S )

03 sahasrakara maNDitE – vAcaspati – Adi – Muthaiah Bhagavathar ( A,N,S )

neraval & swara @ ‘ kara sahasradi varava koDuva ninna caraNa kamalavanu shiradali dharisi‘

04 nimma bhAgya doDDadO namma bhAgya doDDadO – aThANa – rUpakam – Purandara Dasa ( A )

05 tUkkiya tiruvaDi tuNai ena nambinEn – shankarAbharaNam – Adi – Suddhananda  Bharati ( N,S )

neraval & swara @ ‘ettanaiyO piravi eDutteDuttEn iLaittEn’

06 kaligiyuNTE gada – kIravANi – Adi x 2 – Thyagaraja

neraval & Swara @ ‘bhAgavatAgrEsarulaku nArada’

07 RTP – vasanta – tisra tripuTa , samam eDuppu

pallavi line ‘ ninna nODi dhanyanAdenO , shESAcala vAsA

rAgamAlika swaras in behAg, kEdAragauLa , nihara, darbAri kAnaDa

08 shLOkam ( pUjyAya rAghavEndrAya)

thillAna ( nAdru dhIm nAdru dhIm tana dhiraNA) – sindhu bhairavi – Srimushnam Raja Rao

09 mangaLam – saurAStram – Thyagaraja

shLOkam ( mangaLam kOsalEndrAya) – madhyamAvati

Splendid concert , befitting the grand finale of the ‘Suswaralaya Music Festival’ at Sri Rama Lalitha Kala Mandira by Vid. R Suryaprakash. Every thing he sang was brilliant, not a dull moment through out the concert. Mathur Srinidhi was at his sublime best, playing outstandingly good. Senior Vidvan Srimushnam was at his usual exuberance, albeit a notch on higher side, as one would expect.

There was a short delay to begin the proceedings as the organiser ( H S Sudheendra) spoke for 5-10 minutes on the final day of the three day long festival, thanking all those were involved in making it a success ; from Gurus, desciples, mike man, SRLKM, Audience, patrons ,sponsors etc etc. It did not in any way hamper the musical proceedings as Suryaprakash did not compromise and sang well over three hours.

Into the music now, after the lady interrupted him as he started the shlokam for some long introductions, he started with the reetigowla varnam of Veena Kuppaiyer. Things quickly changed gear with a brisk bahudhari kriti and some mesmerising swaraprasthana, reminding one of his ‘parama guru’ Madurai Mani Iyer. Srinidhi added to the flair. Beautiful vachaspati alapana came soon,  very impressive. Muthaiah Bhagavathar’s  composition in Kannada, was again a speciality of the Mani Iyer clan. A top class neraval at ‘kara sahasradi’ and another rounds of brisk swaras.

A shortish atana alapana preceded the devarnama. He did not sing all the charanams though, before switching over to my personal favourite ‘tUkkiya tiruvaDi’. As expected there was neraval at ‘ettanaiyO piravi’, in typical Mani Iyer style. This seems to have gone very well with the audience as well as the fellow accompanying artists.

Keeravani alapana was grand, and he did move through some of the not often heard phrases. To me, having used to listen to often repeated keeravani alapana, this was refreshing. Srinidhi, went a step further, taking off at a unique place, receiving immediate response from every one. Kaligiyunte, was nice but what was striking was the hange in the neraval line from the standard ‘baguga sri raghu rAmuni’. This , I think was clever from the artist and was very impressive.

Tani Avartanam was very long. One can understand that, on this occasion. He played some delectable rounds and was indeed loud. But, I am not going there. Trichy Krishnaswamy was all in awe of the maestro and played a subdued ghatam through out the evening.

There was more to come in the form of a pallavi. Nice alapana by  both the artists.  Tanam started very well, but was joined by the percussion from the second round. I am in support of a passive percussion follow for tanam, just to add to the laya aspect,  but yesterday it was an active mrudangam accompaniment for tanam and it took away the charm of tanam singing. This is my personal opinion and preference. So, no offense meant. Pallavi, said to be a composition of Srimushnam Rajarao. Nothing great on the pallavi line or the tAla.  Eduppu or arudi also had nothing spectacular to talk about. However, I was educated that the ‘sAhitya’ had some intricate laya aspect to it, as none of the ‘syllable’ falls on the beat. Sounds interesting. I need to check if ‘Shale’ still  has the concert available online. Ragamalika swaras had nice twist. He sang swaras in a rAga called ‘nihara’ ( announced by the artist) and the glide and oscillation of notes sounded it like a hindustani one. This was later clarified as a janya of pantuvarali with ” S,g,m,d,N,s / S,N,d,m,g,s” scale. Vidvan Suryaprakash concluded the concert with a thillAna of Srimushnam Raja Rao in sindhubhairavi.

Concert was attended by a large crowd and was webcasted live by Shale.com. It indeed was a fitting grand finale for the 18th Annual Festival of Suswaralaya College of Music. Fabulous concert by Sri Suryaprakash.

 

R Suryaprakash @ S Nageswaran’s House, 25th Sept 2016

Vocal : R Suryaprakash

Violin : Vittalarangan

Mrudangam : T R Sundaresan

List:

01. rUpamu jUci (pada varNam) – thODi – Dikshitar ( O )

02. vAgIshvari vANi sarasvati – sarasvati – Muthaiah Bhagavathar ( O,N, S)

neraval & swara @ ‘ nIvE jIvashakti nIvE jnAnabhukti nIvE jagatsAkSi nIraja daLAkSi’

03. innALLu dayarAkunna – nArAyaNagauLa – Thyagaraja (A )

04. bhuvanEshvariyA – mOhanakalyANi – Muthaiah Bhagavathar ( O,S )

05. kA vA vA – varALi – Papanasam Sivan

06. shrI laLitE kAnci nagara nivAsini – bhairavi – Annasamy Shasthri (A,N,S,T )

neraval & Swara @ ‘nIlAbja dala lOcanE sadAshrita dAsa jana rakSanE’

07. RTP – hamsAnandi,hamsadhvani,hamsanAdam,hamsavinOdini – mishra chApu

pallavi line ‘ Anandini mAm pAhi, sakala dhvani svarUpiNi, sunAda niranjani, vINAvinOdini, sadAvAhini, hamsa-‘

rAgamAlika tAnam and swaras in hamsAnandi,hamsadhvani,hamsanAdam, hamsavinOdini

tani Avartanam

08. viruttam ( uLLam arindudan??) – behAg,AbhEri

kandan karuNai puriyum vaDivEl – AbhEri/bhImplAs – Guhan

09. kangaLidyAtakO kAvEri rangana – sindhubhairavi – Narahari Dasa

10 mangaLAm – saurAshtram – Thyagaraja

vAzhiya sentamizh – madhyamAvati- Bharatiyar

Special occasion, special place and selected audience whose musical IQ is probably the best one can think of ( few exceptions like me) in Bangalore. The ambience is the most suited for an artist to exhibit his skill, knowledge and imagination. Sri Suryaprakash and the team did exactly that. Fabulous concert. Everything that one can ask for was packaged so brilliantly in three and half hours. The initial plan, I remember, was to have the conert from 5:00 to 7:30, but the whole atmosphere was so musically charged and the concert went on until almost 8:30. The accompaniment rose to the occasion adding to the awesomeness.

Vid Suryaprakash planned the concert to perfection. Every piece was carefully chosen, presented to perfection as it called for. Rarely heard rUpamu Juci presented as padavarnam to start was the indication of the rest of the evening.  Fabulous neraval for another rare gem in saraswati. I think the words align so perfectly well for classical neraval. Very good rounds of swaras to add to the effect.

First detailed alapana in nArAyaNagauLa was very impressive. Few shades of ‘kaddle vAdu’ to give the nArAyaNagauLa indication to me. Vittalarangan played in similar lines of the main artist. Suryaprakash chose to sing innALLu dayarAkunna, instead. Well done ! A short filler on mOhanakalyani came in. Not a great fan of this ( except for the Mysore Vasudevachar’s composition on Narasimha), but he sang some great swaras at the end. Almost similar was the next kA vA vA, with a few quick rounds of swaras.

Bhairavi main alapana was top class. Shear delight to listen to him as he sang some delectable phrases. Some good takes at the upper octaves, to some instant applause, some streaky slides, some long phrases in middle and higher octaves. Very well constructed and progressed. Vittalarangan played equally brilliant here, reproducing some of the nuances of the main artist in his reply. Again another surprise choice of kriti. Annasamy Shashtry’s kriti on goddess of Kanchi, seldom heard in concerts. Another fabulous neraval, even better than the sarasvati one. Much detailed, one of the high points of the evening. A two speed swaras with some intrinsic laya exercise at the low speed.  Sundaresan played a short tani avartanam.

A pallavi was brewing in the air. He chose to present a chatur-raga pallavi, one can call it as a ‘hamsa-mala’pallavi, in hamsAnandi, hamsadhvani, hamsAnadam, hamsavinOdini. Hamsanandi and hamsadhvani alapana were fairly detailed, and the other two to a lesser extend. Tanam was long in all 4 ragas, with some nice drift from one to the other.  Nicely constructed pallavi line, sang appropriately broken to indicate the raga name.  Hamsanandini mAm pAhi, hamsadhvani svarUpiNi, hamsanAda niranjani, hamsavinOdini sadAvAhini etc. He sang a very complicated trikalam for his switching speed and raga with such control and fluidity. There was no moments of ‘loss of control’ of ambiguity through out. Sundaresan, played with nimble fingers and stern face:) through out the evening played another tani avartanam post pallavi.

The concert concluded with a viruttam followed by a Guhan kriti, and a devarnama in sindhu bhairavi. Congratulations to the artist and the host for conducting a wonderful concert.

 

R Suryaprakash @ Sri Avani Shankar Mutt, Basaveshwara Nagar, 29 Apr 2016

Vocal : R Suryaprakash

Violin : Nalina Mohan

Mrudangam : HS Sudheendra

Morsing : M Gururaj

List:

( reached late, I might have missed 2 or 3 compositions)

03. nannu viDaci – rItigauLa – Thyagaraja

04. aparNA pArvati – naLinakAnti – Kalyani Varadarajan ( A,S )

05. mAyamma yani nE – Ahiri – Shyama Shasthri ( A )

06. marukELarA – jayanthashrI – Thyagaraja

07. shrI mAtrubhUtam – kannaDa – Dikshitar ( A,S )

08. mAnasa sancararE – shyAma – Sadashiva Brahmendra ( A,N,S )

neraval & swara @ ‘paramahamsa mukha candracakOrE paripUrita muraLiravadharE’

09. dEva dEvam bhajE – hindOLam – Annamacharya

10. nIdu charaNa pankaja – kalyANi –  Pallavi Gopala Iyer ( A,S,T )

11. ugabhOga+ devarnAma – sindhubhairavi – Purandara Dasa

12. mangaLam – saurAStram –  Thyagaraja

The ambience wasn’t the most suited for a classical concert, except for the divine presence. The hall was very close to the road which was buzzing with traffic till the very end of concert. The disturbance from outside – vehicle passing , honking etc – were high, so was the people moving in and out (to the right of the audience was the temple). The mini hall or the room was not acoustically supportive for a classical concert. The audience itself is largely constituted by the visiting devotees , the mutt residence and not the typical concert seeking ones like us. Hence, it wasn’t surprising that he chose to sing many songs in soft, pleasing ragas and not venturing into some heavy weight ones. The Swamiji of the Mutt attended the concert midway through and stayed until the end.

We were late. It took more than two ours to maneuver the rush hour traffic and I was wondering if we can reach at least for the main. However from what I could decipher, we might not have missed much. A smooth reetigaula welcomed us as we settled in the room. I am guessing, I would have missed the varnam and a ganesha song before this. Soon, he sang s short and very nice nalinakanti alapana. It was fairly evident, mavinalakinca is not likely to come. Aparna parvati, a Kalyani Varadarajan composition was a good choice. I was feeling happy that the journey the city made sense when he started a soulful ahiri alapana. Very rarely one get to hear alapana in such ragas, and the joy was even more visible with my accompanying partner. Nalina Mohan too played some beautiful phrases in her return. It had to be Shyama Shasthry’s master piece,as he started at nyAyama. Mellifluous singing.

A quick marukelara came in before he started next beautiful alapana in Kannada. Even this was fairly short, but very impressive. Dikshitar composition also appended with some good round of kalpana swaras. Quickly , another slow and moving alapana of shyAma begun, but was rather short ( and without violin return) moved to  mAnasa sancarare. For the first time, I m listening to some one singing a neraval for this kriti and how beautifully he sang it at ‘paramahamsa mukha’. This part to me was one of the highlight of the evening. Nalina Mohan rose to the occasion with some classy returns. There was a few rounds of kalpana swara at the end. An Annamacharya kriti sandwiched between this and the main. A bit surprised to see hindolam, after Jayanthasree.

Kalyani alapana was exquisite. Highly focused on the melodic beauty of the raga, playing some fascinating low speed sangatis, some breath taking bhriga oriented fast passages, clever open throated akara experiments at both medium and higher octaves , very clearly planned and delineated alapana. Depsite my personal taste of kalyani, I liked it and clearly the best of the evening. Nalina Mohan also played a commendable alapana. I did predict, needu charanamule’ to come. The kriti was very good, but had to quicken through the proceedings because of the time pressure. I think, Sri Suryaprakash was prepared and planned for the concert to end at 9:30, but there was some instructions mid way to conclude by 9:00. That probably denied us a chance to witness an awesome kalyani. He almost started neraval at O jagad janani, but switched to swaras immediately. Even the kalpana swaras were done quickly. The percussion duo too had a very short tani avartanam, played in unison.

There was a short customary speech by the person who was playing tanpura until then. Sri Suryaprakash had to conclude the concert with mangalam , but he sang a devarnama in sindhubhairavi , which was very unclear because of the improper amplification levels. I could hardly hear what was being sung. After a short consultation on stage, he sang mangalam and concluded the concert.

I liked the  concert on following grounds. Impressive array of raga chosen from different composers and varied tala structure. It looked like he had done some nice pre-work or he might have anticipated the demography of the audience and fine tuned his selection to suite the listeners. Nice coordination among the artists on stage.  Personally the Kalyani Varadarajan kriti, Ahiri alapana, neraval for manasa sancharare and the fabulous kalyani alapana made the evening worthwhile.

 

R Suryaprakash @ Indiranagar Sangeetha Sabha, 12 Oct 2014

Vocal : R Suryaprakash

Violin : M A Sundareswaran

Mrudangam : C Cheluvaraju

Ghatam : Srishylan

List:

01.  shLOkam ( vakratuNDa mahAkAya) – nATa

shivatraya mahAgaNapatim – nATa – Svarna Venkatesha Dikshitar ( S )

02.  rAmanAtham bhajEham – pantuvarALi – Muthusvami Dikshitar  ( Short Sketch , N,S )

neraval & swara @ ‘kumAra guruguha mahitam kapi vrindAdi sannutam’

03.  sEvikka vENDum ayya – AndOLika – Muthu Thandavar ( A,S )

04.  sItAvara sangIta jnAnamu – dEvagAndhAri – Thyagaraja ( A )

05.  kA vA vA – varALi – Papanasam Sivan ( S )

06. chakkani rAja mArgamu – kharaharapriya – Thyagaraja ( A,N,S,T )

neraval & swara @ ‘ kaNTiki sundara taramagu rUpamE ‘

07.  ninna oLumegE nAnu – sAramati ? – Purandara Dasa

08.  RTP – sumanEsha ranjani –  khanda triputa x 2 kalai , +1 from samam

pallavi line ‘ mAnini nigamAgama sanchAriNi , sumanEsha ranjani’

ragamalika swaras in  janaranjani and shivaranjani ( not sure if there was one before this)

09  eppO varuvArO – jOnpuri – Gopalakrishna Bharathi

10  Western Notes

11  thillAna ( nAdru dhIm ta shim nAdru dhIm ) – shuddha sArang- R Suryaprakash

12  shrikAntha enagiStu dayamADO – bhAgEshrI – Purandara Dasa

13.  mangaLam – saurAshtram / srI- Thyagaraja

What a cracker of a concert. From the start, it was an awesome fare. Lasting nearly three and half hours, Sri Suryaprakash, enthralled the audience with some outstanding singing. Taking the clue from the pallavi line of the main kriti one asked himself  “When there are excellent royal paths, why enter bylanes, O Mind?”

On such an evening, it is difficult to pick and highlight what stood out. The majestic and ‘royal’ kharaharapriya , the impressive pallavi in sumanesa ranjani , brilliant and refreshing andolika alapana or the impressive list of post pallavi kritis. One can pick any from the list above and he did a great job for eah of these pieces.

Concert started with a rather rare Nata kriti of Svarna Venkatesh dikshitar, making his presence felt with some smashing rounds of swaras. Launching into a short sketch of pantuvarali, he moved on with the Dikshitar’s master piece ‘Ramanatham bhajeham’. I always love a pantuvarali or purvikalyani up in the list, beginning of a concert. More so, if they are without or short alapana but necessarily with neraval and swaras. Exactly that was given. Good enough ( by duration)  neraval at the predictable ‘kumara guruguha’ and some classy kalpana swaras was the highlights of pantuvarali.

A very refreshing alapana of andolika with many nontraditional sangatis was a treat. Sri Sundareswaran was equally brilliant, giving us some phrases of ‘ragasudharasa’ in his return. But it was ‘sevikka vendum ayya’ adorned with some good rounds of swaras. Yet another impressive alapana came soon in devagandhari , yet again M A Sundareswaran gave us hint of ksheerasagara. He sang seethavara, I would have been ok with either. Another Mani Iyer classic of kA vA vA received with some admirable responses from the audiences. HE added a few rounds of quick fire kalpana swaras. Appreciatively, he chose to sing the swaras at two places alternating between kA vA vA and pazhani malai urayum muruga vA ( if I remember correctly) and it had an immense impact.

When he started the first phrases of kharaharapriya, there was an enthusiastic response from the violinist. He sang a splendid alapana of kharaharapriya, meticulously detailed and appropriately stretched with careful build up. M A Sundareswaran started off by playing ‘samAnamevvaru’ eliciting some laughter across the hall. The duo made some appreciative remarks before continuing. It had to be chakkani raja, despite the samanamevvaru prompt. With the memories of Mani Iyer’s singing in mind, it had to match the expectation. Sri Suryaprakash presented the kriti with all the grandeur and royalty. Superb and very elaborate neraval at ‘kaNTiki’ and equally apt kalpana swaras to live upto the expectations of the musician and the kriti.

Cheluvaraju and Srishylan played a good tani avartanam. The duo was playing to the occasion with some nice finger works , specially sri Cheluvaraj, who invoked some sublime sounds while accompanying the kritis, also by keeping away from playing allowing the essence of the music to sync with the audience.

For a usual concert it was now time to enter the closing up kritis. He sang a devarnama, probably in sAramati, post the main.Prior to the concert when I met up with Sri Suryaprakash, he hinted at a special RTP for the day and he kept me guessing without letting out any hint. Since the time is already around 7:45 nearly 2:45 mins into the concert, I wasn’t hoping for a pallavi. He however announced sumanesa ranjani to the delight of the audience. Alapana was pretty nice, as Sri Sachi mentioned, it was something appropriate for his style of singing.After his turn he said, we all want to listen to the veteran artists to show us the merit of the raga asking Sundareswaran to play. He played a shorter version of the same. Tanam was again very well rendered, with Cheluvaraju chipping in. Pallavi, coined by him less than 48 hrs ago ( he said) had some good swarakshara use. He did use the pallavi line ‘mA ni ni’ very effectively in the swara singing. Trikalam was done effectively for a couple of rounds. He also added a couple of raga malika swaras, both janaranjani and shivaranjani were brilliant , especially the ‘radio tune’ start by Sundareswaran in his turn.

Probably there were a couple of requests most of them were his guru’s or parama-guru’s favorites. Wome one requested for a thillana of his composition, and he obliged with the sudha sarang thillana of his own. There was more requests, again he sang a devar nama in bhageshri before the mangalam.

Fabulous concert, very satisfying and fulfilling. All that is expected and more was delivered. Music of high quality and aesthetics. One of the best concert of the recent times for me. Kudos to the artists.

 

R Suryaprakash @ Unnati Centre, 6th Oct 2013

Vocal : R Suryaprakash

Violin : C N Srinivasamurthy

Mrudangam : T S Sundaresan

List:

01.vanajAksha ninnE kOri ( varNam) – rItigauLa – Veena Kuppaiyer

02. gaNanAthanE guNabOdhanE – sAranga – Periyasami Thooran  ( O,S )

03. jAlandhara supIThasthitE- valaji – Muthaiah Bhagavathar ( A,N)

neraval @ ‘navashakti swarUpiNi’

04. ranganAyakam bhAvayE – nAyaki – Dikshitar ( Short sketch)

05. sEviykka vENDum ayyA – AndOLika – Pananasam Sivan ( S )

06. nimma bhAgya doDDadO namma bhAgya doDDadO – aThANa – Purandara Dasa ( A )

07.  nItu charaNa pankajamulE – kalyANi – Pallavi Gopala Iyer ( A,N,S,T )

neraval & Swara @ ‘O jagajjanani manOnmaNi OmkAra rUpiNi kalyANi’

08. RTP – brindAvani – trisra triputa (purngam in khada nadai, uttarangam in chatusra nadai)

pallavi line ‘ unnata venkaTa ramaNa gOvindA, pannaga shayana mukundA’

ragamalika swaras in ‘brindAvani, behAg, rEvathi’

09. varugalAmO ayya – mAnji – Gopalakrishna Bharathi

10. veLLAi tAmarai – bhImpLAs – Subramanya Bharathi

11. SLOkam ( yOgindrANAm. ) – ??, Sivaranjani, sindhubhairavi

venkaTAchala nilayam – sindhubhairavi – Purandara Dasa

12. tirupugazh – hamsAnandi

13. mangaLam – saurAshtram , surutti – Thyagaraja

To a sparse audience in the majestic hall at the Unnati Center, Sri Suryaprakash presented a extremely pleasing and beautifully conceived and presented concert. It was sad to see such a fine music is received by only a few ears for a musician of such status. However those attended and listened were rewarded by a classy , enriching music. He might not command the aura of some of the ‘performing’ musicians on the stage, and might not have the exaggerating mannerisms of an all encompassing stage artist, but his music grows into you with its simplicity and its trueness to the fundamentals. One will not experience the adrenalin rush, or any innovations in the presentation to talk about, but do experience the refreshing calmness in the concert.

Concert started 15 mins late from the stipulated time ( possibly due to the delayed arrival of the violin accompaniment) with the Reetigaula varnam. Saranga was a nice choice for the Ganesha kriti, which was presented with few rounds of kalpana swaras. First detailed alapana was in Valaji and ‘jAlandhara’ was the only choice. He did a detailed neraval, and did not sing any swaras. The neraval line itself was rather too short and did not give a feeling of completeness.

Very emotive nAyaki, not so impressive andOLika kriti ( I was almost frowning my face, but he brought this back with some brilliant kalpana swaras) and an interesting devarnama in aThANa came in before the main. Swaras of Andolika and the short alapana of athana were pretty nice.

Kalyani was main ( frown again? No..) with some classy alapana, long, beautifully build up and developed in the familiar passages and phrases. A feat reproduced ( including the arohana/avarohana phrase) by the violin artist. The kriti chosen was very interesting. I was prepared for one of the ‘navarathri’ specials, but he decided to go for one of the not often heard kritis in the concerts. The kriti and the long neraval that came in were top class. He probably rushed through a bit in the kalpana swaras. Tani avartanam by Sundaresan was apt, adding on to is very supportive percussion during the concert.

Pallavi was in the offing. Both alapana and tanam ( with percussion joining in) was very good. Pallavi was pretty complicated with different nadai for ‘purvangam’ and ‘uttarangam’. The team executed the nadai complexities with ease, including the trikalam. Kalpana swaras were alternated between Khanda Nadai and chatusra nadai. No much importance to the ragamalika swaras, however the revathi swaras were pretty nice.

Post pallavi had a slew of short pieces. The ragamalika slokam and the sindhubhairavi kriti of Purandara Dasa were notable among them. A tirupugazh and the mangalam concluded the evening. Very well executed concert by Suryaprakash and the team.