Vimarshini Jairam - Vocal
Tejasvi Sunderrajan - Violin
Karthik Srinivasan - Mridangam
Theme - Songs on Lord Muruga
Vimarshini is a disciple of Smt. Radha Namboodiri and other senior vidvans of Mumbai. The concert was organized as part of the monthly chamber program series that has been started by a group of youngsters in Mumbai to promote the young talented musicians in Mumbai. The audience for this concert included senior vidushis like Sulochana Rajendran, Radha Nmaboodiri and also Smt. Vishalam, a violin vidushi (and disciple of Shri T S Krishnaswami who was the violin teacher of Ranjani - Gayatri). Vimarshini also learns the violin from the latter.
Vimarshini's concert mirrored her vidvat and her training under good teachers in a solid pAThAntaram. The best part of such chamber concerts is that the art form is given primary importance over anything else and if the audience is prepared to take the best, the artists give their best! The fact that the audience consists of knowledgeable musicians and practitioners is a big boost to the performers who do not have to bother about petty things that a regular concert artist has to consider. It is in such an ambience that I believe that real Carnatic music thrives.
The list of songs was as follows:
1. innamum sOdanai - sama - varnam - Adi - TRS
2. edayyA gati- chalanATTai - Adi - Koteeshwara Iyer
3. mayil vAhanA - mOhanam - Adi - RS @ pallavi
4. sharavaNa bhava -shanmukhapriyA - Adi - PS
5. sharavaNa bhava - madhyamAvati - Adi - PS - RNS @ pallavi line
6.kaikUDa vENumE- latAngi - khanDa cApu - Koteeshwara Iyer -S
7. srI sharavana bhava - sumanapriyA - rUpakam - Mutthiah Bhagavathar
8. murugA murugA - sAvEri - misra cApu - Periyasami Thooran - RNST - @ charanam line
9. Three tiruppugazhs in shudha dhanyasi, bahudari, surutti.
Most of the songs were new to me. The rAga Alapanas for madhyamAvati and sAveri were done in detail albeit with some restraint and had some nice "aha type" phrases. Vimarshini's soft voice and bhava laden rendering made listening to songs like sharavana bhava in madhyamavati and muruga in saveri fresh and delightful. Another very good thing about Vimarshini's recital was her clear diction -> this helped us enjoy the kritis even more. Overall, the manodharmam sections for both the madhyamavati and the saveri kriti had a lack of sarvalaghu patterns (but did not make the exercises sound dry); nevertheless the restrained exercises suited the ambience well.
Karthik gave able support on the mridangam, although he kept giving some surprises. Tejasvi's replies on the violin were good. His AlApanas were specifcally very well done and displayed his gnAnam!
Overall, the concert was memorable and the arrangements by the hosts excellent. Hope this series continues for a long time in Mumbai.
--Gokul--
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Abhishek Raghuram @ BRRS Mumbai on 3rd April 2011
Abhishek Raghuram's imagination and creativity brings to mind the genius of three people: TNS, BMK and Kalyanaraman. Yesterday's concert was an excellent display of gimmicks-based carnatic music (not in the wrong sense at all). Throughout yesterday's concert, Abhishek was "innovating" in the real sense of the term.
The opener shankarabharanam varnam was brisk; it was preceded by an almost 5-10 minutes of shruti alignment. I was hoping to hear rA rA mA iNTidAka or jAnaki ramaNa and Abhishek sang the former, do my delight. The kalpana swarams involved nice patterns and "poruttams". When he started the malayamArutam aalapana, I was delighted as, among scalar rAgams, that is a very beautiful rAgam. There were shades of Hindustani, but I have no problem with that! Somewhat difficult patterns like R-D, G-N, etc were executed with ease and charm; the influence of BMK on his music was quite evident here.
tAyE yashodA was rendered in pakka TNS style; he took a semi-slow kAlapramAnam and ornamented the kriti with catchy and bright links; like TNS does. The RTP that followed next was nothing short of brilliant. I would normally get annoyed if anyone sings kAnADa without the weight given to the gAndhAram. I remember frowning as soon as he began; but the gimmicks laden phrases and imagination brought many more AhAs than a possibly weighty kAnaDa would have! The tAnam once again had shades of HM, he increased speeds and used every syllable that a purist would say no-no to; nevertheless, his supreme imagination was what mattered to me here and not mere adherence to rules.
The pallavi line, was "sItApatE nApai nIkabhimAnamu lEda". As expected, he sang neraval in khamas, bringing out shades of brOcEva and sitApati. Then came gAnamUrti, kAntAmaNi and bahudAri in which he sang the word "sitApatE" of the pallavi line like famous Tyagaraja- kritis in these raagams.
This was one thing that did not sound new to me, having heard and read about Charumati Ramachandran's similar attempt elsewhere. Maybe GNB or Kalyanaraman or more probably BMK has done this before? I must accept however that it was an exciting delivery! Especially the quick transitions between rAgams and the super fast swarams, that came after the tani.
One tamizh kriti in sAranga came next - it went like - "kaN kalangudE". This was my pick of the concert! Although it sounded very "ghazalish", it was extremely well rendered with deep bhAvam. I could see Abhishek enjoy immensely while he rendered it!
The possibly disappointing part of the concert was the rendition of brovavamma in nIlAmbari. I felt that too much gimmicks in such kritis, is painful, especially if the listener knows the meanings of the lyrics. Thankfully, this was during the end of the concert.
Then one mami gave a chit for enna tavam seidanai; Im sure she must have written all the rest of tukkaDAs (do I need to name them). But he chose to sing only enna tavam and followed with a mangalam.
The lack of a manual tambura or a mike for the electronic tambura perhaps gave indications of lapses here and there especially when there were loud, off-note sounds coming out of nowhere! Later on I realised that that could have been because of a football match going on in the playground outside the hall!
Anantha R Krishnan gave very nice support on the Mridangam. His tani was spectacular and had many intelligent sollus and patterns. Mysore Srikanth gelled well. His kAnaDa aalapana had everything that Abhishek had left out (most note-worthily, the weight in the gAndhAram), so the overall effect was complete!
---Gokul---
The opener shankarabharanam varnam was brisk; it was preceded by an almost 5-10 minutes of shruti alignment. I was hoping to hear rA rA mA iNTidAka or jAnaki ramaNa and Abhishek sang the former, do my delight. The kalpana swarams involved nice patterns and "poruttams". When he started the malayamArutam aalapana, I was delighted as, among scalar rAgams, that is a very beautiful rAgam. There were shades of Hindustani, but I have no problem with that! Somewhat difficult patterns like R-D, G-N, etc were executed with ease and charm; the influence of BMK on his music was quite evident here.
tAyE yashodA was rendered in pakka TNS style; he took a semi-slow kAlapramAnam and ornamented the kriti with catchy and bright links; like TNS does. The RTP that followed next was nothing short of brilliant. I would normally get annoyed if anyone sings kAnADa without the weight given to the gAndhAram. I remember frowning as soon as he began; but the gimmicks laden phrases and imagination brought many more AhAs than a possibly weighty kAnaDa would have! The tAnam once again had shades of HM, he increased speeds and used every syllable that a purist would say no-no to; nevertheless, his supreme imagination was what mattered to me here and not mere adherence to rules.
The pallavi line, was "sItApatE nApai nIkabhimAnamu lEda". As expected, he sang neraval in khamas, bringing out shades of brOcEva and sitApati. Then came gAnamUrti, kAntAmaNi and bahudAri in which he sang the word "sitApatE" of the pallavi line like famous Tyagaraja- kritis in these raagams.
This was one thing that did not sound new to me, having heard and read about Charumati Ramachandran's similar attempt elsewhere. Maybe GNB or Kalyanaraman or more probably BMK has done this before? I must accept however that it was an exciting delivery! Especially the quick transitions between rAgams and the super fast swarams, that came after the tani.
One tamizh kriti in sAranga came next - it went like - "kaN kalangudE". This was my pick of the concert! Although it sounded very "ghazalish", it was extremely well rendered with deep bhAvam. I could see Abhishek enjoy immensely while he rendered it!
The possibly disappointing part of the concert was the rendition of brovavamma in nIlAmbari. I felt that too much gimmicks in such kritis, is painful, especially if the listener knows the meanings of the lyrics. Thankfully, this was during the end of the concert.
Then one mami gave a chit for enna tavam seidanai; Im sure she must have written all the rest of tukkaDAs (do I need to name them). But he chose to sing only enna tavam and followed with a mangalam.
The lack of a manual tambura or a mike for the electronic tambura perhaps gave indications of lapses here and there especially when there were loud, off-note sounds coming out of nowhere! Later on I realised that that could have been because of a football match going on in the playground outside the hall!
Anantha R Krishnan gave very nice support on the Mridangam. His tani was spectacular and had many intelligent sollus and patterns. Mysore Srikanth gelled well. His kAnaDa aalapana had everything that Abhishek had left out (most note-worthily, the weight in the gAndhAram), so the overall effect was complete!
---Gokul---
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