The near full occupancy of the Narada Gana Sabha auditorium at the outset of the Music Season stood testimony to the popularity of Abhishek Raghuram. A robust voice with a remarkable range, talent in abundance, clarity in diction — all these have catapulted this young vocalist to the top bracket. The concert, held under the auspices of Kartik Fine Arts, began with ‘Ganarajena rakshitoham’ (Muthuswami Dikshitar) in Arabi with a surfeit of swaras on ‘Dinakarakoti prakasena.’
A precise outline of rare Simhavahini and ‘Nenarunchara’ (Tyagaraja) was followed by a lengthy chain of swaras. The raga essay of Gowri Manohari was replete with twists and turns. ‘Varalakshmi namostute’ by Mysore Vasudevachar was the choice here, which also carried an impressive chittaiswaram. It was further packed with several rounds of kalpanaswaras after a brief niraval on ‘Vasudeva vinutarthe.’ Then came a vigorous Khambodi and Raghuram brilliantly presented Tyagaraja’s ‘Sri Raghuvaraprameya.’
Shades of a sedate raga
Breathtaking brigas and uncommon forays prefaced ‘Ganamoorthey’ (Tyagaraja) in Ganamoorthy that was again tailed with swaras. After all these short, medium and lengthy alapana and swara presentations, Abhishek chose to elaborate Hemavati. It was, indeed, a fairly long one that explored the dynamic shades of this sedate raga. The kriti was Dikshitar’s ‘Sri Kanthimathim,’ which was completed in just six minutes to jump on to swaras.
Abhishek Raghuram’s approach to every raga and kriti was flamboyant, the phrases racing like a sprinter . There was no contemplation, pause or internalisation. Swarakalpana for every piece sounds redundant after a point.
On the positive side, Abhishek’s swaras were well framed and not just empty syllables. If he invests his talent and energy to bring forth more of the raga’s musical range and aesthetics, the results are bound to be different and more fascinating. Well, it may be wishful thinking since he is able to garner a large audience, clapping thunderously!
Akkarai Subbulakshmi followed the sketches meticulously. Nonetheless, she employed certain amount of discretion by coming up with subtle phrases and melodic passages in Gowri Manohari and Hemavati.
In such deliberations, the percussionists have a field day, just as Patri Sathish Kumar on the mridangam did that evening.
