New Delhi-based Shanmukhananda Sangeetha Sabha organised a vocal concert by the Chennai-based Prasanna Venkatraman at the India Habitat Centre recently. In his concert of a little more than two hours, Prasanna regaled music lovers with his brilliant performance. He did include a ragam-taanam-pallavi session, albeit a hurried and comparatively short one, which did not quite get the required justice. This was partly due to the delayed start of the concert. Nevertheless, it did contribute to a fulfilling concert experience. However, the ragam-taanam-pallavi being a sterling portion of the Carnatic concert format that is not much heard in Delhi, he could have created more time for this portion of the concert by reducing a song from the rest of the repertoire — for example by taking up only one song for detailed presentation instead of two.
In the session, Prasanna brilliantly sang the pallavi “Un darisanam kidaikumo nataraja dayanidi” in raga Simhendra Madhyamam, set to Mishra Chapu tala. Though he started in an unhurried manner, the leisurely pace was not maintained. Apart from a scintillating raga alapana and a delightful tanam, the session also contained ragamalika swara prastharas in ragas Kanada and Kapi.
Prasanna started his concert with Tyagaraja’s “Raghunayaka” in raga Hamsadhwani. The kalpana swaras towards the end not only spoke highly of Prasanna’s depth in the creative sphere, but also added liveliness to the recital. Prasanna then embarked upon a detailed presentation of “Satre vilagu” in raga Poorvikalyani, a composition from Gopalakrishna Bharathi’s Tamil musical opera “Nandanar Charitram”. Here, apart from singing creative kalpanaswara patterns, Prasanna brought out the emotive contents of the composition.
Maha Vaidyanatha Sivan’s 72-mela ragamalika composition “Pranatartihara” began with Sri raga, contained jatis and continued in each of the 72 mela ragas. From this grand composition, Prasanna sang up to the end of the second chakra of the melakarta scheme. Each chakra contains six ragas. Chakra number one is called Indu and number two is called Netra. Thus, he sang 12 ragas starting with Kanakangi and going up to Rupavati.
The young vocalist then moved to another detailed presentation, which was Tyagaraja’s “Evari mata” in raga Kambhoji. The aesthetic singing of this composition in a riveting rhythm and the mature handling of the neraval and kalpana swaras were noteworthy features. Earlier, in an unhurried alapana of this raga, Prasanna brought its features to the fore.
Chennai-based K.P. Nandini on the violin, and Delhi based M.V. Chandrasekhar on the mridangam, provided able support to him. The talented Nandini’s takes on ragas Poorvi kalyani, Kambhoji and Simhendra Madhyamam on the violin were mature and delightful. Chandrasekhar too, apart from providing an understanding percussion support, played a brief but engaging taniavartanam.
Akashvani Sangeet Sammelan
The month of October every year is also an eagerly awaited month by the music lovers in the Capital and other parts of the country as it brings the Akashvani Sangeet Sammelan. Anxiety sets in months before as to who would be the artistes featured this year. The concerts are held at different places in the country on one single day before an invited audience and the recordings are broadcast in the months of November and December. For the 61st edition of the sammelan this year, concerts were held at 24 places across India. In New Delhi, the popular young Carnatic vocalist Abhishek Raghuram and Pandit Rupak Kulkarani (Hindustani flute) were featured at the auditorium of the Chinmaya Mission. The presence of the top brass of the organisation added lustre to the festivity. However, the consequent movement of other functionaries around them even while the concert was going on was a source of disturbance to those seated behind them.
