Expectations hang heavy on R. Suryaprakash’s shoulders, as he is a disciple of T.V. Sankaranarayanan and represents the great Madurai Mani Iyer baani. However, his good voice and musical repertoire never let him down. He performed at a concert held under the aegis of Shree Shanmukhananda Sangeetha Sabha at New Delhi's Malai Mandir recently. The show was impressive and Carnatic music fans in Delhi had a great time.

Suryaprakash kick started the concert with Muthuswami Dikshitar's popular kriti "Vaatapi Ganapatim" in the raga Hamsadhwani and then went on to a Tamil composition of Duraiswamy Kavirayar's, "Innum paaramugam yeno" in the raga Begada, giving more importance to sahitya contents. Muthiah Bagavatar's "Sahasra karamandite" in the raga Vachaspati, was marked by a detailed alap of the raga and lively swaraprastaras. He managed to bring out the emotional contents of Shyama Sastri's "Maayamma" in the raga Ahiri by handling aesthetically and Tyagaraja's "Manavyaalakincha" in the raga Nalinakanti was also pleasant. He took up another Tyagaraja kriti, "Nagumomukhanaleni" in the raga Abheri, which was marked by a fine alap of the raga.

He traversed even the higher octave by singing full-throatedly and he also handled niraval of the phrase "Jagamele Paramatma yevaritho muraliduthu" and subsequent swaraprastaras cleverly. He converted the pallavi "Nagumomukhanaleni" from the original Abheri to these ragas after completing the swaraprastaras in the raga Behag and Kedara gowla. However, he went against the traditionally followed pattern by doing so while presenting a kriti of a composer. The violin accompanist should follow suit

The concert would be better of without his special pallavi. The pallavi "Saravanabhava Guhane Shanmukhane" was composed in two ragas, “Saravanabhava Guhane” in Shanmukhapriya and Nattakuranji and “Shanmukhane” in Tisra Jaati Triputa tala and he presented them with good alap and taanam yet its execution was not pleasant. A pallavi with a single raga could be more enjoyable.

V. V. Srinivasa Rao gave the right support with violin. He delineated the ragas Vachaspati and Abheri pleasingly and also handled swaraprastaras sweetly. M.V. Chandrasekhar was good with the mridangam and his brief tani avartanam were enjoyable.