View on a few kutcheris attended this month by Deepak Chari

These reviews were given by my good friend Sri. Deepak Chari based out of US. As he has very limited access to the net, requested me to post on his behalf.

Here are some impressions about what we heard during this season so far.
We heard TM Krishna at Narada Gana Sabha Hall for Kartik Fine Arts (2^nd kala kritis (like Kanchi Kamakshi in Bhairavi) and true music used to flow out of him. Karnatic music cannot be fast paced and it spoils the fun if you do that often. May be one or two fast paced kritis in a kucheri are ok (like Nenarunchi Nanu). But one must not race thro the swara prastharam. TM Krishna on those occasions gives the impression of fighting with an invisible enemy. It was a disappointing opening kutcheri for me. But I shall continue to here him because I know that he can be brilliant when he decides to be.
Though children of a great living legend, Lalgudi Krishnan and Vijayalakshmi don’t make a fuss about it. Their music speaks for them. (16^th Dec. Karthik Fine Arts). They are content to play their violin and walk out. Their bowing style is quite distinct. It is soft and does not produce the screeching sound that normally emanates from a bowed instrument. As much as his music one is attracted by Krishnan’s very composed bearing on stage. That day his main was Ragam, Tanam, Pallavi in Sahana. His alapanai was delicious—sweet as Sahana should be. The pallavi was in Chaturasra Jhampa talam with technical embellishments like anulomam, vilomam thrown in. I don’t think a full-fledged R-T-P fits into a 2 hour concert. Viji perhaps is a little slow on the uptake when it comes to kala pramanam. But it was a wholly satisfying concert.
Gayatri Venkatraghavan is the new star on the firmament. Suja and I have heard her 6 times in these 3 months and we are amazed that she has not repeated any kriti even once. Seeta was her neighbor in T.Nagar when Gayatri Venkat was a kid learning music. Seeta says that she did not show all that interest in music those days. You can’t believe that if you hear Gayatri singing now. I rate her at no.2 above Sudha but just after Jayashree (whom we haven’t heard so far this season). We heard Gayatri in Ragha Sudha Hall which has very good acoustics. There was not one jarring note. Her voice is a little (just a little) like MS. She does not over do the swaras and brings before you the Ragarupa early in her alapana. She sang Pakkala neela in karaharapriya that day, and touched a chord in all her listeners. She has no Godfather in the music world and our highly politicized sabhas may not accept her quickly. But her day will come—no one can stop her.
If you rate them on the popularity scale Sudha of course is tops. 50% of the audience come to see her; the others to hear her. She is of course beautiful and Pothys is making a lot of money on samudrika pattu (not paattu) only because of her. She started off with abhogi varnam on a rather weak note (varnams are like warm ups; they are meant to take the singer thro 2or 3 kalams in swaras and sahityam. So they have to be lively) but picked up later on She is MLVs disciple and it showed. (MLV & MS were contemporaries and even though MS was immensely popular, the fact is that MLV was strong in her fundas. Her voice could travel with ease in the higher octaves and her kalapramanam was extremely sound. MSS in comparison was pedestrian) Sudha has been at the top for quite some time now and I think complacency has set in. Uzhaichu paaduvadhillai (உழைச்சி பாடவில்லை). She will be soon overtaken by the likes of Gayatri Venkat.
Ranjani and Gayathri (the sister duo) have been around only for a couple of years but are already making waves. They combine well and complement each other. During raga alapanas when the elder one struggles to reach tara sthayi the younger one takes over seamlessly. Gayathri’s (I think she is the younger one) alapanas are always soothing to the ear. Their performance that day was well spaced out and was quite enjoyable. They are specialists in Abhang (marathi bhajans) and they bring a North Indian flavour, which, if truth be told, is nice to hear.
We missed out on Malladi Bros this season. We are keen on hearing Jayashree on the 26th at Music Academy . I hope to get daily tickets on that day. When we were in Mylapore, I remember my chittappa and I used to stand in the queue at Music Academy at 6am to get tickets for MS or Balamurali .Surprisingly even today the situation is the same. The other day I visited Music Academy to book tickets for then 26th.They said they don’t issue tickets in advance. Why ever not?

Hiatus

Sorry for the hiatus. I'll write about Swarna Rethus, Malladi Brothers, TNS Krishna soon. My office work, visitors from abroad for the music season and attending the concerts keeps me busy and away from writing.
I'll post for sure by Sunday - Decembe 28,08.

Incipient confidence#1 contd...

As promised to you all, I attended Toronto Brothers concert [Toronto Brothers (Vocal), Kandadevi Vijayaraghavan @ KV (Violin), Trivandrum Balaji @ TB (Mrudangam), H. Prasanna @ HP (Ghatam)] at Krishna Gana Sabha yesterday noon. I dragged couple of my friends along. One elder and the other much younger to me. My friends were very unhappy that AR announced the ragam, kriti, composer. But I thoroughly appreciate this practice. This helps the audience being informed. Just because a minimum percentage of the audience know these details doesn't mean that they will be offended if the performers announce. I again reiterate if the performers announce atleast some of the will not start discussing about the raga, kriti,composer et al.
AR started the concert with the hamsadhwani kriti raghunAyaka. The rendition was neat. No frills. They then sang a not commonly heard Muthuswami dikshithar's kriti krishnananda mukundha murare in the raga gowlipantu. A welcome change. Though the kriti was very verbose, the raga essence was clearly established in the rendition by AR. After this kriti they started an alapana which sounded like abohi to me first and then sriranjani. But AR didn't confuse me further by singing a kriti I had not heard. And they also announced it. They sang yegyAdhulu confirming its Jayamanohari. They sang some kalpanaswaras and also tried some mathematical combinations, am sorry I can't understand what they sang. But what I could make out was that they fumbled to land in the samum. I had written about listening to great singers and learning. Just learning won't suffice, you have to practice it to excellence. And practising should be done at home and not in a concert platform testing the perseverance of the audience. If its done by TRS, TNS, MBK audience will accept it because they have proved their mettle amongst us. Upcoming performers should abstain these tribulations. Even KV essayed the ragam the way AR sang.
My elder friend is a veteran of about 50 years listening experience. He has heard the transition from ARI to GNB to MBK to MLV to TNS alongwith the scores of great accompanying vidwans like Papa, TNK, LGJ, MSG, PMI, UKS, PR, VGR, TS, CSM (the list is exhaustive, mentioned here is only indicative). You know why am mentioning this here. He was very critical on this performance. He was of the opinion that these young performers should impress the audience with some popular kritis, ragas and get repeated audience. Once that comfort level and confidence is built in the audience the performers can start trying new things. My young friend who also learns vocal music for his satisfaction, also was of the opinion that just swara stanas doesn't make music. Readers of this post, pl. react to this.
Coming back to the concert - after yegyAdhulu they started purvi kalyani ragam and sang the immortal meenakshi mEmudham. Even in this AR tried some swara combo and fumbled. The subramania bharathiar's poem Asai mugam has been to set to tune in ragamalika by AR's guru Prof. SRJ and AR sang that. I don't have the capacity to comment on the tuning, can only say about the rendition. The rendition was neat. KV played a brilliant alapana. His bowing is very smooth and has lot of substance in his playing. Infact I mentioned to my elder friend that KV reminds me of Sri. V. V. Subramanyam whom I used to describe as the one whose playing has the sweetness of Sri.TNK and vidwath of Lalgudi. Keep practising and sustain the quality KV, all the best.
Prof. SRJ has done a lot of research on annamayya's (annamacharya) kritis and usually gives lectures, lecdems too. AR sang a kriti akati velana in the raga shubali which seems to be a half-sister (usually ragas are referred to as devathais hence sister) of subha pantuvarali. This was very soothing to the ears and also relaxing to the mind. Good rendition.
AR sang a not so commonly sung thillAnA of Ramanathapuram Srinivasa Iyer in the ragam thOdi. I used to always disturb Sanjay Subrahmanyam to sing this thillAnA and he often chides me for asking to sing this thillana and the ragam Ahiri often. Infact Sanjay's father once even commented that he had the feeling of starting the concert again after listening to a thillana in thodi as the penultimate item in a concert.This happened at Apparswamy koil during the navarathri concert series of 1988. There is nothing much for me to mention about AR's rendition of this thillana.
I forgot to mention about the thani. The ambient temperature played havoc on TB's mrudangam that day. TB kept on aligning the shruthi. I didn't see anyone as part of the organisers. The organisers should stay put someone who understands and operates the PA systems and also the electrical gadgets. The airconditioner should have been kept at a few temperatures higher than what it was. This would have helped the percussionists. Anyway these weren't deterrent factors on TB. He gave a very good support and also played a very impressive thani avarthanam alongwith HB.
My conclusion on this concert is - the accompanists of the day gave the necessary support for this concert to gave a sense of satisfaction to the audience. Infact the accompanists played their roles very effectively.

Incipient confidence#1

Under this heading I propose to write about the emerging good performers of Carnatic Music. The first in the series is on Toronto Brothers (AR) - Ashwin Iyer and Rohin Iyer. Honestly a perfect beginning for this series.

Toronto brothers with T. Hemamalini on the violin, Mudra Baskar on the Mrudangam & VVS Manian on the kanjira performed today from 4.30pm at the Narada Gana Sabha mini hall. I had to leave the concert by 5.10 pm to attend an important client’s call. But as the old Tamil adage goes ‘oru pAnai sotrukku, oru sOru padam - ஒரு பானை சோறுக்கு ஒரு சோறு பதம்’ today concert till I heard was good. Iyers showed a lot of promise.

The every aspect I want to highlight, though very sad to highlight, was their perfect shruthi alignment. There is a lot of debate happening in various forums on the shruthi aspect of leading, established vidwans, hence I write about it here. Probably AR’s exposure the music of the West imbibed in them the importance of shruthi. The every definition of music itself is shruthi alignment, uniformity, being in unison. I know its enough defining music, let’s discuss about the concert.

I strongly advocate the importance of shruthi alignment as the basic ingredient of any form of music across the world. I also decry people saying that the raga phrases are good, the swara patterns are exemplary blah blah when the singer's voice is not aligned with the shurthi instrument used in that concert. These adjectives are valid only if the shruthi is perfectly aligned. Else we can’t for sure confirm what swara the singer is singing. So those who are prejudiced about the importance or mention of shruthi, please revisit the very meaning of music. And please don’t say that its music to my ears and not yours. There can’t be 2 ways about this aspect.

AR started the concert, n the traditional format supposed to have been devised by Ariyakudi, with a varnam composed by their guru Prof. SRJ. Prof. SRJ needs no introduction, a treasure trove of classical music. What needs mention here is his translation of the knowledge to action through AR. He should have been a taskmaster with AR, if not with others. I wish he shows the same restraint towards all his disciples. I have an example where he has slipped or could be that disciple is beyond repair. Coming back to the concert.

AR sang Muthuswami dikshithar’s Natanarayani kriti Mahaganapathe with élan. The 3^rd kriti was the TakkA kriti rAgA sasivadhana of Thyagaraja. Though fragment shades of mAyAmaLavagowla was shown, the rendition was brisk. AR sang crisp kalpanaswarams for just 2 avarthanams and finished the kriti.

Hope you all would have noticed – today is Saturday. I struck me only after AR started the kriti. So what do you expect other than the brilliant (am not qualified to pass evaluation comments of MD’s kritis) yadhukula kAmbhoji navagraha kriti divAkara thanUjam.

Oh bad luck for me. My damn mobile set in vibration mode started fluttering. Yes I had to leave the hall in a hurry to take the call. I had to rush to my office to send some info to my client. Folks I’ll certainly attend to AR’s other concert, stay thru and write about it.

I wish Toronto Brothers maintain consistency in their performance and scale more heights. All the best AR, keep the good works going.

Carnatic Concert Pattern - The Ariyakudi Legacy

This anecdote was added by Sri. V. Aiyah in www.sangeethapriya.org forum
in topic 'The Ariyakudi Legacy.... some questions'

“During early days, the pattern of concerts was entirely different. Musicians were more concerned with the purity of music.
They will go on elaborating a Raaga for hours or indulge in Thaanam or Swara prasthara for longer duration. They were more concerned with “Nada” than “ Nadopasana’. They never bothered about Sahithya. This type of performance could be enjoyed only by those who had an intense knowledge of music and not by an average Rasika.
Sri Maha Vaidhyanatha Iyer (1844-1893) belonged to this earlier generation. He felt that some changes were necessary so that CM could be enjoyed by one and all. It looks as though it was he who conceived a new pattern in concerts which was a forerunner for today’s pattern. His contemporary artist, Sri Pattanam Subramania Iyer also contributed towards this change. This change enabled everybody to enjoy CM.
After this, further improvements and embellishments were made and the credit for this revolution goes to Sri. Ariyakudi. Thus, the present day pattern came into being. Ariyakudi marshalled the items as Varnam, Kirthanas, RTP, Raagamalika Slokas,Thukdas (Padam, Jaavali, Thillana Thirupugazh and so on)”

(Compiled from the book “Ariyakudi” by Elarvi)

V.Aiyah

Squalid Cognizance

Airtel Super Singer in Vijay TV - The biggest voice hunt of Tamilnadu (Thamizhagathin miga brimanda kural thEdal aka TMBKT- தமிழகத்தின் மிக பிரம்மாண்ட குரல் தேடல் aka தமிபிகுதே), at least that’s what the MC or DJ Chinmayi screams every time the camera focuses her, is one trash of a program to be aired by any Tamil channel. I can’t believe VijayTV can afford to deviate from the basic positioning of the program.

The kind of mockery happening on the screen is shameful to the competitive spirit of the participants.

One participant, I don’t want to name her and give her an undue publicity, from Round 1 has been passing thru to the next round by crying before the camera. Once that female cries the evaluators immediately start cajoling her and give her all the necessary confidence that they are with her all through. Initially I thought that the evaluators were trying to instill confidence in her to perform better in the other events but then it wasn’t, they selected her to the next round. The same strategy by that participant continued in the following rounds making her a successful contender. In any competition the participant’s performance on that given day matters irrespective of what they are capable of or achieved in the practice sessions. But in this program there seems to be no space for quality. Why should the evaluators empathise with the participants? Pepping them up is different from empathizing. I condemn this attitude of the panel or the organizers. If the panel is forced to act so then they should walk out. Every reality program of Vijay only has drama rather than focusing on bringing in the best talent to the limelight. No doubt the channel is being run as a business venture to make money. Let there be some social responsibility in it.

You all would have thought why I mentioned about positioning in the first paragraph. It is to highlight the dilution by the channel or producers of this program. Why should the often ridiculed angels in a Bharathiraja duet song come in a voice hunt program arena? Every time Chinmayi is shown in the screen she screams TMBKT (தமிபிகுதே). Probably Chinmayi is searching to get the voice attached to her throat, some new technique in the medical field, who knows. The most ridiculous statement was made by one of the evaluators Anuradha Sriram. She was commenting about one of the participant’s performance. Anu said that the participant has a very good voice but lacks stage performance skills. Come off it lady. The competition is to evaluate their singing skills, please remember the promise made in the initial promos (still seen in some MTC bus rear panels) – the selected candidate will get a chance to sing under Yuvan Shankar Raja’s music supervision for a movie. So why should one have stage presence? How many of us have seen the playback singers singing on stage till about 1995?

Why should the participants have other skills? Even if they are imperative for their career let them acquire after they get selected as a singer. By giving these idiotic suggestions the participants are being confused. For Pete’s sake don’t give these useless suggestions. Another comment by an evaluator to a guy – your energy level was good. What nonsense is this? If a singer is not fit enough to sing for 3 minutes, better not attempt. Starting from Naina Pillai to TM Krishna in the Carnatic arena and scores of light music singers have sung for well over 4 hours continuously. How can someone afford to compliment for singing for 3 minutes with high energy? I think the producers train the evaluators to say a set of words after the performances. Adjectives like good energy level, good attitude, style blah blah…. are developed as the Reality shows parlance or lingo or whatever crap you call it!!

The main point to note here is that most of the evaluators are under severe identity crisis – neither here nor there kind. They got carried away by the eulogies poured on them couple of years ago and never concentrated on improving their strengths. And now have missed the bus to success and glory. So are trying to get some publicity and visibility by being evaluators.

Please have a look at the Malayalam channels particularly Amritha and Asianet. The music based reality shows strictly adhere to the core objectives and definitions promised at the launch of the show. And they don’t take any partisan views and judgements on the performances. Tamil channels please grow. Television entertainment is stripping, screaming, crying, caressing, petting, etc in front of the camera – OMG even I’ve picked up the adjective culture from these channels.

In our country there are enough fine art forms and entertainment scopes to showcase to the public and make them healthy mentally and physically. Indians are in no compulsion to embrace the Western art forms for entertainment. We should take the Western art forms for comparative study and adapt the best practices which will suit our land. Not just ctrl-C+ctrl-V the concepts and programs from the West. Let me cite an example of adaptation. The movie magaLir mattum produced by Kamalahasan is based on the English movie 9 to 5 starring Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton. Kamal intelligently adapted the concept to suit the Tamil audience. Infact he brought it in a lot of nativity in the screenplay. Our channels producers should also involve in some original thinking.

These issues drive me to endorse the policing done by Dr. Ramadass of PMK. Am not an advocate for upholding our culture et al. But I can’t be a silent spectator of a denigration of principles in the media. The media houses can’t flout their own promise and take the viewers for a solid ride. The irony is that they are supposed to be monitoring the politicians and report to the service deficiency to the public. But the media houses themselves operate with vested interests. If I may say so, the frontline channels have all become sleazy. And I just don’t blame the channels for this deterioration of content quality and sleaziness. If the audience condemn it and abstain from watching, the channels will certainly have to change their schema.

War against terrorism – Indian grit

First let me place my deep condolences to Karkare, Sandeep & Gajendra’s family. Their sacrifice literally moved me to tears.

For a change NDTV aired a sensible unbiased, no-holds barred discussion moderated by Omkar Goswani. Arun Shourie and Suhel Seth participated.

The discussion was about the Intelligence System of India and the action being taken based on the reports published.

Suhel was very emotional and didn't minced words in expressing himself. Arun also didn't butter his words, was very forthright. The facts tabled by Arun where startling. The money spent on generating these reports is all washed down the gutter by the government machinery without realizing the fact that it also affects the people who wash it down the drain.

I was very impressed with Arun’s unbiased speech. He came out of his BJP coat and spoke as a true citizen of India. He was very much up to the point, didn’t digress; take political advantage of the situation for BJP. These traits are a rare among politicians. Shows his culture and education. Hats off Arun. Arun suggested that the white paper on any issue presented to the Govt. should be treated with utmost respect and implemented gradually. He wanted the pay commission to increase the salary structure for the armed forces rather the security personnel at large.

Suhel’s suggestion of making military service mandatory to the youth is a big welcome. He also wanted to have a Federal Intelligentsia to be above the politicians to combat these kind of situations. I would like to add situations like drought, floods and other socially relevant crisis also to be handled and decided by this – may I call it the Indian Federal Intelligentsia (IFI).

We shouldn’t let go this calamity unanswered by the men in power. As responsible citizens of the country we have to exercise our right to secured and healthy living. Pl. join force to move the boulder.

Once again from the bottom of my heart I pay my respects to Karkare, Sandeep, Gajendra and those who lost their life in this war against terrorism. My heartfelt condolences to the families of those who got killed.

Jai Hind

Cheap imitation – Uma Gold!!

I have some suggestions for the performers of this generation.

Get inspired by listening to great masters of earlier generation. Never attempt to clone them. This is a big problem with you all. Analyse the music of yesteryear vidwans’ music. They did what is best for their voice. They never tried to copy or clone others. They took the best from other vidwans and embraced it. More importantly, presented it in their own voice and style.

But unfortunately today’s performers try to even present in the voice of their mentor or motivator or whatever they call them. This is not good for the artform and the performers.

Trying to sing in your mentor’s or guru’s voice is suicidal. Know your strengths and weakness honestly and respect them. If your mentor or guru can sing a particular phrase or scale, it’s their capability. They would’ve achieved it out of practice over a period of time or nature would have been kind on them. If you want to achieve those virtues prepare yourselves for that. More importantly don’t try it on the stage and trouble the audience. It’s no mean task.

I have heard a lot of performers in their mid 30s trying to clone their mentors. I write about this practice here because I felt most of them, if they try to develop an individual style or avoid the glaring resemblance, can go farther. I can name a few here: 1. Sriram Gangadharan – bestowed with a phenomenal voice, very captivating and able to produce some breathtaking phrases. Good, comfortable reach of almost 2 octaves in the shruthi he is singing now. But has no originality. He imitates GNB. No doubt, the charisma of GNB is prevalent even after about 40 years of his death. But the charisma has not done any good to Sriram. Sanjay Subrahmanyam, also a great admirer of GNB, only takes GNB’s finer points and sings in his own voice, style respecting the limitations he has.

There are a set of singers in the TN Seshagopalan disciples clan. Kasturi Rangan is the only disciple performing now in Chennai. The others are more into teaching so we are spared. They all think of themselves as TNS. Forgetting the hardwork TNS would have put in his early days to achieve what he is today. Please do your homework well. Analyse his music, take the nuances and try to produce in a way it suits your voice. More importantly listen to other performers too. Your manodharma (creativity) will enrich only if you listen to other’s music without any prejudice. The more you listen the more ideas you get. If you are able to identify the mistakes of others and correct them in your performances, you are a clear winner.

Hold, this problem is not with the vocalists alone. Even instrumentalist do this mistake of trying to imitate their mentors.

I can hear you all ask - who the hell are you writing this nonsense. Am not a performer. Just a voracious listener. And have listened Balamuralikrishna, Mali, MLV, MDR, SSI, SKR, S. Ramanathan, TMT, TRS and the likes live (an indicative list not complete) for well over 30 years. I should thank Sanjay Subrahmanyam for introducing me to some good music. He used to take me to SKR’s concerts in his ‘vErabadran’ (a Bajaj M80 bike) to IIT Music Club, Kalakshethra as I was having only a bicycle then. Many thanks to you Sanjay, once again. Listening to these concerts definitely has honed by appreciation skills. I have consciously avoided getting into the grammar of ragas, thalams etc.

But I’m a strong advocate of basic imperatives of Carnatic Music like adherence to shruthi, maintaining the tempo, voice control etc. Most of the present day performers literally yell at times in the pretext of sanchAras in the higher octave. And our audience will immediately give a standing ovation for this circus. Audience - Please don’t do this, you are doing no good to the performers or the performance.

So present generation performers try to develop a style, pattern which suits your voice best, practice it to atleast near perfection. Then get on to the performing stage or aspire for performances. Please don’t be a cheap imitation of your mentor / guru. Be original.

vAzhga vaLamudan.

Ariyakudi Sri.T. Ramanuja Iyengar's 1st concert

This anecdote was shared by Sri. V. Aiyah in www.sangeethapriya.org forum.

DD program (audio) on Ariyakudi was quite interesting. (I couldn’t enjoy the video though I have Divx with codec)

In the program, there is a passing reference to Ariyakudi’s ever first concert.

Sri “Elarvi”, a prominent Tamil writer has penned a book in Tamil titled “Ariyakudi” (1956) in which he has elaborately dealt on his first concert. I desire to give here a synopsis of what he has written for the benefit of my fellow Rasikas:

“A.R.A.R.S.M. Somasundaram Chettiar was a prominent wealthy man of Devakottai. He had deep friendship with all the vidwans of the time. He had great respect for Thiruvenkatathienga r (Ariyakudi’s father) and Chettiar used to consult him for each and everything!

In 1912, he conducted a family marriage in Kandanur; he had invited all the vidwans for the same and every one of them turned to attend the function. There were concerts and cultural programs galore. One day, there was a concert by the great Konerirajapuram Vaidyanathier accompanied by Thirukodikaval Krishna Iyer on the violin, Kumbakonam Azhaganambi Pillai on Mridungam, Puthukottai Dakhinamoorthy on Kanjira and Umaiyalpuram Sundaramier on Ghatam. The concert lasted nearly for four hours and the big crowd that had gathered there listened throughout with rapt attention.

In the meantime, Chettiar entertained a desire to arrange a maiden concert of the young “Ramanujam” then and there. He expressed his desire to Thiruvenkatathiengar. Sri Iyenger agreed for the proposal, but, told him to obtain permission from his son’s Guru, Poochi Srinivasa Iyengar. Chettiar then approached Sri Poochi Iyenger who readily agreed and calling Ramanujam, asked him to proceed to the platform Ramanujam was, however, hesitant seeing the big “Jambhavans” assembled there and also the rasikas. Sri Poochi, however, told him not get nervous and proceed.

The next poser for Chettiar was to arrange the accompanists. The group which accompanied Koonerirajapuram were all top ranking artists and further, they should have become tired after performing for nearly four hours. However, the news that Ramanujam would be performing for the first time on the dais reached the ears of these artists. They informed Chettiar that they would gladly play for Ramanujam.
Ramanujam prostrated before his Guru and father and proceeded to the dais quite nervously. He became more nervous as he neared the platform and saw the artists sitting there ready to accompany him. He touched the platform and stoked his eyes, climbed on it with nervousness still lingering and sat on the farthermost side of it.
Seeing his plight, Thirukodikaval Krishna Iyer clasped his hands and pulled him to the front saying “come forward” (Munnukku Vaa!)

Was it an order or blessing, for. thereafter Ramanujam was only on the forward march with success after success!

Young Ramanujam started the concert with the ‘Kriti’ “Vedalunu Kothandapani” in :”Thodi” and no doubt that his maiden performance was a grand success!

V.Aiyah

TNS at Carnatica on Oct 31, 08

As mentioned in the previous post, having 2 good vidwans' cutcheri on the same day is a bad idea. Both of them being heavy singers (I mean the content delivery) on their day, will be a bit of over dose to the listener like me.

Sanjay finished his concert by 7.13pm. It’s good to see he has a good fan following. It was evident when almost 50% of the audience left the hall soon after the concert got over. Thanks to Ramanathan Iyer for calling the audience in the balcony to occupy the seats in the ground floor just before the Sanjay’s concert started. This atleast made the ground floor look occupied. Now the audience strength in the ground floor is just around 200.

TNS started the concert by 7.30pm with sarasi ruhAsana priyE. (TNS sang all 'Devi' kritis, that day being Friday could have been the reason) Followed by an alapana which started off like sri, went to nAyaki, madhyamAvathi and atlast settled in sri. I suggest the artistes announce the raga names like they do in AIR. This is to stop the audience flutter. Like Sanjay, TNS also took too long to finish the alapana. I found a lot of people in the audience becoming restless. The brilliant MuthuswAmi dIkshithar kriti Sri Varalakshmi followed the raga alapana. Sorry I missed out Chandru.

Chandru was his self as usual. He drives across a strong message that TNS is one of his preferred musicians today. Chandru thoroughly enjoys playing for TNS which I have noticed in almost all the concerts they were on stage. My opinion Chandru leads the small list of violinists of today capable of accompanying TNS. What I mean by this is that - capable of understanding what TNS is singing and reproducing it immediately. There are violinists who certainly play as good as Chandru and the likes but when it comes to be an accompanist one should have an extra skill which is lacking in most of them today. This is applicable to all the accompanists today. Chandru's essayed Sri ragam well. TNS completed the kriti without singing kalpanaswarams.

People started moving towards the exit doors. Yes its 8pm now. The artistes will but our audience will never let us down. When the clock strikes 8pm they all will start for their home. Please don’t blame them. They would have been advised by their physicians to take the medicines and food in time. So it’s the responsibility of the organizers to respect this happening. And plan the concerts accordingly. Have this is mind to the end of this post!!!

TNS started hamsAnandhi raga after Sri. He phrased, sang, elaborated, essayed – hey am running short of words and he is not stopping it. OMG he is still not finished the raga AlapanA. Abba atlast he turned to his left and saw Chandru, lighting struck and woke him up to remind that he has to give Chandru a chance to play. Chandru as usual played a neat hamsAnandhi raga giving kriti suggestive phrases. Alas again the often beaten pAhi jagaj janani of Swathi Thirunal. The lesson for me is – don’t listen to too many TNS concerts. No doubt a good kriti, TNS renders it well. But law of marginal diminishing utility prevails here. After a combat with his accompanists, TNS sang ShyamA sAstri’s brova vammA in mAnji immediately. A short, sweet mAnji made us yearn for more. This is what one should do to pull the audience back.

A surprise sprung up in santhAna manjari of MD. This was also a welcome piece in between long, chowka kala kritis (slow paced songs).

Hey there are only around 100 people in the audience and its 9.10pm. I was actually expecting Mannargudi Easwaran to start the thani Avardhanam. Yes till now I didn’t mention about MAE. You know why? He was in perfect sync with TNS and elevated the mood of the listener. MAE never made me grimace by making unwanted noise in between the kritis or raga Alapana.

I wanted to mention a habit which I condemn – most of the mrudangists will start aligning the shruthi when the violinists start playing the raga alapana or at times even when the vocalist is singing the alapana. It’s 1. Disrespect to the artistes 2. Bad on stage manners / etiquette. if they don’t have a respect for that artiste better not accept the concert rather than bully others.

Sorry for digressing. As this is not a review and my experiences, I take this liberty of straying.

Ok, the time is still 9.10pm as I had put the stop clock on hold. TNS zapped me by starting khAmbhoji raga Alapana. I always had a grouse with TNS. Of the 150 odd concerts of TNS I have listened to, I have heard khAmbhoji only in 3 concerts. Hence I said zapped. The way TNS started the raga delineation was just brilliant. TNS showed a different face of khAmbhoji to me. I was looking for the popularly known features but they were conspicuously avoided. I was expecting TNS to complete the rAga Alapana in about 10 minutes. To mine and audience’s dismay TNS didn’t. When TNS finished his Alapana its was near 9.30 with about 50 people fragmentally present in the hall. OMG what is Chandru doing there? Suddenly folk music was flowing in the hall. Yes Chandru started playing some lok sangeeth!!!!! Atlast TNS started a not so popular syAma sAstri kriti devi sri in a chowka kAlam. I looked at the clock, it’s 9.40pm and my stomach started pinching me. But my stupid principle didn’t allow me to leave the hall. Sorry I can’t say anything more, and already dying of hunger. Suddenly a sabash from TNS woke me up, when MAE started the thani avarthanam.

After MAE I heard kanjira sound. Yes Sundarakumar was sitting behind, how come I didn’t notice him rather hear him. By the time the thani avardhanam was over it was 10.10 and TNS started something like ‘sharade’, I’m deafened due to hunger. Broke my principle and left the hall towards the Woodlands eatout in the car park of Narada Gana Sabha. Yes this concert was held at NGS. I was with my friend Mr. Raghavan. Both of us were given a dosai with sAmbhar. No chutney or any other side dish. We ordered for one more dosa and a cup of coffee. Sorry am very sleepy. Catch you later after rejuvenating with some fresh air and music.

Preamble

Carnatica's Bharat Sangeeth Utsav is a perfect preamble to the yearly tamasha that will happen in Chennai during December and spill over till the 1st week of January. As a shrewd businessman Sashikiran started the concert series even before The Hindu's Music Festival. Though Hindu's Festival, born out of the identity crisis the media moghul (if I can call them one) is running under now, doesn't serve a wee-bit to the art form, manages to fill the wallets of the performers. More a fad for the Page3 community flaunting around the arena.

Coming back to Sashikiran & Co., the intention of the music festival and the way the programs are woven seem to drive across a strong message of commitment. But over ambitious thoughts digresses the value of the performers. Take a look at the inaugural day (October 31, 08) schedule - 2 concerts of eminent artistes: Sanjay and TNS. Both of them are as ambitious or even more than Sashikiran in performing on the stage. Innovation is the way they drive their performances. Having this in mind Sashi's team should have planned the schedule of concerts.

On October 31st Sanjay's was the first program and he kick started the BSU in style with the time tested Viriboni varnam. But Sanjay made everyone sit up in the 30th second. He sang Viriboni in a totally different style. Rasikas could have appreciated it more if he had explained what he did differently. I for one feel that in programs like these, the artistes can give a brief of what they are performing for the rasikas to understand and appreciate better. Sanjay ofcourse told the audience the name of the raga he elaborated, its gAngEya bhUshaNi. Don't get paranoid, am not reviewing the concert as in the newspapers. Am only going to share my thoughts on the concert, the ambiance, what i liked and disliked.

I expected Sanjay to briefly say about Viriboni only because he announced gangEya bhUshaNi after singing the alapana.

I personally liked the choice of kritis Sanjay sang in this concert. My only concern is the time he took for the raga alapana. And the sanchAras he made in gAngEyabhUshaNi. Some sancharas would have been technically correct meaning confirmed to the raga's arOhaNam & avarOhaNam but they weren't aesthetically appealing. Atleast those sanchAras lacked finesse in Sanjay's voice. Sanjay is a very brilliant, smart individual. Knows his strengths and weakness. For me he comes across as a head-above-shoulders guy. Based on these qualities of Sanjay I wish to suggest that he also listens to his own concerts and as a rasika evaluate it and avoid the burs in the future performances. It'll not only enhance the rasikas turnaround, will also enable him to be in the arena for long. The artistes in the pre-1975 era didn't sing certain ragas elaborately only because those ragas lacked the scope and finesse. Just in the name of innovation and the capability to mathematically arrange the arOhaNa & avarOhaNa swaras one can't produce pleasant music. The produced sound may be technically correct but definitely not tolerable to my ears at least. I enjoy raga alapana more than the kriti but not all ragas are enjoyable in long alapanais. The Thamizh adage 'even nectar is poisonous if taken more than the prescribed portion' is also applicable for raga singing too. And my opinion why yesteryear artistes didn't sing elaborate raga alapana for certain ragas is that

1. There is no scope for singing without any repititions
2. After a some time the alapana will start boring you.
3. The performer may not know where to stop ending up confusing himself

Sanjay, I felt, did that in Sahana alapana.

But the indisputable fact is that Sanjay works very hard with utmost commitment towards his chosen profession. This one attitude I find missing in most of the front runners today. And am puzzled at it too!!

I also want to mention about the accompanists of the day.
Varadarajan on the violin has emerged as the best violinist in that age & experience group. His virtuosity is amazing as much as his skills in reproducing the swara patterns, neravals, raga sanchAras. Keep the good work going.
Harikumar on the mrudangam. Though he showed signs of knowing about the different patterns Sanjay had planned to sing in Viriboni, didn't pick them up in the 1st instance. He managed slowly and played well. But to me he dint fit the bill perfectly. At places he was more a hindrance to the listener, I don't know what Sanjay felt, than a support system. I would have preferred to listen to Sanjay without the mrudangam at some sancharas. I have heard many say that silence is music. I wish the accompanists of this and future generation learn music and practice silence where required. It actually embellishes the concert. In one of his speeches on Layam, late Palghat Mani Iyer has said that its not important to know too many sollus and ragas. Its very important to sing / play atleast 2-3 of them excellently.
Guruprasad on the Ghatam. I have heard his father and father's elder brother play. His father used to accompany MLV a lot. I can hear you all say why am talking about his father. Am coming to that point now! Guruprasad is showing promise in developing himself as the new age upa-pakkavadhya artiste. He has a good fingering technique, as a listener am able to hear the sollus distinctly which I consider as good fingering in mrudangam and other instruments. He also showed his dexterity and played some mathematical combinations which drew the attention of Sanjay and made Sanjay nod his head more than couple of times. As a lay listener am not worried about the mathematics or grammar. My only expectation is that the playing should be pleasant to hear. And Guruprasad just did that.

My thoughts on TNS concert will be up soon.