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.