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?