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Triplicane used to be an abode of illuminati and glitterati till about the late 1980s. Fine arts thrived here like nowhere during their time. I remember all the artistes performing their best at the Sri Parthasarathy Temple, ThiruvettIswarar Temple, Vasantha Bungalow, The Hindu High School, Kala Mandapam etc. Today Triplicane is a haven for bachelors, with roads and streets buried under 2-wheelers, cars, muck, - simply with all nonsense possible.
Ok what has that got with the title of this post. I'll come to it now. Last year a group of people organised series of concerts during the last week of December. The concerts were held inside the Sri Parthasarathy Temple Tank. This year again they are repeating this event.
Today I got back home early. During my usual routine of gazing the tank and temple from my home terrace I saw 3 kids clad in festive mood getting on to the stage. The weather slightly chill for Chennai with water all around, the tallest, presumably the eldest sat in the centre of the stage. Took a veena and placed it on her lap. To her right another kid, younger than the 1st one, sat behind a mrudangam. Both these kids where in blue pattu (silk) pAvAdai (full shirt or modern day midi) and green shirt. The one opposite the left of the centrally placed kid was on a maroon kurta and white pyjama.
For the next 1 hour I saw carnatic music safely, securely and happily enjoying her sojourn in the hands of Anjani the eldest of the lot. My good friend Sridharan once told me that he listened to the sisters, yes Anjani and Aswini are sisters. and Aswini is accompanying Anjani on the mrudangam. He very strongly insisted that listen I to Anjani. I ofcourse did watch her perform for PudhuPunal in DD podhigai some time ago and immediately called Sridharan and ridiculed at him for the recommendation. Am awfully sorry Sridharan, you made me lick the dust rather Anjani did by her performance this evening from 5 to 6 at the Parthasarathy Temple Tank.Watch her videoThe young angel literally transcends belief, atleast my beliefs. She should be all of 12 or 13 and understanding the veena at this age should be by ordain only. The way she handled the instrument, the graceful traverse of her fingers over the frets, the delicate handling of the gamakas just belittled me. She played gAnamUrthE, anurAgamulE which are or can be classified as authentic classical compositions with such elan which made me trash Rajesh Vaidya who played after her.
Ofcourse there was another 1 hour concert between Anjani's and Rajesh's. But fortunately for me nothing went inside my ears after Anjani's music. Anjani didn't maul or malign the identity of veena in contrast to what Rajesh Vaidya usually does. Every Indian musical instrument like Indian spice has an unique identity. And its the duty of the performer to keep it intact. Anyway let me write about this later as a separate post.
What impressed me is the sincerity of Anjani. There were only about 20 people of which atleast 5-7 would have the family members of the performers. But the slender audience didn't deter Anjani from giving her best.
It's almost half a decade I heard someone sing or perform anurAgamulE. Though there are few kritis in this raga saraswathi only a couple reside in me. The 1st time I heard this classic was some 30 years back at Srinivasa Sastri Hall, Madras. It was by Dr.MBK for Nadopasana with MSG and UKS. And I was prejudiced for long, till I heard TMT in 1980s at the same venue with TSV and CSM. I should also admit that I have not been attending live concerts over the last 3-4 years.
It's been long say about 15 years we had a good vainika emerge. There is one Sivakumar in AIR Trichy, who unfortunately had to settle for a government job and disappear from the Chennai concert scene. I've a few friends who are all great admirers of veena music and I can assure them that we have good scope of listening to some real veena music from the hands of Anjani. This young girl if continues to maintain her adherence to quality music and doesn't subvert will be the next E.Gayathri and Jayanthi Kumaresh.
I've to mention about the kid Aswini on the mrudangam. She is a disciple of Sri.T.K. Murthy. Thanks to Sri. T.K. Murthy. Aswini's fingering technique, playing style are still unadultered. And I wish she develops on the foundation laid by Sri. TKM and continues to accompany some of the best artistes who may germinate or have germinated somewhere in the world. Aswini is confidence and artistry personified. And the guy on the ghatam (awfully sorry I forgot to look at the name on the billboard) also proved his mettle. Am sorry. will look tomorrow and post.
Just back from Vidya Raghavan's (VR she shares the abbreviation with a brilliant musician Vellore Ramabhadran) concert. I did not notice this series of concerts organised by Cleveland Aradhana Committee. This morning I got a call from an old time friend saying her daughter is singing at Arkay Hall and wanted me to listen to her.
As usual I entered at the end of the 1st song, my layam should be perfect if I had to comment on others isn't it!!
The 2nd item of the day was sAvEri. VR started the alapana. In about a minute the small electronic box placed on the dias reminded her its existence. yes she derailed from the shruthi track. VR has good taste for music no doubt. She has good ideas also. But what she lacks is the commitment to deliver the best. Intention doesn't matter only action matters. VR showed signs of frustration when she failed to sing the phrases her mind wanted. If the idea transformation doesnt happen the way we want, no point in getting frustrated, what is required is introspection. VR should listen to the recording of her today's concert and analyse dispassionately. She sang the shyama sastri grand classic sankari sanguru. about this kriti - this has been rendered with utmost care, finesse, embellishments by some of the great masters of yesteryears. So I can't stop recalling them from my memory bank. And when I recall them most of the other renditions not just fall flat but drop to abysmal depths. (I'll start a thread on GC soon calling some experts in our group also to participate. The call will be over email only, be prepared!!) The tempo, structure are of very high order in this kriti. Actually VR if practices for more hours will deliver much better music than what she did today. She fumbled while singing the neraval & swaras for this kriti.
I would like mention a few words about neraval singing. Infact in my previous post I had mentioned about PSP's accompaniment in Musiri's neraval at v vaishnavi in the thOdi kriti amba nAdhu. This neraval is one of the finest I've heard. In Madurai Somu's concert with Lalgudi, Murugabhoopathy, Viswanatha Sharma & M.Swaminathan at Tiruvayyaru on 19/1/1968 he has sung neraval at vEda sAstra purAna in the panthurvaraLi krit ninnE nEra nammi. I can list atleast 500 such phrases. Coming to neraval singing, its just about elaborating a phrases, am quoting Smr. Suguna Varadhachari's lecdem at Music Academy on dec25, 2010 "in neraval singing for kritis the talam has to be followed as much as the ragam whereas in neraval for RTP we need not follow the talam - meaning the position of the talam and the syllable should be in the same position in kriti neraval for RTP it's not required to be followed". So the bottomline is - the performer has to listen a lot, imbibe the various aspects of the raga, tala, meaning for the phrase elaborated etc. And should practice hard enough to achieve this status. And this will take time and it could be a minimum of 10 odd years, ofcourse prodigies are exemption.
My suggestion to the young performers is to do honest homework of neraval before trying it on stage. They can try some raga phrases, swara singing but if they derail while singing neraval it shows their total lack of understanding.
VR after sAvEri sang kalyani ragam and pankaja lOchana immortalised by SSI. Though his version may not convince the purists he created a magic to satisfy the listener. VR lost control of the shruthi very often which is not commonly seen in performers from US or Europe. Why I say so? Because shruthi alignment is prerequisite in Western classical music and those who are exposed to that form of music will definitely adhere to it. I was told by some members for the Cleveland committee that VR used to be a top performer when she was in the US. Should the lapses be due to her stay in Chennai, has it rubbed off on her like the other habits - traffic violation, unhygienic habits throwing filth all around.
VR you have a good voice which is not too high on the pitch so try to concentrate on it, practice well and then get on to the stage. You will definitely go a long way.
On December 23, 10 I got caught in the wrong foot. A friend of mine used the rain cheque I had given her. She took me to Malladi Brothers at Brahma Gana Sabha. Don't worry, am not writing about this concert. I was around the venue by 3 pm and the Malladi concert is by 4.30pm. Instead of wasting my petrol, I went to the BGS hall.
The notice board said Akkarai Sisters (AS), Usha Rajagopalan, Poongulam Subramaniam, Sree Sundar Kumar. So I thought its a violin trio, dont ridicule at my guess. Usha had earlier paired with Meera sivaramakrishnan and performed violin duo concerts so thought this could be a new venture. I heard Akkarai Subbulakshmi accompany Munda Sudharani a week back at the same venue. I was very impressed with Akkarai's performance. So didnt hesitate a moment, just walked inside the hall. Luck was not in my favour. Akkarai sisters were singing. Its my mistake, should have read the notice board properly. Anyway as I had taken the mission of reporting on the nexgen performers, sat at the corner close to the canteen!!
When I went in Poongulam and Sreesundar were fighting with each other for the top position of the day. As soon as the fight was over, (I realised that they were complementing the finish of a song, yes they finished the song!!) Akkarai Subbulakshmi started sahAna raga, tried some twists & turns, glides & slides, pits & falls what not. I should thank my senses for identifying the raga correctly. They sang EmAninnE. They tried some neraval which turned out to be varuval (chips) meaning dry, stale, bland.
Subbulakshmi announced that the next composition is by their grand father Suchindram Sivasubramaniam. The composition is set to the ghana raga panchakam (nAttai, gowLa, Arabhi, varALi & Sri) on Lord Muruga.
I am reminded of Sri. S. Balachandar, During my YACM days, if am right in 1989 or 90, we had a 3 lecdem by Sri.SB on appreciating classical music. Typical of SB, he insisted that the last 1 hour of day 3 should be a Q&A session. The 1st question came from none other than our Lalgudi. The question was 'Why havent you composed any songs?". The answer SB gave was "I have not yet learned, practiced, played all the compositions of pre & post Trinity. Am not ordained to be a composer, more importantly I dont see an imperative need for new compositions". Just that this came to my mind, wanted to share with you all.... ;)
Coming back to the ghana raga panchakam sung by AS, the composition neither had lyrical value nor musical value. Probably the way AS sang did not reflect any of these qualities, I may be wrong. But as an average listener when I go to a new performer I expect them to sing popular kritis and exhibit their talent, understanding of the artform, etc. So when the performer sings or plays a not so popular kriti or raga its very difficult for me to absorb the music. I may be wrong in the approach but that's me - the average listener.
Anyway now lets get into the concert. But unfortunately my attention kept drifting away that day the same way its happening here when I want to write about it. AS senior started thOdi raga. Pyrotechnics doesn't work well in carnatic music. It should be used occasionally. Subbulakshmi may even prove what see sang was technically perfect thOdi. But unfortunately it lacked what it should have - music. Music is not all about permutations, combinations, arithmetic, algebra, physics. Its about aesthetics, finesse, nuances, subtleties, emotions. Remember shouting is not a musical emotion. The problem is that lot of carnatic music instrumental performers fall into this quicksand. Just because one duo, Ranjani & Gayathri, is scaling heights shifting from violin to vocal its not a rule of thumb that those who want to be a popular vocalist should first start off as a violinist and then jump vocal. What disturbs me that if AS takes up vocal or rather ditches violin, its certainly a big loss for the carnatic music. Yes I mean it. Particularly Subbulakshmi is a phenomenally talented, gifted, skilled violin musician. But she fell to abysmal depth as a vocal performer. The reason - she tried to produce all her violin ideas through her vocal chords. But her vocal chords are not tamed well enough like her left fingers and right hand. Her hands obey her like the police dog. Subbulakshmi may have or has brilliant musical ideas, unless they are executed and exhibited properly the value can't be priceless.
Pl. recollect what I wrote about RK yesterday. I had mentioned that RK has a sense of proportion and also aesthetics. As a vocalist AS lacked the sense of proportion in trying the various gamakas, brihAs, jArus etc. Let it not be like the famous Tamil adage which goes like this 'the cat with a hot rod stripped its body thinking the tiger got its strength from those stripes'.
This feedback is for AS to take cognizance, view this dispassionately and have a self evaluation.
Here again am forced to mention about the accompanists. During Usha's thOdi raga alapana the power played havoc. After a few cuts, Usha didnt stop and played a good alapana. Usha gave a brilliant support to AS. But Poongulam was showing his seniority from the moment I entered the hall. Pl. listen to the mrudangam accompaniment of Pazhani for Musiri's amba nAthu in the Music Academy concert which is available as a commercial album. You all will understand what I mean by good accompaniment.
Sorry if I had disappointed many of you, am helpless. I cant cheat myself.
Ramakrishnamurthy's concert heard on Dec 21,10, let me call him RK. I know most of you would condemn me for the abbreviation, as RK refers to the legendary Ramnad Krishnan. Yes I intentionally call Ramakrishnamurthy as RK, reason being I wish he evolves as the newgen RK. Believe me RK shows a lot of promise.
For a youngster raised in California State USA what is expected doesn't show up and what showed up was not expected, atleast by me. He has had training in Carnatic music from many good teachers and now is under the guidance of Chingleput Sri. Ranganathan. I know you will wondering why I've mentioned training instead of learning. I strongly believe that RK has music genetically coded in him. I wish to stand by this statement. So RK would have been guided by his teachers like what Tiger Varadhachariar was supposed to had done to his disciples. RK has an immense crave for aesthetics.
Though he was incapacitated due to a bad throat, he never showed signs of compromise. Infact I had marked in my notepad a sruthi misalignment in the kEdAra classic rAmA nEpai which he sang as the 1st song of the concert. But then I realised his natural constrain. He could have canceled the concert if the situation was bad. But he spared us. He then ventured into a short crisp delineation of Anandha bhairavi, and started the Syama Sastri crafted Rolls Royce himAchala tanayubrO. My all time favourite rendition of this kriti is by Dr. S. Ramanathan and usually lend a deaf ear to other artistes. But RK slowly creeped inside my ear and settled in my thoughts. Here he showed signs of a fine amalgam of his training under Chingleput with his native grip over layam. The tempo is a very critical component in this genre of kritis, yes they are a separate genre.
What took me by surprise is the next song of the evening - emperor of the genre soundararAjam in brindavana sAranga. This kriti is on the lord of the temple at the shore town Nagapattinam in Tamilnadu. There are a lot of legends associated to this town in all the ramayana perspectives. I had been to this town and like Muthuswami Dikshithar have ogled at the temple structure. But unfortunately am not adept in any of his skills and talent to compose a kriti of this grandeur. But this town and the temple will inspire to sing. Visualise this kriti, you can see the waves gently caress the shore and roll back. My friend (yes the same person who was beside me during SS's concert) who knows my weakness for this kriti looked at me sitting 2 rows before and mimed to the effect 'unfair'. He did this because he knows that this one kriti if rendered well or to my satisfaction will get the artiste above 75% from me. I've DKP, TNS, TMT, SKR's version of this kriti. I have listed only those I like. Don't worry am not going to say that RK rendered it like one of them or better. Honestly RK's perfect layam accorded the kriti with perfect respect. I always have a strong conviction that rendering this kriti is no mean task. Particularly youngsters attempting this kriti should be encouraged provided they adhere to the pAdAntharam(the way in which it was taught). Why I say this? Its because rendering this kriti involves a phenomenal understanding of the composer, the mood he would have been while composing (its sort of evident in most of Dikshithar's kritis) and more importantly a perfect sustained tempo. RK did everything gracefully.
He sang a truly brilliant thOdi ragam. He sang dAsu kOvalEna. No adjectives for the kriti he rendered. You know why, just saying its a Thyagaraja kriti in thOdi suffices. No other composer has handled this rAga like Thyagaraja. My opinion if Thyaragaja has not composed in thOdi singers would have not attempted it at all. Musicologist in our group please throw some light on this. RK's neraval in this kriti should be mentioned specially here. I've mentioned many times about his layam. So am not saying about that but I've to mention something to justify my remark at the beginning - aesthetics. What to me is aesthetic singing? always having his/her weakness at the back of the mind and rendering with a sense of proportion. RK did exactly what I expected. His neraval was elaborate but not draggy. His swara singing was not just arithmetic combination of notes but very musical. So the bottom line is listen to RK on
27-Dec-2010-1:30:00 PM at The Mylapore Fine Arts Club.
Hold on I promised not to write about the accompanists as they are elders. M A Krishnaswamy made me break my vow. I've seen him being very lackadaisical at times but not accepted when accompanying juniors. Seniors should live up to the responsibility. Expected to hand hold but in the contrary MAK just went haywire, played just the scale not the thOdi rAga. I expected a better brindavana sAranga from the Parur cub. A very disappointing performance by MAK.
Pl. bear with my grammatical and other errors, am half asleep now!!
Am continuing in this thread after almost 2 years.
Couple of my friends and our members asked me to write about my views on some of the concerts in the afternoon slots I listen to during this year's Chennai Music Season. I try to write my opinion with all fairness, without any prejudices, biases, likes and dislikes. Am not academically or practically qualified enough to write about the technical prowess, capabilities of the performers. But I am banking on my listening experience to write what I felt honestly over the last 3 decades. Today when I look at the mirror and ridicule at myself for listening to some performers during the 1980s and 1990s, what comes to my rescue is the fact is that mistake is not on the performers or me. Infact am showing signs of maturity. What appealed to me then fails to even get inside my ears since 2000. My opinion is that we need performers who can bring in new listeners and admirers to our art form. For doing this service those performers who are all branded as light classical or semi classical performers should applauded and even gratified. Because the artform is far superior than the artistes and the artistes come and go but the artform has stayed and should stay for long. I think the introduction is enough.
Now let me come to subject line. The number mentioned is not the ranking of the performance but a simple count of recommendations, so the readers are expected to make their own judgment. and my views mentioned here are based on the performance I heard on the date mentioned and doesn't certify the performer in general. Am not going to mention any salutations for the performers. This is not because I don't respect them but laziness in typing and also they are all much younger to me by age. So don't take offense.
Performer to watch this year - Sriranjani Santhanagopalan (SS)
She performed at Narada Gana Sabha Mini Hall on December 19, 2010 between 4-6 pm with senior accompanists - Padma Shankar on violin, Melacauvery Balaji on Mrudangam and E M Subramaniam on Ghatam. Am not going to mention about the accompanists in this post as they are all seniors and am not reviewing the concert, just writing about the young performer. This concert is the 1st in a series of concerts organised by Charsur Arts Foundation (CAF), a division of Charsur Digital Workstation (CDW). Am not digressing but have to mention about CDW. I know Char(ulatha) and Sur(esh) from day one of their operations. I'm amazed at their business conviction. When producing commercial devotional music albums was at its peak in the last 90s Charsur embarked on a very committed journey of producing only carnatic music albums. Today they are a very successful label with a lot of top selling albums to their credit. As a carnatic music listening community we have responsibility of supporting their noble movement (if we think that carnatic music is divine and noble). Charsur's passion for carnatic music is very evident in their various acts. They seem to reinvest the money they earn thru carnatic music into propagating carnatic music. The way CAF is conceived and being executed is testimony to their committed and passion towards carnatic music. CAF is the banner under which they organise concerts of young performers and make the recording available for an affordable price in their online store. Let us patronise this noble cause by buying these albums from http://www.charsur.com/charsur/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=27.
Now coming to SS's performance. In one line I should say she shows a lot of promise of being the star performer of the nexgen.
Sriranjani is the daughter and disciple of Neyveli Sri.Santhanagopalan. Thanks to Sri.Santhanagopalan for his good music appetite, listening and tutelage under Maharajapuram Sri.Santhanam and Madurai Sri. T. N. Seshagopalan. He has passed it on to SS. BTW am not going to list the songs she sang etc. SS started with an invocation on Kanchi Paramacharya and sang the classical nAttakurunji varnam chalamEla. SS produced the expected gait in the rendition, as this varnam is a composition of a nattuvanar meant for dance, there are a lot of gliding phrases. She then sang a quick Gowrimanohari alapana which initially sounded like Narayanagowla to me. She sang Gurulekha etuvanti well and the neraval and kalpana swaras were layam laden sans arithmetic equations. She made me reminisce her father's singing in the 1980s & 1990s. After the brisk Gurulekha she sang Ivan yAro by Kavi Kunjara Bharathi in the tempo her paramaguru Sri.TNS used to sing long ago. I've heard this song rendered by Ramanathapuram Sri. C.S.Sankarasivam (thanks to Sri.Rajan Padaiachi for giving me this recording). Sri.CSS is the guru of Sri.TNS. Though Sri.TNS's version of this khambhoji song is different from Sri.CSS I enjoy Sri.TNS's version. SS has a good grip of layam and she maintains the tempo subconsciously - meaning its in her internal system.
She showed signs of enjoying her own singing and am reminded of Sri.S.Balachandar saying during one of YACM's lecdem - a true artiste should first enjoy and be satisfied with their production and if that happens the audience will certainly enjoy. This is very true as I have enjoyed the music of Mali, Karukuruchi, Balachander, SKR, MDR, Ravikiran - i believe these artistes first performed for themselves which enthralled the audience automatically.
SS sang a brilliant Shanmughapriya raga alapana. Believe me she showed traces of MLV in her singing may be influenced by MLV or a coincidence. I should say even Manda (as she is discussion now). SS produced some aesthetic phrases of Shanmugapriya. There are very few kritis in Shanmugapriya and it was mainly used in RTPs by stalwarts of yesteryears. This raga is being referred to as the forte of nadaswara vidwans and Thiruvengadu Subramanian Pillai in particular was accorded a special status by even TNR for his shanmugapriya. SS did make some mistakes while singing some phrases and am happy about this. A singer in the mid 20s singing shanmugapriya as taught by the teacher is not something great. Whereas a singer of this age tries something new, different on stage then it should be encouraged. But the singer should reach a stage where he/she understands their limitations and settles at a comfortable place (both to them and the listener) and perform accordingly. Keep it up SS. She also seamlessly performed gruhabedham in the alapana. What irked me is the choice of kriti after such a brilliant raga alapana. Though there are few kritis in this raga the one by Thygaraja and Patnam Subramania Iyer are grand classics. She sang a song of Thanjavur Sankara Iyer 'pAmAlai chUdiyE'. The song not just fell flat but dropped the whole concert to abysmal depths. SS started a short kannadA sketch and sang the dikshithar kriti pAlayamAm pArvatIsa which I have not heard over the last 25 years in Chennai concert platforms. Fortunately by singing this beautiful kritis, slowly and steadily, she not only surfaced from the pit after the disastrous shanmughapriya song also lifted me from depression.
Then came one of my live wires - kEdAragowla ragam. The sweet little girl sang a spirited alApAna understanding the nuances of this raga. She effortlessly avoided the mistakes most singers do - showing us traces of yadukulakhAmboji in kEdAragowla. My friend who is a very difficult person to impress as he expects the composers to sing for us and a great fan on Alathur Srinivasa Iyer wrote in my notepad - saraguNa pAlimpa. Actually its expected from this lineage as TNS has sung saraguNa pAlimpa exceptionally well many times over. The child in her popped up and she started the grand classic Thyagaraja kriti thulasI bilva from the anupallavi at the higher octave. And my friend sitting next chair started screaming for the immaturity. And i reminded him that the solution to his allegation is in the allegation. yes its nothing but lack of maturity. This kriti's beauty is in the way the pallavi is rendered. But SS wants to start from the higher octave and she did it well but unfortunately did not suit the persona of the kriti. Dont worry SS, there is always an other concert for you to correct this, and we are looking forward.
After the concert, I saw her chatting with her mother and friends on the driveway, I just stormed in between and remarked 'you sang a shanmugapriya which reminded MLV to me' and before she could acknowledge I was on my way to Music Academy for her paramaguru TNS's concert!!!
I think I have bored you all enough with such a long mail. Anyway to summarise - follow SS this season and report how consistent she is.
Listen to her this season: (I told you that am lazy - just copy pasted from their blog no formatting done, pl. take care)
JAN
2ND-rasika fine arts,
8th-Nungambakkam cultural,
9th-asthika samajam-thiruvanmiyur
All the best Sriranjani Santhanagopalan, keep it up.
