Incipient Confidence#3

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.