Incipient Confidence#5

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.