S. Saketharaman - Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, London

[classical91]

Vocal: S. Saketharaman
Violin: Charumathi Raghuraman
Mridhangam: M. Balachandar
Mohrsing: Tanujan Chitrakumar

Concert list:
1. Innam En Manam (Charukesi Varnam) - Adhi - Lalgudi Jayaraman
2. Reethigowla brief sketch - Paripalayamam - Rupakam - Swathi Thirunal - Swaras
3. Bindumalini ragam - Entha Muddho - DesAdi - Thyagaraja - Swaras
4. Sahana brief Sketch - Chatham Iranga - Chapu - Papanasam Sivan
5. Annathudanu Ganu - Jingala - Adhi - Thyagaraja
6. Mohanam ragam - Mohana Rama - Adhi - Thyagaraja - Neraval, Swaras - Thani
7. Kapi ragam - thanam - pallavi - Chatusra JAthi Triputa Thalam - RAgamalika Swaras - Saveri, Hamir Kalyani
8. Viruttam - Hamsanandi - Tirupathi Venkata Ramana - DesAdi - Purandaradasa
9. Managalam - Sowrashtram/Suratti - Thyagaraja

This concert was held as part of the Mandolin Srinivas memorial series. As a first-time concert attendee at Bhavan, I was happy with the sound quality and acoustics. Being a smaller auditorium certainly helped, and there were no issues with volume or sharp. There was minimal crowd, which was dispersed along the already small auditorium making it seem emptier than it was - organisers could have grouped the crowd together to the front.

Saketharaman is bestowed with a unique high-pitched voice that allows for soft nuances to make emotions stand out. The use of these nuances, however, cannot be taken for granted and need to be perfected through cautious and sparing use - this aspect has certainly improved in Saketharaman's singing over the years, and will certainly continue to do so.

Saketharaman's voice today, however, was certainly not in good shape. The artist struggled to reach below the adhara shadjam, and went extremely nasal at the higher notes (which is incidentally becoming a characteristic of his singing with/without voice troubles). These issues significantly marred what would otherwise have been quite soulful renditions. Choice of songs for the concert was nothing special - predictable pieces, sticking to 'traditional' format. Manodharmam is an are where Saketharaman certainly needs to focus his training on - the raga renditions lacked phrases which give the 'Aaha' factor - some may call this frill-free singing, but my personal opinion differs. There was a level of crudeness in the raga renditions, and all cliched phrases were covered. Swaraprastharam was unremarkable, albeit certainly not displeasing. An area to commend would be his kaala pramanam - all the songs were paced well, and the artist exerted good control over the speed of the thala.

Violin accompaniment by Charumathi was subtle and to the point. I believe that in some portions of the raga renditions, her creativity far exceeded that of Saketharaman - a promising sign. Her accompaniment during the kriti renditions showed intelligence, and her bowing technique was fluid. Balachandar on the mridhangam was a slightly mixed bag. A resident teacher at the Bhavan school, he has an interesting touch of the Pudukottai bani to his playing which adds colour to fast renditions. However, 'visranthi' was heavily lacking. There are times when the best mridhangam accompaniment is no accompaniment, and this was completely missing, as the artist tried filling in every gap with sarvalaghu or fast phrases, making it sound a bit pedestrian at times. Similarly, accompaniment for vilamba kalam bordered on durita kalam, which affected the sowkhyam of the renditions. This was heavily visible in the accompaniment for first kaala swaras, which was almost no different to accompaniment for the second kaala swaras.The thani was indeed unremarkable, and there were moments of good marred by many more moments of not so good. Mohrsing accompaniment was surprisingly able, and the artist shows good potential. Again, an area to compliment both percussionists would be in maintaining the tempo during the thani.

An overall mediocre concert experience, showing good potential with practice.

[thanjavooran]

Thanks for the review. As you have mentioned some vidwans voice not cooperating at times making them uncomfortable.
With wishes,
Thanjavooran
22 05 2016

[rajeshnat]

classical91,
You could have had your id as classical911 , for this review of yours it would have been a quite an apt id (just kidding) . Just went into your profile and saw your other posts mostly centered on RTP-few were great.keep writing more from the land of gmt- we had few great rasikas who have faded out in our forum from london.

May I know what was the kapi pallavi line and how long was the concert?

[Ramasubramanian M.K]

Classical91: Excellent substantive review worthy of note by the artist(if only he "condescends"!!!
An early admirer of Saketharaman because of my LGJ "bias" ,lately I have been disappointed--the Cleveland festival concert was one such concert. There is an air of nonchalance in his musical demeanor --a kind of "I have conquered the whole Musical space--what else is there for me to strive for "--something which his Guru would have frowned upon--Ofcourse my opinion may be subjective!!

Charumathy's violin--Is she a disciple of TNK? Your description of the fluidity and bowing technique reminds me of TNK's style!!

Balachander's Mridangam--Is he the artist who used to play mostly for dancers? I used to appreciate his accompanying for the Dances(he has performed for my daughter's programs in India and the US)--have never heard him play for a concert.Apparently from your review he needs to take note of your points!!

I thoroughly enjoyed your "No-Nonsense or sugar-coating" style!!

Keep them coming!!!

[classical91]

Haha, I'd like to think of myself as a fair reviewer, probably slightly biased by the standards set by the artists of yesteryear Thank you very much for your compliments. Incidentally, I was hoping to find a group of local rasikas/musicians in here, but I'm guessing that that's rare.

I'm struggling to remember all the lines of the pallavi unfortunately. The pallavi was composed to commemorate Mandolin Srinivas, and I remember the description being in two parts - the portion before the arudhi stating that his music lives forever in our hearts, and the portion after the arudhi regarding his eternal smile. The pre-arudhi portion of the pallavi was "SrinivAsa Sarva Hrudaya NivAsa". There were three words after the arudhi, and I'm racking my brains to remember them!

The concert lasted a good 2.5 hours, and I was happy to see that the audience's involvement, for the most part, stayed high till the end (no mid-thani exists!). Also, I believe there is definitely more appreciation for ragam singing and manodharmam aspects here than with a vast majority of the audiences back in India.

Thank you very much Ramasubramanian sir! Interesting comment on demeanour - I certainly believe many of my generation's musicians (I'm a 90s kid ) have the attitudinal issue of assuming 'I know a lot'. While I must admit that this statement has an amount of truth to it (I certainly see a lot of 'technical' knowledge abound in several of today's musicians), there is always more to learn, practice and perfect.

Well spotted - Charmuathy is indeed TNK's disciple, and the bAni did show in quite a number of places.

It might be just my opinion with Baldachandar's playing - while I appreciated his fingering techniques, and clarity of many prayogams, I believe that adding silence can really enhance his playing. I appreciate sarvalaghu as much as I appreciate kanakku, but sarvalaghu needn't necessarily appear in all instances (then again, I might be heavily biased by Mani Iyer/Karaikudi Mani/Palani/Sankaran/et al, which I agree is unfair!). I think he attempts to play according to the words of the song, and in anticipation of the swaras, which is definitely good and intelligent playing, but there is too much of playing and too less of the visranthi to see that intelligence and technique.

[CRama]

I heard recording of a concert recently. The sound of breathing comes in very frequently very much audibly. This is a distracting feature. He should practice some breathing exercises and avoid this.

[arasi]

As well-observed and well said the statements above are, coming all in a row, it must be a bit like breathing on his neck for the artiste!

Young and gifted as he is, he's bound to make amends in no time

Classic91,
A big welcome. Yes, there are some seasoned rasikAs in the UK who were present among us (ragam_talam, Jayaram, Rishi and so on). Miss them. Of course, the man at the helm lives there, but he generally believes that silence is golden--though he has to put up with my sort

[Nick H]

Tanujan Chitrakumar is Balachandar's student.

I was too, when I was still making any claim of being a music student

[classical91]

CRama - Interesting observation, agree on the breath control bit!

Arasi - Lol, a bit of hard love always helps I'll definitely keep an eye out for the UK rasikas!

Nick - Indeed, Tanujan is Balachandar's student! I enjoyed his touches during the thani - some phrases/'effects' were quite unique.

[jayaram]

I was at Bhavan Centre for this concert, and feel the review by classical91 is a bit too harsh. Saketharaman sang quite well. My only gripe was that the concert had too many 'sweet' ragams. I would have liked the inclusion of at least one 'veerya' raga like Begada or Todi. Charumathi's violin playing had a lot of maturity and bhavam.
A few corrections:
a) The RTP was in khanda jati triputa tala (not chatusra jati triputa)
b) RTP swaras were in Saveri and Shuddha sarang (not Hamir kalyani)
c) RTP sahitya: "SrInivAsam sarvahridaya nivAsam, santatam chintayE prasanna SrInivAsam"

[classical91]

My bad - Khanda Jati and Suddha Sarang indeed. In terms of the ragam choice, while I do agree that his choice of ragas was on the 'sweeter' side of things, I wouldn't be surprised if it was meant to be so to play to the strengths of his voice. I would still stick to my review however, harsh it may be

[arasi]

Ah, Jayaram, there you are!

[HarishankarK]

"
'veerya' raga like Begada
"
Begada is one of the most sweet ragams, I would think. And surely it does not have veerya rasa - Begada mainly has ananda and even haasya rasa.
Mohanam is a ragam that has Veerya rasa. Vasantha also can be considered for Veerya Rasa. I think what you mean is he could have chosen few more contemplative ragas like Todi, Bhairavi, Shanmukapriya etc.

One thing I'd say is that the quality of the Carnatic music artistes is not that great these days but they are getting opportunity to sing all over the world regardless if they are eligible or mature artistes or not.

[narayan]

"
One thing I'd say is that the quality of the Carnatic music artistes is not that great these days but they are getting opportunity to sing all over the world regardless if they are eligible or mature artistes or not.

I would say that the same is true for rasikas and reviewers. They have the opportunity to listen to things from all over the world and also air their views to worldwide readers, without doing anything particular to earn this additional freedom. Fair is fair.

[rajeshnat]

Classical91: Excellent substantive review worthy of note by the artist(if only he "condescends"!!!
An early admirer of Saketharaman because of my LGJ "bias" ,lately I have been disappointed--the Cleveland festival concert was one such concert. There is an air of nonchalance in his musical demeanor --a kind of "I have conquered the whole Musical space--what else is there for me to strive for "--something which his Guru would have frowned upon.

MKR Sir
I still have not heard in person about saketaraman other than his music. I will take this statement of yours as somewhat bit harsh. I am assuming you may have mistaken possibly his silence during pre and post concert as an air of nonchalance.

[VK RAMAN]

Welcome back Jayaram.

[Ramasubramanian M.K]

Rajesh: My observation is not based on any pique or personal animus(I do not know him except LGJ Sir had mentioned to me that he has promise--by now you should know I am quite respectful of artists privacy. My observation was prompted by the fact that I did not notice the normal 'camaraderie' from him that prevails amongst the Vidwans during the Festival--there were several places --the music halls,the foyer,the Comfort Inn Ball room --where you can see all the vidwans and vidushis 'hobnobbing' --most of them either would have finished their concerts or waiting for their concerts. It is also customary for the Vidwans to attend the other artist''s concerts as a matter of professional courtesy-- I did not see him in any of these places. True he had concerts before and immediately after so that he may have had time only to prepare for the concert.
This aloofness is none of MY concern but the presentation- in my opinion seemed to be a bit nonchalant No doubt he has awesome talent--Sruthi,Layam and imagination--not wanting in any aspect.

Having borne and suffered thro the antics of Mali and TNR,I should be the last person to complain about perceived boorishness of artists in general!!!

[HarishankarK]

"
One thing I'd say is that the quality of the Carnatic music artistes is not that great these days but they are getting opportunity to sing all over the world regardless if they are eligible or mature artistes or not.

I would say that the same is true for rasikas and reviewers. They have the opportunity to listen to things from all over the world and also air their views to worldwide readers, without doing anything particular to earn this additional freedom. Fair is fair.

Agreed.But artistes have much higher responsibility towards music than rasikas. But it is the rasikas responsibility to shun poor quality music and substandard artistes.

[arasi]

Harishankark,
Agreed. Musicians have more responsibility towards music than rasikAs

However, 'shun' is a strong word! We can skip their concerts is more like it?

MKR,
You have seen enough artistes in your life, all different, of course. Some are friendly, others are not because they are reserved, shy, proud? The point you are making is that as a performer on stage, they get engaged with the audience. After all, from what we gather, it has been this way all along. It's not just about merits in an artiste but about how she or he connects with the audience and creates an interest in the musical experience.

Rajesh,
MS centenary year and you have been bringing pictures to the Somu thread! Need I say more about connecting with the audience? And you do know--in Cleveland, as MKR says, the scene is charged with good will and equality

[hnbhagavan]

These days even junior artists who are given opportunity in music festivals do not stay back for senior concerts.This i have noticed on Bangalore festivals
SRLK/Fort HS Rama Navami /Seshadripuram give ample scope for upcoming artists,but generally they walk out after giving their portion of the concert.
I am not surprised if Saketaraman opted not to stay back whatever may be the reason.(Cleveland)
I have heard that one of the highlights of Cleveland festival is the interaction among Rasikas,Musicians each one attending the others concerts..

[Ramasubramanian M.K]

Arasi: As usual you have the right even-handed perspective suited to the modern times!! We the members of our generation may have ben spoiled by the camaraderie amongst the artistes of our times. True they all may have had their differences but their public postures towards each other were prim and proper--notwithstanding the efforts of sycophants in those days trying to whip up discord among them!!!!

It is not that the present day artistes are different--perhaps I need to change my perspectives!!!

[classical91]

I'm going to make just one statement here - I strongly believe that judgement of a musician should be made solely on their music, rather than their habits or aspects of their personality. There have been, and will be, many musicians with disastrous personal lives, and whose habits would put the modern teenager to shame; but ultimately I think we should pay respect to their musical abilities and their positive qualities alone. There's enough of politics in the world as it is!