Ravikiran tells us that Pandit Ravi Shankar was highly critical of Carnatic musicians in private. Did that comment include Ravikiran himself?
Here's my original statement.
1. Pt Ravishankar pleasantly surprised me with his in-depth analysis of CM legends incl. ARI, MVI, GNB, SSI, Brinda and others. "I got sold to CM only because of Veena Dhanammal," he said. His points were generally spot-on, even from a strictly objective Carnatic point of view.
With the names I mentioned, it should be obvious Pandit ji was discussing legends of his generation. Nowhere do I find the phrase "highly critical" in my post.
The point here was obviously that every HM artiste is not
blindly dismissive of CM, as the initial post implied.
Secondly, today the communication between HM and CM artistes is considerably more and there is much better understanding and immense respect from many of them about CM nuances.
Finally, it's not so much about HM
artistes opinions alone. CM has to be impeccable on its own right for both CM and non-CM
audiences to appreciate it. This is not impossible - one can be globally appreciated without compromising CM-centric values. It can come about if artistes are strong on
CM-specific content with international standards of delivery.
I completely agree with VK's point about right and wrong oscillation. This was precisely the point that Pt Ajoy Chakraborthy ji made during the Utter-Dakshin conference in Chennai. I countered it with some examples and he immediately acknowledged that CM oscillation sounded great when 'pure'. (The degree of correctness of oscillation is directly proportional to one's understanding and execution of the amplitude, speed and number of times it has to be oscillated in each context. Most people rely on instincts for this but a good guru can also intellectualize it and demonstrate it for students to acquire it as a skill over time.)