Isn't that capsule of chenjukanmbhoji a marvel and a thing of beauty? I can only hazard a guess to answer your question. What musicians choose to sing or not sing has as much to do with their personalities as anything else. To me the most significant characteristic of GNB's personality was his constant striving for innovation. He was always trying something new all through his career -- sometimes that meant taking risks with audience support or even his own voice. In his later concerts one can tell that his voice is not able to keep up with his imagination. One could argue that GNB got away with it with his golden voice and die-hard followers but consider that a different musician would have tried to eschew risk and sing what is easy and that would have still led to very successful concerts (after all he was immensely popular at all times). But GNB risked the ire of critics and disappointment of his fans late in life by taking those risks and perhaps that is a big reason his music is ever-fresh, why we are still listening to him after decades and generations of musicians since his passing away. Singing alapana for rare ragas (like singing neraval at unusual places), while not an innovation by itself, was probably driven by a desire to innovate at all times, to do things that were new. He must have inspired admiration (and perhaps also envy) from his peers (ARI, SSI, Ramnad Krishnan, etc) who were giants in their own right but could not innovate as much or in those particular ways. TNS is in this mould among contemporary musicians in that he too seems to attach a very high premium to innovation. Any suggestions on who in the younger generations is taking on the particular mantle of innovation?Enna_Solven wrote:I am listening to GNB's vara ragalaya in chenju kambhoji from his 1965 Kallidaikurichi concert (from Sangeethapriya). This is a nine minute long rendering with raga alapana for about 3 minutes. I have 7 other versions where no one does alapana. Why? Is it that only he could do that for rare ragas?
-Then Paanan