Neyveli Santhanagopalan at MA on 24 Dec 08

bilahari · Post by **bilahari** » 25 Dec 2008, 00:30

Vocal: Neyveli Santhanagopalan
Violin: Sriram Parasuram
Mrudangam: Mannargudi Easwaran
Ghatam: V Suresh
+ Host of people surrounding the dais

Approximate Songlist:

01. vanajAksha (S @ charanam) - rIthigowLa - aTa
02. rAma nIpai (S @ pallavi) - kEdAram - Adi
03. amba vANi (Sketch, N @ paradEvi ninnE, S) - kIravANi - Adi
04. pankaja lOchana (R, N @ brundAvanAnatha, S, T) - kalyANi - mishra chApu
05. sarasasAmadAna - kApi nArAyaNi - Adi
06. RTP - sAvEri - khanda triputa
Pallavi: kari moralida vinalEda kAruNyAjala
+ Ragamaliga swaras in bEgada, ranjani, kEdAragowLa, darbAri kAnadA
07. shanthA kAram (slOkam) in sahAnA, ?, surutti
vanga kadal - surutti - rUpakam
08. pavamAna (mangaLam) - sowrAshtram - Adi

Brief notes on concert (I expect a more thorough debrief by rajeshnat and vijay!):

Reethigowla varnam wins the most popular varnam award for this season I think, and NSG was clearly in rather good touch this evening, bringing out the gamakas of Reethigowla well and singing a brief swarakalpana at the end. Rama Nipai was rendered well but the swaras were really good, frequently ending on SMG and SSMG. Amba Vani was rendered fine and followed up by an excellent neraval with each round combining slow and fast speeds, and was very interesting. Kalyani ragam was the piece de resistence, with NSG opting for a MMI-style delivery in short phrases and it worked very well. The alapanai was thoroughly and slowly developed, with some creative phrases, his voice was reaching well into mandra sthayi, he even produced some TNS-esque brigha sangathis in the middle, and the ragam was generally excellent. Pankaja lochana was delivered well with a nice neraval at brundAvanAnatha with nice sequences around NRG going into the upper octave. The swaras were quite creative and had quirky phrases like SSRG, NRRG (N in mandra sthayi), DDG,, (D in lower), PPG (lower P), MMG,, (mandra M), etc. Sarasasamadana was divine and just made for NSG's voice and was a nice filler before the RTP in Saveri. The entire RTP was very good, with nice raga rendition, excellent thanam in madhyama kala, neat pallavi rendition (pallavi sung in three speeds), and lovely ragamaliga swaras especially in kEdAragowla (and faster Ranjani was nice too). Surutti provided a really good finish to a concert with lots of sowkhyam (or what my GNB devotee of a grandfather labelled "unnaturally slow"). NSG had some shruti lapses and still struggled to exceed tara G, but the concert was still very successful.

Sriram Parasuram was good on the violin, soft and supportive, providing some Hindusthani touches in Kalyani raga, and his last response to Kalyani kalpanaswaras was excellent. He also played nice thanam and neraval returns. Good accompaniment.

The percussion department was excellent tonight, with Mannargudi Easwaran playing wonderfully in Kedaram, and all through the night, he anticipated excellently and adjusted to the situation, providing sowkhyam-filled accompaniment during the the slower Keeravani neraval. V Suresh was great on the ghatam and played with dazzling clarity and their thani was good but the korvai came so soon after they started playing together.

vijay · Post by **vijay** » 25 Dec 2008, 00:59

Bilahari has covered it exhaustively. Just a few comments:

Another exceptional concert of this musician who never fails to impress me. Swarams in Kedaram was great and I felt it could go on for a while longer.

The vidwan brought some interesting laya vishayam into the swaras in Kalyani and Kiravani - Sriram Parasuram latched on very well. NSG too essayed some Hindustani phrases in Kalyani especially halts in Nishadam. The build up to the climax was fantastic. A wonderful tani by Eashwaran and Suresh.

Enjoyed RTP in SAvery immensely particularly the taanam. Is the Pallavi the same as that sung by Alathoor brothers? (it starts off the same way and is in SAveri). Eduppu was at Samam + 1/2. Trikaalam was done as Bilahari notes but there was no Tisram. There was a 1 avartha korvai in the mini tani after the RTP.

Another happy day comes to an end!

rbsiyer · Post by **rbsiyer** » 25 Dec 2008, 11:45

i listened to a bit of the kiravani and frankly the voice seemed in very bad shape. was painful to listen to even over the muffled canteen speaker. not to decry anyone elses experience or enjoyment.
there is no gainsaying nsg's genius, but controlled formats like the superb jaya tv programme he presents probably do better justice than live concert platform which is unforgiving to problemtic vocal equiopment.

sankark · Post by **sankark** » 25 Dec 2008, 12:40

Not to beat around the bush, his voice was not very cooperative yesterday and he struggled a lot in upper octaves where the voice was not all that pleasing & had a grating quality to it. Put it behind and overall the concert was quite good. My only wish was Kalyani had been shortened & Saveri got a grand treatment instead and a tani in that khanda triputa as well (Sowmya also took the same khandra triputa yesterday for her Manirangu RTP). That brief alapana of Saveri brought out all the rakthi there is & I wished it prolonged but it was already 9:05 when he finished his alapana of Saveri. There was a beautiful one round of swaras in mandra sthayi (in kalyani, IIRC) and that was just beautiful! IMO the short but sweet Keervani & Saveri alapanas were the top picks.

Is it just me or does he sing close mouthed with lot of mmgara phrases instead of lot of open mouthed akara phrases?

grsastrigal · Post by **grsastrigal** » 25 Dec 2008, 12:42

He was supposed to sing Begada as RTP (as per the book) but he took saveri.. . Begada is more difficult than saveri for Neyveli whose voice
could not co-operate. He could not get "Mel Stayi" perfectily.

Sad to say Neyveli was not upto the mark yesterday. Shishya of TNS, TNS goes the right and NSG is the other side.

saptaratna · Post by **saptaratna** » 25 Dec 2008, 16:09

Whether Begada or Saveri , both are equally difficult to emote with the right nuances. Only with repeated practice , internalisation of the raga pidis and some basic vidvat and gnaanam, and a lot of creativity, can help produce that.

Always we keep discussing the voice and condemn artists on that basis alone.

Artistry and art rises much above all that. What the artisit is able to do given the complications and limitations he has is what is the litmus test.

Santhanagopalan passed this brilliantly.

His was vidvat sangeetham yesterday, coming from the recesses of musical clarity , maturity and swanubhavam. Not a dull moment.

How many shades of half, quarter and oru avarthan swaras and confidence he protrayed while singing. What multi hues of raga variations.

He sounded inspired and deeply possessed and somehwere he was singng and using the techniques he has learnt at the feet of his Guru, TNS, after a long time. Yes truly voice felicity will add more colour. But is that so important.

Someswara in his Maanasollaasa, the extensive Sanskrit work on Music has said that gnaanam, feel, assimilation of knowledge and presentation all stand much above the voice of the singer. Voice he correctly says is "PURVA JANMA PUNYA" and a true artist has to work with and around it.

If voice were such a criteria, then the Carnatic field will be almost barren and deserted.

rbsiyer · Post by **rbsiyer** » 26 Dec 2008, 11:14

saptaratna wrote: If voice were such a criteria, then the Carnatic field will be almost barren and deserted.

true, a great voice is an enviable asset thatnot everyone is blessed with, but at least a functional one is required to do justice to the art. if not microtonal vocal mastery like brinda or madurai mani at least some vocal facility is de rigeur. as you say begada and kaanada come to mind. when even control to within semi-tone is not there it can be distressing.

content has to be vocalised if not brilliantly at least tolerably and not merely suggested or hinted or approximated and blanks or shortfalls left to be filled in by imagingation of diehard fans. for rest of audience it amounts to lowering of bar. this issue reminds one of well-articulated editorial by sruti pattabhiraman many years ago regarding a great senior musician who gave many a bad concert after voice deterioration.

it is also is not true that carnatic music is barren of good voices. this is largely canard used to poohpooh carnatic music at expense of other often less complex genres. there was suchan article in hindu this year which drew angry response from tmkrishna quite rightly so.
apart from usual examples of bmk, yesudoss, santhanam etc. there was others like kvn, sandyavadanam rao who maintained fully servicable voice into old age. in kvn's final two concerts which i was ofrtunate to attend, although he had to be reminded fewtimes of what he was singing, the music was very much intact. of course tns in prime second to none. even mdr without mass appeal had glorious basso comparable to chaliapin and christoff. ost is going strong vocally even now.

there seems to be a recent curse prematurely robbing us of some promising male voices. i was heartened to listen vijay shiva yesterday on jaya tv in truly glorious form vocally and content-wise. touch wood!

Dhanavendra · Post by **Dhanavendra** » 26 Dec 2008, 12:33

"i listened to a bit of the kiravani and frankly the voice seemed in very bad shape. was painful to listen to even over the muffled canteen speaker" - rbsiyer.

Listening from the canteen and responding to a review in such a way smacks of bias. How can an artiste be judged among the clatter of tumblers, plates, people's voice and gurgling of coffee not withstanding the shouts of waiters across the table. NSG has the capacity to elevate the listeners like he did at Valayapati Music festival at Ananthapadmaswamy temple. But to say so many things in as many words shows the antipathy towards the artist rather than sound judgement.

ganeshkant · Post by **ganeshkant** » 26 Dec 2008, 13:02

No doubt about the genius of NSG.But it is time he takes rest from the concert circuit and concentrates in teaching or may be creation of some kind or other pertaining to CM.

vijay · Post by **vijay** » 26 Dec 2008, 23:36

Maybe I should take the good advise of the posters above and dump my collection of semmangudis too....

rbsiyer · Post by **rbsiyer** » 27 Dec 2008, 12:05

Dhanavendra wrote: But to say so many things in as many words shows the antipathy towards the artist rather than sound judgement.

i only said that the performers voice was bad at that point in time and that he is a genius. where there is antipathy i cannot see. do not know what you mean by bias as response to music is necessarily subjective. i was a regular listener of nsg's concerts between 1999 and 2003. i can still remember his shankarabharnam and swararaga sudha in anantapadmanabahaswamy koil from 2000, numerous kalyanis, innovative swaras in ragas like chadrajyoti among others.

"Maybe I should take the good advise of the posters above and dump my collection of semmangudis too...."

there was no such advice in my post. yes, one does wish reocrding companies showed better judgement in release of recordings as some do injustice to true worht of a great musician and the legacy.

vijay · Post by **vijay** » 27 Dec 2008, 14:55

Poor recordings are part of the problem, RBS - the other part is not unrelated to your complaint against NSG. Anyway, our tastes in music are clearly very different so let us leave it there.

mridangam.karthic · Post by **mridangam.karthic** » 12 Jan 2009, 09:57

I was at this concert and it was one of the best i saw this season.......mannargudi eswaran's thani avarthnam in Misra Chapu 4 Mataras was nothing short of brilliant