Kalpakam Swaminathan, Dikshitar Day, Nada Inbam

rbharath · Post by **rbharath** » 01 Apr 2009, 11:36

Smt. Kalpakam Swaminathan - Veenai
Sri L Ramakrishnan - Veenai Support
Smt. Sivasree Gopalakrishnan - Vocal Support & Commentary
Smt. Vasumathi Desikan - Vocal Support
Kum. Amrita Murali - Fiddle
Thanjavur Sri R Kumar - Mridangam

Dikshitar Jayanti. Nada Inbam, Raga Sudha Hall
30 March 09. 6 pm

hastivadanAya - navarOj - misra cApu
kumArasvAminam - asAvEri - Adi
hATakEsvara - bilahari - rUpakam
gauri girirAjakumAri - gauri - rUpakam
stavarAjAtinuta - stavarAjam - misra cApu
gOvindarAjam upAshmahE - mukhAri - misra cApu
vamsavati shivayuvati - vamsavati - Adi
srI nIlOtpala nAyikE - nAri rItigauLa - rUpakam
rAmacandrAya namastE - tODi - tisra tripuTa
EkAmranAtEsvarENa - caturangiNi - Adi
kAsI visvEsvarO Ehi - kAmbhOji - kANDa aTa
parimaLa ranganAtam - hamIr kalyANi - rUpakam
vEnkaTAcalapatE - karnATaka kApi - Adi
simhAsanastitE - rAgamAlikA - rUpakam
suruTTi short sketch

It was an evening of blissful music. Smt. Swaminathan chose rare pieces of Muthuswami Dikshitar to present for the concert. Smt. Swaminathan played small sketchy AlApanais for almost all the kritis. Sri Ramakrishnan played bilahari sketch and Kum. Murali played tODi. The kAmbhOji AlApanai was elaborate and it was followed up with a grand tAnam as well. All the pieces were rendered in a very grand fashion with a lot of involvement and bhAvam. Smt. Swaminathan also sang quite a few of the lines while playing them on the vINai. Smt. Gopalakrishnan gave some insightful commentary about each of the pieces that were presented and highlighted the essential points to be noted and known for each piece. Along with Smt. Desikan, she also sang the kritis. Sri Kumar was very supportive played in an appropriate fashion. The full set performed in perfect tandem and made it a perfect concert to celebrate the Jayanti of the great composer.

bharath

prashant · Post by **prashant** » 01 Apr 2009, 12:33

I will ask the inevitable: is there ANY way to obtain a recording of this performance? Kalpakam Mami is a treasure. What a great evening of music this must have been...

uday_shankar · Post by **uday_shankar** » 01 Apr 2009, 14:34

Bharath, thanks for the review. I wanted to go for this one but alas, Monday evenings are always difficult for me. Kalpagam maami is certainly of the old school gnyanam, something that's disappearing faster than you can say shraddha.

srikant1987 · Post by **srikant1987** » 01 Apr 2009, 18:22

Everything fell in place. Sowkhyam prevailed everywhere.

vainika · Post by **vainika** » 02 Apr 2009, 01:22

Here's an amateur recording for those tolerant of shruti instabilities and other glitches, not to mention clipped audio: YMMV.

rajeevsid · Post by **rajeevsid** » 02 Apr 2009, 21:03

thanks vanika... a great concert by Kalpakam mami...
I have tremendous respect for her both as a veena player and a music scholar...
thanks a zillion...

jayachAmarAja · Post by **jayachAmarAja** » 03 Apr 2009, 04:31

vainika wrote:Here's an amateur recording <snip> not to mention clipped audio: YMMV.

vainika, thank you for the amateur recording

each piece is a gem.. having heard kumArasvAminam from another of my favourite artists (and having loved it until now), i am amazed at how much my more grand mAmi's version is.. hearing the very rarely sung gauri, kAmbhOji pieces etc is a treat ! Smt. Gopalakrishnan's comments were very nice to hear, and the support [vocal, veena and mridamgam] were very good !

my mother-in-law was telling us how nice this concert was, and we felt bad that we missed it.. now we can tell her that *we* have a recording ! BTW, i admit that i am greedy, but is there also a non-clipped audio recording of this concert ?

bharath, thanks for the review ! i have collected several of your reviews and forwarded them to mAmi once before.. she was very appreciative.. will add the last few ones and send to her again..

i also have some of mAmi's concert recordings, but these are not tagged, and i am not finding time to split/tag these [most have not even been digitized, they are on audio cassettes

].. can someone volunteer to help me with this, so that we can post them here ? I will start by solwly posting what I have already tagged over the next few days..

sridhar.

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 03 Apr 2009, 04:52

Sridhar,

Send these treasures to Kji - he will get the needful done!

kmrasika · Post by **kmrasika** » 03 Apr 2009, 06:23

Thanks, vainika for the recording. stavarAjam and caturangNi piece is new to me. Is gaurI from MD school equivalent to the commonly known gaurI manOhari?

srikant1987 · Post by **srikant1987** » 03 Apr 2009, 06:28

No, it sounds like a cross between lalita and gowlai (rather srmpns snpmrs on MMG scale). You can wiki for "List of Janya ragas" to know more.

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 03 Apr 2009, 08:11

How can her playing be so commanding and yet flow like melted butter! How can Niagara's gush be so gentle? Thanks to you Ramki and pranAms to MAmi.

jayachAmarAja · Post by **jayachAmarAja** » 03 Apr 2009, 10:17

Shankar, I'll talk to coolkarniji when I am in India next; I'm sure he will help. I only feel bad that I have taken so much of his immense collection (Xdrive oasis included

in the past, and will now be taking his time as well..

I did have a few recordings that were on audioCDs, and i'll start with uploading these. Here is the first one of these, i am trying to post whatever details i have, maybe others could add to this..

http://rapidshare.com/users/QDCN8O

Kalpagam Swaminathan Mami- Delhi Concert
Mridangam - A. Kumar

01. sAmi ninnE kOri - varnam - nATTai - Adi
02. vallabha nAyakasya - bEgadA - rUpakam - muttusvAmi dIkShitar
03. vishvanAthEna - sAmantA - Adi - muttusvAmi dIkShitar
04. nidhichAla sukhamA - kalyANi - mishra chApu - tyAgarAja
05. tillAnA - darbAri kANaDA - Adi - muttaiAh bhAgavatar

I am very much behind the technology curve, and i know there have been several discussions on this very forum on the subject, but what is the best way to digitize audio tapes without using my PC [and any associated any recording software]. In the past, i've used musicmatch, but i feel that my tape recorder is poor, and maybe the audio cables i am using are not very good either.

Also, is there an easy way to covert video tapes (VHS) to digital format ?

Sridhar.

ramakriya · Post by **ramakriya** » 03 Apr 2009, 11:09

Thank you Vainika & Jayachamaraja. I would have almost missed this wealth of a concert!

-Ramakriya

vainika · Post by **vainika** » 03 Apr 2009, 11:50

kmrasika wrote:Is gaurI from MD school equivalent to the commonly known gaurI manOhari?

no no it couldn't be farther from [shudder] gaurI manOharI [/shudder].

To me gaurI seems redolent of several rAgas from the mALavagauLa clan such as gauLipantu, sAvEri, pADi, chAyAgauLa and lalitA.

prashant · Post by **prashant** » 03 Apr 2009, 11:55

Thanks for the recording, Jayachamaraja! Could you please use sendspace / uploadr / yousendit next time since Rapidshare is very problematic to DL from?

I have a recorder from Philips that converts cassettes into digital files very easily. It has a USB port, and all one has to to is plug in a USB stick and hit 'USB record' while playing the tape. I think Kji had posted a link about this as well.

I can also volunteer to help with splitting/tagging Mami's recordings.

uday_shankar · Post by **uday_shankar** » 03 Apr 2009, 16:51

vainika, thanks for the recording of the concert. The mAmi is certainly one of those wonderful Carnatic "pokkishams". Her kamboji alapana was awesome and so soaked in a deeply classical mould. Very Nice tAnam, ably assisted by vainika. The kriti is kasi visvesvaro was so majestic. It lasted a full 12 minutes I think. The vocal accompaniment to this katcheri was invaluable.

coolkarni · Post by **coolkarni** » 03 Apr 2009, 18:41

arunk · Post by **arunk** » 03 Apr 2009, 20:28

(On a somewhat side note) I am amused (and a ttimes disheartened) that our affinity towards various aspects in CM leads us to develop hardened preferences/prejudices of the silliest kinds.

Arun

rajumds · Post by **rajumds** » 03 Apr 2009, 22:01

vainika

Thanks a lot

completelyclueless · Post by **completelyclueless** » 03 Apr 2009, 22:26

Uday Shankar,

Lol...if you mean what I think you mean

CC

vijay · Post by **vijay** » 03 Apr 2009, 23:52

Great to hear about this. Unfortunately my broadband's acting up and I can't d/l rely on my slow mobile connection - please do keep it up for a couple of days!

arunk · Post by **arunk** » 04 Apr 2009, 01:20

ramki - thanks. The audio is actually quite decent - of course no need to say that about the music! Btw, can you pl shed some light on how does navroj and kurinji differ in general as well as in dIkshitar patantra (i.e. SSP etc.), since he has composed in both.

Sridhar - I second prashant's request. Rapidshare (i hope they got rid of stupid undecipherable cats and dogs) is not very user friendly and that a download per song makes me dread to try it (oh - but i will given its mami's music

)

Arun

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 04 Apr 2009, 02:10

arunk wrote:The audio is actually quite decent -

I can not resist this - I am sure Ramki recorded these tracks on his Mac, so what else did you expect? =)

arunk · Post by **arunk** » 04 Apr 2009, 02:37

yes that does explain it

Arun

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 04 Apr 2009, 02:57

ha. ha.. reminscent of the "I am a Mac you are a PC" commercial. I think Ravi missed Vainika's disclaimer "tolerant of shruti instabilities and other glitches, not to mention clipped audio"

arunk · Post by **arunk** » 04 Apr 2009, 03:03

except that 2 macs were talking here

Arun

jayachAmarAja · Post by **jayachAmarAja** » 04 Apr 2009, 08:50

prashant wrote:Thanks for the recording, Jayachamaraja! Could you please use sendspace / uploadr / yousendit next time since Rapidshare is very problematic to DL from?

I am sorry, I should have thought of that. I have done 2 things: (i) zipped the files into 1 archive, and put them on rapidshare (same folder listed above), but now there's only 1 file to download: direct link is http://rapidshare.com/files/217177500/DelhiConcert.zip , and (ii) uploaded (the same zip file) on sendspace http://www.sendspace.com/file/mp6kfv as well

prashant wrote: I have a recorder from Philips that converts cassettes into digital files very easily. It has a USB port, and all one has to to is plug in a USB stick and hit 'USB record' while playing the tape. I think Kji had posted a link about this as well.

I will look into this. How good is the USB cassette converter ?

Coolkarniji, i wanted help with both audio and video files.. unfortunately, Mami's audio/VHS tapes are *both* collecting dust at my place.. i don't even have VCP !

prashant wrote: I can also volunteer to help with splitting/tagging Mami's recordings.

I will take u up on your offer. Please give me some time to see what needs to be done. I will contact you by email shortly. I don't know if my email is accessible from the forum directly, but mine is kAmAkShi7_at_gmail.

rajeevsid · Post by **rajeevsid** » 04 Apr 2009, 11:14

I too can help in digitizing tapes of mami..

vainika · Post by **vainika** » 04 Apr 2009, 12:33

Actually the recording was made on a digital voice recorder, not on a Mac.

The low temperature-induced shruti instability took about 3-4 songs to settle down.

vijay · Post by **vijay** » 04 Apr 2009, 15:56

Got it now, Ramki - thanks!

harimau · Post by **harimau** » 04 Apr 2009, 16:29

kmrasika wrote:Thanks, vainika for the recording. stavarAjam and caturangNi piece is new to me. Is gaurI from MD school equivalent to the commonly known gaurI manOhari?

Gaurimanohari would be Gaurivelavali, if memory serves me correctly.

jagan · Post by **jagan** » 05 Apr 2009, 17:15

A video recording of this extraordinary concert was made by, I believe, a student of Kalpakam Mami.
I have no more details .

davalangi · Post by **davalangi** » 05 Apr 2009, 20:36

A home recording (1996) of Kalpagam mAmi playing the caturangini krithi - "caturangini conversations" towards the end (the last minute or so).

http://www.sendspace.com/file/df3qp3