All Women Ensemble at Hickman Hall, Rutgers University, Marc

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 25 Mar 2009, 17:30

Sponsored by the CMANA and Sanatana Dharma Foundation.

Vid. Lalgudi Smt. Vijayalakkshmi (LV) - Violin
Vid. Sikkil Smt. Mala Chandrasekhar (MC)- Flute
Vid. Smt. Jaysri Jeyaraaj (JJ) - Veena
Vid. Kum Rajna Swaminathan (RS) - Mrudangam
Vid. Smt. Bhagyalakshmi Muralikrishna (BM) - Morsing

The List

1) varNam - valaci - LGJ - probably cAlamu seya
2) svAminAtha paripAlayASu mAm - nATTai - Adi - Dikshitar (O, S)
3) sAdhincanE - ArabhI - Adi - Tyagaraja
4) Siva Siva Siva yena rAdA - pantuvarALI - Adi - Tyagaraja (R - Smt. JJ, S)
5) yevarU rA ninu vinA - mOhanam - m. cApu - Tyagaraja (R - Smt MC, S)
6) yentaNi vinavinturA - urmikA - Pallavi Sesha Iyer
7) O rangaSAyI - kAmbhOji - Adi - Tyagaraja (R -Smt LV, S)
8) tani Avartanam
9) yenna tavan Seidanai - kApi - Adi (O by Smt. LV) - Papanasam Sivan
10) tillAnA - dhanaSrI - Maharaja Swati Tirunal, tuned by LGJ
11) tillAnA - dES - LGJ
13) Keynote speech
14) tillAnA - dES - LGJ
15) maNgaLam - bhAgada lakshmi - followed by pavamAna sutuDu

The Performance
DISCLAIMER - Just my views - I have no technical knowledge to speak of, so you will not find any here!

In speeches that preceded the concert, it was announced that the purpose of these concerts was to raise money for the laudable and lofty purpose of 'vidyA dAnam' in remote and rural India where access to education, especially for girls is limited, perpetuating the vicious cycle of illiteracy/lack of education and poverty.

Smt. LV was undoubtedly the leader and director of this unique ensemble of women artists. She announced at the start that this team was only recreating what her guru, Sri LGJ had done previously - the violin, veNu and vINa combination, and explained the rationale behind his choice - the difference in the Sruti's of the instruments (vINa at the lowest, flute at the highest, and the violin in the octave in between), the combination of a plucking, a bowing, and a blowing instrument etc. She concluded by saying that while it was not a thematic concert on vidyA or dAnam, the team would put on display the vidyA (vidvat) that was generously shared with and gifted (dAnam) to them by their gurus.

The concert started with the valaci varNam (I am not very familiar with this varNam) that was very well rendered, and served as a brisk piece to help me gather my thoughts that were certainly wandering all over place after the introductory speeches, and get into the mode of listening to serious music.

The nATTai piece had lovely svarams - all anchored around violin passages that gave it a beautiful impact. The ArabhI pancaratnam certainly sounded way better that it sounds during ArAdhanAs (should I duck for cover?).

A pristine pantuvarALi AlApana by Smt. JJ followed, and the kriti taken up was one of my favorites - Siva Siva Siva yena rAdA, with svaras at the pallavi, IIRC. Once again, hearing the three viduSis in the svara passages was delightful.

When Smt. MC took up mOhanam, I was so happy - I always feel that this rAga was made for the flute - and it was a charmingly played AlApana (I have no clue of the technical details, but the over all impact was blissful). I played the game of trying to guess the song and failed again! yevarU rA ninu vinA is not a song I have heard frequently, or recently, so, it was very nice to do so. In the svara passages, the combination of violin and morsing was particularly haunting.

A quick filler in urmikA followed (I have to fess-up that I took a break during this number), after which came the majestic kAmbhOji that declared itself immediately, and Smt. LV played a lovely AlApana, and this time, I guessed the kriti - it was O rangaSAyI, followed by a tani that brought the house down.

Usually, after such a tani, everything else can seem to be like a let down, but the team did not let the level sag even one bit. The evergreen yenna tavan Seidanai was very emotively rendered with some very endearing sangatis.

They then rendered Swati Tirunal's dhanaSrI tillAnA with elan before taking up Sri LGJ's dES tillAnA - it was fantastically rendered, and moved many in the audience to such an extent that, after the keynote speech, they played it again on request, and concluded with the maNgaLam.

What I liked very much
It was only when I heard the 3 instruments together was I able to appreciate the point about the Sruti's of the three instruments - the vINa sounding so majestic at the lower octave, the violin so melodious in the next higher octave, and the flute soaring so effortlessly in the next higher was simply awesome.

The morsing, usually relegated to the status of a upa-pakkavAdyam was at center stage here, and Smt. BM was a wizard at playing it. The sounds produced were so unique and captivating, and very soothing.

Egged on by the four senior members of the team, Kum RS acquitted herself extremely well. I was very impressed with this wisp of a girl playing with sustained stamina and rising to every challenge thrown her way by the leading artists - she did herself, her parents and her guru proud! The tani was awesome, and received a well-deserved standing ovation at the end.

The svara passaged were very imaginatively played, with the mrudangam and morsing accompanying them in varying combinations and patterns.

What I would have liked

Don't get me wrong - it was an evening of pure bliss and I enjoyed every moment, but:

1) A rAga AlApana where all three artists develop the rAga - it would be a great way to showcase rAgAs that shine in all three octaves, and somehow give an impression of cohesiveness - just like in concerts of duos, where the artists feed off of each other.

2) I was very disappointed in not hearing a nereval - I was eagerly looking forward to a nereval by all three viduSis but none was presented. I wonder if there are technical reasons for not attempting one, in which case my request would be unreasonable.

3) An RTP may have been nice! (I am getting greedy here, right? - so let me stop with that!)

Miscellaneous side notes:

I picked up a CD of our VeenaJJ, and the inlay card categorizes the rendition of mAyE in tarangiNi as the 'popular version' - which begs the question 'Is there another version, and if so, where can it be heard?'

Based on the reviews on this forum, I picked up the newly released DVD of Sri LGJ's varNams.

And, finally, a thank you note to Rajna's mother for having posted the concert details. I would suggest that the announcement be updated before every concert just to alert more potential rasikas.

arunk · Post by **arunk** » 25 Mar 2009, 19:40

> I picked up a CD of our VeenaJJ, and the inlay card categorizes the rendition of mAyE in tarangiNi
> as the 'popular version' - which begs the question 'Is there another version, and if so, where can it
> be heard?'
Like so many other cases, original version uses D1 (and thus original tarangini is thus a janya of cAruKESi) - but popular uses D2 (it is quite attractive - no doubt)

.

I think some musicians do sing in the original - I vaguely remember someone posting a link on sangeetham (?) long ago.

Arun

vijay · Post by **vijay** » 25 Mar 2009, 19:46

Comprehensive as usual Ravi. Thanks for the virtual journey to NJ! Brings to mind the Violin-Veena-Venu experiment of Ramani-LGJ et al...of course that was all male - times have changed!

arunk · Post by **arunk** » 25 Mar 2009, 19:50

See http://www.aradhana.org/sampradaya/2007/10%20maaye (listen to lesson-6, in which I believe they sing the whole song) - has Smt. Vedavalli teaching kids the original version (as per SSP)

Arun

fuddyduddy · Post by **fuddyduddy** » 25 Mar 2009, 20:39

great review.

cienu · Post by **cienu** » 25 Mar 2009, 20:42

Excellent review Ravi

How long was the concert duration? May be there was a time factor constraint for the Neraval.

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 25 Mar 2009, 20:59

I seem to have lost a post here!

Arun

Thanks.

Appreciate the trouble you've taken to unearth that link - will listen t it when I get home.

Vijay/Fuddyduddy/Cienu,

Thank you. The music part of the evening lasted at least 2 hours and 45 minutes; with the speeches, the total 'concert' was 3 hours and 15 or 30 minutes long.

I also thought that it was very classy of Smt. LV to refer to Sri LGJ exclusively as her guru (without ever mentioning that he was her father).

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 25 Mar 2009, 21:19

rshankar wrote:1) varNam - valaci - LGJ - probably cAlamu seya

Could be kadaloor subramaniam's varnam valaci yunna in valaci, there is another popular rAgamAliga varnam Valachi vachchiyunna napai by Kottavasal Venkatrama Iyer, I am not sure if there is a valaci varnam by LGJ.

Ravi- keep them coming...

bilahari · Post by **bilahari** » 25 Mar 2009, 21:22

Ravi, very nice review again. Thanks! Just reading the songlist, I could feel your disappointment at lack of neraval and RTP. Instrumental concerts tend to eschew neravals (especially the Lalgudi duo), probably because the sahitya cannot really be uttered so it isn't as meaningful as done in vocal? I don't know.

cienu · Post by **cienu** » 25 Mar 2009, 21:30

Rajesh,

I think "calamu sEyanEla" is a Varnam composed by Lalgudi in valaci. Kindly ref link below.

http://rasikas.org/forums/viewtopic.php? ... arnam.html

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 26 Mar 2009, 08:36

Ravi,
Thanks for your review. I agree with you that all the three instruments playing AlApanAs, as and neravals at least in a few songs would be nice--an RTP too, as you say. Call me greedy as well! Knowing the expertise of MC and our own JJ, these would have added to the richness of the concert. We are proud of young Rajna, another forumite (stars and stripes). Though she is the youngest, Bhagyalakshmi is quite young too. She is an impressive morsing player.With Bangalore Rajashekhar and young Bhagyalakshmi, Karnataka boasts of morsing power...

Ravi,
I see that you have used sub-headings (typically Rajeshish) in your review.

Rajesh,
You truly are a trend-setter

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 27 Mar 2009, 09:43

Ravi: Very good review. Thanks.

ksrimech · Post by **ksrimech** » 27 Mar 2009, 10:43

LGJ thillAnas are always worth a second serving. If its the dES or sindhubhairavi thillAna, I will go even for a third.

rShankar: You have written it as if you are writing a critical review in a Scientific Journal. Kudos.

mohan · Post by **mohan** » 27 Mar 2009, 11:11

Nice review Ravi! Yes, LGJ's desh tillana is a masterpiece and warrants an encore!

rasikapriya2 · Post by **rasikapriya2** » 31 Mar 2009, 09:02

This is an interesting link... thanks for the review. I attended the all-women's ensemble by Smt. Lalgudi Vijayalakshmi (LV) & party in Madison, WI on 27th March 2009 and it was a grand success.
Starting from varnam to thillana, every piece was beautifully played to perfection. It was particularly nice that the instrumentalists took turns in exhibiting their creativity within the limits of the raga in any given krithi. In the RTP, Smt. LV, Smt. MC and Smt. JJ did a great job together as a team. The RTP was extremely grand, complete with neraval, and all three artists developed it beautifully. This was a ragamalika and each artist got to develop two ragas each, with the main raga being equally developed by all three artistes. The rendition of Desh by Smt. LV was particularly noteworthy and moved the crowd to tears. Kum. RS and Smt. BM did a fabulous job of the thani. The crowd was amazed by the unique sounds that the morsing produced and by how casually Kum. RS played the mridangam.
The concert ended with Chinnanchirukiliye and the Dhanshree thillana. We were pleasantly surprised when Smt. LV announced that the tune to the Dhanashree thillana (sahithyam by Maharaja Swathi Thirunal) had been originally set by her Guru Shri. Lalgudi Jayaraman. Overall, the VVV concert was awesome and left an indelible impression in our minds.

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 31 Mar 2009, 23:49

Rasikapriya - Nice review - Glad to see that it echoes mine to a large extent - except that I am so jealous that you got to hear a rAgam tALam pallavi!

ksrimech wrote:rShankar: You have written it as if you are writing a critical review in a Scientific Journal. Kudos.

Have to invoke 'pazhaka dOSam' (fault of my usual practice)! =)

bilahari · Post by **bilahari** » 01 Apr 2009, 00:00

Rasikapriya, what ragam was the RTP in? Can you write a separate review?

bilahari · Post by **bilahari** » 01 Apr 2009, 00:01

Ravi, I'm simply jealous that you've even got to hear this ensemble!

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 01 Apr 2009, 02:04

Bilahari,

Are you sure that they are not heading up your way? I was under the impression that new concerts dates were being negotiated even now. I have been recommending the ensemble to my friends in other states.

davalangi · Post by **davalangi** » 01 Apr 2009, 08:20

There is an enchanting presentation (and a rather dramatic one too

) of mAyE in Prof R. Visweswaran's commercial CD "Ragas of Dual Identity". If the mods are ok with me uploading that krithi alone (just as a teaser), I would be happy to.

rasikapriya2 · Post by **rasikapriya2** » 01 Apr 2009, 16:54

bilahari wrote:Rasikapriya, what ragam was the RTP in? Can you write a separate review?

The RTP was a ragamalika in Hindolam, Arabhi, Reethigowlai, Saveri, Desh, Revathi & Rasikapriya.