MSG Trio in San Diego on 03 April 2009

bilahari · Post by **bilahari** » 04 Apr 2009, 13:08

Violin: MS Gopalakrishnan
Dr. M Narmada
G Suresh
Mrudangam: Tiruvarur Vaidyanathan
Khanjira: Cleveland Balu

Duration ~ 2.5 hours

Approximate Songlist:

01. sarasUDa (varNam) - sAvEri - Adi
02. mahAganapathim (Sketch, S @ pallavi) - nATTai - chatusra Ekam
03. teratIyaga - gauLipanTu - Adi
04. rAma bhakthi (S @ pallavi)- shuddha bangla - Adi
05. anAdudanu (S @ pallavi) - jingla - Adi - thyAgarAja
06. paridAnamichithE (R, N @ rokkamIchutaku nE, S) - bilahari - khanda cApu
07. gnAnamOsagarAda (R, N @ paramAtmuDu jIvAtmuDu, S) - pUrvikalyANi - rUpakam
08. marivEragathi (Sketch) - Ananda bhairavi - misra cApu
09. enDukku pEDala (R, S @ vEda shAstra, T) - shankarAbharaNam - Adi
10. venkaTAchala nilayam - abhEri - Adi? - Indira Natesan
11. ajurahO (tulsidAs bhajan) (Sketch) - bEhAg
12. barasE (mIrA bhajan) - shyAmkalyAN - Adi
13. tharAna (sketch) - sindhu bhairavi - tIntAl (16 beat cycle)
14. niraimathi (thiruppugazh) - hamsAnandi
15. mangaLam - sowrAshtram - Adi

The MSG trio presented an enjoyable concert this evening and mollified my frustrations after a 45-min late start. MSG announced at the outset that this was one of his first trio essays with his son and asked the audience to encourage his children. With that, he launched into his patented two-speed sAvEri varnam, and remarkably maintained the clarity of his brigha sangathis in the second speed even as he was sitting on a chair with an obviously less stable positioning of the violin. The varnam rendition was flawless. After a brief sketch of nATTai by MSG where he played an interesting R3 that on descent to the shadjam lingered on intermediate frequencies and had a startling gAnamUrthi-esque feel (and yet didn't seem out of the nATTai zone), the trio then presented mahAganapathim, with each member of the trio introducing a new sangathi in turn, which was a nice touch. The swaras at the end of the song were a bit too short for my liking. To commemorate rAma navami, the violinists played rAma bhakthi in shuddha bangla, with pleasing sangathis in the pallavi, and then played a brief swara kalpana with some tricky dattu phrasings that were handled well by Suresh. Thereafter, anAdulanu in a naTabhairavi janya (supposedly the only krithi in this raga by a member of the Trinity) was presented in response to a request by Dr. Geetha Bennett. I really enjoyed the feel of this piece, and MSG played a nice short sketch of the rAgam as well, but about this time, I started to feel that too many items had been rendered without a comprehensive ragam or any elaborate manOdharma, and I wish they had cut a piece or two from the top order and perhaps played an elaborate shuddha bangla or nATTai.

The meat of the concert started with a short raga essay of bilahari by Suresh, and personally, I thought it was (I cannot be tactful about this, I'm sorry) downright poor. His pidis and phrases were really repetitive and unimaginative, he kept producing apaswarams while running up and down the octaves or playing fast brigha sangathis (especially in the tara sthayi), and when you muck up the shruti of the crucial madhyamam in bilahari, you've more or less ruptured its aorta. This is just my opinion, so take my impression with pinches of salt (and I do have high bilahari standards!). As a partial counterbalance, a lovely neraval in slower madhyama kalam was shared amongst the violinists, with Narmada playing an extraordinarily bhava-laden phrase descending slowly to the rishabam by lingering on the madhyamam. Narmada and MSG further explored the beauty of the M-R descent in the kalpanaswaras, which were also thoroughly enjoyable.

The most elaborate item of the evening was pUrvikalyANi (as if in response to ganeshkant's thread). Narmada's elaborate alapanai of the ragam would easily be the highlight of the evening. I have heard some earlier duets of Narmada where her playing is very brigha-happy, but her artistry has grown by leaps and bounds over the years (as evidenced by her superb accompaniment to Sowmya which I was fortunate to witness last year at the MA), and tonight she combined dattu, janta, brigha phrases in good proportion with clean gamaka-laden phrases and conjured up a really emotive and lovely image of pUrvikalyANi, such that even I was in raptures (I don't ordinarily like this ragam at all). Narmada's mastery over the violin was illustrated by her ability to reach well into the tara and even atitara sthayis with consummate ease and while maintaining shruti shuddham. Her tara sthayi phrases were noteworthy, as were the plain note dattu sequences she played in the midst of the alapanai. What impressed me more than anything else, however, was her mandra sthayi exploration of the ragam, where she played some divine brigha sangathis and descended slowly to the mandra shadjam. GnAnamOsagarAdha was presented cleanly, and the neraval was thorough and enjoyable. The audience gave a special round of applause for MSG who at the end of the neraval exercise played some semi-fast sequences with ridiculously smooth and subtle cut-bowing and it was apparent then the master had not lost his magic at all.

MarivEragathi evaramma, an obvious favourite of MSG, was presented well and there was a fine demonstration of the chittai swaras in two speeds. Thereafter, shankarAbharaNam was taken up as the main item for the evening. I was really disappointed by the sketch-ish raga alapanai offered by MSG and Narmada, where MSG appeared to be in some terrible hurry to conclude the raga exploration and within a minute of commencing the essay, he was already up in the tara sthayi. The late start of the concert had probably disoriented him somewhat. Still, he played some innovative phrases and used the phrase PD MP GM RG S,,, at various moments as a nice "pidi". The swaras after Endukku Peddala were really rather brief (~5 min), but those few minutes were rather enjoyable. Here, it must be noted that Narmada concluded most of her swara passages today with a brief kOrvai (I'm personally not a big fan of quite so many kOrvais--they sound repetitive and mechanical after a while, especially since almost all kOrvais seem to use the same GRS, GRSNDP RS... type patterns).

Tiruvarur Vaidyanathan and Cleveland Balu played a really short thani here, which was interrupted by the doorbell-type echoes of the khanjira which had to be sorted out midway through the thani by a mic adjustment. The mrudangam artiste was muttering to himself and shaking his head and appeared thoroughly displeased with the sound system in the auditorium, though the real victim of the sound system, the khanjira artiste, played on smilingly. Until the thani, the khanjira had been drowned out completely by the other instruments, and I think it's rather unfortunate because Cleveland Balu played some great passages in the thani, with a particularly striking passage where he tapped on the khanjira lightly to produce a tambourine-type sound with dazzlingly quick beats of his fingers in succession. The mrudangam artiste provided solid accompaniment throughout, and was very energetic. He has a vigorous and strokeful style but the excessive volume of the mrudangam did mar my appreciation of his playing significantly (the violins were also really loud). Vaidyanathan's lightning-speed thIrmAnam at the end of enDukku pEddala was just awe-inspiring.

Having listened to the TNK trio and now the MSG trio, I have to say that this trio concept just does not work for me. I have heard spellbinding duets by TNK and MSG, but both of them rely so much on soft melody, delicate playing, subtle variation of tone and volume, that it really does their music no justice to play as a trio, where nuances and subtleties are overwhelmed invariably by the "macroscopic" sound. They should both stick to duets.

Needless to say, I was also bitterly, bitterly, bitterly (three times for dramatic effect) disappointed at the absence of RTP in this concert (especially since I believe MSG is one of THE best exponents of thanam). However, I really enjoyed the tukkadas. I never knew there was a venkaTAchala nilayam in abhEri for example (nice sangathis in the pallavi for that krithi). Narmada also presented a lovely sketch of bEhAg very much in the Hindusthani style of note-based elaboration (I was comparing this mentally to an equally lovely bEhAg sketch I heard by Viji Krishnan last season entirely in the Carnatic style-- would be interesting to have a female ensemble of Narmada/ Lalgudi Vijayalakshmi/ Viji Krishnan/ Bharathi etc!). Narmada also sang the first line of the bhajan in bEhAg (she has a nice, robust voice- she should sing more! It is also worth mentioning here that Narmada announced all the pieces as MSG always does, she sang the neraval lines, she even sang the line in which swaras were taken up in shankarAbharaNam, and also gave some brief info about krithis they were playing-- this is how instrumental concerts should be conducted!).

MSG then presented an excellent sketch of sindhu bhairavi and the tharAna (a musical form introduced into the Carnatic world by Parur Sundaram Iyer, per Narmada) was really well played with trademark fast choppy bowing and was presented in two speeds as was the thiruppugazh, another MSG-brand item.

All in all, I do wish (a) more than one really thorough raga alapanai had been presented, (b) there had been a pallavi, or (c) at least the Shankarabharanam had been elaborated more, but none of this takes away from my enjoyment of my first live experience listening to MSG. MSG clearly does have some problems sitting in a chair and playing, but his music is still intact. Of course, it helps that Narmada is playing (and singing!) as she is, with such aplomb, dedication, and aesthetic sense. She was honestly a shining star this evening and I was seriously considering congratulating her personally after the concert but the usual gumbal (crowd) gathered on stage immediately after the mangaLam, and the misanthrope that I am, I left silently, replaying in my mind the highlights of a wonderful, musical evening.

revanthv552 · Post by **revanthv552** » 04 Apr 2009, 15:22

anadhudanu gaanu is in jingla

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 04 Apr 2009, 18:01

Bilahari - that was a simply SUPERB review. Keep 'em coming!

bilahari · Post by **bilahari** » 04 Apr 2009, 19:34

Thanks, revanth!
And thanks, Ravi! I will try to keep them coming this weekend!

sethu · Post by **sethu** » 04 Apr 2009, 19:41

Wow, bilahari! Amazing review. You almost wrote everything, so I couldn't say much. I do share your disappointment in that this was one of the fastest renditions of enduku peddala (entirely it was close to 25 minutes). And personally, I don't know whether you were who I thought you were in the crowd..

bilahari · Post by **bilahari** » 04 Apr 2009, 19:44

Thank you sethu. I agree about the bullet train Endukku Peddala! I was in a black T-shirt wearing a "Volunteer" badge, sethu. Now preparing to set off for another day of music! Will you be there today?

harimau · Post by **harimau** » 04 Apr 2009, 20:18

bilahari wrote:
The mrudangam artiste provided solid accompaniment throughout, and was very energetic. He has a vigorous and strokeful style but the excessive volume of the mrudangam did mar my appreciation of his playing significantly (the violins were also

Last time, I walked out of a concert where Tiruvarur Vaidyanathan was playing at the end of the second krithi.

I refuse to go to any concert where this man plays.

A friend of mine said, "This is not mridangam; this is thavil".

What a pity he will be spoiling several concerts at the Cleveland Thyagaraja Aradhana.

Sathej · Post by **Sathej** » 04 Apr 2009, 20:23

That was a well written review, bilahari. Nice to see the song list. Good that the old magic is still there - with the Saveri Varnam, the Shudha Bangala et al. I once heard a Shudha Bangala by MSG a few years back at the Vidwat Samajam. And that was quite a display with a considerably detailed Alapanai and Swarams.
Sathej

suma · Post by **suma** » 05 Apr 2009, 04:12

Thanks for the review, Bilahari. Keep them coming.

newyorker · Post by **newyorker** » 05 Apr 2009, 08:05

... as he was sitting on a chair with an obviously less stable positioning of the violin

MSG was playing the violin sitting on a chair? Very curious ... Was it still in a 'carnatic' position? Or has this wizard now mastered the instrument without the bottom foot-anchor?

Sathej · Post by **Sathej** » 05 Apr 2009, 08:31

MSG Sir has been playing that way for atleast 2 years as far as I know. Its still a 'Carnatic position' in that he still holds the violin in the usual Carnatic way with the violin resting on the ankle, but it is supposedly not all that stable as he would like it to be, maybe. But then, with all those years of outstanding practice, am sure MSG would take such adjustments in his stride and still manage to produce the breathtaking Sangathis.
Sathej

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 05 Apr 2009, 11:30

bilahari
That was a brilliant review , kind of thread bare one. Just speculating here , since LA is close to sandiego with a high possibility that concerts in LA and Sandiego will be during adjacent days , by any chance do musicians think pallavi will be sung in LA and not sandiego. some thing like sAstri hall is sandiego and NGS sabha is LA .

May be next time , you have to tell the artists upfront and ask them to sing a pallavi in sandiego.

On a minor note,would be nice next time if you give some whitespaces between for every 3 to 5 songs,that way it is just easier .

srikant1987 · Post by **srikant1987** » 05 Apr 2009, 12:09

Well I've heard an MSG trio LONG ago in Hyderabad, and Suresh played bilahari there too.

What an elaborate review!

bilahari · Post by **bilahari** » 05 Apr 2009, 12:20

For some odd reason, from his tense demeanor on stage last night, I'd figured Suresh was new to the concert circuit (and MSG also said this trio format was new)... so it surprises me you heard Suresh a LONG time ago, Srikant! So, how was his Bilahari then?

srikant1987 · Post by **srikant1987** » 05 Apr 2009, 13:07

Well at that time I didn't know even as much about CM as I do now, and I only remember to have enjoyed the concert. There was an elaborate pantuvarali by Narmada in that concert.

I do remember, however, that I hadn't recognised it to be bilahari, though I knew rA rA vENu that time. My parents who also attended the concert with me told me it was bilahari. I had no idea how to draw ragas' essence from songs in them at that time and rA rA vENu is a somewhat different (simpler?) bilahari than is commonly played in concerts.

Well, this San Diego concert might have been Suresh's second for all we know.

Sathej · Post by **Sathej** » 05 Apr 2009, 13:15

MSG Suresh has played in quite a few trios of late, including a couple in the season that I can think of. But, yes, its often a duet with only MSG-Narmada.

Sathej

bilahari · Post by **bilahari** » 05 Apr 2009, 13:57

Rajesh, do you mean spaces between songs on the songlist like you do in your reviews, or wrt paragraphing of my comments?

Newyorker, as Sathej says, MSG sits on a chair and rests his right leg on a table in front of him and places the violin in an exactly Carnatic manner. I do believe this position is a lot less stable, but like Sathej says, with decades of experience, he could probably belt out a second speed sAvEri varnam while standing on his head!

Srikant, I hate rAravENu. It's not real bilahari!

bilahari · Post by **bilahari** » 05 Apr 2009, 14:05

Also, Rajesh, I too have had this lingering suspicion that the RTPs go to other metros in California like LA and SF!

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 05 Apr 2009, 14:08

bilahari wrote:Rajesh, do you mean spaces between songs on the songlist like you do in your reviews, or wrt paragraphing of my comments?

The songs on the songlist only needs more spacing , rest is great

semmu86 · Post by **semmu86** » 06 Apr 2009, 18:19

wow bilahari...may sound monotonous but what a wonderful review. You almost brought life to what must have been a wonderful concert .

I was cursing myself for having missed that concert inspite of being in san-diego on 3rd. I can almost see the wonderful smile of MSG sir as he plays in your review.. Thanks a lot once again ..

Arvind...

sushanth · Post by **sushanth** » 07 Apr 2009, 23:01

Nice review bilahari.

I have heard the trio play during a raaga research presentation by Sri Kunnakudi Sir in Chennai. But then Suresh skipped some of the swara prasthara.

I guess MSG sir probably said because this might be Suresh's first trip abroad.

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 08 Apr 2009, 08:00

Bilahari,
Way to go! I was wondering. If only Chennai journals had such reviews...
Yes, you do take us there to the concerts with you and that does not make you a misanthrope.
You work, even when you take time off from it! Who is complaining?