Is there a dearth in the number of reviews off late

coolkapali · Post by **coolkapali** » 23 Jul 2009, 17:30

My sincere apologies for not reviewing many cinerts in the last so many months. However, my work pressure is to blame. Anyways, I get the feeling that we must motivate ourself to somehow find time, attend concerts and come out with a review. Some of my favourite review writers are not to be seen at all. wats happening....i guess lack of time is to be blamed. My sincere thanks to those few regulars for theie efforts. Maybe we should have a yearly get together and honour the best review writer...

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 23 Jul 2009, 19:23

cool kapAli
Unfortunately there is not much concerts in chennai. Look at the hindu for the last 3 months, hardly one or two concerts in weekends .There is 0 or 1 concerts in weekdays. I heard thru one sabha patron that few carnatic philanthropists have cut their annual budget for CM, cannot confirm that for sure , but appears quite likely just looking atleast the hindu paper daily. April -May is a dry CM season,that is extending till July too that is unfortunate.

Also weekday concerts are starting at 6pm in most sabhas especially perennial rAgasudha ,that timing is not conveniant to me(perhaps all working folks). I dont want to land at the beginning of tani (still erode nAgarAjan has not accepted me as his sishyA

).

The ECONOMY HAS TO BOUNCE ,CM IS REELING IN RECESSION MORE THAN PERHAPS EVEN IT.

How is bangalore,trivandrum,madurai ,coimbatore,hyderabad doing with number of concerts(just curious there)?

VK RAMAN · Post by **VK RAMAN** » 23 Jul 2009, 19:41

Disappointment indeed for not being accepted as sishyA!

srinivasrgvn · Post by **srinivasrgvn** » 23 Jul 2009, 20:17

I think Chennai concerts are plenty only in the months after December from January to April. It goes on full swing during this period. May,June,July,August,September are 5 dull months with less activity. But, starting from October to November, concerts crop up again leading to the peak December season. I always look forward to December! That is the only period where I go to concerts daily. A minimum of 2 concerts per day and a maximum of even 4! The Music Academy is my temple. I wish they provide lodging too there! I will definitely like to stay in that area for the whole of December!! =)

rajaglan · Post by **rajaglan** » 23 Jul 2009, 20:36

Yes it is true. Just wait for a day or two. The Gokulashtami (SGBST) at unnati center and spring festival will start in bangalore soon.
I guess many reviews will come here.

sivakami · Post by **sivakami** » 23 Jul 2009, 21:00

Situation is somewhat imilar here at Hyd also.. April to november can be called as off-season, with sporadic concerts here and there... SOmetimes events are not notified in the news papers. So, we get to know only after reading the newspaper reviews, that such an event took place. As a lay-rasika, I many times hesitate to report every concert that I attend, thinking that the experts may feel, " now-a-days everyone and anyone with no/half knowledge appear to be writing reviews in these online-forums"..
I am also trying to gather information about the sabhas in the twin cities, to collect prior information and post in our rasikas calender...

eagerly awaiting the arrival of November ....

johnlovescm · Post by **johnlovescm** » 24 Jul 2009, 07:10

The reason for the lull is perhaps half the musicians are globe trotting
The other half are (who are good) are not crowd pullers and therefore rejected by the sabha secretaries / organizers.

coolkarni · Post by **coolkarni** » 24 Jul 2009, 07:12

VK RAMAN · Post by **VK RAMAN** » 24 Jul 2009, 07:26

Indian call centers at work for CM too perhaps

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 24 Jul 2009, 09:45

>sivakami wrote
>I am also trying to gather information about the sabhas in the twin cities, to collect prior information and post in our rasikas calender...

That is the spirit, sivakami. Please do. You can also tell the sabhas that they can send concert event details to calendar999 AT gmail DOT com .

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 24 Jul 2009, 10:14

sivakami wrote: As a lay-rasika, I many times hesitate to report every concert that I attend, thinking that the experts may feel, " now-a-days everyone and anyone with no/half knowledge appear to be writing reviews in these online-forums"..

You dont have to feel that way , just report it .Everyone is skating in thin ice.Keep them coming.

coolkapali · Post by **coolkapali** » 24 Jul 2009, 12:15

I guess so. But how many of us listen to AIR concerts. I hope to come up with an AIR concert review in the near future and start the trend. Lets not spare the artistes even there !!!

makham · Post by **makham** » 24 Jul 2009, 12:29

Rajeshnat wrote:

How is bangalore,trivandrum,madurai ,coimbatore,hyderabad doing with number of concerts(just curious there)?

Trivandrum is generally dry - but there are oasis periods - Kuthiramalika series in January organized by Shri Rama Verma, Neelakanta Sivan aradhana in July, Tirumurugan sangam in July, Navaratri mantapam series in September etc. One advantage is that the dates for these are known well in advance. Occasionally, Swati Tirunal Sangeetha Sabha organizes some concerts but these are very erratic.

Let me use this occasion to fill in my bit from what I heard in Trivandrum over the last 10 days - "devi"

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 24 Jul 2009, 22:29

rajeshnat wrote:
sivakami wrote: As a lay-rasika, I many times hesitate to report every concert that I attend, thinking that the experts may feel, " now-a-days everyone and anyone with no/half knowledge appear to be writing reviews in these online-forums"..
You dont have to feel that way , just report it .Everyone is skating in thin ice.Keep them coming.

I have created a separate thread under this Kutcher Reviews forum and made it into a sticky. This is for people who want to simply write a report about the concert they attended rather than a review.
http://rasikas.org/forums/viewtopic.php? ... eport.html

This can also be where people start and then graduate to writing full reviews.

sivakami · Post by **sivakami** » 25 Jul 2009, 09:38

vasanthakokilam wrote:
rajeshnat wrote:
sivakami wrote: As a lay-rasika, I many times hesitate to report every concert that I attend, thinking that the experts may feel, " now-a-days everyone and anyone with no/half knowledge appear to be writing reviews in these online-forums"..
You dont have to feel that way , just report it .Everyone is skating in thin ice.Keep them coming.
I have created a separate thread under this Kutcher Reviews forum and made it into a sticky. This is for people who want to simply write a report about the concert they attended rather than a review.
http://rasikas.org/forums/viewtopic.php? ... eport.html

This can also be where people start and then graduate to writing full reviews.

Many thanks! This is a good idea! People like me, will feel free to report rather than to say review...As you say, some of us may evolve little-by-little perhaps to further stages...

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 25 Jul 2009, 11:40

Sivakami
You have already reviewed one of vijayaraghavan and another of nedunuri. They are very good. So you are beyond what you think.

All,
While VK's idea is laudable solution for a very small percentage , but with every solution there could be another problem also. Dont want all rasikas to just write few lines so that all concerts are just in that new sticky thread created by VK . We may lose out on continuity as many many concerts will get mixed up and be permenantly sticky. Just loud thinking there!!!

Just one advice to get out of inertia :

1. Just Open a new thread with atleast name of the artist,place and date in the title

2. Go to karnatik.com specifically this page , you will find all the songs in this link
http://www.karnatik.com/lyricstext.shtml

3. Cut and paste the song list , skeleton is done. I guess the most difficult part is to type the song list .

4. To begin with every one will have a liking say to anandabhairavi , say an aversion to kalyAni

or any combination that you personally choose. Musicians would have atleast given one song you love and the other you prefer not to hear. Write that feeling in words.

5. Be little courteous to mridangist and violin, you can atleast say whether you liked the tani or not whether the violinist played the return is short or long

5. Voila Voila ,Review is over

. Hit the submit button in a New Leaf Post with name, place and date in kutcheri reviews.

bilahari · Post by **bilahari** » 25 Jul 2009, 13:58

Good suggestions by Rajesh. I'd like to add

6. If you're writing a longish report/review/impressions, copy the text you're typing periodically. I distinctly remember pouring my heart out about a concert and Internet Explorer suddenly had an error and closed. I suffered PTSS for quite some time.

But also, please, please do not underestimate the worth of your own impressions. No matter the knowledge we have, our impressions are invariably subjective and whimsical. In fact, my impression of several concert pieces and whole concerts themselves oscillates wildly when I listen to a recording of the live concert, when I re-listen to the recording, etc. To a great extent, our concert experience is determined by a complex interaction of so many variables from our mood at the time, the ambience of the concert hall, the audience members sitting with us (including the acutely irritating little child who somehow always manages to sit next to me and grate on my nerves as he/she whines, eats, runs here and there, talks loudly, poke me... wait, I digress), our preconceived notions about the artistes and the proverbial bar we've set beforehand for the concert, the level to which the artiste exceeds or recedes our expectations, the song choice, the accompanists, etc.

As such, whenever I read a review on this forum, I do not stringently hold a reviewer to his/her words, analyse and interrogate his/her comments (as has happened here recently; I think it's unfair, discouraging, and frankly quite senseless), and judge a reviewer or even the concert or artiste from the review. All I want is a decent description of the author's own concert experience as it transpired. I'm interested in what he/she liked, didn't like about the music, the auditorium, the organizers' speeches (but of course!), the atmosphere in general. And everybody has opinions and thoughts about a concert (cogito ergo sum!), and nobody should feel embarrassed about sharing these impressions. It doesn't matter if you thought pantuvarALi was pUrvikalyANi (yours truly), loved the kurai onDrum illai but hated everything else in the concert (aka tukkada lover)... just relate your experience. It's worth sharing and we're interested in reading!

A note of caution: if you intend to criticise an artiste severely, explain yourself. This does not need to be in the form of "I really hated XYZ's varALi because he wasn't able to hit the varALi madhyamam at the right pitch", but can be as simple as "I didn't think XYZ's varALi was so great because he didn't really seem to flesh out its character accurately...something seemed a bit off". You definitely don't want to just say, "XYZ's varALi sucked and so he's a bad singer and I'll never listen to him again" and leave it there. Also avoid the kind of generalisations made in the last statement. If XYZ's varALi was bad on a particular day, that's all it was. Remember you might listen to it again in several weeks and think it wasn't half bad actually. This has happened to me fairly often!

Equally, if your only comments about a concert are, "Mindblowing concert, I took leave from work for a week because I was in a trance after that brilliant performance", don't just leave us on a cliffhanger--say a bit more about why it was so mindblowing, what items you liked at least, give us more details. You don't need to write elaborate never ending reviews, but at the same time, you don't want to just write a one-line summary. Mindblowing or nauseating, share a few impressions.

The forum will only benefit from more members actively reviewing concerts. This is generally one of the more vibrant sections of the forum and reviews provide all of us a good opportunity to discuss the songs sung, their composers, the ragas, talas, artistes, etc, and as a result are important for the vitality of discussion in this forum. It is also very interesting to read a variety of perspectives about the same concert, which is something we should expect with more than 7000 registered members. For instance, I know of people who attend concerts in San Diego and who read this forum and who no doubt have had a different impression of the concert--I would love to see these rasikas come forth with their opinions! I really hope there isn't anything intimidating about this forum--if so, the problem must be addressed emergently.

I have rambled enough. In short, don't feel insecure and don't feel embarrassed about your own opinions or impressions--go ahead, take the plunge, and you will (I almost guarantee) find reviewing to be very satisfying and enjoyable.

srinivasrgvn · Post by **srinivasrgvn** » 25 Jul 2009, 15:24

Nice rambling Bilahari. I liked it!! =)

VK RAMAN · Post by **VK RAMAN** » 25 Jul 2009, 18:46

CM concert review may be expanded to include Sampradaya Bhajans and harikatha by reputed artists. Perhaps it will widen the scope and give opportunity for various interests to participate

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 25 Jul 2009, 21:53

Great input, V Kokilam and reviewers of repute, Rajesh and Bilahari. We need you all, reviewers!

Makham,
That is a very good review/report from TVM. You need to post it on a separate thread inn the Reviews Section so that it will be visible.
I am wondering. If you are in TVM, how can you host a program which is aired from Bangalore?

makham · Post by **makham** » 25 Jul 2009, 22:21

arasi wrote: Makham,

I am wondering. If you are in TVM, how can you host a program which is aired from Bangalore?

Once you express your intention to co host the program, an anchor member from Shruti team gets in touch with you and asks you to give a playlist. Some discussion takes place over the phone on certain items such as not being on their archives, scheduled for airing in the next slot etc. and a consensus list is arrived at. The whole process takes hardly 10 mts. Thereafter a recording session over the phone is scheduled and the comments ahead of each selected item are recorded. The co-host is not normally expected to make the usual announcements about artist, raga, tala etc.(this is the prerogative of the host) but is asked to say a one-liner or two as to why he chose that piece - is it for the sake of raga, lyrics, composer, artist etc. These are then interspersed with the actual music and broadcast at the scheduled time. Thus you can co-host the program irrespective of where you stay because the comments are not made in real-time but recorded a couple of days earlier.

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 25 Jul 2009, 22:42

makham: That is a nice thing that they are going and am glad that you got the chance to co-host it. It may even be better if the co-hosts can record their comments on their PC in good quality and email them to the host.

s_hari · Post by **s_hari** » 25 Jul 2009, 23:31

makham - please let us know about your playlist and what you spoke.. I missed listening to the program today, as i was in Unnikrishnan concert in bangalore.

When the listener section co-hosting program started about 2 year ago, i was the first one to co-host the show!!!

-hari

makham · Post by **makham** » 26 Jul 2009, 10:34

That's great news s_hari, we have the pioneer of the program amongst us. The following is the playlist and a brief one-liner (not verbatim as I don't remember the exact words I spoke):

1. Evvari bodhana - Abhogi varnam - GNB - abhogi is supposed to trigger appetite, i have seen in a statistical sense that kutcheries that have had evvari bodhana as curtain raiser have succeeded in maintaining audience interest (kaLai kattaradhu in Tamil) This is a brisk rendition by GNB

2. Sobhiilu saptaswara - Jaganmohini - MS Subbulakshmi - While there are many songs of Thyagaraja that impact the emotional part of the brain, there are a few that touch the intellectual part of the brain. Amazed at Thyagaraja's codification of Nadopasana - this piece is a veritable process flow documentation (in an ISO 9001 sense) of Nadopasana. MS is a stickler for process compliance.

3. Palinchu Kamakshi - Madhyamavati - S Sowmya: If music is a stress buster and provider of solace , no raga does it better than madhyamavati and this is a sedate rendition by Sowmya

4. Janani Ninnuvina - Ritigowla - Neyveli Santanagopalan ; Ritigowla is a case of love-at-first -hearing for me . Got initiated into listening to CM exactly 50 years ago through Ritigowla.

5. Piravaa varam thaarum - Latangi - DK Jayaraman : Though it is a cliche to claim that music needs no language, knowledge of lyrics and its understanding especially in one's mother tongue adds value to the enjoyment. Sivan's yearning for immortality and the passion would not have sunk as well if it was in another language I did not understand.

6. Sree Krishnam bhaja maanasa - Todi - PS Narayanaswamy: A majestic piece that stands tall - rich in syntax, semantics, context ; again nostalgic memories of hearing it from SSI in my formative years as a rasika - (since SSI was scheduled for the 9-11pm slot, the rendition by PSN was chosen instead of the one by SSI)

7. Pooraya mam kaamam - Bilahari - Malladi brothers; Sampradaya bhajan has been a gateway into CM for many artistes and rasikas alike and it is no different in my case - we had lots of bhajan programs where Ashtapadis and Tharangams were a standard feature and they can not but stick with you.

8. Sagara sayana vibho - Bagesri - OS Thiagarajan ; I had been an admirer of MDR as a musician but I came to admire MDR as a vaggeykara through this piece.

9. Theertha Vittala - Aruna Sairam: Panduranga of Pandharpur has been as much an influence of national integration as Tirupati Balaji and Madurai Meenakshi. Aruna Sairam's popularizing abhangs has brought the West and the South that much closer.

10. Thillana - Desh - Lalgudi Jayaraman playing his own melodic thillana

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 26 Jul 2009, 11:59

s_hari and makham
Never knew you both are also Carnatic DJ.

. That is great .

Makham,
Your song list selection is superb in a typical well tested and established style , In the sense all three trinities are covered with also focus with Shivan and MDR and subbarAya sAstri's masterpiece (janani ninuvinA). AbhoGI varnam is indeed the best opening varnam for me too, it just gives a superb 100 metre Usain bolt start. Also covering NT,MDR and LGJ along with abhang is a very good selection.Just one crib that , you have covered thamizh,sanskrit and telugu , perhaps one kannada language composition would have made it 100% complete.

s_hari · Post by **s_hari** » 26 Jul 2009, 13:41

Makham - nice list. No swathi thirunaal, that too being in tiruvananthapuram? Great to see Sagara Sayana vibho.

-hari

VK RAMAN · Post by **VK RAMAN** » 26 Jul 2009, 21:02

Makham: I would have liked to see Malayalam also included in the list. Could it be "muttrattu mullakku maNamilla"

bilahari · Post by **bilahari** » 26 Jul 2009, 21:08

Very nice song choices, makham, and you cover a variety of yesteryear and contemporary artistes. However, I do respectfully disagree with both you and Rajesh about the abOghi varnam. Except for the last set of swaras in the composition, I find it quite insipid. But when people rush through it in 3 minutes like everyone does, even the little charm it has is wrenched from it. Amongst Adi tala varnams, I personally feel the sAvEri is the best one for fast treatment.

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 26 Jul 2009, 23:32

People, people

, it is MAKHAM'S list. Why should a co-host list like this need to conform to any standards like covering all composers and languages. I see that it needs to cover the various types of compositions and ragas. Now, an interesting exercise is, imagine yourself being a co-host for a program of 2 hours. What will be your priority? Some kind of equal opportunity normalization or just great songs that reflect your personal preferences? Of course, if such an equal opportunity thing is your preference, that is great. May be this can be an interesting thread where we can post our list along with a 1 or 2 line commentary like makham has done.

Rajesh or Hari, if you are willing, you can start that thread with your co-host list and others can follow. Hari has his list which had already aired. Since we have plenty of online resources, one can post a non-commericial link to that specific performance in mind. We do not need to limit ourselves to just one list. But we can start with our first list. Let us pick the same two hour limit as the Sruthi program.

Who knows, you all will be picked by Sruthi Radio and you will have your list all ready to go.

makham · Post by **makham** » 27 Jul 2009, 11:01

vasanthakokilam

Great posting on my behalf. Yes, it is supposed to be THAT rasika's wishlist. If it also conforms to some representative character it is incidental. Obviously the pet list of one who has been listening to CM for 50 years can not be limited to 8-10 pieces. I have missed out for example the likes of

Saveri, Mukhari, Sahana, Kedaragowla, Yadukulakhamboji, Varali

DKP, MLV, KVN, SSI, Sanjay, BMK, Somu

Swati Tirunal, Dasarakritis, OVK, Arunachala kavi, Ambujam Krishna

How nice it would have been if I had had Sanjay singing "Antha Rama Soundaryam" of Arunachala kavi in Kedaragowla.

Other constraints apart from time limit are:

Availability of the item in Worldspace archives
Current validity of their contracts with specific artistes
The duartions of renditions so that they add together fitting into a cutcheri format
Clashes with programs scheduled prior to and following this slot

It is a non-linear optimization problem and it has to be accepted that any solution will be sub-optimal in a global sense. Let us create a set of playlists as suggested by vasanthakokilam