Madras String Quartet@MusicAcademy(Mini) on Sept 01st,2009

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 02 Sep 2009, 22:12

Madras String Quartet@MusicAcademy(Mini) on Sept 01st,2009
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The members of the Madras String Quartet is given below.

1.V.S.Narasimhan – First Violinist of the string quartet.

2.Hemanthraj Muniyil – Second Violinist of the string quartet

3. B.J.Chandran.—Viola player of the string quartet

4. R.Sekar --- Cello player of the string quartet

This was part of madras day celebrations , there was a brief speech by BeliappA(IAS retd) and V.Sriram. With this quartet there was a kind of compere who took all of us into the nitty gritty details of quartet and the concert.

The 1st and 2nd violin had the usual violin nAdham, the viola was perhaps having a semi bass semi violin tune, the cello was like MD RamanAthan , perhaps the lowest octave instrument. Incidentally all of them played with great sense of timing and though Shri VSN was leading , the other were never lagging. Incidentally to my surprise the entire concert did not have mike , but I am not complaining the volume even when I and semmu86 sat in the last row. To that extent one has to give them the credit as it was a perfect synchronization without no feeling of either the volume was low or high.

There were 4 capsules for the concert(lifting the songlist from S.NAgeshwaran's earlier posting) :

1. Western Classical Tradition:
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1. Henry Purcell (1659-1695): ‘Fantasia’ No. 9 for Violin, 2 Violas and Cello
2. W.A. Mozart (1756-1791): ‘String Quartet’ in G Major (K. 156)
3. Tchaikovsky (1840- 1893): ‘Waltz’ from Serenade for Strings in G major

The first purcell was perhaps a warmup kind of the play was bit of slower tone, I dont know if any of you have seen the music drop of those english novels of Sherlock holmes and Wuthering heights , where there will be a violin play during the titles. This was something like that

The second mozart was played in 3 kAlams can I say dhurita , vilamba and dhurita ,no I am not allowed to say that it was fast , slow and fast. This had its moments of excitement

The third tchaikovsky was a waltz and it was a short filler.

Overall in this segment you indeed get a feel of violin as a western instrument. This was from 07:24 to 07:47pm

2. Carnatic Music Tradition:
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Let me take a detour here, even assuming I am listening for the first time say both western and carnatic music ,I can say with conviction that carnatic is just not miles but light years ahead of any form of music. Why perhaps there is longevity of rAga bhAVam , that longevity and sustenance of melody has to sync between your ear's malleaus incus and stapes and get synched with the brain . This music is indeed laser focussed. Incidentally this CM tradition was of the same contemporary as the western classical.

4. vAthApi - hamsadhwani - MD
5. jnanamO saga - poorvikalyAni -T
6. eesaNE(R) - chakravAkham - p.sivan

The start was vAthApi predominantly played by Shri narasimhan, very beautiful nAdham , the support of other three was more in the end of each tAlA cycle , they played say last 2 out of the 8 cycles of Adi. The poorvikalyAni was more an intense team participation , kind of rotation of sangathis between VSN and the viola and the cello player job well done.

The top 2 best pick of the day followed . The entire team was playing all along with the notes in the front . There was a 3 minute of "manodharma" alApana , should I say manodharma sangeetham is the essence of karnatakam music.Shri VSN gave the essence of chakravakham and the team followed with a beautiful orchestration , I dare say that it was possible only because of the rAga bhAvam and also because of extraordinary lyrical beauty of the vaggeyakkara pApanAsam sivan.
This capsule was from 07:50-08:10pm

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 02 Sep 2009, 22:13

3. Western Influence in Carnatic Music:
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THe compere talked briefly about dikshitar nottu swaras and there were two numbers presented .The first one was the instrumental favourite which I liked and the second was perhaps not the best of krithis in that rAga despite that being thyagarAja. I just wished if they had taken a better kuntalavarAli krithi say perhaps bhOgeendra sAyinAm

7. raghuvamsa sudhA - kAtanakuthuhalam
8. sara sara samarE - kuntalavarAli
This capsule was from 08:16pm - 08:29pm

4. Light Tones or tukkadas:
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This was kind of tukkadas , the first was excellent that too with the cello taking up the alApana of desh , and then popped LGJ's thillana . Then there was a medlay of possibly 3 tones , I did not know the first and third one but the second one was the rAymond suiting vivaldi fourseasons tune.
This capsule was from 08:29pm - 08:44pm
9. thillAnA (R) - desh - LGJ
10. medlay mix

Overall big plus points:
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1. The orchestration was lovely , I could hear the intricate delicate tones of every instrument which is impossible as violin is usually behind the mridangam and vocal in CM concerts.

2. Cello and viola are indeed great instruments , particularly the cello was really very contemplative , possibly sekar played it so well.

3. Nice compere by Shri venkat and no one man showmanship , vsn was leading but not being dominant and killing the other 3 instruments.

Few areas I think it will be interesting:
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1. The whole concert was only for 80 minutes inclusive of speech , that is perhaps too short.

2. Why cant they play say a beautiful tune from say How to name it from say illayaraja album , that just gives so much scope of orchestration . There was one tune that used to be played just in a backdrop of one of the balu mahendra movie by name veedu . I am sure a number like that would be wonderful. Perhaps may be VSN played for that , because I do know illayaraja used him as his violinist atleast for the pantuvarali in rAja pArvai movie.

More than anything I love madras and when one hears the concerts organized like this it just shows how open people are from this city in music.This quartet is very much indian . Thanks to nAgeshwaran sir for inviting us (this did not come in the hindu). This was not some chennai sangamam gumbalOda govinda farce or a typical con enabled fusion concerts where one plays with excellence others just add more noise and cacophany, this concert had musical content from each and every artist.

All said and done ,every amalgamation of different forms of music like western , carnatic etc is only giving more brownie points for me to confidently affirm that carnatic is one of the best forms of music, because of its depth , sustenance,manodharmam, rAga bhAvam and many many reasons.Overall a very good concert . Certainly if I am either learning violin :rolleyes: or a legend like Shri MSG

who was there in the crowd ,I would have enjoyed it perhaps a notch higher.

http://rasikas.org/forums/viewtopic.php? ... -hall.html is the preceding thread .

Suji Ram · Post by **Suji Ram** » 02 Sep 2009, 22:33

Lovely review!.
Would such a concert attract the youth?

S.NAGESWARAN · Post by **S.NAGESWARAN** » 03 Sep 2009, 01:33

The Madras String Quartet concert led by Sri V.S.NarasimhanÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã¢â‚¬Â

S.NAGESWARAN · Post by **S.NAGESWARAN** » 03 Sep 2009, 03:10

Dear Rasikas,

Download link for one song played by the Madras String Quartet is given below for enjoying the western music played by the Madras String Quartet.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/vwuun2mkzt3/06-Waltz from Seranade for Strings in G Major.mp3

S.NAGESWARAN.

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 04 Sep 2009, 21:19

A very nice writeup by RANDALL GILES (Who is that is that his real name or a pen name)
http://www.hindu.com/fr/2009/09/04/stor ... 240600.htm

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 05 Sep 2009, 08:25

arasi wrote:Rajesh,
Do you ask because his name sounds like the pseudonym Randor Guy?!

exacly arasi. I was thinking randor guy when I wrote the previous post.

sridhar_ranga · Post by **sridhar_ranga** » 05 Sep 2009, 10:45

The list of Iyengars in Wikipedia has Randor Guy's real name: Madabhushi Rangadorai

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Iyengars

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 05 Sep 2009, 11:04

Sridhar,
It was not about Randor (Rangadorai) but about the person who reviewed the concert. This would be his real name, I thought. I merely asked Rajesh if this similar sounding name made him think that it was a pen name--half in jest, of course.

sridhar_ranga · Post by **sridhar_ranga** » 05 Sep 2009, 11:37

No problem Arasi

Here we go Rajesh - All it took was to type his name in Google and I got this:

Composer Randall Giles lives and works in Madras (now Chennai), South India. This web site features his biography, musical works, mp3 downloads, ...

http://www.randallgiles.org/

gn.sn42 · Post by **gn.sn42** » 05 Sep 2009, 13:08

sridhar_rang wrote:All it took was to type his name in Google

LMGTFY

sridhar_ranga · Post by **sridhar_ranga** » 05 Sep 2009, 15:08

That's really cool, gn.sn!

Nick H · Post by **Nick H** » 05 Sep 2009, 15:43

cheeky!

S.NAGESWARAN · Post by **S.NAGESWARAN** » 05 Sep 2009, 23:52

Dear Rasikas, 06.09.2009

The Audio Album "RAGA-SAGA"

S.NAGESWARAN · Post by **S.NAGESWARAN** » 06 Sep 2009, 02:09

Dear Rasikas, 06.09.2009.

The download links of the Madras String Quartet concert held at Music Academy Mini Hall on 01.09.2009 is given below. Since the speech recording requires more processing time, it will be uploaded later.

If you happen to hear sounds like "AHAH ", "HA"

S.NAGESWARAN · Post by **S.NAGESWARAN** » 06 Sep 2009, 05:01

Dear Rasikas,

The upload of the concert was done after getting the permission from Sri V.S.Narasimhan.

S.NAGESWARAN.