Kartik Seshadri (Sitar) - San Diego - 25th Mar 2010

[bilahari]

Kartik Seshadri - Sitar
Arup Chattopadhyay - Tabla

01. Alap, jOd, jhAla
Bandish - rUpak
Bandish - tIntAl - hamsadhwani
02. Bandish - tIntAl
Bandish - Ek tAl - simmhEndramadhyamam
03. pahAdi jhinjoti

The Indian Classical Music and Dance Festival of San Diego commenced auspiciously with a brief gowLai ragam and sObillu sapthaswara (jaganmOhini) played on the nadaswaram by Injikudi Subramaniam, Chitra Subramaniam, and accompanied on the tavil by Sembanarkoil S.M. Babu and Sengalipuram G. Abiramasundaram. Local musician and teacher Revathi Subramanian then delivered an invocation by singing sadApAlaya sArAsakshi samAnarahita (mOhanam). Professor Vilayanur Ramachandran gave a 20-30 minute introduction to Indian civilisation, where he discussed India's contributions to mathematics, plumbing, etc, and then took a slight detour to heap scorn on some "scholar" in University of Chicago who analyses Hinduism expressly from a Freudian perspective. While Dr. Ramachandran is a good speaker, I must question the relevance of this presentation to the inauguration of a music festival.

Kartik Seshadri - music professor at UCSD and sishya of Pt. Ravi Shankar - gave the inaugural concert for the festival. He commenced the concert with an elaborate alap and jOd jhAla of hamsadhwani. While the hamsadhwani was pleasant, my CM-attuned brain was perhaps constantly on the search for pidis and heavy gamakas and as a result was none too enthused by the rather scalar approach adopted here. Both the bandishes were presented beautifully (compositions of Seshadri), with the tabla artiste demonstrating excellent anticipation in the final rounds of the pacy tIntAl and duly earning many rounds of enthusiastic applause from a large (mostly Caucasian) audience. KS often juxtaposed RG and NS phrases well in hamsadhwani, and used elongated nishadams very well. While the nishadam is often taken plain in Hindusthani music (as against the oscillating nishadam in CM), I found little else different in the HM version of the raga (which was imported to HM from CM anyway). This was the main item of the evening, consuming about 45-55 minutes of the 1 hour 50 minute concert.

Surprisingly, another popular CM raga was taken up for elaboration next: simmhEndramadhyamam. KS's short sketch of the ragam was very good and often startlingly Carnatic, with an oscillating madhyamam and some CM phrases as well. His brisk RGMG RGMG phrases in the tara sthayi were noteworthy. There were a few beautiful moments in the tIntAl bandish with KS using a gorgeous slippery gamakam in GR phrases. However, KS's numerous attempts at P-S and S-S(tara) phrases failed miserably because they sounded rather abrupt and ill-timed. The Eka tAl bandish expectedly culminated in an exercise in rapidly running up and down the scale of the raga, and I really felt this went on for far too long. However, I must have been one of the very few who became tired of and impatient with all the scalar exercises because the audience rewarded the artistes time and again with tremendous applause and after the "climax" with a standing ovation. Speed = applause. I think this can become a law of music.

My personal favourite piece of the evening was the short treatment of pahAdi jhinjoti, a raga created by Pt. Ravi Shankar (I think). I couldn't map it easily to any CM raga, and it had an interesting refrain that sounded like M G M P M,,, . Anyway, KS dealt with this piece very delicately, exposing the nuances with soft gamakas, and it was all in all the best demonstration of HM this evening. (I'd appreciate additional information on this raga.)

Arup Chattopadhyay was very good on the tabla. He understood KS's music very well and as a result could anticipate his moves with precision. Additionally, his accompaniment to the fast bandishes displayed a good deal of variety and his bold, deft fingering was often awe-inspiring.

KS's concert was interesting for the choice of ragas popular in CM. It was good in the sense that I could relate to the scales explored in the concert, but bad in that his treatment of these ragas felt like CM stripped of its gamakas and pidis. I feel he could have chosen a classical HM raga to replace either hamsadhwani or simmhEndramadhyamam. Nonetheless, KS played quite well - his music has good flow to it, he has a good sense of layam and has admirable control over kalapramanam, and his fast plucking phrases demonstrated good technical mastery of the sitar.

It was a fair concert and a pleasant way to start the festival. Of course, what made it all the more sweet was that the events started and concluded punctually. Good precedent set! (Touch wood.)

[arasi]

Bilahari,
A promising opener of a review from you. Looking forward to more, of course!
I could almost hear the playing, the way you vividly bring the unheard music to us. Agree with you on how interesting it is to hear CM rAgAs played in HM and yet how it can leave you waiting for the juicy bits rather than listen to skeletal (scalar?) notes back and forth.
I am surprised that you are not that familiar with pahADi--knowing you for your knowledge of things, especially when the rAgA is( was?) favored by film music. As early as in the fifties, hamsadhvani too was used (to our delight) in a hindi film.
Speed=applause is a true statement. Also a pity that some of our vidvAns, particularly the instrumentalists of your dear violin fall prey to this trend.
Looking for a Bilahari Special everyday for the next few days

[rmahadevan]

Bilahari's pompous review is more a reflection of his need to prove his knowledge (and consequently lack off) rather than stepping outside his own close minded conditioning! If everything needs to sound like CM, there is no need to bring new approaches to music at all! The Hamsadhwani of Pandit Kartik Seshadri was a divine delving into swaras and raga dharma that took me back to the days of yore when the great carnatic giants would sing one composition for hours...rather than a "tukda" treatment that often plagues carnatic concerts and forgiven by these very "critics" for the electronic, speed renderings that entertains them on imported mandolins and saxaphones ...surprising where the values are??

[rshankar]

Mahadevan - I think the boot is on the other foot - Speaking for myself, I did not find Bilahari's review pompous - you can read the other reviews of his - they are balanced, respectful and truly elaborate. All he said was that, he personally felt that CM rAgas presented in HM style were not his cup-of-tea, and he would have preferred Sri KS to have played purely HM rAgas. That is a valid viewpoint - nothing pompous. You could have put your point across and been more educational, but....

As it has been clarified time and again, these are an individual's view - written purely in the spirit of sharing one's experience with the world - they are 1) purely personal, 2) written at a cost of time and effort for the reviewer. Unless the post is in egregious bad taste, the rasikas hope that the reviewers don't get bashed. It is OK to disagree with their reviews, and opinions, but it needs to be done with etiquette.

If you have a point of view, please do not be afraid to share it and educate us, but I am sure it can be done without even a hint of contentiousness creeping in. I have found Bilahari's reviews to be spot-on, very balanced, and technical, and I hope he continues to write them. After all, - 'kuch to log kahenge, logon kA kAm hai kehnA'

[srikant1987]

India's contributions to mathematics, plumbing, etc,

Plumbing? |(