J B SrutisAgar@rAgasudhA on April 23rd,2010

[rajeshnat]

J B SrutisAgar@rAgasudhA on April 23rd,2010
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Flute : J B SrutisAgar
Violin : parur ananthakrishnan, son of MA sundareshwaran
Mrudangam : Guru rAghavEndrA
Concert duration : 2 hours and 45 minutes
Sponsors : YACM

1. siddivinAyakam - mOhanakalyAni - HMB
2. sarOjanAbha(R N S) - chakravAkham - ST
5 mins alApanai and 4 mins violin return
N and S together for 11 minutes

3. kAnthimathi aNNaiyE??(R S) - kAnadA - psivan
14 mins alApanai and 8 mins violin return
9 mins swaras

4. nannu brOva?? (N,S)- lalitA - SS
5 mins neraval and
11 mins swaras
5.ikaNE tAla - guharanjani - hmb

6A. eNdukku peddala???(R S T) - shankarAbharanam - T
14 mins alApanai , 7 mins violin
24 mins swaras
6B. tani for 11 mins

7. sOdhanai sumaikku??(brief rAga sketch) - kApi - psivan
8. nagumOmu gaLavEni - madhyamAvati - T
9. pavamAna

This concert was organized by YACM and this is my first concert of hearing this flautist , srutisAgar. I have so far only heard flute ramani and one rare flautist kv ramanujan in full live concerts , though I am personally hooked a lot with recordings of mAli and KSG. This is the first time I am hearing a 2 hour and 45 minute live concert , all ramani's and KVR were 2 hours to 2 hours 15 minutes. I guess another half an hour blow is quite a challenge .

srutisAgar a young vidwan perhaps must have not even finished his UG played with only one flute a medium sized one . I was about 5 minutes late and I could identify the mohanakalyAni and just settled well. He followed with a nice alApana of chakravAkham and a fairly rare krithi of ST followed . I had slight difficulty in identifying when the flautist was playing neraval but nevertheless the combo of neraval and swarams was very well done.

Flute is born for rAgam kAnadA and kApi or is kApi and KAnada born for flute. What a detailed alApana , a touch of immense sowkhyam in kAnadA , he kept the blow fairly strong and it was superb nAdham just covering all the slopes of kAnadA. I think he played kanthimathi aNNaiyE and I liked his swaras and the krithi and it was a very interesting package.

He surprised me with going with another neraval and swaram like (not sure if there was neraval) for lalitA, the intensely classical shyamA sAstri vaggeyakkara gave so much rAga bhavam in this masterpiece krithi and srutisagar played beautifully , there was a touch of kanakku .

THe fast filler was guharanjani , he announced that when none of us could figure that out (I wish he had announced most of the krithis). The main had a lot of touch points like MAli who has taken shankarAbharanam to great heights. I liked the alApana and the krithi a lot . I felt he overdid kanakku and the arithmetic calculations crucified the aesthetic melody of the rAga , a little too much there , for about 15 minutes or so this hyper arithmetic -hypo aesthetics was a bit excess experimentation , also during this time there was a lot of tadaval and slip by both the accompanying artists .For the last 5 or 6 minutes swaras regained ground and was well done .

kApi came up late but it did not arrive too cold it was piping hot and I was not sure if it was sOdhanai sumaikku krithi by shivan , nevertheless he played well. The madhyamAvati utsava sampradaya was a nice finish .

THe violinist ananthakrishnan ,the fourth generation parur school vidwan is son of MA sundareswaran played very well , he is not as fast as his dad but more like his grandfather MS AnantharAman a little too watchful . I have not heard this mridangist guru raghavendra , he was very good for most of the krithis in the main the slip was bit more noticable , his tani was quite good.

Overall perhaps srutisAgar could have possibly cut the duration of say shankarabharanam or the kAnada a bit and may be another rAgamALiga thukkada would have added more charm. Nevertheless this youngster has got so much of manodharmam spark and sruthi sense in abundance (shruthi in sAgar not sagging) that he will only be quite a popular flautist in years to come.Overall a very good to excellent concert.

[rajeshnat]

May I know whose disciple is JB sruti sAgar and guru rAghavendrA.?

[ganeshkaant]

JBSS is currently learning from Dr.Sundar (DKJ's disciple).U can see him play along with Sundar in sankara channel where Sundar is giving a programme on PD.

JBSS learned from Smt.Kesi (disciple of Maestro Mali) initially it seems.

[semmu86]

Is Guru rAghavEndrA son of Srimushnam Raja Rao ?

[rajeshnat]

Is Guru rAghavEndrA son of Srimushnam Raja Rao ?

I dont think so. Srimushnam's son is R.Raghavendra (not seen him yet) and is a vocalist (not sure if he is also a performing mridangist). This guru rAghavendra and R .Raghavendra are different.

[srikant1987]

I was there for most of the cakravAham, kAnaDa and lalitA until swarams.

I do like JBSS's kriti renditions, they have a lot of vocal quality! His AlApanais are very leisurely, but I felt that cakravAham doesn't need such a slow elaboration. The kAnaDa was well done though the introduction of a sa as anuswaram in nnd is believed to be unclassical. However, Ananthakrishnan, his AlApanai, explored with a few ma-ending phrases, which seemed nice and innovative.

I was not at all happy with the lalitA, especially for the neraval. The song isn't that widely known, I believe. It is a little oddly structured too, and not very suited for a neraval. And the rAgam generally didn't come out very well, I felt. (While I'm generally a Shyama Shastri fanatic, I feel hiraNmayIm to have better lalitA than nannu brOvu lalitA, on top of all this).

Also JBSS should avoid the temptation to play "AlApanais" in between slow swarams, which many instrumentalists, and nowadays even vocalists, face!

[srikant1987]

And rajeshnat, it's annai, not aNNai!

I was just waiting for your review to appear, since I didn't know the cakravAham or kAnaDa kritis myself! :$ ;(

[rajeshnat]

I was not at all happy with the lalitA, especially for the neraval. The song isn't that widely known, I believe. It is a little oddly structured too, and not very suited for a neraval.

shrikant1987
Possibly there was a neraval or may be there was not , as I said not too sure. Only very recently I heard in a live concert where there was neraval for the same nannu brova krithi by suryaprakash(that was really well done), incidentally even vijaysiva has sung a neraval that is one of the concerts of carnatica that bharath reviewed some time back(I am sure vijay must have sung well there too) .

[srikant1987]

rajeshnat,

Of course there was a neraval! Neraval for less-known songs is more acceptable in vocal concerts ... it will be easier both on the listeners and the violin accompanist. You've yourself said you'd've preferred the pieces announced, and you can recognize far more pieces than I can!

I don't recall confidently if there was a neraval in cakravAham, though. I find JBSS's neravals reasonably distinguishable from his swarams, though, and I don't see why you aren't sure there was a lalitA neraval ... you can probably use the song-speed (- slow <samakAla?!>) - fast- slow (swarams) - fast (swarams) as a tag for recognising neravals and swarams in instrumental concerts, at first, until you get used to the artiste's manner of articulating their neravals. Instrumentalists don't seem to be as "unorthodox" as TMK or Vijay Siva or Sanjay by singing neravals alone, or kIzhkAla neraval/swarams alone, etc. Most instrumentalists don't play samakAla neravals either, I believe.

[sureshvv]

I was present there too and I must say I felt somewhat lost for most of the concert. Firstly, there were too many uncommon kritis. Most of the time I had to triage using the raga and tala and my limited database to try to narrow down the composition This might have been more acceptable of a vocal concert but for an instrumental concert a little more moderation is warranted. All the songs selected were on the slow side with one very quick super fast filler. The presentation seemed overly structured without a smooth natural flow. Swaras for the main included elaborate kanakku that just seemed to go on and on. On the whole, the entire evening was as much fun as browsing a dictionary for a couple of hours.

PS: May be the concert was designed for an audience with a more elite taste (being YACM sponsored and all; there were a few young artistes in the hall), but looking around the fairly thin audience I spotted several people who seemed equally clueless.

PPS: I don't think the Sankarabharanam kriti was Endukku peddala (it was rupaka talam 2 kalai). The chakravaham kriti during which i walked in sounded a lot like the tamil padam in Sowrashtram.

[appu]

I heard him during the 2009 December season at Ragasudha. He played an elaborate Shankarabharanam then too. The kriti he rendered then was Swara Raga Sudha. What he needs to work on as an artist is his hand gestures while performing. It is too distractive. He will improve as time goes on. An artist worth watching.

[rajeshnat]

I was present there too and I must say I felt somewhat lost for most of the concert. Firstly, there were too many uncommon kritis. ....
....
PPS: I don't think the Sankarabharanam kriti was Endukku peddala (it was rupaka talam 2 kalai). The chakravaham kriti during which i walked in sounded a lot like the tamil padam in Sowrashtram.

May be the krithi was bhakthi biccha miyyavE or manasu svAdhInamaina . Yes you are right there was a lot of uncommon krithis , that too with no announcement at all other than the guharanjani,there was always too much of adhuva idhuvA discussions in the crowd

[sureshvv]

Kaanada song was Vira Hanumathe of Dikshitar. Sankarabharanam song was Sri Kamalambika.

[rajeshnat]

Kaanada song was Vira Hanumathe of Dikshitar. Sankarabharanam song was Sri Kamalambika.

Did you verify the song with the artist now? If you can also clarify if other songs especially if sodanai sumaikku in kApi is right? I was thinking of only shivan number though the consensus around me was parulanna mAta

[sureshvv]

if sodanai sumaikku in kApi is right?

Yes. You were spot on.