Anahita Apoorva@rAgasudhA hall on May 13th, 2010

[rajeshnat]

Anahita Apoorva@rAgasudhA hall on May 13th, 2010
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Vocal : Anahita and Apoorva)(disciples of chitraveena ravikiran)
Violin : M Rajiv
Mrudangam : NC Baradwaj
Concert duration : 2 hours
Sponsors : YACM

May is known for its oppressive heat in most indian cities and chennai falls right there with its scorching heat, there is perhaps a lethargy for many to participate and may be even organize carnatic concerts . I just keep wondering possibly about 20% sabha slots can cut the concerts in margazhi season and bring that to the month of may to have a fairly even spread throughout the year. May being the summer vacation is also the best of times for the school going kids to take their first baby steps to listen carnatic music as rasikas and also for many kids who visit chennai , I feel in short may has a lot of market but it is just not tapped much. Also it also helps all the artists to keep in touch with their music, after all how much they can practice at home during summer.

While mulling over the fact that more school going kids can listen to CM, there are big mega surprises too , there are kids like the above four who for sure have not entered college yet , possibly apoorva(the younger) is in middle school and anahita(appears elder only because she has a younger sister next to her) in high school and rajiv may be little elder in higher secondary school , the mridangist baradwaj must be as young as anahita , in short collective age must not be more than the usual sangeetha kalanidhi age of 60. These kids have a classical maturity far greater than their age and they gave a very intense classical concert and kept many of us engaged with very heavy numbers too.

I was late by 15 minutes, missed the first two
1.??
2.???
3. ennEramum undan (R)- devagAndhAri - GKB
heard the second half of alApana for about 2 minutes and 2 mins violin return
4. chalamElara sAketharAmA - margahindOlam - T

5. talli ninnu nera (R, N ,S) - kalyAni -SS
5 mins alApanai, 4 mins violin return
6 minutes neraval in "shyama krishna paripAlini janani" and 6 minutes swaras
6. neela maLar KOla - vasanthA - OVK

7A. bAlagOpAla (R N S T)- bhairavi - MD
8 mins alAPanai and 6 mins violin return
neraval "?? vairika guruguha .. gOpi manOhara" for 6 minutes
11 mins swaras
7B. tani 8 minutes

8. tanapoona danameethi?? "is that padam ??" - varAli -??
9. tatitham .. ravisasinayana "thillAna" - reetigowlai - chitravinA ravikiran??
10. pavamAna

This is the first time I am hearing these live ,though anahita I have heard their recording.As I entered Anahita was singing half way the alApana of devagAndhAri , the rAga that is usually handled by all in a slightly slow tempo , for sure I did not have any confusion with Arabi there and the sisters then joined to sing a very emotive number of GKB , they had an intense feel of the lyrics and bought out both rAga bhAvam and sAhithya bhAvam.

The contrast of the brake pedal devagAndhAri was accelerated very well by margahindoLam , and they kept up the pep of the concert .The submain alApana was handled by the younger pAvada chattai apoorva girl , she sings a bit more open throated and at few places in alApana there was slight loss of shruthi a very slight . An uphill shyamA sAstri krithi was handled well , certainly I am not a big fan of this particular krithi. Neraval was well done with a nice rotation of neraval and swaras in kalyAni

The sister's guru has researched OVK composer a lot and this lovely krithi of vasantA was sung beautifully , nice tempo and mettu by OVK that gives a lot of polish to the evergreen vasantA. Bhairavi was the main and it was mainly sung by anahitA , alApana was well done at most of places , at very few places she lost bit of vocal power . What can one say about this beautiful krithi of bAlagOpAla , I think it just gives the complete rAga swaroopam of this lovely rAga bhairavi , I would have preferred a little more slower tempo start for this krithi , one can really step up slowly and steadily in this krithi , but with these sisters taking it little fast was slightly bit away from the best of aesthetics , nevertheless they did well from anupallavi , nice diction by both i could get every sanskrit sangathi of that number , only in neraval I struggled a bit to get their lyrics and it was done in a different line than the usual anupallavi line. Swaras had quite a canvas of patterns and the sisters did present well.

In the tukkada , perhaps after bhairavi with another little drag of varAli was not the best of contrast , but one has to give it to them for taking such a difficult tukkadA (is that a padam) in that uphill varAli. The last thillana in reetigowlai is I think by their guru and was well done .A slokham and /or viruthtam would have been a great drop but the sisters passing that gave a feeling of not fully complete tukkada.

The violinist rajiv had a good azhuttam and he played well , a little more melody in his bowing would have been better .The mridangist baradwaj had a lot of anticipation and I liked his play a lot ,his tani was well done.

Solo vs duet :
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In general when two singers share the stage I always feel to an extent they becoming too conscious of synchronization in general has an inverse relationship to the aspect of onspot manodharmam. As i write this point ,I just run in my mind atleast 5 to 6 dual singers , in general when I listen to most of them (not all of them, I just have one exception),I get a kind of feel that perhaps if they sing all alone that on spot manOdharmam and a bit of adventurism will be more prominent and kind of widespread during the concert. Most of the time this rationing of sangathis by one sibling for the other just does not give that extra aesthetics that can come out when sung alone.

I Would love if these young sisters independently chalk out a musical career path of singing alone as both of them have a lot of spark, all by themself.These sisters donot have one sided excellence , both have the mettle, at this stage anahita has slightly more melody but apoorva appears bit more open throated and has more power. Perhaps at this age it makes a lot of sense to hear them sing together but in few years time they hitting solo will be wonderful. All said and done one has to give them for their intense classical touch to the concert .

Rithvik rAja,
Can we get the numbers before devagAndhAri and also the gurus of violinist and mridangist please?

Overall a very good concert.

[rbharath]

The sisters began their concert with the varNam 'kamalAkshI' set to yadukula kAmbhOji in aTa tALam, a composition of vINai kuppaiyyar. The second piece was sObillu saptasvara with a short sketch and a quick round of svarams.

The neraval line should be 'vaiNika gAyaka guruguhanuta puravairi vihita gOpikA manOhara'

The concert was good.

[mahakavi]

Is this the same anAhitA that participated in the Carnatic music idol competition conducted by Jaya TV a couple of months ago?

[keerthi]

The prevalent padam in varAli is 'valapu dAcha'

[Nick H]

I repeat my comments from the other thread:

It was an excellent concert, and these two singers have astonishing skill for their age.

As a general comment, I do feel that the duo format is always somewhat restrictive, and I do not think that I have ever seen abc brothers or xyz sisters reach the heights of a solo performer. It may be a problem of perception (a solo performance might, in fact, have been pre-planned even to every swara, but the audience cannot see that) but a duo also seems to suffer from pre-planning and lack of spontaneity.

However, one great thing about this particular duo was that the two are very equally matched. How often do we see "Brothers" and "Sisters" and get the feeling that one of them is the real performer and the other is along for the ride. No question of that here: the sisters justified their places on stage as equals. It was also lovely to see the warmth between them in the occasional smiles they exchanged.

It is both a great pleasure and a rather humbling experience to see youngsters perform so well.

I think this the first YACM concert I have attended. I did wonder about the "youth" aspect --- sure, there was plenty of youth on stage, but the audience, bar a few, seemed to be mostly us usual "oldies". Obviously, YACM is doing great work putting young people on stage, but is it not putting them in the audience as well?


nb... rajeshnat and I discusses the duo thing after the concert: our minds had been working along similar lines.

[arasi]

Good to hear about the impressive performance of the teens. Students of a guru who is the hallmark of classicism.

Nick,
A good point. Yes, the youth concerts will be more meaningful if you have some young ones in the audience. Ritwick Raja seems energetic, and should work towards drawing more of a younger crowd! The performers too--ask their new to CM friends at school to attend.
Little drops of water...

[rshankar]

6. neela maLar KOla - vasanthA - OVK
The sister's guru has researched OVK composer a lot and this lovely krithi of vasantA was sung beautifully , nice tempo and mettu by OVK that gives a lot of polish to the evergreen vasantA.

One of my all-time favorite vasantAs - and Sri OVK's penchant to evoke vivid visual imagery through his words is particularly evocative in this kriti - nIla malar kOla tirumEni kaNDu mOham koNDu nenjam niRaivAnandE - I absloutely love the poet's question to krishNa: '(un) mOna ezhil kANa nANi vAna madi Anad(u)anji mUlanAthan SaDai pOnadO?'

[rajeshnat]

Is this the same anAhitA that participated in the Carnatic music idol competition conducted by Jaya TV a couple of months ago?

yes

[tyagarajadasa]

talapuna tanamIti is the anupallavi of the varALi padam valapu dAcA, which is usually started by singing the pallavi (valapu...) first. May be they did not do that for a change!