Smt. Vijayalakshmy Subramaniam @ BGS (12/29)

[Sundarnrao]

Vivacious folklore of devotion, beseeching feel, musical inner-realization, aesthetic idioms, deeply-rooted classicisms, embellished endearment, lilting vibrations and flabbergasted ideas were the key inspired essences that were drawn from today’s concert of Smt. VS @BGS.

Known for an ardent tayyari, smt. VS was able to sustain her supremacy (on voice, singing, concentration, focus, elegance, musical-fondness, bhakthi, textural-clarity etc) right from the first drone and started the recital majestically with saveri based sarasuda varnam. Her rendition evidenced the best-in-class command irrespective of the seasonal-demand, perennial concertos and unpredictable Chennai weather.

Second recital of smt. VS "Shudha-saveri based Sri guru guha" showcased a thoroughly enlivened the bonafide “Late shri S. Rajam” gharana-gayaki with a structural creation of musical-blocks across the improvisational cycles (palta-based-sargams, behlawas) and as always, enabled collective & creative spaces to all her saathis (Dr. Hemalatha on violin; Sri. Subramaniam on mridangam, Sri. Chandrashekar Sharma on ghatam) for them to collage orchestral support.

Her warbling like a nightingale persisted in the third performance "Sri swaminathaya Namaste (kamas)" where smt.VS continued probing all the nuances of her gharana-gayaki with extreme touch of classical-purity, compositional-rarity & artistic-creativity that her gharana signifies. She was constantly getting beyond the process of perfection albeit instantaneous creation of manodharma statements (alaap, bol-vistaars, bol-baants, sargams being played-off on ‘dha’).

Smt. VS presented "todi based yaar poi solluvaar" as her fourth bandish where she was able to divert the nature of elaboration (aakari-alaap, phenomenal upajs, avant-garde amads etc) with style. I believe these are some of the specialized signatory hallmark of SR-Gharana also. Smt. VS enchanted musical meditation to all rasikas as part of her fifth rendition "sobillu" (she started with anupallavi; janasammohini) where she went across all the parameters of her vocal-capabilities, aesthetically complicated creative phrases, tiered unfolding of raga within the krithi, immutable ‘jhol’s with endless patterns of sargams in that raga.

Her musicality was further soared with the sixth "karaharapriya based janaki pathe" bandish that certified with exuberance of expressive gushing with a heartwarming manodharmas spanning on alaaps, bolbaant, badhats, bol-vistaars, taankari, laykaari and sargams. This main piece was presented for ~50mts. Thaniyavarthanam was a delight today.

She then moved poignantly with the behag based seventh score " saramaina" to notch multi-dimensional emotions of the raga through an imaginative improvisational cycles (crisp-alaap, bol-taans). Smt. VS then stroked an assortment of glitzy fireworks on raga-mala based vritham (shankmukhapriya ->bhoopali ->Sahana -> rasikapriya) and captivated all the rasikas with her ever classy arul-seyya song.

At the same mood, she then caressed the audience with a soothing kannada bandish set in Mishra-bhairavi (largely sindhi-bhairavi, few sprinkles of bilaskhani, few sprinkles of Lakshmi todi etc were also sparkled effervescently) in a dadra-like style and then signed off wonderfully with a vrindhavani-sarang based thillana.

Smt. VS is on a dream run this season and it is definitely because of her dedication to art, Guru & God’s blessings; extreme hardwork to maintain absolute capabilities, creativities and flexibilities across the season; and her tapaysa towards limpidness of classical music. May she continue to increase the momentum and seal the pinnacle as part of her season-finale.

[sri97]

A good review in terms of words. By using so many Hindustani words the author has wrote about the concert. But I was present in the concert and i don't find anything extraordinary in terms of rendering the compositions. In spite of the rain I wanted to listen to the concert of Smt. Vijayalakshmi Subramaniam but was totally disappointed at the poor management of time and the handling of ragas. The Kharaharapriya alapana (an elaborated one) could have been succeeded atleast by a misrachapu song eevn if there is no 2 kalai kirtana. She sang the main piece for 35 minutes and the tukkada section for the same 35 minutes. The handling of the dasar pada like an Hindustani piece made the presentation even worse. Totally a disappointed kutcheri and really feel bad for braving the rain and listening to the concert. The way in which the tambura player (probably her disciple) went with the tambura in the middle of the violin ragam playing looked awkward as if the violinist don't need the tambura support.

[Sundarnrao]

Dear Sri97 sir,

As an avid and unbiased rasika who has been listening to hindustani and carnatic music for the past two odd decades, I'm furnishing my thoughts below from a practically unbiased perspective based on what I observed on the concert day objectively and also based on regularly following a lot of her concerts this season (and also during off-seasons):-

As i distinctly recall, smt. VS already sang Khamas based song in 5 beat cycle(Khanda Chapu) and executed todi wonderfully in 7 beat cycle. Perhaps, smt. VS also brilliantly rendered was a fast song in Rupak taal just before the main item.

Hence, I personally felt that the Adi talam was a good contrast in terms of pace, and it was also followed by an energetic tani avartanam with a lot of variation. Further, swarams in Kafi/karaharapriya song were played-off on the 7th beat & not on the first-beat.

Composer for Sindhubhairavi bandish was sripaadaraya and not purandaradhasa. Pt. Bhimsen joshi has popularized this bandish during his performance tenure of multiple-decades. Hindustani flavors definitely adds an emotive appeal to these type of bandishes and conveys the best feel to the rendition.

I'm sure that a senior musician like Smt. VS will definitely have a strong reason and rationale to determine the presentation order ( RTPs or sub-mains or thukkadas etc) based on the dynamics ( time-factor, rasikas & their mood etc) invovled in the concert-settings. Almost all her prior concerts this season had a phenomenal array of such wonderful delights like RTPs, sub-mains, rare-compositions etc etc,. Being a rasika-friendly artiste, Smt. VS also keeps the order flexible to insure utmost happiness-quotients for rasikas.

Since the prior concert got over past 4pm, since the concert started late by 15 mts and since there was a hard-stop for the succeeding-dance-program right after her concert, I'm sure artist must have been asked to complete the concert right-on-the time.

Usually, smt.VS is known for performing very classically intensive pieces, sprinkling thukkadas scarscely. Perhaps, yesterday's concert was unique, different, interesting and special with an assortment of colorful thukkadas. It was emotionally binding and I thought it filled the soul of many rasikas including me. I could literally see almost everyone of them relating themselves well with those thukkadas and extended daads (instant-appreciative-gestures) to each of her songs, alaaps etc. Perhaps, her behag alaap was extremely rich and sophisticated. We never get to hear such a lovely alaap regularly.

As I could clearly see, there was literally no time for the artists to tune their instruments and also to do their sound-check. Further, tanpura tuning was also becoming a challenge due to some probable glitch in the string based on what I was noticing. Hence, the disciple had to rush out to take care of tanpura-tuning besides insuring consistency in the sound ( which the sound-engineers were not able to decipher with what all the artists were signing from the stage)

[sri97]

Sir,
First of all I mentioned it as only dasar pada and not "purandaradasar" pada. Next I was not satisfied at the rendition of khamas itself it had more of lighter shades and if I am right her over usage of the higher "ni" instead of the lower one looked very light. I have heard many musicians sing this khamas alapana with lots of classical touch and that rendition itself made me restless. In addition to that, the over dosage of behag and even in the viruttam she handled the mohana raga with more of lighter shades and the charm of mohana was totally gone made a ardent listener very disappointed. Probably that sindhubhairavi piece would find an apt place in a programme of bhajans or a hindustani recital.

[sbopparaju]

I was at this concert only until the Karaharapriya krithi - it was with deep regret that I left at that point. I'd say I thoroughly enjoyed the concert - especially the krithis of my favorite composer Dikshitar. I think Smt VS is one of the best in the business - I particularly appreciate her strong adherence to classicism - and of course she is endowed with a very pleasant voice that remains strong across all three octaves...
I'd also say that we should desist from being critical of issues that are not directly related to the quality of music being presented - such as the incidence related to the student going off-stage for a while: I'd rather take it for granted that the musician did what they had to do and I think the situation was handled rather gracefully. Similarly, I'd like to presume (and I believe) that senior musicians like her are very adept at time-management - in most cases, a concert begins and ends exactly per schedule and I've been truly impressed that the musicians on stage manage time so very perfectly, given all the variables they deal with! Another thought: given all the pressures we deal with in our daily lives (including "environmental issues" spanning from civic issues through the pathetic state of our politics / governance), I find true solace in our truly awesome carnatic music system! And I have nothing but admiration and respect for each of the musicians (young / senior, vocalists / instrumentalists) - I know there's a tremendous amount of hard / smart work that goes behind the scenes in building a career in this very demanding field!

[HarishankarK]

Smt. VS enchanted musical meditation to all rasikas as part of her fifth rendition "sobillu" (she started with anupallavi; janasammohini) where she went across all the parameters of her vocal-capabilities, aesthetically complicated creative phrases, tiered unfolding of raga within the krithi, immutable ‘jhol’s with endless patterns of sargams in that raga.

.

Sobillu - raga is Jaganmohini and not Janasamodhini (which is a rarely heard beautiful raga - hope someone would explore it)

[jodha]

Sundarnrao,
Your deliberate attempt to show that you are somewhat knowledgeable in HM makes your reviews look very artificial and your homogeneous flattery is also quite irksome.When you are reviewing a CM concert better stick to the language that is apt.Your reviews are like avial with liberal dose of garam masAla and garlic-ginger paste hence don't gel and spoil the taste.Pl.give a thought about this instead of coming in defense.

[satyabalu]

"I think Smt VS is one of the best in the business - I particularly appreciate her strong adherence to classicism - and of course she is endowed with a very pleasant voice that remains strong across all three octaves..."
* I fully agree with this view.She is modest& unique,uncompromising &ever evolving in style.She is not correctly rated for her supreme technical capabilities be it her repertoire(Kotiswara Iyer, Dikshidhar, PS,GNB ...) ,laya , specialisation on vivadi mela ,Raga (her RTP in Soryakantham in MA a few years back) srudibhedam techniques, her mission of popularing less known vaggeyakaras ,Kshetra presentation (kanchi, Tirupathi,Tiruvarur, Chidambaram, Madurai, Chennai,....now Tiruchendur,the challenging one.)...

[hamirkalyani123]

Totally agree with sbopparaju, satyabalu in their views. Thanks to Sundarnrao for giving a very good review and timely coverage of all VS's concerts during this season. His knowledge in HM definitely makes it more interesting:-)

[Jyeshtha]

Superb Kharaharapriya rendition-- elaborate alapana and the lovely PS kriti Janakipathe with challenging 'eduppu' for swaras and a delightful tani, followed by Behag javali prefaced by an alapana with delicate nuances and a fast paced tillana in Brindavani-- enjoyed the radio broadcast of this concert immensely!

[satyabalu]

* These are the HM terms expressed in Kutchery Reviews of CM concerts.
*can someone identify parallel terms in CM? Regards.More to follow!
* behlawas
*sargams.
*bal banav.
*bolbaants.
*behlawwas.
*khatkas.
*murkis.*sargams./palta based
*khatkas
*bol taans
*bandhats.
*"Dadra "style
*Tayyari*Jhol
*Gharana gayaki
*SR-Gharana
*Manodharma statements(alaap bol-vistaars)
*aakari-alaap
*upajs
*avant-garde amads
*Taankari/laykkaari

[Sundarnrao]

Dear satyabalu sir -- Since i'm not well versed in carnatic based writing, i end up reflecting the thoughts and perceptions in a nomenclature/jargon/glossary that i'm slightly exposed with. I sincerely apologize for the pains being caused to go through the article. Will defintely try my level best to scale into carnatic based writing.

I'm highlighting a set of important "alankaar" glossaries (the ones that you highlighted and the other common-ones) for your perusal. Khyal system of music has an array of alankaars that a performer will have to demonstrate as part of presentation:

Laya-Bol – Pronouncement of Bol (words) in laya.
Layakaari – Play of bandish in a laya (in the confirmation to the type of taal that the bandish is set into). People also sing sargams as part of layakaari.
Khatka – The act of giving a jerk to a lower-note while trying to take higher-note.
Murak and Murki – slight vibration of single-note with the adjoining note. When we do this with multiple-notes with a slightly increased vibration, it becomes murki.
Mukda – Starting phrase (at times, starting word) of the stayi ( bandish comprises of stayi and Antara)
Pakad – Key signatory phase that constitutes the frame of a raga.
Sargam – notations or swarams
Taankaari – The act of taking taans.
Tayyaari – readiness
Riyaz – practice
Meend – glide
Kan – Application of a swara with an adjoining swara.
Harqat – is similar to murak – but is slightly even lighter and swift. It also features a finish of a small taan.
Bol-taan – Formation of taans using bols(words)
Bol-banav – This is a way of taking bols without spreading the letters in the bol (free of layakaari) and arriving at the ‘sam’ correctly.
Bol-baant – Spreading of letters of the bols over the notes.
Badhat – raga elaboration that explores every avenue of the raga framework.
Aamad – The process of approaching ‘sam’ with mukda.
Bol-alaap – Taking the bol (instead of alaap) to demonstrate alaap. This is usually done in vilambit.
Behlawa – is an artful way of enriching exposition of raga with combined development and progression of the raga, mood of the raga and meaning of the word expressively. It gives a very solid ornamented phrases without disturbing the mood of rasikas.
Chalan – systemic movement of raga
Thaat – parent scale
Taan – refers to intensified creation of varied patterns in a raga scale. There are many defined varieties of taans in khyal system of music (example: gamak taans, chut taans, sapat taans, pirat taans(spiral taans), koot taans etc)
Cheez – means a composition
Palta – while its literal meaning is ‘turning back’ or ‘turning over’, musically it refers to the permutational treatment of notes.
upaj -- literal meaning 'yield'; musically or contextually -- it alludes to 'yield of musical ideas'
Dadra - refers to taal; it also refers to a type of light-genre filled with importance for poetry, dhun and emotions
Gharana gayaki -- a person who adheres to the "baani" and characteristics of any particular gharana

[satyabalu]

*Thank you SunderRao !
*You may post CM equivalent as far as possible in your write up.Otherwise we , the avid listeners &ardent rasikas of the ARTIST are left with a feeling 1.We have a lot to elevate our capabilities as you migrate to a different maturity level every time you listen to her (This is a positive side)2. We feel inadequate as if our level of appreciation has to evolve to a great extent configuring with the terms(for persons like me they appear obscure) being used in your write up (whether we have attended the concert or not).
*You may accede to my request that would make us comfortable with your sincere appreciation of a deserving "Kalakar"!