HKVenkatram-Ashwin Anand-GRaviKiran-9Apr2012

[srikant1987]

Ashwin Anand - Veena
H K Venkatram - Violin
G Ravi Kiran - Flute
? - Mridangam (listed as J Vaidyanathan on braindrain's blog, but didn't look like it)
? - Ghatam

I wonder if Sri G Ravi Kiran is the same as the vocalist who is student of Sri TM Krishna and who organized an MD Compositions festival a couple of months ago. From so far away, I couldn't really see their faces properly.

List (from memory, but usually works all right for instrumental concerts, especially ones like these):

viribhONi (varNam) - bhairavi - aTa (R)
gajavadanA - haMsadhwani - Adi - PD (sketch, S)
bAgAyenayya - candrajyOti - Adi - T (R)
manavinAlaginca - naLinakAnti - Adi - T
sAdhincene - Arabhi - Adi - T (R)
baNTurIti koluvu - haMsanAdam - Adi - T (R, NS @ rAmanAmamanu)
entani nE - mukhAri - rUpaka - T (R, NS @ kannulAra sEvinci)
akhilANDEshwari - dwijavanti - Adi - MD
?

It was a good concert. I was especially impressed by Sri G Ravi Kiran's AlApanai of Arabhi, which was done in a somewhat slower speed ... very unusual for flute. What also made it particularly enjoyable was that there was no "accompaniment" to his AlApanai -- and I always feel flute works very well for Arabhi.

It was wonderful to watch them take turns during all the neravals and swarams.

Sri Ashwin Anand handled the mukhAri AlApanai very well, but Sri HKV followed his phrases and that wasn't the kind of exploration that works for mukhAri. I would have liked one vidwan play by themselves for some time, and then leave for another to take on from there. They had adopted such a format for bhairavi.

I left after the dwijavanti.

It was a wholesome concert. Hope gardabha_gana or someone else attended and can complete the list.

[gardabha_gana]

RTP Kalyani - Adi talam - Swarams in Desh, Varali, Kanada I think as I was leaving...
Flute RaviKiran is different from the Vocalist Ravikiran. Flute Ravikiran is the brother of Mohan Rangan another Flautist who is settled in the US. The brothers have played together. All the 3 performers were trained initially by Vid. H.V. Krishnamurthy, the father of Vid. HK Venkatram.

I liked Ashwin's mukhari alapana very much - and the tanam for Kalyani.

The mridangist didn't sure look like J Vaidhyanathan (DKJ's son). But may be another Vaidyanathan. Ghatam was Ranganath Chakravarthy.

[badari]

It was Skanda Subramaniam on Mridanga. JV missed the concert due to ill health. This was also announced by Vid HKV after the official Vote of thanks.

[badari]

the post main items continued:
- a composition in rEvati
- eppo varuvaro - joanpuri
- behag tilana by Veene Seshanna
- Mangala

the concert was poorly attended. For the immense practice and rehearsal sessions that the trio conducted before this concert, it was not fair on the audience to do a poor show. each item in the list was well presented except for the initial hiccups of the mic.

one more observation is that when the concert is pure instrumental, the trio could have chosen a lower pitch. The high decibels and high pitch added to a bit of irritation to the very few audience who occupied the front rows.

[srikant1987]

one more observation is that when the concert is pure instrumental, the trio could have chosen a lower pitch.

As someone familiar with the violin, I feel the difficulty in changing pitches on instruments is often underestimated. I know of a vaiNika who feels this could be one of the major points in determining whether a violinist is able to excel as a soloist, as an accompanist (who needs to perform consistently in different pitches) or both. It must be harder for a vaiNika (since they aren't put through the accompaniment drill) and a flautist (for whom, in addition to having gone through less accompaniment drill, the very dimensions of the instrument will change).

The high decibels and high pitch added to a bit of irritation to the very few audience who occupied the front rows.

They amplified absurdly. They simply refused to reduce the flute's or mridangam's or ghatam's volume to make it balance with the veena and violin. Pitch generally has very little to do with ear hurting, unless we're talking of several octaves more.

It must have been considerably more than a "bit of irritation": I initially sat in the first row of the second half of seats, moved to the eigth, and later the tenth and twelfth rows iIrc. Since there is zero "watching the performance" anyway, with the artistes such a distance anyway, might as well choose seat with purely accoustic considerations.

Having not carried cotton with me, I initially cupped my ears with my palms, but that selectively shut out the violin a lot more (I remembered Nick's warning of the low-pass filtration that happens), so I chose to move away from the speakers. Having few (only two) speakers allow that option -- but likely that necessitates it too?

With such a large area, likely having more of them, with some spacial spread, will help.