Niranjana Srinivasan at BVB mini hall - 27/12

[Vocalist]

Niranjana Srinivasan - ?? - ??
Dec 27th, 11:00am

Intha Modi (Varnam) - Saranga - Adi - TT
Maathaa Innum - Sriranjani - Adi - PS (o)
Raghuvara Nannu - Panthuvarali - Adi - T (R,N,S)
Eeshane - Nalinakanthi - Misrachapu - Muthuthandavar (o)
Maragathavallim - Kambhoji - Adi (2 kalai) - MD (R,S,T)
Nalladhor Veenai - Madhuvanthi - Adi - Subramania Bharathiyar (o)
Kannan Madhurai - Bhimplas - Adi - PS
Thillana - Khamas - Adi - PSI

After a decent rendition of the evergreen Saranga varnam, Niranjana Srinivasan gave a raga sketch of Sriranjani which I thought was super, and she sang Sivan's composition competently - but things went downwards. I thought Panthuvarali was average and unexciting on the whole, except the last couple of rounds of niraval rendered by violinist which were in contrast exhillerating. She moved onto Nalinakanthi, but her rendition of the composition was lifeless. She seemed to be sticking to the higher octaves only, and there was a glaring tala/laya lapse during the special chittaswara portion which I understand was also composed by her guru Lalitha Sivakumar.

She then put all of her energy into an alapana in the very grand Kambhoji raga. The alapana, despite being drowned by relentless akara sangathis in the higher octaves and leaving me with a headache, possibly turned out fraction better than Panthuvarali. Fortunately, the violinist brought out the beautiful and soothing karvais of the raga. He spent his time carefully handling the raga in the lower and middle registers and only briefly touched the higher octave. It was very beautiful and it turned out to be my paracetemol. She then took up a heavy item composed by Dikshithar, but one which I would more usually expect to hear from the GNB school. There were shruthi lapses, but the rendition was still quite a bit better than the last time I heard her sing this krithi (and the Panthuvarali earlier today). Swaras were sung in both speeds at the pallavi line, and the vocal/violin exchanges were very enjoyable despite the imperfections. I was a little surprised that the fastest set of swaras she sang during this concert were at the end of the last round of swaras. I enjoyed the mridangist's playing especially during the main krithi and swaras; his thani avarthanam which followed was also very good.

Things seemed to go upward immediately post-thani. Her rendition of Bharathiyar's composition in Madhuvanthi was packed with feeling, and she tried some interesting new sangathis in the second last stanza. Her rendition of Sivan's composition in Bhimplas which was popularised by DKP did contain an obvious sahithyam slip-up ("Pogindhaar" instead of "Pozhindhaai"), which was a little shocking given she was reading the lyrics from a sheet of paper, but she did sing the correct sahithyam in the following line. She was not able to reach the top swara in the last line of the composition and it was not very pleasant to listen to. To conclude, she took up a Thillana the DKP/DKJ school often sang - but rushed through it at a speed which was a bit too fast for her (the sahithyam slips continued and she barely sang the jathis within the tala). What an ending.

Overall, after listening to each concert of this artist, I consistently come to the same conclusion about certain negatives (and this was no exception). Niranjana seems to spend too much effort on trying to adopt certain mannerisms and stylistic sangathis which are unique to the voice of her guru's daughter, Nithyasree Mahadevan. The reason I suggest that is too much is because it is at the expense of any of Niranjana's own strengths, musical artistry and creativity. It comes close to mimicry - which is exactly what Nithyasree Mahadevan has repeatedly said in interviews that DKP advised her students to avoid. She also seems to spend a lot of time in the upper octaves and using her head voice where possible - and although this is understandable to an extent, particularly when a pleasant sweetness is lacking in an artist's voice, it can (and in this case does) needlessly highlights that artist's vocal limitations.

It was by no means a terrible 1.5 hour concert, but I'd probably think twice or give it a bit of time before I would want to try her next concert.

(edited to fix composer name)

[rajeshnat]

Maragathavallim - Kambhoji - Adi (2 kalai) - T (R,S,T)
....
She then put all of her energy into an alapana in the very grand Kambhoji raga. The alapana, despite being drowned by relentless akara sangathis in the higher octaves and leaving me with a headache, possibly turned out fraction better than Panthuvarali. Fortunately, the violinist brought out the beautiful and soothing karvais of the raga. He spent his time carefully handling the raga in the lower and middle registers and only briefly touched the higher octave. It was very beautiful and it turned out to be my paracetemol. She then took up a heavy item composed by Thyagaraja, which I would more usually expect to hear from the GNB school.

....
To conclude she took up a Thillana the DKP/DKJ school often sang - but rushed through it at a speed which was a bit too fast for her (the sahithyam slips continued and she barely sang the jathis within the tala). What an ending.

Vocalist,
In the last few reviews not only that i am getting an insight about present artists of pattamma parampara , but also more insight about the doyen DKP herself. Just few points , I am sure you knew maragathavallim is a dikshitar krithi, it is a perfect T krithi but not a T Krithi . Perhaps personally for you a bit more neelambari sleep and a lot of break before you head with the next pattammal parampara vidushi who has learnt from either NM or LS(Lot of literature is in newspapers that paracetamol is not working nowadays).

Just one caution , perhaps a bit of nivarna cough syrup if you need that - i just had a few spoons now , these concerts are all non nirvana slots some thing has to be rushed as they have to wrap and give the podium to the next artist and their closing timeclock is ticking as soon as they hum the first varnam.

In one of the future years all sabhas have to push the nirvana singers to non nirvana 90 minute slot to see how they handle with their experience, it would be great to hear them.

[Vocalist]

Vocalist,
In the last few reviews not only that i am getting an insight about present artists of pattamma parampara , but also more insight about the doyen DKP herself.

Thanks very much for your comments rajeshnat. The DKP/DKJ parampara is very special and became a favourite of mine very early on.

Just few points , I am sure you knew maragathavallim is a dikshitar krithi, it is a perfect T krithi but not a T Krithi . Perhaps personally for you a bit more neelambari sleep and a lot of break before you head with the next pattammal parampara vidushi who has learnt from either NM or LS(Lot of literature is in newspapers that paracetamol is not working nowadays).

Very true - really do need more sleep. The combination of Raghuvara and Maragathavallim is something I'd expect more from GNB school or for a GNB celebration. But I'm not aware of anything like that today....

I am still sad at the relative shortage of students from the DKJ parampara. For the most part, it is VS who is maintaining that tradition (though his views on recordings are very different to DKJ), and vidushi NM has effectively take up some items rendered by DKJ, it is not quite the same. I think a gap was left after Balaji Shankar's left the music industry (for reasons which I believe are personal to him). Interestingly, during his brief time he was going solo, it is worth noting from the recordings that he was already starting to develop his own individuality and avoiding the mimicry I was talking about here. Still, maybe this will change in future.

Just one caution , perhaps a bit of nivarna cough syrup if you need that - i just had a few spoons now , these concerts are all non nirvana slots some thing has to be rushed as they have to wrap and give the podium to the next artist and their closing timeclock is ticking as soon as they hum the first varnam.

In one of the future years all sabhas have to push the nirvana singers to non nirvana 90 minute slot to see how they handle with their experience, it would be great to hear them.

Yes, I'm understanding that frustration now. I think it can be managed but some planning is needed. I've heard some artists talk about planning and song lists. The general view was that an artist will need to be ready to make changes to it from time to time once at the concert. That was how I felt about the Thillana; the concert could have come to an end with the Bhimplas composition or even Bharathiyar's one.