Dr Sowmya Sankritilaya SF Bay Area May 31, 2015

[mahavishnu]

Smt Sowmya - vocal
Sri Embar Kannan - violin
Sri Neyveli Narayanan - mridangam

Approx 3 hours

1. sAmi ninnE kOri - sankarAbharaNAm - Veena Kuppier
2. jAnaki ramaNA - suddhaseemantini - T (S @ Rakta naLinadaLA)
3. kaNNan mALigaikkE marubadi vandEnO - aTANa - P.Sivan (A)
4. mAkElarA vIchAramu - ravichandrikA - T (S)
5. mAyUra nAtham - dhanyAsi - MD (A)
6. Emani pogaduthurA - veeravasantham - T (S @ dAsarati tyagarAja)
7. sivalOka nAdhanaikkaNDu - mAyAmALava gowLai - GKB (ANS)
Neraval @ aRpa sukaththai ninainthOm
8. tAyE tripura sundari - suddha sAvEri - PeriasAmy thooran
9. RTP - Bilahari (Pallavi Line: lalithE sitasitE paradEvatE | bilaharinutE) Khanda jhampa talam 2 kalai; eduppu 1 talli; followed by tani
10. vAgalAdi - behag - tirupati nArAyanaswami
11. vinarAdu gadara - chenchurutti - Walajahpet VenkataramaNA bhAgavatar (madhyamasruti)
12. pAdi madi nadi - kharaharapriyA - tiruppugazh - aruNagirinAdhar
13. nI nAma rUpamulaku - sowrAshtram - mangaLam - T

Despite several problems with the sound system that plagued the concert for a full hour, the extremely professional team gave a solid performance. A quick glance at the set list will tell you that the song selection was appropriate weighty; with an excellent range of ragams, composers, themes and variations around them. Even the often-heard pieces were spiced with a flavor of intellectualism that we have now come to expect from this scholarly vidushi. One can say that Sowmya performing at 80% par would be the equivalent of most musicians performing at about twice their ambit.

At the third piece of the concert, Sowmya decided to do the aTANA alapanai SG Kittappa style (as she jokingly referred to it), when plagued by serious PA problems. She produced some wonderful ideas in the alapanai. Somehow the slight strain in her voice as she sang sans amplification provided a beautifully haunting effect as developed phrase after phrase of a superb aTANA.

Just as I was eagerly preparing for E pApamu jEsitirA (one of her school specialties) or ElA nidayarAdu, she surprised the audience with a superb rendition of the Sivan piece from the classic movie "bhakta kuchEla". Although, I have not seen this film in the original, I have heard this piece sung by Sethalapathy avl, in which he describes the context of how this song came about.

SudAma has just returned from a meal at Krishna's house. As he returns home to his diminished circumstances expecting to see his poverty-ridden old dwelling, he instead finds an opulent palace the size of a swanky Palo Alto home. And rubbing his eyes, he sings "Kannan maligaikkE marubadi vandEnO?" and "kaNN kaTTi viddhai idhuvO?"

You can hear more about this in an old lecdem of Sethalapathy Avl that is on Sangeethapriya. Truly a must-listen for all P. Sivan lovers and those that dabble in carnatic tamil film history (from the days of Ellis R Dungan and K. Subrahmanyam, Padma Subrahmanyam's father, who directed Bhakta Kuchela). And this song brings out some unusual bhAvams of aTANA; the surprise element being key to the whole pallavi line. Sowmya handled a sangati of vandEnO (with a glide towards a ghost of a N3 as she touched the upper shadjam) with such passionate fervor. For me, this moment alone made the entire concert for me. If she had ended the concert right there, I would have still returned home happy.

But wait, there's more!

She sang a brisk mAkElarA, a very soulful mAyuranAtham that I haven't heard since DKJ and superb alapanai of MMG followed by sivalOka nAdhanai kaNDu. Again, I was expecting a heavier composition here like vidulaku or merusamana, but Sowmya's treatment can give significant import to any composition or so she showed today (no disrespect to this particular GKB composition, which btw I think quite highly of).

After a very quick tAyE tripura sundari, where Sowmya took much pleasure in singing "tEyAda pugazh mEvum tiruvAnmiyUr", perhaps because she is a resident of tiruvAnmiyUr herself, she seamlessly started the bilahari alapani for the RTP. The bilahari RTP started at about 2 hours into the concert, so it became clear that it was headed towards full tAnam treatment. The pallavi was interesting, but despite the trikAlam and the carefully done swarams, it felt a bit hurried and it did not receive the fullest treatment that could been afforded to it.

The tail-end pieces were superb. Vagaladi and vinaradu were both appropriately brilliant as one would expect given her lineage. I was especially delighted to hear pAdi madi nadi, which I have not heard sung in the beautiful kharaharapriya version since the late Prof. S. Ramanathan. There are some beautiful kharaharapriya pidis buried in here and Sowmya unearthed a few of them, with a hint that there might be even more!

Embar Kannan was good today, but perhaps not at his usual best. He had trouble finding the landing at "dAsharati tyAgarAja" in the veeravasantham composition; but other than that he played very competently and offered the best kind of support that a violinist can provide for a concert of this kind. I was very impressed that he had a spare violin tuned to madhyamasruti to switch to when the occasion presented itself. How professional is that! NN also appeared a bit subdued today; I imagine this is the end of a very long season for these two who have been touring with the Malladis followed by the Sowmya tour that started a few weeks ago. Going around the continent twice with two different artistes is no mean feat. Hats off to their endurance and professionalism.

Narayanan played some very nice phrases today all through the accompaniment, but his tani was quite short. That said, he was able to find some wonderful kOrvais that matched the pallavi theme on multiple locations in the tani crafted like a carefully written essay.

I am glad that there are artistes of the caliber of Sowmya around. If only to keep us on our toes as listeners, constantly helping us train our ears to expect high-quality sangeetham by upping the ante each time. As I mentioned once before (some years ago now), that listening to a Sowmya kutcheri is a like a workout for the all the neurons in the frontal lobe. Sowmya showed us today that a little of bit of vocal strain and even a poor sound system do not have to stand in the way of a successful concert that stimulates those gray cells from the edge of the cortex all the way down the cord beneath the spine, tingling every synapse between!

[rshankar]

Ramesh - superb as usual!
I was wondering about the song in aThAnA as I was reading the list - but now I don't feel so bad about not having a clue - I should listen to the lecdem on sangeethapriya.

[mahavishnu]

Ravi: I just uploaded a short sample from Sethalapathy's lec-dem (https://soundcloud.com/ramesh-balasubra ... an-maligai) that refers to this song from the Kuchela movie.

https://soundcloud.com/ramesh-balasubra ... an-maligai

Sowmya announced that she had the good fortune of learning this from Sri Mani Bhagavatar (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavalakkod ... akkodi.jpg).

[rshankar]

Ramesh - thank you. Very interesting!

[vasanthakokilam]

Thanks for the review Mahavishnu.

That sudAma story adds so much to the emotion/bhAvam of that song. It is like any other Attana song alright and here is a case where the context and the lyrics are the predominant carriers of the bhAvam. I am sure that gets fed back into such great singing that you pointed out. Man, interesting such stories related to Krishna have that great influence on us. Another one which gets audiences en masse is Krishna opening his mouth and yasodha seeing the universe there. I still remember a dance performance of that song in India where there was no one left with a dry eye and a good section of the audience totally overcome with emotion. Back to this story, Attana works very well, it goes well with that 'feel good' story.

[rshankar]

Back to this story, Attana works very well, it goes well with that 'feel good' story.

I am sure this was not lost on Sri Sivan, who must have set the music as well....

[vasanthakokilam]

yep, definitely. He was the master at choosing raga and laya based on such aesthetic sensibilities

[arasi]

Hadn't heard this one at all, and how it captures that dramatic moment--and Sethalapathy describing it!

Mahavishnu,
So good to read this classic review about a classic concert of Sowmya. How few are the songs which you do not know?

Kolilam,
Yes, a rich, scene setting song--reminds me of ST's one on the same theme--sAdhu tadA nija gAmini...

[MV]

Nice review again Mahavishnu. Enjoyed those clips as well. I think I have heard Sowmya sing Mayuranatham.