Padma Sugavanam at Nada Inbam (12-12-14)

[Tirunelveli1959]

I listened to this concert through a YouTube link (at the end of this post) that a relative sent me. The vocalist Padma is trained by Smt. Seetha Rajan, whose school has a well-deserved reputation for fidelity to sampradaya and demanding very high levels of hard work, focus and commitment from its students.

Accompanists: M. Rajeev (Violin) and N. C. Bharadwaj (Mridangam)

List:
1. Nada sudha - Arabhi-Rupakam- Thyagaraja. Neraval and swaras

2. Emani ne ni mahima - Mukhari-Adi-Subbaraya Sastri(?)

3. Mamava Sada Varade - Natakurinji - Rupakam - Swathi Tirunal(?) . Nice alapana

4. Velayya Dayavillaya - Saveri - Desadi - Koteeswara Iyer(?)

5. Amma Ravamma - Kalyani - K. Chapu - Thyagaraja - Nice elaborate alapana, Neraval and swaras

6. Kalavati - Kalavati - Adi - Dikshithar (I had no clue about the raga and had to look up the kriti from a book on Dikshithar compositions)

7. Kaligiyunte - Keervani - Adi - Thyagaraja - Elaborate alapana, neraval, swaras and tani avarthanam

8. Paluku...- Abheri - K. Chapu -Telugu piece

9. A Chenchurutti piece

10. Mangalam

Disclaimer: I am a huge fan of Semmangudi's style of singing, and was probably biased to begin with!

Some things I really liked:
1. I was able to focus on the listening experience, (given my zero knowledge on the grammar of carnatic music) mainly because the whole cutcheri was sans any theatrics or suspense.

2. There was no overdoing of anything, especially the swaras. The Tamil word I can think of: Kachhitam.

3. There were some amazing sangathis (always pleasing to my ear) that she produced in the almost every item she sang. I was hooked by the way she started with the Arabhi piece.

4. The violin and the mridangam support were, in my view, excellent, and always consistent with the overall tone she set.

5. The Saveri piece was particularly well-sung at a faster pace than most of the other items.

She may need to work on effectively producing fast sangathis or pidis in alpanas in higher octaves. Sometimes, I feel it may be a good risk-management exercise to go to a safe mode immediately after "landing" a risky one. I thought Madurai Mani Iyer did that beautifully.

Having listened much to the yesteryear stars, I cannot but go back in memory. In particular, Kaligiyunte took me back to a 60s concert by K V Narayanaswamy at the Music Academy (?) in the company of Lalgudi Jayaraman and Palghat Mani Iyer. KVN simply nailed this piece, in my view. I also remember this concert because I thought Lalgudi's accompaniment was uncharacteristically subdued.

Overall Padma's concert was a very good listening experience for me. I would appreciate learning from the rasikas in this forum on aspects I most certainly missed or was wrong about. (Sorry about ending sentences with a preposition - some people really get mad at that!).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRJRKSBLWa0

[KNV1955]

Tirunelveli 1959. KVN was accompanied by MSG & not Lalgudi & Raghu & not Mani Iyeri n the Music Academy concert you have mentioned. I heard Padma Sugavanam in Nada Inbam (Parivadini) & Music Academy. She is a late bloomer & talented. She has undergone rigorous gurukulavasam under Seetha Rajan. Here is a Hindu article.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/che ... 475260.ece

[KNV1955]

Tirunelveli 1959. KVN was accompanied by MSG & not Lalgudi & Raghu & not Mani Iyeri n the Music Academy concert you have mentioned. I heard Padma Sugavanam in Nada Inbam (Parivadini) & Music Academy. She is a late bloomer & talented. She has undergone rigorous gurukulavasam under Seetha Rajan. Here is a Hindu article.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/che ... 475260.ece

[HarishankarK]

Oh ! the songlist is great
From what i read, we should be addressing her as Dr Padma Sugavana (double doctorate in music !!)

[Nick H]

Doctorates matter in medicine (where most of the doctors probably don't actually have doctorates), academia, and Germany. They are irrelevant in the performing arts, even off they are in a relevant subject. I was thinking of starting a thread, "what's with all the doctorates?"

So no, I'm happy to hear that people are actively researching as well as singing, and that their research is recognised, but let's forget all this title business.

I enjoyed this concert too. She is completely new to me, but obviously well established as I noticed she has an Academy slot

[keerthi]

They are irrelevant in the performing arts, even off they are in a relevant subject.

You are entitled to your opinion, while it couldn't be farther from the truth.

"what's with all the doctorates?"

.....
So no, I'm happy to hear that people are actively researching as well as singing, and that their research is recognised, but let's forget all this title business.

it is a significant and noteworthy accomplishment, for a performer to have also chosen to engage in a scholarly/academic pursuit of their art. These references to their doctorates are better warranted than the honorary doctorates conferred on Indira Gandhi, Amitabh Bacchan, Sachin Tendulkar and a gross of musicians and dancers, who are anyway well known and honoured, without the need for gratuitous degrees that do nothing to increase the celebrity's value, and maybe diminish the value of all those doctorates that are earned by scholars after that many years of elbow grease and midnight oil.

Surely, it is much more pertinent information to mention a full-time artiste's degree/ research in music, rather than the much more familiar cases, where we are informed how someone is 'a dedicated and competent musician, while also doing a full time job elsewhere as an engineer/ CA/whatever else'. It is not as if these part-time musicians are doing the universe a favour by taking time off their precious day jobs to keep Carnatic music alive.

My appreciation and respect is more for those who take the gamble and engage with music full time, be it as performers, be it as scholars , or even better in both domains.


p.s. My note isn't an endorsement of the practice of attaching degrees to the name; it is merely to point out that mentioning someone degree/ research is relevant, if it is in the field of performance.

[rshankar]

Keerthi....I could not agree more...a hard-earned PhD should be mentioned in my opinion, but agree that honorary degrees are different. Many of today's performing artists straddle the world of academia and full-time performing with panache, earning degrees along the way, and honoring their achievement is not irrelevant.
PS: Was Dr. Padma Subrahmanyam the first in this regard?

PSS: Nick....surgeons in the UK work hard not to be called 'Dr.'!

[Nick H]

Yes... the peculiar history of medical qualifications in UK!

Please don't think that I don't respect the work and the research, it's just that, as in most fields outside those I mentioned, the certificates are hung on the wall, not on the names.

It's a small quible. I'm not going to fall out with anyone who just wants to call themselves "doctor" because they have the degree. But I certainly do not see the point of it.

[Rsachi]

I am unearthing this thread through a fortuitous Google hit.

I agree with Keerthi that bona-fide scholarship, conferring a special degree like PhD or DPhil or MPhil, cannot be brushed aside as irrelevant since generally it requires a great amount of work and competence.

The only qualifiers I would add is that both with doctors and muscians, a variety of soft skills orthogonal to technical expertise are warranted for success. Lakshya and lakshana are two terms that capture a lot in this context.

Famously, qualities of being in the moment and being sensitive to inputs can elude egoistic people full of self-importance. And these failings can afflict even those without PhDs etc.!

[MV]

Nick H... I can tell you that medical students work for nearly 10 years to be called 'Dr' and then atleast another 2 to become 'Mr' again. The irony of it. Well said Keerthi, about taking the gamble and earning a Dr there. Bottomline for an artiste is consistent performance at various platforms, I think....

[Vocalist]

As far as posting here, I don't think there is a necessity to get the Dr/Mrs/Ms/Miss in order when posting a review here or commenting generally. As far as the general point about doctorate degrees, that really should be in another thread as it seems to be hijacking this one unnecessarily.

[Vocalist]

Thanks for the review Thirunelveli1959. You have all of the composers right.

8. Paluku...- Abheri - K. Chapu -Telugu piece

9. A Chenchurutti piece

8 is a composition of Annamacharya. 9 is "Madhar Pirai" a Tevaram of Appar, which I think is in raga Navaroj.