Sowmya's Academy concert postponed

ramanathan · Post by **ramanathan** » 24 Dec 2006, 14:32

Smt. S. Sowmya's concert at the Music Academy scheduled for 4.45 pm today (Dec. 24th) has been postponed due to her indisposition, to 10 am on Dec. 27th. Vidushi T. Rukmini whose violin concert was scheduled for that day, will perform today at 4.45 pm instead.

kamavardhani · Post by **kamavardhani** » 24 Dec 2006, 17:19

Heard about this just after Vedavalli's morning concert today. Nice to know about the swap and that Sowmya's concert won't be totally cancelled like at NGS. Hope she gets well soon and gives a cracker of a concert on 27th. Vani Mahal & MFAC concerts were excellent and I was looking fwd to MA today. Just wondering... will there be an accompanist swap too, in which case Vellore Ramabhadran with Sowmya will be an interesting scenario.

vijay · Post by **vijay** » 25 Dec 2006, 00:46

Wishing her all the best to recover soon for some more absorbing performances

ramanathan · Post by **ramanathan** » 25 Dec 2006, 14:20

kamavardhani wrote:Just wondering... will there be an accompanist swap too, in which case Vellore Ramabhadran with Sowmya will be an interesting scenario.

Yes! The Academy confirmed a little while back that Ramabhadran mama will be accompanying Sowmya.

kamavardhani · Post by **kamavardhani** » 28 Dec 2006, 00:50

S. Sowmya, Embar Kannan, SK Vellore G. Ramabhadran,
Music Academy, Dec. 27th, 10 am

eranapai (varnam) - todi - patnam
brochevarevare - shriranjani - tyagaraja (s)
shri balasubramanya - bilahari - md (r,n,s)
shrikantanee - bhavapriya - tyagaraja (s)
devi pavane - saveri - st (r,n,s,t)
tandai tai - devamanohari - p. sivan
rtp - senjurutti - mishra triputa, chaturasra nadai, 2-kalai
(swarams in nadanamakriya, navaroj, punnagavarali,
sindhubhairavi,?)
adum chidambaramo - behag - gkb
adi neepai (javali) - yamunakalyani - dharmapuri subbarayar

This was a concert I really looked fwd to, after hearing her at MFAC, where she sang that awesome Kambhoji pallavi. Had to tear myself away from a jampacked Mini Hall where TNS was holding everyone spellbound with his morning lec-dem on HMB kritis. And man... what a concert Sowmya churned out! The voice strains that led to the postponement of this conecrt were hardly evident... obviously she did the right thing in canceling the NGS concert and taking a voice rest before the Academy biggie. Singing to an almost packed house on a weekday morning (well, at least the ground floor; I've no idea about the balcony), she started off with the failsafe Todi varnam and quickly moved into a Shriranjani that perked up the proceedings. Was relieved that 'Parvata Rajakumari' as mentioned in the souvenir was passed up in favor of 'Brocheva'. Sanjay had sung the MD piece just last night. Bilahari alapana was top class and the kriti a delightful surprise. Sowmya's pronunciation makes listening to such MD kritis a delight... one aspect of her music, which I guess makes her one of the best among the current generation of stars, along with perhaps Vijay Siva.

Bhavapriya was a brisk and energetic pratimadhyamam interlude, setting the perfect stage for an elaborate alapana, which turned out to be Saveri as promised in the Academy souvenir. The alapana had some vintage pidis and hit all the right buttons... this was the point at which senior vidwans like TK Govinda Rao, Seshagopalan, B Rajam Iyer, etc wandered into the hall after the TNS lec-dem. Their presence probably helped her raise the standards a notch higher. The kriti turned out to be Devi Pavane, one of the nine Swati navaratri kritis, with neraval and swarams at "sAmaja pungava cArugate..." Ramabhadran played his standard adi-tala tani after this.

Sivan's Devamanohari piece came next, followed by the real treat of the day: RTP in Senjurutti. The alapana was for about 7-8 minutes, bringing out the various colors of a raga that isn't usually taken up for elaboration... but then, this is an artiste who hasn't shied away from RTPs in rakti ragas like Yadukulakambhoji, Nayaki, etc. and rare ones like Narayanagowla. The ragamalika swarams were all in madhyama-sruti ragas. It was almost 12.20 by now... two quick pieces including that lovely javali and the show was over. Hugely satisfying for me personally...

Accompanists: Kannan was competent overall. Ramabhadran... well, I'll be respectfully silent considering his seniority and vidwat

Some other sidelights: celeb-spotting is a pastime for me during the morning concerts. A lot of vidwans & vidushis turn up for the morning lec-dems and concerts. Some of the names I could identify that attended Sowmya's concert today: TKG, TNS, BRI, VV Srivatsa, Suguna P, Mrs. & Mr. Unnikrishnan, Vijay & Manoj Siva, Shriramkumar, Neyveli Narayanan, Charumati & Subhasree Ramachandran, TV Ramprasadh, KN Shashikiran, Delhi Sunderrajan...

kalgada78 · Post by **kalgada78** » 28 Dec 2006, 00:53

RTP in Janjhooti!!!...wow!!a small clip is greatly appreciated

I heard that Sowmya had rendered RTPs in ragas like "Asaveri","Yadukula Kambhoji","Nayaki"
Truly a class act!

Sarma.

Lakshman · Post by **Lakshman** » 28 Dec 2006, 05:03

dEvI pAvanE is by Svati Tirunal.

vijay · Post by **vijay** » 28 Dec 2006, 14:38

Thanks Kamavardhini - really regret to being able to make it for this - some old friends came over and kept me awake throughout the night - I just couldn't pull myself out of the bed in the morning...with so many vidwans present it must have been a nice atmosphere and a Senchurutti expansion doesn't happen too often

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 28 Dec 2006, 17:52

A miss on my part too. I left Chennai by then.
Such a good song list--and pallavi. Very sensible of Sowmya to switch to BrOchEvAru from parvata rAja Kumari which Sanjay excelled in., the previous evening...

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 28 Dec 2006, 18:59

O arasi, you already left chennai ,when I was just about to ask you what concerts you had heard or will hear. You should open new threads or add more posts to an existing concert(s) thread. I have assumed you are the only

grandmother(active poster) in rasikas.org , you may throw an entirely new JK Rowling perspective that is just getting fairly repetitive with bharath,rams,vijay and me.

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 28 Dec 2006, 22:16

rajesh,
Grandmother twice over, yes, but in erudition, I am young (at heart too). A full-fledged rasika, yes, but knowledgable, no. Theories and thALa techniques are beyond me. Still, I can vouch for my genuine rasikahood. Ask someone like GuruvAyur Dorai (no, please don't:)). He knows
that my tALa gnAna doesn't interfere with my rasikAhood.
A propos, you did not ask me if I wore green to a particular concert (as you did with Vijay)...

Always learning from the old and the young--Arasi.

rbharath · Post by **rbharath** » 30 Dec 2006, 00:01

arasi wrote:rajesh,
A propos, you did not ask me if I wore green to a particular concert (as you did with Vijay)...

he did ask me if i wore green to a concert. Did i actually wear green to the concert or does rajesh ask the same thing to everybody?

vijay · Post by **vijay** » 30 Dec 2006, 00:06

I don't think I've worn anything green in my entire life except my school uniform - I ain't joining the environmental corps just yet...

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 30 Dec 2006, 09:16

It is possible that Rajesh favors green, and if we all all plan to wear the color at least to one pre-planned concert, it would be easier for him to spot us--at least me, the grandmother of all:)
Or, Srikris could mull over issuing us Rasikas Forum badges to help Rajesh out..

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 30 Dec 2006, 11:30

Or, Srikris could mull over issuing us Rasikas Forum badges to help Rajesh out..

Now, that is an idea worth considering.. a small lapel pin with rasikas.org tastefully displayed.

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 30 Dec 2006, 12:18

VK,
Thanks for 'refining' my idea. I didn't have those huge rossettes and ribbons in mind either, but I did not put it as well as you did.
The Beatles would have sung 'greeen is the color that our Rajesh wears, yes, he wears, it's true'.
New year is upon us, and so this partying mood--Rajesh, please don't look upon it seriously...

rbharath · Post by **rbharath** » 30 Dec 2006, 13:30

coming back to the topic of the thread. is sowmya very seriously ill or something? i have seen many concerts cancelled this week. she has sung the academy one only. even tomorrow's concert at KGS, Rama Ravi is singing in her place.

ramanathan · Post by **ramanathan** » 30 Dec 2006, 14:12

No bharath, she is not 'seriously ill'... doc has ordered complete voice rest for a few days to heal the inflammation of the vocal chords that resulted from a severe cold / throat congestion. It is the grace of God, a tribute to her resilience and the good wishes of several friends and rasikas that resulted in the Academy concert going well. Thanks also to the Academy & Smt. T. Rukmini for facilitating the swap of dates. She hopes to be back on the concert circuit at Bharat Kalachar on Jan 4th.

PS - Bharath, I thought you must have spotted her yesterday at Srikantan mama's MA concert. She was seated a couple of rows behind you, along with her son.

ram · Post by **ram** » 30 Dec 2006, 14:12

Here people wear all kinds of colors. Even green might not help identify rasikas.org members.

As for the badge ........ a good idea but then the person sitting next to you might ask "where are they distributing this?"

This is the single sentence with which most people open their conversation here, especially when they see someone reading some notice or the kutcheribuzz newsletter.

Coming back to the topic of the thread, I pray for the quick recovery of Smt. Sowmya's throat.

rbharath · Post by **rbharath** » 31 Dec 2006, 19:05

ramanathan wrote:PS - Bharath, I thought you must have spotted her yesterday at Srikantan mama's MA concert. She was seated a couple of rows behind you, along with her son.

i did see her sitting at MA. I still wanted to clarify for i was surprised to see her concerts cancelled.

others wrote:on the badge issue

i hope it would soon become a reality. I would take it and NOT wear it