Vid. Seetha Narayanan @ Music Academy

[parivadini]

In a way - I have to thank rasikas for making me write this. I haven't written anything in a long long time. I was hoping that someone would put up a review of this great concert. I thought I had waited long enough and if I didn't write - then no one will. Hence this article. I wpuldn't like to call this a review. This is more of my experience. Well - what an experience it was!

https://carnaticmusicreview.wordpress.c ... narayanan/

[gardabha_gana]

Translation please! Also, when I saw parivadini, I thought somehow you got a live broadcast well we can dream.....

[sankark]

I don't pen music critiques. Used to write my concert experiences; its another matter that they were viewed as music critiques. Got bored with even that and stopped doing even that. Strongly felt the urge to write, that if I don't pen this, no one else will write, in tamil, about this artiste and the concert.

The artiste - Seetha Narayanan. Will collate more information and write for sure in 2017. Google-god, on inquiry, only points to the news, mutiply, that RaGa has learnt bhakti songs from this artiste.

So be it!

Morning 9:30 on 26th Dec 2016, Music Academy.

I reached the venue by 9:30 am, the concert would have started by 9 am. She was singing janani mAmava in bhairavi when I entered the hall. Her articulation was like a slap to those that have misunderstood producing hard and soft music and perform voice acrobatics through lowering and increasing the volume, that looks like a ECG graph.

After bhairvai, in a few arcs in 2 seconds she sang a pure harikAmbhOji, not entering khamAs and kAmbhOji territories. She sang oka mAda oka bAna kriti so weightily and the swarams at chiranjeevi will live forever in my mind. A special mention has to be made of AV Manikandan, that played so right for this and the other songs. Haven't heard this artiste before. Good nAdam. Racy but not banging away merrily. The left and right hands merged so well to polish the songs. It is no wonder that AS Krishnan enhanced rather than mar the renderings, an experienced artiste that he is.

[sankark]

She took kApi as the main that day. Jayanth, the flautist seated near me, was experience ecstacy every minute. Anchoring at gAndhara to mete out few choice sanchArAms, she moved further. As I was thinking she will wrap soon, she showcased, keeping all showmanship away, the rAgam anchoring it at shadjam and nishAdam. Those that have listened to her in her prime are fortunate indeed, for her voice hugged the sruthi at thAra shadjam even when she is 75. inta sowkyamaninE is the song that followed; is that the only sowkyam?

A brigA at jeppa jAla - a flash of brilliance. Swarams fell so clear that you could collect each one!

Thyagaraja has sung about Raman in a song - you are the essence of essence. The nereval and swarams at swara rAga sudha rasa is the essence of essence of the ragam. The percussion artistes just kept to the experience created by that swaraprastharam in their tani, eschewing mathematics around tisram and kandam.

She took nAsikAbhUshani for RTP after that tani. You can get to listen alapanais that show a mix of ragams without showing the full vista of this ragam, even if the rishaba gandhara majestic vivadhiness is mixed with the chatusruthi daivatham's softness, sprinkling the feminity of pratimadhyamam.
But the phrases that she sang that day were the kind that shouted "I, Nasikabhushani" fillling the hall. Took up the pallavi in misra jhampai, kanyAkumAri prasiddha nAsikAbhUshanidhArini, after tanam in two speeds.

A pallavi that showcased the name of the ragam beautifully and at the same time feted the SK this year, Kanyakumari. Guess it was a 4 count eduppu. It isn't easy to sing madhyamakAla nereval compared to keezh kAlam and durita kAlam nereval singing. You can come across many instances where the singer gets pulled into durita kAlam starting in madhyama kAlam. We were lucky to have listened to a madhyama kala nereval in this concert.

Great RTP's take the amateurs into the rAga bhavam; the experts into introspection. This pallavi showcased the laya prowess even above the beauty of nasikabhushani.

She took 1 kalai before singing swarams having sung trikAlam and tisram in 2 kalai. After swarams landing at kanyAkumAri, prasiddha and dhArini she sang trikAlam again in 4-kalai, 2 kalai and 1 kalai.

I think that the peak of that concert is the Saveri swarams in the ragamalikai landing at thArini, totally unexpected, as swaraksharam. Whatever I write about that experience is going to fall flat on its face.

[parivadini]

ayyo sir! This is very embarassing. My random scribbling doesn't deserve such meticulous translation. I'm sure there are many other worthy things to do than translate this If you had done it for the sake of the great Vidushi - it is a different matter altogether though.

[sankark]

A ragam on that morning! Swaram singing that didn't mangle the life of that ragam, not that easy a layam exercise, a landing at the mid of the pallavi, swarams that land with swarakasharam for the word on that landing - preparing such a list and singing a pallavi is akin to flogging that rAga dEvatai. You get to see such wondrous things only when the art comes out on its own volition when the singer is losing self in the music being sung. I think she sang behag and ranjani too. The impact of tharini didn't let me be to listen to them.

Heard from the others that the the tulasidas bhajan in bagesri and kandar alangAram as virutham and "kuralinaith tharuvAi gurunAdha" were such as to melt those that heard them. My mind is still lingering on that tharini's beauty.

What else to write about that monday morning where no worries were keeping me preoccupied? What to speak of other sowkyams?

--

My effort at translating parivadini's experience. Listening to a janani mAmava @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7BUGk89Oi8 as I was dabbling in this translation.

[gardabha_gana]

Thanks much @parivadini and @sankark. I am jealous

[sankark]

ayyo sir! This is very embarassing. My random scribbling doesn't deserve such meticulous translation. I'm sure there are many other worthy things to do than translate this If you had done it for the sake of the great Vidushi - it is a different matter altogether though.

Thats OK. It is good translating that experience instead of having such an experience, in Ethiraj Kalyana Mandapam, the poor acoustics notwithstanding, with Vijay Siva for IFAS. Had to skip


gardhaba_gana - I didn't partake in that experience either. Just translation service!