music festival at singapore by SINGAPORE INDIAN FINE ARTS

gobilalitha · Post by **gobilalitha** » 09 Mar 2008, 14:03

Singapore has been acclaimed as the most liveable society in the world, To add another feather to its glory,it is shortly likely to be acclaimed as the indian music and dance hub of the world, by the way indian musicis nurtured by SIFAS.. .the music festival continues for the sixth successive year. several leading artists fromIndia,includingChaurasia,GayatriGirish,U.Srinivas,,TMKRISHNA,Sowmya,Sriramkumar,Mirugabhoopathi,are taking partin the kutcheris, in addition to sveral budding youngsters.like suresh thyagasrajan,sivakuma()bothflautists),,poornapragnarao(son of SandyavandanamSrinivasa rao ,to mention a few. several youngsters arealso taking part in the dance programme on the whole there are nearly60 concerts from7th march to23rd march,.the pillaiyar suzhi kutcheri was by GAYATRI GIRISH,disciple of the legend SriTNSeshagopalan Smt GayatriGirish vocal,
sriGaneshKumar ,violin
sriTRSundaresan,mridangam
sri Satish chandra sista kanjira
list of songs 1.eranapaii todi,varnam
2)seethapathi kamas thyagaraja
3malarin thunaiye p.sivan reetigowlai
4md kriti ragam kokilavaram
5) ammaravamma(kalyan)thyagarajar
6yediah gathi (chalanattai)kotiswara iyer
7)ragam tanam pallavi k eeravani Anandanatanamadinarftillayil ragamalika(swaras)
8)kakkai siraginile.
as the programme was for 1.45 hours , she could not cover more songs and the alapana had to be,shorter than usual in some raagas, the alapana for reeti gowla was short, but sweet. the kalyani raaga alapana and neraval at thamarasa dala nethru thyagararju ne and the swaraprastara embellishment showed ample evidence of her vidwat...after the kalyani, the kotiswara iyer kriti yediah gathi in chalanattai had a soothing effect like maanasa sancharare in sama. rtp in keeravani with an eloborate alaapanaiand the swaras ,a rare gift from guru ,were spell binding. she wove a garland of swaras in various raagas, the transition from one raaga to another were so swif(( Iam sorry.I momentarily forgot that hefr guru is TNS),, i could recognize onlysome raagas likevasantha, mlohanam, shAnmukapriya,valaji.surati, despite scratching my head ,
the concert ended with kakkai siraginile, a TNS favourite.. the accompanying artists did their parts exceedingly well. the violinist matched the swaras and neravals phrase by phrase the tani was an effort worth remembering theconcert was of a high standard, ,enjoyable. Smt Gayatri praised the highly knowledgable crowd, who enjoyed the concert with rapt attention

bhaktha · Post by **bhaktha** » 09 Mar 2008, 14:42

Was the pallavi set to tisra jati triputa talam in 4 kalai?

bilahari · Post by **bilahari** » 09 Mar 2008, 18:38

Pallavi was set to tisra triputa, yes. I don't know about 4-kalai. Her Keeravani thanam was rather good, but the rapidfire ragamaliga sequence was very lacklustre in my opinion simply because she gave the briefest, unsatisfactory glimpse of so many ragas. There were quite a few shruti lapses. The violin was squeaking for the better part of the concert, and settled down only at the very end. He gave average accompaniment, but played a better Keeravani alapanai than the vocalist. The thani was short and ordinary. It was a mediocre concert at best for me. The crowd was sparse and there was a lot of chatter, which somehow seemed amplified in the hall, and that sort of ruined the acoustics.

gobilalitha · Post by **gobilalitha** » 09 Mar 2008, 19:06

bilahari, of course you are entitled to your views. but she is a senior artist,who has been given 3hours schedules in all the major sabhas,in chennai,all over india and Usa. how can we expect her to do full justice to alapanai, kriti, neraval, swarsm, tani etc in an hour and a half concert. would have anyone been satisfied if she had just sung 2 songs. she herself was appreciative of the crowd, and not sparse as you have said gobilalitha

bilahari · Post by **bilahari** » 09 Mar 2008, 19:16

Gobilalitha, of course she should've been given more time. But for much of the concert, the hall was only a third full. Surely that's sparse! People only started filing in at the end, probably for the subsequent dance performance.

priyaram78 · Post by **priyaram78** » 09 Mar 2008, 20:00

thanks for the song list and the review. wish i get a chance to listen to her rendition of Ammaravamma and Anandanatanam aadinaar tillayil in delhi when she comes here in april.

ramarama · Post by **ramarama** » 10 Mar 2008, 05:53

Gobilalitha and Bilahari are both right

The hall was "half full" and "half empty" - and half is a metaphor, not to be taken literally. Also not to be taken literally are things an artiste might say when chatting with rasikas after a concert.

To clarify, she was actually assigned two hours (and I think she sang the full two hours, perhaps even exceeding that by a very few minutes), as are most of the invited artistes from India at the SIFAS auditorium. The local (i.e. Singapore based) artistes are assigned 1.5 hours and the "rising star" concerts by much younger artistes on the penultimate day of the festival are assigned 45 minutes.

I think Gayathri did justice within the time allotted to her, with a nice mix and decent proportions of various components - ragam, neraval, swaras, pallavi. It was a weekday evening concert with a start around 6:45, so by usual SIFAS standards, it was a pretty reasonable sized crowd that showed up. And Gayathri was inspired enough by the audience that she sang very well. A nice feature of the SIFAS audience is that studded in the audience are some seasoned ratnas

- the various highly accomplished SIFAS music and dance teachers, several from CCKM, U of Madras, Kalakshetra etc. - and for many artistes, it is not the size of the audience as much as the quality of the audience that matters. And I think GG got a pretty decent quality audience.

Q E D

gobilalitha · Post by **gobilalitha** » 10 Mar 2008, 07:11

bhakta, your guess is correct. the pallavi was set to tisraJAATI triputa talam in4 kalais confirmed by GG gobilalitha

jananee · Post by **jananee** » 10 Mar 2008, 08:08

There was a very nice concert ( flute) by Suresh Thiagarajan yesterday. Dr Ramani's grrandson. I was hearing him for the first tiime and enjoyed it thoroughly!

gobilalitha · Post by **gobilalitha** » 10 Mar 2008, 08:35

yes. it was a nice concert.some of the neraval pieces and swaras reminded one of his legendary grandfather Dr ramani there was another nice fluterecital by sivakumar,,which is worth mentioning. gobilalitha

Anusha · Post by **Anusha** » 10 Mar 2008, 12:24

Early this year at Ananya, Amrutha Venkatesh sang a RTP in Kharaharapriya with the same pallavi line as above. She sang ragamalika swarams in Poorvikalyani, Kedaram and Vasantha. At the finish of each round, when she sang the pallavi line in the corresponding ragam, it was very catchy, all these 3 ragams having krithis starting Ananda Natanam...

Sathej · Post by **Sathej** » 10 Mar 2008, 16:25

Nice list....Khamas, Reethigowlai and Keeravani....RTP in Keeravani always brings to my mind the excellent rendition by Semmangudi Mama brought out as a commercial release with MSG on the violin and Vellore Ramabhadran on Mrudangam. The Ragam and Tanam are just outstanding. The Pallavi line being Ananda Purna Bhogam Shivogam Sathatham....
Sathej

bilahari · Post by **bilahari** » 10 Mar 2008, 16:52

I've always found Keeravani to be a raga that lends itself to thanam singing. Especially when flat notes are used, it sounds divine.

jananee · Post by **jananee** » 10 Mar 2008, 21:10

A good concert by Poorna Pragna Rao today....

- Kambhoji varnam, Pranamamyaham Sri, Smarane sukam ( janaranjani) , Kapali ( Mohanam) , Ranganayakam in Nayaki, Ninne nammithi ( Simhendra Madhyamam) and a couple of tukkadas.....very nice padantaram.....there was a lot of sowkhyam.....mohanam was the best...i enjoyed the concert.

ramarama · Post by **ramarama** » 10 Mar 2008, 21:34

will just echo that review of PPR. The kamboji varnam incidentally was the ata tala one (there is an adi tala version too, yes?). He has a nice forceful style of rendition - some of the swara renditions (for gowlai, and for one of the other ragas, forget which) were sort of abruptly finished off just when it was getting interesting - luckily the Simhendra Madhyamam got the full swara treatment and was quite delectable. Kapali with all the lovely sangatis (are they "original" Sivan sangatis i wonder or Madurai Mani Iyer creations) was also delightful. Shri PP Rao incidentally is a full time vocal tutor at SIFAS.

gobilalitha · Post by **gobilalitha** » 11 Mar 2008, 06:28

much disappointed that I missedPPR's performance, as I had to attend another performanceat the same time . the reviews by ramarama and jananee make me feel that I should not have missed it at any cost.God willing I may get an opportunity to hear him either at Chennai or Bangalore.thanks jananee andramarama for the nice reviews. gobilalitha

shwesand · Post by **shwesand** » 11 Mar 2008, 13:15

When you have the time kindly do visit http://www.festivebeats08.blogspot.com
Young SIFAS students between 11 and 13years old are maintaining this blog. This is their first attempt at this and we hope to include more features in future festivals

Thanks

gobilalitha · Post by **gobilalitha** » 15 Mar 2008, 08:25

Hindustani music concert of Ravindra Parchureon14/3, while reviewing the concert in Sifas festive beats, sharvari and nithyanandan have mentioned that the17raaga piece wasenjoyed,will it be possible to post it in rasikas.org? gobilalitha

ramarama · Post by **ramarama** » 15 Mar 2008, 13:23

this 17 raga item is a fairly classic piece - it begins with "Hindol gaavat sab" in raga Hindol and includes the raga names in the lyrics - I'm not sure that the incorporation of the raga names into the lyrics by the composer was done as appositely as in some dikshitar kritis or the four raga pallavi sankarabharananai azhaittodi vaa ,,,,,, - anyway, there must be other renditions of this piece (they mentioned the composer's name but i was distracted when they did that, so didn't catch the name) available in people's collections, so perhaps someone can post a link? I doubt if the organizers are going to be able to post any of the clips on the web.

jananee · Post by **jananee** » 16 Mar 2008, 08:11

We had a brilliant concert by V. Shankaranarayanan on 14th March evening. Song list:

1. vallabha - begada - Roopakam - MD

2. Merusamana - mayamalavagowla - Adi - Thyagaraja

3. Neethu mahima - Hamsanandi - Adi - Harikesanallur Muthiah Bhagavathar

4. Lavanya rama - poorna shadjam - Roopakam - Thyagaraja

5. Ninne Nammi nanu - Todi - Misra Chapu - Syama Sastri
( nneraval at kamakshi.....)

6. Jamuna kinare pyare.....Charukesi ( i think) .....Swati Tirunal

7. Tillana ( did not catch it fully)

On the whole a very satisfying concert and probably one of the best in the series so far...very good accompaniments by Sri Ganesh Kumar on violin and Sri TR Sundaresan. on mridangam. I especially loved his todi and hamsanandi.

Maybe GBL could add more about the concert.....other people who attended too...

meena · Post by **meena** » 16 Mar 2008, 08:20

3. Nidu mahima

gobilalitha · Post by **gobilalitha** » 16 Mar 2008, 09:06

jan anee, you are absolutely right. c an I say another Sanjay subramaniam coming up?this is the best compliment I can think of. sampradayasangeetham. sang with perfect alignment of shruthi(quote sri satyalingamfrom forum beats). my choice of the best song is nidu mahima gobilalitha

gobilalitha · Post by **gobilalitha** » 16 Mar 2008, 09:28

oh ! I forgot to add . sankaranarayanan, "on your mark , get set , ready music academy, chennai, sydney,cleveland.. gobilalitha

jananee · Post by **jananee** » 16 Mar 2008, 13:12

Thank you meena

ramarama · Post by **ramarama** » 17 Mar 2008, 19:50

Another super concert by Sankaranarayanan indeed - but that was as expected. That Hamsanandi raagam was out of this world. It's always been my experience that the SIFAS auditorium concerts are the real heart of the festival and produce many moments of beauty, sometimes from the most unexpected quarters. But VS's tour de force has become an expected highlight (as are the regular "Singapore seniors" Pavan and Srividya Sriram - caught the earlier one which was a very nice effort and missed the latter one because of other commitments). BTW, I was informed by the SIFAS principal that the Swati Thirunal Hindi kriti was in Pilu raga. The tillana was in Behag, I think, but not the usual (Lalgudi?) one.

The three flute recitals I heard were all of the highest quality - SIFAS tutor V K Sivakumar (in the presence of the visiting Ronu Mazumdar), G Sridhar and Suresh Thiagarajan. Some other real surprises (to me at least) were the very first concert by Lavanya Balasubramaniam (student of T R Balamani and Kalyani Sharma of Mumbai) and Sri Priya (student of Neyveli Santhanagopalan).

bilahari · Post by **bilahari** » 19 Mar 2008, 22:44

A fairly enjoyable concert by Sowmya at the Esplanade this evening:

Vocal: S. Sowmya
Violin: R.K. Sriramkumar
Mrudangam: Poongulam Subramanyam
Kanjira: Sunder Kumar

Approximate Songlist:

Varnam (Chalamela) - Nattaikurinji (S)
Siva Siva Siva - Panthuvarali (R,N,S)
EdhayaA Gadhi - Chalanattai (S)
MAnasa Guruguha - Anandha Bhairavi
HechariKaga RA RA- Yadukulakamboji (R)
Bogeendra SAyinam- Kunthalavarali
RTP - Bhairavi (Adi) (T)
+ Thukkadas in Sivaranjani (composition of Dr. S. Ramanathan, whose death anniversary it was today), Khamas(?), Senchurutti, and Thillana (Kedaram?).

The Panthuvarali krithi was presented in its usual fast tempo, with some fast neraval passages to boot. It was crisp. EdhayA Gadhi seems to be Singapore's song of the year, since I've heard it at least 3 times in the last 4 or 5 concerts, but Sowmya added an exceptional twist by rendering elaborate swaras for this piece. The swaras were very melodious and imaginative, with Sriramkumar's to-the-point replies. MAnasa Guruguha was okay, could have been ornamented with a short alapanai perhaps. Yadukulakamboji alapanai was really detailed, and I thought it was going to be the main piece, but she stopped at the krithi. The alapanai was very good, as was the krithi. The Bhairavi alapanai was the highlight of the evening for me, thorough and aesthetic. She demonstrated most of the major phrases in the raga and used Sa-Pa-Sa phrases very creatively as well. The whole alapanai (vocal+violin) lasted 25 minutes, and promised an elaborate pallavi, but I was sorely disappointed by the 5-min thanam which hardly got going and a pretty mediocre pallavi rendition (trikalam was done though). The concert went on a steep downhill slope after the Bhairavi alapanai, and the thukkadas were very light.

R.K. Sriramkumar was in fine form. His replies were invariably on-the-money, and all his alapanais matched the vocalist's. His concise Panthuvarali was especially noteworthy.

Poongulam Subramanyam accompanied well. He was unobtrusive, but provided nice flourishes here and there that really enhanced the krithi rendition. Sunder Kumar was ok on the kanjira. Both the percussionists played a lively and enjoyable thani.

All in all, a concert worth attending for the Chalanattai swaras and Bhairavi alapanai (and the alapanais in general), but certainly not outstanding. I heard people outside complaining about the excess manodharmam employed in the concert, what with all this alapanai and kalpana swara nonsense dragging the good stuff down, and also about three slow renditions in a row (Edhaya, Manasa, and Hecharikaga). Somebody said the concert should've been better tailored to the Singapore hoi polloi. Nobody seemed to have enjoyed it at all.

Anybody else who attended agrees with me that it was certainly not that awful?!

jananee · Post by **jananee** » 20 Mar 2008, 06:29

I for one did think that Sowmya was in fairly good form yesterday. The start was brisk....I personally loved " Edayya gathi..." Though we have heard it a few times this year i thought she rendered in a very beautiful way...and yes the swarams at " chalanata" were really good.

There was a general feel that 3 slow items in a row were not a good choice but i dont think everyone was unhappy..A lot of people were happy too!

The pallavi in Bhairavi went like "Bhakta jana Kalpalatika karunalaya Sadaya".....Ragam was excellent....Would have loved more of the tanam...and swaram...she did a quick ragamalika swaram with bhairavi, Hamsanandi, Bageswari,Revathy, Madhyamavati, and back to bhairavi..

The tukkada section was good too....I would probably not say it went downhill....it was enjoyable too...the piece by Dr S . Ramanathan was very nice followed by " kadalenum teevinile radhe radhe " in Khamas...Kavadi chindu and thillana in Poornaravichandrika (?).

RK Shriramkumar was brilliant as always and Poongulam was excellent....kanjira ok.

So i guess it was not awful AT ALL.....

The series at the Esplanade concert hall started off with Pt HARIPRASAD CHAURASIA'S flute recital yesterday. I think GBL would be posting a small review on that.

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 20 Mar 2008, 06:49

Thank you, jananee for your 'extra'.
I had a feeling slow moving songs are quite in vogue these days--think of TMK.
Sowmya sang kAdalennum tIvinilE too, in the rAgA khamas, just as subramanya bArati wished it to be sung...

jananee · Post by **jananee** » 20 Mar 2008, 07:08

Yes Arasi...but i guess a lot depends on the audience too...Personally i do like the slow moving ones too but like bilahari pointed out maybe the crowd was not ready for them in a row!!!!

..and yes Sowmya did render kAdalennum tIviniLE beautifully...

gobilalitha · Post by **gobilalitha** » 20 Mar 2008, 07:58

Pandit Hariprasad chaurasia's performance on18/5 at Esplanade centre, singapore
artists1) HPChaurasia
2/SunilAvachat, flute
3)Vijay Ghate, tabla
4)JayantilalGosser, guitar
5)PushpanjaliChaurasia tanpura
This is a generalised view of a layman, not fully conversant with the intricacies and nuances of hm. , except identifying some raagas. the biodata says"the flute is the symbol ofthe spiritual call. the call of Divine love. emotions can be produced by the artist an emphatic yes by the galaxy of rasikas enjoying every second of the performance.
the raagas1)bageshri2) chandrakauns3)hamsadwani4) pahadi, the feelings created by the raags played , entreatment and divinity in bageshri and chandrakauns. i felt bhageshri and abhogi kanada are almost similar 3)bhaktirasa in the surprise choice of the song vatapi ganapati,and lastly the playful pahaadi reminding you of lord Krishna teasing the gopikas with His mischievous pranks , especially the sawal jawaab session , where the pandit will weave a garland of swaras and sancharas and eyeing askance at and coaxing Vijay ghate, the tabla player, come on reproduce what I have created on the magic flute of mine, vijay ghate reproducing with his deft fingers(are thosefingers made of flesh orgold) and the pandit's face gleaming with satisfaction, his lips entwined into a perpetual smile clapping his hands in full appreciation. the ac compying flautist and guitarist lent good support. all good things come to an.end.
coolkarniji, it serves you well. I inv ited you to come to singapore and be a guest of mine and jananee. you didn't come you may say I have heard many times at other places. can you an imagine an ambient auditorium like Esplanade gobilalitha

bilahari · Post by **bilahari** » 20 Mar 2008, 08:32

Gobilalitha, the Esplanade is indeed an excellent concert venue. In Chennai, my favourite is Kalakshetra (despite the mosquitoes). As for Sowmya's concert, being an avid MDR fan, I thoroughly enjoyed all the slow items. And in my favourite ragas as well! Thanks for the pallavi; I didn't remember it since I've never heard it before.

jananee · Post by **jananee** » 20 Mar 2008, 08:45

Yes i would like to add a bit on the ambience....I think Esplanade has one of the best Concert halls in the world..this is a fact which artists who come here immediately agree on....the acoustics/ ambience literally transports you to another world!

kmrasika · Post by **kmrasika** » 20 Mar 2008, 09:50

6. Jamuna kinare pyare.....Charukesi ( i think) .....Swati Tirunal

miShra pIlu

bilahari · Post by **bilahari** » 21 Mar 2008, 21:40

Very solid concert by TMK this evening. Quick report since I'm off for guard duty in less than 12 hours:

Vocal: T.M. Krishna
Violin: R.K. Sriramkumar
Mrudangam: Poongulam Sri Subramanyam
Khanjira: Sunder Kumar

Approximate Songlist:

Dinamani Vamsa- Harikamboji (S)
SabApathiku- Abhogi
SumasAyaka- Karnataka Kapi (R)
Salakalalla- Arabhi (S)
Kaligiyunte- Keeravani (R,N,S,T)
RTP- Thodi (Adi, Mishra Nadai)
+ Ragamaliga swaras in Kalyani, Mohanam, and one other I don't remember.
Viruttam- Ragamaliga (?, Varali, Manji)
VarugalAmo- Manji
Thillana- Poornachandrika (?)
RAmachandrAya- Mangalam

Sprightly start with Dinamani Vamsa, in SSI style, with good swaras, especially with DND phrases. SabApathikky was rendered slowly and was okay. First time I'm hearing an alapanai for K. Kapi, and was surprised that SumasAyaka followed since I'd always thought the varnam was in Hindusthani Kapi (wasn't that the way KVN sang it?). The alapanai was top-notch, and very distinct from Hindusthani Kapi. From what little I could make out, Hindusthani Kapi uses a lot of phrases and notes not within the raga's scale (SRMPNS, SNDNPMG,RNS?), but K. Kapi is a lot more chaste to the scale. What was up with the little bit of Begada and Mohanam in the varnam rendition? It was all in all an excellent piece.

Arabhi was fast; that's about it. Keeravani ragam was comprehensive and very beautiful, and everything in that rendition-- from ragam to krithi to neraval to swaras was exceedingly good. The neraval was especially noteworthy, starting really slowly and slowly working its way up to tremendous pace. Wonderfully subtle buildup. A 5-min sketch of Thodi was rendered by TMK (no violin), and I was all ready for another disappointingly short RTP of a major raga, but the subsequent thanam and pallavi neraval countered my disappointment somewhat. The thanam was short but very good, with excellent responses by RKS. Pallavi neraval was high-voltage stuff and I thoroughly enjoyed it (trikalam done as well). Swaras in Thodi were only sung for one avarthanam before the oh-so-surprising launch into ragamaliga's. But still, the 30-min pallavi ended up not disappointing all that much.

The ragamaliga viruttam that followed the RTP was excellent; rendered with a lot of bhavam. VarugalAmo Aiyya was equally excellent, sung in super vilamba kalam. This guy can certainly do wonders with Manji. Although the audience wanted much more, the concert ended with a crisp Thillana.

RKS was excellent on the violin, and his mandra sthayi accompaniment in Kaligiyunte and in Manji was just brilliant. His replies were crisp and his ragamaliga responses in the RTP bettered the vocalist's essays. As mentioned before in this forum, there is such great understanding between TMK and RKS.

Poongulam Subrahmanyam was excellent as well on the mrudangam, playing especially well for the slower pieces (sometimes not playing at all, i.e. moments in Manji). Sunder Kumar was better today than during Sowmya's concert, and the thani was very lively and enjoyable.

A standing ovation was given after this memorable concert.

shwesand · Post by **shwesand** » 21 Mar 2008, 22:10

bilahari wrote:+ Ragamaliga swaras in Kalyani, Mohanam, and one other I don't remember.

It was Kalyani, Reethigowla and Mohanam in that order before he went back to Thodi again

jananee · Post by **jananee** » 22 Mar 2008, 21:24

Yes..it was an excellent concert from krishna..tthe sumasayaka is still ringing in my years and the high voltage RTP in Todi .....It was yet another beautiful concert at the Esplanade!