Kalpagam Swaminathan - House concert held in New Jersey on M

Ramaprasad · Post by **Ramaprasad** » 03 Apr 2008, 20:38

House concert held in New Jersey on March 30, 2008
Kalpagam Swaminathan (Veena)
Palghat Rajamani (Mridangam)

Viriboni - Bhairavi - Adiappa - Usi thalam
Panchmathanga - Malahari - Dikshitar (S)
Yochana - Durbar - Thyagaraja (R)
Thyagarajaya Namasthe - Begada - Dikshitar (R, S)
Purahara Nandana - HameerKalyani - Dikshitar (R)
Inkevarunnaru - Sahana - Annaswamy Sastri (R, S, followed by Thani)
Meenakshi Memudham - Poorvikalyani - Dikshitar (R, T)
Sree Subramanyo - Thodi - Dikshitar (R)
Viswanathena - Samantha - Dikshitar (R, S)
Sree Venugopala - Kuranji - Dikshitar
Pranatharthi Haram Aham - Chenjuruti - Mysore Vasudevachar (R)
Ambara Chidambara - Surati - Gopalakrishna Bharathi (R)

When Dikshitar composed â€œVeena Pusthaka Dhariniâ€

cienu · Post by **cienu** » 03 Apr 2008, 20:45

Ramaprasad

Great Song List and wonderful review. Kalpagam Mami is without doubt a Colossus in the field of Veena. Lucky are those who managed to see and enjoy the divine music. And with Palghat Rajamani , what a fantastic combination.

Look forward to the photographs.

rajeeram · Post by **rajeeram** » 03 Apr 2008, 21:08

Ramaprasad,

Thanks for the review.

I feel all the worse for missing this concert though I came to know of it a little too late.

You can use http://tinypic.com/ to upload, procure a link and use the img tag like this.

Alternatively, you can upload to a photo sharing service like Flickr and post a link.

Pravin Sitaram · Post by **Pravin Sitaram** » 03 Apr 2008, 21:12

Sounds like a fabulous concert - I thought Mami had to cut short her tour to the US. She was supposed to perform in Boston on April 7th...this was cancelled. A loss for Boston rasikas....

Rajamani sir style of accompaniment very closely resembles his father Palghat Mani Iyer's style. The stamp is inimitable. Great following for songs and I'm sure the combination would have been fantastic. Any possibility of a recording?

Pravin

Pravin Sitaram · Post by **Pravin Sitaram** » 03 Apr 2008, 21:22

Pardon my ignorance - what is USI Thalam?

rajeeram · Post by **rajeeram** » 03 Apr 2008, 21:32

Oops, I forgot to put a quote on the tags.

"

"

rajeeram · Post by **rajeeram** » 03 Apr 2008, 21:33

I give up:-) You can look it up in the help here.

http://rasikas.org/help.php#bbcode

venkatpv · Post by **venkatpv** » 03 Apr 2008, 21:34

the rendition of thodi had such grandeur! the thanam-playing for thodi was simply out of the world, with excursions into the mandara and tara sthayi using shadja-panchama varja prayogas... the grand finale for the thanam was a flat-note climb all the way up the scale and back, very pleasing indeed!

there were deft touches throughout the concert, in all her raga essays... IIRC, she played atleast a brief sketch before every kriti... hamir kalyani was 24 karat.

to interact with Kalpagam mami after the concert was a blessing... she sang a few snatches of Annapurne, showcasing a facet of Sama that I have never seen before.

totally fruitful weekend!!

vidya · Post by **vidya** » 04 Apr 2008, 09:49

Ramaprasad wrote:House concert held in New Jersey on March 30, 2008
Viriboni - Bhairavi - Adiappa - Usi thalam

Pravin Sitaram wrote:Pardon my ignorance - what is USI Thalam?

It is aTa tAlam. Usi tAl/nam as I understand(corrections welcome) is merely a technique akin to a syncopated beat and not a tAlam per se.
ie Smt.Kalpakam Swaminathan played all the swarapassages with atIta eduppu. This results in an additional twang of the tAla string which adds an element of aesthetics in a veena rendition. She added that it was after Mysore Vasudevachar's suggestion that she started playing it this way. Old timers may remember that this was the subject of a long-drawn discussion on the erstwhile sangeetham bboard where a wide range of digressions ranging from jazz and analogies to a syncopated beat were discussed at length on this Usi tAlam topic.

rrao13 · Post by **rrao13** » 04 Apr 2008, 18:23

I found this link via a Rasika Member posting: This one is Hamir Kalyani ; If you search the site you will get some more - at least one more "Sahana conversations"

http://www.archive.org/details/Smt.Kalp ... aranandana

Does any one have Shri Kuppuswamiah's heart stirring HK krithi audio (Raada naa meeda dayaleda)

cmlover · Post by **cmlover** » 04 Apr 2008, 19:35

Any chance of sharing some audio clips....

Ramaprasad · Post by **Ramaprasad** » 04 Apr 2008, 20:51

CML sir, as soon as the audio is available, with permission from parties involved, we would love to share with all the rasikas.

Ramaprasad

cmlover · Post by **cmlover** » 04 Apr 2008, 23:22

Thank you very much Ramaprasad! And please don't edit the audio since it will be nice to hear mami's natural explanations. In the mean time let us look at the pictures at your convenience.

Pravin Sitaram · Post by **Pravin Sitaram** » 05 Apr 2008, 02:13

vidya wrote:
Ramaprasad wrote:House concert held in New Jersey on March 30, 2008
Viriboni - Bhairavi - Adiappa - Usi thalam

Pravin Sitaram wrote:Pardon my ignorance - what is USI Thalam?
It is aTa tAlam. Usi tAl/nam as I understand(corrections welcome) is merely a technique akin to a syncopated beat and not a tAlam per se.
ie Smt.Kalpakam Swaminathan played all the swarapassages with atIta eduppu. This results in an additional twang of the tAla string which adds an element of aesthetics in a veena rendition. She added that it was after Mysore Vasudevachar's suggestion that she started playing it this way. Old timers may remember that this was the subject of a long-drawn discussion on the erstwhile sangeetham bboard where a wide range of digressions ranging from jazz and analogies to a syncopated beat were discussed at length on this Usi tAlam topic.

Thank you Vidya for your detailed explanation.

Pravin

Ramaprasad · Post by **Ramaprasad** » 06 Apr 2008, 00:42

I apologize for the poor quality of the photos. In my deeply felt desire not to disturb the artists, I did not use the flash and you see the result. There were other photographers there. If I can obtain some of their pics, I will post them too. Here is my first attempt to post the pics:

cmlover · Post by **cmlover** » 06 Apr 2008, 02:02

Dear Ramaprasad
Thank you very much! I have edited your post to bring out the images!
Is it you peeking at the 6th picture?
Who is the Lady putting thaaLam behind?
Mami appears to be in top form as does Rajamani (reminding me of PMI) !

Ramaprasad · Post by **Ramaprasad** » 06 Apr 2008, 03:58

Dear CML Sir,
Thank you so much for "cleaning up" my amateur attempt. The lady behind Mami is Dr. Bhavani Rao, who is a doctor by profession, but is also a musician (She is a vocalist, plays the flute and the Veena !). No, I am not in any of the pictures. I think the person 'peeking in' is Mr. Vidyashankar, the husband of Kiranavali. It was a pleasure talking to him here.

Ramaprasad

cmlover · Post by **cmlover** » 06 Apr 2008, 04:05

Thanks. Awaiting the audio once you are organized.

srkris · Post by **srkris** » 06 Apr 2008, 15:01

Wowww, eagerly awaiting the recording.

sjm · Post by **sjm** » 06 Apr 2008, 21:22

Hello Mr.Ramaprasad,

Are you by any chance from Bangalore and related to Bindiganavile Desikachar/Antamma. I am Jayanth H Keshavamurthy son of Sharada and Keshavamurthy. We heard Kiranavali Vidyashankar sing last year in Cleveland Aradhana and enjoyed her concert a lot.

Jayanth.

Ramaprasad · Post by **Ramaprasad** » 06 Apr 2008, 21:45

Hello Jayanth,

Thanks for asking. Your guess is half correct. Yes, I am originally from Bangalore, but I don't recall the names of the two persons you refer to.

Ramaprasad

sjm · Post by **sjm** » 06 Apr 2008, 22:53

I was referring to a Ramprasad in NJ who is the uncle of Manasi Prasad ,a young and upcoming carnatic musician also from Banagalore and his wife's name is Shyamala.

annamalai · Post by **annamalai** » 20 Apr 2008, 06:22

Last year, I bought a 2 CD album of Kalpagam Swaminathan with many rare DIkshitar krithis - a collector's item.

Kamalamba Navavarna krithi - in Bhairavi
Sree Matha Sivavamanke Sree Chakraroopa Thadanke - Begada - on Goddess Akilandeswari of Tiruvanaikaval
Saraswathi Hithe - Manji
Soundararajam - Brindavana Saranga
....