KanyAkumari@MA(Mini) on July 26th,2009

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 31 Jul 2009, 18:57

KanyAkumari@MA(Mini) on July 26th,2009
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Accompanying A.KanyAkumAri in violin was her sishya L.Ramakrishnan.The percussion was handled Pathri Satish Kumar- mridangam and BS.PurushOtaman - kanjirA

This violin concert was organized by Semmengudi centenary celebrations committee,the artists focussed most of the numbers on SSI, and giving adequate cover to few MLV-GNB-Maharajapuram popularized krithis, the concert was for 2 hours.

Perhaps in violin LGJ-MSG-TNK still rule in the hearts of masses , there is atleast Shri MC, V V S , nAgai murali , one needs to add kanyAkumAri in that list. Never heard kannyakumari playing a exclusive violin concert , infact I have heard only her play during Smt MLV/sudha concerts about 15 to 20 years back and sometime later in the last few years one kadri gopalnAth , in both concerts as an accompanist only .

What I Liked :
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1. What impresses me the most is her extraordinary virtuosity in speed and precision in bowing, to a great extent she being a very diminutive personality the eyes in me at times is as equal in awe to my ears .

2. The nAttai swaras of GNB was excellent , I guess the best rAga to start a concert with a truck load of swaras .The controlled sangathi flow in reetigowlai krithi that followed , the brilliance of nAdaswara piDI in suddaseemanthani culminating with swarajathi in bhairavi was a beautiful build up of krithis till submain.

3. The kutcheri paddhati of taking up a slow and a fast number before main was also well done .The slow was devagAndhAri and the fast was supersonic pashupathipriyA ,with a prelude of janaranjani before and then culminating with SSI's waterfall krithi of mArubalka with swaras as main was very good to excellent

4. Tukkadas were MLV centric most of the time with few Semmangudi popularized tukkadas and a spell bound thillana of santhAnam's favourite rAga and composition.

What I did not Like that much:
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1. The concert was at times appearing more like tAlavadhya concert with pathri and BSP enjoying more in their layam way created a little bit too much of percussion effect.

2. She could have played an RTP , there are few spell bound recordings of hers with eminent flautist KSG, I was expecting that especially since shriranjani was the main(shriranjani is only a large main when compared to her mom/dad kharaharapriyA which is XtraLarge Main).

3. Pathri played beautifully but pathri's standard is much higher than what he played that day.

4. Few more oppurtunities for L.Ramakrishnan in playing few sangathis would have been nice , L.Ramakrishnan was giving minimal support(he played a lot but we could not hear a lot).

What I hated:
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Just one , sound volume .While her virtuosity , speed ,krithi selection and spontaneity was superb and heading towards himalayan north, with she keeping the contact mike , the volume was loud overall , and during shriranjani it was a mariamman koil thiruvizhA punturing my ears. She could take a leaf out of her own name and bring the volume closer towards her name. Despite sitting in the last row it did not help.

1. gajamukha varadA (?,S) - nAttai - GNB
2. paripAlyayamAm - reetigowlai - ST
3. janakiramana (RS,S) - suddaseemanthani -T
4 mins of swaras

4. kamAkshi(swarajati)(R) - bhairavi -SS
bhairavi alApanai for 4 minutes
5. pAhimAm shree rAja rAjeshwari - janaranjani -mahavaidyanatha Iyer
6. saravana bhava samayamiDhirA - pasupathipriyA - HMB

7. karunA samudrA - devagAndhAri - T
8A.mAru balka (R S T) - shreeranjani - T
6 mins alApanai, 11 mins swaram
8B. tani for 14 mins

9. akhilAndeshwari - dwijAvanti - MD
10.muralidhara gOpAlA - mAnd - PT
11.parulenna mATa (javAli) -kApi - Dharmapuri SubbarAyar
12.bhAgyAda lakshmi -shree - PD
13.thillAnA - mishrashivaranjani - mah santhanam

Overall a very good concert, it was sound in two ways one could have been avoided.

srinivasrgvn · Post by **srinivasrgvn** » 31 Jul 2009, 19:02

Quite a petite review. Didn't like the concert much? =)

Sam Swaminathan · Post by **Sam Swaminathan** » 01 Aug 2009, 02:57

rajeshnat....it is my feeling that the high sound volume is directly as a result of playing support for Kadri....I have a huge regard for Ms K and I place her in the same pedastal as the current crop of senior violin vidwans ( L,M,T excluded). Personally, I feel she should revert back to solo playing and pakkavadyam for senior vocalists. This is just my opinion. When I listen to the old recordings of MLV where she has accompanied, I am completely captivated.

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 01 Aug 2009, 08:58

Sam Swaminathan wrote:rajeshnat....it is my feeling that the high sound volume is directly as a result of playing support for Kadri....I have a huge regard for Ms K and I place her in the same pedastal as the current crop of senior violin vidwans ( L,M,T excluded). Personally, I feel she should revert back to solo playing and pakkavadyam for senior vocalists. This is just my opinion. When I listen to the old recordings of MLV where she has accompanied, I am completely captivated.

Sam
Bingo .YOu are spot on in one of the concerts of kadri- AK- H.palanivel in thavil , the sound was so loud to start with but the artists were asking more . I had to leave that concert after few songs.

Also I think just as you that she has to accompany as a pakkavadyam artist for senior vocalists or junior upcoming musicians. While every artists after a time aspires to be a solo violinist ,continuing as a pakkavAdyam artist is some thing that should not be put as legacy. This applies to quite a few stars not just AK.

laks1972 · Post by **laks1972** » 01 Aug 2009, 12:10

Sam Swaminathan wrote:Personally, I feel she should revert back to solo playing and pakkavadyam for senior vocalists.

You have said that mildly. If I have to state that black and white, she has to stop accompanying the noisy ,monotonus Kadri concerts which adds no value to herself or to the audience. There are high quality senior artists such as TNS who need high calibre violonists to match him and that is where she should focus on.

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 02 Aug 2009, 01:01

Let me add this perspective so we keep the two different concerns separate. Rajesh's point was about the volume and not any degradation in her art due to accompanying Kadri and playing in non traditional formats.

I assume we are talking about volume in the context of method, style and technique of playing and not simply amplification. If it is the latter, that is a wider and common problem as we had often heard rasikas complain.

Being the highly talented veteran professional artist she is, I do not see why she can not employ different bowing and string handling techniques to play in high volume for Kadri and non traditional concerts and appropriate volume for her CM solo concerts. She does not have to quit one to excel in the other at this stage of her professional career. May be she just does not realize the high volume level as heard by the audience. I had a chance to chat with her for a few minutes couple of decades back. She came across as a very friendly down to earth person with a good sense of self-deprecating humor, making fun of her own goof ups during a prior concert. May be, she would not take any offense at all if Rajesh provides that feedback to her at the next opportunity. ( addressing her akkA as opposed to mAmi may help

)

Sam Swaminathan · Post by **Sam Swaminathan** » 02 Aug 2009, 03:14

VK, let me re-state my point of view. I know Ms K personally and she is indeed an excellent person and as I stated in my post, an excellent artist too. Neither am I talking of quality here of Sri Kadri. My point of contention, is in concerts with Kadri, there seems to be a battle going on between them as to who is going to have the mind boggling sound, irrespective of the the content of the concert. So, it is my impression that this modus operandi is carried on to other concerts as well, where she is not supporting Kadri.

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 02 Aug 2009, 03:43

Sam,
In the few concerts in which I heard her play for MLV, I thought her sound was so sweet, and at that time I assumed that with all the encouragement and accompanying experience that MLV gifted her with, she was going to shine as a solo violinist for many long years.
After she made up her mind to accompany others, I heard her play for Srinivas and that did not appeal to me that much. Where did the sweetness go? Listening to her as an accompanist to Kadri is something I am not keen on either. Then again, it is the artiste's personal preference. She might enjoy accompanying more tha playing solos. I haven't yet heard her play a duo with Embar Kannan. EK as an accompanist is very appealing and I should try and hear them play together when I get a chance.

gn.sn42 · Post by **gn.sn42** » 02 Aug 2009, 04:22

arasi wrote:I haven't yet heard her play a duo with Embar Kannan. EK as an accompanist is very appealing and I should try and hear them play together when I get a chance.

Here's a recording at sangeethapriya.

(For the record, I enjoy Kadri-Kanyakumari concerts; volume issues are a common problem in halls, and I would lay the blame on the sound person.)

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 02 Aug 2009, 04:38

Sam, I do see your point as a possibility. But I did not think that is what Rajesh was describing. I will yield to Rajesh now.

coolkarni · Post by **coolkarni** » 02 Aug 2009, 06:19

Lakshman · Post by **Lakshman** » 02 Aug 2009, 19:46

rajeshnat:
The first song is karimukha varadA by GNB.

johnlovescm · Post by **johnlovescm** » 02 Aug 2009, 20:40

Sam Swaminathan wrote:rajeshnat....it is my feeling that the high sound volume is directly as a result of playing support for Kadri....I have a huge regard for Ms K and I place her in the same pedastal as the current crop of senior violin vidwans ( L,M,T excluded). Personally, I feel she should revert back to solo playing and pakkavadyam for senior vocalists. This is just my opinion. When I listen to the old recordings of MLV where she has accompanied, I am completely captivated.

Sam's view is perfectly correct.
A Kanyakumari has been accompanying MLV for many years and was highly encouraged / groomed by MLV. In the 80s she has regularly accompanied DKJ. I remember DKJ prompting her to play more after each alapana in a few concerts and make her excel in it and praise her for her magical playing.
However, her accompanying Mandiolin Srinivas and Kadri definitely would have impacted her playing style. Mandolin Srinivas concerts of the ealy 80s was just superb with accompanists like Palghat Raghu, Srimushnam, nagai etc. But over a period Srinivas having half a dozen accompanists (Tavil morsing, mridangam, Ghatam etc etc) turned the stage into a circus (cacophony) and in these concerts Kanyakumari was an accompanying violinists
Though I admire Srinivas (his early days concerts) I never took a liking for Kadri just bcos of high volume levels and acrobatics.
Also as Coolkarni mentions her foray into playing with her disciples (50 violinists/100 violinists) etc has definitely impacted her style and the melody and sweetness in lost.

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 03 Aug 2009, 00:48

Thanks Sam, Cool and John for the info. Let us hope and wish that she still has her old self in her.

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 03 Aug 2009, 18:23

vasanthakokilam wrote:Sam, I do see your point as a possibility. But I did not think that is what Rajesh was describing. I will yield to Rajesh now.

VK
YOu kind of described it more apt, and I am also extrapolating just like how sam/cool has done in terms of kadri/mandolin influencing her volume only , not the style for sure. Do I have a choice to say both ?.

Cool
The concerts involving 100 violin was only once or twice , so I am not sure if she is going in the same ensemble direction for all concerts.

BTW each of us only describe her beautiful style of playing for her Smt MLV akkA

. I have not heard her other than that perhaps her play along with eminent flautist KSG just rocks. I have heard KSG-AK only in recordings. Has anyone heard her play as accompaniment apart from kadri ,srinivAs & KSG, after MLV's demise.

coolkarni · Post by **coolkarni** » 03 Aug 2009, 19:32

kedharam · Post by **kedharam** » 03 Aug 2009, 20:27

Coolji, thanks a ton!

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 03 Aug 2009, 20:56

coolkarni wrote:
rajeshnat wrote:Has anyone heard her play as accompaniment apart from kadri ,srinivAs & KSG, after MLV's demise.
Yes

http://www.mediafire.com/?ogy2wo2uwzo

Perhaps I should have not forgotten SKR -AK combination. I am assuming she may have even played with TVS,TNS,TRS. My question is more to do with if whether she has accompanied say anyone from say Neyveli generation of artists.

Ragjay · Post by **Ragjay** » 04 Aug 2009, 11:16

I have heard her accompany N.Ramani and Alleppey Venkateshan In New Delhi

Ramesh Abhiraman · Post by **Ramesh Abhiraman** » 02 Oct 2009, 10:56

I am going to attend the Wesleyan, Middletown,CT Kadri G, A.Kanyakumari concert. I was rather looking forward to it, not having heard either live for 20 years. This thread fills me now, however, with trepidation as to amplification levels.

sama · Post by **sama** » 02 Oct 2009, 14:24

AK is no doubt a great artiste. But if the volume is a problem there has to be a way out, since these days all Vainika-s do use contact mikes and yet there has been no complaints of loud volume. Perhaps it will be worthy to take a leaf out of their book

Ramesh Abhiraman · Post by **Ramesh Abhiraman** » 05 Oct 2009, 07:16

Main alap was in Chandrakauns. Chandrakauns does sound good on the sax, but I have heard better from Kadri twenty plus years ago.
(No heavy ragas -Sankarabharanam, Kambhoji, Kalyani or Todi made an appearance).
In rough order KG and AK played Abhogi Varnam, KarnaRanjani (Vancha thonu _muthiah Bhagavathar), Sri - Endaro (no alap, reasonably slow, but picking up tempo in charanam), a crazily fast Niravadhisukha. The Chandrakauns was a RTP, branching into Ragamalika.
MS's favorite Rajaji song KuraiOnrumIlai was rendered. Sounded nice on the Sax.
Finished with Baghyaada lakshmi baaramma

For me, new interesting features were the alto violin with attached mike AK likes to use, the unusual manner of accompaniment, unlike supporting vocal, the saxophone does not require the violin when holding a long note or a low note, so the exchanges are a little more orchestrated, and the violin is not a constant background presence.

Small gripes: gimmickry and speed were the order of the day. At times, it was more like a tala vadya kutchery.

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 05 Oct 2009, 08:48

Gimmickry and speed has claimed and still claims several gifted violinists! A pity.

bilahari · Post by **bilahari** » 05 Oct 2009, 09:05

Indeed!