Music Academy-Sadas 1st January 2011

PUNARVASU · Post by **PUNARVASU** » 02 Jan 2011, 02:03

Date:02/01/2011 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2011/01/02/stor ... 160400.htm

mahavishnu · Post by **mahavishnu** » 02 Jan 2011, 05:53

Does anyone know who won the prizes in the various concert categories?

prasanna · Post by **prasanna** » 02 Jan 2011, 09:05

Don't remember the full list..From what I can recall,

Senior Best Vocalist- Sanjay Subrahmanyan (Yogam Nagaswamy Prize)
Senior Outstanding Vocalist- Sudha Raghunathan
Senior Outstanding Vocalist- Abhishek Raghuram
Senior Vocal(Best Pallavi Singing)- Malladi Brothers
Senior Best Vocal Concert- S.Sowmya
Senior Best Violinist- S.Varadarajan
Senior Best Mridangist- Trichy Sankaran
Sub-Senior Outstanding Vocalist- Amritha Murali
Sub-Senior Best Vocal Concert- K.Gayatri
Junior Outstanding Vocalist- Bharat Sundar
Junior Best Vocal Concert- Sandeep Narayan
Sub-Senior Best Mridangist- Trivandrum Balaji
Junior Best Mridangist- Arjun Ganesh

mahavishnu · Post by **mahavishnu** » 02 Jan 2011, 09:08

thanks, Prasanna.

violinlover · Post by **violinlover** » 02 Jan 2011, 10:34

sorry for blowing my trumpet.but just want to share.

Best Junior Violinist: R.Raghul.( my hatrick this year!!!)

mahavishnu · Post by **mahavishnu** » 02 Jan 2011, 10:36

Congratulations, Raghul! Well deserved.

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 02 Jan 2011, 10:43

Congratulations Raghul. Very nice!! Best wishes for a hat-trick in the sub-senior category in the coming years!!

bilahari · Post by **bilahari** » 02 Jan 2011, 11:54

Especially happy for Amritha Murali since I attended the concert and really liked her singing.

Raghul, keep up the great work! Listened to you at Raga Sudha accompanying Aishwarya Vidya Raghunath and you played an exceptional kIravANi. Not an easy raga to impress with! You have imbibed the MC technique very well. Congratulations on the award, too!

violinlover · Post by **violinlover** » 02 Jan 2011, 12:36

thank you so much for your kind words and encouragement. i am greatly humbled.
thank you.

MC devotee
violinlover

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 02 Jan 2011, 12:53

Congrats to all , I am doing a bit of analysis of awards right now(hmmmmm), perhaps will write a bit later.

violin lover
we are proud of u indeed. I looked at the schedule this award is when you played along with DB Ashwin right

gardabha_gana · Post by **gardabha_gana** » 02 Jan 2011, 13:42

Can someone post the full list of awards ?

violinlover · Post by **violinlover** » 02 Jan 2011, 22:19

yes, i got the award when i accompanied D.B.Ashwin.
thank you.

MC devotee
violinlover

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 02 Jan 2011, 22:22

How do these "competitions" work? Are the judges present all the time or for specific pre-designated concerts? Who are the judges? Just curious. I am glad they do this so behind the scenes and not make these concerts look like some competition.

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 02 Jan 2011, 23:06

Congratulations to all the winners! I guess Abhishek got the award for Junior Outstanding Vocalist, and not 'Senior' as mentioned by Prasanna.
Sandeep Narayan (Junior Best Vocal Concert) - isn't that another forumite, deepsands?

mahavishnu · Post by **mahavishnu** » 02 Jan 2011, 23:18

Ravi, Abhishek was in the "senior" category this year, since he performed in the night slot. There are separate awards for senior lady vocalists (Sudha).

VK: There is a committee of judges (commissioned by the academy executive) that sits through every concert in each category and makes these assessments. There is a good bit of candidness in the choice of judges and their deliberations are seldom made public. Most performers even don't know who they are. I have some guesses about who was on the committee this year, but this is not the place where I would speculate about this (right, Ajit?).

Some awards are decided by the organization that endowed/instituted them (such as the DKP trust). Other organizations leave it up the academy to make the choice (for example the sub-senior violinist award is endowed by LGJ foundation). Some awards are not given every year (such as vivadi ragam exploration) if there are not enough viable candidates.

Yes and special congrats to forumite deepsands (in addition to raghul) who is a winner this year.

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 02 Jan 2011, 23:37

mahavishnu wrote:Ravi, Abhishek was in the "senior" category this year, since he performed in the night slot. There are separate awards for senior lady vocalists (Sudha).

Thanks!

srikant1987 · Post by **srikant1987** » 03 Jan 2011, 04:19

sorry for blowing my trumpet.but just want to share.

Best Junior Violinist: R.Raghul.( my hatrick this year!!!)

Congratulations, Raghul! And best wishes!

Isn't there any "best sub-senior violinist"?

gardabha_gana · Post by **gardabha_gana** » 03 Jan 2011, 07:20

prasanna wrote:Don't remember the full list..From what I can recall,

Senior Best Vocalist- Sanjay Subrahmanyan (Yogam Nagaswamy Prize)
Senior Outstanding Vocalist- Sudha Raghunathan
Senior Outstanding Vocalist- Abhishek Raghuram

What's the difference between "best" and "outstanding" - is it like 1st and 2nd ?

mahavishnu · Post by **mahavishnu** » 03 Jan 2011, 07:39

No, they are different categories of awards. They vary by the names given by the people that endowed the prizes. Please see last year's prizes for the approximate layout... http://www.musicacademymadras.in/awardees_2009.php

But the Senior best vocalist (Yogam Nagaswamy award) is the most prestigious award and it is gender neutral. Sanjay is winning it for the 4th time or so!

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 03 Jan 2011, 11:41

Mahavishnu,
Our Sandeep (forumite Deepsand) winning the junior best concert award is added bonus for the guru!

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 03 Jan 2011, 13:49

I did a bit of analysis of these awards myself, after looking at prasanna's post.Here are my objective comments for each of them, BTW I did not attend even one concert at the academy for the fear of excess Airconditioning that affected my respiratory infection , I attended only evening concerts and I preferred all non airconditioned halls.

Senior Best Vocalist- Sanjay Subrahmanyan (Yogam Nagaswamy Prize):
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
No comments here ,there was a review given by bharathi, Congrats. (Attn Mahavishnu) , sanjay is getting this coveted award two years in a row.I am not sure if fourth time is right as you have mentioned . I remember 2008 ranjani gayathri, 2007 TMK and VijaySiva (if I am right they gave a shared award for two), 2005 (TM krishna). Dont know before the years 2005 and 2006. In short sanjay has surely got it twice , not sure if it is four times.

Senior Outstanding Vocalist- Sudha Raghunathan:
------------------------------------------------------------
No comments , dont know anything , congrats

Senior Outstanding Vocalist- Abhishek Raghuram
------------------------------------------------------------
Definitely going to put a long comment here.In general little bit of understanding about me will help. I follow intensely the cm and also try to use my own analysis to look at the non musical side of sabhas and other unpleasant things

I wrote a long whitepaper last year in Dec 2009 comparing slots of evening in academy of 2008 vs 2009. There I really felt sorry for Abhishek getting booted out in year 2009 . There was a bunch of male musicians who were booted out (maharajapuram ramachandran,suryaprakash , abhishek etc). When I wrote that paper I only knew that Abhishek is the grandson of palakkad raghu sir , and I really felt in the years 2008 , in general Abhishek did not get many oppurtunities , honestly I did not know about his other family tree of Lalgudi. In that paper I wrote abhishek should be treated almost like Kunnakudi BMK, Saketharaman etc, where I thought he may get edged out. never knew then of how academy slots are going to be in 2010. Looking back , I was excessively paranoid of this wonderful singer Abhishek then in dec 2009 .

Let us connect bit of dots here. Abhishek I understand is also related to Lalgudi family too not just palakkAd family which is something i knew only in this year.That is the first dot. I also see that in general Music Academy in the last few years has been honoring the brilliant and genius Lalgudi Jayaraman Sir , some kind of pAva maNNippu(sorry I cant find the right english word for pAva mannippu) has been happening considering the known rift between the mahavidwan and academy for many years in past. That is the second dot .Coming back to the concert that he sang, in our reviews it was some kind of mixed bag, our subjective opinion does not matter, you can read the thread of abhishek at academy. Still it is a third dot.

But what I found in his review was he had extended 30 mins of concert time and his time management was not right. That is a bit Fourth BIG dot .Even senior of senior musicians dont extend the time , I have witnessed only one senior musician extending where TNS sang till 10:15 or so in his sangeethakalanidhi 2006 concert (that was his day ,a coveted life time award day) . I have always witnessed closing on time or may be extending a bit 5 or 10 mins in academy is always insisted by time conscious academy.

Considering that Abhishek got the prime slot this year ,does he in the backend ,have a firm promoter in the aisles to encourage him to overshoot and still have no fear of losing ?

The above comment does not take away the musical intellect of Abhishek(Attn Mahesh3) . I like his music , in the last few years I have reviewed so much of his music. I wish I was there in the academy dec 2010 too. I am only talking about "giving award for a musician who exceeded by 30 minutes(5 or 10 mins is OK) , had time management problems".

What kind of precedence is Academy setting when clearly Abhishek has shot by half an hour , but still getting an award . ? This is very condescending for all the remaining senior musicians where a best senior slot is competed with OST, TVS,TNS , Vijaysiva etc...

Senior Vocal(Best Pallavi Singing)- Malladi Brothers:
----------------------------------------------------
No idea about the concert .congrats

Senior Best Vocal Concert- S.Sowmya:
-----------------------------------
Congrats no idea about the concert. congrats

Junior Outstanding Vocalist- Bharat Sundar:
------------------------------------------
Congrats to bharathsundar.No idea about the concert , not yet heard this musician

Junior Best Vocal Concert- Sandeep Narayan:
-------------------------------------------
Congrats no idea about the concert . Sandeep is impressive and congrats to him.

I have no comments to pass about violinist and percussionists, particularly happy to know violinlover(R Raghul) has got one. Also congrats to Sankaran Sir, S VaradarAjan,Arjun,tvm balAji etal..

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 03 Jan 2011, 13:52

Quick Trivia Question:
---------------
Take a quick look at this url http://www.musicacademymadras.in/music_schedule.php in the column 1:45 to 3:45 pm .

What is different from the first group of artist with second group of artists??
K Hariprasad, prasanna venkataraman,sumitra nitin, suryaprakAsh,Kolkata vijayaraghavan , Dr Ganesh(group 1)
vs
Savitha Narasimhan,Sankari krishnan, KN RanganAtha sharma,prapancham balachanran,K gayathri, madurai TNS Krishna , Nisha rajagopal, sumithra vasudev, Iyer Brothers , Amritha Murali(group 2)

Answer:
UpapakkAvadhyam is not there for the first team , and upapakkavadhyam is there for the second team. In this mad rush of so many concerts every pakkavadhyam artist is assisted always with an upapakkavadhyam .Usually kutcheri reaches a better quality only when upapakkavadhyam is assisting pakkavadhyam, as generally if pakkavAdhyam keeps on playing, he may not have adequate sound throughout the concert.

Is there any reason to skip the upapakkavadhyam for the first group? Academy should look into that?

BTW , this aspect was not known to me at all till last few days . I wanted to share you all the awareness of upapakkavadhyam. This was pointed out to me by a very senior accompanist (I will point out his name after I become as old as MKR sir) , He said it is a kind of hmmmmm..p****g.

Let us discuss the sub senior slots now
Sub-Senior Outstanding Vocalist- Amritha Murali:
----------------------------------------------
Sub-Senior Best Vocal Concert- K.Gayatri:
---------------------------------------
Amritha Murali and K gayAthri are fabulous singers . In amritha murali's case , I could see trivandrum balAji (perhaps the most seasoned mridangam artist in that group) must have contributed , incidentally he has also got an award . Both (Amritha and K GAyathri) of them congrats . I am not taking anything away, infact I know both of them somewhat they know me too.

I just want to know why in group 1 there was no upa pakkavadhyam? Were they setup only to partially succeed? Incidentally I have no idea about K hariprasad(who is that?) , prasanna Venkatraman (I thought has enough clout to keep a upapakkavadhyam , he got promoted from last year to this afternoon slot). Sumitra Nitin has got this slot only this year. Dr Ganesh has been in and out of this group. That leaves Suryaprakash who has been there for atleast a decade plus in this afternoon slot ,stranded without upapakkavadhyam.

Is all the objective points that I raised is coincidence???? hmmm......

I hope academy looks into upapakkavadhyam to give a level playing field for artist is the first take away and also not give awards to musicians who exceed by 30 mins setting a bad precedence is a second take away. Rest are bygones not much use in future, but definitely a hard fact of year 2010 in academy.Academy is always a premier institution for musical arts , hope they correct this two anomalies for ever.

sureshvv · Post by **sureshvv** » 03 Jan 2011, 16:06

rajeshnat wrote: Looking back , I was excessively paranoid of this wonderful singer Abhishek then in dec 2009 .

Have a feeling that in a couple of years, you will be saying the same thing about this post!

Let us connect bit of dots here.

Reminds of me of that ancient proverb: "Arandavan kannuku irundadhellam dot"!

mahavishnu · Post by **mahavishnu** » 03 Jan 2011, 18:46

I agree with Sureshvv (I have never heard that cheeky expression before). What does "arandavan" mean? I really don't think there are any dots to connect.

Rajesh, I appreciate your views but I think this is the kind of speculation that this forum should stay away from...Let us just stick with reviews of the music itself. If you want to express the opinion that it is not good to encourage a person who exceeded the time limit, I can accept that as a legitimate position (although I still think Abhishek deserves the award out and out). Everything else that you have expressed is something bordering on conspiracy theory that does not add much credibility to this forum.

P.S: Sanjay started receiving the Yogam Nagaswamy award as early as 2001-02 season (to my knowledge).

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 03 Jan 2011, 19:12

A related question: wouldn't it be nice if every concert, big or small has an upa pakka vAdyam? That way, we get to hear new talents. I have seen and heard only a handful of well-known khanjira and ghatam players. Good to see morsing here and there, even a woman playing it (Bhagyalakshmi).

Mahavishnu,
araNDavan is one who is scared.

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 03 Jan 2011, 19:24

Mahavishnu
I will send you a detailed mail later or some time we can talk or meet. I have immense respect for you . Mine is not miscalculated speculation. In theory mine could be conspiracy theory, but in reality it just may not be . "arandavan" means some body who is terrified.

Here is a small quote for you and sureshvv:
-----------------------------------------------------
Truth is a puzzling thing. The truth knocks on the door and you say, "Go away, I'm looking for the truth," and so it goes away.

- Robert M. Pirsig

bilahari · Post by **bilahari** » 03 Jan 2011, 19:45

Mahavishnu, the actual saying is "araNDavan kaNNukku iruNDadellAm pEi". Suresh manipulated that a little.

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 03 Jan 2011, 19:54

Raghul,
Violinlover,
M.C. Devotee,
Congratulations! What are the other two recognitions?

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 03 Jan 2011, 20:04

bilahari wrote:iruNDadellAm pEi".

Let's bring it back to music - after all, 'pittan enrAlum, avan pEyan enrAlum, cittamellAm avanpAl selludammA'

Nick H · Post by **Nick H** » 03 Jan 2011, 22:24

wouldn't it be nice if every concert, big or small has an upa pakka vAdyam?

Sometimes it would, sometimes it wouldn't. Mostly I am in favour of "a full bench" (or at least adding ghatam/kanjira to the mridangam). It helps to give varied texture to the sound, a better orchestration, so to speak. On the other hand, there are times when having just two people (veena or other instrument and mridangam) enhances the experience.

I am against double mridangam. There is no point in it at all, except to give fingers a rest. To me, it is more monotonous than a single mridangam alone could ever be.

violin lover: congratulations, and please do blow your own trumpet

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 03 Jan 2011, 23:00

But not the saxophone, as a few of the purists would say?

sureshvv · Post by **sureshvv** » 03 Jan 2011, 23:46

@rshankar: What song is that from? Can't place it.

@Nick: Totally agree on upapakkavadhyam and double mrudangam.

@rajeshnat: Here is another quote (Woody Allen?):

Just because I am paranoid doesn't mean that they are not after me!

mahavishnu · Post by **mahavishnu** » 03 Jan 2011, 23:55

Rajesh, I have nothing but the greatest regard for your views and reviews. I appreciate the sincerity with which you write, so I do not take your position frivolously. There might be some truth in your speculations, but none of us have privileged access to that information. In the absence of that information, the best judgement we can make is on the basis of the music itself.

In this case, I think the grand scheme behind Abhishek winning the award could be very simple. The null hypothesis: He was just outstanding and deserved the outstanding vocalist prize.

I would love to meet with you, but since I am now 5000 miles away, I propose the following till the next time I am in Chennai, which will probably be for the next december season. Alternatively, if you come to Cleveland in April (you should, I think you will like it), we could meet there. The Cleveland festival could use reviews from the likes of rasikas like you. You are also more than welcome to visit me at my home in Toronto. I will give you an insider's Carnatic tour of Canada.

But in the meantime, I will make you a deal. I will upload Abhishek's concert from the Meccademy (recorded bootleg but now has received his apparent approval) and send you the site coordinates in a private email. All standard disclaimers/caveats about posting recordings apply, but we can treat this as an academic exercise.

You listen to it and make up your own mind, instead of listening to bureaucrats and culture-vultures who make up time limits and rules. Knowing how diligent a reviewer you are and with your isai-gnanam, I would be surprised if you are not floored by this performance. In any case, I am curious to hear your opinion on this (and other reviewers on this forum if they are interested).

Did I think he shouldn't have gone over the time limit? Yes, but I am glad he did because I got to listen to more of his amazing music. In the end, the time limit is not what people are going to remember about his concert in 2010. And perhaps, the award will also be forgotten. But I think this will be treated a historic paradigm-breaking academy concert like GNB/LGJ/PR '64 or MMI kalanidhi concert 1959 with LGJ/pazhani.

Nick H · Post by **Nick H** » 03 Jan 2011, 23:57

arasi wrote:But not the saxophone, as a few of the purists would say?

You are in good form today!

gurukripa · Post by **gurukripa** » 04 Jan 2011, 10:18

Rajesh, I have nothing but the greatest regard for your views and reviews. I appreciate the sincerity with which you write, so I do not take your position frivolously. There might be some truth in your speculations, but none of us have privileged access to that information. In the absence of that information, the best judgement we can make is on the basis of the music itself.

Mahavishnu, I couldn't agree with you more on this.

Having said that while quality is more important than time, keeping time is sacrosanct atleast by the culture and tradition of MA, so at such a young age to show indiscipline is not a worthy performance by Abhishek. Though I didn't attend the concert I read the review in the Hindu today and it also said the same thing and going by that it looks he got carried away in some AlApanAs and was ill-planned. I am sure if his grandfather was alive he would not have appreciated in mis-managing time.

Another collosal disaster this year in MA was the concert of Rengantha Sharma. The main artist Sharma turned up for the concert almost 25 minutes past the time to start 1.45 pm with both the pakkavadyam artists and the audience in a post-prandial slumber! Unimaginable...

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 04 Jan 2011, 11:36

gurukripa wrote: Another collosal disaster this year in MA was the concert of Rengantha Sharma. The main artist Sharma turned up for the concert almost 25 minutes past the time to start 1.45 pm with both the pakkavadyam artists and the audience in a post-prandial slumber! Unimaginable...

gurukripa,
For a 2 hour concert start from 1:45 to 03:45 pm , KN RanganAtha sharma arrived 25 minutes late. Are you sure you are right can you double check and let me know please???. Incidentally I see that Shri KN RanganAtha SharmA has got the Best Sub Senior Artist Award . I wonder what would shri TT VAsu (a great man who always sticks to time) think if he is living today.

gurukripa · Post by **gurukripa** » 04 Jan 2011, 12:07

Rajesh:

I am 100% sure about it. The concert was on 21st Dec 2010 in the 1.45 pm slot. Renganatha Sharma arrived around 2.10 pm and the concert started around 2.15 pm! The pakkavadyam artists were on the stage sharp by 1.35 or 1.40 pm as we could hear them tuning the shruti and they were also waiting behind the curtains as much as we were before the curtains. You can double check with the organisers if you don't believe me!

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 04 Jan 2011, 12:18

gurukripa wrote:Rajesh:
I am 100% sure about it. The concert was on 21st Dec 2010 in the 1.45 pm slot. Renganatha Sharma arrived around 2.10 pm and the concert started around 2.15 pm! The pakkavadyam artists were on the stage sharp by 1.35 or 1.40 pm as we could hear them tuning the shruti and they were also waiting behind the curtains as much as we ere before the curtains. You can double check with the organisers if you don't believe me!

Tx gurukripa , I wanted to be sure in the hustle bustle of attending many concerts in many sabhas one can always misquote the sabha .Thanks I believe you for sure, donot mistake me. The concert started at 02:15pm instead of 01:45pm .

On a side note, I donot even know even one organizer in music academy, if you can help me to get to that door , I am really grateful, perhaps the entire forum will also be grateful.

ganeshkant · Post by **ganeshkant** » 04 Jan 2011, 12:22

Yes.I was present @ MA for this concert.The traffic went haywire due to dalit students strike at Saidapet.My relative couldn't reach Adyar in time to her office.So Mr.Sarma was late also due to this reason and he more than compensated by his power packed performance.

I read that the same day @ KGS the violinist Sudha R S Iyer or her ister/cousin was late for her afternoon concert and the main artist patiently waited

gurukripa · Post by **gurukripa** » 04 Jan 2011, 12:48

Ganeshkant:

Even if assuming the reason you gave (Dalit students strike) was true, I don't think it is a good excuse, specially in the light of the fact that all others (including other artists) could still make it on time that day. Perhaps being an outsider to Chennai, Mr. Sharma would have under-estimated the traffic or could have chosen to be at a much nearer place to the Academy (as I can't imagine why would he get held-up by something that was happening in Saidapet!). Anyways, opportunities like MA concerts come once a year, so better planning can always help. There is no risk in over-estimating atleast and to be on the safe side.

Rajesh, I am just a pure rasika like you so have no connection what-so-ever with any of the powerful echelons in MA to get you an access !

Gurukripa

Nick H · Post by **Nick H** » 04 Jan 2011, 13:27

Even if assuming the reason you gave (Dalit students strike) was true, I don't think it is a good excuse

People were finding their daily commute taking four hours instead of less than one. This was not normal traffic, and anything at all taking place in the city on time, on that day, would have been the surprise.

There was no preparing for this: it was an impromptu demonstration that blocked Anna Salai and had an knock-on effect on all other routes. I was at home that day; my wife went out, and had two hours added to her journey.

Over the decades, in London and Chennai, I have heard, "it was the traffic," given as a meaningless excuse. That day, it would not have been meaningless. I don't think it correct to question the professionalism of artists who were caught up in that jam. It is a wonder that they reached their venues at all, and a bigger wonder that they managed to shake off the frustration of the situation, leave it outside the hall, and perform. That is professionalism!

gurukripa · Post by **gurukripa** » 04 Jan 2011, 13:48

Argue for your limitations. Its all yours...

Nick H · Post by **Nick H** » 04 Jan 2011, 13:51

True. I can't fly.

gurukripa · Post by **gurukripa** » 04 Jan 2011, 14:08

Had it been an artist like Flute Maali, I would have taken it. For poor Renganatha Sharma, I can only say, "Bad luck mate.."

S.Balaji · Post by **S.Balaji** » 04 Jan 2011, 17:09

An article in The Hindu dt. 3/1/11 on the burning issue here

http://www.thehindu.com/arts/music/article1027192.ece

Carnatic music lovers, watch out. There is another star in the making!

Abhishek Raghuram looks like a frail teenager, but he seems to have mesmerised a fairly large audience, and that too in the late evening slot. Two ragas (not the kritis) took up most of Abhishekâ€™s concert time. â€˜Deva Sriâ€™ in Madhyamavati with a prelude of alapana was presented with a rather long swara spree. The streams went on and on unabatedly, from short to medium and long combinations till it touched a crescendo and, well, there was a thunderous applause.

Immediately after came the Thodi raga alapana. The opening phrases were excruciatingly slow and sedate, embellished with unexpected frills and twists but progressed extremely well. Raghuram elaborated Thodi in as many ways as possible. This exercise nearly went for about thirty minutes. But the response was amazing. He got a standing ovation. So any adverse remarks from this scribe will surely be termed blasphemy.

Now, it was time for the violinist, Mysore Srikanth, to respond. He summarized Thodi in about eleven minutes, in a traditional manner, touching all the segments. What was irking was the Tyagaraja kriti â€˜Dasu Kovalanaâ€™ was restricted to just four to five minutes. Then, Abhishek switched to niraval and swaras on the charanam line â€˜Sowmitri Tyagarajuniâ€™ which dragged for 20 long minutes. This magnum opus was followed by a spirited thani avarthanam by Anantha R. Krishnan on the mridangam and K.V. Gopalakrishnan on the ganjira. By the time Abhishek settled for the Ragam Tanam Pallavi in Hamsavinodini, it was closer to 9.30 p.m.

Manodharma is a double edged sword; it can be used anyway for as long as one wants. Thatâ€™s the speciality of Indian classical music. Yet, one has to follow certain ethics -- musical discipline, aesthetic proportion, logical distribution and time management -- when one performs on a prestigious platform. Even veterans try to sum up their music with their eyes on the clock, it is indeed surprising that this aspiring artist seemed to be completely oblivious to it.

Abhishek may be a prodigy and gifted with an extraordinary vision of music. But even outstanding talent demands a certain amount of discipline. Otherwise, it can impede musical progress.

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 04 Jan 2011, 17:44

KN ranganAtha sharma may have had very valid reasons to be late , no doubts about his professional integrity. He is a very wonderful vidwan. I hope let us not sidetrack with reasons stated for late etc and countering that.

Now that he has started at 02:15 pm the concert is a fact (that is a huge loss of time,25% gone for a 2 hr concert ), in one and half hours that he sang till 03:45 pm + may be little more, Can some one tell me what he sang as a complete song list with R N S etc and preferably the tani time too atleast?and more importantly how long he sang this concert? , to earn him the best sub senior musician award. I have interesting observations, but let that wait.

kssr · Post by **kssr** » 08 Jan 2011, 11:51

From the title of the string, I thought it was about Bom Sisters award ceremony, the technical discussions leading to the function, their own concert, etc., But there seems to be nothing on those lines. Have I missed something or misunderstood the title

mahavishnu · Post by **mahavishnu** » 08 Jan 2011, 21:48

KSSR: The sadas is just the name of the annual convocation/valedictory ceremony of the music season and conference. The Sangeeta Kalanidhi award designates (this year the Bom sisters) preside over the conference and are awarded their title at the sadas, along with all the winners from that season at the sadas. Since all the standard awardees (SK, Kala Acharya etc)are pre-announced, the only surprises are the announcement of the conference season winners, and hence the discussion here. For many of the winners, the award reflects their concert performances some of which were reviewed here; some were contentious.

Perhaps you had a different understanding of the sadas? The title of this thread is about the convocation function, not about the SK awardees, or their concerts (Sadly there was no review of their concert this year). So, I see this thread for once as being quite true to its title, unlike several others on this forum, discussions of the traffic jam notwithstanding.

P.S: But I was stuck in the traffic gridlock that day, and I was not amused. I also had to miss the Ranganatha Sharma concert in question. Reminded me of a traffic jam that I read about in Shanghai that took four days to clear!

kssr · Post by **kssr** » 09 Jan 2011, 22:44

Also heard that the SK awardee(s) presides over all the technical discussions during the entire season, offer/ ask for clarifications on the intricate points discussed and so on.
In one GNB memorial concert in Bangalore, Sri.TVR explained how in one such sadas GNB had to explain to a select committee of MA, the correctness or otherwise of using sruti bedham in concerts (GNB being the father of the technique itself).
I somehow looked forward to some such interesting technical music stuff on this Sadas string. But never mind. This is interesting in itself

ganeshkant · Post by **ganeshkant** » 10 Jan 2011, 11:46

kssr wrote: I somehow looked forward to some such interesting technical music stuff on this Sadas string. But never mind. This is interesting in itself

I heard during Vijay Siva's lec-dem ,TMK posed some embarrasing qns.that made VS tell"let me quit".

Also there was some tiff between Mala Chandrasekhar and Shashank.

This was told by a musicologist to me and she asked me why such things are not reported in rasikas.I told her it could be a fight of the intellectuals not a street fight.She asked me to check up with a mischievous smile.Any one has anything to say ?