S Sowmya at Chembur Fine Arts, 18 Feb 2011

[narayan]

S Sowmya at Chembur Fine Arts, 18 Feb 2011

I attended part of S Sowmya's vocal concert with Vittal Ramamurthy (violin), Neyveli Narayanan (mridangam) and K.V.Gopalakrishnan (kanjira).

SarasUDa - sAvErI varNam
yOcana kamala - darbAr - swarams at pallavi
sankari nIvE - bEgaDa - ragam, neraval at rAkA sasivadana and swaram
mA ramanan - hinDolam
akhilAndeswari - dvijAvanti
venkaTa saila vihAra - hamIr kalyANi - ragam
vara nArada - vijayasrI - swarams at prakaTam

This is what I heard and I left when tODi ragam was beginning. I request others who attended, to fill gaps and the rest of the list. May have got the order slightly wrong also.

Excellent music, in my opinion. Varnam sung unhurriedly. Darbar song and swarams full of raga bhava. Voice was tentative to start off, but it was clear that she was determined to make a go of it and did not cut any corners and by the time the first ragam came up, everything was in place. Begada ragam was solid, unhurried, with gamakams and brigas spot on, and constructed very nicely. Neraval at a non-standard place and carried off well. Hamirkalyani ragam and song also satisfying, and great to hear two Subbaraya Sastri songs in detail. Maramanan and Varanarada were both sung very fast - two kritis in very different styles - but in my opinion, were sung clearly and well. Swarams for Vijayasri were edge of the seat stuff.

Vittal Ramamurthy was excellent in both raga returns and was enjoying the details. He played some unusual notes in Hamir Kalyani, a stylish phrase with kaisiki nishadam, which made SS sit up and smile in appreciation and also a sudden flat gandharam in the upper octave. Overall solid accompaniment.

The percussion sounded deceptively like it was racing ahead in the first two songs, but settled down to unhurried support later on.

Begada ragam was the highlight, which I will remember.

[shankarabharanam]

Begada seems to Sowmya's favourite whenever she is in Mumbai. I have heard her sing quite frequently when she is there. Seems to be a good list. So was there any RTP? Heard the next day it was Sudha Ragunathan. Any feedback from the SR's concert

[narayan]

Begada every time sounds good to me! I heard that the RTP was in Todi. The hall was full, so I hope someone who was there can fill in details, or other impressions.

Couldn't attend Sudha Raghunathan the next day. I believe the hall was full on that day as well. For Aruna Sairam, I was in the balcony (that was almost full, too!).

[priyashekar]

Sowmya sang RTP in todi and if I remember a thillana and Sennikula nagar vasan - kavadi chindu and then mangalam.
Sudha although tried all her tricks including the monkey song ( borrowing Harimaus words) some how failed to touch the chords of many rasikas.She did use the reason that she was sick and all.Suprisingly even Embar Kannan was off key!For me and many of the rasikas it was Aruna/Sowmya and Sudha in that order if asked to list .

[arunsri]

Dear All

I had posted about Sowmya's and Sudha's concert, but somehow the session timed out and I could not retreive it. Anyway, in addition to Narayan's post

Sowmya had a pallavi in Todi - 'vA murugA murugA shaNmugA virandODi vA vaDi vela - Adi [2 kalai] - 2 beat after samam in a 32 beat cycle. Arudi was 5 aksharas in gA of shaNmugA. It was simple, yet neatly executed pallavi. Ragamalika swaras were in hamsAnandi, bEhAg, rEvati and madhyamAvati, all seamlessly transitioning from one raga to another.

There were answers to questions by Smt. Sowmya, which were very good. For a question on compromises for the sake of janaranjakam - she said, just as in mathematics, sciences - we may have difficult theorems, the job of the teacher is to explain it to the students in whatever different way possible. The teacher does not have a choice of "diluting" the theorem etc. Same applies to music!! Wonderfully put.

I hope this reaches the ears of many students, parents of students and teachers too!!

shri mAdhavA in bEhAg was beautiful will a lot of raga passages (sawal jawab type with the violinist). The kavaDi chindu was a treat... At a couple of places her voice had a very folksy touch to it, typical of the genre of the song...

At Chembur last time she came [3 yrs ago], Sowmya sang a sahana main - giripai, devamanOhari [yArukkudAn teriyum as submain] and a pallavi in shaNmukhapriya
At Shanmukhananda Sabha last year - she sang a beautiful Eevasudha as submain, gAnAmudapAnam [with ragam] and RTP in kharaharapriya.

====================

Smt. Sudha Ragunathan
Embar Kannan - Violin
Mannargudi Eeswaran - Mridangam
Raman - Mohrsing

1. viribONi - bhairavi varnam
2. siddhi vinAyakam - chAmaram (S at prasidhha gaNa) - preceded by shlOkam gajAnanam bhUtaganAdi..., she started the song with 'prasIddha gaNa'
3. viDajAladurA - janaranjani
4. pAdamE tuNai - valaji
5. Evarikai avatAramu - dEvamanOhari [R, S]
6. yen kanavai kELAyo - shankarAbharaNam
7. shrI vishwanAtham - chaturdasha rAgamAlikA
8. unnaDiyE gati - bahudAri
9. EtAvunara - kalyANi [R, N, S at shrI karuDagu thyAgarAja]
Tani

I was present till the main piece. Her voice was uncooperative in the lower octaves, evident in the alapana of dEvamanOhari. Items 5 and 7 were my requests. I always have a crib that - artiste of her callibre can sing much more, but choose the oft beaten path. There were only 2 alapanas, and one neraval in the entire concert. I heard there was no pallavi. May be her health was really bad to be able to sustain the concert... One really wonders why common rakti ragas like kedaragaula, sahana, mukhari are rarely sung by her/her school. We do not even get to hear kritis in ragas like asavEri, huseni, kedaram etc ever from an artiste of her calibre. why?? It is definitely not the issue of repertoire, it is probably the comfort level...

Anyway glad to see ragas like maNirangu, dhanyAsi making an appearance in some of her concerts these days.

[annamalai]

One really wonders why common rakti ragas like kedaragaula, sahana, mukhari are rarely sung by her/her school. We do not even get to hear kritis in ragas like asavEri, huseni, kedaram etc ever from an artiste of her calibre. why?? .

If by her school, you mean GNB school, on Rakthi ragas - There is a melodious rendition of Samayamu Telisi - Asaveri by GNB - almost a forgotten krithi nowadays. Recently, Rudrapatnam Brothers sang this krithi at Thiruvaiyaru and they also sang Tappangane Vacchuna - suddha bangala. GNB's Yadhukulakamboji alapana prefacing Ninnu Sevinchina is one of the best ever. GNB's RTP - Devamanohari - the alapana is full of fireworks... Kanna Thandri Neeve - in Narayani (PSI krithi) GNB rendition is another classic. In slokams GNB sings Dhanyasi, ...

[kedharam]

“One really wonders why common rakti ragas like kedaragaula, sahana, mukhari are rarely sung by her/her school”

Disclaimer:
Sorry, fans of sudha/pothys:)
Please do not throw bricks at me as this is my personal take on this. I used to be a fan of her music. The way she presents her music doesn’t appeal to me now.

There once were kings and a queen of creativity and aesthetic purity in ‘her school’ who made us think differently about the possibilities of music… who churned out kedara gowlai, mukhari and such like nobody’s business like the majestic waterfalls in Courtalam - the tributaries of the Tamirabarani river…an authentic ‘her school’… as you close your eyes under the falls you can enjoy the incredible feel of water cascading on to your head/back like their mukhari, sahana and kedaragowlai...and you will walk away in a trance, attuned to the rioting soundscape of the water falls … as the last notes of kedargowlai, sahana, and mukhari fade into the nocturnal soundscape of the majestic water falls…

a few feet in the down stream…

the jingles of the kaleidoscopically colorful ‘vishamakkara kannan’ and such by the torchbearer of a great musical lineage emerges through the backdrop of the down stream …

After all, the down stream is also a part of the tamirabarani river…same school….different takes.
In other words there are plenty of kedara gowlai, sahana and mukhari from ‘her school’ are available.

[weird.world]

It seriously did not make sense to rasikas.org @ Pothys , Courtalam. Don't look into others wardrobe ( Phew ... Sheer indecent act) Anything apart from carnatic music is absolutely her personal choice. Just listen to music and admire music alone.

I am quite surprised to see someone making a very honest note here. ***Anyway glad to see ragas like maNirangu, dhanyAsi making an appearance in some of her concerts these days.*** Good to see that people have started acknowledging her effort. Kudos@arunsri

[CRama]

Donot criticise for the sake of criticism. I am not a diehard fan of Sudha. But I have heard a very good Manirang from her about ten years back in Malleswaram Venugopalaswamy temple- I have got the recording also- Jayajaya Padmanabhamurare. I have heard a a couple of times afterwards also. This year in NCA, she sang a very good Bahudari for Brovabharama.

[Sivaramakrishnan]

CRama,
It must be Jaya jaya Padmanabhanujesa if Manirang. (I m sure its an oversight on your part)
Jaya jaya padmanabhamurare is in Sarasangi.

Both Swati Tirunal's.
This for the benefit of rasikas in general.