Smt. S. Sowmya @Fort High School, Bangalore, on 08/04/2011

[squims]

Vocal: Smt. S Sowmya
Violin: Sri. B U Ganesh Prasad
Mridangam: Sri. Poongulam Subramaniyam
Khanjari: Sri Gopala Krishna

1. Sarasuda (Varnam) [S]- Saveri - Adi - Kottavasal Venkatarama Iyer
Swarams @dAni pai
2. Paahimaam Sri Rajarajeshwari [S] - Janaranjani - Adi - Maha Vaidyanatha Iyer
Swarams @janaranjani niranjani
3. Ennaalu oorake [R N S] - Shubhapantuvarali - Mishra Chapu - Tyagaraja
Neraval and Swarams @ satimAtanAlaginci
4. Raamabhakti saamrajyam - Shuddha Bangala - Adi - Tyagaraja
5. Intha prabhuva kaaneno [R] - Mohanam - Adi - Vijayadasa(?)
6. Kanna thandri [S] - Deva Manohari - Adi - Tyagaraja
7. Koluvai yunnaade [R N S T] - Bhairavi - Adi - Tyagaraja
Neraval and Swarams @ manasu ranjilla surasatuDu
8. Ee muddu krishnana - Durga - Adi - Vadiraja
9. Bhaavayaami Gopaalabaalam [R] - Yaman Kalyani - Khanda Chapu - Annamacharya
10. Muddugare Yashoda - Kurinji - Adi - Annamacharya
11. Raama naama bhajare - Madhyamavathi - Adi - Tyagaraja
12. Mangalam - Sourastram - Adi - Tyagaraja

What an amazing concert! Soumya was in top form, and gave a really good performance.
I always find the Saveri varnam to be an excellent opener. It was further embellished by Soumya's brisk swarakalpana at the charanam line.
The Janaranjani piece was soothing. The swarams were sung at 'janaranjani' which gave the interesting eduppu of 10 aksharams/maathras. Sarvalaghu patterns aplenty, with kanakku to go with the eduppu was very enjoyable.
Then...Shubhapantuvarali! As most people know, my love for this raagam can probably only be beaten by my own dislike of Kalyani!
So, I was totally happy with the elaborate aalaapanai which lasted around 15 minutes from the vocalist alone, and then 8-10 minutes from the violinist. The raagam was completely explored. Some progressions were really nice. Not to mention the beautiful bhaavam(that the raagam inherently possesses as it is) which was brought out extremely well by Sowmya. As compositions in this raagam are rare, I was either expecting Sri Satyanarayanam or Ennalu oorake. Tyagaraja was chosen over Muthuswamy Dikshitar! Actually, 90% of the song list is made up of Tyagaja kritis. No complaints. Just an observation.
The kriti was sung well. The detailed neraval and swarams were a delight.
One of my favourite kritis for filler.
Mohanam followed. Pleasant.
The swarams in the Devamanohari piece were really well sung. These had a fair bit of kanakku in them, with kuraippus in almost every aavaarthanam of swarams, with a tiny, pleasing korvai rounding it all off.
Bhairavi was most welcome. It's really been a long time since I've even heard Bhairavi live. It was a detailed elaboration of the raagam again. It was sung with a lot of finesse. One thing I recollect is that when she was reaching the taara sthaayi shadjam, she was limiting usage of the taara 'G', and then she brought it in after a few phrases (the R G R so characteristic of the raagam), which, I felt made it sound really good. Then she loitered around that 'R' and 'G' for a while. It's kind of like when you anticipate something, the wait is as sweet as the actual reward. It was like that.
The kriti was new to me, but I loved the composition. I might be wrong here...it felt like a 2 kalai kriti, but Sowmya sung it in 1 kalai. Not that that actually made any difference though. Neraval and swarams were perfect. As always, I just loved her korvai! She has a flair for coming up with something innovative every time.
I felt so satisfied by this point in the concert, that the lack of a RTP didn't bother me at all!
Tukkuda section featured her usual fare. But among these, the lovely Bhaavayaami stood out. A brief sketch of the raagam preceded the kriti which just melted my heart.
Madhyamavathi and Sourastram concluded the concert.

About the accompanists:
Ganesh Prasad was excellent on the violin. His raaga aalaapanais were as lucid as Sowmya's. He matched her at every stage in the neraval and swarams as well.
I always love listening to Poongulam Subramaniam. Both him and Gopala Krishna gave very apt support today. The thani did not overstay its welcome. It was the right length, and had just the right amount of kanakku.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the evening. Undoubtedly the best concert of the Ramanavami series so far.

[mahavishnu]

..... And, the kanjari is back!

[gardabha_gana]

Vid. Sowmya was just brilliant! I thoroughly enjoyed the concert. A soulful shubhapantuvarali, majestic mohanam and brilliant bhairavi made it an unforgettable evening. Actually I am happy not to have an RTP - given that I am hearing Koluvaiyunnade for the first time on vocals live! I have heard recordings of evergreen MMI but this beautiful krithi is rarely sung these days. This is what is a well planned and executed concert that is apt for the occasion. Intha prabhuva kaneno - very impressed with her diction and intonation of kannada. She singing in JP Nagar Brigade millennium this evening and I have requested a pallavi (natakuranji)

[squims]

..... And, the kanjari is back!

Haha, am I the only one who calls it that on here?

[arasi]

squims,
Apart from the fact that a very well played kanjari sounds divine, the very word kanjari is music to one's ears. Keep calling it that! The tamizh version (kanirA) is not as poetic sounding as the lingering sound of 'ee' as in kanjari

[bilahari]

Arasi, that is true! Squims, you must listen to MMI singing koluvaiyunnAdE. I'll upload one soon.

G_g, hope the nATTaikurinji RTP comes through!

[squims]

Thanks Arasi ma'am!

Squims, you must listen to MMI singing koluvaiyunnAdE. I'll upload one soon.

Oh please do! Will be waiting for it!

G_g, hope the nATTaikurinji RTP comes through!

I hope so too, and I could have been attending that concert right now, instead I went to the jugalbandi at Fort High School, which was just so much noise that I came back home in an hour. Yuck.

[gardabha_gana]

Thanks to the bangalore traffic and maze - Vid Sowmya arrived quite late - and the concert was a short one. Thodi (Kaddanuvariki) was the main - squims, a double delight of this krithi in 2 days. No natakuranji - she said she will sing that in seshadripuram (next saturday)

[vasanthakokilam]

About what squims asked about kanjari, is that how it is commonly referred to in Karnataka ( or among kannadigas )?

[squims]

Yes, I have grown up hearing the instrument being called 'kanjari'.

[srikant1987]

Squims, this time I have a legitimate correction to make. I got Sri Vani Vidya Mandir's pamphlet, and it's spelt as khanjari in it and not kanjari. Though yeah, we Tamil lot should probably be saying khanjira too :$ but then we don't have separate letters for ka and kha.

[squims]

LOL! I shall spell it that way from the next time!

Oh, and...I'm Tamil folk too. Okay I'm equally Tamilian and Kannadiga I guess!


EDIT: On second thought, why wait till next time? Corrected the first post.

[vasanthakokilam]

Thanks squims for taking it all in good stride. Now, for the actual pronunciation, is that KhanjAri or Khanjari or ...?

[squims]

It's Khanjari. Both the 'a's are short.

[sruthi]

The tamizh version (kanirA) is not as poetic sounding as the lingering sound of 'ee' as in kanjari

Ok, so the other accompaniments were violi and mridangi

[arasi]

Not really!
Khanjari is one of my favorite sounds in percussion (if very well played, of course). So, let's say that it suits that particular instrument

[bilahari]

To help you get over the bad jugalbandi (dare I ask about the details?), here's MMI's

bhairavi rAgam (with TNK):
http://www.mediafire.com/?xgz7aj4o964g4aj

koluvaiyunnAdE (with TNK and VR):
http://www.mediafire.com/?0ecwy23md9vc1me

Great stuff. The kalpanaswaras are especially brilliant, right from the way he starts... pdp - pdp - pd - manasu...

[squims]

...bad jugalbandi (dare I ask about the details?)

Well, for one, it started out with Yaman/Kalyani! I actually didn't mind that much because I do like to listen to the Hindustani version of raagam. But the volume in the concert was SO LOUD that it almost drove me deaf. A lot of people were closing their ears and listening. But the artists seemed to be totally oblivious to it and kept asking the sound system person to keep increasing their volume. Both Manjunath and the Sitar player(sorry, can't recollect the name) kept asking for more volume for their own instrument. Imagine how loud the instruments must have been if they were drowning out the extremely exuberant mridangam playing of Tiruvarur Bhaktavatsalam. I personally told the mic person to reduce the master volume of the entire team during the performance. No use. After this piece, I went and requested the artists directly about it. I think the people in the front rows were already deaf. They were the only ones feeling the sound wasn't loud! People even right at the back were closing their ears and sitting. Anyway, even after this, the sound was reduced by 'one point' which didn't make any difference absolutely. I was determined to give the artists another chance, so I went way back, where the sound was just marginally better. Kiravani. Expected this to be good atleast. Both artists reduced it to a bunch of gimmicks. During the swarakalpana, they tried to play Kiravani in a western orchestra kind of style, which fell flat on its face. It was just a bunch of gimmicks. The violin sounded like a 90 year old woman who has long since lost her ability to sing, and the sitar was only leading to the 'goiiiin' sounds that the mic makes. Stayed till the end of this piece out of respect, and then walked right out.

LOL I realise how big a rant that turned out to be! But really, I was so unbelievably annoyed. I'd listened to a sublime jugalbandi from Mysore Manjunath and Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhat last year. They'd both played so well. But this was nothing like that.

[squims]

Thanks for the recording! Downloading now!

[srikant1987]

Kiravani. Expected this to be good atleast. Both artists reduced it to a bunch of gimmicks. During the swarakalpana, they tried to play Kiravani in a western orchestra kind of style, which fell flat on its face.

Kiravani lends itself to it. I like the way MSG exploits this in one of his RTPs though.

But nonetheless, kIravANi is just so blah!

[squims]

If Kiravani is performed right, i find it to be one of the most powerful raagams. A recording of Vedavalli maami's Kiravani RTP comes to my mind here. Also, the lovely Kiravani that Neela maami sang a few months back at Unnati.

[vasanthakokilam]

But nonetheless, kIravANi is just so blah!

I used to be in that camp but I have now completely turned around. kiravani and its western counter part Harmonic Minor are both incredibly beautiful sources from which amazing tunes can be unearthed. ( not that in a CM concert, kiravani should be reduced to the Harmonic Minor scale except for an occasional foray into it for some good effect, but other than that kiravani can hold its own )

[Sathej]

Shall always associate Keeravani with a TNS rendition I heard long ago at RK Mutt. He sang Ambavani, but in the midst of one round of Keezhkala Swarams (actually Sama Kalam it was, to put it right), he just seemed to go into a zone, he lost sight of everything - that he was singing Swarams, that there was a violinist who had to play, that this was just a Swaram segment and he had to sing second speed Swarams (if any), return to the song, complete it and move on, given that this was just the third piece in the concert. It was a round that went on and on, there was next to no Kanakku, but he was entirely lost in the Ragam and it was an experience by itself. Until that particular round, it all seemed usual, but once he started it, for those 5-10 minutes, it seemed he was unwilling to let go of the Ragam that day..

Sathej

[squims]

Ah that sounds spectacular. From listening to some of TNS sirs' old recordings alone I can imagine what that experience would have been like!

[vasanthakokilam]

TNS has done this quite a few times. It is like missing an exit and you have to go quite a long ways to get back but that route is full of beautiful scenery and you are so glad that the driver missed the exit.

[arasi]

VK,
I'm glad you appreciate kIravANi now! Poor kIravANi and kalyANi! They are not given due respect--at least, they are taken for granted. Both sound sweet to my ears.

Sathej,
Interesting that you speak of that journey TNS took, taking you with him. Yes, I have had a couple of experiences with that rAgam like that.

VK,
I like your thinking about missing the exit and coming upon gorgeous scenery, with a super sunset to boot! An unexpected treat.

[arasi]

Squims,
I am glad you spoke up (twice!) about the noise in the jugalbandi. A waste of such talent which Manjunath possesses!
Noise in place of sound can drive even avid listeners away! When are the musicians going to understand the listeners point of view on this? If we started gesturing vehemently or raised our voices from every corner of the hall where there is a sonic boom?
I do not think the sound folks can get away with good sound only in certain parts of the hall and noise in others!
They can test this even if the performers don't arrive early enough. They can test each mike by saying something from each of the microphones, making sure that the sound is even in all places. I reach the concert hall early most of the time. Others do too. Early arriving audience can be volunteers for listening from various spots. Far fetched, it may seem to some, but really not that difficult at all. I mean, look at the end result! A sound-sound concert experience!

[srikant1987]

Poor kIravANi and kalyANi! They are not given due respect--at least, they are taken for granted. Both sound sweet to my ears.

Ah, kalyANi sadly has its share of dislikers (rbharath and squims), but still it just shouldn't be put together with kIravANi! Kalyani is usually put in the league of bhairavi, kAmbhOji and shankarAbharaNam!

From me kalyANi gets extra respect in a way: it is so serene and bhakti-filled (they assign "bhakti rasa" to every rAga, but kalyANi really has it), that I feel it makes some demand of the artiste and even the listener ... in not just vidwat, but also the state of mind ...

A good bhairavi, kambhOji and to a great extent even shankarabharanam can be put together from vidwat alone, but not kalyANi.

[vasanthakokilam]

Good point Srikant. Normally, kalyANi appeals to me only in certain states of mind. But just today I was listening to T.N. Seshagopalan's Rave Parvatha Rajakumari . I felt that these are the kinds of songs I can always warm up to, especially when sung so well. Same with Talli Ninnu Nera by MSS.

[srikant1987]

I felt that these are the kinds of songs I can always warm up to, especially when sung so well.

Indeed, the kind of krtis kalyANi has! I just listen to Vidushi Kalpakam Swaminathan's (RNST) bhajarE rE citta, and even though she is one of those musicians who would always be in a kalyANi state of mind, it gets even better when she gets to the krti! Now I'm infatuated to kalyANi (again)!

[annamalai]

In my preference of rank order of BIG-5 ragas - Bhairavi, Kamboji, Sankarabaranam, Thodi and Kalyani.

Some of the best or moving renditions of Kalyani are - Kanthimathim - Kalyani - Subbarama Dikshitar - rendered by T. Brinda - what a mesmerizing alapana.
Bhajare Re Chitta - rendered by MS Subbulakshmi along with KSN's Veena; the clarity of sangathis is amazing and Vanajakshi - Ata tala Varnam - rendered by MD Ramanthan or Ariyakudi Ninnuvina Gathigana - Kalyani - Subbaraya Sastri - by MD Ramanthan

[arasi]

To me, kamalAmbAm bhajarE, particularly, the caraNam. Please listen to it and see what a state of mind it can put you in--serene, poignant, musically and lyrically absorbing. When that dukha dhvamsinIm hamsinIM is sung! Oh, kalyAni dislikers needn't bother...

[squims]

Oh, kalyAni dislikers needn't bother...

Haha Arasi ma'am! I think I'll give it a try nonetheless!

[badari]

..bad jugalbandi (dare I ask about the details?)
I think the people in the front rows were already deaf. They were the only ones feeling the sound wasn't loud! People even right at the back were closing their ears and sitting. Anyway, even after this, the sound was reduced by 'one point' which didn't make any difference absolutely. I was determined to give the artists another chance, so I went way .

@ SQUIMS: I was one of them.. Even the extreme pressure at office had not brought in the headache for ages.. but this one concert for 2+ hrs was sufficient enough for me to pop a pill before i slept that night. Headache was still lingering at 10 am next morning

[badari]

Squims,
Early arriving audience can be volunteers for listening from various spots. Far fetched, it may seem to some, but really not that difficult at all. I mean, look at the end result! A sound-sound concert experience!

I'll make it a point to share my experience of the venue with the artists..(before the concert) if i feel that the concert may be marred by a poor PA system.