sudha ragunAthan@Music Academy on December 28,2006

[rajeshnat]

Accompanied by Violin - B RAghavendra Rao ,Mridangam - TiruvArur vaidhyanAthan , morsing -rAman

The music academy can be praised for its excellence in encouraging musicians, providing lec dems , insisting on a very high classical concert etc. But they also make the performing musicians very stressed for 2 reasons,which sometimes takes away all the credit. The 2 reasons being

1. They insist on vidwans/vidushis to give the song list well before so that they publish in the souvenir. That souvenir is counter productive , as it is just too much to take for the vidwans/vidushis to perform ,as their voice reaches a state where they cannot make it at all. The vidwans/vidushis moods which is primarily expressed with rAga bhAvam are simply not in tune with the song list.Perhaps I should christen this as Souvenir Syndrome (SS). Why don't they leave it to the musicians in picking up their song list based on that day's mental/physical/emotional state.

2. In addition not to speak about few vidwans/vidushis who sometimes are forced with few accompanist(s) who in turn donot give even an average finish . These concerts indeed get reviewed as poor in The Hindu, in turn not giving a viewpoint that is fair to the musician (well that is where rasikas.org rocks).

Overall 1 and/or 2,the team fails. For Sudha, 2 surely does not apply , but souvenir syndrome did apply to most of her concert. I was late atleast by 15 minutes , as I had to stand in the queue.Assuming I missed one.

....
2. rE rE mAnasa bhahare (S) - nAttai - ceyOOr chengalvAraya sAstri
3. bAla kanakamaya(elanee daya rAdhu) (R) - aTAnA - T
4A. namOstu namrAdhi (slokham ) - sAveri
4B. shamshari shamguru (S) - sAveri - SS

5. shri mAthrubUtham - kannada - MD
6. cakkani rAja (R N S T) - kharaharapriya - T

7. azhagA azhagA - sudda dhanyAsi - Ambujam Krishna
8. RTP - gamanashrama
10 minutes of alApana, 3 minutes of violin return , 4 minutes of tAnam and just 12 minutes of pallavi and rAgamaliga swaram.

9. bAro krishnayyA - mAnd - kanakadAsA
10. sAyee bhajan "Om sAyee sri sAyee madura mantram" - madhuvanti?? -??
11. pavamAna

The nAttai was very good with good swara prasthAnam. The Souvenir Syndrome (SS) set in with aTAnA with the questioning expression being replaced with a softer expression. Her start in atAna was with the pallavi elanee daya rAdhu, perhaps I just thought atlast this krithi is sung the way that Sadguru thyagarAja intended . She immediately went to the more famous anupallavi line"bAla kanakamaya" , perplexing me a lot.Her voice considerably cracked there.

The Souvenir syndrome (SS #1) was completely running hand in hand with the trinity Shyama SAstri (SS #2) with ever demanding shamshari shamkuru (SS #3),and what better rAga than sAveri to truly corroborate and make it a nightmare to present for the vidushi .Sudha on sAveri with 3 SS was clearly making a SOS call. Her voice simply did not go well.Swarams were below the mark with evident shruti lapse.

The kannada was ok. Surprisingly the kharaharapriya cleared her kharakhara voice and did settle well , it got better and better , she clearly gave an excellent finish with a very good main alApanai. The grand cakkani rAja is an interesting composition which will make u happy to start with , but when it insists the performer to start the pallavi line in a different piDi, the souvenir syndrome briefly appeared again. She did a good neraval in "kanTiki sundaramagu rUpamE". The swarams were good but there was noticable slip and vOttam.The last descent of swaram was also uninspiring

The assertive suddha dhanyAsi azhaga azhaga was not of the MLV/Sudha callibre. The time was exactly 9:30 pm .The rAga gamanashramA was sung with a poorvikAlyAnish start and a more hamsAnandish middle section(perhaps that is the exact way to sing a gamanashramA), the tAnam was too quick(just 4 minutes) with the mridangist play making it interesting. The pallavi with a long line "velAne vadivelAne senthil vadi velane thiruttAniyil uthithu aurlum" was almost standstill with almost no manOdharmam, other than she repeating the line repeatedly. The rAga maliga swarams were good in the rAgas valaci + bahudAri + ?? .The return to gamanashrama was just used to correctly readjust the clock to 10 pm. She was done with her RTP, just perhaps relieved that the souvenir syndrome nighmare was behind her.

The bAro krishnayya was quite good. There was a long sai bhajan which was rendered well ,I think the rAga was madhuvanti , though that kept me second guesssing as madhukowns (DRS and others Help appreciated to know the difference of madhukowns/madhuvanti).

Usually you see a smiling sudha in the end , but she appeared to sing mangalam with a minimum gap. Clearly her smile was missed , with her fatigue evident.If there was one great performer who made it interesting it was the mridangam artist Tiruvarur vaidyanathan.

Violin with mOrsing accompaniment is sometimes a nightmare to hear as the shruTTi most of the times donot settle well,and at times the mOrsing exposes the shortcomings of violin artist. Overall the violinist was average I really felt the return of sAveri swaram was a nightmare to hear .Taking the same viewpoint from another side and to be fair on the violinist ,A cracked voice of the vidushi coupled with mOrsing is a violinist nightmare. I am not sure which viewpoint is right,but I realized today why whenever there is a mOrsing you also need a kanjira or ghatam apart from the ubiquitous mridangam. Any inputs on this observation welcome.

[rbharath]

1. it is not necessary that one has to stick to the list published in the souvenir. Almost everybody deviates here and there. Some of them, completely change it according to their mood on the day of the concert.

2. some senior artists dont provide lists. I know it for a fact that Sudha doesnt give her lists all that regularly

3. Short pallavis arent new to academy concerts. Malladi Bros sang a 10+ minute pallavi (ragam, tanam, pallavi, svarams. short tani all included) in charukesi just a few days back. I m told, DKJ sang a 15 min tODi pallavi once. However, i feel that this practice of singing 'ultra-short' excuse of pallavis should be strictly avoided. If you wish to sing a pallavi, see to it, u allocate atleast 45 minutes to it (not including the tani), else dont.

Just wondering, Hasnt MLV sung the same pallavi in the same ragam???

[venkatpv]

"shamshari shamguru"

hahahaha... what a sham!!

[ramakriya]

9. bAro krishnayyA - mAnd - kanakadAsA

Normally it is sung as a rAgamAlike, starting in mAnD - I think SR would have done that too - since she follows MLV's pATHAnthara for dEvara nAmas.

The bAro krishnayya was quite good. There was a long sai bhajan which was rendered well ,I think the rAga was madhuvanti , though that kept me second guesssing as madhukowns (DRS and others Help appreciated to know the difference of madhukowns/madhuvanti).

madhuvanti - s g2 m2 p n3 s - s n3 d2 p m2 g2 r2 s

madhukauns - s g2 m2 p n3 s - s n3 p m2 g2 s

Even though madhukauns does not have a 'kauns' anga ( d n s) it is named so, since it was derived as a grahabhEda of chandrakauns.

There is a nice article about various 'kauns'es on www.sawf.org

-Ramakriya

[arasi]

Rajesh,
Take it from grandma, the practise of publishing the 'menu' of songs ahead has been a long standing ritual. As kids, we had fun leafing through the souvenir to while away our time (some concerts were boring and not kid friendly). The old venue was Rasika Ranjani Sabha. When our wandering out of the hall was curtailed, we resorted to entertaining ourselves by getting familiariwith raga names (a giggle or two on such funny names like gunta kriya and so on).
The lists were not strictly adhered to, and surely, dependent on the date of the performance (and thus the state of their voices), today's singers can choose appropriate rAgAs and kritis. I think it is still fun to have a souvenir. You never know. They may come in handy in years to come as reference guides or as nostalgia items...