BMK at Bharat Sangeet Utsav, Nov 3, Chennai

[mahavishnu]

I heard BMK gave an amazing performance at the BSU event organized by Carnatica. How I wish I could have been there (
If any forumites attended the concert, I would be much obliged if you could post a report/review.

[arasi]

Mahavishnu,

Wonder if he is singing during the season...

[mahavishnu]

Arasi, I was wondering the same thing. It is very hard to find BMK during the season.
I imagine that it took Shashikiran and colleagues a lot of work to get him to perform at the BSU.

[sureshvv]

Amazing concert with the soaring voice that grew in strength, leisurely development of ragas dwelling on the notes and playful swara prastharams including participation of percussion. Most items presented were his own compositions. Accompanists were top grade but, as expected, did become noisy by end of thani.

Accompanists
-----------------

Binny Krishnakumar (Supporting Vocal)
Nagai Muralidharan
Tiruvarur Bhakthavatsalam
Vaikom Gopalakrishnan (G)

Song list
-----------

1. Gana sudha rasa paana - naatai
2. Chandrajyoti - Bagayanayya
3. Lathangi - tamra lochani lathangi
4. Lavangi - Omkarini aakarini
5. Tillana - Brindavana Saranga

[mahavishnu]

Thanks, Suresh. I'm glad that you were able to attend. It would have been hard to beat last year's concert with MC/UKS.
I heard that the Chandrajyoti was extraordinary.

Pity that there is no webcast (that I know of)

[tanapp]

I would be very interested to see how the swarams were handled for Bagayanayya. And the contrast with Latangi as the next item (probably the main item) is also well thought out.

[sureshvv]

Lavangi was the "main" item. Had extensive alapana and swaras (a little bare but made up with a lot of janta prayogams).

[harimau]

Accompanists were top grade but, as expected, did become noisy by end of Thani.



1. Gana sudha rasa paana - naatai
2. Chandrajyoti - Bagayanayya
3. Lathangi - tamra lochani lathangi
4. Lavangi - Omkarini aakarini
5. Tillana - Brindavana Saranga

In the manner so typical of the "Living Legend II", the raga alapanas of Chandrajyothi and Lathangi wandered around the swaras in such a manner that it took a while to figure out what raga was being elaborated. Lathangi had too many Kalyani phrases in it before the Pallavi line clearly established the raga as Lathangi.

One could be uncharitable and say that LL II was getting forgetful but that would be incorrect since this has been his trade mark for the last 65+ years. Thus we must conclude that it is really a wonderful attempt on his part to force the listener to exercise his mind and thus stave off the onset of Alzheimer's disease.

By the time the korvai for Lathangi was rendered, the drummers decided to ratchet up the volume several notches. Lavangi was a veritable noise fest even before the tani avartanam. The tani did have one side benefit for me; it loosened the hardened ear wax from my ear, saving me a trip to the ENT doctor. The negative of that is that the loud tones are even louder for me now.

PS. Who is LL I, you may ask. It is V V Subramaniam.

I just flipped through the schedule. There seem to be no other LLs.

But I could be wrong.

[tiruppugazh]

He shows off far too much for an octagenarian. True LL style I think

[rupavathi]

Other than the pristine soaring voice that is intact at the age of 82, there is nothing much to write home about this concert. Wonder who generated the hype, mahavishnu... /:)
Frankly the Lavangis and Sarvashris are getting a bit stale. The most charitable thing that could be said is that he is beyond all such lay comments. As for the accompanists, someone needs to tell Nagai Muralidharan to chuck that awful contact mike. It makes his violin sound like kadri's clarionet. Which is very sad because Shri Muralidharan is one of today's finest accompanists and has a naturally sweet and regal tone to his bowing. And yesterday, the violin sruti just did not match the vocalist. Percussion... Bhaktavatsalam was in his "deferring to seniors" mode, so it was bearable at best. Vaikom... well he never bothers much about his instrument's pitch for ANY concert and yesterday was no exception!