Sumithra Vasudev - Ashwin Anand - Nada Inbam - August 15th

[gardabha_gana]

Vid. Sumithra Vasudev
Vid. Ashwin Anand (Veena)
Vid. ArunPrakash (Mridangam)
Vid. Guruprasad (Ghatam)

Date: Monday, August 15th
Venue: Nada Inbam

URL Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jm8EPSHGGzI

[sureshvv]

Nice sankarabharanam in progress after a rocking karuna judavamma in Sri preceded by tanam on vocal & veena.

Getting some of those Urur Alcott folk to dance to select Shyama Sastry kritis may be a good production to blow part of the 20 lacs

[kvchellappa]

Looked for you, VVS, and Nick, but they are not showing the audience!

[sureshvv]

rbharat, sridhar_ranga, CRama & Sivaramakrishnan are also here among others.

[rshankar]

Getting some of those Urur Alcott folk to dance to select Shyama Sastry kritis may be a good production to blow part of the 20 lacs

ERC please???

[sureshvv]

Pardon my ignorance - ERC?

[kvchellappa]

Explain with reference to context (Annotation question we used to have in English paper).

[sureshvv]

Hmm... ERC... from a long time ago and was never good at that in the 1st place.

IIRC, Magsaysay award = 20 lacs

Check out the charanam of the kriti & it seems amenable to some hip hop purely from the rhythm. A neraval there may facilitate it.

Just a crack pot idea!

[sankark]

a complete list.

viribOni bhairavi varnam, she sang a new chittaiswaram in between the usually sung 2nd and 3rd ones and wrapped up the piece with anupallavi and mukthAyiswaram
saraswati chAyAtarangini a superb chittaiswaram
pUrvikalyAni paripUrna kAmA, ns@sAkEtAdhipa, a meditative AlApanai it was; Ashwin started with vINai. She kept the talam as tisra Ekam count and KAP with the rUpakam
sri tAnam, karuNa jUdu ninnu nammina; Ashwin started with vINai for tAnam and then both alternated
dEvAdi dEva sadAsivA
s'bharanam akshaya linga vibhO ns@akshayalinga vibhO tani
mAyE tvam yAhi with chittaswaram
slOkam in sAvEri, sahAnA, ?, nAttaikurinji, nIlAmbari followed by lAli yugavE
mangaLam

[sureshvv]

The ? was Abheri of their school, I was told.

[rshankar]

viribOni varNam has svaras/sAhityam/anubandhams that are not typically heard. IIRC, Smt. Sowmya in her CD mayyal, has sung the varNam in its entirety.

[gardabha_gana]

There is a CD called "Pramanam" where Vedavalli has explained the nuances. Also you will see Maye feature in it. They are sung the traditional way.

[CRama]

An excellent concert in true Vedavalli bani. Veena and Vocal merged well admirably. Ashwin played excellently with his vidwat, manodharmam and dexterity in good stead.

[Nick H]

It seems to be very different managing the sound for veena instead of violin.

Generally, the levels were on the high side. The veena sound quality is one that merges with, rather than stands out from, the voice. For me it results in a phenomenon which is like thinking that I can't hear the veena, but then I realise that I can. Perhaps one could say to raise the level of the veena, but I don't think that would answer: I think that the answer is to reduce the level of the others. The Bangalore concert was slightly better balanced, but it was also a much smaller venue. which might make things easier.

It was a great concert, and it was certainly team work between the two stars, rather than a simple "accompanied by." The accompaniment aspect, ie when Sumithra was singing, seemed to me to put greater demands on a veena player than it would on a violinist. The plucked string has a sharp attack (beginning of each note) whilst the violin's attack is softer. Ashwin was spot-on accurate with every note.

Of course, they are both favourite musicians of mine, belonging to my favourite school, so the combination can be nothing but a win/win/win for me, and I thoroughly enjoyed the concert. Having waited since November '15 (rain stopped play) to see them together, I am very happy to have done so twice in a month. I'm already looking forward to the next time

[Sivaramakrishnan]

That was a great experience. Chhaayatarangini and Tarangini were superb and it explained the assiduous practice that might have gone into perfecting the uruppadis for synchronised presentation.
Aswin Anand's competency in playing in mandrastayi in tandem with main string (rettaitthanthi) is commendable. 'Akshayalinga vibho' suited the pradosham evening aptly. Best wishes to the Combo!