S. Sowmya - Thiruvanmiyur Asthika Samajam - Sept 22

rupavati · Post by **rupavati** » 22 Sep 2008, 23:27

S. Sowmya, RK Shriramkumar, HS Sudheendra
Thiruvanmiyur Asthika Samajam, Chennai - 41.
Sept 22nd 2008, 6.30 - 9.30 pm

Intachalamu (Varnam) - Begada - Adi - Vina Kuppayyar
Ekamresa Nayike - Karnataka Shuddhasaveri - Adi - MD (s at "shuddhasAvErinuta...')
Nidumurthi - Nattakurinji - Rupakam - Patnam (R, S)
Teratiyaga Rada - Gaulipantu - Adi - Tyagaraja
Vandalum Varattum - Balahamsa - Adi - GKB (R - a delightful alapana!)
Ika Talalenura - Hemavati - Khanda Chapu - Dr. S. Ramanathan (R, S)
Sudha Madhurya Bhashana - Sindhuramakriya - Adi - Tyagaraja (S)
Elara Krishna - Kambhoji - Rupakam (Attributed to Tyagaraja)
Gajavadana Sammodita - Todi - Adi - Kumara Ettendra (R, N - "vijayOllAsa vallI...", S, T)
Ee Muddukrishna - Durga - Vadiraja?
Itu Sahasamulu (Javali) - Saindhavi - Adi - Swati Tirunal
Tillana - Behag - TQ?
Mangalam - Saurashtram

Truly outstanding performance marked by an original songlist that reflects a vast repertoire and deep vidwat. I was deeply moved by the alapanas of Nattakurinji and Balahamsa - very classical, very authentic. Sowmya gave a nice explanation about Balahamsa after the 5-minute alapana, touching on the ragalakshana and the way composers like Tyagaraja and GKB have treated this melody. Todi was exceptional, the alapana and the rendition befitting what is probably one of the most complex compositions in the raga. The lilting javali was a fitting dessert for the heavy classical fare. Accompanists were in great form: RKS his usual self; Sudheendra's playing was a revelation. Haven't heard much of his playing but tonight he was truly glorious, the crisp strokes of the Raja Rao school tempered by a deftness to complement Sowmya's style. Asthika Samajam "Nachu" Mama gave his usual speech with historical anecdotes and Tanjore idioms that had the audience in splits.

gopalank · Post by **gopalank** » 23 Sep 2008, 08:38

Have to agree with the reviewer above. It was a wonderful concert. Rich traditional fare with an out-of-the-box songlist.

sureshvv · Post by **sureshvv** » 23 Sep 2008, 11:25

Exceptional concert of just under 3 hours - focused on pure aesthetics and no acrobatics. Exceptional choice of items and exceptional treatment of them. Totally satisfying concert in a hall with somewhat less than tolerable acoustics.

HarishankarK · Post by **HarishankarK** » 23 Sep 2008, 17:18

Have not heard many others rendering Vandalum varattum - only Sowmya perfoms it many a times !!

ragam-talam · Post by **ragam-talam** » 23 Sep 2008, 18:12

A very impressive song list. Sowmya has indeed become a top-class vidushi.
Hope a recording of this concert would be made available? I am esp interested in the Balahamsa and Hemavati pieces.

fuddyduddy · Post by **fuddyduddy** » 23 Sep 2008, 21:47

i would also be interested in this CD!
Am still hoping that her nandanar charitram (from last Dec) will be released as a DVD! There are bits and pieces of it in Youtube and she is absolutely amazing! So knowledgeable!
Also recently bought her 'kaanada' CD from charsur and i think its worthwhile. Enjoyed it! Though I wish she had done it as a Lec dem with some talk about the raagam.

revanthv552 · Post by **revanthv552** » 23 Sep 2008, 22:04

Thanks for the review ....
concert sounds really great....

vijay · Post by **vijay** » 24 Sep 2008, 11:30

Why are so many words being replaced by "censored word" - judging from the context it lookks unlikely that they would be swear words....

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 24 Sep 2008, 12:04

We had a very bad case of a user run amuck with posting obscene posts. Admin added some words to the censored word lists. It had some unexpected side effects with the word classical getting affected. It has been temporarily taken care of.

venkatpv · Post by **venkatpv** » 24 Sep 2008, 21:19

Nidumurthi in Nattakurinji is a composition of Pallavi Gopalayyar, not Patnam's. The anupallavi has "Venkatesa", and hence the confusion, perhaps.

madhavan · Post by **madhavan** » 25 Sep 2008, 22:40

Even I thought so venkatpv. But Sowmya herself announced when someone asked after the song that it was the composition of PSI. She even said since anupallavi had "venkatesa" it was the composition of PSI and she confirmed with the Violinst RKSriramkumar too. Many artists take lots of effort to learn new grithis but give least importance to know the composers! To me singing a song without knowing the composer is like bringing up an illegitimate child.

venkatpv · Post by **venkatpv** » 25 Sep 2008, 23:30

err, maybe there is another Nidumurthi by Patnam. I wouldnt put down someone like Sowmya so quickly. The one I am referring to is in the SSP and the pallavi goes like "Nidumurthini kanugoni nemmadini sevinci nenu dhanyudaitini".

madhavan · Post by **madhavan** » 26 Sep 2008, 09:50

venkatpv wrote:"Nidumurthini kanugoni nemmadini sevinci nenu dhanyudaitini".

Yes, she sang the same of what you were referring to.

kamavardhani · Post by **kamavardhani** » 28 Sep 2008, 23:15

madhavan wrote:Many artists take lots of effort to learn new krithis but give least importance to know the composers! To me singing a song without knowing the composer is like bringing up an illegitimate child.

A pretty strong statement, especially when it pertains to a dedicated and scholarly artiste like this one. There are many compositions of uncertain parentage and a mudra like 'venkatesa' can be quite misleading. If you had enough authentic information that the composer was PGI and not PSI, perhaps you could have put up your hand and expressed your reservations to Sowmya and RKS when they answered the other rasika's query!

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 29 Sep 2008, 01:33

Even if it is a mistake, let us give artists like Sowmya the benefit of doubt that it may be an honest error and not due to lack of caring on such matters by this artist.

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 29 Sep 2008, 07:07

As for me, how I wish to hear Sowmya sing one of my songs--which in itself would be like her adopting it! It won't matter if she did not know that I composed it. Her singing would breathe life into it and what more can a composer ask for?

Lakshman · Post by **Lakshman** » 29 Sep 2008, 07:26

nIdu mUrtini. rAgA: nATakuranji. Adi tALA. Composer: Pallavi Gopala Iyer.

P: nIdu mUrtini kanukoni nemmatini sEvinci nEnu dhanyuDaitini
A: vEda vEdAnta vidhituDaina vEnkaTEsha sakala jagannivAsa
C1: mandara giridhara sanakAdi muni mAnasAbja bhrnga dhrta
shubhAnga indirA ramaNa guNAbharaNa Isha vinuta nAma parandAma
2: pankaja bhavAdi mukha sannuta prapanna vatsala patita pAvana
birudAnga shESAnka shrInidhE vatasnka niSkaLanka garuDa turanga
3: mADhava mukunda madhusUdana nata malla pallava shatru bhAsamAna
shrIdhara purANa puruSa nava tulasi dhAma kOTi atulita vESa

THere is no other song with these starting words on my list.

uday_shankar · Post by **uday_shankar** » 29 Sep 2008, 07:30

madhavan wrote:To me singing a song without knowing the composer is like bringing up an illegitimate child.

"Ilegitimate child" ? Haven't seen that phrase except in Victorian writings

. So how can we legitimize the child ? Perhaps kill him/her ? Would that satisfy you ?

So what's wrong with "bringing up an illegitimate" child ? Is he/she any less worthy a child than yours or mine ?

Here are some examples (courtesy wikipedia) of what the world might have lost if some "illegitimate" children had been killed off:

1. Leon Battista Alberti (February 14, 1404 â€“ April 25, 1472) , an Italian author, artist, architect, poet, linguist, philosopher, and cryptographer, and general Renaissance humanist polymath
2. Leonardo Da Vinci
3. Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (sometimes known as Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam) (October 27, 1466/1469 â€“ July 12, 1536) , a Dutch Renaissance humanist and Catholic Christian theologian
4. Jean le Rond d'Alembert (November 16, 1717 â€“ October 29, 1783), a French mathematician, mechanician, physicist and philosopher.
5. Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755 or 1757 â€“ July 12, 1804) was the first United States Secretary of the Treasury, a Founding Father, economist, and political philosopher.
6. Vasily Andreyevich Zhukovsky (Russian: Василий Андреевич Жуковский) (February 9 [O.S. January 29] 1783 â€“ April 1852) was the foremost Russian poet of the 1810s.
7. Aleksandr Ivanovich Herzen (Алекса́ндр Ива́нович Ге́рцен) (April 6 [O.S. 25 March] 1812 â€” January 21 [O.S. 9 January] 1870) was a major Russian pro-Western writer and thinker known as the "father of Russian socialism".
8. Sarah Bernhardt (22 October 1844 â€“ 26 March 1923) was a French stage actress, and has been referred to as "the most famous actress in the history of the world".[
9. Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Edward Lawrence, CB, DSO (16 August 1888[5] â€“ 19 May 1935), known professionally as T. E. Lawrence, was a British soldier renowned especially for his liaison role during the Arab Revolt of 1916â€“18.

I could list names closer to home but will refrain from doing so for fear of people like you.

Classical music is bigger than individual composers. If you need to know the composer's name before listening to the song, then are you in it for the music or for the name ? You might as well stay at home and read the sahitya from a book of "authentic" Tyagaraja or Dikshithar kritis. Why go a listen to a katcheri ?

By the way, most of the vedas and upanishads are "illegitimate" because we don't know which individual rishi composed what.

PUNARVASU · Post by **PUNARVASU** » 29 Sep 2008, 07:51

arasi wrote:As for me, how I wish to hear Sowmya sing one of my songs--which in itself would be like her adopting it! It won't matter if she did not know that I composed it. Her singing would breathe life into it and what more can a composer ask for?

arasi,
I am reminded of what Mysore Vasudevchar is supposed to have said after listening to MSS' rendering 'brOchEvArevarurA'. Everybody must be knowing that.

vidya · Post by **vidya** » 29 Sep 2008, 08:26

Uday_Shankar wrote:If you need to know the composer's name before listening to the song, then are you in it for the music or for the name ? You might as well stay at home and read the sahitya from a book of "authentic" Tyagaraja or Dikshithar kritis. Why go a listen to a katcheri ?

By the way, most of the vedas and upanishads are "illegitimate" because we don't know which individual rishi composed what.

Uday,
Glad to see you take on the 'illegitimate child' issue. That analogy certainly rankled and I agree with that part. And of course a performing musician is not expected to be an encyclopaedia!

But that said, knowing a composer, appreciating compositional stylistics, elements which mark a certain composer from another are also a dimension of carnatic music. To me this IS the feature that distinguishes carnatic music from Hindustani and the feature that is perhaps closer to Western classical music. Schubert or Subrahmanya Iyer they have their unique styles in terms of structural soundness, raga grammar preference, compositional flow and a whole bunch of things and in comparison with their other compositions. Of course this applies to those vaggeyakaras who craft compositions and those whose music and lyric are reasonably preserved and not re/deconstructed and not to mere lyric writers whose lines have been tuned by musicians! And musicians can garnish a composition but it still depends on how it was cooked! For instance a pretrinity composer's compositional style will differ from a post trinity shishya parampara composer of Tyagaraja. So it is not as dismissively simple as sitting at home and reading lyrics.

Unfortunately an 'elementary school line of reasoning' prevails in Carnatic music when it comes to analyzing compositions, where people go with 'If Venkatesa then Patnam' or If Kumara then Subbaraya Sastry. For example people mistakenly assume that Kamakshi Katakshi is that of Subbaraya Sastri completely ignoring the vedapureesvara phrase there- Subbaraya Sastri primarily composed in Telugu his style is not seen in that composition and it is as obvious as day light that it is Tiruvarur Ramaswami Pillai's- just compare it to other compositions of his. Now this also becomes an issue of not giving credit to where it's due. So as far as I have seen with renditions of NidumUrti ni, the Nattakuranji of PGI is certainly not identical to the Nattakuranji that a Patnam or a Dikshitar paints. Again to know the fact that the Kalyani that Trishiragiri matrubhutayya is an important milestone in the form that Kalyani has taken today or the role that Shahaji's Pantuvarali or Virabhadrayya's svarajati played in its form today as a precursor to shri sundararajam or shri kalahastisha! So YES knowing a composer and the time line and by whom it was composed is important for this aspect of music appreciation which I think is a unique dimension of Carnatic music and important to some of us.

uday_shankar · Post by **uday_shankar** » 29 Sep 2008, 10:45

vidya

I agree. It's just my lazy, dumbed-down style of writing

. Far from me to be foolish enough to pooh-pooh the composition/composer dimension to Carnatic music appreciation and scholarship. I think Carnatic music would be a lifeless shell without it.

I really wanted to tell Madhavan to give the "grithi" a chance first (in other words, get down to the "nitty-grithi", perhaps?) instead of prejudging it based on whether it is an "illegitimate child" or not. Thus it is that we still get to listen to a fairly competent song like needucharanamule(simhendramadhyamam).

In any case, I don't want to spawn an "illegitimate child" thread in a concert review thread

.

Signing off,

Yours truly,
illegitimate child of the universe

annamalai · Post by **annamalai** » 29 Sep 2008, 11:38

A question has been asked is - For a given krithi, how much of the credit should be attiributed to the composer and how much to the musicians ?

Even for many popular compositions - Chakkani Raja or Sree Subramanyaya Nanasthe - Many musicians have embellished more sangathis to this krithis.

or Karunai Deivame Karpagame - Sindhubhairavi has been polished so much DKJ.

Does the credit go to T. Srinivasn the composer or DKJ ?

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 29 Sep 2008, 16:19

annamalai wrote:A question has been asked is - For a given krithi, how much of the credit should be attiributed to the composer and how much to the musicians ? Does the credit go to T. Srinivasn the composer or DKJ ?

See Punarvasu's post - Sri Vasudevachar said it best!

annamalai · Post by **annamalai** » 29 Sep 2008, 16:40

I am reminded of what Mysore Vasudevchar is supposed to have said after listening to MSS' rendering 'brOchEvArevarurA'. Everybody must be knowing that.

If that is the case, then should we be quibbling about who the composer PGI or PSI ? except may be from a pure academic value.

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 30 Sep 2008, 03:56

It made me wonder: any song born out of a composer is an entity on its own. It does not need to be attested by being sung on a stage. The pleasure of arriving at the song is pleasure enough.
Of course, if you hear it sung with feeling by others, it adds to your joy. I don't deny that.
Even supposing a few are sung, what about the ones unsung? Surely, they are not lowly in status

Lakshman · Post by **Lakshman** » 30 Sep 2008, 04:28

arasi wrote:

As for me, how I wish to hear Sowmya sing one of my songs--which in itself would be like her adopting it! It won't matter if she did not know that I composed it. Her singing would breathe life into it and what more can a composer ask for?

Why don't you send her an email message with your request? She might oblige! You never know.

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 01 Oct 2008, 08:12

Lakshman,
Thanks for your suggestion...

malavi · Post by **malavi** » 01 Oct 2008, 19:25

There is a chittaswaram also for the kriti Needumurti
Sariss ndns nndm mmgs
sgsn dnsn spmg mndn
srgm gsnr sndn dpdn
sdpm gmpg rsmg mndn
i was taught Patnam subrahmanya iyer as the composer of this kriti

Lakshman · Post by **Lakshman** » 01 Oct 2008, 19:45

Thanks for the ciTTasvara.
The reference to Pallavi Gopala Iyer as the author of this kriti is from the Sangita Sampradaya Pradarshini.