V.ShankaranArAyanan@Sringeri Temple(T Nagar) on Sept 22nd,2009
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The accompanists were BU ganeshprasad - violin, mannArkoil balAji - mrudhangam and KV gOpAlakrishnan - kanjirA.
The theme was navarathri, and it is quite evident all musicians decide most of the numbers well in advance . VS must have done the same . The concert had a very nice selection of krithis .
1. ?? - AbhOgi (another forumite told me that who attended till 3 songs, he can post the first no)
2. tarunam eedammA - gowLipaNtu - SS
3. jalAndhara(R N S) - valachi - HMB
alApanai and violin return 2 mins each, neraval for 6 mins and swaras for 5 mins
neraval in 'bhava rOganivAriNi bhaktajana paripAlini'
4. pAhi JagajaNani (R NS S) - hamsAnandi - ST
8 mins alApanai, 2 mins violin return, brief neraval in "sArasa dhala nilayE??", 6 mins swaras
5. sarasvati namOstutE shAradE - saraswathi - GNB
6A. niNNE nammi nAnu (R N S T) - tOdi - SS
8 mins alApanai, 5 mins violin return,neraval for 6 mins and swaras for 11 mins
neraval in "kAmAkSI khanja daLAyatAkSi"
6B. tani for 11 mins
7. jagathjanani sukhapAni - rathipathipriyA -ghanam krishna Iyer
8. karpagamE - madhyamAvathi - psivan
I have heard only thru grapevine about VS, infact in the last few reviews from singapore only,I knew more about his music. Looking at his website , it looks like VS has been atleast a very musically bright youngster to start with,Particularly in the url http://www.vshankar.com/pg.htm , you can see that he is giving his First concert at Children Academy with Mridangist Ganapathiraman and Violinist Varadharajan as early as 1984 (ganapathiraman and varadarajan are in the top pick list as of today in that age bracket).
For carnatic music rasikas then in 1984,it was that year more famous for the loss of MDR , but for many neophytes like me it was the first celebration year of india winning world cup in 1983 and also preparing to celebrate india winning 1985 benson and hedges world cup at Australia. In short he may have been a too promising musician from then onwards. Then with many concerts from 1984 to possibly early 2000 he has given quite a lot of concerts and has been in the limelight to a great extent.
With he having gone to singapore perhaps in early 2000 or so ,I am assuming from then he was a victim of perhaps not having many musical concerts. Incidentally not being continously in concert circuit does show up on persistance of quality within a concert, but certainly this musician has quite a lot of + points.
Certainly this musician has quite a lot of + points:
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1. First and foremost He has got a great voice , almost most of the time there is quite a bit of sangathi weight , the voice is very assertive and manly, so to a great extent he is lucky with one of the most important pre requisites of CM
2. There was quite a bit of touch like TN SeshagOpAlan of 1980's especially during hamsAnandi sub main.Since his voice is able to comfortably go up at many points in hamsAnandi and tOdi alApanai he is able to give sustained classicism.
3. The valachi krithi rendition and swaras along with half heard gowlipantu(I went late) had a lot of vocal power , though at few places there is a slight vOttam.
4. Overall maNodharmam quotient is high.
Incidentally not being continuously in concert circuit does show up on persistence of quality:
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4. At quite a few places especially in the neraval and swaras he loses a bit of shruthi which is quite very prominent . I am assuming possibly he has to get that right sweet spot of pitch to that comfortable point , may be slightly below his full power will help, so that he can sing continously without losing shruthi , he could have done that better as it is a tough uphill climb. This aberration is more noticeable during todi krithi rendition and swaras.
5. During swaras he has to gel well with the percussion support , I am assuming since he does not put tAlam continously there is a slip that is too noticeable. Overall with his strong voice , a little more effort and a little more attention to gelling with percussionist strokes will go a long way.
6. He could have gone with a slokham or viruththam to give a more emotive feel to the concert. But that crib is just minor. The first tukkada in jagathjanani was quite good , the second karpagamE had its share of too many slips. I am assuming musicians in general when they sing the last number , they possibly are very careless, always nee nAma roopamulaku is gone without quality because of all musician's ubiquitous carelessness , to an extent karpagamE followed like that.
7.The saraswathi krithi did not come out well .
About the accompanists:
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This temple has a fairly non standard acoustics , always the musicians feel they are not getting the right balance , any musician will ask to raise the volume , but for rasikas whereever you sit excepting just in front of artists, you have atleast two speakers pounding your left and right ear. To an extent the volume for the concert was on the high side,and slightly percussion aggression was more than what this hall and acoustics could accomodate . The tani of balAji was very good and KVG gave a good followup support for most of the krithis, though his tani round was just not that great. But to me BU ganesh prasad was the top pick , the consistency of quality was uniform, returns were proportionate and had a sweet nAdham
Overall as I walked out, I just came out with an impression with few more reqular concerts and with he being in concert circuit ,VS will considerably up his quality spread and those shortcomings will just melt away. What is very promising and most notable about this musician is his assertive voice. Overall a good to very good concert for exactly 2 hours.
V.ShankaranArAyanan@Sringeri Temple(T Nagar) on Sept 22nd,20
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