Soumya's concert in Bangalore Sree Ramakrishna bhajan at odu

[rajaglan]

I attended Smt. Soumya's concert in Blore. This is my first concert of her. I am very surprised at her boldness and sincerity.

First of all the concert started with hardly 10 audience and the audience is of a bhajan trust and not the prestigious gayana samaj or chowdaiah hall of Bangalore. People now go home due to various protests organised for Cauvery tribunel. So crowd was less. I thought her motivation levels to sing a serious concert is lessened. But she was sincere. The crowd gathered slowly and was full house sooner.

The subsubmain was chandrajyothi raga alapana and the song is Bhagayanayya. This raga is no longer rare and everybody seems to sing this raga and the artist no longer introduce this raga to audience. Unnikrishnan recently did this in Indranagar Sangeetha Sabha.

The submain was harikamboji and for this kind of audience any artist would sing dinamani vamsa or rama nannu brovara. But she sang sani dhodi. I heard this from DKP school of music. This song is not sung often in concerts. This song almost looked like the main piece. The neravals were very good.

Then she took Bairavi raga alapana. I thought she is going to do an RTP which would have been a traditional bairavi RTP. But she didnot do that. A good one hour kanchi kamakshi swarajathi of shyama sastrigal followed and this was so refreshing. She also sang niraval, pretty challenging and swarams. I have listened to MSS sing this in an mp3 file. TMK has done rave himagiri , a similar treatment in thodi in Gayana samaj.

Her song selections were good. She also sang chetashri (slow pace), bohindrasayinam (with swaram), and a song in sindhunamakriya raga. There were many more songs which I cannot document. It was a full fledged 3.15 min kutcheri.

[ksrimech]

Rajaglanji,
cani tODi tEvE (harikAmbhOji) was a favorite of Ramanathan Sir, her guru. I think he had taken it even as the main item (IIRC '84 or '85 Dec at MA). Was the sindurAmakriyA song dEvAdi dEvA sadASivA by sadguru tyAgarajar?

[rajaglan]

Good to know that it was her guru's fav.
Not sure about the sindhuramakriya song. I will check and let you know with my relatives who were also with me.

[ramanathan]

Was the sindurAmakriyA song dEvAdi dEvA sadASivA by sadguru tyAgarajar?

No, it was 'sudhA mAdhurya bhAshaNa...'

[rasaali]

rajaglan,

Thanks for the nice review. A word or two on the accompanists would be great too as it will provide us with a more complete picture.

Thanks!

[rajaglan]

Sure.
Violin by Nalina Mohan,
mridungam by HS sudheendra
and ghatam by Sukanya ramgopal. The thani was good.

[coolkarni]

edited and removed.

[rajaglan]

Coolkarni,
Thanks. You know the technicals. You must be better in describing a thani. I am zero at rhythm dept. So that is the most elaborate as well as the most concise descritpion of a thani that can come from me. But I make a point to sit through and see whether it sounds good or average. I know I cannot do justice to rhythm dept and those people. I will soon improve. I am listening to CM in the last 2 years only.

[coolkarni]

rajaglan
That was a joke at myself, not you.
I have deleted my post , just in case you have got offended.

[rajaglan]

Coolkarni,
Not at all. Keep the post. I enjoyed it. It is actually a nice feeling that someone is reading your posting.

[coolkarni]

We
SIMPLY LOVE THIS NEW ASPECT OF REVIEWING AT RASIKAS.

As though we are connected to the Musical happenings all over the place.

I am seriously thinking of shooting photos and posting them here - Not just the dias, but the surroundings , the audience.

It is definitely getting to be a nicer experience, by the day.

Please do keep posting

[ksrimech]

Thank you Ramanathanji