1998 K.J. Yesudas Concert from "Parvathi", Mysore

[cpblog]

Respected Rasikas,

We thought to increase the fervor of the Pongal/Sankranti time in all of you by presenting to you a very fine concert by Vidwan K.J. Yesudas as he performed in "Parvathi", Mysore on April 11, 1998 during Ramanavami.

His RTP was in for a great appreciation by the audience that day, as indeed the whole concert. An additional incentive was the presence of a mutual and very close friend, the highly respected and late actor Vishnuvardhan.

The able accompanists were Vidwans T.G. Thyagarajan (Violin), T.A.S. Mani (Mridangam) and M.A. Krishnamurthy on the Ghatam.

Please enjoy @ http://chowdaiahandparvati.blogspot.com/.

Regards,
CPBlog Team

[cmlover]

Thanks thanks thanks for the flood of divine CM, the best always on this
makara sankaranthi day (Pongal)...

[arunsri]

Yesudas speaks before the RTP announcing that he is singing rAmapriyA and says that the scale is only different from kalyANi in the rishabham! this is not correct.

So, on playing the track, I found that he is infact right about the raga he is singing - kalyani with suddha rishabham, but has called it rAmapriya [mELa 52] - which is wrong. The rAga is in infact the 53rd mELakarthA - gamanashramA

RTP should be relabelled as in gamanashramA.

Sad that senior artiste like KJY makes such incorrect statements on some simple fundamental things.

[Sivaramakrishnan]

You are absolute right, arunsri! What KJY has sung is Gamanasrama and NOT Ramapriya.

(If he actually wanted to sing Ramapriya and still relate it with the popular Kalyani for the benefit of the lay listener, he should have announced as "KALYANI with suddha Rishabha and kaisiki Nishadha". Again, difference in 2 notes and not a single note)!

What a pity!

[vasanthakokilam]

I also noticed that, but it is an honest mistake. But he sings one heck of an RTP, right. That is what counts.

[sureshvv]

Not a big deal really, since he is not a reviewer Like VK says, it is the singing that counts.

[rajeshnat]

Yesudas speaks before the RTP announcing that he is singing rAmapriyA and says that the scale is only different from kalyANi in the rishabham! this is not correct.

Arunsri/Sivaramakrishnan
I heard the beginning of RTP , Shri yesudas people may be confused , it is kalyani with only the rishabam changed . He DOES NOT EXPLICITLY STATE that he is singing rAmapriya. May be there was a mistake by the uploader who tagged it as rAmapriya.Correct me if i am wrong .

[rajeshnat]

For our reference as per karnatik.com

53 gamanashramA S R1 G3 M2 P D2 N3 S - S N3 D2 P M2 G3 R1 S

52 raamapriyaa S R1 G3 M2 P D2 N2 S - S N2 D2 P M2 G3 R1 S

65 mEcakalyaaNi S R2 G3 M2 P D2 N3 S - S N3 D2 P M2 G3 R2 S

[Aditto]

Arunsri/Sivaramakrishnan
I heard the beginning of RTP , Shri yesudas people may be confused , it is kalyani with only the rishabam changed . He DOES NOT EXPLICITLY STATE that he is singing rAmapriya. May be there was a mistake by the uploader who tagged it as rAmapriya.Correct me if i am wrong .

Dear Rajeshnath,
In the item number 09.Talk By Yesudas, he says he is going to sing Ramapriya.

[cameo]

May not make sense to review a 15 year old concert:

But just a point: With due respect to the legend, I have to say that he messed up "Ramakadha Gaanalayam" with broken lyrics and heavy recitation of a beautiful film song. Not sure why he attempted this song in the concert.
This is one of my personal favourite, and this is the song which he won the National Award for the best playback singer one of those times.

Here is the movie version if some one is interested. A masterpiece by the composer, Singer, and the Actor.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRFFa9yA05c

[Sivaramakrishnan]

vasanthakokilam, you are very very generous!

However here's another 'dig out':
Anyone would recognise that it was the 1979 movie 'Sankarabharanam' that earned respect for Karnatic music among he masses and revived its sanctity. Carnatic music started to be discussed even in a context of 'Before & After sankarabharanam'! Sankara sastrigal virtually became a cult figure. S P Balasubramaniam rose to greater heights under the music score of K V Mahadevan for the film.

Among the various numbers in the film, there is a sloka 'Maanikyaveenaam upalaalayantim' in (kalyani) which runs for about 2 minutes. The start is serene, but in between the words 'Chaturbhuje chandra kalaavatamse' and 'kuchonnate kunkumaraagasoney', SPB sings a link phrase which can't be accepted as based in Kalyani! But for this 'lapse' the rendering is scintillating. (It's easy for anyone to check this out).

(It is reported that SPB declared he knew nothing about the intricacies of carnatic music till Sankarabharanam was made!
It's also said that the team that made the film never anticipated the huge response it received. May be it was made in a hurry!
But it became a legend.)

Mistakes are pointed out only for creating awareness among listeners and more importantly the attention and care to be bestowed by artists to the nuances. Isn't it excellence that stands one apart from another? Fine voice is just one aspect in vocal music!

[sureshvv]

Interesting that you put lapse in quotes... share that sentiment all the way!

[cmlover]

There is a big difference between cine-music and concert music,especially rendering at a presrtigious venue like Parvati.
This is a mistake by KJY (Chembai would turn in his grave) since he himself says it is Ramapriya and not any editorial error.
In spite of his voice and experience KJY's theoretical foundation in CM is weak.
In Sindhubhairavi (another clssic for CM) he sings Kalyani using only Arohana prayogam.
The music is good but Kalyani is the loser

[sureshvv]

Someone I know compared the Ramapriya/Gamanasrama confusion with getting mixed up while referring to or calling out one's children. Thought it was apt

[VK RAMAN]

Reading the comments of learned rasikas who all have mastered all the 72 melakartas and their derivatives, I hope you all need to leave a legacy that KJY had left with millions of his fans. You all have divine powers that you do not make any mistake. Pitiful.

[vasanthakokilam]

vasanthakokilam, you are very very generous!
....
Mistakes are pointed out only for creating awareness among listeners and more importantly the attention and care to be bestowed by artists to the nuances. Isn't it excellence that stands one apart from another? Fine voice is just one aspect in vocal music!

Understood.

I was thinking more about the need to do that by affording the dignity the person deserves and also in a proportionate manner. That is an excellent concert and that quarter second remark is what gets the limelight. We all make such 'typos' in our own respective fields. I will be very annoyed if someone pounces on me for such a thing when the rest of my work on that paper is phenomenal.

Back to the concert, KJY stresses the point about practice which we can all take home with. He sings a phrase in shankarabaranam and says that he used to have a lot of problems with that phrase and he had to put in a lot of practice hours to get it right.

About my own attitude towards KJY, he is not someone I typically go out of my way to attend. I used to do that quite a long time back. But if his concerts these days are anything like this, I should second guess my decision not to attend his concert near by me last year.

[sureshvv]

Among the various numbers in the film, there is a sloka 'Maanikyaveenaam upalaalayantim' in (kalyani) which runs for about 2 minutes. The start is serene, but in between the words 'Chaturbhuje chandra kalaavatamse' and 'kuchonnate kunkumaraagasoney', SPB sings a link phrase which can't be accepted as based in Kalyani! But for this 'lapse' the rendering is scintillating. (It's easy for anyone to check this out).

Is there any reason to believe that the 'lapse' was not composed in by the music director K.V.Mahadevan? I would imagine that it was.

[VK RAMAN]

I remember attending one of Jesudas concerts in Nashville Temple some time 1990, the only audience were malayalees although Tamilians were in majority in Nashville Indian Population. So much for the prejudice to malayalee artist especially an artist whose faith is Christianity. Those who do not attend his concerts will not be missed by the millions.

[vasanthakokilam]

VKR, though anything is possible, I do not think those are the principal reasons. He is very much a Tamilian and a Hindu in many people's eyes. I think there is widespread love and affection for him.

I do not know about 1990, but last year, KJY sang near by me. It was organized by a malayalam organization and before they could even advertise it outside the organization, 75% of the tickets were sold.

On the positive side of language chauvinism (if I can call it that ) is an example of a concert by Priya Sisters. It was very well attended, I would say 30% more than the usual crowd that turns up for CM concerts. The organizer, a very happy camper he was that he did not lose any money on this, told me that the main reason is he advertised the concert into the telugu community and they showed up in good numbers.

[Sivaramakrishnan]

Going by the progress of this thread, I'd prefer to suggest that deliberations on the grammar of music would be much better than religious/regional/linguistic interpretations!

[cmlover]

Though we would like to think otherwise, languae,religion, caste, instrument, grammar (maybe even gender) are still very powerful forces in CM!

[VK RAMAN]

"I do not think those are the principal reasons. He is very much a Tamilian and a Hindu in many people's eyes" - religion and place of origin are still powerful forces. To deny that is delusional.

[vasanthakokilam]

>religion and place of origin are still powerful forces. To deny that is delusional.

VKR, I am not disagreeing on that general point. They of course are, unfortunately. Denying that would indeed be delusional.

But I just do not see that with respect to KJY. Come on, where is the evidence? The populace at large love to listen to him whether CM or Bhajans or LIght music. I still remember going to his concerts every year in Vani Mahal to an overflowing audience. And in the recent example I cited, a whole bunch of Tamilians who do not normally go to CM concerts, attended this concert. If there was capacity for another 30% in the auditorium they could have filled it.

Among the CM cognoscenti, yes, not a lot of them show up to his concerts. That is more to do with the type of music they tend to drift to.

[VK RAMAN]

I can give you examples. Last year one of my friends very influential in his own way recommended having concert of Shankaran Namboodhiri at Nashville temple; but the tamil group lead by a prominent person objected to bring anyone from Kerala saying that Keralites do not know CM at all. So this influential person started his own concerts in Huntsville AL.

[srkris]

Keralites do not know CM at all

:-\

Does he chant some poetic verses (slokas?) in the midst of the Anandabhairavi piece (they do not seem to be part of the original krti!)