Sangeetha Swaminathan@kalAkruthi on Jan 09th,2017

[rajeshnat]

Sangeetha Swaminathan@kalAkruthi on Jan 09th,2017
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Vocal : Sangeetha Swaminathan
Violin : R Raghul
Mrudu angam : Poongulam Subramaniam
ghatam: Adambakkam Shankar

Concert Type : Nirvana - No concert to follow , free concert

Day/Duration : Monday - 1 hour and 50 minutes
Sabha : kalAkruthi on the banks of River cooum
Hall : Sankaralaya, Chetpat

1. varnam ???
2. himachala tanaya(????) - Anandabhairavi - SS

3. hiranmayeem (R N S) -lalitha - MD
5 mins alapana and 3 mins violin return
neraval for 4 minutes in geetha vadhya viNodhini
swaras for 5 mins

4. sarasa sAmadhAna(S)- kApinarAyani- T
5 mins swaras

5A. etA unarA (R N S T)- kalyani -T
11 mins alapana and 6 mins violin return
5 mins neraval in shree karuDagu tyAgarAja
4 mins swaras
5B.tani

6. dheena sharanyanE - karnaranjani - neela Ramamurthi (daughter of Papanasam sivan)
7. muruganin maru peyar azhaggu - behag - swami surajananda

8. omkara mangalam - pharaz - gnanananda swami

[rajeshnat]

There is a disease that is there in rasikas of carnatic music. They do not encourage that much a wonderfully performing sishya ,when the guru also performs . IT is debatable if the guru is presently having (?not having)the same quality as that of sishya,in this tussle of rasikas mindshare rather hear share ,sishya loses out .This is the disease that is there in rasikas - it is not musicians fault.

Sangeetha swaminathan is the sishya of sudha ragunathan and karur krishnamurthy Her branding if I can say usually takes her to Guru Sudha and her paramaguru MLV. But Musically I think she heads more in the direction of being one of the finest manaseega paramaguru - the one and only sunaada vinodhan s kalyanaraman and of course there is also a near equal touch of MLV and Sudha.

As I walked in , i was late , I asked sangeetha swaminathan's dad karur krishnamurthy as to what she sang before I came . Her dad was recollecting and he said himachala tanayE .It was certainly very very bad miss as I love that shyama sastri -what a haunting anandabhairavi that would have been with himachala tanaya. He also said first was varnam and he was breaking his head to recollect what that was - I left it at that and he politely told me post mangalam he still could not recollect that.

I went to sangeetha and asked her if she has relocated to Bombay from USA west coast - as i heard that from punarvasu post few years back . She told me that she has relocated again now to New Jersey and she only comes to chennai for kutcheri season. I can name 25 vidushis who can go and settle in new jersey , sangeetha not being in chennai and with she being in the shadow of a performing guru and with the onset of rasikas disease- It is certainly our loss to not hear such sublime music.

In the start of lalita ragam ,S Kalayanraman type sangathis just rolled in a cascading fashion . THe alapana was sung with such high precision and sangeetha showcased a lovely exotic lalitha. The hues of stillness with pointed brigas without losing to any sag- created an intense serenity in my head. What a classic start with lalita alapana. THe hiranmayeem flowed , it is not one of those A+ renditions like a maharajapuram ramachandran , but it was still an A rendition. Neraval and swaras stayed with the right unsagging kalapramAnam and lalita was the best of the concert.

I was surprised with the next sarasa sama dhAna .For the first time as a rasika i knew sarasa sama dhana nearly by heart most of the words, but sangeetha was referring notes for this krithi. O gosh this mmi import actually came first to mmi as a gnb export . She referring the notes did cost the music in krithi as she fluctuated a bit ,but with Kapi narayani swaras she made up well. She has this voice and ideas like say pantula rama and raji gopalakrishnan deadly mix and there is no feminine screech.

Kalyani was the main . THe alapana was soothing and the way she took the start was very novel . I instinctively felt that this kind of start may not give a longer runway to take melakartha 65 to a big 5 status, but my instinct is also at times wrong . She did well and her 11 minutes had enough of big krithi Main like ideas. Neraval and swaras were not that great , she curtailed it .

Few of the tukkadas had a lot of rare touch which is some thing you always observe. Sivan's daughter neela ramamurthi has also composed nearly as sivan in the karnaranjani krithi . Sangeetha did a great job in dheena sharanyanE and she also surprised me with the mangalam in pharas. Her appa helped me with the composer. The behag muruganin peyar azhagu was sung with gusto only in the second half. It would have been a bit more musically rich concert if she had started with a behag viruththam and then jumped to muruganin to get that extra behAg oomph

R Raghul played very well for the songs , his share of kalyani was great but I felt in lalita he could have given more serenity with an extra share of . violin sunaadam .Poongulam played well and was sensitive to the poorest hall acoustics . THe ghatam player was in mute till tani ,suddenly during tani the volume was kept , he himself blasted the audio technician along with the vocalist and mrudangam giving him a sound second opinion.

Best wishes for sangeetha swaminathan to come out of the rasikas disease in not supporting sishya when gurus are performing/?not performing with the same quality.

Overall a very good concert for nearly 1 hour and 50 minutes.

[sureshvv]

Thank you Rajesh for the nice recap.

[Sivaramakrishnan]

Apart from her solo recitals, SS could have provided vocal support in a couple of concerts of Sudha Raghunathan - it could give her the much needed 'stamp' that rasikas look for in the music field. (Only recently that I came to know that she's a talented disciple of SR).

[HarishankarK]

I think she is based in US so she cannot do vocal support.

And don't think Sudhs RAGHUNATHAN requires/has a vocal support. Hope she won't need it for a long time.

[Sivaramakrishnan]

I think she is based in US so she cannot do vocal support.

And don't think Sudha Raghunathan requires/has a vocal support. Hope she won't need it for a long time.

Many senior disciples sang along (OK, let's do away with the term 'vocal support') with MLV even while she could manage of her own quite well.

It's more to do with the spirit behind.
Yes, times have changed.

[HarishankarK]

Sangeetha Swaminathan is a very good vocalist in her own right.
I anticipated that you would bring up MLV's e.g. - no matter.
Sangeetha is not widely popular because she doesn't give so many concerts and as said before is based in the US. Not because SR has not given her vocal support chance.

[ram1999]

"As I walked in , i was late "

I am glad it was not the male vocalist who was singing whis very particular of disciplines, else you would have been reprimanded for walking in late It is a narrow miss !!


"There is a disease that is there in rasikas of carnatic music. They do not encourage that much a wonderfully performing sishya ,when the guru also performs . IT is debatable if the guru is presently having (?not having)the same quality as that of sishya,in this tussle of rasikas mindshare rather hear share ,sishya loses out .This is the disease that is there in rasikas - it is not musicians fault."

???