Rainy date
The concert by Ranjani & Gayathri AT MFAC on Dec.30 could well be the best at this sabha.
An interesting sidelight to this is is that when the duo last performed here it was raining cats and dogs (unusual in Margazhi ) and they had to stop singing for 10 minutes.
Similarly, when they performed this year it was raining but there was no interruption since the false ceiling at MFAC makes things okay.
Reported By - V. Mahalingam
On Kalki and Music
'Kalki Krishnamurthy and Carnatic Music' was the theme of a lecture by Gowri Ramnarayan, the grand daughter of Kalki Krishnamurthy and a writer-scholar on Dec. 26 hosted by Parthasarathy Swami Sabha.
Here are some points she made
'In Kalki's view, Carnatic music is a divine art, the performer should bring tears to the eyes of listeners and not aim at getting applause.
Kalki had deep knowledge of Carnatic music and being a writer he use the opportunities to express his views through his short stories, novels and columns.
In a short story on an illiterate young widow he begins with the description of a Nagaswaram performance giving a piece in Kedara gowla raga soaked in pathos.
His famous novel, Ponniyin Selvan contains a few Thevaram songs.
He got inspired by the great artistes of his era, Balasaraswati, Rukmani Arundale and MS. The heroine of Sivakamiyin Sabadam, Sivakami, can dance as well as sing at a time.
As a critic he wrote for the popular Tamil magazine 'Ananda Vikatan' in the name of Karnatakam.
He reviewed kutcheris without fear or favour. (He gave the rating for Bhava as '0' for a stalwart singer of yesteryear and described the kalpana swara of another famous artiste as Swarangalin Mahayudham).
Reported By V. Vasantha
Music Academy web site
While The Music Academy upgrades its facilities every year, it is not paying attention to it’s web site. The site is not up to date.
The list of awardees shown here are updated only up to 2009. Being a prestigious arts body, can we expect that Academy to pay attention to its site please?
Reported By - Sundararaman
Request to artistes
The knowledge levels of rasikas attending the music kutcheris are varying. About 15 percent are well versed in identifying ragas, 50percent possess average knowledge and the rest are faintly familiar.
At Mylapore Fine Arts Club, Nithyashree Mahadevan mentioned the raga’s name at the commencement of each song. This was welcome.
If all the musicians follow this format, raga knowledge will improve.
Reported By - Krishnaswami K.R.
Do Your Home work!
We notice that some artistes are not doing their home work, especially in planning their concerts.
On December 16, at The Music Academy, a musician spent an hour and ten minutes to elaborete the main piece (thani included) and could find only 15 minutes for Ragam, Tanam, Pallavi. Later that evening, another artiste spent just 20 minutes on the main piece and sang an elaborate Ragam, Tanam, Pallavi for over an hour (thani excluded) that too at 9p.m.when the seniors in the audience were restless and the following thani found a thin attendance.
Artistes may want to show case their talent but seem less concerned about audience appreciation.
Reported By - Ratnam
Music Academy: balcony seating not easy for seniors
While the ambience and accoustics at The Music Academy is very attractive, access to seating leaves much to be desired especially for senior citizens.
I saw many elderly rasikas having a tough time alighting from the balcony. The steps are too wide and steep and many people were finding it difficult to get to the exit.
Another sore point was that audience sitting in H - O rows are made to climb 4 flights of stairs since the entrance to the balcony on the first floor level is limited to people sitting in rows A - G.
At the Malladi Brothers concert there were about 100 people waiting to get to their seats, and were forced to use the stairs even though the middle level entrances were devoid of lines.
I request the committee at Music Academy to look in to these issues and make the place senior citizen friendly..
Reported By Sangeetha Prasanna
Rasikas want bus stop at Vani Mahal
There was time, long, long ago (in the 50s and 60s) when state transport body for Madras used to run services to different areas from the major sabha venues around the time the concerts ended for the day.
It is perhaps too much to expect restoration of this facility now.
My request is that MTC provide a stop near Vani Mahal on Dr Nair Road (T. Nagar) for buses on routes like 12 B. At present the buses on this route, after the Power House bus stop do not stop any where near Vani Mahal but head to North Usman Road stop.
Thyaga brahma Gana Sabha itself can request the MTC to provide this facility to rasikas.
Reported By S. Gurumurthy.
Birthday cake for maestro!
There was something special at Sri Parthasarathy Swami Sabha's event at Vidya Bharathi Hall, Mylapore on December 17, Saturday morning.
The Nama Pravaham programme the vidwan led with the youngsters on stage was fantastic.
But, the highlight of the programme was warm.
Since today is guru Sivaraman’s birthday, the organizers of the sabha brought in an eggless cake to be cut by him.
The cake may have seemed inappropriate at a traditional kutcheri but the guru enjoyed the gesture though his wife was shy and stayed a bit away!
And everyone present sang the happy birthday song.
The presence of his colleague, Madurai G.S. Mani Iyer, added pep to the celebration.
A nice event indeed.
Reported By Chandra Shankar
Shashank vibes well with rasikas
At the Tattvaloka auditorium in Alwarpet, Chennai last week, flute genius Sashank enthralled a capacity audience with a scintilating performance. He played for the hosts, Singapore Indian Finance Society and carnaticradio.com
Shashank has a knack of taking the rasikas with him by requesting them to the choice of ragas they would like him to play.
So when he asked us to choose between raga Chandrajyothi and Saraswathi a rasika suggested that since there was a lunar eclipse that day Chandrajyothi would be appropriate.
"Where is the question of jyothi during an eclipse", was the comment of another rasika.
Shashank bowed to please the majority by taking up Saraswathi for a detailed delineation and the song was 'Anuragamule'.
A "Keeravani" ragam thanam pallavi with swaraprasthas in ragamalika was the highlight of the day.
Nice concert!
Reported By A. Ramanathan
Lec-dem by Dr. Padma Subrahmanyam on 'Scope of Manodharma in Music for Dance'
Padma Subrahmanyam on Scope of Manodharma in music for dance Dec.12 at Arkay Convention Center , Luz, Chennai.
Dr. Padma mentioned that music is the mother of Natya. There are two aspects, Ragam & Neraval. Sanchari Bhava should never cross the boundaries of the Raga rendered. So too the Neraval should not go beyond Thala.
Manodharma is spontaneous innovation within the limit of Dharma with respect to Raga & Neraval.
To demonstrate this she requested Gowri Ramnarayan to sing a song or virutha for which Dr.Padma would dance. After some hesitation Gowri rendered a Virutham "Munnam Avanudaya Namam Kettal" written by Kalki, being the climax song by Sivakami, surrendering at the feet of Lord Nataraja, body and soul, in his "Sivakamiyin Sabadam" a very famous novel.
The combination of singing and dance was excellent.
Padma demonstrated a piece for thala where accompanying artistes freely used their manodharma in keeping with the foot work she applied.
A Varnam in Hindolam followed for which the vocalist gave the neraval pattern.
Here the audience was thrilled to watch the fun on stage. Padma was depicting the picture of a Nayika waiting for her lover to arrive. She decks herself and waits at the doorstep. Suddenly the collar mike which Padma was having dropped. Immediately she improvised danced as though the Nayika is discarding all her jewellery one by one in disappointment. And she made use of the dropped mike!
Then came "Pulindyathmaja Kantha" from Subrahmanya Bhujangam with exquisite expressions and apt pakkavadyam.
Finally in the form of a highlight she presented a small piece which was a “heart operation" performed by a surgeon. The musicians did a wonderful job which suited the performance, maintaining the dharma within which the raga and thala should fit.
Reported By V. Vasantha
Sabhas must choose their chief guests with care
For the December Season Festivals, since all sabhas have formal inaugural and award functions, I think it is important for organizers to choose the right person to inaugurate and felicitate the awardees. The chief guests should also do their homework properly.
At a recent inauguration, a veteran dancer was given the task of felicitating the awardees for vocal music and dance but it was quite evident from her speech that she had no clue about the background of these two artistes. She had not ever heard the vocalist but here she was, asked to felicitate!
Since the sabha gave out handouts containing the bio-data of the awardees, it came in handy and the speaker just read out a few points amidst long silences.
In another function where a famous lyricist inaugurated the fest, the guest was very familiar with one rather internationally famous awardee but did not know anything about the musician or dancer who were honoured.
Actually, that musician is a brilliant maestro and has accompanied many stalwarts in the field. His being sidelined obviously was not too pleasant act on stage. The chief guest had to look at the invite to even recall his name!
Reported by Dr.Radha Bhaskar
He forgot the emcee's name!
Dr. L. Subramanian's violin concert gave a flying
start to the 37th Art Festival of Kartik Fine Arts.
Inaugurated by Andhra Pradesh Governor E. S. L. Narasimhan
the function commenced on the dot.
Speeches by dignitaries were brief and interesting.
Dr. Subramanian. in his 105 minute concert played
a Navaragamalika varnam, kritis in hamsadhvani, karahara-
priya and sindubhairavi in his inimitable style and drew
repeated applauses.
Earlier on, the vote of thanks by the Vice-President of the sabha was short
and sweet However he needed prompting to thank the
compere Ms. Krithika Surajit. Here, he created a comic situation to the
otherwise well organised event by asking for the name of
compere without switching off the microphone.
This unwitting act provided some mirth.
All other sabhas can take a lesson from such slips; their leaders must be
prepared to host an event well.
Reported by A. Ramanathan
About December Season
Rasika