This week being the Kutcheri week(spill overs from cleveland aradhana), saw a variety of artists come and perform. We had RK Srikantan, AKC Natarajan, N Ramani and Unnikrishnan. The first concert i did not go to. Reason being i had to watch the cricket match...which we lost. I heard RK Srikantan sang very well though. He is almost eighty years, but yet kept the audience captivated. Second concert was supposed to be a jugalbandi with N Ramani and AKC. Violinist was Nagai Muralidharan, and the mridangist was Trichy Shankaran. Except for AKC, i have to give credit to the concert. The choice of songs was mostly popular numbers. I dont know what the jugalbandi to the concert was, as it was rendered in a traditional carnatic style. AKC needs to stop playing the clarinet. I think he is just cheating the audiences now. He can hardly blow into the clarinet, and the swarams that come out are 70 percent abaswaram. I do not deny that he might have played well in his younger years. However, i fail to understand how he can cheat the masses who by tickets for his show. His ears are fine tuned to music, and hence i dont see anyway how he does not know that he is not playing well. An artist of his caliber should exit gracefuly. Felicitating him is maybe a better option than asking him to play. Even if he does get offers to play, he must not accept them! Nagai Muralidharan and N Ramani were good, but Trichy Shankaran stole the show. His versatality and amazing control of layam overtook everything else in the concert. The tani was just amazing. The whole concert was just worth listening to him play. Unnikrishnan sang on sunday. Unfortunately for him, people are prejudiced towards those who sing in the cinemas also. I must admit that he has an amazing voice. His aakarams were flowing, and being a smart person, he kept giving us more and more, which left me wondering, can it get any better than this? I realised that this is the result of years of hard work, practice, and a great guru. S Ramanathan is one of the most renowned gurus. Akkarai Subbulakshmi, who was the violinist, breezed through the concert like it was a cake for her. In my opinion, the highlight of the concert was the thodi kirthanam(kaddanuvariki). The alapanai included bold shruti bedams into hindolam first, of the swaram Ma, and shankarabharam, of the swaram Ni. His singing was on the dot. His RTP in bahudari was very nice. The pallavi chosen aptly matched the mood of the concert. I was a little let down with the way the concert progressed after the RTP. He sang Brahma Mukateswara, and Eppo Varuvaro, and abruptly ended the concert which i was hoping would last a little longer. That is what a good singer does though. Although there are many people who complain about his pronounciation(Which i think he needs to improve on too), i think his voice compensates for nething that went wrong. Unnikrishnan, Then kural. Harini
hey good work. whats RTP BTW (By The Way)? I am ignorant of carnatic acronyms. is it raagam taalam pallavi?
