Thursday, January 22, 2009
Saarang 2009 Classical Night
I must say and I can with good conviction that this was THE most crowded classical night at saarang I have ever seen. The OAT was FULL.
The 50 violin ensemble lead by Kum. A Kanyakumari started with vAtApi gaNapatim with a round of svarams each by a different person. The second was a composition of the leading artist in chArukEsi. With raghuvamsa sudhA and nagumOmu being main, I was satisfied with the fact that it was what i was expecting. The tail had english notes, tandanA nAhi in bauLi and raghupati rAghava. All pieces were speeded up after the caraNam. Pretty much the kind of music which would go well with the Saarang crowds and I am happy that i had a small part in suggesting such a thing in the first place. Even people who would stay miles away from classical music had come to see what would it sound like and many of them were indeed convinced that classical music isnt all that bad after all.
The kind of versatility the artist showed was amazing. Her capability to adapt to from fine quality carnatic music for the intellectual and to popular pieces for the crowd is great.
The second part of the classical night, had 'Maya Ravan' by Danseuse Shobana. I did watch quite a bit of it. Here again I was able to see a great deal of popular-crowd-appealing stuff. However, i was put off with rather-not-fitting film songs and un-clear-orchestra(was it pre-recorded?) and the kind of lag the main danseuse showed on stage. I have seen older performers do a great job with much grace and I only get a feeling it was not her day.
The 50 violin ensemble lead by Kum. A Kanyakumari started with vAtApi gaNapatim with a round of svarams each by a different person. The second was a composition of the leading artist in chArukEsi. With raghuvamsa sudhA and nagumOmu being main, I was satisfied with the fact that it was what i was expecting. The tail had english notes, tandanA nAhi in bauLi and raghupati rAghava. All pieces were speeded up after the caraNam. Pretty much the kind of music which would go well with the Saarang crowds and I am happy that i had a small part in suggesting such a thing in the first place. Even people who would stay miles away from classical music had come to see what would it sound like and many of them were indeed convinced that classical music isnt all that bad after all.
The kind of versatility the artist showed was amazing. Her capability to adapt to from fine quality carnatic music for the intellectual and to popular pieces for the crowd is great.
The second part of the classical night, had 'Maya Ravan' by Danseuse Shobana. I did watch quite a bit of it. Here again I was able to see a great deal of popular-crowd-appealing stuff. However, i was put off with rather-not-fitting film songs and un-clear-orchestra(was it pre-recorded?) and the kind of lag the main danseuse showed on stage. I have seen older performers do a great job with much grace and I only get a feeling it was not her day.
# posted by bharath : 10:52 AM
