Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Chaurasia Concert.
Usually, we of State College, consider ourselves lucky if we manage to witness just one performance of Indian classical music a year. So imagine how utterly giddy we must be feeling now that we've had two classical performances within a week of each other (although, admittedly, the first one, Anoushka Shankar and co., wasn't exactly a purely classical one--it was, while on the subject, a somewhat unremarkable attempt at fusion). The second performance which happened over the weekend was by Pt. Hari Prasad Chaurasia.
The local desi graduate student organization did indeed do really well to bring one of the best known HCM artists to SC. The crowd was, expectedly, mostly Indian, and anticipating a larger turnout most people arrived well before time--so much for stereotypes (Indian Standard Time etc.). Though the concert itself did not start on time, mainly due to two speeches, the first introducing the chief guest who is arguably the most famous physicist in Penn State, Dr. Abhay Ashtekar, and the second by Dr. A introducing the artist. The speeches could definitely have been shorter but they were well researched so people didn't mind them so much.
Panditji was accompanied by Pt. Vijay Ghate on the tabla. He opened with Madhuwanti starting with swar-vistar, followed by jor, and finally a bandish in rupak. Unfortunately, Madhuwanti is a raag I'm not too familiar with so I can't really decide how good a job panditji did with that raag specifically. I did get the impression though that, despite the fact that he was obviously enjoying himself and making efforts to keep the audience entertained, age might finally be catching up with him. Firstly, the sound of his blowing was often comparable to the sound of the flute which took some getting used to. I doubt that this was entirely due to the fact that the microphone was placed higher than the mouthpiece of the flute. Another telltale sign, in my opinion, was that when he was playing the flute at a fast tempo the clarity of the individual notes was not enough for an artist if his caliber. I think I also heard him accidentally miss a note or two (all air no note) when he was doing the taans (or whatever they are referred to as in the instrumental setting) though I could be mistaken.
Not only was it the first time I was seeing Pt C in concert but it was also my first time hearing Pt. Ghate live. Pt. G is definitely a very accomplished artist and the clarity of his bols made it a joy listening to him playing the tabla. There was a lot of sawaal-jawab that took place during the Madhuwanti piece which was probably the most crowd-pleasing aspect of the concert. What I did not enjoy all that much about Pt. Ghate is that he's a showman to the extent that getting a reaction from the crowd seems more important than the playing itself to him. A subjective opinion (like any other opinion) as there were some in the audience who really liked him for this very trait and didn't find it vulgar like me.
Pt. C decided to take requests for the second raag. There was a request for Marwa which he turned down on account of it not being the right time for that raag. Then some idiot in the second row requested Yaman. Suddenly Pt. C was gushing at the choice of the raag as apparently it was a right time for Yaman, and that is what he decided to play. I was disappointed by the choice because Yaman is a very common raag with somewhat limited possibilities, I would have appreciated something less common. He played Piya Ki Nazariya, it was well done and quite enjoyable. Another round of requests, this time round people wanted him to play Vande Mataram. He ignored that request and played a Bengali folk tune instead. Again, an unknown tune, mildly enjoyable.
Here we go again, another round of requests for the final piece, now some idiots wanted him to sing the national anthem, imagine that! So when somebody else said Vande Maataram again Pt. C reluctantly agreed, an easy call if his other option was to sing the anthem. His rendition of Vande Maataram was short and cute. On the whole I came away a little disappointed, I think I would have been much happier if his choice of raags had been somewhat different.
Update: Looks like I spaced out towards the end, it has been brought to my attention by discerning readers of my blog that the last piece played by Pt. C was Vaishno Janato and not Vande Mataram. Can I make the excuse that I'm doing a PhD in Physics??
The local desi graduate student organization did indeed do really well to bring one of the best known HCM artists to SC. The crowd was, expectedly, mostly Indian, and anticipating a larger turnout most people arrived well before time--so much for stereotypes (Indian Standard Time etc.). Though the concert itself did not start on time, mainly due to two speeches, the first introducing the chief guest who is arguably the most famous physicist in Penn State, Dr. Abhay Ashtekar, and the second by Dr. A introducing the artist. The speeches could definitely have been shorter but they were well researched so people didn't mind them so much.
Panditji was accompanied by Pt. Vijay Ghate on the tabla. He opened with Madhuwanti starting with swar-vistar, followed by jor, and finally a bandish in rupak. Unfortunately, Madhuwanti is a raag I'm not too familiar with so I can't really decide how good a job panditji did with that raag specifically. I did get the impression though that, despite the fact that he was obviously enjoying himself and making efforts to keep the audience entertained, age might finally be catching up with him. Firstly, the sound of his blowing was often comparable to the sound of the flute which took some getting used to. I doubt that this was entirely due to the fact that the microphone was placed higher than the mouthpiece of the flute. Another telltale sign, in my opinion, was that when he was playing the flute at a fast tempo the clarity of the individual notes was not enough for an artist if his caliber. I think I also heard him accidentally miss a note or two (all air no note) when he was doing the taans (or whatever they are referred to as in the instrumental setting) though I could be mistaken.
Not only was it the first time I was seeing Pt C in concert but it was also my first time hearing Pt. Ghate live. Pt. G is definitely a very accomplished artist and the clarity of his bols made it a joy listening to him playing the tabla. There was a lot of sawaal-jawab that took place during the Madhuwanti piece which was probably the most crowd-pleasing aspect of the concert. What I did not enjoy all that much about Pt. Ghate is that he's a showman to the extent that getting a reaction from the crowd seems more important than the playing itself to him. A subjective opinion (like any other opinion) as there were some in the audience who really liked him for this very trait and didn't find it vulgar like me.
Pt. C decided to take requests for the second raag. There was a request for Marwa which he turned down on account of it not being the right time for that raag. Then some idiot in the second row requested Yaman. Suddenly Pt. C was gushing at the choice of the raag as apparently it was a right time for Yaman, and that is what he decided to play. I was disappointed by the choice because Yaman is a very common raag with somewhat limited possibilities, I would have appreciated something less common. He played Piya Ki Nazariya, it was well done and quite enjoyable. Another round of requests, this time round people wanted him to play Vande Mataram. He ignored that request and played a Bengali folk tune instead. Again, an unknown tune, mildly enjoyable.
Here we go again, another round of requests for the final piece, now some idiots wanted him to sing the national anthem, imagine that! So when somebody else said Vande Maataram again Pt. C reluctantly agreed, an easy call if his other option was to sing the anthem. His rendition of Vande Maataram was short and cute. On the whole I came away a little disappointed, I think I would have been much happier if his choice of raags had been somewhat different.
Update: Looks like I spaced out towards the end, it has been brought to my attention by discerning readers of my blog that the last piece played by Pt. C was Vaishno Janato and not Vande Mataram. Can I make the excuse that I'm doing a PhD in Physics??
Labels: Reviews
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