U Shrinivas at the Kennedy Center, Washington, DC

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Ranganayaki
Posts: 1760
Joined: 02 Jan 2011, 06:23

U Shrinivas at the Kennedy Center, Washington, DC

Post by Ranganayaki »

Mandolin U Srinivas and U Rajesh performed this evening at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. This was a one-hour recital, the opening event in a month-long celebration of the performing arts of India. The event was rather sadly held in the Millennium Theater of the center, which features one free one-hour performance at 6 pm every single day, intended mainly to offer the public a taste of the performing arts. The concert was therefore necessarily too short, and the performance was significantly abbreviated.

The choice of Kritis seemed to be intended to be lively and uplifting and the entire concert certainly was. I recently attended a concert at the Sri Shiva Vishnu Temple at Lanham, Md, where I found the sound to be blaring, almost torture, and after a point, the concert seemed to spiral into a lot of shouting. The Millennium Theater, on the other hand, was acoustic heaven.

All the manodharma aspects of the concert were significantly shorter than you might be used to, and Shrinivas played only four pieces, with beautiful Shanmukhapriya for the main item.

The audience seemed to be enthralled by the music and particularly seemed to enjoy the improvisations. Only 15 – 25% seemed to be Indian and very few seemed to be regular concert goers. It did feel a little strange to have politely quiet listeners, with no one marking taalam, not even during the Tani.

The last item was a rendering of Raghupati Raghava Raja Ram, introduced as Mahatma Gandhi’s favorite song. It was beautifully done, as was the rest, and I only wished that he had explained the spirit of the song, one of religious tolerance, and a prayer for peace for all.

Rather than read just a song list or further comment from me, you might be happy to actually view the whole concert at http://www.kennedy-center.org/explorer/ ... rce_type=B . Please click on the U Shrinivas link under “Watch Past Performances”. This seems to be available on this page on a current basis, but the concert will always be available under 3/1/11 in the Millenium Theater archives at this website. The video occasionally offers views of mandolin action and you see close ups and hear the boggling effects of the adjustments he made to the mandolin.

Throughout the month, the programming at the Millennium Center reflects the festival, Maximum India, and features plays, folk dances, classical dance, music, even puppet theater and culinary demonstration. The schedule for the month is available at http://www.kennedy-center.org/programs/ ... edule.html and if any of the events interest you, they can be viewed live at 4 30 am IST at the kennedy center website, http://www.kennedy-center.org, or at any time in the Millennium Theater archives of the site.

mri_fan
Posts: 382
Joined: 15 Aug 2006, 22:12

Re: U Shrinivas at the Kennedy Center, Washington, DC

Post by mri_fan »

"the concert seemed to spiral into a lot of shouting"

I presume this was vocal. Are you talking about a professional or amateur concert?

mahavishnu
Posts: 3341
Joined: 02 Feb 2010, 21:56

Re: U Shrinivas at the Kennedy Center, Washington, DC

Post by mahavishnu »

Ranganayaki: the acoustics are superb at the Kennedy Center. I have never heard a Carnatic performance there before.

Talking about acoustics, the amplification of the mridangam in the first few seconds of vAtapi is probably the best I have heard (despite the obvious loss due to internet streaming). Madirimangalam Swaminathan excelled with this Pazhani-style thoppi nadam.

If you get a chance to attend, Alarmel Valli's program please post a review/comment.

I am saddened by the poor representation of Carnatic music in any of the ICCR's international events. L Subramaniam is the only other CM artiste I see in the list. I am glad to notice that a band called Parikrama is playing; I used to enjoy listening to them in my college days!

Ranganayaki
Posts: 1760
Joined: 02 Jan 2011, 06:23

Re: U Shrinivas at the Kennedy Center, Washington, DC

Post by Ranganayaki »

Mri, I think I would say this artist is semi-professional. You've pounced on the one line I didn't want highlighted :$ !! In fact it was a good concert. But the acoustics were awful and I think the artist should have modulated his singing to please..

Mahavishnu, I agree with your views and I am so glad you enjoyed the video, especially the sound.

I simply loved the parts where the sound of the mandolin is lengthened and a whole lot of swaras are played with no strumming. Also, I listen mostly to recorded music and I've noticed that Vatapi Ganapathim never turns up.. I hadn't heard it recently anywhere unless I searched for it over the internet. Everyone seemed to be playing it in their concerts in the early 80s, to the point of making the song a cliche.. is my memory true? I have recently been just wishing to hear it, and I got my wish yesterday! May be Chennai rasikas still get to hear it quite a bit?

I like the quiet style too, no theatrics, just quiet body language all around.

I do plan to attend the performances of Alarmel Valli's and L Subramaniam's and will be happy to post reviews.

mri_fan
Posts: 382
Joined: 15 Aug 2006, 22:12

Re: U Shrinivas at the Kennedy Center, Washington, DC

Post by mri_fan »

I know exactly who you mean! A Washington Post "review" noted that there aren't really any serious North Indian classical performances, so I guess we should be lucky to get about 2 hours total of carnatic in 3 weeks ;(. They should have gotten 2 hours each, if you ask me...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 05725.html

Ranganayaki
Posts: 1760
Joined: 02 Jan 2011, 06:23

Re: U Shrinivas at the Kennedy Center, Washington, DC

Post by Ranganayaki »

mri_fan wrote:I know exactly who you mean!

*groan* !! :$ I still hope not! But let's leave it at that! I am not comfortable saying negative things about individuals and it won't even be fair, because as I said, he did sing well. If it had been a mikeless, more intimate concert, it would have been great!

I must say I underestimated (or did not consider) the sleuthing abilities of the rasikas here.

Ranganayaki
Posts: 1760
Joined: 02 Jan 2011, 06:23

Re: U Shrinivas at the Kennedy Center, Washington, DC

Post by Ranganayaki »

The rather abrupt bleakness of the first line of the Post review was quite funny. The Center is obviously hoping for a great success, and here this reviewer in a very important newspaper seems to say, forget it.. I agree that no other performance will come close (except may be A.Valli), but I don't think we will see a slide downhill as he seems to imply. The program sounds like a lot of fun to me.

The comment about mridangists being called "accompanists" does seem interesting and valid. I mean a concert without at least one percussion instrument is unheard of, so should we take a second look at the term and their "status" (for want of a better word) and show a greater focus on the percussionist in the promotion of concerts?

Thank you for posting that interesting review.

mahavishnu
Posts: 3341
Joined: 02 Feb 2010, 21:56

Re: U Shrinivas at the Kennedy Center, Washington, DC

Post by mahavishnu »

very interesting review indeed. I have never read a review of a carnatic concert in the Post!

Ranganayaki
Posts: 1760
Joined: 02 Jan 2011, 06:23

Re: U Shrinivas at the Kennedy Center, Washington, DC

Post by Ranganayaki »

I only gave you all the link to the Millennium Theater schedule, because these events are streamed over the internet. But since we are commenting on the programming, I think it would be fair to give you the entire programming for the festival, which has other free and ticketed events all over the Center. Almost all the 6 pm events are Millennium Theater events.

http://www.kennedy-center.org/programs/ ... type=event

The M. Theater is just a sort of wide corridor that runs the length of the whole building, with two stages at either end, and usually these events are rather intimate. U Shrinivas packed almost half the corridor and there were a lot of people standing to watch.

The link below gives you a map of the center and the location of the M. Theater. It certainly is a lovely, red-carpeted place. But should U Shrinivas have been given one of the theaters? Should his performance have been one of the ticketed events?

http://www.kennedy-center.org/accessibility/maps.html

vasanthakokilam
Posts: 10956
Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 00:01

Re: U Shrinivas at the Kennedy Center, Washington, DC

Post by vasanthakokilam »

>I don't think we will see a slide downhill as he seems to imply.

Right. It is just this reviewer's odd way of expressing his compliments about U. Srinivas's performance.

BTW, the Shanmukhapriya alapana beginning was quite different. The initial few seconds sounded closer to Kiravani than SMP but then SMP emerged. May be that is what Srinivas was going for. It sounded good.

ashfun
Posts: 1
Joined: 16 May 2020, 00:52

Re: U Shrinivas at the Kennedy Center, Washington, DC

Post by ashfun »

Hello,
I am unable to find the video on their page or archives :( . I have viewed it in the past. Any suggestions on accessing it, please?
Thank you.

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