HeartBeat of the day

okie ... 4 months it has been ... the last was @ The Music Academy of April ... its been 4 months since then n it happens again ... not the festival but just the part that I missed and yearned to hav attended ... it was called "Thakka Dhimi Tha" ... so at my morning class in the course of a casual exchange I heard the name "Ghatam Karthick" ... n then I was on my toes ... got it confirmed 6pm - 7:30 ... amma dropped all her plans ... called up her friends n spread the news ... n then she joined me late ... very unusually I was late by 5 mins :( ... something else enraptured for moments ...


fortunately I didn't seem to hav missed anything ... I was there almost towards the start ... most of em as my guru proclaimed are thillanas that the troup played ... I had no clue as to what they were playing ...

the crew aboard "HeartBeat" (Experience The Heartbeat Online!!)-
Ghatam - S Karthick
Violin - Sri Embar Kannan
Mrudhangam - Sri Poongulam Seethuraman
Kanjeera - Sri Papanasam Govindarajan
Mandolin - U.P.Raju
Tabla/Morsin - Sri Sundar

for fledgelings as I ... the vivacity of the artists on stage ... the expression they don as they achieve the desired effect ... the *stage charisma* ... has a great effect ... every single member of this troup has that energy in em ... very notable are the mridangist, ghatam, violin (scores only 3rd ... if only it were Sri Chandrasekaran himself wud have turned otherwise), kanjeera and then Mr.Mandolin ...

now to the highlights ... the song was titled "Seven Butter" if I got it right ... not sure bout why the seven but they said its got somthing to do with the ghati ... n butter ... any guesses? ... Raagam: Vanaspathi ... ha ha ... composed by Kannan I presume ... the only piece that I find absolutely majestic next to one of my master's Amruthavarshini piece ... it was instant love ... n so was this ... the manganimity was astounding ... my guru seemed to have njoi'd it as much ... hope to get hold of this some time ... splendid ...

I didn't realize time pass by as the songs did ... n neither did I know what they were but njoi'd em all immensely ... more specifically the Violin :D ... sorry folks I hav a penchant for that instrument ... n this violin is spl ... take a careful look ...

now thats known as the "Silent Violin" ... coz it does not make the sound normally ... it look'd cool and fab so I check'd up ... well its electric it seems, and's worth 30 grand :-o thats all ... okie I'll keep my mouth shud n 4get bout it ... if only I cud ... @ 1st the luks were striking ... man!!! actually its got a menacing yet tame luk ;) ...

now that apart ... the interplay of mandolin and violin was astounding ... never heard that combo before but better than 2 violin's with their scales off is a violin and mandolin ... the change in scale can make wonders ... n it was ... very mesmerizing ...

n then another composition of Kannan in Raagam: SindhuBhairavi was again fabulous ... but then the trailing highlight was the medley ... now not many musicians would probably appreciate it ... but what the hell ... music is what is gud to hear ... so sticklers off now ... it was so well structured ... a classical piece ... a western classical piece ... and so on and so on ... to name a few ...

couple of pieces of Beethoven ... "Shakthi Sahita Ganapathim" ... yen another western classical , very well known but cudn't grab it ... next classical again n cudn't remember the name ... "Titan Music" ... "RaRa Veenu" ... a mozart piece ... Vande Maataram ( ARR Style ;) ) ... "Shamale Meenakshi" ... yen another patriotic song to close the Medley ...

immense njoi'ment it was ... its quite a talent to pick pieces the naturally flow from one to another without any alterations and gimmicks ... rendered very nicely ... to my taste it was ... n there was a luk mid'way from my guru ... well reminding me of our "Different Theme" ... ha ha ...

so what was this program all about ... well Rajesh Vaidhya seem to be getting a bit commercial ... hez got enough of mylapore crowd ... so wan't to captivate the mambalam crowd as well ... nice stunt with a performance on his electric veena ... the young group is ravaging to lure young talents ...

whatever be the motive ... it was a blast of a program ... blessed I am to have experienced it ... adios ...