Attended a tribute to the lives lost in the 2004 Tsunami with great poetry recital and instrumental music. It was kicked off by the celebrity pianist Anil Srinivasan. He interspersed his concert with short stories and poetry. The next session was by this lady Sivagami, a serial poet and the last one was by the Madras String Quartet. The acoustics in this open-on-the-side, submerged setting was great. You could hear the upper tunes, without any squeaking. Also, the seating was in a combination of mats on the floor and steps all around. The cool Elliots beach air added to the ambiance. This was a free concert thanks to the Prakrithi Foundation. Also, they had free tea and some time to walk around the wooded Spaces complex.
Anil played a series of piano pieces around the stories that he had. His command of English was comparable to his command over the Piano. Most of the pieces sounded like children's songs but really a had profound story. Kaveri was associating the pieces with nursery rhymes than she knew. The piano and the pianist just blended together and production was so laid back. It was possible for a casual audience to get full immersed. Anil's songs was about the greatness of the soil and the economics of India. He concluded the recital with a encore on-demand from the audience.
Sivagami mami seems to be a well known poet in the Besant Nagar area. She focused her poetry on recent events in her life- like the marriage of her niece, visit with her daughter to Pudukottai and the death if a sister-in-law. The peotry had a sequence of prose with a lot of current events. Of course, she covered the Kundakulam Nuclear Reactor safety.
The last part was the Madras String Quartet. The group is a little controversial as they perform Carnatic songs with Western harmonics. We listened to the first two songs- one was a varnam in Ragamalika set to Adi thalam by Patnam Subramanya Iyer. The second was a song Esane in Chakravakam set to Rupakam thalam by Papanasam Sivan. Their fast pace and the interaction between the four musicians was very bright and brought life to the audience.
Back to Anil. One of his stories was about a conversation between Narada and Valmiki. Narada goes to Valmiki and tells him there is an alternate Ramayana that is better than his, sweeter than his, with more eloquent prose. Valmiki laughs and says that it is not possible. He goes in search of Hanuman who has authored this other version. At Hanuman's house, he sees a lot of leaves. When he reads the prose on the leaves, he gets very sad and starts crying. Hanuman asks him why he issad . He says that this is so good that no one will read his version. Hanuman crumpled all the leaves into a ball and ate it up. When Valmiki inquired, Hanuman said the goal was to spread Ramayana, not who is the author.
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| Pianist Anil Srinivasan |
Anil played a series of piano pieces around the stories that he had. His command of English was comparable to his command over the Piano. Most of the pieces sounded like children's songs but really a had profound story. Kaveri was associating the pieces with nursery rhymes than she knew. The piano and the pianist just blended together and production was so laid back. It was possible for a casual audience to get full immersed. Anil's songs was about the greatness of the soil and the economics of India. He concluded the recital with a encore on-demand from the audience.
Sivagami mami seems to be a well known poet in the Besant Nagar area. She focused her poetry on recent events in her life- like the marriage of her niece, visit with her daughter to Pudukottai and the death if a sister-in-law. The peotry had a sequence of prose with a lot of current events. Of course, she covered the Kundakulam Nuclear Reactor safety.
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| Madras String Quartet. |
The last part was the Madras String Quartet. The group is a little controversial as they perform Carnatic songs with Western harmonics. We listened to the first two songs- one was a varnam in Ragamalika set to Adi thalam by Patnam Subramanya Iyer. The second was a song Esane in Chakravakam set to Rupakam thalam by Papanasam Sivan. Their fast pace and the interaction between the four musicians was very bright and brought life to the audience.
Back to Anil. One of his stories was about a conversation between Narada and Valmiki. Narada goes to Valmiki and tells him there is an alternate Ramayana that is better than his, sweeter than his, with more eloquent prose. Valmiki laughs and says that it is not possible. He goes in search of Hanuman who has authored this other version. At Hanuman's house, he sees a lot of leaves. When he reads the prose on the leaves, he gets very sad and starts crying. Hanuman asks him why he issad . He says that this is so good that no one will read his version. Hanuman crumpled all the leaves into a ball and ate it up. When Valmiki inquired, Hanuman said the goal was to spread Ramayana, not who is the author.
