Unnati center in Bangalore (near NGEF factory) organizes the Gokulashtami concert series around this time of the year. This is an annual event with prominent Carnatic singers performing for about two weeks. It started on Saturday (with Sudha R) and today was Sanjay Subramaniam concert. It was a kick a** performance. I listened to him for the first time last year at Unnati and was very impressed. Today was another excellent performance by this dude.
On Saturday, Sudha's concert was a little muted and I believe mainly because the audio setup was not that great. One of the accompanying artists adjusted the volume and the violin ended up being a bit higher in volume and I thought the vocal was overshadowed. But today, the setup was good. And Sanjay's voice was perfect. Since I was sitting at a different seat today, I moved over to the seat I was sitting before and tried to see if there was any difference in the acoustics. I thought it was a bit off in the older seat but had to leave as I was late for my meeting (working for an American company has that downside). I now know which side of hall I should find a seat in when I go there next time.
I remember the thread about dress code for a classical concert in Chennai a while ago. Though it was appropriate criticism, I think Carnatic music organizers can learn a few things from Western Classical concerts:
- Get the acoustics right. Every concert I attended during Margazhi festival had the artist asking the audience after 15 minutes or so if they could hear properly. At Unnati concerts this did not happen probably because the hall is small (seats around 500 people). I don't know if this happens in every hall in Chennai or just the ones I went to. But it is really disgraceful that acoustics is poorly done in these halls.
- Announcing the songs they are going to sing before they start the song would be immensely helpful for someone like me (total layman with no clue about ragas or basics of Carnatic music). May be this is meant only for knowledgeable crowds. They don't have to be as organized as the Symphony orchestra but some announcement would help.
And, Sanjay rocks....
On Saturday, Sudha's concert was a little muted and I believe mainly because the audio setup was not that great. One of the accompanying artists adjusted the volume and the violin ended up being a bit higher in volume and I thought the vocal was overshadowed. But today, the setup was good. And Sanjay's voice was perfect. Since I was sitting at a different seat today, I moved over to the seat I was sitting before and tried to see if there was any difference in the acoustics. I thought it was a bit off in the older seat but had to leave as I was late for my meeting (working for an American company has that downside). I now know which side of hall I should find a seat in when I go there next time.
I remember the thread about dress code for a classical concert in Chennai a while ago. Though it was appropriate criticism, I think Carnatic music organizers can learn a few things from Western Classical concerts:
- Get the acoustics right. Every concert I attended during Margazhi festival had the artist asking the audience after 15 minutes or so if they could hear properly. At Unnati concerts this did not happen probably because the hall is small (seats around 500 people). I don't know if this happens in every hall in Chennai or just the ones I went to. But it is really disgraceful that acoustics is poorly done in these halls.
- Announcing the songs they are going to sing before they start the song would be immensely helpful for someone like me (total layman with no clue about ragas or basics of Carnatic music). May be this is meant only for knowledgeable crowds. They don't have to be as organized as the Symphony orchestra but some announcement would help.
And, Sanjay rocks....
) but I don't find a lot of it intuitive, and that includes the documentation.
