Search - L Subramaniam :: Raga Hemavati

Gimmicks Abound

03/24/2001

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Yet another release from violin virtuoso Lakshminarayana Subramaniam, this time on Nimbus records, an English label with a curious blend of Indian recording artists in their stable. Some are at the very top of their field (Uday Bhawalkar, for instance), some are ... This time, Subramaniam has teamed up with Tavil player K Shekar. Tavil is not the regular drum of south Indian classical music and traditionally only accompanies the nagaswaram reed instrument; so its inclusion here can be seen as a gimmick to profile the album on the over-saturated low-range indian classical record market. I am currently listening to Shekar's 10-minute tavil solo on this HEMAVATI album, and it's a good solo but one misses the jingling finger cymbals that usually keep the beat for tavil solos in nagaswaram recitals. And Nimbus often has problems with their drum sound. This time it's muffled, with not enough high end. This is really noticable to anyone who has heard a tavil played in real life, or a good recording. As for Subramaniam's playing, it's not particularily good. He is a master of the instrument but in my opinion can not be called a vidvan as he does not seem to have mastered the music. He finds few melodies except playing the scale up and down in various permutations. He can't play slow. I advise him to go listen to Aruna Sairam, maybe he'll come away inspired."