Madurai TN Seshagopalan@arkay hall on Nov 16th, 2014

[rajeshnat]

Madurai TN Seshagopalan@arkay hall on Nov 16th, 2014
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Vocal : Madurai TN Seshagopalan
Violin : SD Sridhar
Mrudangam : B ganapathyraman
Tambura support : venkata subba rao

Concert duration/Day : 2 hrs 50 minutes(07:00 pm to 09:50 pm) /Sunday
Concert Type : Nirvana (prime evening concert , no concert to follow)
Sabha/Hall : Arkay Convenstion hall, Luz
Crowd : ~120
Ticket : Free
Occassion : guruguhaamrtha , an organization championed by vidwan G ravikiran

All the compositions excepting the slokham vande mataram ambikam bhagavathim were from mudduswami dikshitar

1. swetha ganapathim(RS) - rAgachoodAmani(ragvardhini)
2 mins alapana and
2. manasa guruguha(S) - Anandabhairavi
6 mins swaras
3. thyagarAjO virajathE (R,S) - atAnA
5 mins alapana and 2 mins violin return
8 mins swaras

4. abhayAmbAyAm -sahana
5. namastE paradevatE(R) - devaranji
4 mins alapana and 2 mins violin return
6. santhanamanjari(R) - santhanamanjari
3 mins alapana and equal violin return

7. ananda natana prakAsam (S)- kedaram
4 mins swaras
8. govardhana gireesam - hindolam

9. ambA neelayAdAkshi - neelambari
10. SrI madhurApuri vihAriNi( not shree madhurapuri vighArini ) - bilahari

Guruguhaamrutha is an organization started by G Ravikiran (disciple of RK Shrikantan and TM Krishna). There were a series of competitions held throughout the year where finally the prize distribution was held in Arkay convention hall. Just prior to the concert shri TNS, R seshasayee , cleveland balu all spoke . THe speech never ate into the concert the concert started at 7pm and ended 10 minutes short of 3 hours.

TNS is a mahavidwan,his musical intellect is miles beyond most or even all the present living musicians. He really prepared to present dikshitar compositions .For few numbers in the end and for the first number he did refer the paper but as such what I liked was his immense uzhaippu in presenting the grandeur of dikshitar. The other side of TNS is perhaps his fairly strained voice - the brigas tend to lose his sheen and at times it is indeed not aurally pleasing.

The start in a rare raga ragachoodamani was well done , he just sang the shakthi ganapathim- the start was neither a hit or a flop. The next krithi manasa guruguha in anandabhairavi is one of his key krithis of his MD repertoire- liked the krithi bit more than swaras .

The next atana was really well done , the krithi is very rare and I donot recollect ever hearing this rare krithi thyagarAjO virajathE. The questioning raga swaroopam was indeed there and I particularly liked his long swaras almost with no violin return like a typical Prof TRS mama finish. atanA swaras were really noteworthy for his superlative manodharmam.

The next sahana was bit depleted in voice and he could not give the aural serenity that this usual raga gives .THe rarest of rare devaranji followed , devaranji is a mayamalavagowlai janya raga . As he was singing the raga alapana I liked his flow bit more than the krithi that followed. The vivadhi mela santhanamanjari was handled well and he gave an inspiring speech that as students you should sing even these compositions looking at the merit and not give way to vivadhi dOsham.

Kedaram -ananda natana prakasam was ok in the song but did not like that much of sommersault laya turns in swaras . Hindolam , neelambari just went along well in part- to an extent his hoarseness in voice just did not match well with the aesthetics . The bilahari filler was perhaps the low key song in the whole concert ,I could not place bilahari krithi in bilahari ragabhavam with the aural frame of reference.

[rajeshnat]

11A. Sri kamalambikaya (R N S T) - shankarabharanam
13 mins alapana and 4 mins violin return
6 mins neraval in shankara nayakiyam ananda...??
14 mins swaras
11B. tani for 9 mins

12. sarasijanAbha sOdhari - nagagAndhari
13A. slokaham - vandE mataram ambikAm bhagavathim- keeravani ?? +
kalyAneem - yamunakalyani +
vedanta prathi - manOranjani??? +
shree chakradhi - shree ragam
13B. shree abhayAmbah - shree ragam
14. sarva mangala mangalyE - shurutti

The concert came out from bit of doldrums when he launched into shankarabharanam main . Few sangathis in exclusive aakarams in alapana were really well done and I liked his sheer endurance in presenting this main krithi in shankarabharanam (To hear this kamalamba song in shankarabharanam as a main was wonderful). The neraval and swaras came out well and I liked overall the grand main presentation. One has to give it to him as time was around 9pm plus when he sang this main krithi.

In the tukkadas he began nagagandhari from anupallavi and I liked this forgotten krithi . The vande mataram slokham which was the only number away from MD was good in parts .The ragas were keeravani, manoRanjani???? and yamunakalyani with a shree ragam closure . I recollect for the first raga keeravani ?? , it was difficult to get the usual raga bhavam. The last shree ragam krithi another abahyambA krithi was a good closure.

The violinist SD sridhar could have given a far better support for the vocalist , found there was lot of roughness and at times with the hoarse voice of TNS aesthetics he was not there to add a touch of melody. The mrudangist Ganapathy raman played with a little higher shade of passiveness, but overall he did a good job. THe tani and tonal quality were really nice.

It was an immensely gratifying experiene to hear Mahavidwan TN Seshagopalan where he took an extraordinary effort to present so many compositions of the divine mudduswami dikshitar. He could have taken a short cut of presenting prizes speaking a bit (which he did) and then just singing just say till 8::30pm to 9pm , but the sincerity to prepare and present krithis of MD in expansive way was noteworthy. However there is also quite a bit of wear and tear in his voice and I feel at times it was difficult to cross the dissonance of shruthi and brigas of his. All said the sincerity was indeed gratifying , the crowd dwindled from a peak of 100 plus and at around 09:50 pm there were just 15 of us, but he was absorbed more in getting deep with his music.

Overall a very good to excellent concert for 2 hours and 50 minutes.

[CRama]

It was difficult choice for me also to decide between father and son. Because this venue was far away, I opted to hear the son whom I have not heard that much so far. TNS I will catch up in the season. I am waiting to hear the first song and the Devaranji piece, which once I heard and it was mind blowing.Thanks for your review.

[rshankar]

10 should be SrI madhurApuri vihAriNi.

[rajeshnat]

10 should be SrI madhurApuri vihAriNi.

Ravi
Corrected it . I dont know how i put vighAriNi instead of vihAriNi , perhaps like a typical madrasi who calls mahesh as magesh

[sureshvv]

Works both ways... for eg. T.Nahar

Not typical madrasi, by the way! It is all these madurai people (you know who you are ! )

There is a twitter hashtag (#kogul) to record these mishaps for posterity by the esteemed chronicler!

[vasanthakokilam]

After seeing this excellent resource that PB shared in a different thread http://sanskritroots.files.wordpress.co ... mil_v3.pdf
now I am afraid to say anything for fear I would be a #kogul

There are so many words in common use that would be wrong from a Sanskrit point of view!

[arasi]

And, how about the words which sound bad even from tamizh point of view? That's what Kogul is about, isn't it? My favorite one is BaTmiNi

[Rsachi]

I know one Magesh, Mahan of Batmanapan

[rshankar]

Batmanapan

He was the Batman I knew in flesh and blood!! And being born in Pondicherry (er, Puducherry), his name was spelled as Batmanapane

Arasi - how about paNDu rIdi, and the rAga pantuvarALi becoming 'friends of the moon' or whatever (band[h]uvarALi)?
Of course, one of my favorites is how a brilliant mind (kAntimati) becomes a request to 'respect Gandhi' (gAnd[h]imadi), or 'enough of Gandhi' perhaps, if one were using malayALam!

[lavendra15]

Anyone has sri kamalambikaya navavrnam notation?

Email: lavendram@outlook.com

Thank you