TNS Krishna@parivAdini on Dec 3rd,2017

[sankark]

https://youtu.be/t9dPttS2pIg live now

With BUGaneshprasad, Vijay Natesan, ? (Not Sreesundarkumar!)

khamAs sketch mAtE malayadhwaja grand opening
swAminAtha paripAlayAsumAm s@kArthikEya nAradAdi sprightly swarams

[sankark]

sAvEri karikalaba mukham s@pallavi. A tour de force AlApanai and swarams
dharmavathi surapAla sannutha http://www.karnatik.com/c2145.shtml

[sankark]

ns@vara dharmavathi gItapriyE
enta ni nE varninthunu

[sankark]

s@padamunukontina
varALi outline Eti janmamidihA
hindOLam outline shlOkam krishnAya vAsudEvAya bhajarE gOpalam
mOhanam

[sankark]

viruththam jagadhIshwari krpai puri ns@gathi enRu nambinOraikkApadhE un vairAgyam tani

[sankark]

shanmukhapriyA

[sankark]

sruthibhdam to ?, valaji RTP krishna krishna mahAyOgin mahAbhOgIndra sAyin Agatam suswAgAtam saranAgatam, 11 count tALam, m triputai

[sankark]

ragmalikai swarams in abhOgi, vasantA (er lalitA?) and then I had to leave. TNSK seems to have sung for 45 mins after that, so all in all a 4h 45m affair. The YT video now starts at about 60% mark of sAveri number

[sankark]

shanmukhapriyA

Such a fine rAgam. Why is this being belittled compared to varALi?

[parivadini]

The YT video now starts at about 60% mark of sAveri number

The video works just fine for me

[sureshvv]

shanmukhapriyA

Such a fine rAgam. Why is this being belittled compared to varALi?

Must be the wrong caste

[parivadini]

valaji RTP

It was AbhOgi - the raga named intelligently weaved in the words "mahAbhOgIndra"

He sang a swarakshara poruttam with "ma ga" and took off the pallavi with abhOgi. It was just out of the world! Will linger in my ears for a long long time.

[rajeshnat]

TNS Krishna@parivAdhini on Dec 03rd,2017
--------------------------------------------
Vocal : TNS Krishna
Violin : BU GaneshPrasad
Mrudangam : Vijay Natesan
Kanjira : S Venkataramanan

Concert Type : Nirvana - No concert to follow , Free concet
Day/Duration : Sunday / 4 hours and 45 minutes (advertised as 4 hour concert)
sabha/Hall : Parivadhini ,Ragasudha hall
Time : 5 to 9:45pm

1. maatE malayAthwaja - kamAs- HMB
2. swaminAtha paripAlayAsumAm(S) - nAttai- MD
swaras for 7 mins

3. karikalAbha mukham(R,S) - sAveri -MD
7 mins alapana and 5 mins violin return
11 mins swaras

4. surapAla sannuta(R N S) - dharmavati - HMB
3 mins alapana with no violin return
4 mins neraval in vara dharmavati gItapriyE
? mins of swaras (forgot to note the minutes)with 2 rounds of cittaswaras

5. entaninnE(S) - mukhAri - T
swaras for 2 mins
6. eTi janmamidi(raga sketch) - varAli - T

*7A. slokham - krishnAya vasudevAya - hindolam - may I know whose verse is this?? - Srimad Bhagavatam
7B. bhajarE gopAlam mAnasa - hindOlam - sadAshiva brahmendra

8A. mohanam alapanai for 16 mins with 8 mins return
*8B. vandArkuzhali .... thanjamAi vandadhaindhOm - mohanam - may I know whose verse is this???
8C. jagadeeshwari kripai (R N S T)- mohanam - tiruvarur ramaswamy pillai
neraval in gathi enru nambinOrai kAppathu uN vairAgyam for 9 mins
17 mins swaras
8D. tani for 18 mins

9. RTP for 1 hour 20 mins. RTP in dwiragas - shanmughapriya and AbhOgi
pallavi line was krishna krishnA mahAyOgin mahAbhOgIndra sAyin Agatam suswAgAtam saranAgatam
tAlam was misra triputa - 11 counts
swara ragamaliga in shanmughapriya + ABhogi + lalitA+ poorvikalyani+ niroshta +shanmughapriya + ABhogi

*10A. viruththam AAnirai - kApi + kApagam ellAm - shyamA + pAnaiyil pAlai sorindu - vasantA
+ pAnaiyil pAlai sorindu - neelAMbari + pEniyiL inaiyapirAnE - shuruTTi - periazhvAr pasuram (divyaprabhandham)
10B. kannA vA manni vannA vA - ragamaliga (kApi + vasanta+ shyamA + neelambari + shuruTTi) - ambujam krishna

11.kanagashaila - punnagavarAli - SS
12A. viruththam pachai mA malai pOl mEni - chandrakowns - divyaprabhandham
12B. thillana - tOm tri tAni ... ranganAthan bhavanisevai - chandrakowns - Madurai TN Seshagopalan

13. pavamAna

* May I know whose verse is the 7A slokham and the 8B and 10A viruththam?

[rajeshnat]

I just looked at the forum - Last year i have attended the same 4 hour+ concert of TNS krishna with parivAdini, incidentally the date is the same Dec 03. The year has moved from 2016 to 2017 and the day has advanced from saturday to sunday. In my life TNS krishna is the first musician where I had the privilege to attend two live 4 hour + concerts, rather two 4 hour 45 minutes concert. Last year the tani by R Ramesh was pretty long for 35 minutes or so thanks to vijay natesan who faked it as only a 2 and half hour concert in 2017.

I personally like concerts where you block say roughly 120 minutes for a main and RTP , keep the tani for 20 mins , 30 minutes for a submain and 20 minutes for an extensive ragamaliga slokham or viruththam . So as such 3 hour 10 mins is gone .These are just rough figures. The key is zero fragmentation- the musician should not feel that if I sing a neraval i will ration swara, if i sing a raga alapana i will ration neraval etc . THen you fill up all the rest with starters, pre main fillers and tukkadas . But if artist has a mentality to even go for more sangathis and sancharas even till the last number with zero sag in energy what can one say other than the fact that CM is extremely demonstrative only in these concerts viz the other cloaked december concerts (navarathri sundal concerts with few tv coverages that are plagues). The plagues are blurring the musicians who can *really* sing and the musicians who can *also* sing.

TNS krishna at times has a problem of airing to the microphone when he belts very breathless taking brighas . But I think at times he comes from work and just performs and I have noticed in few occassions in the past where a little jaded tns krishna on a working day was having breathing intrusions . But yesterday he was really fresh with both ideas and voice - as they say in thamizh pAda pAda anandam, I guess Sunday was surely a non working day for TNS Krishna.

I came in few minutes late. Varnams can be of two types one is the musician suggesting to the audience that they have learnt from a established paddhati/guru with very less risks being taken . I guess mAthE in kamas is intrinsically having more raga bhava patterns so one feels that the vidwan /vidushi has hit the road running with no full stops despite commas . Kamas varnam was well done with bounty of swaras .The second swaminatha paripAlaya is a lovely choice again more brownies to sing more swara patterns and with the percussion getting really the best opportunity to settle early and rock.They indeed did and the kutcheri kalakattufied .The first alapana in saveri certainly had a lot of podi brighas having a lot of nagaswara pidis and i liked it , swaras towards the end there was not enough gelling by vijay with the ideas but still well presented.

Dharmavathi is a haunting raga and I am glad that he took. I just googled to find his dad TNS and neyveli have sung this rare dharmavati number surapAla sannuta. I havenot heard this krithi. At times when you give violin return for every alapana it just creates a certain fragmentation for me as a rasika . I liked TNS krishna approach of quickly singing alapana and going with the krithi . Nice neraval in the lines to indicate dharmavati - one has to give it to both MMI and Sankarasivam-TNS parampara who have a special way to handle HMB krithis . They elaborate it and when they sing i aurally get a Thyagaraja or Dikshitar anthastu to harikesa muthiah bhagavathar . Lovely patterns in swaras and it had a neat two rounds of cittaswaras both before and after swaras . Usually musicians avoid singing elaborate swaras when there is a round of cittaswaras , but i liked tns krishna magnanimity in swaras.

Mukhari flowed next and it was a good contrast , felt TNS krishna sang in a slow to medium tempo but i felt vijay natesan raced the kAlapramanam from kanulAra sevinchi , the mukhari could have been better guided by mrudangam. VarAli heaviness was started with a raga sketch and the krithi was well done .

The next was a lovely hindolam . Voice power and emote was really there and what a joy is hindolam that graciously accomodates both power and emote. I liked his extraordinary slokham krishnAya vasudevaya preceding krithi, a certain swirl in a line govinda was superb.Krishna sang beautifully the krithi as a fast krithi . I felt fast krithi with a long swaras is always the best but he preferred to skip that. I have 3 or 4 musicians who always sing fast swaras prior to main krithi , TNS Krishna is one , let this go on from next concert - TNS krishna .

My mind was negating bhairavi since mukhari was sung , I also ruled todi out as he sang last time and I thought he may not have varali and todi in near quick succession.With two prathis gone i was ecstatic that kalyani will not be sung as main as i am semi allergic to kalyani. i was thinking about kharaharapriya or mohanam as a main , these are the joys that you have in a concert . Out popped a lovely mohanam . TNS has not sung that much of mohanam as a main . I have heard this krithi jagadeeshwari sung as a main once by Gayathri girish and Aruna sairam has sung (just referred my previous notes) . TNS Krishna took tiruvarur ramaswamy pillai jagadeeshwari kripai krithi with a lot of vocal finesse. The speed was right ,i just mapped a lot of phrases of this mohanam krithi with shyama sastri enneramum undan in poorvikalyani with standard thamizh pleads kAppai etc . I guess mohanam thamizh krithi of jagadeeshwari is bit karadu moradana thamizh . More than the neraval the swaras were very creative , there was bucket load of swara aksharams and he sang without rushing in a speed where i aurally registered his swarAksharam .In the alapana he did a bedham to madhyamavati , suddhadhanyasi and one more raga prior to madhyamavati which i did not register.

With tani gone, he launched into a soaring shanmughapriya , i adore this raga and the dwi raga that got added was Abhogi which i adore even more . What a joy it was to hear this genius TNS krishna. The ragas were well sung with one more shruthi bedham which i missed . The neraval was without the meter of mrudangam , he did not compartmentalize with a strict madhyamakalam or dhuritha kalam but definitely ideas were superb .

RTP should it not have a well defined poorvangam and uttarangham?? .The line itself was long - krishna krishnA mahAyOgin mahAbhOgIndra sAyin Agatam suswAgAtam saranAgatam. I struggled throughout to disambiguate poorvangam and uttarAngham , especially the line mahAbhOgIndra sAyin was way tough for my rasika head to get poorvangam and uttarAngham . Definitely he gave his heart and soul to pallavi and swaras . At times like his appa he traversed so quickly from shanmughapriya and aabhogi , it was striking only my head and not my heart. Swaras were magical apart from the two core ragas , he sang with gay abandon to switch to ragas like lalita , poorvikalyani and with my two lips holding in awe and not meeting he continued the swara magic with niroshta. He traversed back to the parent ragas nothing felt like touch and go. Superb musical skills bearing few pallavi neraval slamdunks which was slightly tiring he was there , possibly if I get educated by fellow rasikas on the poorvangam uttarangam mishra triputa 11 count asymmetric blur may be in future i have to instruct my heart thru my educated head .

Musicians usually do not forget the trinity. The missing trinity syama sastri had his share and the krithi kanagashaila was added as a tukkada . THe punnagavarAli oomph was not to my intense liking kanakashaila was just ok. THe next viruththam was superb, TNS Kapi is always a class and he starting with that kapi and emotively sequed to shyama both were well done .At times taking the same phrase pAnayil pAl with contrast of ragas like vasantha and neelambari was well done , i was most awake with neelambari, shurutti was well done and he surprised with another long ragamaliga krithi of ambujam krishna which I am assuming his dad tuned . This krithi kannA vA has so much of phrases and the krithi moved from prose to krithi only because of the tunesmith TNS . One has to give it to him for not touching and going with a small phrase of viruththam but kind of showing raga rasanai for both krithis and viruththam with expansive treatment for all the 5 ragas (the joy of having longer concert).The last chandrakowns again started with a viruththam he sang the famous pachai mA malai pOl meni and went to few other phrases i am not sure if they are also dhivya prabhandham . TNS composed famous tillana in chandrakowns- this thillana is not as raga bhava centric as a lalgudi thillana , this is bit more of BMK like thillana there are sudden charge and discharge of chandrakowns raga bhavam with more of laya vinyaasam . All said with the line shankara dAsanukkaruLum nAda vaibhava the musically roaring ended with an apt line recollecting his mahavidwan appA TNS.

BU Ganesh Prasad takes his time and his raga bhavam was more crystal clear during returns , he did not have any showmanship and there was zero intrusion . He kept the volume optimal and did not come in the way of ideation of TNS krishna . Vijay Natesan ,barring a slight vottam in enta ninna from the line kanulara i felt his play was very apt with nice sarvalaghu. May be little more muscle power in his fingers for his right hand is what he requires he will get there for sure , it is just few years that this mumbai express has just arrived in chennai. I am not complaining that S venkataramanan volume in kanjira was not optimal .Considering 4 hour and 45 minutes sub optimal is better than optimal kanjirA. Tani was not showcased with that much strokes and there was no awe feeling, but i liked that it got over in less than 20 minutes.

TNS krishna has superb voice quality . Swaras are his forte and alapana and krithi rendition everything has enough azhuttam . At times he is roaring as much as his appa even those closed mouth sangathis have vocal power like his appA. There were plenty of viruththams and slokham and everything enhanced the ragabhava of the subsequent krithi and I loved his magnanimity there.

On a personal note TNS as a vidwan is some one i tasted for very few years in late 80's to early 90 ,then had a gap for about 8 to 10 years i did not hear any CM due to lack of access and not showing that keen interest , certainly when I started with TNS as i was a teen did not accept any vidwan other than maharajapuram santhanam possibly TNS was the first whom i accepted as a vidwan of repute next to santhanam. In cm it is so difficult for a rasika to consciously accept a second vidwan/vidushi. Just like maharajapuram ramachandran there is enough overlap from tns krishna with their respective dads who are all supernovas.There is also enough of novelty that the next generation brings in . I am not sure if TNS has sung this saveri krithi karikalambugham or even the swaminatha paripalayasumam , may be he has sung i am not aware , educate me if I am wrong.Atleast in dwi raga RTP TNS krishna showed his astute classicism , i am more confident to say that TNS has not sung this dwi raga shanmughapriya and aabhogi pallavi.

Thank you parivadhini, keep up your joyful series . I and lalitharam will respectfully disagree that you should not beam live concerts and cannibalize and kill the live audience who would have come to enjoy live concerts if the beaming stops( especially live). Crama who sat next to me said that karthigai was a reason for poor turnout , but I think TNS krishna should use his IIM skills where he has to consciously market more, he is not marketing his music . Also he had Abhishek at 04 30 in NGS and pantula at 7pm in BVB and also the tv concerts with great Q and A in Adayar, i guess the same audience got fragmented .

Keep it up TNS Krishna your musical seriousness to present a non navarathri sundal concert in december is truly inspiring .

Overall an excellent to outstanding concert for 4 hours and 45 minutes.

[Sachi_R]

Rajesh, a worthy review of a worthy artiste in a worthy concert in a worthy forum=Parivadini!
I shall listen to the concert presently. But I cued to the shloka and heard it.
śrīmad bhāgavatam 1.8.21
kuntī prays to kṛṣṇa :
kṛṣṇāya vāsudevāya devakīnandanya ca |
nandagopakumārāya govindaya namo namaḥ ||

This is a very famous Vaishnava prayer as Kunti's prayer to Krishna is a very famous part of our epic,Srimad Bhagavatam (as well as Mahabharata.)

My father was very fond of this shloka

[kvchellappa]

Anantarama Dikshithar also would include this in his preliminary dhyana slokas which will commence with mUkakavi's tapinchastabikatvishe. He would also explain in detail Kunti's prayer when he discoursed on Bhagavatham. Ironically, Kunti prays for misfortunes: vipadas santu nassarvadA, because that only binds us firmly to god. The point is bhakthi is the basis of puranas and also the compositions by the vaggeyakkaras and has been inseparably integrated with CM.

[Sivaramakrishnan]

Thanks kvchellappa, for quoting Sengalipuram Anantarama Dikshitar.

[sankark]

The point is bhakthi is the basis of .... and has been inseparably integrated with CM.

Oh, please.

[MaheshS]

The point is bhakthi is the basis of .... and has been inseparably integrated with CM.

Oh, please.

?? Care to elaborate?

[Charu Venkat]

In other words, one person believes that CM exists based on and because of bhakti and the other believes otherwise.

Why not start by defining what bhakti is? Isn't it dedication? Focus? Isn't there a concept of 'Thozhil Bhakti'? Art emerges fundamentally due to emotional involvement and detachment from art will lead to creativity drying up.

[MaheshS]

Why not start by defining what bhakti is? Isn't it dedication? Focus? Isn't there a concept of 'Thozhil Bhakti'? Art emerges fundamentally due to emotional involvement and detachment from art will lead to creativity drying up.

Bhakthi is *devotion*, *NOT* dedication. Dedication and devotion though sometimes used interchangeably are not the same. And isn't it always Thozhil Dharmam rather than bhakthi?

[sureshvv]

All covered previously here at rasikas in great minute detail Pls. check archives.

[sankark]

The point is bhakthi is the basis of .... and has been inseparably integrated with CM.

Oh, please.

?? Care to elaborate?

Just don't want all threads to lead to bhakti. And whether CM and bhakti are joined at hip/pinnippiNainchiruththal. Whatever bhakti be.

[MaheshS]

Oh, please.

?? Care to elaborate?

Just don't want all threads to lead to bhakti. And whether CM and bhakti are joined at hip/pinnippiNainchiruththal. Whatever bhakti be.

This thread was specially discussing TNS Krishna's song list and in particular a slokam from Bagavatham and it is attached to the "hip"

[kvchellappa]

Carnatic music is gnanam of music and bahkthi in lyrics. Everyone sings the same lyrics and the lyrics overflow with bhakthi. It will be a long time for the lyrics to be replaced by non-bhakthi numbers. Therefore all that is sung in today's platform leads to bhakthi. That is how it is. If one wants to feel otherwise, there is no bar but it is not how it is in the pieces sung.

[rajeshnat]

Ravi
In the pallavi line "krishna krishnA mahAyOgin mahAbhOgIndra sAyin Agatam suswAgAtam saranAgatam", i donot get the meaning of the word Agatam , can you help?.

Lalitha ram
I did not spot the abhogi was crafted intelligently till you wrote . Thanks. May I know thru you the author of three viruththams the third being second half of pachai mA malai where it had phrases like YAnaikku nee arul seithamaiyal - i am assuming he moved from divyaprabhandam to something else there in chandrakowns.

[jinija]

I am not sure if TNS has sung this saveri krithi karikalambugham or even the swaminatha paripalayasumam , may be he has sung i am not aware , educate me if I am wrong.

TNS sang an amazing Kari Kalabha Mukham in Parthasarathy Swami Sabha during the season last year, with neraval and swarams at "Kari Kalabha".

[CRama]

There had been lot of discussion held in this forum as well as in other places as whether bhakthi is relevant in Carnatic music and many people have expressed their versions. When one musician sings very soulfully ( himself and his fans claim so) Ennaeramum undan sannidhiyile naan irukka vendum, the bhakthi conveyed in the lyrics cannot be separated from the musician who sings. If anybody denies it, it is mere hypocrisy with a hidden agenda.

The concert of TNSKrishna was top notch, as elaborated by Rajeshnat. There was a commendable proportion of bhakthi, manodharamam, exhuberance, voice power and sincerity. Some more observations.

• In the last concert, I had mentioned about the audible breathing sound while singing swarams. I am happy to observe that this was very very negligible in this concert. Perhaps the reason observed by Rajesh may hold good.
• I have never heard Swaminatha paripalayamsumam from TNS. It came as a cool breeze from Krishna. To celebrate Karthigai deepam, he sang swaram at Karthikeya naradadi bhaavita with , lot of beautiful phrases woven around ma.
• While singing swaras for kariklabhamukham- it was very elaborate- fitting for a main song- he showcased various shades of gandharam in the saveri.
• Entha ninne in Mukhari was rendered in a very appropriate kalapramanam. – He sang a few bouts of Swaram at Padamulukontina- with many swarakshara prayogams.
• Bhajare Gopalam- There is a 78 rpm recording of this song by DKP. Other than that, not usually heard in concerts.
• In the song Jagadheeswari, while singing kalpana swarams, he sang many swarakshara phrases like sadaa gati yendru, paada gati yendru, sadaa paada gati yendru.
• After the Pachai mamalai pol meni virutham in Chandrakauns, he continued with another Alwar pasuram –Tuppudayanai as a prelude to the Thillana in Chandrakauns.

A concert that will be etched in the memory for long time.

[rajeshnat]

• Entha ninne in Mukhari was rendered in a very appropriate kalapramanam. – He sang a few bouts of Swaram at Padamulukontina- with many swarakshara prayogams.
...
• After the Pachai mamalai pol meni virutham in Chandrakauns, he continued with another Alwar pasuram –Tuppudayanai as a prelude to the Thillana in Chandrakauns.

I changed the song list post as I had forgot to mentions swaras for mukhari. I also googled to find the viriuththam preceding kannA vA is Anirai mEikka nee pOdi and is a periazhwar pAsuram(divyaprabhandham).

[rajeshnat]

As such looking for the verse composer of *8B. vandArkuzhali .... thanjamAi vandadhaindhOm - mohanam - may I know whose verse is this???

If any body who follows TNS can let me know if shri TNS has sung nAttai MD krithi swaminAtha paripAlayasumAm?

[CRama]

Tuppudayanai - virutham that TNSKrishna sang in Chandrakauns is a Periyazhvar Pasuram.

[parivadini]

As such looking for the verse composer of *8B. vandArkuzhali .... thanjamAi vandadhaindhOm - mohanam - may I know whose verse is this???

If any body who follows TNS can let me know if shri TNS has sung nAttai MD krithi swaminAtha paripAlayasumAm?

Rajesh,

I have heard TNS sing this viruttam before the Bharatiar song "Bhuloga Kumari". I am quite positive that this is not a Bharati verse though. I will check with TNSK.

[parivadini]

I did check with TNSK on the 'vaNdaarkuzali' viruttam.

He said, "This was there in the notebook of TNS's mother". It is quite likely that this could have been her verse. But there is no way to say this for sure as she had the habit of noting down her own verses along with the ones that she heard elsewhere in her notebook.

In Sep, for Parivadini's Navaratri Concert, Shri. TNS sang a composition in Bindumalini. I have never heard this Tamil composition before. When asked about the composer, his response was similar.

[rajeshnat]

Lalitharam
Thanks for the Tiruvenkatavalli(TNS Mother) notebook collection. It is just wonderful that the core musical aesthetics that are in grandmothers notebook is preserved by grandson, that viruththam passage was musically terrific with great thamizh lyrics.

[Sivaramakrishnan]

Watched the YouTube for TNSK's marathon concert.
Simply grand, incredible!
Wish him all the best.
God bless!

[Jigyaasa]

I'm hearing a grahabhEda here: https://youtu.be/t9dPttS2pIg?t=10851. It's very brief but it sounds like it's shaNmukhapriyA to behAg.

Could anyone else opine?