Review of OS Thyagarajan's Concert in Singapore, 10 March

bala747 · Post by **bala747** » 22 Mar 2006, 08:01

R K Sriramkumar, Mannargudi Easwaran

Vallabha Nayakasya - Begada (S)
Nidhi Chala - Kalyani
Samajavara - Hindolam (A,S)
A krithi in Jayamanohari which I forget at the moment.
Kamakshi - Varali (With Intro to the krithi, A,N,S). The intro made note of how Kamakshi, after Syama Sastri finished the krithi appeared before him and asked him to sing it again.
Ekamresa - Sanmukhapriya (AST)
Viruttam in Kamas followed by Marubari
Laliyugave - Neelambari
Nadupai - Madhyamavathi
Mangalam

On the whole a satisfying concert. Sanmukhapriya, though heard often in Singapore, has never been taken up as a main item apart from RTP's. The krithi Ekamresa too has never been sung here by anyone as far as I can remember. Alapanas in Hindolam was good but there were places when the sruthi seemed off, but on the whole very satisfying. The Varali was great although I failed to catch the sruthi bhedam done at the "Ni" while avoiding the Sa. I am not a big fan of sruthi bhedams in ragas like Varali so it would have been better if he had eschewed it altogether. R K Sriramkumar's response was good but again, nothing extraordinary. Neraval at Sukhashyamale Sivasankari was good and so were the swaras.

Sanmukhapriya is not easy to sing because the greats in the past have set the bar too high. Somu and GNB have handled this raga so thoroughly that there is nothing in it that they haven't already sung. Therefore, anyone in my opinion, who takes up this raga will doubly risk sounding mediocre if he just runs through the different sangathis of this raga as if reading off a book (U Srinivas, Dr. R Ganesh, in Singapore). But the raga alapana of OST was crisp and bore the stamp of a great padanthara. He went through it starting at the second half of the middle octave and wove a nice pattern of sangathis which were not just textbook lines but actually formed a very elegant portrayal of Sanmukhapriya, and for once the main item was not a tamil piece but the beautiful Ekamresanayaki. I am not against tamil pieces (in fact I am all for singing more tamil krithis) but too often artistes in Singapore take the easy way out by taking some small krithi like "Parvathi Nayakane" and try to sing it for a main item. I would have loved a neraval at "Kanchinagara nivasini" but due to the programme starting late (The guest of honour arriving half an hour late), it had to be cut out.

A mention must be made of Easwaran's mridangam. The way he played for Samajavara was beautiful, but his standard dipped in the Varali piece when he played in my opinion a tad too affressively than the piece warranted. But the accompaniment for the Sanmukhapriya was back to the classic mould and the at the thani I was expecting something great. Either due to lack of time or some other factor, the thani was not all that long, and no fireworks, just some interesting kanakku patterns which my brother found much more interesting than I did.

Amongst the thukkadas I liked the Neelambari one best. Not often heard in Singapore when artistes too often take up something like Teerada vilayaatu pillai, Sri chakraraja or some such overrendered piece.

On the whole, although the ragas were common ones, the rendition and choice of krithis made this concert a perfectly enjoyable one (Although he could have sung some other krithi other than Nidhichala so early in the concert). I think the days of extraordinary violin accompaniments are gone. I remember the first OST concert I attended in Singapore in 1999 with Nagai Muralidharan and K V Prasad, and the concert was simply electrifying. Each artiste gave his best for a thoroughly enjoyable concert but this one, although a good concert was handicapped by the fact that RKS and ME played more as "sidemen" or "individuals" than part of a trio.

srinidhi · Post by **srinidhi** » 22 Mar 2006, 11:15

Was the jayamanohari kriti "Nee Bhakti Bhagya Sudha?"

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 22 Mar 2006, 11:40

Bala: When I first saw the title of your posting, I was expecting that the concert is going to be slammed

since I have grown to understand your high expectations and likes/dislikes ( my bad for pre-conceived impressions ).

But your review is pretty even-handed, scholarly and overall well written and captured the happenings very vividly. Beats most newspaper reviews in content quality and musical knowledge.

Good job.

jaisree · Post by **jaisree** » 22 Mar 2006, 13:24

There is a report by a 'bala' on carnatica.net on this concert and the entire festival. R u the same 'bala'?

rbharath · Post by **rbharath** » 22 Mar 2006, 14:48

a typical OST list. nothing new at all...

the varALi part which you claim is to be some kind of graha bedham is what i am guessing to be actually singing without shadjam and pancamam. they are called "shadja-pancama-varjaya sancaras". At a previous occasion, OST had sung 'Eti janma midihA' with these sancarams in the alapanai. i thought it was somekind of sruthi bedham and later asked after the concert. he had clarified that it was not sruthi bedham but just a few sancarams without sa and pa.

srinidhi · Post by **srinidhi** » 22 Mar 2006, 17:12

rbharat,

Are you referring to Sri OST's concert in Tiruchy? In that concert he attempted what seemed to be Sruti bhedham in Varali at Ni. It did not seem to result in any intelligeble ragam ( there were shades of pantuvarali,though) However, the violnist exhibited a superb sruti bhedam at Ni to result in Mohanam.

bala747 · Post by **bala747** » 22 Mar 2006, 20:43

I had a feeling it was mohanam but you must remember mohanam itself can be "sruthi bhedamed" into a whole series of ragas.

Sruthi bhedam in the Sankarabharanam series is fine, along with other melakarthas but to do it in a "specialized" raga like Varali would kill the mood that the raga brings.

Probably was a Sadja panchama varjaya sancara..

Jaisree I am not the same bala.
I am not sure about the Jayamanohari piece. It was quite a while ago but certainly wasn't yagnatudu. If I recall correctly it was in Rupaka talam.

vasanthakokilam, who doesn't have high standards when attending concerts?

Of course this wasn't OST's best concert here. That was seven years ago in 1999, when he sang a spectacular 4 hour concert with an RTP in Keeravani (Tisra Rupakam Misra Gathi if I recall correctly), Emi Neramu in Sankarabharanam (first and only time anyone had sung it in Singapore for the past eight years or more), Senapathey in Panthuvarali and Samaganalolane in Hindolam. But compared to some of the very mediocre performances by artistes here, it was a refreshing change.

Oh I forgot to add one piece, Neelakantam in Kedaragoula (Alapana). First time in 8 years I heard a kedaragoula alapana in Singapore as well.

rbharath · Post by **rbharath** » 22 Mar 2006, 22:38

srinidhi, the concert i m telling was in madras. Krishna Gana Sabha sometime last year.

and on sruthibedam.

san-kara-kal-hari-nata is the code used.

sankarabaranam, kharaharapriya, kalyani, harikambhoji, natabhairavi, todi all of them fall in a series...