TNK Trio at MFAC on 23 Dec 2008

[bilahari]

Violin: TNK, Viji, Sriram
Mrudangam: KV Prasad
Ghatam: V Suresh
(Why does the alignment keep changing after I hit "post"?)

Very Very Rough Songlist

01. vanajAkshi (varNam) - kalyANi - aTa
02. endarO - srI - Adi
03. Evarani- dEvaamruthavarshini
04. sArasaksha - panthuvarALi (R, N, S)
05. samAnamEvaru (R, N, S) - kharaharapriya - rUpakam
06. hecharikaga rA rA (R) - yadukulakAmbOji - khanda chApu
07. srI venkaTa girIsham - surutti (R, S, T) - Adi
08. kaNdu dhanya (R) - bEhag - Adi
09. saravaNa bhava (R) - shaNmugapriya
10. chandrasekhara - sindhu bhairavi (R)
11. pavamAna (mangaLam) - sowrashtram - Adi

Very good concert again by TNK trio, spanning a full three hours. However, I felt they could easily have rendered an RTP and given thani after Kharaharapriya, which was really the main item, with a 15-min ragam, and 15 minutes of neraval and swaras. It feels strange whenever thani is given in an item which is not the most elaborate of the concert. Kharaharapriya was really good, with good raga delineation (highlight being Viji's tara sthayi phrasings with a lovely phrase around tara nishadam coming down to tara panchamam and madhyamam), and excellent neraval and swaras. Entire X- Prati madhyama raga rendition was top-notch once again. The raga elaboration of Yadukulakamboji was outstanding, with TNK covering all the melodious phrases in the raga and there were one or two creative touches around the madhyama-panchama region as well. Krithi rendition of Hecharikaga was too fast for my liking and anticlimactic after the patient alapanai. Surutti ragam was elaborate and excellent but the real highlight was the swaraprastharam in Surutti, which when TNK started it surprised even Viji and Sriram (I have a feeling nobody on stage except TNK knows what's coming in his concerts!), but with TNK directing the proceedings, all three rendered brilliant swaras in Surutti.

Disappointment at the absence of RTP was in some measure neutralised by elaborate raga alapanais of Behag, Shanmugapriya, and Sindhu Bhairavi. Viji played an outstanding Behag, a raga which she seems to specialise in, and Sriram followed that with an excellent Shanmugapriya ragam with nice phrases in tara/ mandra sthayi. Saravana Bhava was rendered excellently and was reminiscent of SSI. TNK's Sindhu Bhairavi, well, needs no mention since it's a raga he's almost patented.

KV Prasad was really excellent last night, with superb accompaniment during the Surutti kalpanaswaras and the thani he and V Suresh shared was just sowkhyam, sowkhyam, and more sowkhyam. Haven't heard such a nice thani for some time now. The ghatam vidwan, V Suresh, played very well and with great anticipation, but most of the time the softer sounds he was trying to produce were completely drowned out by the violins/ mrudangam and it is somewhat disgraceful that the people manning the sound system refused to increase his mic volume, forcing him to play harder strokes.

The MFAC sound system is every bit as bad as people have reported and there was a ringing sound in my ears well into the night after every tara sthayi phrase (by three violins tuned to a really high pitch!) threatened to rupture my eardrums.

Also, the TNK trio's performances are clearly totally unrehearsed and as a result, there is a synchronisation problem often in manodharma components where different violinists cut each other off, play different phrases at once, and there is a lot of such "interference" that at times takes away from their music. For instance when TNK was going to the aditara shadjam in Shanmugapriya, Sriram was busy going up to the tara shadjam and the "moment" was lost as a result of the interference. The main problem is that all three of them take turns in all manodharma components, where perhaps it would be better if one takes over for an entire alapanai, or until the tara sthayi, etc. Each violinist, though trained in the same bani, clearly has different ideas on how to construct the alapanai, what phrases to play next, etc, and a pre-discussed understanding of each person's role would better enable violinists to see their thinking through in their portion of the raga delineation, and the fluency of their ideas would not be abbreviated abruptly.

Nonetheless, a great concert, and TNK will be feeling increasingly satisfied by how completely he's imparted his art to his progeny. When I close my eyes and listen, I can most often make no distinction between which of the three is playing at the moment.

[bilahari]

Forgot to add: It would be most beneficial if the name of the piece, raga, tala, etc are announced by artistes (after alapana) during instrumental concerts. Also, neraval and pallavi lines should be announced as well. The Lalgudi duo are excellent in this respect, though they should also consider having Viji sing the neraval line when they take it up.

[sridhar_ranga]

Forgot to add: It would be most beneficial if the name of the piece, raga, tala, etc are announced by artistes (after alapana) during instrumental concerts.

Oh we have been there very recently; I had suggested an electronic display instead of announcements. I was surprised to see that a majority of the forumites were opposed to the idea. Someone suggested that one should ask the person seated next. the Poorvi kalyani/ pantuvarali brings to mind another interesting episode: I was attending a special 4 hour concert at Mudhra last year and my aunt (who has several years' experience and even teaches CM) inssited that the alapana that was going on was pantuvarali. I felt it was purvi kalyani and so did the mama (a stranger, not my uncle) seated to my right. After Ragam and Taanam the pallavi was sung which included the words poorvi, kalyaani - mama smiled triumphantly and said that "pantuvaraali kEkkaradukku konjam azhara maadiri irukkum" (translation: pantuvarali feels a bit like crying)

[appu]

Violin: TNK, Viji, Sriram
Mrudangam: KV Prasad
Ghatam: V Suresh
(Why does the alignment keep changing after I hit "post"?)


06. hecharikaga rA rA (R) - yadukulakAmbOji - mishra chApu

07. ? - surutti (R, S, T) - Adi

Hecharighara Ra is in Khanda Chappu,
Was the Kirtanam in Surutti Gitartamu

[bilahari]

Thanks, appu. Don't know about the Surutti composition though it sounded familiar (but I've heard TNK play several compositions in the raga).

[rasika27s]

I missed the varnam and "endaro" of this beautiful concert, but made it just in time for "evarani" in devamrutavarshini, which was interesting considering the expansive karaharapriya that followed later. I wonder if "evarani" was another Ariyakudi tribute for the MFAC audience.

The fourth item was definitely in pantuvarali -- the daivatam was unmistakable. And, the composition was "saarasaksha" by Swati Tirunal.

Also, the piece in surutti was "sri venkata girisham" by Muttuswamy Dikshitar. The composition in sindubhairavi was "chandrasekhara" by Papanasam Sivan, which I've heard rendered beautifully by the great Alathoor Brothers.

[bilahari]

Rasika27s to the rescue again! Thanks a million!

[Ragjay]

Hi The Behag piece was Kandru Dhaniyanadhe a Vittal Dasar composition.(?)and the Surutti krithi was indeed Sree Venkatesa Girisam>>>and not what have been stated either in the list or subsequent post.Bye Ragjay

[Sathej]

Yes, it was Sarasaksha Paripalaya in Panthuvarali. And I was all the while expecting Chandrashekhara Eesha in Sindubhairavi more so because MC Mama was there Was a good concert but I felt the Surutti main was a bit short.

And Evarani is in Devaamruthavarshini, not Amruthavarshini..

Sathej

[Ragjay]

Bilahari TNK Sir did sing the pallavi line at MA not once, but thrice... He may have read ur post ... Both these concert were outstanding...Bye Ragjay