chingelpet ranganAthan@NGS(Mini) on Oct 5th,2009

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 06 Oct 2009, 12:26

chingelpet ranganAthan@NGS(Mini) on Oct 5th,2009
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This was an exclusive ArunagirinAthar's thirUppugazh exclusive concert organized by saraswathi vaggeyakkara trust.

Chingelpet Sri ranganAthan was accompanied by MA sundareswaran - violin and R.Ramesh - mridangam

I have heard just one shri ranganAthan concert 2 years back and it was a great first impression.Having said that , I have so far not heard an exclusive thirruppugazh concert at all , heard few recordings but as such I was looking forward to hear this rare concert.

Thirruppuggazh is possibly the most difficult thamizh composition and as such with a mouth full of words , unless the musician internalizes and perhaps sings continously for decades the musical quotient of a typical CM concert cannot be achieved. Even though I did not expect it to have a typical submain or a main with exhaustive neraval and swaras , I just felt overall this concert did not meet that much my expectation. There were very few pluses and lots of minuses in this concert

+ I did go late missed the first one , the line perumAlE is what I heard. Perhaps the start was the famous TM SounderrAjan thirruppugazh in some vintage movie , CR rendered this famous thirruppugazh "muttai thiru" with a lot of quick turns in kEdaram ragam was quite nice with a few sprinkle of swaras. The keeravani that followed was quite good with a nice diction and his voice was not in the keeravani comfort zone , but certainly there was some long sangathis with CR taking a long akaram it was well done.

- - - The usual pantuvarAli submain had a nice manodharmam though for first few alApana sangathis the touch was more poorvikalyAnish. The krithi was rendered quite well with a nice round of neraval, his voice was in poor shape.

How would you feel if you are told 3 *4 = 12, 4 *3 =12, 6 +6 =12, 2 *6 =12 . Well I felt it exactly like that in swaras . CR kept on trying with very minimal one line avarthanam swaras like ga ma pa da nee , he kept trying so much again and again , the kanakku completely took away the musical expressiveness of pantuvarAli. Also with he repeating those permutations and then violin stretching it again , that 15 minutes swaras was indeed difficult.

- AtanA was just good , his voice was too flat and in general to recognize any rAgA with a mouthful of words in this concert was quite a challenge

- - tOdi was the main , with the signal being very very week, again too much of roughness in his voice was taking away the elegance of todi , his swaras were just ok with an ok rendition of krithi.

+ - The post tani tukkadas was there and not there. bilahari was quite tough to identify, the next paniyin thULi , I thought it was close to senjuruTTi , possibly I was mistaken. I bet that rAgA only the first row rasikas like TRS,Jayalakshmi SanthAnam,SugunA Purush and her disciple K.gAyathri would have identified. The fairly popular shenjurutti was presented just ok, the kAdi mOdi was again ok with shankarAbharanam rAga bhAvam contour being light with a lot of kanakku .

- - - Perhaps the main artist asked the mridangist to play long tani and mini tani, ramesh tani was just slight over banging , it was just ok

+ + + MAS in violin was the true hero , his returns were very sweet and his speed was exceptionally fast and gripping , In pantuvarAli at the end of swaras he was asked to play longer by CR, MAS went with few kanakku vazhakku of CR , then went with his own sangathis and played it, I was happy there as I was not ready to hear another multiplication table.

Lots of mistakes in the song list is possible (sorry cant help it):

1. ....perumAlE ... ?
2. mUttai thiru (S) - kedAram
3. uMbathU aRu thENumani (S) - keeravAni

4. varaDA maNi Ni eNa OORiL (R N S) - paNtuvarAli
5 mins alApanai , 4 mins violin, 6 mins neraval and 15 mins swaram
"paradEVatayAi ...pazhanA purivAL perumALE"
5. vajana mikavEdi maravAdhE (R) - atAnA
6A. pAdi madhi nadhi pODum maDi saDai(R S T) - tOdi
7 mins each for alApani and swaram and 4 mins violin
6B. tani for 21 mins

7. pattu paDAtha - bilahari
8. paNiyiN thULi pOlE - ???
9. nilayAda samudiramAna - shenjuruTTi

10A. kADi mODi - shankarAbharanam
10B. mini tani for 6 mins
11. mathiyai vittavAnAgi - madhyamAvati

Overall CR referred quite a lot of his notes, there was perhaps knowledge and wisdom in his rendition. But it was not suiting me. In general kanakku sangathis of CR with kanakku based lyrics of thirruppugazh was too monotonous , carnatic classicism was quite low.Incidentally he had a very hoarse voice too(I certainly did not expect a lot , but it was kind of below the acceptable bare minimum) . Overall it was a mediocre to good concert, it was a difficult 2 hour concert to attend and stay interested .

semmu86 · Post by **semmu86** » 06 Oct 2009, 13:21

Thanks for the review rajesh.. Was kind of expecting to go to this concert but couldnt , thanks to a last minute meeting in office.. I heard a full Tiruppugazh concert by Sri.CR early this year at rAga sudhA accompanied by s.varadarajan , trichy sankaran and purushotaman.. have a recording of that.. will try to upload it .. The list looks similar to that concert , and as rajesh said i heard every composition for the first time and hence couldnt recognise them.. The only piece which i remember is the 8th piece in the list " paniyin vinduli polave " in khanda jAthi dhruva thAlam ( eduppu at 6 beats after samam ) ,with sankaran sir playing an electrifying mohra for that..

Abotu Sri.CR's music , i feel exactly the same as the review.. Maybe i dont have enough knowledge to appreciate that , but still , somehow to go and attend a 2 hour concert of his is difficult for me though..

Arvind..

Rasika911 · Post by **Rasika911** » 06 Oct 2009, 14:32

rajeshnat wrote:
- - - The usual pantuvarAli submain had a nice manodharmam though for first few alApana sangathis the touch was more poorvikalyAnish.

This comment is made soo often. I think when an artist sings a phrase between sa-pp in either of the two ragams people tend to get mixed up especially since gandharam is a resting note for both ragams.

CR's kanaku is usually very interesting, its his speciality. I can see why some people dont like it, its a preference thing.

annamalai · Post by **annamalai** » 06 Oct 2009, 14:36

Several vidwans have specialized in Tirupugaz concerts. There is one classic concert recording of Alathur Brothers, Lalgudi Jayaraman Palghat Mani Iyer, Nagarajan (Kanjira) performed at Trichy in the 1960s - which has many of the Tiruppugaz - Ninaitha - Suddha dhayasi, Marukulaviya - Poorvikalyani, Vachana - Atana, Padi Madi - Thodi, ? - Kamboji, .... ? - Sindhubhairavi, Theruvinil - Surati, Kurvel - Suratti.

I must have listened this recording several times and never felt singing mostly unknown songs was hindrance to enjoyment.

PaniyinVin Thulir is also another classic Thirupugaz used to rendered by Alathur Brothers. IIRC, Trichy Sankaran has mentioned in his Radio interview, his tani for his arangetram performance at Nandrudayar Koil was for this Thirupugaz.

CR was a disciple of Alathur Venkatesa Iyer father of Alathur Brothers.

sureshvv · Post by **sureshvv** » 06 Oct 2009, 14:38

One of my all time favorite carnatic CDs is by K.J.Jesudas's and it is all Tiruppugazh, Varnam to mangalam.

ignoramus · Post by **ignoramus** » 06 Oct 2009, 17:57

Annamalai

Is that concert a commercial release? Would it be possible to upload if otherwise?

Rasika911 · Post by **Rasika911** » 06 Oct 2009, 17:59

sureshvv wrote:One of my all time favorite carnatic CDs is by K.J.Jesudas's and it is all Tiruppugazh, Varnam to mangalam.

Tiruppugazh Varnam as well?

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 06 Oct 2009, 21:23

8. paNiyiN thULi pOlE - ???
9. nilayAda samudiramAna - shenjuruTTi

Annamalai/Semmu86
By any chance you know the rAga of paNiyiN viNthuli pOlavE, it was very folkish and was like shenjurutti , since he sang the next one as shenjurutti I put the ?? for the #8

Annamalai,
I have heard few numbers of alathur brothers thirruppugazh. This concert was very different and not as great as alathur. When there is excess kannakku and if the voice is not rising up to an acceptable quality, atleast to me it becomes a difficult concert to hear for 2 full hours

annamalai · Post by **annamalai** » 07 Oct 2009, 11:15

ignoramus wrote:Annamalai

Is that concert a commercial release? Would it be possible to upload if otherwise?

Sorry. All of my tapes are stashed away in friend's basement due to lack of space at home. I am hoping to download get an mp3 version of this concert. With the advent of technology all my listening is from mp3.

rajeshnat,

Paniyinvin is a folksy tune, sounds Harikamboji to me.

There are several songs like that

MLV used to sing a lovely Thiruppugaz Suridhimonan also Harikamboji ?

KVN used to sing a melodious Sidhhar song - Vetta Veli thannil, Vilangum - karaharapriya ?

sureshvv · Post by **sureshvv** » 07 Oct 2009, 11:53

Rasika911 wrote:
sureshvv wrote:One of my all time favorite carnatic CDs is by K.J.Jesudas's and it is all Tiruppugazh, Varnam to mangalam.
Tiruppugazh Varnam as well?

Yep. The words are "Kalai mela gnana prakasa" sung in Mohanam in 2 speeds. There is also a Tirupugazh tillana.

ganeshkant · Post by **ganeshkant** » 07 Oct 2009, 12:35

The varnam is "Kalai mevum Gnana kadal kadandhone".As per my musician friend its plagiarism of the Abhogi varnam "Evari Bodha".(i.e) U replace all Ma with Pa.

Oue esteemed forum members may comment on this.

sureshvv · Post by **sureshvv** » 07 Oct 2009, 12:53

Now that you mention it, I can see the parallels. But may be we should say "inspired" rather than the p word.

PUNARVASU · Post by **PUNARVASU** » 07 Oct 2009, 15:00

ganeshkant wrote:The varnam is "Kalai mevum Gnana kadal kadandhone".As per my musician friend its plagiarism of the Abhogi varnam "Evari Bodha".(i.e) U replace all Ma with Pa.

Oue esteemed forum members may comment on this.

You meant replace the 'ma'of abhogi with the 'pa' of mohanam? Of course the 'ga' also must have been replaced with 'Ga(anthara gAndhAram).
I tend to agree with sureshvv. Of course I have not heard the varnam.

Many varnams used in dance are created this way; take the tune of a popular varnam,change the sAhityam as per need.

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 07 Oct 2009, 22:36

Suresh,
You are right. It is not uncommon. Inspired is the word--at least, I have found this a few times in PS's songs too. Someone who need not 'copy' at all, with such musical richness in him. He too has composed some songs which after a while you realize are similar to T's krutis. It takes a bit of time to realize this because it is not a cheap imitation but is an 'inspired' song. He has sung hundreds of songs which are original. On the other hand, there are songs by others who have done nothing but set their words to a known tune. In those cases, you can call them imitations.

annamalai · Post by **annamalai** » 07 Oct 2009, 23:20

Papanasam Sivan was an unabashed admirer of Thyagaraja and has composed krithis in the same Varna mettu as Thyagaraja krithis.

Whereas, the musical form as varnams were composed perhaps, 50/100 years( ??) before Thyagaraja period circa 1700. Arunagiriathar dates are around 1300 (??) time frame.

Then there are questions, what are the original tunes of Tiruppugaz as composed by Arunagirinathar, and the chanda talas etc.

I think Pudukkottai Dakshinamurthy Pillai has set the tunes for some of the Thiruppugaz and Alathur Brothers learnt Thiruppugaz from him.

ganeshkant · Post by **ganeshkant** » 08 Oct 2009, 11:40

Punarvasu,

Agreed.Ga also needs to be changed.I just indicated Pa to Ma for idea sake.

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 16 Oct 2009, 21:36

The hindu's review of the same:
http://www.hindu.com/fr/2009/10/16/stor ... 020200.htm

bkishore · Post by **bkishore** » 14 Jun 2016, 13:43

is there any audio link???kindly upload ([email protected])

rasikas.org

chingelpet ranganAthan@NGS(Mini) on Oct 5th,2009

Re: chingelpet ranganAthan@NGS(Mini) on Oct 5th,2009