Trichur Ramachandran - San Diego - 28th Mar 2010

[bilahari]

Trichur V. Ramachandran - Vocal
Nagai Muralidaran - Violin
Mannargudi Easwaran - Mrudangam
E.M. Subramaniam - Ghatam

Duration: ~ 2 h

Approximate Songlist:

01. varNam (S @ charaNam) - nATTaikurinji - Adi
02. karimuga varadA (S @ pallavi) - nATTai - Adi - GNB
03. ninnE nera nammi (Sketch, N @ vEda SAstra purANa, S) - pantuvarALi - rUpakam
04. unnaDiyE katiyen (S @ pallavi) - bahudAri - Adi - GNB

05. parama pAvana nI (R) - aTANa - Adi - Annasamy Shastri
06. bAlagOpAla pAlayASumAm (R, N @ nIladhIrata carIra, S, T) - bhairavi - Adi
07. ninnu pogaDa taramA - kuntalavarALi - Adi - GNB
08. kAraNam kETTu vADi - pUrvikalyANi - Adi

09. prEmaiyil yAvum (from Shakuntalai) (duet with Subhashree) - dES?
10. pidAmbiram - slOkam
rAdha samEta kRShNa - miSra yaman - Adi
11. davalarUpa saraswati - Ananda bhairavi
12. mangaLam - sowrASTram - Adi

TVR's much awaited (well, by me anyway) concert began with a madhyama kala rendition of the nATTaikurinji varNam with a few quick rounds of swaras. As this concert was held in memory of GNB, TVR continued to a GNB krithi in nATTai, to which he suffixed some brisk swaras, including a lovely swoop from the madhya gandharam to the tara shadjam. Wasting no time at all, TVR sang a short, energetic sketch of pantuvarALi. I often find myself bored with prati madhyama ragas like pantuvarALi and pUrvikalyANi, and I always find that a certain amount of briskness and intensity in dealing with these ragas goes a long way in making them interesting (to me). TVR's entire pantuvarALi was a fine demonstration on how to sing the ragam, right from the brisk raga sketch to the krithi rendition to the high-voltage neraval and swaras.

After a nice rendition of GNB's bahudAri krithi, TVR sang an excellent aTANa ragam where he sang N2 (SN,,,) and immediately followed it with the "aTANa" nishadam (SN,,,), brilliantly juxtaposing both nishadams to communicate the essence of the raga. A beautiful krithi by Annasamy Shastri was sung, and I was wishing that it would lead to a neraval or kalpanaswaras, but alas.

TVR commenced an elaborate bhairavi ragam, which was the raga I had been waiting all weekend to hear. His alapanai was excellent, with phrases like SR RG GM MP G,,R used very nicely. In addition, he sang SR,G - RG,M - GM,P plain amidst a gamaka and brigha filled alapanai, which was refreshing. Even in brigha sangathis, TVR embellished individual swaras like the nishadam in particular with evocative gamakas (e.g., in phrases like DN,D - ND,P - MG,R). TVR's alapanai flowed ever so beautifully, with gamakas and brighas both used in good proportion without ever going overboard, and with appropriate kArvais to occasionally let us all stop, take in, and admire the beauty of all that he had sung so far. Additionally, TVR's alapanai was painstakingly tailored to the krithi to follow, which was an added attraction. Dikshitar's immortal bAlagOpAla was sung immaculately by the vidwan, and he seamlessly shifted into a neraval at nIladhIrata carIra. TVR's neraval was positively brilliant and was probably the single moment in the festival where I had to just set my pen and notebook aside and get swept away by the music. The neraval flowed so fluently, almost as if it were a part of the composition, and not a nook or cranny of the raga was left unexplored. Towards the conclusion of the neraval, TVR sang thanam-type patterns in first speed which were just icing on the cake. Unfortunately, the neraval - as all good things - came to an end and TVR sang beautiful kalpanaswaras noteworthy for the evocative downward slides to the madhyamam and the juxtaposition of the tara and madhya gandharam. This concluded one of the most stirring bhairavi renditions I have ever heard.

While I was hoping against hope for a pallavi, time - that ever fleeing criminal - would not allow one, and TVR sang some pieces made popular by GNB to conclude the concert. When TVR announced he would sing a song from Shakuntalai with his daughter, I was - the purist that I am - all ready to pooh pooh the film song and decry his "dilutionism" on this forum. And then I actually enjoyed that piece more than I did any other tukkada. TVR and Subhashree combined very well to sing the song together, and she joined her father for the remaining pieces as well.

MAE and EMS accompanied excellently throughout the concert. Once again, MAE impressed with his sensitivity, and his accompaniment for the bhairavi neraval was awe-inspiring and undoubtedly inspired TVR to sing the way he did. MAE's accompaniment for krithis, too, is worthy of mention, as he anticipates and plays for each sangati so very perfectly, and there is such a world of a difference between a mrudangam vidwan playing for the talam and one who plays for each word of each krithi. EMS rose to the occasion during his turns as well, and played wonderful returns during the thani avarthanam. My only complaint with the percussion department is that the thani avarthanam was on the longer side (20-25 minutes in a 2 hour concert), but I cannot grudge MAE and EMS their opportunity to showcase their mettle (they had played brief thanis in all the concerts hitherto).

Nagai Muralidaran played beautifully throughout the concert as well. He was well up to the task in bhairavi, giving alert returns in the neraval and swara prastharam, and his returns in pantuvarALi were good as well. I was somewhat disappointed by his aTANa ragam, which was lacking in bhAvam, and also by his occasionally rough bowing, but these do not detract from his solid performance this evening.

I was warned by several people before this concert that TVR's voice is not what it used to be, and that he might find it difficult to independently sustain a whole concert. However, the converse was true and TVR was in complete command throughout the concert. Although his voice is not mellifluous, he did not compromise on his brigha-laden singing, and he did not face many problems with shruti either. No matter how much I had enjoyed the other concerts by relatively junior musicians, there is just something about this quality called experience. TVR was experience and wisdom personified this evening and his music in many ways is an ideal for others to aspire to. I have few misgivings about this concert: (1) I wish an elaborate ragam had been sung for either pantuvarALi or aTANa (both were about 3-5 minutes). (2) I really wish he had had sufficient time for an RTP. OK, this complaint has nothing to do with TVR, but after that bhairavi, I just did not want the concert to end. But as vinsim said, it's better to be left wanting much more, right?!

It was an excellent concert, and I give the last word(s) to a friend who has listened to all the great masters live and who in the middle of the bhairavi neraval turned to me and remarked:

"Now, this is vintage music."

[VK RAMAN]

Lovely detailed review bilahari.

[arasi]

Bilahari,
A lovely review of what sounds like a very good concert--even though there was no RTP.
Great to hear that our fellow-forumite who has been enthralling you with his mrudangam playing in more than one concert.
You have worked hard in bringing many reviews to us, each of them very interesting and instructive to read. Now you have to catch up with your lab work
While I savor your perceptive comments, what you say about neravals rings true. I hope at least a few musicians do pay attention to what you say--especially the young ones. I find that even if the neraval line isn't that great in its lyrical content (of course, that's ideal), if the rAga bhAvam in the line is rich and the performer is keen on knowing the pulse of it, the song gains a new status. More such neravals, the merrier the concert. Neraval does reveal (well, drop the 'n' and it is an anagram) the beauty of the words and of the rAgam while the AlApanA is the vehicle for rAga bhAvam alone. That's why I suppose CML wonders about experimenting on voicing words during AlApanA in another thread
Well, I hope you get some sleep and then get back to your academic work!

[kssr]

Thanks for the review- as usual very well done.

I had the opportunity to listen to TVR's concert held at Unnati Hall in Bangalore, on 12th March. The organisers had requested him to speak a few words on GNB. He did. He also got mentally carried to GNB days that although it was the fag end of the concert, he demonstrated the Sruti betham beautifully as GNB used to do it. He also explained that GNB was the person who introduced the idea of Sruti betham. The correctness was debated extensively at the Music Academy under the chairmanship of Tiger Varadachariar. Finally they decided after two days of debate, that Sruti Betham is "allowed if the artist is capable of performing it!!". The admiration and reverence that Sri.TVR had for his illustrious guru was a moving experience.

Not to leave out the fact that the concert itself was excellent, although As, Ns and Ss were all short. I am a great admirer of this great artists' swara prastharas.

Why is his "Sangeetha Kalanidhi" getting delayed. Every year I keep looking for his name after TVS and TNS got theirs.

[rshankar]

Bilahari - Bravo!! LOVELY review!

[rajeshnat]

GNB's song list is very distinct in the sense every number is packed with lot more intense classicism, even after a main two numbers like kAranam kEttu vADi and that GNB's kuntalavarAli needs a lot of sustained vocal finesse. One needs to appreciate Shri Trichur rAmachandran in bringing these kind of concerts with such intense numbers within a short duration of 2 hours.

Bilahari
Close to 7 reviews within a week , great job very well done. So looks like you have a special liking to trichur in general as they were the top pick this time. Can you or any one else spell out the rAgas of the viruththam(pidAmbiram???) along with few lines etc... , not recollecting them.

[Sreeni Rajarao]

Bilahari,
Thanks again for the detailed review!

Is a recording of GNB rendering bAlagOpAla (bhairavi) available anywhere?

correction : it should be rAdha samEta kRShNa

[prashant]

The 'viruttam' is actually IIRC a sloka from the Narayaneeyam.

pItAmbaram kara virAjita Cakra Sankha
kaumOdiki sarasijam karuNa samudram
rAdhA sahAyam ati sundara mandahAsam
vAtAlayEsham anisham kRti bhAvaymi
kRshNo rakshatu mAm CarACaru guru krishNam namasyE sadA
krisNEnaiva surakshitO mam sahrit krishNAya dattam manah
krishNA dEva samudbhavO mama vibho krishNasya dAsOsmyaham
krishNEr-bhaktir-aCanCalAstu bhagavan hE krishNatubhyam namah

Corrections welcome [and probably required] since this is typed stream-of-consciousness from my mother's and my memory.

[bilahari]

Sreeni, thanks for the correction. I only have recordings of GNB's RTP in bhairavi - I have not heard a krithi from him. My favourite bAlagOpalas are by MDR and KVN.

Prashant, thanks for the slOkam lines. I did not note down the ragas, though.

[bilahari]

Rajesh, leave aside Trichur - I seem to have a general liking for all musicians from Kerala!

[bilahari]

KSSR, it is entirely the MA's loss for not giving TVR the SK. But I was wondering about this too after the concert.

[kssr]

KSSR, it is entirely the MA's loss for not giving TVR the SK. But I was wondering about this too after the concert.

There are some omissions which hurt us. For example- Madurai Somu. At one stage he was the most popular vocalist along with BMK. But for reasons best known to them, he was not given SK. The raga alapanais of Somu are unparallelled.
The Nobel committee chairman now comes and sheds tears for not having given the prize to Gandhi- I mean MK Gandhi! But the damage is done.
I am sure it will not happen in the case of Sri.Trichur Ramachandran.

[bilahari]

As in you don't think SK will ever be given to TVR or you think the MA will eventually give it to him (and not live in eternal regret - not that I can imagine them regretting anything)? MDR is another omission that really rankles.

[VK RAMAN]

Could it be that they both are from Kerala with malayalam accent that they would not be considered?

[kssr]

Could it be that they both are from Kerala with malayalam accent that they would not be considered?

Awards to Chembai and KVN disproves such regional bias. That way, except for Tamilnadu, all the three states Kerala, Karnataka and AP are SK starved states.

[mohan]

Nice review. Glad Sri TVR is recreating some of his vintage best and giving glimpses of his illustrious guru Sri GNB to US audiences in the centenarary year of GNB.

It is unfortunate that grand concerts get truncated due to time constraints but this is inevitable when the concert is part of a festival featuring lots of performers.

[arasi]

Mohan,
True. But some organizers try their best to stick to time limits. Our VKV, for instance is a stickler for time. You may be striving for it in Australia too, as difficult as it is. I do remember Carnatica achieving this in a relay of concerts a few years ago in BengaLUru for tyAgarAja utsavam. I was impressed and pleased no end. All the same, I agree that it is tough to pull off a series of concerts in a specified time frame.