TM Krishna @ Austin, May 21, 2011

[hamsadhwani]

TM Krishna - RK Sriramkumar - Arun Prakash

1) raksha bettare - bhairavi - adi (neraval/swaram @ sangeethapriya tyagaraja) - Thyagaraja
2) shri mahaganapatiravatu mam - gowla - misra chapu (ragam/neraval @ prakashakaram) - MD
3) pahi sri giriraja sute - ananda bhairavi - rupakam - Shyama Sastry
4) neenyako ninna - ragamalika (ragam/swaram @ first line of each charanam - senchurutti, nadanamakriya, sindhu bhairavi, punnagavarali)
--thani--
5) RTP - ritigoula - khanda triputa - 2 kaLai
"dasaratha bala ramachandraya dayanidhe mampahi"
6) adhuvum solluval anekamum solluval - sourashtram - subbarama iyer
7) Sri ramachandra krupalu bhajamana
8 ) thillana - paras
mangalam kosalendraya

Above is the song list. I will leave reviewing to more knowledgeable rasikas who may have attended the concert. I personally liked the concert a lot and was very happy about the fact that the RTP was not the mish-mash of 2 ragams type, the kind that Austin audience have been subject to for a while now! I thought the shruti suddham was excellent through out.
He sang ritigoulai in 2 kinds, with Shuddha D and Chatusruthi D explaining that the former is per the Deekshitar school and the latter the more popular school. RK Sriramkumar was excellent as was Arun Prakash. I thought it wasa befitting end to the season at Austin IFA.

[Enna_Solven]

T.M. Krishna - R.K. Sriramkumar - K. Arun Prakash - duration: about 3 hours

A fine TMK concert, unconventional as usual and hence a bit disappointing for me but he sang with his characteristic verve and involvement. The team understands each other and played well together. One needs to go to TMK's concert with an open mind...

1. raksha bettArE - bhairavi - no ragam, extended swarams, TMK asked RKSK to play one set of longer swarams by himself. Kriti was rendered slow. nice mandara passages.

2. Sri mahAganapatiravatumAm - gowlai. TMK mentioned that there is some doubt about this being a real MD creation and he normally doesn't sing it, but it came to him automatically today. ragam, neraval at 'prakAsha karO'. Whole piece rendered slowly but neraval had fast passages. I enjoyed it much.

Both items were long and I already had doubts about this being a conventional concert.

3. pAhi girirAja sutE - Ananda bhairavi - short and slow.

4. Strange main! Ragamalika in senchurutti-nAdanAmakriyA-sindhu bhairavi-punnAgavarAli nInyAko ninna hangyAkO - PD. Alapana for each ragam followed by each caranam in one ragam and finally swarams for all. It was nice and they glided across all the rAgams superbly, but.

5. RTP sans swara rAgamAlika, reethigowlai T - reethigowlai D (aka nari reethigowlai). He started rAgam RG regular, RKSK's alapana was enoyable too. TMK then started thAnam in RG(D) and I wondered, "what is he doing now. It sounds like RG but has ginger taste in it." He stopped and explained the difference between RG-T and RG-D. ThAnam was then continued in both. It was very good. They did pallavi in these two rAgams but there was no swararAgamAlikA.

-speech-

6. aduvum sholluvAl- saurAshtram
7. Sri rAmachandra kripAlu - yamuna kalyAni
8. thillAna tanOm tana ta dhiranA - paras
9. mangalam.

No kAmbhOji, thODi, kharaharpriyA, kalyAni, shankarAbharanam, mukhAri, sAveri, bEgaDa, Arabhi, kApi, mOhanam, bilahari, brindAvana sArangA, sahAnA, keeravAni, Sri ranjani, YKK... You northerners ate up those previously in the tour, boo hoo ;(

[Enna_Solven]

I can cook up my own automatic concert, harrumph! Don't need to wait for months and get disappointed. :devil:

---------------------------------- New Concert Selection 5/21/2011 8:45:00 AM ----------------------------------
Item Krithi Ragam ID Limit Length Position Artist
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Varnam Era Napai Thodi 29703 0/ 0/05:25 SS
Krithi1 Vathapi Ganapathim Hamsadhwani 26510 0/15 0/14:05 0.13 SK
Krithi2 Isaiyil Ananda Bhairavi 24617 0/10 0/05:01 0.23 BMK
Main Petridalamaname Sri Ranjani 32239 1/ 0/23:11 0.31 DKJ
Krithi4 Saraguna Palimpa Kedara Gowla 16683 1/10 3/08:28 0.43 CVB
RTP RTP* Kambhoji 36046 0/25 0/19:32 0.43 MMI
RTP RTP Thanam* Kambhoji 36047 0/25 0/12:51 0.43 MMI
RTP Pallavi Parimala Rangapathe* Kambhoji 36048 0/25 0/15:29 0.43 MMI
Krithi5 Ksheera Sagara Sayana Devagandhari 24209 0/12 0/09:18 0.58 MSI-KS
Krithi6 Muyyake Muyya Ragamalika 24427 0/15 0/12:03 0.78 MVS
Krithi7 Manamu Kavalenu Sahana 27730 0/15 0/12:07 0.67 TNS
Javali/Padam Viruttham Harikambhoji 33481 0/ 0/03:51 MSS
Thillana Thillana Bhupalam 35929 0/ 0/02:38 HB
Mangalam Mangalam - Pavamana Saurashtram 35948 0/ 0/01:31 KVN
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DJ: Requested: 12, Found: 14 including grouped songs, Queued: 13, Concert Duration: 2:22:58

[vasanthakokilam]

E_S, though you were disappointed with some ragas not being sung, it looks like you were not disappointed with the concert itself..True?

Regarding ragamalika swararas in an RTP, many artists do not even attempt to integrate them with the RTP. The focus on layam is lost. I probably would not have missed it much.

[Enna_Solven]

Yes, I enjoyed the concert but I expected to listen to an alApanA of the big ones sung in vistAram but not to be. My fault.

RTP had lot of kaNakku. TMK waited a long time between individual rounds of pallavi in slow kAlam of trikAlam when Arunprakash played by himself one Avartanam or more. The difference between RG-T and RG-D was striking and very pleasing. TMK is extremely talented and his voice was excellent from the first song. RKSK's bowing was firm and majestic. I heard a wolf note only once when he tried to match TMK's jet-speed gowla swarams.

[mathe-kamas]

I attended this concert as well. In the words of the organizer (A.Nagarajan), there was "tsunami" in the hall (I guess he meant to use the Tamizh expression "Kalakkara" or something like that). Overall, an AMAZING concert. But, I must say that switching between the two Reetigowlais in the RTP left us confused at places, and at other time, it seemed like the shuddham of either raga was lost in the process of switching. Quite innovative, required lots and lots of control, but I felt it violated the idea of an RTP (this is much more than all those swara in several ragas we are used to at the end of the RTP, there was constant switching back and forth, back and forth.

[Enna_Solven]

TMK mentioned that the solkattu of the gowlai krithi Sri mahAganpatiravatumAm is considered to be a later addition and not originally done by MD. (not the krithi itself as I mentioned earlier). Anybody knows the details?