TVS on 25/01/12 @Indranagar Sangeetha Sabha, Bangalore

[squims]

Vocal: Sri. T V Sankaranarayanan
Vocal Support: Sri. Mahadevan
Violin: Sri. T K V Ramanujacharyulu
Mridangam: Sri. Mannargudi Easwaran
Kanjari: Sri. G Guruprasanna

01. Gajananam bhootaganadi (Shlokam) - Begada, followed by,
Vallabha Nayakasya [S] - Begada - Rupakam - Muthuswamy Dikshitar
02. Ee pariya sobaga - Ragamalika (Hamirkalyani, Hindolam, Hamsanandi) - Khanda Chapu - Purandaradasa
03. O Jagadamba [R] - Anandabhairavi - Adi (2 kalai)
04. Seethapathe [R N S] - Khamas - Adi - Tyagaraja
Neraval and Swarams @prEma jUci nApai
05. Kamalambike [R S] - Todi - Rupakam (2 kalai) - Muthuswamy Dikshitar
06. Sevikkavendumayya [R S] - Andolika - Adi - Muthutandavar
07. Mohana Rama [R S T] - Mohanam - Adi (2 kalai) - Tyagaraja
08. Smarajanakashubha [S] - Behag - Misra Chapu - Swati Tirunal
Swarams @pAlita bhuvana samudAya
09. Ragam Tanam Pallavi - Shanmukhapriya - Adi (2 kalai), Ragamalika in Saama, Brindavana Saranga
Pallavi line: mahAtmA maNimozhi vazhi nadappom, mAmeru talaivan gAndhi
10. Viruttam (Kanna karmugil vanna) - Yamuna Kalyani, followed by,
Krishna nee begane - Yamuna Kalyani - Misra Chapu - Vyasateertha
11. Venkatachalanilayam - Sindhu Bhairavi - Adi - Purandaradasa
12. English Note
13. Mangalam - Saurashtram - Adi - Tyagaraja

It was a great evening. I made it to the concert with extreme difficulty, what with the venue being very far and it being a working day. But as expected, TVS mama was worth the trouble!
The concert was supposed to start at 5:30, but was delayed by about 15-20 minutes. The concert went on till around 9.30 without any interruptions though. So, no complaints.
TVS started off by dedicating the concert to Sri. Madurai Mani Iyer as it is his birth centenary, and saying that he would sing the pieces that the legend was best known for.
The Begada shlokam and kriti made for nice openers. Swarams at the pallavi were nicely sung.
Anandabhairavi aalaapanai oozed bhaavam.
Seethapathe was a pleasure to listen to, as always. Neraval and swarams embellished the piece greatly.
The Todi aalaapani was fully handled by Sri. Mahadevan. I must say I was very impressed.
A brief sketch in Andolika was followed by Sevikkavendumayya.
Mohanam was taken up as the main. As much as I love the raagam, I somehow do not like it when it is the main piece, but TVS sir's aalaapanai left me with a wide smile plastered across my face. The kriti was well sung, and I immensely enjoyed the swarams.
The very brisk swarams at 'palita' in the Behag piece were very innovative. Sri. Mahadevan shone here again.
By this time, I was slightly disappointed that there had only been one neraval and thought that it was too late to start a pallavi. But TVS surprised me by taking up the RTP in Shanmukhapriya. The aalaapanai was quite brief, but soulful nonetheless. Same for the taanam. Pallavi was great, with ragamalika swarams in typical TVS style.
A nice set of tukkudas concluded the concert.

About the accompanists:
Mahadevan provided great support to his father throughout. Will look forward to his solo concerts in the future.

TKV Ramanujacharyulu played very well. His aalaapanais stood out.

Mannargudi Easwaran mama was awesome as always, playing only to embellish a piece and never getting in the way of the vocalist's imagination.

Guruprasanna provided very able support on the kanjari, though I would have liked him to be more active in some parts of the concert.

The tani was very good. The kuraippus from both artists were well done.

[semmu86]

Damn, i was out of town, hence missed this concert.

Guruprasanna provided very able support on the kanjari

Guruprasanna is an outstanding artist, pity that we dont get to listen to him much in Chennai music circles, as i was told, that he is based out of Bangalore and also that Kanjira is not his full time profession. I have heard him play 3-4 concerts with Trichy Sankaran and he is right up there in the league of Sundarkumar and Amrit... These 3 Kanjira Vidwans to me make a legendary trio, and they are indeed starting to fill up the void left by the UNPARALLELED Harishankar, which was felt for a major past of the last decade, after Harishankar's demise.

[arasi]

KamalAmbikE! Haven't heard that one in ages!

What an apt pallavi line on the eve of Republic Day!

[srikant1987]

Sad that I couldn't make it! More's the pity!

Would have LOVED to listen to the O jagadamba especially ... the krti's becoming very rare, and I'm addicted to it in recent times, with an MMI version.

And the pallavi line is very beautiful too.

I tend to favour nannu pAlimpa and kAdambaripriyAyai in mOhanam, though. While mOhana rAma is so beautiful, it is too in-your-face.

[narayan]

Haven't heard TVS in live concert in a long time. Definitely an unusual song list from him. Ragamalika early on, Anandabhairavi ragam, Kamalambike and swaras in Behag (not a Behag pallavi). Way to go!

[kssr]

Thanks squims for the review.

My humble comments:

1. This is one of Sri.TVS's best concerts that I have heard in Bangalore.
2. Almost all the songs were new for me - from Sri.TVS. I felt that even his swaraprasthaaraas had dropped many of his well known regular usages and had moved to an all new format.
3. I liked his brief but beautiful andolika ragam. Also in his usual style of supreme humility, instead of "announcing" the name of the raga, he mentioned- "like you all know, this raga is Aandolika"!
4. Mahadevan did the thodi very well.
5. Violin vidwan- Excellent. The way he ended the phrases appropriately for the vocalist to take forward in the next phrase was simply amazing.
6. No need to say anything about Sri.Eswaran. Quiet understanding support as usual. (It was announced that it was his birthday. On seeing a surprised look on someone known to him in the audience, he drew the sign of a star with his finger to show it was his "Nakshatram birthday"!)
7. Guruprasanna has developed into one of the most favourite upa pakkavaadyam vidwans- quite deservedly.
8. Sri.TVS does not like his concerts to be recorded. But when he saw a few doing it, he gently indicated them to stop it with his hand, while continuing his singing. A very decent and sophisticated way of achieving what he wanted (instead of booming into the mike reprimanding the concerned person disturbing the entire proceeding, like it is being done by some popular youngsters).
9. Converting the thaanam or pallavi into a ragamalika has never been an easy task for Sri.TVS. Normally he starts singing an elaborate raga of the second raga and from there convert it into its swaras. This day, I felt that he had come prepared with an initial spurt of swaras in the new raga and then slowly tuned into the new raga and continued. Still doesn't feel too comfortable. For such a senior vidwan, there may be some other reason for his doing this, which I do not understand. If so, I apologise.
10. With 40+ years of concert experience, the amount of energy and concentration, that he is able to inject into the concert even to this day is truly incredible. Never a slightest mistake, in all my years of listening to him.
11. It was a 3 hr 45 minutes concert without interruption. Very memorable and satisfying experience.

I would like to say "Thank you, Sir"

[srikant1987]

9. Converting the thaanam or pallavi into a ragamalika has never been an easy task for Sri.TVS. Normally he starts singing an elaborate raga of the second raga and from there convert it into its swaras. This day, I felt that he had come prepared with an initial spurt of swaras in the new raga and then slowly tuned into the new raga and continued. Still doesn't feel too comfortable. For such a senior vidwan, there may be some other reason for his doing this, which I do not understand. If so, I apologise.

I guess it is too important for some people to maintain the soul of the rAgam all the time.

It may sound very proud of me, but I would like to mention a conversation with another music learner, who learned Carnatic music earlier and now learns Hindustani music. He said that it must be easier for me, since I play the violin, to switch between two different rAgams. I could not quite understand the comment, so he explained with an example of switching between say a shuddha madhyama rAgam to a pratimadhyama rAgam will be easier, since an instrumentalist can correctly (?) play the madhyamam as is required. It was a good point, but I said, "AnA sariyAna madhyamatta piDiccA maTTum pORAdE!"

[vasanthakokilam]

Srikanth, I assume you are referring to the difference in degree of difficulty in reproducing a musical phrase, vocal vs instrument. I definitely see vocal has a huge advantage there. Even for amateur vocalists and bathroom singers, we have that innate ability to repeat tunes, even if it is imperfect.

[mahavishnu]

VK, very true. But the key is that vocal imitations are almost always imperfect (by a non-trained individual) although we are more exact with reproducing a sound with an instrument (even without training) than with our own vocal cords.

We could possibly discuss this in another thread, but here is a recent paper on this topic [http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/xge/141/1/76.html]

I will stop here since this thread is on TVS's concert.

[vasanthakokilam]

Interesting. I can relate to that slider experiment. But consider this example: recall the nalanthana song where that starting tune is played on the instrument. I think non-musicians can hum that tune back more accurately than playing that on an instrument ( let us assume they know to play the swaras on that instrument). Not true?

( We will move these posts to another thread later )

[mahavishnu]

VK: The above mentioned study would predict that the slider is more accurate than the voice in reproducing "GRSRG - nalanthaanaa". Counterintuitive, isn't it?

My guess is that is accuracy is sensitively dependent on initial conditions. Once you have the pitch of the first note and an understanding of the gain on the system, the rest of it would be more accurate on the slider.

[vasanthakokilam]

yes, Counterintuitive indeed. And I do not believe it In my own personal case, my tune to swara knowledge is so bad that my humming reproduction trumps my instrument reproduction by a huge margin. Same issue with a couple of other favorite film tunes of mine: 'malligai..un mannan mayangum...' and 'AhAya pandalilE...'. I can hum it pretty close to the original but on the instrument, it is pathetic. I am willing to concede that it may just be me but I would like to hear what others have to say. I think it is time to do that slider experiment on tunes rather than single pitches.