OST @ Narada Gana Sabha 16.12.2012

[semmu86]

O.S.Thyagarajan - Vocal
Mullaivasal Chandramouli -Violin
Trichy Sankaran- Mrudangam
E.M.Subramaniam - Ghatam

1. enduku nirdaya-harikhAmbhOji- Adi (Raga Sketch).
2. nI bhakthi bhAgyasudhA - jayamanOhari- rUpakam (Raga Sketch).
3. ManavyALakim - naLinakAnti - Adi - (Raga Sketch).
4. bhajarE shrI rAmachandram - mALavi- Misra chApu
5. etAvunarA- kalyANi- Adi- RNST
6. eppO varuvArO- jOnpuri- Adi
7. nAdupai- khanDa chApu

Another rich classical fare from OST. All the pieces were presented in full glory. Attended a wonderful concert after a long time. Being a Sunday evening, happy to see a good crowd @ NGS.

Mullaivasal Chandramouli is one of the excellent violinists we have today. Somehow i feel that he is not a regular in the Chennai circuit for whatever reasons. His playing today was just brilliant, having the characteristic VVS touch all the way. Honeyed tone, Excellent, crystal clear, sweet bowing, wonderful replies in the rAga alApanAs and the kalpanaswaras. I feel he accompanies only select vocalists like OST.

What can i say about TS.. Just wonderful. One must have been there to experience his accompaniment and the wonderful thani. TS always stresses on "Sollu development", rather than playing only korvais, which was highlighted ever so beautifully today, as its been the case for decades now. Its just the same solid stuff that he keeps playing over the years, but there is a certain majesty and gOwravam associated, Its difficult to explain it here. Everything was so beautiful & tradition bound. None of the cheap kaNakkus and kOrvais that today's artists play in between the krithis and while accompanying.

It is said that Semmangudi mama referred Kumbakonam Rajamanickam Pillai as "dharmapathni". One can say the same about EMS too. Purely because he knows what "NOT" to play and when "NOT" to play. He followed TS literally like a shadow and also made his presence felt in a very subtle way. In the days of the percussion artists competing in excelling each other, it was such a delight to watch the two play with so much sync between them.

Such a pity that apart from the students of the artists, the hall was mostly of grey and white hairs. Only wished that there could have been more youngsters for such wonderful music.

[mahavishnu]

Jealous. Wish I could've been there.

Thanks Semmu for your excellent review. I completely agree with you on the majesty and gowravam that is an intrinsic part of both OST and TS's music. Glad you got to enjoy this.

[sairaam]

One addition to the list semmu86,

There was Abhogi ragam followed by GNB's "Thamasamika Thalanu" krithi, which was the sub-main...

I was actually surprised to see him take abhogi, as he had sung Jayamanohari..

PS - Between there were quite a few youngsters(incl me ) sitting in the Balcony

[semmu86]

Thanks for pointing out Abhogi

[Ramasubramanian M.K]

Semmu86--Good review!! Although TS has been in the field for over 55 years,--most of the time abroad where most of the time he rarely had opportunities to accompany top artistes except during their tours-- he has painstakingly honed his skills without resorting to the cheap korvai pyrotchniques that some of the upcoming mridanga artistes and even some of the established ones seem to indulge in. He represents the Palani School authentically(I am told by some of my elders that Palani Subramania Pilai himself used lot of Thavil sollukkattus in his early days and slowly morphed into the breezy(and yet sufficiently laya-laden) style,later on as he matured..
Current day mridangam artists would do well to observe closely artistes like TS for the compact and mellowed style. All of them have tremendous abilities in execution of complex korvais and sollukattu but lack in discernment and discrimination.

back to OST-- I once asked Semmangudi Mama in the Mid or late eighties ,who amongst the youngsters at that time he would recommend and Mama without a pause said OST and when I asked him why he said his sruthi suddham and the ability to hold long Karvais without flutter!!!! I posed the same question to lalgudi Sir around the same time and he mentioned OST(at that time Lalgudi Sir may not have accompanied many artists except the likes of Nedunuri,Madurai Somu et al) and also said he would not mind playing for OST-I do not know whether he did or not but I know for a fact that he had high regard for OST.

[sairaam]

I agree totally in what you said about TS sir Mr. RS..

Unfortunately, nowadays many senior vidwans and upcoming youngsters' play seems to "Attention seeking" one than "Lifting the level of concert" .. And toooooo much usage of ONLY Korvais in Thanis is the main reason y many rasikas prefer to skip thanis.

[rajeshnat]

MKR Sir
Nice to hear what semmangudi and LGJ views about OST. He is a real classy musician and he took a longer time to establish. I have heard few saying quite a few senior slots did come to him after his guru TMT faded out . But he adopting a general stand of not singing pallavis or generally only taking only thyagaraja krithis has kind of not given more rasikas base. I also recollect in one of the concerts when LAte SVK of ragasudha praised a lot, who also helped this bit late bloomer.

[mahavishnu]

Actually, OST learned from Lalgudi for a good bit of time in the early 80s. He was quite profoundly influenced by his music in this period and later. Some of this training was in parallel with his training with TMT. I have heard him quite proudly calling himself a Lalgudi shishyan.

[semmu86]

He is a real classy musician and he took a longer time to establish. .

Rajesh, i got a chance to catch up with OST during one of the train journeys to Chennai from Bangalore. He told me that he started taking up CM as a profession pretty late in his life, in his mid 30's, which is quite late as compared to what today's musicians do. Maybe thats the reason we feel that he took quite a while to establish himself, assuming that he started out full fledged as a pro in the 80's.

Also due to the fact that he learned from TMT, Semmangudi mama had special regards for him as a musician.

MKR Sir, as for your question, LGJ has indeed acompanied OST in his concerts couple of times, as told to me by OST himself....

[Ramasubramanian M.K]

OST --despite the fact that his father was an excellent teacher,he opted to work- i think in General Electric(I recall my late father mentioning to me ) and decided to take up full time music with TMT and LGJ--I also recall my late father writing glorious reviews in the early stages (partly because OST adhered to the ARIYAKUDI tradition in his concert formats which my father adored!!n)and used to write to me to watch out for OST . His concerts are always crisp,balanced and lot of sukha bhavam .His layam was also impeccable.

[rajeshnat]

He told me that he started taking up CM as a profession pretty late in his life, in his mid 30's, which is quite late as compared to what today's musicians do. Maybe thats the reason we feel that he took quite a while to establish himself, assuming that he started out full fledged as a pro in the 80's.

You must have meant as a full time profession.He certainly also sang even before he took up music as full time profession.It is not that he started giving concerts only after his age of mid 30's. I remember Late SVK told in one of the concerts in nAdaInbam that OST was an accounts officer in shalimar paints (not GE - MKR Sir ).

[mahavishnu]

Now that we are reminiscing about OST and the early 80s... It was in this period (or perhaps a few years earlier) that OST, his musical family in tow (talented brothers, father) had moved to live in West Mambalam, where I spent the better part of my childhood and youth. They lived in a house in Baroda street, where I believe he still resides.

Baroda Street was by far the most musical street in the neighbourhood even at that time. Other residents of the street included Sethalapathi Balu mama (& his sons who are now accomplished mridangists), Sri Tanjore Ramdas, and my vocal music guru the late Sri Kittamani Iyer (who was also teaching Smt Seetha Rajan and others). In fact they were all living in a "kudithanam" in various portions of the same old Mambalam style house.

OST's devotion to Thyagaraja compositions was second only to Kittamani Iyer, who ran his own Tyagaraja Utsavam. Residents of the street observed Pushya bahula panchami more seriously than most other religious events (mind you, this is west mambalam, home to the most pious tambrams in Chennai). There was even a sabha on the street called suprabhata sabha, where I remember Kittamani Iyer lining children up to perform Nowka Charitram and Prahlada Bhakti Vijayam every year.

The first time I heard OST sing was actually during one of our group music lessons. A number of musical failures like myself were attempting to sing Viriboni varnam in normal speed with great difficulty. My guru invited OST to join us and wanted him to show us pre-teens a thing or two about music. OST then sang viriboni in 4 speeds, followed by tisram and then in adi talam with nadai variations. My jaw dropped in amazement. And following this experience, most of my mediocre compatriots and I even stopped going to class.

Before long, OST had arrived on the scene as a tour de force and he was the talk of the town and soon top accompanists of the day were lining up to play for him.

When I saw him perform here in Toronto earlier this year with Sankaran-sir, I noticed that very little has changed in his music over the years. It is this commitment to great ideals in performance that has contributed to such remarkable consistency.

[anandasangeetham]

Since this is about OST I though I could contribute a little. Not a full fledged bio graph but little tid bits.....
LGJ had indeed accompanied OST and my father Late Sri O S Krishnamurthy. They used to sing together a lot in their youth in Delhi and was often referred to as Delhi Brothers/Ombathuveli Brothers.
OST was employed in Delhi and in his mid 30s came to Chennai. He was employed with Shalimar Paints in Parrys. He took to full time music a little later. He first live in Azeez Nagar,then to Subramanian Street and then to Baroda Street where is still resides.
As is in many of musicians family the house will always be filled with music. music classes, his daughters practicing, bhajan sessions etc. In our family no function is complete without a bhajan session. even for birthdays of children/ wedding anniversaries/house warming ceremonies Bhajan will be an integral part and everybody from OST/OS Sridhar / OS Arun/OS Sundar/OS MOhan to all the nandu sindus will sing.

For OST music is life I have seen him many times dwelving into alap quite often sitting alone even when others in the family are busy chatting.

Another interesting episode. I used to live in Egmore with my grandparents (mothers side) and my uncles (OST/Arun/Mohan) used to visit us often. everytime they visit I used to accompany them to the bus stop. they used to sing loudly and get into extempore swara exercises in the middle of road much to amusement to everyone around.For them Music is THE thing and surroundings is not a bother at all.

A grand celebration was conducted in Bangalore during 2009 January where all the four generations sang. From OVS ( that was the last function he attended where he sat through the entire day enjoying music. Everyone from OST and his brothers and sister and next generation, his daughters, other uncles' children, next generation my son and my nephew (cousins son) all performed to full accompaniments.

OST had started slow but he had a steady rise and he is absolutely content with worshiping Saint Thyagaraja.

[Rsachi]

Friends,
When I asked KVN mid-80s who is a good younger generation vocalist, he asked me if I had heard OST. I went to a temple concert in RA Puram shortly thereafter and heard OST and reported back to KVN.
We recently posted a fine concert of OST in the Parvathi blog, from a tape that had been languishing in some cupboard for many years.