TiruvArur Girish@ragasudha on Jan 28th,2015

[rajeshnat]

TiruvArur Girish@ragasudha on Jan 28th,2015
------------------------------------------------------
Vocal : TiruvArur Girish - grandson of sangeetha kalanidhi Smt BrindA
Violin : RK Shriram Kumar
Mrudangam : Tiruvarur bhaktavatsalam
Kanjira : Anirudh Athreya

Concert duration/Day : 2 hour and 25 mins/Wednesday
Concert Type : Nirvana (no concert to follow) and Free
Banner/Hall : nAdAmrta / ragasudha hall
Crowd : 125 to 150 (max)- 75 % hall full

1. dhAniki takuja??? (R) - tOdi - Tanjore Quartet
2. veenA pushtakadhArini(R) - veghavAhini- MD
4 mins alapana and 2 mins violin return

3. daya jUcuTakidi – rAga gAna vAridhi - T
4. pAhi shree girirAja(R,S) - Aanandabhairavi - SS
5 mins alapana and 3 mins violin return
4 mins swaras

5. cinna nAtanA - kalanidhi - T
6. thyagarajaya namastE (R) - bEgaDa- MD
8 mins alapana and 4 mins violin return

7A. Emi nEramu nannu(R N S T) - shankarabharanam - T
11 mins alapana and 6 mins violin return
8 mins neraval in "dIna bAndhuvani dEvadEvuDani"
7 mins swaras
7B. tani for 23 mins

8. mAthE ... vandanai ....maraven - bhairavi?? - ???
9. jAnarO - kamas - ???
10. nI mATalu E mAyanurA - poorvikalyani - ???
11. pavamana

Tiruvarur Girish is grandson of T Brinda who was unanimously considered as musicians musician. I have personally heard Girish once - liked his strong voice and leisurely pace in rendition. This was my second live concert of his.

I came 10 mins late he just started with a long tOdi varnam . This dhAniki takuja??? varnam was very long and surely it was a showcase of endurance , tOdi gamakams indeed came out well and certainly this pada varnam was quite rare for me . He annnouced at the end it was a composition of TQ.

The next in veghavahini is a BM special , I could not get that much of awe feeling with veenA pushtaka . He changed the tempo to a fast no in daya jUCu in the rare ragam gAnavAridhi , i did not enjoy that much as i felt his rhythmmic cuts were not that intensely aesthetic.The submain aanandabhairavi was sung quite well and he came up with a nice konjal flow in pAhi shree with a touch and go of swaras , i felt he could have gone bit more. THe filler kalanidhi just did not come out that well and I felt despite his attempt to push with a racy fast number there was a personal disconnect.

A very leisurely begada alapana was done well and the krithi bit went away from the excellence when compared to his alapana. I was bit surprised to hear a front to back of begada and his appa shankarabharanam . He showed his class in the first half of shankarabharanam alapana and i enjoyed it a lot especially his dwelling in mandara and madhyama sthayi . He traversed well towards the second half of alapana in shankarabharanam and with more faster brigas it kind of fizzled out. The krithi was sung well and his leisurely build up in neraval and swaras was bit excessively measured there. It was indeed a type cast of his grandma school.

In the tukkadas i particularly liked the kamaas jAnarO the most , his delivery was fantastic and this was the pick for me . THe preceding tukkada in bhairavi(hope it is not manji) mAthE was definitely good not as good as janarO . THe last poorvikalyani was good .

RK shriram kumar indeed kept his usual class and his proportion sense and his bowing went well with raga bhavam with shankarabharanam alapana being a top pick for me. Incidentally this concert was not that great demonstration of layam or speed change , so it perhaps went well with RKSk's strength of raga bhavam . Noticing Bhaktavatsalam in the last decade ,there is usually far more aggression but yesterday he kept up his aggression to a minimum to average level - to an extent his nephew was lucky. For one number in bhairavi I found at times his play kind of drowned the voice of the artist. His tani was bit long ,I liked it more in the first half . ANirudh played with lot of maturity and did give a great percussion support . His returns in tani was well received by the audience , surely Anirudh is pushing his calibre up.

In the last concert that I attended , i heard a more stronger masculine voice of Tiruvarur girish , to an extent i felt the throw was not that THROW in this concert. There were some special moments where he was aesthetically unique say in janarO , pockets of shankarabharanam and the early long varnam splash . Certainly an appealing bass voice. I am glad he sang little past 9pm in ragasudha hall

I think this banner nAdAmrta is an organization that is championed by mrudangam vidwan arunprakash who was there. There were many musicians in there - sangeetha sivakumar, TMK, amritha murali, BSP, RK murthy, bharath sundar etc. From fellow musicians point the crowd was indeed very high. At 8 pm the crowd melted to half.

Overall a very good concert for 2 hours and 30 mins

[rshankar]

Rajesh,
#5 should be cinna nADE nA, and
#10 nI mATalu Em(i)Ayenu rA?

[Jigyaasa]

dAnikE tagu - tODi pada varNam - rUpaka tALa
http://rasikas.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=2289

[musiclistener1221]

Unfortunately I had to leave after begada, but it was an excellent concert. His music was uplifted by RK Shriramkumar's violin - in my opinions he's one of the few violinsts who can do justice to this school of music in this generation...

[harimau]

TiruvArur Girish@ragasudha

Banner/Hall : AanandAmrta / ragasudha hall

I think this banner Anandamrta is an organization that is championed by mrudangam vidwan arunprakash who was there.

Nadamrta, not Anandamrta.

[rajeshnat]

Tx corrected it harimau it is Nadamrta. I googled to find this url http://www.sruti.com/download/news%20an ... dition.pdf

Arunprakash says in the above article : my outfit that presents concerts featuring the compositions of the Trinity and pre-Trinity composers only.

But Tiruvarur girish sang
8. mAthE ... vandanai ....maraven - bhairavi?? - ???
9. jAnarO - kamas - ???
10. nI mATalu E mAyanurA - poorvikalyani - ???
I think the above composers are post trinity and incidentally this janarO in kamas is almost like a hindustani number.

[RaviSri]

mAthE ... vandanai ....maraven - bhairavi?? - ???
jAnarO - kamas - ???

It is 'mAdE avar sheida vanjanai marappEnO' in bhairavi composed by Ghanam Krishna Iyer who was a younger contemporary of the Trinity. He had met Thyagaraja. This Tamil padam was dedicated to the Kapisthalam zamindar Ramabhadra Moopanar for the latte's help to Krshna Iyer in his practise of the ghanam style (nAdanAm ellArkki rAmabadhira sAmikki nyAyamA shollaDi dAdiyE) in the anupallavi.

jAnarOyi sakhimpagalEdA is a Khamas javali which came in the family of Jayammal and was performed/sung by Balaswaraswati and T.Viswa. Brinda-Muktha did not learn this song. .

[arasi]

Ravisri,
Good to know about them from the horse's mouth a sit were...

[mahavishnu]

I thought Arun Prakash's write-up on the Sruti site was a tad pompous. Sure, I understand the need to have such ideals but calling composers like Annamacharya, OVK and Arunagirinadhar as "acceptable" is such a poor choice of words.

By that token the Tanjore Quartet's compositions are unacceptable! Girish appears to have begun his concert by defying the rule.

Carnatic music evolves. I think freezing it in time (despite holding ideals of traditionalism) is a misplaced ideal. And what's next? Only singing ragams the way they were sung prior to 1904?

KAP should stick to playing the mridangam (or not as he seems to do on stage).

[rshankar]

Ramesh....could not have said it better!

[sureshvv]

Please folks... Try to focus on the ideas instead of the person saying it. I don't think there was an attempt to denigrate Annamacharya, OVK or Arunagirinathar. But you have to admit that most of their compositions are not concert main ready at this point (OVK being a mixed bag because he seems to have different types of compositions). I don't think Tanjore Quartet falls in the same category.

Sure Carnatic Music evolves. That is because many people are taking great pains to make sure it doesn't devolve Vijay Siva, for example, sings only composers whose compositions have survived more than 100 years. While this may seem "a tad strict", it ensures that compositions without intrinsic value do not survive.

Disclaimer: Have not read the Sruthi article under discussion.

[mahavishnu]

Suresh, I am all for the spirit too. But it is this kind of pomposity and arbitrary rule-making that destroys the spirit of natural evolution of the musical form.

So, Vijay Siva only sings compositions that are over 100 years old? I find that very strange given that his gurus (DKJ and Pattammal) made a career out of bringing into vogue some amazing compositions of the then contemporary composer Papanasam Sivan at a crucial time when tamil isai was not allowed by the cognoscenti and Mylapore mavens including the academy.

To my mind, it is such regressive and misguided acts like those of the academy of the 30s-40s that have promoted the devolution of this art form.

KAP could have easily remedied all this by saying that his organization stands for classicism and lofty musical values without passing value judgements on a large number of composers that have been instrumental in keeping this art form alive. And by the way his "acceptable" list also includes Purandara Dasa!

[sureshvv]

Suresh, I am all for the spirit too. But it is this kind of pomposity and arbitrary rule-making that destroys the spirit of natural evolution of the musical form.

Think you are being overly critical. There are many organizations with varying missions and this is just one stream with a specific idea. May be he needs to spell it out a bit more. Not having read the original article, I am in bit of a haze in this regard.

So, Vijay Siva only sings compositions that are over 100 years old? I find that very strange given that his gurus (DKJ and Pattammal) made a career out of bringing into vogue some amazing compositions of the then contemporary composer Papanasam Sivan at a crucial time when tamil isai was not allowed by the cognoscenti and Mylapore mavens including the academy.

To be precise, he sings compositions of the Uttama Vaggeyakaras and he feels that the last of them is Poochi Srinivasa Iyengar. These titbits are from his various audience interactions. I am sure Papanasam Sivan is an exception to the rule.

Times have changed. Singing Tamil compositions is eagerly awaited these days and no "progressive" movement is needed to promote it.

To my mind, it is such regressive and misguided acts like those of the academy of the 30s-40s that have promoted the devolution of this art form.

KAP could have easily remedied all this by saying that his organization stands for classicism and lofty musical values without passing value judgements on a large number of composers that have been instrumental in keeping this art form alive. And by the way his "acceptable" list also includes Purandara Dasa!

Hind sight is always 20/20. Human endeavors go down several blind alleys before finding the "right" way. Not sure how Purandara Dasa differs from Annamacharya in regard to the classical value of their compositions though.

[mahavishnu]

As I said before, it is not the ideals or the mission of his organization that I have a problem with. But it is his articulation that I find pompous (and possibly misguided).

And to draw a line in the sand saying that the great vaggeyakkaras stopped with Poochi also seems extremely arbitrary to me. Making such rules will always beg the question of how one would define exceptions to it. So, HMB or Vasudevachar were lesser composers? In any case, in KAP's organization they are. And by his logic, we can have no varnams except for viriboni.

[sureshvv]

And to draw a line in the sand saying that the great vaggeyakkaras stopped with Poochi also seems extremely arbitrary to me.

I think the rule is that the compositions should have survived a 100 years. The assumption is that if it has survived the test of time, it must be good.

The caveat is that in order for it to survive 100 years, it requires artistes to sing it well before its time

[mahavishnu]

The caveat is that in order for it to survive 100 years, it requires artistes to sing it well before its time

Touché. I love it when any conversation ends in a good tautology
I still think KAP should stick to pretending to play the mridangam And I think he is a way better mridangist than he is a writer. And I am running out of back-handed compliments.

[sureshvv]

Did my best to get your mind off of KAP. Looks like it didn't work

[varsha]

heartening to see a nice baseline rally ending with a drop volley .Instead of the usual lob
and smash

[sureshvv]

The caveat is that in order for it to survive 100 years, it requires artistes to sing it well before its time

mahavishnu wrote:

Touché. I love it when any conversation ends in a good tautology

Not really a tautology. This is more like game theory. Let someone else do the hard work and take the high road by singing time tested compositions

PS: Sorry varsha for not letting it be