T.M. Krishna @ MFAC, Chennai (22 Dec 2006)

ram · Post by **ram** » 22 Dec 2006, 22:35

Venue: Mylapore Fine Arts Club (MFAC), Musiri Subramaniam Road, Mylapore, Chennai

Date: 22 Dec 2006

Organizer: Mylapore Fine Arts Club (MFAC)

Vocal: Sri T.M.Krishna (TMK)

Violin: Sri Sriram Parasuram

Mridangam: Sri Umayalpuram K. Sivaraman

Ghatam: Sri E.M. Subramaniam

List of songs:

1) sarasijanAbhA (varnam) - kAmbOji - kanDa aTa - swAti tiruNAL

2) chAla kallalADu - Arabhi - Adi - thyAgarAja (OS)

3) nenarunchinAnu - mALavi - Adi - thyAgarAja

4) mAyammA - Ahiri - Adi - syAma sAstri (A)

5) unDEti rAmuDu - harikAmbOji - rUpakam - thyAgarAja (ONS)

6) rAma bANa - sAvEri - Adi - thyAgarAja (ANST)

7) vinarAdanA - dEvagAndhAri - Adi - thyAgarAja

8 ) rAgam tAnam pallavi - shankarAbharaNam - kanDa jampa (T)

pallavi wordings: "mahima teliya taramA, srI rAmA nI"

kalpana swaram in shankarAbharaNam, sahAnA, aTANA, tODi, kAmbOji, kalyANi, madyamAvati, kAnaDA, behAg, sindhubhairavi and suruTTi

9) smara sundarAnguni (jAvaLi) - paras - Adi - darmapuri subbarAyar

10) mauLau ganga (slOkam - viruttam) - mAyAmALavagOwLa, sAmA, danyAsi, varALi - appayyA dIkshitar

11) eppO varuvArO - jOnpuri - Adi - gOpAlakrishna bhArati

12) dirana tana dIm (tillAnA) - chenchuruTTi - Adi - vINA sEshaNNA

13) pavamAna (mangaLam) - sOwrAshTram - Adi - thyAgarAja

(Key: O=raga outline, A=raga alapana, N=neraval, S=kalpana swaram, T=taniavartanam)

The time was 5:30PM. The MFAC Hall resembled a vegetable market with a lot of chaos due to people moving here and there. There was lot of noise in the air. People started settling down slowly. The clock struck 6:00 PM and the faint sounds of a tambura being tuned could be heard amidst the noise made by people. Around 6:05PM, the curtains were suddenly drawn up and there came the crystal clear sound of a "chappu" of a mridangam. There was a sudden calm for a second or two after which there was an immediate round of applause to acknowledge the artists of the day who were seated on the stage to begin their concert.

A cracker of a concert it was !!!!! Even the best adjective that describes goodness might fall short of describing the beauty of the concert. Beginning with the kAmbOji aTa tAla varnam "sarasijanAbha", TMK then sang the Arabhi kriti "chAla kallalADu" beautifully. The kalapana swarams in Arabhi were worth their weight in gold. With "mAyammA", TMK applied brakes to the concert which was moving ahead in full steam with fast paced songs. A neat alapana of Ahiri was followed by a slow, moving rendition of "mAyammA". The very detailed alapanas of the day in sAvEri and shankarAbharaNam were very beautifully executed by both Sri TMK and Sri Sriram Parasuram.

Sri Umayalpuram Sivaraman decided to innovate with the taniavartanam and played a sapta gati taniavartanam similar to the one he had played in Sri N. Ravikiran's concert at Sri Krishna Gana Sabha a few months back. At the start he played all the five nadais (chatusra, tisra, kanDa, misra and sankIrNa). Since there are only five nadais, he chose a combination of tisra and chatusra nadai, labeled "gati dwayam" as the sixth nadai and played a combination of all the nadais in pairs as the seventh, calling it "gati misram". He said he got this idea by seeing how janya ragas are derived from janaka ragas. He said he derived these two extra "gatis" this way. He single handedly played the entire taniavartanam for the sAvEri kriti.

Sri E.M. Subramaniam on the ghatam got his turn when he played the complete taniavartanam in kanDa jampa talam for the ragam tanam pallavi by himself.

All in all, a very very satisfying concert !!!!!

Source: http://ramsabode.wordpress.com/2006/12/ ... c-chennai/

vijay · Post by **vijay** » 22 Dec 2006, 23:45

Wow!! Should have expected something like that but I thought I would not pass up the chance to hear one of Palghat Raghu's few performances. Ram, your insights on the tani are excellent - I would be grateful if could add more on the tani/laya aspects in your future reviews. How long was the tani?

Was the audio satisfactory? This is one of my major complaints with the sabha (the other being the scandalous loos) which is otherwise scene to some of the best music in the season. The atmosphere is really charged - artistes like TNS and TMK have given among their best concerts at this venue. Compared to MFAC, the Academy is a relatively tame affair...

mahesh_narayan · Post by **mahesh_narayan** » 23 Dec 2006, 01:27

Echoing Vijay Sir's comment, did anyone attend the MA concert of Hyderabad Brothers with Raghu Sir?

Please do post Song list/review.
Thanks.

Ram Sir, how did YOU pass up the chance to hear Raghu Sir ?!!!

hindolam · Post by **hindolam** » 23 Dec 2006, 07:10

Ram,
Once again a superb description of a fantastic concert. I might just like to add that the bonhomie on the stage was great to see. The "old head on young shoulders" and the "young head on an old body" as UKS and TMK described each other paired wonderfully and one is looking forward to a repeat on 25th December at Partha. Sriram Parasuram on the violin was wonderful. And in my long career of kutcheri listening this is the FIRST time I ever heard a full tani only by the ghatam vidwan. As you rightly said it was a cracker of a concert indeed!

prashant · Post by **prashant** » 23 Dec 2006, 08:16

Beautiful review, Ram. Thanks.

gs · Post by gs » 23 Dec 2006, 10:45

Best wishes to all. My first post here.

To me, what should have been the concert of the season got slightly down graded because of RTP. Actually, it is personal disappointment and has nothing to do with the quality of RTP. After hearing his Kamboji RTP in BGS I was hoping for Sankarabharanam or Kalyani in MFA. Sure, it was. But unlike that Kamboji, this RTP was not wholesome. How can it be, if he wanted to sing four thukkadas, a thani and Sankarabaranam RTP in 45 mins?

Secondly, I may not be alone in this, I hate it when Mridangam plays along with thanam. I suspect, Krishna hates it as well. But, when a stalwart like US decides to play along, Krishna can do nothing about it.

As I said, it is largely a personal disappointment and has no bearing whatsoever on the performance. It was very good.

That said, I sincerely feel, blatant mutual back scratching by US and TMK should have been avoided. It pretty much alienated the other performers on the dais and carried the danger of reducing them to nonentities. Thatâ€™s neither the way nor the place to show mutual respect. No amount of philosophizing would justify this. To me, it was a psychological blunder.

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 23 Dec 2006, 11:36

he chose a combination of tisra and chatusra nadai, labeled "gati dwayam" as the sixth nadai and played a combination of all the nadais in pairs as the seventh, calling it "gati misram". He said he got this idea by seeing how janya ragas are derived from janaka ragas. He said he derived these two extra "gatis" this way.

At the risk of over thinking this, I wonder what Shri. UKS means here in terms of the model/analogy to the raga derivation. The Janya raga derivation is usually by omitting swaras from the parent. Here he is combining two gathis to make a new one.

ram · Post by **ram** » 23 Dec 2006, 14:38

vasanthakokilam,

This is what I understood .... not sure whether this is exactly what Sri UKS would have had in mind; so I may not be entirely correct here:

When he played for Sri Ravikiran's concert about two months back, Sri Ravikiran had done a sapta swara ragamalika pallavi where he had taken ragas that had shadjam, rishabam, gandharam, madhyamam, panchanam, dhaivatam, nishadam in their names and then played the RTP in the seven ragas he had chosen. More details are available at http://ramsabode.wordpress.com/2006/09/ ... a-chennai/

Now since there are 7 swaras but there aren't seven gatis, UKS chose to combine two gatis out of the existing 5 by making combinations. So I think what he is refering to in the 'janaka raga - janya raga thing' is not the top-down approach of deriving ragas from janaka ragas that you are thinking about. I think he was refering to using a combination of some of the 7 swaras to get a janya raga (kind of bottom-up) which in terms of gatis translates to using two or more of the existing 5 gatis to arrive at the two extra gatis that he tried to play.

ram · Post by **ram** » 23 Dec 2006, 14:47

Vijay,

I must say that the MFAC people have worked hard on the audio part. Before this season, the audio was pretty bad. Now they have put up extra speakers and the audio is much better. I think the presence of a lot of people in the audience also helps to reduce the echoes. The asbestos roof is however still there

ram · Post by **ram** » 23 Dec 2006, 14:50

mahesh,

I couldn't resist the TMK+UKS combo and hence had to skip Sri Palghat Raghu's concert. BTW, Sri Palghat Raghu is scheduled to play today for Chitravina N. Ravikiran at Krishna Gana Sabha.

(Please don't call me sir .... makes me feel real old

)

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 23 Dec 2006, 23:20

Thanks Ram.