Madurai TNS Krishna@Academy(Ambujam Krishna Day) on Sept 14th,2019

Review the latest concerts you have listened to.
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rajeshnat
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Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 08:04

Madurai TNS Krishna@Academy(Ambujam Krishna Day) on Sept 14th,2019

Post by rajeshnat »

Madurai TNS Krishna@Academy(Ambujam Krishna Day) on Sept 14th,2019
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Vocal: Madurai TNS Krishna
Violin : BU Ganesh Prasad
Mrudangam : Vijay Natesan
Kanjira : Anirudh Athreya

Concert Type : Nirvana concert
Day/Duration : Saturday/ 2 hours concert.
Concert Type : Free concert
Sabha/Hall : Music Academy (TTK Main Hall)
Occassion : Ambujam Krishna Day

All compositions are by Ambujam Krishna

01. vEzha (not vEgha)mughatharasE vA vA (S) - darbAr
5 mins swaras
02. pErinbam vErariyEn(R) - chakravakham
brief alapana for few mins

03A. alapana of simmhendra madhyamam for 5 mins
03B. viruththam - Adi Adi agam karaindhu isai Paaadi kanner malgi
03c. narahariyAi vaNdAn(R,S) - simmhendramadhyamam
swaras in simmhendramadhyam for ?

04A. viruththam - ezhiludaya ammanai - suddhadhanyAsi
04B. azhagA azhagA azhagA - suddhadhanyasi

05. rAmA yEti samayamu brovarA - kharaharapriya

06A. kOlam kaNdu kali theerndhEn (R N S T ) - shanmughapriya
10 mins alapana and ? mins violin return
neraval in pAl abihishekham thannil paramA eN nenjam paravasa mAgi nirmalam AnadhE for 7 mins

RagamAliga swaras in nattai + gowlai + varAli + bahudAri + kuntalavarAli + HindOlam + kadanakuthuhalam(not garudadhwani) + karnaranjani(Tx Crama) + revati + hamsanandi + sreeragam and of course shanmughapriya
ragamaliga swaras for 7 mins

06B. tani for 5 mins

07. aajA giridhar tum aajha (Ragasketch)- sindhubhairavi
08. kanna vA mani vannA vA - kApi+ shyamA + hamAnandi + shuruTTi
09. maN maDandai malar mangai maNALanukku -dasavathAra mangalam - sowrashtram
Last edited by rajeshnat on 16 Sep 2019, 14:48, edited 3 times in total.

rajeshnat
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Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 08:04

Re: Madurai TNS Krishna@Academy(Ambujam Krishna Day) on Sept 14th,2019

Post by rajeshnat »

Year on Year The TVS family works with Music Academy in bringing in the richness of vageyyakkara Ambujam Krishna. They advertise for atleast 2 to 3 days in a big column advertisement in their favourite newspaper - The H***u. Vaggeyakara Ambujam krishna's daughter who did not introduce her name briefly was the MC . She briefly mentioned almost all the vidwans and vidushis who tuned Ambujam krishna songs . The chief of academy Shri V Murali listened to the whole concert . With Murali there were indeed lot of patrons , lot could have been MUCH MUCH MORE, but I am assuming the reason is TNS Krishna hardly markets himself.

On a personal side in the era of late 80s to 90s there was a time when I only heard santhanam .One of my relative told me apart from santhanam in a live concert , He said you should atleast hear TNS and TVS , now it is clear that one of the finest super senior musicians of today is TVS and TNS. There are many vidwans who have such a high manaseega influence of TNS ,some who have learnt from TNS too but to hear TNS Krishna is such a joy. His musical intellect and his shraddhai is so high and I am just wondering if he even goes bit more than Maharajapuram Ramachandran shraddhai to Maharajapuram Santhanam. After a crisp introduction from AK's daughter and with her last note specially thanking sujatha vijayaraghavan, TNS Krishna sang very well .Many touch points i liked and few were not hitting that sweet spot of excellence

The start in darbar was well done , voice attained nice power and throw but a bit of a drag where for almost every 2 sangathis, in addition to his booming voice ,the microphone was very liberally picking his voice inhalation . I heard a rare chakravakham krithi pErinbam vErariyEn as 2nd krithi. HE did well and he kept up the ariyakudi typecast where #2 is strictly krithi with no R N or S.Simmhendramadhyam was well done , crisp alapana . A lovely viruththam unfolded at the end of alapana with no violin return . Few crisp musical touchpoints of roar simmhendra came in very well with a key word narasinga. Narasinga -simmhendra -singer roar was lovely triple sundae. CRama who sat next to me already expected the krithi and he told me even before viruththam . I was thinking like his appa or like few occasions that TNSK did in the past he will go from viruththam to song , but there was an intermediate short violin return. The song narahariyAi vandan was well sung ,krishna feels the words and there is rich bhAva sangeetham. That was very enjoyable

The concert peaked with the next song . What a joy to hear suddha dhanyasi . TNSK nalla vaazha thirandhu padran is the simplest comment i can make . The viruththam was pre sequenced before the krithi . What a line it was . That was isai thamizh at its best . Kural azhaga - vaazh azhaga - kann azhaga and from there to the krithi azhaga azhaga azhaga with superb swirls of suddhadhanyasi in every azhaga phrase. This suddhadhanyasi will be there in my system for quite some time

There was a fast filler . The raga is not rare but the krithi that was sung was rare. More than the krithi the kharaharapriya taking up the position of a fast krithi did not come out well. The words were quite excess and i am assuming AK took a lot of telugu words from popular T Krithi rama nee yeda. AK in kharaharapriya appeared as a patnam subramania lower mami .I did not like it that much with this melakartha #22.

I did not anticipate shanmughapriya as main when simmhendra madhyamam is sung as submain. I love both ragas. The alapana was well done with superb brighas .The krithi neraval was quite a lot of words , the kavi thamizh did not give too much of way for isai thamizh. The medlay of swaras in all the raga maliga were very creative (I have listed the ragas above and I took the help from crama to get karnaranjani).

In the tukkadas I did not like the sindhu bhairavi bhajan that much . But i loved the Ragamalika kanna vA . The last mangalam was deep there were so many verses and it is nice to hear a sowrashtram mangalam other than nee nama roopamulaku.

BU Gaesh Prasad had limited role but his raga bhavam was clean . His azhuttam matched up well. BUGP is shaping in azhuttam just like his guru VVS. Great rolling fingers from both vijay natesan and anirudh athreya . Vijay Needs bit more muscle is my last time comment and i feel he is work in progress to get bit more muscles . He still can show bit more on spot flair in sound. Tani was just touch and go they both just gave more TNSK time as it was strictly 2 hour concert.

vidushis Ranjani and Gatyathri were there for some time and Vidwan Ramakrishna Murthy was there till tani . Academy gives exact 2 hours slot during some monthly concert in their mini hall. Now in main hall also it is just same 2 hours I wish V Murali and Sujatha Vijayaraghavan Fixes that to atleast 2 and half hours in future. As i am writing i am wondering if TNSK does not market more his music , a new generation of rasikas will not know that this generation TNS is singing. His musical sincerity and shraddhai always floors me and in this concert the suddhadhanyasi did take me closer to what is actually real and total intense carnatic music.

Overall a very good to excellent concert for 2 hours.

arasi
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Joined: 22 Jun 2006, 09:30

Re: Madurai TNS Krishna@Academy(Ambujam Krishna Day) on Sept 14th,2019

Post by arasi »

Rajesh,
Great to hear that TNS Krishna gave an excellent concert of AK's compositions.
Some corrections in lyrics:
1: vEZha mugatharasE (vEzham=elephant)
2: pErinbam vERaRiyEn (vERu+aRiyEn)
5: rAmA, idi samayamu
8: kaNNA vA, maNi vaNNA vA
9: maN maDandai malar mangai maNALanukku

But for the opener vEzha mugatharasE taken from volume 2 of Geetamala (tuned by SS--musiRi also has tuned some songs in that volume)--all other uruppaDis are the ones tuned by TNS (Dr.S.Ramanathan also tuned some songs--in volume3. So, I am not sure).

AK's daughter is Radha Parthasarathy.

As an aside, Sujatha Vijayaraghavan and I sang vEZhamugatharasE as an invocation song before an MLV concert in the early days of Sadguru Sangeetha Samaja concerts--before the hall was built--at Sethupathy High School :)

rajeshnat
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Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 08:04

Re: Madurai TNS Krishna@Academy(Ambujam Krishna Day) on Sept 14th,2019

Post by rajeshnat »

arasi wrote: 15 Sep 2019, 21:02 Rajesh,
Great to hear that TNS Krishna gave an excellent concert of AK's compositions.
....
As an aside, Sujatha Vijayaraghavan and I sang vEZhamugatharasE as an invocation song before an MLV concert in the early days of Sadguru Sangeetha Samaja concerts--before the hall was built--at Sethupathy High School :)
Only when you sing you can disambiguate between vEzha vs vEgha, difficult to disambiguate when you only listen. Thank you for all corrections, Arasi. For the record TNS Krishna only gave a very good to excellent concert.

On a side note in your home town Madurai, CM Patronage has significantly gone down . The sadguru sangeetha samajam is not holding that many concerts. Time for many from USA to help cities like madurai so that age old sabhas stil continue .If there is no ragapriya or their chief patron CR Ravi , Madurai wil not hear Carnatic. They will go full time to jigarathanda .

Few months back I went to kallar azhagar kovil in madurai , the song azhaga azhaga azhaga is based on that diety. What a combo when Ambujam Krishna and galaxy of vidwans/vidushis tune each of those gems. I am assuming for assimilating the richness of diety in exhaustive detail that too in tamil and with extraordinary tuning ambujam krishna is the best bet.

Kudos to Ambujam krishna's outpouring. The first song that i ever heard of her was guruvayoor appanE appan sung by santhanam which I came to know few decades later was tuned only by TNS. For almost all AK krithis ,the laya and rhythmmic changes have been wonderfullly incorporated by each of these lovely practicing musicians ranging from VV Sadagopan,SSI, kedaranathan to the then young brigade of TN Seshagopalan .

CRama
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Joined: 18 Nov 2009, 16:58

Re: Madurai TNS Krishna@Academy(Ambujam Krishna Day) on Sept 14th,2019

Post by CRama »

The concert of TNS Krishna was a riveting one. I have heard all these songs sung by TNS and got bowled over in many concerts. Krishna gave full justice to the sahithya bhavam and Sangeeta bhavam. His open throated singing, manodharmam, proportion all keep him in good stead. Narahariyay Vandan and the preceding virutham is my pick of the day. TNS used to sing with so much bhavam and musical power which Krishna also performed quite eloquently. That virutham carried much emotion. I am giving below the lyrics.
Aadi aadi agam karaindu isai paadi paadi kanneer malgi
Engum naadi naadi Narasingaa endru vaadi vaadum Ivvaanudale.
Corrections welcome. It is Tiruvaymozhi..

He is a link to the same sung by Sikkil Gurucharan. But never comparable with the TNS rendering.
https://youtu.be/ydNtZpjMNek

The virutham Ezhiludaya ammanai is Nachiyar Tirumozhi. It was very appropriate for the song Azhaga azhaga.

Kanna Vaa is the TNS masterpiece ragamalika and Krishna did full justice to the song.
The Mangalam in Sourashtram is a Dasavatara mangalam.

Last year, this Ambujam Krishna memorial concert was performed by Ramakrishnan Murthy. Prior to starting the TNSK concert, the audio of RKM concert was released and handed over to RKSK.

rajeshnat
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Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 08:04

Re: Madurai TNS Krishna@Academy(Ambujam Krishna Day) on Sept 14th,2019

Post by rajeshnat »

CRama wrote: 16 Sep 2019, 11:11 Last year, this Ambujam Krishna memorial concert was performed by Ramakrishnan Murthy. Prior to starting the TNSK concert, the audio of RKM concert was released and handed over to RKSK.
Radha Parthasarathy invited RKM and released the audio of RKM's last year concert. RKSK is a typo.

CRama
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Joined: 18 Nov 2009, 16:58

Re: Madurai TNS Krishna@Academy(Ambujam Krishna Day) on Sept 14th,2019

Post by CRama »

Thanks Rajesh for correction. Yes it was RKM.

rajeshnat
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Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 08:04

Re: Madurai TNS Krishna@Academy(Ambujam Krishna Day) on Sept 14th,2019

Post by rajeshnat »

rajeshnat wrote: 15 Sep 2019, 15:14 I heard a rare chakravakham krithi pErinbam vErariyEn as 2nd krithi. HE did well and he kept up the ariyakudi typecast where #2 is strictly krithi with no R N or S.
I stand corrected for the rare chakravakham krithi TNSK sang an alapana so it was not an ariyakudi typecast. I am bit losing my focus on noting R , N or S. One of the recent struggles that I have is I have started to wear a sODA Buddi (spectacles)for work and seeing computer. For concert for jotting down i manage without spectacles by scribbling in notebook. I write in notebook and it is at times becoming a "doctor prescription" as i come home to write the review .

rajeshnat
Posts: 9906
Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 08:04

Re: Madurai TNS Krishna@Academy(Ambujam Krishna Day) on Sept 14th,2019

Post by rajeshnat »

CRama wrote: 16 Sep 2019, 11:11
The Mangalam in Sourashtram is a Dasavatara mangalam.
This was really superb. Despite he ending in ShuruTTi in previous song , he moving to Sowrashtram took a little more cycles for me to recognize . Did TNSK sing all the 10 avataras in succession or did he sing only a part of this. I am assuming mahavidwan TNS tuned this .

Sridhar_rang ,
You must have connected the whole concert much better as you are more thamizh lover, your thoughts please.

CRama
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Joined: 18 Nov 2009, 16:58

Re: Madurai TNS Krishna@Academy(Ambujam Krishna Day) on Sept 14th,2019

Post by CRama »

The Mangalam covered all the ten avatarams of Lord Mahvishnu.

rshankar
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Joined: 02 Feb 2010, 22:26

Re: Madurai TNS Krishna@Academy(Ambujam Krishna Day) on Sept 14th,2019

Post by rshankar »

CRama wrote: 16 Sep 2019, 15:37 The Mangalam covered all the ten avatarams of Lord Mahvishnu.
I have heard Madurai Sri Sundar sing this mangalam.

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