TNS at MITHAS, Boston, October 28th (5 hour concert!!!)

arvindt · Post by **arvindt** » 29 Oct 2007, 09:36

As a review coming from a rasika simply dumbstruck and awed by the energy and zest of
a man (or should I say superhuman) who has just sung for five hours almost non-stop,
please excuse the relatively large number of superlatives you're going to read in what
follows. It's hard to keep objectivity after concerts like this!

Concert details and listing:

TN Seshagopalan: Vocal, Mullaivasal Chandramouli: Violin, Thanjavur Murugabhoopathi: Mridangam

EnthO premA - Surati - Veena Kuppiar (AS)
Gam Ganapathe - Hamsadhwani - Harikeshanallur Muthiah Bhagavathar (ANS)
Ranganayakam - Nayaki - Muthuswami Dikshitar (A)
Madhava Mamava - Neelambari - Narayana Theerthar
Santhana Manjari - Santhana Manjari - Muthuswami Dikshitar (A)
Madura Madura - Atana - OVK
Akshaya Linga Vibho - Shankarabharanam - Muthuswami Dikshitar (ANST)
Vanchathonu - Karnaranjani - Harikeshanallur Muthiah Bhagavathar
Ragam, Thanam - Hameer Kalyani
Pallavi - "Maa Mayan Madhavan Vaikunthan Sriman Narayanan" - Khanda Triputa?
Ragamalika swarams in Hameer Kalyani, Revati, Neelambari, Bowli, Kuntalavarali,
Kalyana Vasantham, Nattai, Gowla, Arabhi, Varali, Sri, Kapi, Devamanohari, Vasantha,
Kathanakathuhalam, and many more....
Mohanavalli - Manji - Kavi Kunjara Bharati
Virutham - All the remaining well known ragas in carnatic music, maybe excluding Thodi (about 20)
Marubari - Kamas - Dharmapuri Subbarayar
Thiruppugazh - Hamsanandhi
Pavamana - Thyagaraja - Sourashtram
Mangala Slokam - Sri Ragam

Today, TNS redefined what a "marathon" concert is, at least relative to carnatic concerts in this
century. The concert began at 4.45 pm and at 10 pm, more than five hours later, we were still
sitting in the auditorium glued to our seats, captivated by what, IMHO, was the "concert of the year"
(quite easily) here in Boston. And an unforgettable experience for me, being my first TNS live concert,
and quite easily one of the best live carnatic concerts I have been to. Chandramouli provided excellent
support on the violin (though I felt he hurried a bit at times, and had a couple of shruti lapses towards
the fag end of the concert) and Thanjavur Murugabhoopathy did a great job on the mridangam, being
TNS's co-conspirator in the many kanakkus that were laced throughout the concert.

TNS opened with Veena Kuppier's beautiful Surati varnam, "Entho Prema", delineating Surati captivatingly
in the opening alapana of the concert. An exquisite set of innovative kalpana swarams, both in vilamba
and faster kala followed, setting the stage for the rest of the concert.

The next, "Gam Ganapathe", saw TNS go through some voice problems, though his vidvat was as strong
as ever, shining through. The kriti was rendered with complex kanakku in Hamsadhwani swarams, which
was to be honest not too enjoyable, given the voice problems he was having (but this wasn't the last
kanakku by any means in the kacheri -- read on!)

TNS then began a beautiful, slow alapana of Nayaki and his voice, while still a little hoarse at the beginning,
kept improving as he progressed through the alapana, and culminated with some vintage Nayaki phrases.
MD's masterpiece naturally followed, rendered beautifully with a lot of azhuttam and feeling. TNS's voice
was now picking up really well, and a nice rendition of "Madhava Mamava" in Neelambari followed Nayaki.

When you hear an elaborate alapana in a vivadi asampurna melam, no prizes for guessing the singer: it's
probably going to be TNS -- very few have the caliber to do this today. A thrilling alapana laced with
brigas in the relatively rare 67th asampurna melam, Santana Manjari (the sampurna equivalent I think is
Sucharitra), followed Neelambari, taking the concert to heights not reached before. MD's rare, but thrilling
piece "Santana Manjari", the defining kriti in this raga (?), was rendered nicely, giving us a lovely glimpse
of the vivadi nature (the medium range passages sounded Amrithavarshini-like, and the raga has two
vivadi swarams, one in the purvanga and one in the uttaranga).

TNS fired away a quick, lilting "Madhura Madhura" (an OVK composition?) in Atana, which seems to be a
composition set for dance. The sangatis he sang in some of the faster passages of Atana were quite delectable.

The main piece was a grand Shankarabharanam, lasting for an hour and given the elaboration the raga
deserves. The alapana was memorable, not least for a cleverly woven graha bedam to Thodi right in the middle.
Chandramouli responded really well though he did not attempt to replicate TNS's excursions into Thodi. A grand
rendition of MD's masterpiece, Akshaya Linga Vibho (the third MD composition in a row -- they just kept on
coming this evening!) followed, with neraval and swarams at the usual "Badari Vana". The swarams had elaborate
kanakku as with Hamsadhwani, with interesting patterns of different lengths, lasting for nearly half an hour! It
was a laya treat, and the thani by Thanjavur Murugabhoopathy that followed was the icing on the cake.

There was a brief intermission announced by TNS, which lasted roughly 10 minutes (which doesn't at all take
away from his singing for five hours!) -- the word "intermission" gives one the impression that the concert is
halfway through, and we weren't wrong -- the concert was actually just beginning!

Vanchathonu, Muthiah Bhagavathar's composition in Karnaranjani started off the proceedings after the intermission
with an especially nice rendering of the chittaswarams in this kriti.

What followed was the best alapana of Hameer Kalyani I have ever heard. I have very few words to talk about that
Hameer Kalyani, except to say that it was divine. TNS's voice by now was flowing like honey, with no problems
even barely detectable with it. That alapana made me think about a statement I've heard -- "True brigas in
carnatic music died with GNB". Well, TNS seemed determined to prove it wrong and I think he succeeded, briefly
reawakening the spirit of GNB. The rest almost seemed redundant after that glorious alapana -- easily the highlight
of the concert, but of course it was followed by a beautiful thanam and an elaborate pallavi, which *also* lasted for
over an hour (now you get an idea where the 5 hours is coming from!).

The pallavi line was from "Thoomani Madathu", the Hameer Kalyani Thiruppavai (I think), and it was sung with
intricate kanakku (though this did compromise the bhavam of the raga slightly). A torrent of ragamalika swarams
in well over a dozen ragas followed, with the swarams in Revathi being particularly soulful, and reminiscent of
Vedic chants. Chandramouli's responses on the violin and his own swarams were excellent as well.

As if this was not enough, TNS followed up with the rare Manji padam by Kavi Kunjara Bharati, "Mohanavalli". Rendering
was beautiful and quite gut-wrenching, with some lovely Manji phrases coming out very well in both halves of the
octave. This Manji does seem different from other Manji s I've listened to (e.g. of Shyama Shastri, MD) but then again,
every version of Manji seems to be slightly different (part of the raga's charm?)

A long and lovely viruttam followed, in over a dozen more ragams. Between the ragamalika swarams in the RTP and the
ragas covered by the viruttam, TNS sang most of the popular ragas of carnatic music -- I have said "with the exception
of Thodi" in the list above mainly because it was easier to remember what he didn't sing than what he sang!

Never satisfied, the concert went into its last half hour with the classic Kamas javali, "Marubari", with TNS showing
beautifully how to render "Talalenura", catching the beautiful descent curve of Kamas perfectly. The penultimate piece
was a Thiruppugazh in Hamsanandhi, with a bonus grahabedam to Hindolam thrown in.

Pavamana was astonishingly the only Thyagaraja composition in a five hour concert, and TNS wrapped up with a nice
Mangala slokam set to Sri ragam.

Overall, very few words more to praise the concert -- wish we had more concerts like this more often, and artists
actually had the time to sing like TNS did today. More often than not it seems that time pressure restricts today's
concerts, and to sit through a concert with both the main piece and the pallavi lasting over an hour each was quite
a wholesome and unique experience. Hail TNS, for transporting every rasika here to another world today!

gobilalitha · Post by **gobilalitha** » 29 Oct 2007, 10:01

pallavi raagamalika 15 raagas mentioned AND MANY MORE, VIRUTTAM about 20, when can hear such a performance in bangalore? you guys are the luckiest people on earth. ninaikka,ninaikka pullarikuthu, great fortune, we are blessed to live along with him inthis century ..last sentence ofarvindt's review. hail TNSfor transporting quite a few rasikasto another world today? what about the rest? .did you pinch yourself after the performance? gobilalitha

arvindt · Post by **arvindt** » 29 Oct 2007, 10:04

By "quite a few" I obviously meant everyone in the auditorium (at least 100 to begin with, but dwindled later towards
the end). I'm sorry if it seemed like I meant anything else!

And yes, we were certainly lucky, and we certainly tried to pinch ourselves.

rbharath · Post by **rbharath** » 29 Oct 2007, 10:12

must have been a concert of a life time...

ranganAyakam, santAna manjari, akshayalinga vibhO, mOhana valli, hamIr kalyANi RTP...

god!

gobilalitha · Post by **gobilalitha** » 29 Oct 2007, 14:55

kindly excuse me for my instalment posts .I am sure shrutibedham would have been attempted in some raagas.what was the mother raaga? what were the children raagas?

rasaali · Post by **rasaali** » 29 Oct 2007, 15:04

gobilalitha wrote:kindly excuse me for my instalment posts .I am sure shrutibedham would have been attempted in some raagas.what was the mother raaga? what were the children raagas?

Todi was presented in Sankarabharanam and Hindolam in Hamsanandi.

rajeevsid · Post by **rajeevsid** » 30 Oct 2007, 08:07

wow!! must have been a great goncert.. Lucky you

!!!!

sarojaRamanujam · Post by **sarojaRamanujam** » 30 Oct 2007, 21:33

Knowing TNS it is not at all surprising that he sang for 5hours. He would go on singing the whole night and he usually finishes his concert within 3hours (Minimum-he cannot sing for less than that!) out of sheer consideration for the rasikas who had to catch the transport to reach home!It would be fortunate for the rasikas who could not attend the concert if any recordings were available of his concerts abroad. If any one can upload it in rapidshare or similar website we can download it and enjoy hearing it.
Whata has been a drought for Chennai rasikas has proved to be a monsoon for US rasikas!But never mind you Chennai rasikas. The monsoon is only round the corner.

sarojaRamanujam · Post by **sarojaRamanujam** » 30 Oct 2007, 21:36

By the way TNS sang for the whole night on vaikuntaekadasi in Ayodhya mandapam Chennai few years ago and only the accompanists changed and he was singing through out.

ramakriya · Post by **ramakriya** » 30 Oct 2007, 22:24

arvindt wrote:When you hear an elaborate alapana in a vivadi asampurna melam, no prizes for guessing the singer: it's
probably going to be TNS -- very few have the caliber to do this today. A thrilling alapana laced with
brigas in the relatively rare 67th asampurna melam, Santana Manjari (the sampurna equivalent I think is
Sucharitra), followed Neelambari, taking the concert to heights not reached before. MD's rare, but thrilling
piece "Santana Manjari", the defining kriti in this raga (?), was rendered nicely, giving us a lovely glimpse
of the vivadi nature (the medium range passages sounded Amrithavarshini-like, and the raga has two
vivadi swarams, one in the purvanga and one in the uttaranga).

This is one kriti I would like to listen to when he performs here in San Jose next week. Although I hate to give a 'chit' to a performer, I am really tempted to break my record this time

I haven't heard many asampoorna renderings of MD from him (except for kOkilArava krti IIRC) Any pointers to other asampoorna mELa kritis sung by Sri TNS is appreciated

-Ramakriya

sankirnam · Post by **sankirnam** » 30 Oct 2007, 22:38

Shri ragam? lol

(asampurna mela #22)

sankirnam · Post by **sankirnam** » 30 Oct 2007, 22:41

The torrent of ragams in the ragamalika swaram section of the concerts seems to be a favorite stunt of TNS. He did that in LA in 2002, and there is a recording (Dayton 1992 i think) where he sings Narayana Divayanamam and follows it up with a spectacular ragamalika swaram in 25 ragams!

venkatpv · Post by **venkatpv** » 30 Oct 2007, 23:41

i have a TNS recording of Santanamanjari without an alapana... this concert has a madhyama kala Lalithe Shri Pravarudha, a beautiful Abhayambam Bhaktim karomi and a super stunning Nirajakshi Kamakshi...

but yes, apart from Santanamanjari and Kodandaramam, i have not heard TNS sing any asampurna vivadhi mela kritis.

dhanyasi · Post by **dhanyasi** » 31 Oct 2007, 00:40

There is a recording of both Santanamanjari (with alapanai) and Kodandaramam by TNS in the dikshitar section of sangeethapriya

ramakriya · Post by **ramakriya** » 31 Oct 2007, 02:21

dhanyasi wrote:There is a recording of both Santanamanjari (with alapanai) and Kodandaramam by TNS in the dikshitar section of sangeethapriya

Thanks! We all know sangeetha is an ocean, but now even Sangeethapriya is an ocean, I miss many gems!

Thanks for the pointer.

-Ramakriya

shripathi_g · Post by **shripathi_g** » 01 Nov 2007, 10:40

Hmm, must learn to read posts before doing anything. Anyway, for what it's worth,

http://www.sangeethapriya.org/~sripathy ... anjari.mp3

http://www.sangeethapriya.org/~sripathy ... anjari.mp3

kartb82 · Post by **kartb82** » 01 Nov 2007, 20:58

I was also at this concert. The reviewer is right - it was an amazing kutcheri, the second time I have heard TNS live. He seems to never disappoint no matter the circumstances or situation - getting up at 4am and singing from 5pm to 10pm is just amazing, and a blessing for the rasikas that TNS would do that.

RTP in Hamir Kalyani was excellent and it seems he enjoyed singing for the duration of the 5 hours because the audience was soaking in every moment of the kutcheri - a great performance. It seems TNS may have had a little trouble with completing the single thisra kala speed properly during pallavi, but nevertheless a spectacular performance. Kalpana swaras in Sankarabharanam were classic TNS style with plenty of kanakkus and the mridangam player was up to the challenge for the most part. I wish the rest of the concerts in Boston were as good as this one!