T.V.Sankaranayanan, 14 Nov, Bangalore

s_hari · Post by **s_hari** » 15 Nov 2008, 19:29

Sangeetha kalanidhi - T.V.Sankaranarayanan - vocal
Mahadevan Sankaranarayanan - Vocal support
Vid Mysore srikanth - violin
Vid Anoor ananthakrishna sharma - mrudangam
vid M.A.Krishnaswamy - ghatam

1. gajananam bhuta ganadhi sevitam - slokam - mohanam
1a. gajanana mam palaya - mohanam - adi - tulasivanam (swara @ gajanana)

2. neve nannu brova - darbar - kanda chapu - ? (swara @ neve nannu)

3. barayya venkataramana - saveri - mishra chapu - purandara dasa

4. samana rahite - saranga tharangini - kanda chapu - GNB (ragam, swara @ samana rahite)

5. bhuvinidasu - sriranjani - adi - thyagaraja (alapana, swara @ bhuvinidasu)

6. ardhanareeshwaram - kumudakriya - adi - muthuswami dikshitar

7. kandan enra peril - kambodhi - adi - ?? (alapana, neraval, swaram @ punnagai mugam aru)

8. RTP - Brindavana saranga - kanda jaati triputa talam - little finder eduppu - sriranga hariranga pandu ranga brindavana saranga

9. endrum onragi - viruttam in tamil - hamsanandi

10. tirupati vasa venkatesa - hamsanandi

11. rama rama rama sita rama eniro - tilang - purandara dasa

12. pavamana - saurastram - thyagaraja

The concert failed to impress me, even though it was more than 3 hours, and had an RTP (just for 20 minutes!!!!, thani itself would have been for 15+ minutes(;-

Mahadevan sung sriranjani alapana, it was impressive. Not sure what went wrong in the concert? May be, every thing was very predictable. It was truely classical, no deviations on any sangathis either during alapana, swara etc though. father and son shared swara singing in all songs.

-hari

Lakshman · Post by **Lakshman** » 15 Nov 2008, 20:28

nIvE nannu brOva - Valajapet Venkataramana Bhagavatar
kandan enra peyaril - Sundaraja

bilahari · Post by **bilahari** » 15 Nov 2008, 21:27

Hari, how was the saranga tharangini? Never heard of this ragam before...
And quite a few rare krithis (for me at least); how was it predictable?

vijay · Post by **vijay** » 15 Nov 2008, 22:08

Would be good to see TVS' son and daughter carry forward the MMI mantle...they have been giving vocal support for quite a while and perhaps this is the right time for them to step into the limelight.

Both of TVS' recent concerts seem to have quite a varied fare...

braindrain · Post by **braindrain** » 15 Nov 2008, 22:55

Hari, you are right. It did not work well with me either. So was the previous 2 concerts of Unnikrishnan and Malladi Brothers. However, Sanjay had compensated for all that today with a cracker of a concert.

Lakshman · Post by **Lakshman** » 15 Nov 2008, 23:07

Bilahari:
sArangatarangiNi is a rAgA that GNB innovated and made popular.There are other songs (composed or tuned) by Bharatidasan, Ashok Madhav, Arunagirinathar and Subramania Bharati.

vijay · Post by **vijay** » 16 Nov 2008, 00:13

Braindrain, look forward to the details of Sanjay's concert

bilahari · Post by **bilahari** » 16 Nov 2008, 01:19

Lakshman sir, thanks for the info!

srkris · Post by **srkris** » 16 Nov 2008, 06:23

vijay wrote:Would be good to see TVS' son and daughter carry forward the MMI mantle...

Some core MMI fans I have met would question that particularly since whether TVS himself carries the MMI mantle is debatable.

srikant1987 · Post by **srikant1987** » 16 Nov 2008, 07:54

^^^
Maybe even you?

TVS isn't really a clone of MMI, but I like both of them, and can't decide whom I like more. If I ever got to attend a concert of MMI's in person, maybe I would have thought differently.

s_hari · Post by **s_hari** » 16 Nov 2008, 08:40

Bilahari - i don't know, i said "may be it was predictable".. May be, i went with high expectations, i didn't turn out.. May be, audio system, the ambiance of venue added to confusion! Glad that nadasurabhi is looking for a different venue next time.

=hari

vijay · Post by **vijay** » 16 Nov 2008, 14:03

I agree that TVS is not a clone but he largely does justice to MMI's core strength - the flowing, unbounded imagination in sarvalaghu swaras. Given this, there is no reason why anybody should question whether he does justice to MMI's legacy - personal preferences are of course another matter - TVS' shareeram for one is very different from his uncle's and it could be that the latter's fans are put off because of this reason.

annamalai · Post by **annamalai** » 16 Nov 2008, 14:15

TVS has a wonderful sruti aligned voice. I love his straight power packed singing and it is always nice to listen to him person esp. sitting close to him. His voice does not have the softer touch as a GNB or the filigree of Ramnad Krishnan.

MMI fans always wanted TVS to sing Kana Kan Kodi or Kapali, Sarasamadana, Eppovaruvaro, English note, .... The reportoire TVS has added are - Tulasivanam krithis, and some random tamil compositions - without much weight.

coolkarni · Post by **coolkarni** » 16 Nov 2008, 16:25

coolkarni · Post by **coolkarni** » 16 Nov 2008, 16:27

annamalai · Post by **annamalai** » 16 Nov 2008, 17:28

I was a huge fan of TVS. Some of most memorable concerts I have heard TVS - MSG - Umyalpuram Sivaraman 1983 IIT Chennai; TVS - VVS - TK Moorthy Music Academy 1984. Start to finish the concerts were full of vigor. TVS was also singing some of Sankara Iyer krithis - Vishnupriya, Nalinkanathi, Natakapriya. As you point out, his tamil Virutham / Pasurams rendered were rendered full of bhavam.

By the 90s, he was super popular and somehow the quality of music suffered a bit. Over the years, his music has not lived up to the initial expectations/ MMI mantle - not just as a replica of MMI, but more like a disciple like MLV, S Kalyanaraman for GNB or KVN for Ariyakudi.

I am not a fan of mini-RTPS - in minor ragas - Ranjani, Kafi, Kaanada, Brindavana Saranga, Desh, .... I somehow, felt this mini RTP and ragamalika became a big thukkada. Instead of singing this mini RTP and ragamalika, it was better to sing more thukkadas - like Santhanam.

Even in the concert written about, I wish TVS could have chosen to sing - more weighty krithis - Ramabhirama / Mundu Venuka - Durbar or Evarimata / Sree Subramanyaya Namasthe - Kamboji.

srikant1987 · Post by **srikant1987** » 16 Nov 2008, 20:21

Have you heard these songs or are you just assuming they don't have much weight because they aren't very popular?

There are some seldom-heard songs on concert circles these days, like mari mari ninnE of kAmbhoji, and that's because they're weighty and in fact prohibitively (for a 2/2.5-hr concert) long.
---
And imho, Kaanada is not a "minor" rAga.

vijay · Post by **vijay** » 16 Nov 2008, 20:55

Well put Coolji, in your typically metaphorical manner. As you rightly observe, TVS build's on his bani's strengths rather than being a mere copy

sureshvv · Post by **sureshvv** » 16 Nov 2008, 21:16

srikant1987 wrote:And imho, Kaanada is not a "minor" rAga.

I think this whole "minor" ragas is a red-herring. There are no minor ragas... only minor renditions.

rajaglan · Post by **rajaglan** » 17 Nov 2008, 00:23

I have listened to TVS once and he sang the famous Maa Janaki. He didnot sound like MMI style in any part of the song.
He didnot even render the song like MMI. TVS has created his own style but I was not impressed. I donot think anybody
till today has even 50% of the swara rendition capability of MMI.

On a different topic, there are ragas which can be called minor because, they have less scope for detailed rendition.
Because the patterns are limited. Or atleast noone seems to be digging new patterns on those ragas. Like khamas,
sahana, Kaanada etc.

coolkarni · Post by **coolkarni** » 17 Nov 2008, 05:25

Sathej · Post by **Sathej** » 17 Nov 2008, 09:33

Khamas, Sahana, Kanada - minor? Oh well! I've heard elaborate renditions from several musicians in those Ragams! And Cool ji, can't agree with you more on the 'rendering like MMI' rationale!

Sathej

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 17 Nov 2008, 11:00

Major leagues and minor leagues in rAgAs? Yes, as suresh says, it is in the rendering of them which makes rAgAs major or minor. TVS's singing of a brindavana sArangA or a sUryA were in the major league indeed, when I have heard them.
Annamalai's observations are true. Cool is right when he says TVS is not MMI's clone. TVS developed his own style without swerving from his uncle's path. With a never-flagging tempo, his concerts are lively. I only wish he would give us a varied fare. Then again, one can think of other performers who make us wish that their song lists (Oops! Sorry for using those two words) offer some new items to rasikAs...

srikant1987 · Post by **srikant1987** » 17 Nov 2008, 15:20

coolkarni wrote:Yesterday in a kannada TV Serial there was a lovely sentiment echoed by one of the characters.
He said : " wonder why always the Yesterdays look more beautiful than the present moment.
Is it because we are going downhill , or we have never learnt the art of celebrating this moment ?'

It's not just that the same person's yesterday seems better than their today. We always think of the living as less than the dead. And the older as better than the younger.

It's a cultural ... thing.

vijay · Post by **vijay** » 17 Nov 2008, 15:56

I agree - let us live in the moment. I have no doubt that 30-40 years from now we will sing the same lament about the "golden days" of the 2000s and so on...forum-member Samanth, who writes a fortnightly column on CM in the Mint, has touched upon the issue in his latest article:

http://www.livemint.com/articles/2008/1 ... al-mu.html

Sanjay had also mentioned something in one of his pod-cast about some newspaper berating the nose-diving quality of performers in the 40s or 50s! To some extent this is more understandable than the plaint of present-day cassandras - for it was in this period that the Ariyakudi format replaced the (IMHO) much more sophisticated Pallavi-centric concerts. Compared to that sea-change, subsequent iterations on the carnatic idiom have been relatively tame and in certain cases, decidedly more cerebral.

As for Kaanada, Sahana, Khamas etc. being minor ragas, Rajaglan has a point, but as SAthej says, a capable musician can expand these ragas to an extent - definitely long enough for a moderately ambitious Pallavi of about 30-45 minutes. It just takes a superior imagination, knowledge of the raga/its pitfalls etc.

Haven't we heard wonderful Kapi elaborations from our flautists or that evergreen Kaanada of TNS (although not a Pallavi). It is also not un-common to hear many of these ragas as sub-mains in concerts. Throw in a taanam (5 minutes), some ragamalika swaras (5 minutes) and a tani (10 minutes) and hey, you have a fairly elaborate Pallavi in this day of 15 minute RTPs!

annamalai · Post by **annamalai** » 17 Nov 2008, 20:19

To clarify, Sahana is a great rakthi raga. I have heard great renditions of Kafi - KVN - Intha Sowkya. Kaanada - Vanibondu - by T. Brinda or Rama Ravi.

My point about minor ragas - some ragas are typically sung at the tail end of the concert. Over the years some of these ragas have been associated with thukkadas / Javalis sung typically at the end of a concert.

An interesting question is why those ragas are sung at the end of a concert. Why ragas like - Umabharanam, Malavi, Suddhabangala, Pantuvarali, Gowla, Atana, not chosen for thukkadas ?

srikant1987 · Post by **srikant1987** » 17 Nov 2008, 22:49

Smt Jayalakshmi Santanam sang anupama guNAmbudhi in her IITM Music Club concert post thani a few days back.

Gowlai is kept for the earlier parts because it's a ghana rAgam. pantuvarALi is avoided in the tail end because it's a somewhat sad rAgam. It is best sandwiched somewhere in between the concert, with maybe some cheerful rAgams like bilahari and bEgaDa preceeding and following it.

I don't remember hearing umAbharaNam and mAlavi, and can't recall what shuddhabangala is offhand.

vijay · Post by **vijay** » 17 Nov 2008, 23:01

Annamalai - tukkadas lean towards Hindustani ragas - Behag, Khamas, Sindhu Bhairavi etc. are therefore more common. Incidentally there are beautiful padams in "chaste" ragas like Shankarabharanam, Kambhoji, Mukhari as you are no doubt aware given that you mention Brunda, Rama Ravi etc. I think Srikant has a point about brighter/more colourful ragas being preferred for tukkadas.

Srikant - Shuddha Bangala - think of Ramabhakti Samrajya, another one of the saint's little gems. Since we are on a TVS thread, it would not be out of place to recall a magnificent rendition of that krithi by the vidwan, supported by his children, at Vani Mahal, Season 2005. Curiously, one of the other obscure ragas mentioned by Annamalai - Umabharanam - is also a favourite of the MMI school, the krithi being Nijamarmamulanu

Member_First · Post by **Member_First** » 19 Nov 2008, 15:17

In the same category of Umabharanam, both MMI and TVS have, many times, sung KapinArAyaNi (Sarasa sAmadAna) as post thani kriti. Even, once/twice TVS has sung the very kriti in UmabharaNam during post thani duration.

On TVS style, Madurai Shri G.S.Mani has said that TVS can sing like any artist of yesteryears.

Sathej · Post by **Sathej** » 19 Nov 2008, 19:17

Talking of Malavi, I remember hearing a fairly detailed Malavi by TNS followed by Nenarunchi. The Krithi which is ubiquitously sung as a filler, was enhanced to great levels that day by TNS. Have alse heard an elaboration of Jayanthashri by him - I think in a concert around the same time. About Ramabhakti in Shudha Bangala taught to students early on, I can vividly remember a rendition by MSG a couple of years back at Vidwath Samajam. The 2 minutes of the Ragam and the subsequent Swarams that he played that day shall always remain fresh in my memory. Nijamarmamulanu, yes, no doubt is an MMI special!
Sathej

annamalai · Post by **annamalai** » 19 Nov 2008, 22:58

Of course, Umabharanam is a classic of MMI.

One of the best Umabharanam alapana I have heard is by Ramnad Krishnan in a noisy All India Radio recording. Another melodious alapana of this raga is by Alathur Srinivasa Iyer.