Special RTP Concert of T.M.Krishna at Mudra festival.

CRama · Post by **CRama** » 11 Jan 2010, 15:29

TM Krishna accompanied by RK Sreeramkumar on the violin and Arun Prakash on the Mridangam and Guruprasad on the Ghatom gave a wonderful concert comprising exclusively of RTPs on 9 Jan 2010. This concert was unique in the sense that it contained two RTPs. In all the earlier RTP concerts I attended, there used to be one varnam, one song on Ganapathi, RTP which will occupy the centrestage and a few tukkadas. This is the first time I heard a concert with two RTPs. KUDOS TO TMK..
TMK started the concert with tanam in the ragam Hamsadhwani followecd by Vathapi and few rounds of swaras. Then he took up Thodi for an elaborate rendition- full open throated and highly expressive. The raga was rendered in all its splendours not leaving aside any sangathi associated with Thodi. His voice was in very good form as usual and he could traverse all the three octaves - upto the top sa. The alapana was done in three stages with excellent support from RK Sreeramkumar. RK Sreeramkumar promptly replied to all the sangathis put forth by TMK. After the tanam in the typical racy style of TMK, he started the Pallavi which was set in Adi Talam Misra nadai. The Pallavi was in praise of Lord Muruga who lives in the Arupadai veedu - Tiruppramkundramgiri Tiruchendoor Pazhani malai Muruga Thiruverakam Thiruthanikai
Pazhamudircholai. (After Ashtalakshmi pallavi by Aruna Sairam, Dasavatharam Pallavi by Sudha now Arupadai pallavi by TMK!. Next should be Navagraha pallavi.) Elaborate neraval and anulomam - pratilomam were performed. The mridangam accompaniement by Arun Parakash was good support for TMK and not loud. It never came in the way of his his imagination. This was followed by excellent Tani by percussionists. After the tani, TMK was in deep thoughts for a couple of minutes. Then he announced ÃƒÆ’Ã‚Â

Rasika911 · Post by **Rasika911** » 11 Jan 2010, 16:23

Nice review CRama.
Did he sing trikalam pratilomam for the second pallavy as well?

Btw i have noticed that tmk has more and more students getting up on stage with him...is it really neccessary? More than 2 is distracting.
In recent times he has had upto 4.

CRama · Post by **CRama** » 11 Jan 2010, 16:27

Yes. He sang trikalam for second pallavi as well.
In this concert, he did not have any student with him other than two of them playing tampuras.

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 11 Jan 2010, 16:27

CRama wrote:This concert was unique in the sense that it contained two RTPs.
.....
He started a slokam on Siva in the raga Mayamalavagowla He continued the verse with thanam accompanied by Mridangam. Similarly he did in ragas Mohanam, Hamsanandi and Kapi and the end of which he rendered the second Pallavi in the ragam Kapi, Adi Talam 2 Kalai. He concluded after singing ragamalika swaras in Behag and suruti.

crama,
4 or 5 years before this 2 RTP series was conducted once at BVB-Mini hall ,where very junior artists have sung. I attended two of them.

When you said "Similarly he did in ragas Mohanam, Hamsanandi and Kapi", you meant it as thAna rAgamAliga of mmgowlai continued with mohanam, hamsAnandi and kApi , is that right?

madhyamar · Post by **madhyamar** » 11 Jan 2010, 17:09

arupadai Pallavi was done before by TMK. I have heard in one of his Singapore concert.

CRama · Post by **CRama** » 11 Jan 2010, 17:25

Dear Rajeshnat, I will make it clear. He sang the slokam for 2 minutes then continued with tanam in that raga accompanied by mridangam. In the same pattern he sang one line each of the slokam fiollowed by tanam for Mayamalavagowla, Mohanam, Hamsanandi and Kapi. Then he sang tanam in reverse order, then sang small sancharas from MMG to Kapi and then took up the Pallavi in Kapi.

prasanna.mr · Post by **prasanna.mr** » 11 Jan 2010, 17:27

When you said "Similarly he did in ragas Mohanam, Hamsanandi and Kapi", you meant it as thAna rAgamAliga of mmgowlai continued with mohanam, hamsAnandi and kApi , is that right?

He sang slokam in mmgowlai,mohanam,hamsanandi and kapi.Slokam verse in each ragam was followed by thanam.

sridrect · Post by **sridrect** » 11 Jan 2010, 20:58

Aruna Sairam has already sung a Arupadai Pallavi for a Bhairavi RTP which is available as a commercial CD from Rajalakshmi Audio company. She had chosen one raga for each of the
"Arupadai Veedu".

aDANA · Post by **aDANA** » 12 Jan 2010, 08:27

I think the ARUPADAIVEEDU pallavi was composed by Chengulpet Sri. Ranganathan sir.

CRama · Post by **CRama** » 12 Jan 2010, 11:14

Regarding singing a pallavi succeeding a slokam as done by TMK, I quote the following two concerts which may be of interest to the members.

1. Concert of TNS in CMANA in 2002 or 03 accompanied by Trichy Sankaran. Main song was an elaborate Palimchu Kamakshi in his usual style followed by Tani. After this TNS sang slokam Vandematharam. The fourth line of the slokam was sung in ragam Suruti - that too very elaborate for about 10 minutes followed by Tanam in Suruti for the surprise of everyone. Then TNS announced that he could not resist the temptation to sing a Pallavi in this occasion and hence the Pallavi after the Slokam. Because it was a concert organised by CMANA the Pallavi had words like Geethayin saram therintha seeman..... (about Anjaneyar). It is a mindboggling concert.

2. Concert of MLV. After the main song, MLV sang Chandra chooda siva sankara- a ragamlika starting with Sankarabharanam. After the pallavi of the song she proceeds to tanam in Sankarabharanam followed by the Pallavi . It was a very good concert as always with MLV. Interestingly this is the only RTP in Sankarabharanam of MLV which I have got.

arunsri · Post by **arunsri** » 12 Jan 2010, 11:43

TMK has sung a beautiful RTP in Shankarabharanam [Dashavatara Pallalvi: a creation of Sri. RKShriram Kumar] - mIna mandhara dhara sUkara naramriga vaTu bhArgava raghUvIra haladhara shrI krishna hayavAhava' in khanda jAti dhruva tALa [2 kaLai] a couple of times. Swaras were done in 10 ragas at the appropriate eduppus for the particular avatara. It was a stupendous effort.

Aviyal RTPs obtained by replacing words of the actual pallavi line with lines from popular songs DO NOT constitute a pallavi. Sewing names of composers in an attempt to pay homage is also a farce. Pallavi structure should have a grammar and stick to some established norms.

CMANA pallavi of TNS was a classic - sankIna tripuTa [2 kaLai] - 'gItArdhamum terinda vIra sImAnAn sItAshlOka vinAshanan avan hanumAna'

gravikiran · Post by **gravikiran** » 13 Jan 2010, 15:51

Clarification:

Sri TM Krishna sang three pallavis in this concert.

1) RTP - Hamsadhwani - Khanda Triputa Trisra Nadai - "Vatapi Ganapathim Bhajeham"
2) RTP - Todi - Adi Talam Misra Nadai - "Tirupparangiri....."
3) RTP - Kapi - Shlokam Tanam - Pallavi - "Sri Parvati Parameswarau...."

- Ravi Kiran.

CRama · Post by **CRama** » 13 Jan 2010, 16:22

Thanks gravikiran for the clarification. In fact, I came when he was just finishing Hamsadhwani. I asked from my neighbour what was the previous item. He reported that it was Tanam and Vathapi. Hence the error in my reporting. Extremely sorry.

It should be double Kudos to TMK for singing three pallavis in one concert.

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 13 Jan 2010, 18:50

Even though I was not there in this concert to exactly know how the concert was ,TMK singing 3 RTPS in succession is just extraordinary, only a handful of them will have the verve to sing 3 RTP's,most of them cannot make this 3 RTP ordeal .

On same lines there are few more musicians who can certainly deliver this kind of 3 RTP and 4 hour concerts, but it looks in the entire concert season and also in the last few years ,only TMK is given such exclusive opportunities .Hope this kind of oppurtunites are given to more and more musicians during kutcheri season.

srikant1987 · Post by **srikant1987** » 14 Jan 2010, 06:49

rajeshnat wrote:TMK singing 3 RTPS in succession is just extraordinary, only a handful of them will have the verve to sing 3 RTP's,most of them cannot make this 3 RTP ordeal .

While we're at it, a few words of praise for RKSK, KAP and Guruprasad, perhaps?

ramarama · Post by **ramarama** » 14 Jan 2010, 10:19

Is it particularly difficult to sing three RTPs in a concert for any reasonably qualified Carnatic musician? I can see why it might be difficult for someone to elaborate on some ragas at length without being repetitive and boring. Some rasikas do seem to go ga-ga at very lengthy alapanais, but surely quality/creativeness is what is important rather than Key Performance Indicators

such as length or number?

srikant1987 · Post by **srikant1987** » 14 Jan 2010, 21:53

Well, ramarama, it is strenuous to perform trikAlam, or handle tAlas like khaNDa tripuTa, tishranaDai or Adi tAlam mishranaDai with a tricky eDuppu, in fact, even to sing tAnam. These things become anywhere between a shade and a lot more strenuous on the violin.

Moreover since it's TMK & RKSK, we sort of know it wouldn't have been "repetitive and boring".