TM Krishna: Chennai Fest

[sreecons]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/ente ... 337472.cms

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Expect to be an interesting concert. Anyone planning to attend?

[mankuthimma]

For once , you will yearn for another set of ears - proclaims the Ad in todays papers
I prayed to God and received my additional set of ears by courier.
Instructions to link them up with the other two are missing, though . If I get that sorted out , will make an entry.
Watch out for a guy with Elephants ears . Ears which flap involuntarily.

CM and stagnation ?
Being reduced to a glamorous farce.
One day someone resurrects Meera in the venerable Academy .
Next day, another introduces his own raga Ganesh Kalyan .And spares us the raga named after his wife Shubhalakshmi.
Another day the crowd hoots for Vishmakari Kanna.
Trivialsing a great ART . That is what it is all about. I would like to tell my grandchildren that I stayed away a mile from this lowest ebb in CM.

I pity the next generation of singers and performers . They have to perform to an audience that has grown up on such a kind of staple diet. I dont even get angry.
Just laughable stuff.

[sreecons]

[Mahathma]

For once , you will yearn for another set of ears - proclaims the Ad in todays papers
I prayed to God and received my additional set of ears by courier.
Instructions to link them up with the other two are missing, though . If I get that sorted out , will make an entry.
Watch out for a guy with Elephants ears . Ears which flap involuntarily.

CM and stagnation ?
Being reduced to a glamorous farce.
One day someone resurrects Meera in the venerable Academy .
Next day, another introduces his own raga Ganesh Kalyan .And spares us the raga named after his wife Shubhalakshmi.
Another day the crowd hoots for Vishmakari Kanna.
Trivialsing a great ART . That is what it is all about. I would like to tell my grandchildren that I stayed away a mile from this lowest ebb in CM.

I pity the next generation of singers and performers . They have to perform to an audience that has grown up on such a kind of staple diet. I dont even get angry.
Just laughable stuff.

No idea why you did this outburst. infact according to me this is the best time carnatic music has seen. Of course as with any field that is in a growth phase, people have a choice to stick to the orthodox or get mixed with the other acts going around, some of which are really good. But, look at the quality of youngsters and there is no dearth for singers, which is definitely a positive for me.

[Nick H]

It's one of those festivals. Generally they seem to involve a hotel group and a particular newspaper. Having media involvement tends to ensure publicity, and they talk about their events as if there is no other music or culture in Chennai --- which is plainly ridiculous in the extreme. Mind you, apart from classical music, they do tend to bring us some things such as folk art which are not so easy to find in the daily listings.

None of this, however, invalidates any particular event or concert, which is may be very fine, but which, among the half dozen or so other events on a Chennai day, probably doesn't merit a newspaper article and a glamour photo. The photo of TMK makes me think he probably has his own picture editor!

[mankuthimma]

No idea why you did this outburst.

I made it clear in my post . It is about CM being reduced to a glamorous Festival . It is a sign of our times ? If Yes ...
Then I shall remain pained at these developments.
There is a Huge gap between what is projected on the media and what transpires on stage .Just like that thing about yearning for another set of ears . You guys really believe that kind of stuff ? It takes some nerve to project any music like that.

[rajeshnat]

In the harrington road side of chetpet , you have subba rao hall and chinmaya hall hosting concerts of BJ and TMK in the last week. BJ has meerA thematic concert with Gowri ramanarayan narrating, tmk having a concert at chinmaya heritage center.THese concerts are advertised by corporate sponsors and atleast quarter of a page ads are coming in The Hindu and Economic times for atleast 3 to 4 days before the concert.

In the other side of chetpet the spurtank road end ,kalAkruthi is a sabha that is there for atleast few decades . I asked that lady secy Smt rajammA about this years december season when I attended trichur brothers concert last week.She said "I could not get sponsorship for more than 5 days, this year there is just 5 concerts. Even for todays concert I found it very difficult to raise the minimum money".

I wish money flows from harrington to spurtank road just like the cooum river that is along those two roads which is part of sing Ara chennai.

[ram]

Started with vanajAkSi (varNam, kalyANi, kanDa aTa). Now vENugAna (kEdAragauLa) on.

[ram]

3) rAma janArdhana - nOTTusvaram - shankarAbharaNam - muthusvAmi dIkSitar

kAmbOji alapanai on now

[rshankar]

3) rAma janArdhana - nOTTusvaram - shankarAbharaNam - muthusvAmi dIkSitar

Ram thanks for the minute-to-minute posts (tweets?). rAma janArdana is a lovely nOTTusvaram - I have only heard this sung by the daughters of Kanniks Kannikeshwaran in their CD called vismaya accompanied by a Celtic band. I have heard Sri TMK sing other noTTuswarams elaborately before - would like to hear this one sometime! I would love it if someone sang a noTTusvaram and followed it up with a classic SankarAbharaNam to highlight the differences between singing the rAga like the major scale (nOTTusvaram) and the traditional way...

[ram]

4) kANa kaN kODi - kAmbOji - Adi - pApanAsam sivan

Neraval in progress at mANikkam vairam .......

[ram]

After kalpana swarams and tani, now a short rtp in pUrvikalyAni. Tanam on now.

[ram]

Pallavi words:"kalaigaLil sirandadu engaL cennai paTTinam, iyal isai nADaga"

kanDa tripuTa - 2 kaLai
eDuppu - 4 akSarams (1 beat) after samam
arudi - 14 akSarams (3.5 beats)

[ram]

Viruttam in Anandabhairavi, sindhubhairavi, mAND and then ADuvOmE paLLu pADuvOmE of Mahakavi Subramanya Bharati

[ram]

"jayati jayati bhArata mAta" on now

SSI sang this at the All India Radio on 15th Aug 1947 says TMK

[ram]

Concluding now with a tillAnA.in paras that TMK says is popular in Kalakshetra - "tanOm ta na ta dhiranA" (Kalakshetra - the Chennai connection)

[ram]

vAzhiya senthamizh to bring down the curtains

[Jyeshtha]

Wow... like a cricket match! Awesome that the rasikas are so desperate for a song by song update!! I now fully understand Mankuthimma's outcry

[mankuthimma]

this is the best time carnatic music has seen....
May be you are right. It cant get worse.
****
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness; it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity; it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness; it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair; we had everything before us, we had nothing before us; we were all going directly to Heaven, we were all going the other way.........

There were an editor with a large jaw and a editor brother who was also a king with a plain face , on the throne of the academy . Inside and outside of it , it was clearer than crystal to the lords of state preseves of loaves and fishes that things in general were settled forever.
It was the year of our Lord , Two thousand and Ten..
***
With due apologies to Dickens , I have nothing further to say on this matter.

[Nick H]

May be you are right. It cant get worse.

Oh yes it can!

We could have a situation where 90% of the concerts are light music, barely classical at all, and the other 10% are badly implemented fusion. Halls would be full and the music would be dreadful. Perhaps the violin would be superseded by the keyboard, and the mridangam by the drum machine.

I think we should count our blessings!

[mahakavi]

Whenever TMK comes on the scene some people follow him with bouquets and others with bricks. He is now used to it, I guess.

[srutilaya]

This topic is titled TM Krishna: Chennai Fest. Curiously however, amidst all the opinions and literary flourish, nothing is said about the quality of the concert, which in fact was of a very high order. Glamor, or no glamor, there certainly wasn't anything farcical about it. The artists on stage were very serious with a great sincerity of purpose in what they presented to their audience, backed by good deal of thought and research effort, as was evident in the short narratives that introduced each piece.

Whether it was kalyani, kedaragowla, or kambhoji, it was all as authentic as anything we heard from the previous decades. The nottuswaram, viruttam, and tillana were delightful, enhanced by a fluency, voice facility and instrumental clarity gained over years of dedicated, disciplined practice.

Today's social reality is that the corporates have taken over where kings and zamindars left off, and we can keep aside this social phenomenon, to consider the state of the art per se, distinct from the state of commerce. If rasikas' objections are to the ad copy or to reports appearing in media, that make no sense to many of us, these pervade all walks of life, and are nothing unique to CM.

Technology and commercial enablers are here to stay and may have ups and dips. But these should not detract from the merits of the practitioner or the performance. The artists have every right to enjoy the financial success resulting from today's commercial boom, just as other professionals do. And quality is certainly not inversely proportional to to prosperity. After all, these successful artists are showing responsible citizenship, trying to widen the reach of music, promoting talent, and generally inspiring more youth to take to music. The reality as we see it is that the proprtion of youth in sabhas today with intelligent participation, (keeping up the talam to perfection, observing the decorum of respect to accompaniments, with an understanding of their artistry etc) is higher than what we saw twenty years ago, or what our grandfathers saw decades ago. And this debate can perhaps be done under a different thread, not under a topic bearing the name of one artist and one concert.

[ragam-talam]

I am sure TMK fans will lap this up: http://www.tmkrishna.com/Files/M'zyme%20-%20TOI.jpg
(favorite drink: vodka & malt whisky, favorite dress: designer clothes, etc etc)

[Nick H]

It does seem odd to me that a seemingly sincere professional carnatic musician has this film-star presentation thing, but surely CM has had its share of odities --- and I doubt very much that TMK is the first to enjoy a vodka or whisky. Whatever!

amidst all the opinions and literary flourish, nothing is said about the quality of the concert, which in fact was of a very high order.

Before teh event, I made the point that the presentation of such festivals does not invalidate any of the items within them

If rasikas' objections are to the ad copy or to reports appearing in media, that make no sense to many of us, these pervade all walks of life, and are nothing unique to CM.

We recently discussed a formal The Hindu classical concert critics writing --- which, even at the basic level of language, let alone content, was gibberish. In a way, I rather have the commercial glamour language, because it is more likely to consist of sentences with subjects, verbs, objects, and so on. Not that the world of PR or journalism is ever going to save the language, but it'll do a better job than the author of that classical piece.

All this razzmatazz is really not necessary, but many things are not necessary and I guess it does no harm. And if it enables an artist to import a bottle of single malt whisky (ouch: expensive) then so be it.

[mankuthimma]

It was a good concert ,we understand, and we should leave it that , I guess.
Amen

[vasanthakokilam]

It was a good concert ,we understand, and we should leave it that , I guess.
Amen

Yes, indeed. ( I guess the promotion department went overboard with the hyperbole borrowing from kANa kaN kODi vENDum )

[sreecons]

Concluding now with a tillAnA.in paras that TMK says is popular in Kalakshetra - "tanOm ta na ta dhiranA" (Kalakshetra - the Chennai connection)

Thanks Ram for sending in 'Live' updates from the concert. It must have been an excellent concert considering the line up of songs/ragams. Paras thillana brings back memories - the very first thillana I learnt in dance

[mahesh_narayan]

His website say he won't be performing this december season, and that he would be sabha hopping like other rasikas.