TNS krishna@skgs on Sept 13th,2013

[rajeshnat]

TNS krishna@skgs on Sept 13th,2013
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Vocal : TNS KrishnA
Violin : Shertalai Sivakumar
Mrudangam : B ganapathyrAman
Ghatam : Coimbatore MohanRam

Concert duration/Day : 2 hrs and 30 minutes /Friday
Concert Type : Nirvana (no concert to follow)
Hall : kAmakoti hall / mini hall of skgs

1A. slokham - gNanA nanda mayam - kalyAni- ??
1B. varnam - vanajAkshi (S) - kalyAni - pallavi gOpAla iyer
2. shakthi gaNapathim (N, S) - nAttai - HMB
neraval in "bhAnu kOTi samkAsham pApaharam paramEsham" for 4 minutes
5 mins of swaras

3. rArA vAsudEva vara kumAranavanIta cOra (R N S)- tOdi - WVB
8 mins alapana and then violin return
neraval in "rAmacandrapurini velayu rAjagOpAla dEvA" for 4 mins
swaras for 8 mins
4. SArasa dala nayana - khamAs - MD

5. nanda gOpAla - ABheri ?? - OVK (not BMK corrected on Sept 17)

I was lucky to be back on a week day near skgs sabha as I had a meeting near my home .I headed to the concert of TNS Krishna at SKGS mini hall. The concert was advertised with donor passes for 10 Rupees being the denomination .There were just 30 to 40 folks in this mini auditorium. I commend SKGS in making each rasika pay 10 Rs then making it free - we have to atleast pay some money for every concert than 0 . TNS krishna being a disciple of TNS and also being his son has an unmistakable voice texture of Shri TNS . He started with a brief alapana and then the slokham and sequed into the kalyAni varnam. The mike was bit howling . His voice had a real authority but without hearing that much of pakkavadhyam and with a ballistic high speed assualt of kalyAni swaras at the end - it was not that much of a great start .

The second krithi in nattai was a rare HMB one popularized by shri TNS .nAttai had a very good neraval and a dose of swaras which had a bit of miss in voice texture . The submain TOdi was lovely in alapana , TNS krishna has a lovely akaaram type modulation and with a lot of nayana piDi i loved it , I generally like tOdi as a sub main too .There was a short neraval and an arresting swaras , felt he could have gone bit more but it was ariyakudi like rendition of proportion that his dad mostly follows in submain. In short from Todi he surely zoned into excellence.

The first filler in ,,,, was nice to hear considering this krithi sarasa dala nayana has gone out of circulation with the lines mainly used in pallavi rendition .There was not much of sereneness in ,,,, but his style of aggression was bit predominant in kamAs. The next filler nanda gOpala with its round of cittaswaras had a Dr BMK like structure, there was a line like gambheera murali and it came out well , i liked his choice and I am assuming the composition nanda gopAla is a DR BMK one(corrected it is OVK not BMK composition). I certainly missed a fast filler prior to main.

[rajeshnat]

6. RTP in varAli and hindOlam for 50 mins
nAyaka vinAyaka gananAyakA sakala kArya siddhi vinAyaka
sakala vEdapAra prAdhayakA srinAyaka ranganAyaka

varAli alApana for 8 mins and 5 mins violin return , then 6 mins alapana in hindOlam with no violin return
tAnam in both varAli and Hindolam for both 11 mins
Pallavi neraval for 10 mins
swaras for 9 mins

7. eNNAgu manasu - neelAmbari - T
8A. viruththam "uccHi mEEthil OlirUm OmkAra gaNapathiyai" - basant??? - ??
8B. thillAnA tOmtru tataraNi ... rithwa gaNapathi saptha surapati - basant??(Is basant and basant bahaar one and the same rAgA) - TNS
9. nee nAma - mangalam -sowrAshtram -T

With two neravals gone I knew he was heading towards rtp. Pallavi was dwi ragas in varAli and hindOlam . Felt when he started in varAli I was not that ready (possibly subconsciously the submain muse of tOdi did not get out of my senses and the todi-varAli has a fairly comparable muse). But as he progressed loved his varAli more for his alapana , with a violin return in varAli he moved to the second rAga in hindOlam and his alapana was very open throated and he sang well. It was smart of him not to give another violin alapana return and moving into tAnam with a liberal alernating sequence in both rAgas . I wish it was metered atleast in second half with mrudangam but it was not the case.

Pallavi was a kind of mixed bag. He informed at the end of RTP that his dad sings the first pallavi line and he has added the second half. The pallavi line was long kind of the first line on Lord vinAyakA and the second was in Lord Vishnu. But what made me uncomfortable was his juxtapositioning .The pallavi line was bit too intellectual at the cost of losing musical aesthetics , in the sense he was going bit too fast and at times with he taking the second line for both Ragas , I felt he was bit ballistic in both rAgas and it was bit irksome.Swaras were quite measured for just 9 mins but he came out well and I liked his presentation.

Post Pallavi Sadguru thyagaraja krithi was first exhibited and it did give a full vishrAnthi in ennAgu manasu of neelAmbari. I kind of wondered atleast then is to how important it is to drop one T krithi bit early (I am only saying in the context of only this concert as there was marked aggressiveness, not that i am saying T has to be always there in the first half). The last viruththam in basant?? was nice and I have heard his dad singing this lovely thillAna . There is quite a bit of overlap of this basant thillAna of TNS viz thillAna of Maharajapuram santhanam in basant bahAr (on His holiness chandrasekhara swami). I enjoyed a lot (is there a difference between basant and basant bahar- would love to know that )

With respect to acccompanist ,shertalai sivakumar could have played significantly better his nAdham was not that clean. The little extra aggressiveness of TNS krishna could have been matched better by Ganapathi , he was bit slow at few noticable places . I am hearing this ghatam vidwan mohanram for the first time and he was quite good . Tani was a standard fare

If there is one thing that i felt a bit of let down is that TNS krishnA is at times having a kind of slur (in thamizh they say pisuru), perhaps this pisuruness was there because of his little extra forcefulness (athattal).Hope it goes away sooon. Nevertheless he is following a kind of sampradaya purity in his approach . Personally for me the first concert that I heard shri TNS was in 1986 when shri tns was aged about 38 , certainly me hearing TNSK over few years is always a personal reverse extropalation of how tns sang when he was much younger when I did not have a chance to hear him.

Overall a very good to excellent concert for 2 and half hours.

[mahavishnu]

Thanks for your diligent review, Rajesh.
TNSK is one of the singers that I would really like to listen to this upcoming season.

[arasi]

Mahavishnu,
Didn't you hear him at Cleveland?

[mahavishnu]

Arasi, Yes, I've heard him a few times before.
But it looks like he has really come into his own in the last little while!

[sureshvv]

TNSK has certainly grown and matured. Great confidence and spontaneity.
What I found lacking on this particular day was that his ideas were not tempered by the condition of his voice.
May be because it was on a "working" day. Recently he performed with Varadarajan and Neyveli Venkatesh at Arcay convention center when his voice was in top shape and was able to undergo the work-over his imagination gives it. That was an absolutely amazing concert and put him right up there with any of the top ranking artistes of today.

[sureshvv]

5. nanda gOpAla - ABheri ?? - Dr BalamuralikrishnA

I think that should be Oothukkadu Venkata Kavi

[rajeshnat]

Suresh VV
corrected the OVK composition thanks. With the phrase gambeera murali I assumed it was Dr BMK

[CRama]

I had to miss this concert due to some office work. Really sad to miss the pallavi. Because, TNS sang the pallavi Nayaka Vinyaka in Bangalore in Shanmugapriya for a Ganesh festival concert with all songs on Ganapathi. This pallavi was unforgettable. I could not get the recording as the person who promised failed to fulfill his promise. My greatest regret still remains. It was in the year 1990 I think. But the same pallavi I have got in Varali which TNS sang in the later period somewhere for Ganesh Festival.

[matterwaves]

Yesterday was the first time i heard TNSK sing in mysore and make no mistake, he is a star- a chip of the old block. He must have learnt a lot of things just by induction from his great father. He sang a spellbinding todi and fabulous shanmugapriya. For some reason, he switched the electronic sruti instrument off for a while- during the tani avartanam and did not switch it back on until he finished singing the first light piece. I hope and wish that he concentrates and maintains his sruti shuddha singing.