TNS Krishna - Sree Puthanalkkal Bhagavathi Temple, Cherpulassery, Kerala - 10th Oct, 2016

[dipukaruthedam]

Vocal: TNS Krishna
Violin: Nagai Sriram
Mrudangam: Vijay Natesan
Ganjira: S Venkataramanan

Concert Type: Break-free concert - intro and felicitations completed at the beginning itself!

01. srIrAja mAtangi - sudha dhanyAsi (O,S)
02. vAthApi - hamsadhvani (O,S)
03. mAmavasadA janani - kAnada (A)
04. rAmanAtham bhajEham - panthuvarAli/kAmavardhini (A,N,S)
- neraval at "kumAra guruguha"
05. vandanamu raghunandanA - sahAna
06. sloka followed by marivErE gati - Anandabhairavi (A)
07. surapAla sannuta - dharmavathi (S)
08. dArini telusukonTi - sudha sAveri (A,S,T)
09. kaNNA vA maNIvaNNA vA - ragamalika
10. virutham followed by kaliyuga varadan - brindAvani
11. thillana - dhanashree
12. mangalam

The concert started at 7, almost 15 minutes late, due to the previous concert eating into the current one. After the brief introduction, TNS Krishna started with a slokam in sudha dhanyAsi followed by the varnam srIrAja mAthangi. The varnam ended with some cracking rounds of swaras. Then he did a short alapana of hamsadhvani followed by vAthApi, this time with much more detailed and captivating swaras, overall, lasting for more than 20 minutes. mAmavasadA janani which followed was nicely sung. A detailed alapana of panthuvarAli followed by rAmanAtham bhajEham, with neraval and again with a flurry of swaras. The sahana came without any extras. Then he did a sedate Anandabhairavi alapana for few mintues and followed it up with a slokam. After this, violin was given a turn and followed by marivErE gati. At this point, I thought that due to time shortage (it was already near 9), he is treating Anandabhairavi as the main. But, the krithi ended without any neraval and swaras. Then he did a quick dharmavathi ending again with some nice round of swaras. Now, the time was already past 9. I was expecting few more thukdas, when he started with an elaborate sudha sAveri, indicating that the main is just starting! Krithi was dArini, with some detailing around "rajita maNigaNa" and detailed swaras. Thani followed. When he asked the organizers about the time left, they (most probably) encouraged him to go on, and so he continued from where he left. He sang 3 more, including a Ragamalika, virutham and the Swati thillana and all were rendered nicely.

Violin support was equally good and Nagai Sriram was following wherever TNS Krishna was going. The Mrudangam and Ganjira sound levels were quite apt and provided the right support and a good thani.

A very energy-packed and enjoyable concert which lasted over more than 3 hours by this team! Though TNS Krishna cut short on neravals, he compensated by adding detailed swaras/alapanas/slokas for multiple krithis and did not compromise on the content and time, though it was getting late in the night! Kudos to the team!

[rajeshnat]

dipukaruthedam
Great of you to review TNSK and more importantly stay bit late for the concert. TNS krishna is a fanta fabulous musician and his energy especially is unbelievably very high - testimony to that is vAthApi in hamsadhwani , with a pantuvarAli submain and followed by a dhArini telusukoNti as a main.

[dipukaruthedam]

Forgot to add that towards the end of the dArini telusukonTi, while singing swaras, he did a short "Ragamalika" while concluding... (I am not sure of the ragas, one sounded like mOhanam and other like bowLi/bhUpALam)!

[grsastrigal]

I still don't understand why he is not able to shine ? Rarely he give concerts in Chennai. I always feel he has a talent of Ramakrishna murthy. But, RKM overtook him and TNSK is far behind

[Meera]

Forgot to add that towards the end of the dArini telusukonTi, while singing swaras, he did a short "Ragamalika" while concluding... (I am not sure of the ragas, one sounded like mOhanam and other like bowLi/bhUpALam)!

He might have done grahabedham.His father does normally and brings out the rest 4 ragas I think which is called pentatonic scales.mohanam hindolam madhyamavati shud.dhanyasi and shud.saveri.Once he sang all the other 4 while singing pallavi in mohanam.

[CRama]

I still don't understand why he is not able to shine ? Rarely he give concerts in Chennai. I always feel he has a talent of Ramakrishna murthy. But, RKM overtook him and TNSK is far behind

He has got a great MNC job. That is why he is not very much visible like other young vidwans.

[rajeshnat]

I still don't understand why he is not able to shine ? Rarely he give concerts in Chennai. I always feel he has a talent of Ramakrishna murthy. But, RKM overtook him and TNSK is far behind

GRS
The problem is with rasikas and not to do anything with TNSK. Usually when a guru sings , the sishyas of that school donot get that much recognized by rasikas community . Many rasikas just think he is exactly singing like his appA -TNS , and they may not attend . When you go twice to hear a guru , why cant you go once to hear the guru and also the second time to hear sishya . That is the question that I would like all those who do not attend ?

With respect to RK Murthy , i think there is a lot of media publicity that happened in the years 2011 to 2014 or so . I am talking about shruthi write ups , the hindu write ups and even NDTV TV coverage with interviews when he was moving from being an Irvine boy to a chennai lad. I think RKM learning with RKSK has helped him to reach more media (the proximity of TMK and RKSK is evident and the media mileage is certainly a by product of that)

ON TNSK case , he was a resident of bangalore for few years is what I have understood . He moving to chennai is helping him , we just have to wait bit more . Possibly TNSK should work more consciously in social media like few others who do it consciously to market .

Carnatic Music is more and more about marketing - of course you should have baseline quality as a pre requisite. Both TNSK (who is certainly senior to RKK) and RKM are great musicians.