T V SankaranarAyanan@MFAC on May26th,2007

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 27 May 2007, 22:31

Accompanied by Amritha(TVS daughter) - vocal , varadarAjan- violin , neyvEli skandasubramaniam - mrudangam and anirudh athreya -kanjira

1A. viruththam "sudarOliyE pOtri ganapathiyE pOtri" - hamsadwani - ??
1B. karunai seivai(S) - hamsadwani -pApanAsam sivan
2. mA ramanan (R) - hindOlam -pApanAsam sivan
3. guruvaayoorappaa kuzhandhaay(S) - chakravAkham - pApanAsam Sivan
4. venkataramana un (R N S ) - lathAngi - pApanAsam Sivan
neraval in "alarmEl mangai maNaaLaa ambuja naaba dhayaaLaa"

5. yArunai pOL athirappavar - ataanA - rangaswAmi nattuvanAr???
6A. kapaali(R S T) - mOhanam - pApanAsam Sivan
6B. tani

7A.viruththam "kannA kAr mughiL vannA" - ??? + hamsanandi - ??
7B. srinivAsa thiruvEntkata - hamsadwani - pApanAsam Sivan

8. eppa varuvArO - jonpuri - GKB
9. mmi note - shankarAbharanam - HMB
10. vAzhiya senthamizh - madhyamAvati - bhArathiyAr

The concert was organized by YACD (youth association cultural development) where the sponsor was kOvai Sri krishna sweets in the banner "eppadi pAdinarO".What I did not realize was the concert was lined up with only thamizh krithis.Infact once every month since last 4 months till 2008 Jan, they have lined up artists. The concert was scheduled to start with a brief speech at 6pm. Delayed start and an award to Smt rukmani ramani(pApanAsam Sivan's daughter), with speeches by murali ,organizers and TVS pushed the concert start to 7:05pm.

What followed was a concert with full blast in sound . Shri TVS in his open throated style was excessively loud . The viruththam and the sivan's krithi in hamsadhwani was robbed of all sowkhyam with the excessive thrust on rasikAs eardrums.

The deafening sound somewhat smoothened in the hindOlam alApanai and the krithi was well executed. The next guruvaayoorapaa was quite good with a farily good swara pattern . The day's best was lathAngi . The sound was quite balanced and Shri TVS manOdharmam was very good in neraval and swaram.

The rare atAnA was average . The main in mOhanam was a disappointment . The alApanai was too short ,that too considering that kApAli generally does not have neraval , he could have elaborated more in alApanai. The sarvalaghu swara pattern of mOhanam was lacklustre and was just good towards the end.

The viruththam his trademark of connecting different names of venkataramana was dished out in his usual style with phrases like madhusudhana, damOdara, santhanagOpalA and predictably ending in his favourite srinivAsa thiruvenkatA in hamsAnandi was quite good , again marked by excessive sound.

The traditional mmi finish of jOnpuri and notes gave more oppurtunity to smt amritha to sing who sang just good. Certainly not easy for anyone(especially a women) to sing along with TVS's full throated voice.

varadarAjan was just good , the percussionists were quite good , but displayed a very simplistic tani. OVerall a 1 hour speech and wait , followed by just 1 hour and 55 minutes was uninspiring to me.

About patronage of few good samaritans:
It is quite nice to hear Shri Murali of Krishna sweets to come up with so many themes not just in CM,but also supporting other fine arts like bhajans, nAmasankeerthanams, discourses etc. But it would be nice if his team and YACD (youth association cultural development) start more concentrating on completeness of every concert that they take up especially with this star studded cm concerts in eppadi pAdinarO .

There appears too much of hyper excitement and praise within the team and the dais ensemble at the start but what followed was a fairly mediocre quality spread till the end . There is a constant mention that the service rendered by this team is very noteworthy that too considering today's fast paced world. Fair statement , but why is not that statement extended to give a full concert experience like 50's and 60's where there was a musical excellence that was atleast spread to 3 hours.

Just perhaps I speculate with my own objectivity that organizers should take more time to understand and organize these thematic concerts with focus on depth, just giving a theme and opportunities are only very good first few steps.

raju54 · Post by **raju54** » 28 May 2007, 05:38

rajeshnat
5. yArunai pOL athirappavar - ataanA - rangaswAmi nattuvanAr???

Yes, this song was composed by Srirangam Rangaswamy Pillai(aka rangaswAmi nattuvanAr) He also composed the following songs which were popularized by Somu
1.Palinchu Sarwani- Kambodhi
2.Urugadha Muruga- Chakravakam
3.Saravana Bhava Guru Guhane-Sahana

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 28 May 2007, 07:54

Rajesh,

"Focus on depth", you say to the organizers. Hope they are listening. TVS would have given a three hour concert and with his staying power, the concert would have been much more satisfying.
We have discussed speech inflicted concerts several times on the forum. It is bad enough to listen to a speech near the end of the concert. The openers are worse. For one thing, there are several speeches. I find that these can distract the performer who would after all have prepared himself for the concert (put himself in the right mood?). Instead of starting the concert straight away, he sits on the stage to listen to prosaic words which take him away from his music. It is better that the performers are backstage, away from the din on the stage, if speeches are a must. You have been to at least one of those concerts, Rajesh, and felt disappointed about the performance, I remember:)

As for TVS, he has sung some pieces which we do not often hear in his concerts. Nice that he is singing kritis which are not part of his usual format...

grsastrigal · Post by **grsastrigal** » 28 May 2007, 08:08

Is it Tamil songs or P.Sivan concert ? Most of his songs are of Sivan. He repeated Karunai sevai, ma ramanan, venkata ramana, kapali, srinivasa thiruvengada... Come on.. Where is Ambujam krishna, Gop. Bharathi, Kot.I ? and of course, rare kritis in PS too ?

But, here is a TVS concert reviewed after a loong time. I remember during last December season, not even one his concerts had been reviewed.

raju54- Do u have the recording of 2 & 3 by Somu ?

mahesh33 · Post by **mahesh33** » 28 May 2007, 08:11

Lathangi as main...wow!

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 28 May 2007, 08:23

'karuNai SeivAy' and 'guruvAyUrappA' are the two songs I haven't heard him sing. The one Ambujam Krishna song I have heard is 'iniyAgilum ninai manamE!' in pUrvi kalyANi.

V_ANNASAMY · Post by **V_ANNASAMY** » 28 May 2007, 09:39

2.Urugadha Muruga- Chakravakam

This song had been one of the best of Shri Somu's concerts and the kriti is by Balasundara Kavi. Specially in the charanam 'aruTkaniyE ammai appanE endRu naan', he used to love and give varieties of sangatIs.

ksrimech · Post by **ksrimech** » 28 May 2007, 19:45

mahesh33 wrote:Lathangi as main...wow!

Looks like kApAli in mOhanam was the main piece.

sramaswamy · Post by **sramaswamy** » 30 May 2007, 01:25

7B. srinivAsa thiruvEntkata - hamsadwani - pApanAsam Sivan

typo hamsadwani --> hamsAnandi

mahakavi · Post by **mahakavi** » 30 May 2007, 04:06

eppa varuvArO - jonpuri - GKB ---> eppO varuvArO
GKB wrote it as "eppO"

eppO is the brahminical colloquial for "eppozhudu" (when) while "eppa" is more like a rustic usage for the same meaning.

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 30 May 2007, 04:43

Let's put it this way. Different folks say it differently(colloquially), but GKB stuck with the colloquial in this song because his need for expressing his intense desire to meet with chidambara nAdar (an enlightening moment) was overwhelming, I think. Just try singing it as 'eppOdu varuvArO?'...