OS Thiagarajan@Madhuradhwani on Nov 25th,2017

[rajeshnat]

OS Thiagarajan@Madhuradhwani on Nov 25th,2017
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Vocal : OS Thiagarajan
Violin : Delhi Sundarrajan
Mrudangam : Neyveli Narayanan
Ghatam : Ghatam Suresh

Concert Type : Nirvana - No concert to follow , Free concet
Day/Duration : Saturday/ 2 hours and 05 minutes
Time : 6:40 to 8:45 pm
Hall : Arkay convention , Luz

01.Vanajakshi - Kalyani Adi Varnam - Poochi
02. Ni Bhakthi (S)- Jayamanohari - T
swaras for 2 mins

03.Narada Ganalola(R,S) - Atana - T
4 mins alapana and 3 mins violin return
3 mins swaras

04.Enthani Vinavinthura (R,S)- Urmika - Pallavi Sesha Iyer(cittaswaras by TMT)
8 mins alapana and 6 mins violin return
2 mins swaras

05.Sundaratara Deham(N,S) - Panthuvarali - T
neraval for 4 mins in rAgAdi saMhAraM rAghavaM udAraM
swaras for 3 mins

06A.Kaddanuvariki(R N S T) - Thodi - T
18 mins alapana and 8 mins violin return
6 mins neraval in paddu tappaka bhajiyincu bhakta pAlanamu sEyu
10 mins swaras
06B. tani for 14 mins

Speech break with Astika samAjam

07.Theruvathu Yeppo - Khamas - NS
08. tungA teera virAjam - sAlagabhairavi + Ahirbhairavi - kamalesha vittala
09.Vinayakuni - Madhyamavathi - T
10.Mangalam.

I guess there are two distinct facets of carnatic music that every vocalist has to concentrate . The primary facet is the drive from a vocalist to produce sangathis and sancharas that zone in the idioms of CM where aurally as a rasika you dont get a feel of any lightness in going towards a light/cinematic concert . The secondary facet is the emotive touch where the music gives a more feel for every rasika. With whatever I heard of OST till now his focus is very much there in the primary facet the secondary facet is always minimal, these kind of persona were always there , the primary facet when done well itself is joy to me .

OST started with Kalyani and segued with jayamanohari. His voice volume was there but mrudangam did not have that much sharpness , also with delhi sundarrajan slightly asking volume the violi volume was higher . Jayamanohari is not easy for every rasika as the stickiness of how to disambiguate from either aabhogi or sriranjani is tough. I felt he could have sung bit more swaras for jayamanohari. why are both dead and living musisians never elaborating the yagnadulu or ni bhakthi like a sriranjani or abhogi krithi

The relative volume got adjusted well from atAna. His narada gana lola was one of a kind , i think he heard him once before (wherever)this atana did not give me that much of primary oomph. His alapana was done well ,a bit of minimal swaras in atana was not to my liking that too with lovely team of percussion artist he could have gone more.

I have heard urmika as a filler(if my memory is right sangeetha swaminathan) but I have never heard urmika with an alapana. It is very simmhendra madhyamish or neetimatish he did not announce it till he sang. I liked his ideas , he gives generous kaarvais and with a lot of aakaram i loved his rendition certainly a raga that has just possibly registered in my mind - may be next time i can identify without vocalist announcing it . THe krithi is lovely and the team did a great job with cittaswaras . OST announced that cittaswaras were tuned by TMT - bale thyagarajans(TMT and OST) they give a run for money thru pallavi sesha iyer to sadguru thyagaraja.

Sundara tara degham in pantuvarali is a gnb uruppudi my earliest hearing is santhanam singing in Doordarshan channel 2 for a national integration recorded concert in madras telugu academy. It is just a brilliant number , the drive could have been more with OST it just fizzled a bit,fizzled pantuvarali with reduced swaras is not my cup of tea

The day's best was indeed his todi . His alapana was chiselled with lot of kaarvais so one does not get too much of tadari na fragmentation in alapana. He sang very well and sundarrajan gave a crisp return. The krithi rendition of kadanuvariki was well done with nice neraval and swaras . Overall very well presented sampradaya todi certainly OST showed his class.

Aastika samajam narasimhan spoke briefly and thank god it was brief . I wish OST went for another 20 mins till 9pm or 9 10 pm . He wrapped with tunga teera not much of secondary facet in emote but still ok. I liked the kamas teruvedeppo bit more but i still felt he is not able to captivate that high on emote scale

Delhi Sundarrajan best was his todi ,i felt for few songs in the beginnning he jacked up the volume it was slightly on high side so during song rendition I could aurally spot more hig volume press than melody. Narayanan had some problems on sharpness of his right but he did up the concert . To me the best of the team was unquestionably ghatam suresh . His play has so much of controlled aggression and he is one ghatam suresh who liberally uses the vAi (mouth ) portion of the ghatam , he has made himself so sabha inaccessible like Karaikudi mani that we keep hearing him very less in chennai sabhas. The knotty variations of aggressive suresh was well done and narayanan was never overbanging to raise the aggression it was a nice tani. Mylapore had a free abhishek concert during the same time so the crowd could have gone to BVB than Arkay is my best guess.

Overall a very good to excellent concert for 2 hours and 5 mins.

[hnbhagavan]

After attending concerts for many years,i single out two Musicians in present day whose concerts are steady and never boring.The Alapana or Neraval is never overdone and there is always a sense of proportion in the kritis rendered.O S T and Vijay Siva stand out among the senior Vidwans who are actively performing.O S T show cased a few rare non Thyagaraja compositions.

[Sivaramakrishnan]

OST - true to his name(!) - handles mostly Tyagaraja kritis. It stands to prove that an 'all Tyagaraja fare' would not let down a singer nor disappoint listeners.