TNS Krishna - V V Ravi - R Ramesh - BS Purushottaman

srikant1987 · Post by **srikant1987** » 23 Oct 2008, 20:49

IIT Madras Music Club, 22 October 2008

TNS Krishna - V V Ravi - R Ramesh - BS Purushottaman

mUShikavAhana, shlokam in mOhanakalyANi,
siddhivinAyakam - mOhanakalyANi - Adi - (?) - HMB - svarams at pallavi

munduvEnuga - darbAr - Adi - Tyagarajaswamy - R

shubhapantuvarALi - "ennALLu Urage" - miSracApu - Tyagarajaswamy - R, NS at "satimATalu"

shlokam in nATTaikuRinji
budhamASrayAmi satatam - nATTaikuRinji - jhampa - MD

taruNam idammA ennai rakShikka - gauLipantu - Adi - SS

Abhogi - RTP - "anudinamum orE oru daram SivacidambaremenRuraittAl pOdumA?" in catuSragati khaNDa tripuTa, 2-kaLai; "oru" falls on samam, mA on the first dhrutam.
tani

paccai mAmalaipOl mEni - viruttam in candrakaus
candrakaus tillAnA in tiSra Adi

mangalam (pavamAna)
---
The mOhanakalyANi shlokam was sung nicely, the kriti was sung well with good svarams. But I would have liked it if the kArvais were trimmed out a bit.

The darbAr AlApanai was done well, with clever hints at the kriti to be sung. After listening to Trivandrum R Venkataraman's rendition of the kriti, though, this one didn't meet my expectations. There was a metallic character in this voice which didn't quite suit darbAr or the song. Maybe it was this this metallic character, but at times, Krishna seemed overly loud. Some places in the rAgam sounded a bit - no, I don't know nAyaki - bhairaviyish (!). The way N was handled, I suppose. Again, I felt the kriti singing had some unwanted embellishments.

shubhapantuvarALi AlApanai was very good, over all, even touching in several places, but I many a time felt that there was some unwanted restlessness and superfast singing at places. To these, two AlApanais, the somewhat senior (among the day's artists) violin vidwAn, Shri V V Ravi gave a calmer AlApanai in reply.

The neraval was well done, svarams were very interesting. The violinist gave brilliant replies.

I was hearing the kriti for the first time, and it's a lovely kriti! I have put its name in quotes because I couldn't decipher the words, and this was given by a co-member of the audience. The neraval line I originally read as "sakhimATalu", but I found that it was satimATalu from karnatik.com .

I recognised nATTaikuRinji somewhat late, and felt completely sure only after the kriti began.

Before AbhOgi, SM shruti was set on the electronic tambura.

The RTP was my favourite in the concert. I personally prefer RTPs in somewhat rich janyarAgams to those in obscure mELakartA rAgams like, say, kanakAngi, which have very few kritis in them to draw inspiration from. The rAgam, done in two parts+, was good and, but the tAnam was very good. The pallavi was superb. It was rendered in many speeds, and there was some "double rendering" in the second kAlam also: instead of repeating the line twice, each word was sung twice. There was lot of speed-changing and neraval before svarams were even started (and once again while concluding the RTP). The mridangist anticipated all of it brilliantly, the violinist gave superb replies which were also accompanied ably by the kanjira vidwan. There were no rAgamAlikA svarams, a change I liked.

+ It appeared that TNS Krishna wanted to sing it in one part, but the violinist played a shorter-than-expected reply, and apparently gestured to TNS Krishna to sing more rAgam.

During the second round of rAgam, TNS Krishna also switched to the ikaram, which was a pleasing change from the akaram. The metallic nature was somewhat reduced.

The tani, short but superb, was played together, the kanjira vidwan superbly anticipating and gelling with the Mridangist's moves.

I liked the candrakaus also. If Shri Krishna remembered to change the shruti back to SP before singing the mangalam, I didn't notice it. I was feeling sufficiently nourished with music by the time the mangalam commenced.

On the whole, it was a good concert.

Lakshman · Post by **Lakshman** » 23 Oct 2008, 20:53

Is it paccai mAvilai pOl mEni or mAmalai pOl mEni? I thought it was the latter (going by a book by P.Sambamurti).

srikant1987 · Post by **srikant1987** » 23 Oct 2008, 20:56

Oh, sorry, mAmalai.

But aren't ilais more paccai?

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 23 Oct 2008, 21:00

Srikant,
Thank you for the review.
TNS' son cannot but sing an impressive subha pantuvarALi!
The viruttam was 'pachchai mA malai pOL mEni', a pAsuram of toNDaraDip poDi AzhvAr.

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 23 Oct 2008, 21:03

Ah, Lakshman noticed it too. But your green like a mango leaf is an interesting imagery too!

rbharath · Post by **rbharath** » 24 Oct 2008, 10:51

It was a nice good concert. The darbAr affair was quite elaborate and rather outstanding. It had to be 'mundu vEnukAiru' for such a marvellous AlApanai. The subhapantuvarALi was very good and the measure to which it was sung, it was quite evident that a Pallavi would follow. The AbhOgi was amazing as well. All kritis were rendered well, in true TNS Style. The svarams were good having interesting patterns and some kaNakku.

The accompanists did a good job. They all stood up to the expectations in making the concert enjoyable.

To me, the best part of the concert was the personal favourite darbAr

sureshvv · Post by **sureshvv** » 24 Oct 2008, 12:04

srikant1987 wrote:IThere was a metallic character in this voice which didn't quite suit darbAr or the song.

I have found a somewhat jarring note when TNS sings also. After much groping in the dark, I now feel that this may be the way he sometimes sings the note "Pa".

Sathej · Post by **Sathej** » 24 Oct 2008, 16:55

srikant1987 wrote: Some places in the rAgam sounded a bit - no, I don't know nAyaki - bhairaviyish (!). The way N was handled, I suppose. Again, I felt the kriti singing had some unwanted embellishments.

While the Darbar-Nayaki link is understandable, I don't quite get the Bhairavi connection with Darbar.

Sathej

Member_First · Post by **Member_First** » 24 Oct 2008, 17:08

DarbArin nAyaki bhairavithAnE.

Sathej · Post by **Sathej** » 24 Oct 2008, 17:10

@Member_First,
Thats a TNR - ish reply

only thing TNR didn't invoke the Bhairavi link

Sathej

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 25 Oct 2008, 08:01

Abhogi - RTP - "anudinamum orE oru daram SivacidambaremenRuraittAl pOdumA?" in catuSragati khaNDa tripuTa, 2-kaLai; "oru" falls on samam, mA on the first dhrutam.
tani

The eduppu is a bit unusual, isn't it? It seems like it was at least two full beats before samam.

rbharath · Post by **rbharath** » 25 Oct 2008, 12:10

vasanthakokilam wrote:
Abhogi - RTP - "anudinamum orE oru daram SivacidambaremenRuraittAl pOdumA?" in catuSragati khaNDa tripuTa, 2-kaLai; "oru" falls on samam, mA on the first dhrutam.
tani
The eduppu is a bit unusual, isn't it? It seems like it was at least two full beats before samam.

the pallavi started as 'oru daram siva chidambaram..' with eDuppu before samam.

'anudinamum orE' is the uttarAngam after the arudi