T V Sankaranarayanan at the Esplanade, Singapore 260309

bala747 · Post by **bala747** » 26 Mar 2009, 22:04

Folks,

I am just back from attending my first concert in almost 2 years. Yes, it has been that long since I actually bothered to attend a concert. The reasons were many.

First, I took the advice of many in this board who felt my reviews in the past were too harsh, and even "advised" me to not attend concerts if I am not going to like them. I guess they had a point. I realised that most concerts that come to Singapore tend to be of very mediocre quality with the artistes singing the same hackneyed pieces again and again.

Second, I had collected a huge pile of concerts from 2004 to 2005, numbering in the hundreds of gigabytes. Thanks to the generosity of rasikas like Raju Asokan and Coolkarni and others I never saw a need to pay good money and hear Nityasree when I had 20-30 concerts of Pattammal.

Thirdly, the passing of my mother in April 2008 saw me almost lose all interest in music altogether, and since then I have not been able to sit and listen to even one complete concert recording. So after a long time, I decided to attend TVS's concert. Now I am no fan of TVS, and the few concerts I had of his were all ripoffs of MMI. The SAME Kambhoji, the same GMPMG, RGSRG, the same thodi etc. I had heard that he has come a long way since then so I decided to hear him live. I tried as far as possible to not be too judgmental. I had not heard a concert for almost two years so my brain was pretty much reformatted in a sense as to what constitutes a stellar concert. I went there hoping for a good concert, and nothing much more.

I would have loved to say that the concert was a spectacular one that made my return to listening live concerts worthwhile. I would love to say that TVS excelled himself and delivered the goods, singing with perfect sruthi, rare ragas, long, weighty main items and soulful krithis, but I would be lying. The concert was not bad, to be honest. It had a decent start, some good parts strewn here and there, and went for 3 hours, but no it was not good either. It was not even good with my new lower standards. HEre is the blow by blow.

TV Sankaranarayanan - Raghavendra Rao - Neyveli Narayanan - T R Sundaresan (Morsing)

Viruttam - Hamsadhwani segueing into
Sri Raghukula - Hamsadhwani - Adi (S)
Yaar Unnaipol aadarippavar - Athana - Misra Chapu
Sri Parthasarathi - Suddha Dhanyasi - Rupakam (S)
Bhuvaneswariya - Mohanakalyani - Adi (AS)
Ramanukku Mannan - Hindolam - Adi (AN)
Sarojadalanetri - Sankarabharanam - Adi (ANST)
Sevikkavendum - Andolika - Adi
Ragam Thanam Pallavi - Brindavanasaranga - Kanda Triputa (Sri Ranga Hari Ranga Panduran|ga Brindavana saranga)
Ragamalika swaram - Mandaradharini, Sindhubhairavi
Viruttam segueing into Srinivasa Tiruvenkata - Hamsanandi - Adi
Same old stuff
Mangalam

The concert started well enough with a beautiful viruttam in Hamsadhwani, which I wasn't at that point was able to identify. TVS's voice sounded hoarse but it managed to pull of good brighas and could ascend and descend the scales pretty easily. I was regretting not bringing my recorder as I thought this would be one of the few great concerts. The hamsadwani was really good. The krithi following it was Sri Raghukula, again sung competently. The first problem came in the swaras though. When TVS was singing them I had a nagging feeling that there was something not quite right about them. It was not that there were glaring sruthi lapses or tala errors, but something was not quite right about the swaras. Anyway after a weak finish it was off to Athana and a brisk rendition of Yaar Unnaipol.

At this point whoever was doing the sound mixing ought to be given a long lesson in sound quality. The mixing was absolutely horrid for this song, with the mridangam's nadam sounding incredibly harsh, along with the morsing. thankfully that improved along the way but it was a harbinger.

Sri Parthasarathi was next, and the krithi was decent, and here is my first complaint with TVS. His krithi rendition has really gone off. At times he just yells out lines, and at others just sings them listlessly, like he is just going through the motions. None of the krithis sung today were outstanding. They were all just different shades of 'blah'; none worth taking note of. In fact I would come out now and say this whole concert was from this point, a going through motions thing. Yes it had the relevant bits of what is in a concert, it had a main item, an RTP, a few tukkadas and a mangalam but that's all. Nothing else. Anyway I digress. The krithi ended with a swara pattern that again did not sound right.

The first alapana was Mohana kalyani, and again a standard, ho-hum Mohana kalyani. Nothing great about it, but nothing bad too. The krithi predictably enough was Bhuvaneswariya (I was hoping for Seve Srikantham but I was not really expecting it). Swaras were mediocre to bad, no life in them. The violinist didn't get the start point for the krithi so he got the first two swara patterns wrong. It shows how interesting the singing was that I am pointing out these things in great detail instead of the concert.

A short sketch of Hindolam followed and segued into Ramanai En Mannan of Arunachala Kavi. TVS first sang a neraval here and boy was it bad. This is not a song to take a half avarthanam neraval, especailly at the "Pattam katta yetthavandi" line. Imagine hearing that half-avarthana line ad nauseam; ""Pattam katta yetthavandi" ""Pattam katta yetthavandi" ""Pattam katta yetthavandi". One should not sing 1/2 avarthana neravals in Adi tala 1 kalai krithis. IT sounds like a bhajana goshti. Had he taken the whole 2 avarthanas, it might have worked but his effort was just painful to listen to. Swaras, ho hum, same old.

The main item was Sankarabharanam. Normally I would complain that this is probably the gazillionth Sankarabharanam I am hearing, but since I haven't heard any karnatik music for almost two years I decided to listen. I didnt mind the choice, and seeing it was my mother's favourite, I gave it a good thorough listen. Alapana was average, the krithi was slightly below average, the neraval was below average and the swara prastara was average. The only redeeming point thus far was Raghavendra Rao's rendition of Sankarabharanam. It was no LGJ but it was crisp, chaste and correct Sankarabharanam, and that was enough for me after TVS's attempt. The neraval was at Korivaccina Varikelanu instead of the usual Samagana vinodini, but just because it was different, doesn't mean it was memorable. It barely registered.

Swaraprastara was again, a going through the motions affair. It was as if he sang them because he had to. There was nothing in them that was extraordinary or even remarkable. Guess what? The (in)famous GMPMG, RGSRG, showed up here, and sure enough the chorus joined in the singing. It was here that I realised what was wrong with all the swara prastaras. They all sounded like I had heard them before, and when the two grey haired chaps beside me joined in the chorus for the swaraprastara I realised that all these years, TVS's swara singing has not changed one bit from MMI's. The same pauses, the same trailing offs, the same patterns, but utterly lacking in that same fire and spontaneity. It is still the same stuff. The image of Vivek imploring "ampathu varshama ungal formulava maathave maatengalaa?" came to mind.

Then followed was was easily the highlight of the concert, the thaniavarthanam. Both mridangist and Morsing excelled and though the thani was short (they seemed to be keeping it short because the krithi and alapana and neraval and swaras barely hit 20 odd minutes), it was filled with good stuff, and for once I heard a morsing go toe to toe with a mridangam. Normally I dislike the morsing but this time I was really fascinated.

RTP? Brindavana Saranga.. The violinist's alapana was noteworthy and so was his Thanam. TVS's was run of the mill. The pallavi was okay, and the swara prastara didn'teven go into two avarthanas before he took up Mandaradharini (bad choice following brindavana saranga) and of course Sindhubhairavi (with the same effects MMI put in, and even the same general structure with a few differences).

Following that was a viruttam in Hamsanandi followed by Srinivasa. Well sung, but nothing special.

English note, Eppo varuvaro (DUH!? What did you think? He's not going to sing those?)

I am sorry if the review reads like it was half-assed. But really there was virtually nothing to actually write about, the whole thing was so lifeless. I don't know if it was just me being jaded to this point, but most other concerts in the past, even the worst ones, made me react in some way (usually me wanting to commit random acts on violence on other people), but this concert? I was just ushered from piece to piece, and then shown the door. There was no life in this concert, there was just a string of singing that I couldn't even feel passionate enough about to write a really stinging review. I don't know, maybe I should give up attending concerts altogether.

jananee · Post by **jananee** » 26 Mar 2009, 22:16

OOOOOOOhhhhhhh! That was one review! I would have loved to hear from you about yesterdays concert by Aruna Sairam!

kedharam · Post by **kedharam** » 26 Mar 2009, 22:19

"when the two grey haired chaps beside me joined in the chorus for the swaraprastara ..."

funny!

bala747 · Post by **bala747** » 26 Mar 2009, 22:20

Heh I didnt' attend that concert. In these bad economic times, having to shell out $25 for a concert can be steep. I am not a rich man so I decided to attend TVS instead of Aruna Sairam!

Again, there wasnt' anything glaringly terrible in the concert (apart from the hindolam neraval), but really it felt so run of the mill that I was just waiting for the end, and plodding home. It felt like two or three temple kutcheris strung together.

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 26 Mar 2009, 22:31

bala747 wrote: Ramanai En Mannan - Hindolam - Adi (AN)

boeing 747 has landed with a bang,

raamanukku mannan muDi is the krithi ,Not doing any personality evaluation of you , whenever there is a slight shade of repetition/ a dip anywhere and if that overlaps with any of your past bad experience you seem to be harsh on any musician.

Not defending Shri TVS here , he is one of the loudest and open throated singers , if the mike is not adjusted ok very difficult to get a good TVS concert experience.

BTW whenever there is a shankArabharanam main in singapore I remember you used to say poorvikalyAni is the submain, but in this concert it was mOhanakalyAni.

Keep them coming balA, liked your review balA.

bala747 · Post by **bala747** » 26 Mar 2009, 22:43

Yes I know the krithi is often sung as ramanukku mannan but from what I know the actual line is ramanai en mannan... Maybe a krithi expert can verify this.

bala747 · Post by **bala747** » 26 Mar 2009, 22:51

Okay I verified it as Ramanukku mannan and made the change accordingly

Heh it's been so long since I have written a review that I had even forgotten some of the things I said before. I am humbled that people actually remember what I had said so long ago.

The mike was bad this concert, and it could be part of the reason why I didn't like it. I don't mind repetition (yeah unbelievable but true) per se, but when four or five in a row is the same I raise a red flag. In this case I didn't mind the choice of krithi. I actually liked it but it was not sung well.

bilahari · Post by **bilahari** » 26 Mar 2009, 22:55

Bala, great to see you attending and reviewing concerts again. Maybe you should give the next generation of singers like Sanjay, TMK a try (if and when they come to Singapore). Unfortunately Singapore hosts few concerts every year with only one or two big artistes visiting.

Jananee, please review Aruna's concert!

bala747 · Post by **bala747** » 26 Mar 2009, 23:03

I have reviewed their concerts before, just click on my profile and you'll see all the brickbats and praises I have received! My reviews I admit are not to everyone's tastes I admit, and at the risk of being called a cynic, I try to avoid over-praise.

I wanted to attend Sikkil Gurucharan's concert but commitments keep me away. Perhaps someone can tape/rip it for me and send it. I have heard a lot about him but never got around to hearing him. I am still trying to plough through the hundred or so CDROMs I have gathered over the years.

ksrimech · Post by **ksrimech** » 27 Mar 2009, 04:52

Can somebody throw some light on the rAga mandaradhAriNi? For a moment, I was thinking about the maNNAngaTTi incident between Chembai and SSI (Refer to the Hilarity thread)

. Then, realized both of the rAga (madhAravarSini and mandaradhAriNi) are different.

Or is it vandanadhAriNi?

sankirnam · Post by **sankirnam** » 27 Mar 2009, 04:59

The pallavi is an old one.. there is a commercially released KGS concert by Cosmic (1985 i think), where he has sung it - the accompanists are GJR Krishnan and Sankaran sir if I remember correctly.

bala747 · Post by **bala747** » 27 Mar 2009, 05:09

Vandanadharini. Sorry.. after a long day's work, and a fried brain, details tend to slip. Sudha Madhurya I think is one composition in this raga (GNB's?)

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 27 Mar 2009, 09:37

bala747,
Glad to hear that you finally made it to a concert. Hope you will go to other concerts too. As for me, I look forward to your reviews--however harsh your pronouncements sometimes tend to be. At least, these are my assumptions: you love music (which is more than enough for me). You know what you are talking about (others know that too, but some cannot take it the way you deliver your views sometimes). As for me, I look forward to your reviews because besides your knowledge, you have your intuition at work too. I like the way we get to have a glimpse of the map of your mind's course and your rasanai's responses as the concert proceeds. One has to remember that performances which take place in your town are mostly of the same performers who normally sing/play the same old thing. Wish you were in a city with no dearth for concerts!
Some people cannot take saccharine reviews, others not the scathing ones. You can tone them down a bit, as Rajesh suggests, I suppose!
Please listen to more music and write about it too. This section's title includes Recordings as well. You could write about them as well.
Good listening!

As for rAmanukku mannan muDi tandAlE, it barely has a suitable line for neraval, with the caraNam lines ending with a 'Di' which is as bad as an RTP line which contains several 'Di's. Harsh sounding, to say the least.
In pUrvi kalyANi, 'nI oru SilaiyO?' repeated countless times gives one the same feeling, even without all the 'Di's.

vganesh · Post by **vganesh** » 27 Mar 2009, 09:57

Bala747, review is really good. Specifically the language flow seems to be better than the actual review. And ofcourse it is harsh, may be because your expectation is still high though you have reduced your standard.
But it is like you watching an actor time and again. The mannerism does not change after some time. Hence the RGSRG with TVS will remain.

ramarama · Post by **ramarama** » 27 Mar 2009, 10:17

This was a classic T V Sankaranarayanan concert - as good or as bad as his best or worst concert. Whatever his perceived flaws might be to the high falutin snooty rasika who is expecting stuff that s/he has never heard before in his or her gigabytes of music collections, TVS delivers consistently the MMI brand of music - and doesn't ever pretend that he is going to do something else. One doesn't buy tickets to a Woody Allen romantic comedy and come back disappointed that one didn't see any breath taking car chases.

I find without exception almost, that many great artistes (singers, dancers, writers, movie directors) are very very predictable - for sure many of the Hindustani greats, many of whose "improvisations" many in the audience would be able to "chorus" and pretty much most of the Carnatic musicians of yesteryear. Indeed many of the fans of these artistes who throng their concerts and buy their CDs do so for that very predictability.

In this desperation to do something different in every single concert, and with consciousness of song lists being posted on internet forums, increasingly, the younger clique of artistes seem to take great efforts to contrive all kinds of new ideas, for the heck of it (e.g. shifting a varnam to the third item, stringing together ragas with similar sounding names, with no aesthetic consciousness of whether those ragas offer interesting contrasts) while losing sight of the basics - building and practising voice control so they can modulate at will, perfect alignment to sruti and laya, etc. And the great artistes of yesteryear all had classic kritis that they sang again and again and made their own - and made it almost impossible for someone else to sing with the same resonance. Some of these compositions are indeed that wonderful. And one more live rendition by the same musician does not make the song or the singer less wonderful. If TVS did not sing that "gmpmg rgsrg" many of his fans yesterday would have been very disappointed.

And when you are singing a ticketed concert to a big audience at a big venue, you need to sing in a way that has mass appeal - this is not a chamber concert for an audience of musicologists.

I was a little worried that TVS's recent health problems would have diminished his ability to pull off a concert on his own voice, and that he would often get his son to back him up, with lengthy alapanais etc. but that didn't happen at all. TVS was in charge yesterday, and his son just embellished the swara prastharas for a few songs. TVS seemed a little physically weaker, but his infectious cheer, his joyous stage presence, his imaginative viruttam singing, his constant encouragement of his accompanists, and his delivery of yet another classic concert in the MMI mould - all made it, for me, at least a fun concert - and a nice lift to the spirit in these gloomy economic times.

It's been ages since i went to an Amjad Ali Khan concert, but I bet I can "chorus" some of his taans today. And I have never heard his sons play live, but I bet I can "chorus" some of their taans and meends too. I just hope that age has not diminished the clarity of Amjad's sound production on this delightful instrument.

Caveat: Everyone is of course entitled to his or her views and to express them in as incendiary or devotional language as she or he pleases. I'm just posting to let other rasikas on this forum know that this was a pretty standard TVS concert where you got what you expected more or less - and that it was awesome listening to him in the acoustics and setting of the Esplanade, and for me personally, it was great to see/hear our "local" artiste, Guru T R Sundaresan of SIFAS, carry himself off very well on the morsing on this concert stage. I wish the jugalbandhi had happened too, so that TRS could have shown off his mridangam accompaniment skills too.

And despite his recent health worries, TVS seems to have pulled himself back quite well into concert singing mode. I understand he is going to be touring the US in the Fall, and i want to assure TVS fans there that he is as good as the TVS of old.

ksrimech · Post by **ksrimech** » 27 Mar 2009, 10:40

Thanks bala747

cienu · Post by **cienu** » 27 Mar 2009, 11:03

Bala

Happy to see you back once again

May be as Arasi & Rajesh have suggested you could tone down a wee bit !

cienu · Post by **cienu** » 27 Mar 2009, 11:12

ramarama wrote: One doesn't buy tickets to a Woody Allen romantic comedy and come back disappointed that one didn't see any breath taking car chases.

Ramarama,

I liked that one

vijay · Post by **vijay** » 27 Mar 2009, 11:35

I happen to be a great fan of TVS and just for the reasons that Rama-II outlines. I know some people find his voice a little harsh/grating but since when did that become a qualification for carnatic musicians

Variety is not the vidwan's forte but personally I look more for manodharma than repertoire and find TVS' swara singing quite phenomenal. His children also add a touch of softness to his stentorian voice and immensely enjoy it when the three of them sing together...age has certainly not made a dent on this vidwan...

Of course everyone is entitled to his/her opinion and I enjoyed Bala's review notwithstanding the above....good to read two contrasting reviews of the same concert - both excellently written! Please keep them coming...

bala747 · Post by **bala747** » 27 Mar 2009, 14:07

Well I am certainly not a "high falutin snooty rasika" (whatever that is), and I definitely do not boast for having many concerts!

I was only telling a few people why I was away for so long! I am actually quite an approachable chap who loves talking about music. But well, if I appear like that I guess I'll try not to the next time. Since you're in Singapore maybe we can talk about music and performances, and disagree without being disagreeable.

You'll probably see that I am actually quite willing to be proven wrong. I am still looking forward to hearing the Sikkil gurucharan concert. If someone can procure a recording of it please let me know.

ramarama · Post by **ramarama** » 27 Mar 2009, 15:13

haha! ok lah! just fun to use incendiary language in response to high fire powered reviews

"high falutin snooty rasika" was just a generic term i was using to describe people whose assessments of many musicians are often in inverse correlation with the popularity of these musicians. I'm no connoisseur - but of course we all have instinctive likes and dislikes which are not justifiable necessarily in terms of some broad accepted framework. So, sometimes i just want to know from more "serious" listeners what exactly their problem is with some singers such as Aruna Sairam and TVS (or even Nithyasree, whose high pitched voice keeps me from being able to bear more than a few minutes of a recording - but that is just a personal preference or Jesudass - whose voice is way too sweet to be able to listen to for more than a few minutes again). These are all tremendously popular singers but don't get much respect from these folks i banded together as "high falutin snooty rasikas." Sorry if you felt that this was directed at you.

To the extent that we (meaning rasikas in general, across the world) can get some agreement on the basics (before even accepting some artiste as worthy of judgment or of reviewing), I would think that the accepted framework should include adherence to sruti and to laya - and some basic rules of raga structure perhaps (but of course since many musicians do not announce what raga they are purporting to sing, you can't really even criticize such raga delineation, especially if it is in a pallavi rendition - a musician can always claim to be singing some rare variation of a raga). And beyond that, anything goes - some like speed, some like slowness, some like a mix, some like rare ragas, some like the favourites, some must have at least one elaborate rendition in what they call the big six (T, S, Kar, B, Kam, Kal), some like kanakku, some like it simple, some like bass voices, some like it higher pitched, some like the classics, some like the new compositions, some like fire and brimstone, some like "soukhyam," some like an overwhelming sense of bhakti, some like it secular, some couldn't care about the lyrics, some feel like storming out at the first mis-pronunciation, etc.

And that is what makes it fun - how does one argue that red is a better colour than blue (and that one in particular is just a very silly argument that only a high falutin snooty colour connoisseur would make because blue is clearly much better)! They are colours lah! Everything oso can what!

Peace!

bala747 · Post by **bala747** » 27 Mar 2009, 16:11

Heh I never thought I would see Singlish here. But can. No offence intended, none taken. I was actually very humbled and surprised to see that so many actually remembered me and my reviews, and actually welcomed me back. Thank you.

balu · Post by **balu** » 27 Mar 2009, 20:07

ramarama, you are much needed fresh air in this forum of "highly knowledgeble,i know everything about cm".kindly keep posting

mri_fan · Post by **mri_fan** » 27 Mar 2009, 20:29

very well put rama ^2

sramaswamy · Post by **sramaswamy** » 27 Mar 2009, 23:46

arasi wrote:bala747,
As for rAmanukku mannan muDi tandAlE, it barely has a suitable line for neraval, with the caraNam lines ending with a 'Di' which is as bad as an RTP line which contains several 'Di's. Harsh sounding, to say the least.
In pUrvi kalyANi, 'nI oru SilaiyO?' repeated countless times gives one the same feeling, even without all the 'Di's.

In one of the Jaya TV's Margazhi Mahotsvam - I think year 2007 if I am not mistaken, Sri. Neyveli Santhanagopalan also takes up the same line for neraval - "Pattam katta yetthavandi". At that time while hearing I thought it was "Pattam katta yetthavan NI". After finding out now, that it is "Di" and not "NI", it does sounds a bit odd to take up that line for neraval. I will try to listen to it again with this new information on hand and see whether it sounds good still. However, his neraval and the song rendering was fabulous. So it would not have mattered to me. Added to that fact is that "Hindolam" is my favourite ragam.

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 28 Mar 2009, 04:52

sramaswamy,
I agree with you that musically the song is very pleasing to hear. Perhaps it is my intolerance for 'Di' and also my thinking that when there are so many beautiful sounding songs with meaningful lines, why choose a harsh sounding one for neraval? Obviously, NSG did not accentuate the 'Di' as if it is a syllable germane to the line (his sensibilities won't let him. He is known for his smooth delivery). It used to be the traditional line for elaboration in the old days as well. The meaning is fine too, considering it is all about rAmA's coronation. The beauty of the rAgam and NSG's delicate handling of the 'DI' would have made it very pleasant, no doubt...

PUNARVASU · Post by **PUNARVASU** » 28 Mar 2009, 06:09

Forget about 'dI'; When I was very young, I always used to think it was some 'vaNdi' and was wondering what 'vaNdi' had to do with rAmA!

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 28 Mar 2009, 07:48

True, Punarvasu. I remember the vaNDi imagery from my childhood too! avan+aDi sounds better when it becomes avanaDi than avaNDi!

coolkarni · Post by **coolkarni** » 28 Mar 2009, 09:34

coolkarni · Post by **coolkarni** » 28 Mar 2009, 09:42

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 28 Mar 2009, 18:02

The 'DI' is very appropos, given that the mighty, and favored queen is annoyed with manthara for throwing the gift she (kaikEyi) had given here, but is trying to be patient at the same time, when she is addressing her maid in this musical conversation and trying to explain to her why rAma is a great choice, and why she personally is happy, and I have enjoyed all versions of this compositions. The 'DI' clarifies in my mind the difference in the status of the 2 people engaged in this particular exchange, and is the only expression of kaikEyi's annoyance.

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 28 Mar 2009, 20:51

Ravi,
Looking at it as a song in a drama, what you say is true. Adds that
bit of emphasis and effectively expresses KaikEyi's ire. However, I still feel that a repetition of 'DI's in a vocal presentation takes away the musical flow of the lines. I do like dramatic pieces like this enlivening a concert--but sans the 'DI's

I am thinking of all the other songs of AruNacalak kavi and they are a treat for me to hear in a concert: SaraNam SaraNam, ennaiyum varac connArO? vandAn vandAn baratA and others.

'DI's in a padam, I suppose I take them for granted (!). Habit? Still, they are invariably in a pleading tone (usually addressed to a friend), though I do mind that expression 'DI', from my friends, believe me!

By the way, I am not at all keen on the pallavi line: gOvindanaDi, mukundanaDi, enakkavan sondmaDi--add to it the mrudangist's aDis at every one of those countlessly repeated (with count, of course!) 'aDi's--sheer bombardment!

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 28 Mar 2009, 21:01

Cool,
Must have been quite an experience, such an outpouring--with such accompanists too! ME would have supported him wholeheartedly, enhancing his performance rather than taking away the focus from the vocalist.
Yes! When it comes to 'outpourings', and sharing his joy in singing with the audience, TVS is up there in the list...

sureshvv · Post by **sureshvv** » 29 Mar 2009, 00:28

This thread confirms my long held belief that the major fact that one can glean from a concert review is the mood of the reviewer during the concert.

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 29 Mar 2009, 00:58

sureshvv wrote:major fact that one can glean from a concert review is the mood of the reviewer during the concert.

Very true for me!

Svaapana · Post by **Svaapana** » 29 Mar 2009, 08:05

rshankar wrote:
sureshvv wrote:major fact that one can glean from a concert review is the mood of the reviewer during the concert.
Very true for me!

.. and go tangentially

sureshvv · Post by **sureshvv** » 29 Mar 2009, 15:06

arasi wrote:Perhaps it is my intolerance for 'Di'

As I understand it, kids (and their youthful parents) today use -di and -da as terms of endearment interchangeably regardless of gender.

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 29 Mar 2009, 21:46

I have heard 'da' for 'di' but not the other way.

bhaktha · Post by **bhaktha** » 29 Mar 2009, 22:07

coolkarni wrote:I chose to post these thoughts here because , for decades I have felt that TVS is an artist who pours his heart out in his concerts.
He has nothing else on his mind but the enjoyment . For his audiences.
Cant think of another artist like that.

Very true. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZu7RAwRYJM The maestro himself says so.

sureshvv · Post by **sureshvv** » 30 Mar 2009, 00:05

vasanthakokilam wrote:I have heard 'da' for 'di' but not the other way.

'di' for 'da' is 2009

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 30 Mar 2009, 05:41

I was not talking about talking in 'dI's and 'DA's. It was about singing them! Barati's kaNNAmmA songs bring the endearment. 'DA's as in lines of 'jaya bErigai koTTaDA' are inspiring. It is pallavi lines like 'gOvindanaDi, mukundanaDi, enakkavan sondamaDi!' kind of repeated aDis with the mrudangam aDis that I had in mind. With rAmanukku mannan muDi, though the song says a lot and has meaningful lines, I still feel 'paTTam katta ETRavaNDi' repeated 'neraval'ly takes me away from the content and seems like a verbal and mrudanga aDi exercise to me!
I use 'DA' as endearment to babies, not children, come to think of it. I have no qualms about the use of them in addressing children or in the case of consenting adults!

sbala · Post by **sbala** » 30 Mar 2009, 09:29

Cool - After reading your post, I attended Balakrishna Prasad's programme at KGS. His krithi renditions appear flawless. Is it due to a combination of sruthi suddham, bhavam and sahitya clarity. I couldn't really analyse (and I don't want to) but it sounded so different and beautiful.

Sam Swaminathan · Post by **Sam Swaminathan** » 30 Mar 2009, 13:47

He is going to kill me for doing this, but, his response was so touching that I wanted to share it with you. After Coolji wrote about Annamacharya concert by Shri Balakrishna Prasad, I sent Coolji's report to my brother, just to appraise him. In spite of my educating him in the intricacies of internet, he is still oblivious to the WWW barring the use of email facilities. He responded to my email as copied below (quote:) "It is so nice of you to have send that mail of 'Shri Kulkarny. Realy it was a great concert so soul filling and satisfactory. I get paid for concerts. But no amount of money would equal the peace I got by playing for Prasad. I enjoyed the whole concert. Sincerely I have been wanting to play for Annamayya kritis for so long. And this was a God sent opportunity. So I played for him there in IIT and as well as on the next day at Krishna Gana Sabha. I thank you and Kulkarny"(unquote)"

I am so happy and blessed to have a brother like him.....cheers

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 30 Mar 2009, 21:41

We are too!

sramaswamy · Post by **sramaswamy** » 31 Mar 2009, 01:51

With the cutchery being in Singapore, Sri TVS could have modified it to "Pattam Katta ettavan la". Maybe that would have sounded less harsher

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coolkarni · Post by **coolkarni** » 31 Mar 2009, 14:34

ignoramus · Post by **ignoramus** » 31 Mar 2009, 14:50

Cool

I remember your comment, and agree.