Madurai TNS krishna@vanimahal on Oct 13th,2012

[rajeshnat]

Madurai TNS krishna@vanimahal on Oct 13th,2012
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Vocal : Madurai TNS KrishnA
Violin : Delhi sunderrajan
Mrudangam : R Ramesh
Ghatam : N guruprasad

Concert duration/Day : 2 hrs +/Saturday
Concert Type : Nirvana (no concert to follow)
Hall : P Obul Reddy Hall - vanimahal (mini)

1A. slokham - guru kripA- ??
1B. "calamEla jEsEvurA" - darbAr - Tiruvettiyur Thyagayya

2. VAthApi gaNapathim(N,S) - hamsadhwani- MD
3 mins nerval in "karaambuja paaSa beejaapooram kaloosha vidhooram bootaahaaram"
6 mins swaras

3. appa rAmA bhakthi (R, N , S) - paNtuvarAli - T
6 mins alapana and 4 mins violin return
3 mins nerval in "trippaTalanu dIrci kaNTi reppavalEnu gAcu mA "
10 mins swaras

4A. marakatha vadivE sharanam... shruthi jathi layamE isaiyE charanam - viruththam - lalitA
4B. naNNu brOva - lalitA- SS

5A.shankarAbharanam alapana with shruthi bedham to todi and kalyAni
16 mins alapana and 7 mins violin return
5B. slOkham "mandasmitha kAmbOORam .... harikEsa mahAgayakam.."
5C. maNadirkku isaindha maNAlan (R N S T) - shankarAbharanam - HMB
7 mins nerval in "samarasa saravanan sadguna bOdhan"
swaras in shankarAbharanam and ragamaliga (many were there, could only identify arabi,varAli, valaci??, bowli,punnAgavarAli)


I was there only till the main. TNS Krisha has real strengths , voice that has lovely GAthram and throw, his ability to really showcase brigas and in general he maintains quite a high excitement in rendition. I was late but looked like the concert also started late.

He was wrapping a small slokham on guru kripa and segued to a lovely darbAr varnam. His voice was really strong and the varnam settled very well, a great start especially with the dash of swaras in the line paluku. The next in hamsadhwani was the evergreen vathApi, it was not an usually hackneyed antha kalathu trace of vathApi , but it was very hyper expressive , one can say different shades of hamsadhwani raga swaroopam , propelled by very noteworthy modulation .

The submain was a standard two down raga pantuvarali. His modulations , akaaram usage , brigas were all very very TNS like , considering the krithi being "appa" rAma bhakthi he exactly bought in his "appA" style , it was a hailstorm pantuvarali. I liked the swaras and there was good exchange between him and delhi sunderrajan

After a very expressive paNtuvarali, he cooled very well with a lovely lalitA, there was a nice viruththam prelude in lalitA and then he rolled with nannu brOVu lalita. I felt he could have continued the serene lalita muse with a neraval.Lalita was presented beautifully,the majestic voice of his matched the serene bhavam of krithi.

The main was shankarAbharanam, it was a mixed bag .The alapana was excellent , did bedhams too and I liked his voice strength, another lovely slokham followed before the krithi. The krithi was a brand new one and i have not heard this HMB krithi at all. From neraval the concert took a dip, the neraval was not that exciting as before .In swaras , he went with a dose of excess kanakku which did not suit my taste , but what put me off more was a medlay of swaras in atleast 7+ ragas. Each of those ragamaliga swaras were too short , before I could soak in one raga rasa the next came knocking too fast. I had to leave at the end of main swaras. I felt at times it was a case of TNSK and Delhi sunderrajan having a private intellectual musical course, I as a rasika was left to figure out myself along with little delayed playing of percussionist(s).

delhi sunderrajan alapana play was very razor sharp and fast keeping up with the kalapramanam of TNSK, but I felt the nAdham during returns was not the DS that I am used to. Ramesh and N Guruprasad provided good support , noticeably more faster roll by Ramesh would have gelled well with TNS KrishnA

One Significant Plus and two minuses:
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1. TNS Krishna has a really bold and strong voice and his modulations are wonderful . During alapana ,his akaaram usage and briga handling is very much like his father which in itself is an extraordinary achievement.

2. ON the negative side I find his music has at times quite a lot of little excess forcefulness (athaTTal) , and with some uncontrollable speed I could find a bit of sriram gangadharan like approach in music, it can be a hit or miss.

3. The percussion of Ramesh was not able to cope up that well with the speed of TNS Krishna. I thought the main artist had to study bit more the percussionist and callibrate with the fingering speed of percussionist, unfortunately that was not the case.

I am assuming his athaTTal(#2) will surely go away with more and more concerts and his strengths will be more pronounced . TNS krishna is a very classy musician with a real strong voice and has a very impressive modulation.

Overall a very good to excellent concert.

[rajeshnat]

Rams
I saw you there, may I know what he sang as tukkadas.

[arasi]

Rajesh,
Thanks for your (as usual) detailed review. Your keen perception and ''don't forget you are singing for us, rasikAs'' mudhra is there, as expected

I haven't heard this young and talented vocalist (endowed with some of his father's riches) except once, several years ago. That word athaTTal also signals command. He possesses both, one could say?

A concert with a few viruthams and slOkams is very appealing to me. One of them, the prelude to HMB's SankarAbharaNam kruthi was about parama guru, composed by appA, is an easy to guess. manda smitha (gambhIram??). manda smitha followed by manadukkisainda. Very nice!

manadukkisainda maNALan was new to me, until Gayatri Girish sang it in an all HMB concert at Bengaluru BTM a number of years ago. She made the song endearing.

[mahavishnu]

Rajesh, thanks for your review. Somehow, I have never managed to go to a TNS Krishna kutcheri. But now I will make it a point to listen to him at the next available opportunity.

I was puzzled by your comments on R Ramesh's mridangam. As a true descendant of the KRM school, he has some of the fastest fingers this side of the kaveri. Maybe his style did not match the vocalist's or it was just an off day for everyone?

[mahesh3]

He is a superb Musician. He has definitely lost a lot of momentum in his musical career due to taking up graduate studies and a full fledged job - am sure we will hear much more of him in the coming years.

[kssr]

To the best of my knowledge, he does not prefix his name with Madurai. Bybthe time he grew up, I guess they had already settled in madras.

He is a BE,MBA and still manages a good full time job plus top class music.

Reg high speed short multiple raga swaras, it is also a legacy inherited and probably to be accepted as part of the baani.

Excellent artist indeed. Do not get to see him frequently in Bangalore.

[sureshvv]

I find the voice to be his Achilles' heel but may be i am guilty of unfair comparison.