T M Krishna @ Nadasurabhi Annual Festival , 14ov 2009

Vocal : T M Krishna

Violin : H K Venkatram

Mrudangam : H S Sudheendra

Ghatam : Giridhar Udupa

Songlist:

01 dEvi pAvanE – sAvEri – Swathi Thirunal ( S )

02 sogasu jUDa taramA – kannaDagauLa – Thyagaraja ( S )

03 kanaka shaila vihAriNi – punnAgavarALi – Shyama Shastri ( A,N )

       neraval @ ‘ shyAmaLAmbikE bhavAbdhi taraNe shyAmakrishNa paripAlini janani ‘

04 sadA tava pAda sannidhim – shaNmukhapriya – Balamuralikrishna

05 RTP – kAdAragauLa -  tisra triputa 4 kaLai

      pallavi line ‘ sArasadaLa nayanA harE srIkrishNa’

      ragamalika swaras in thODi , srIranjini , behAg , jayanthasrI,kEdAragauLA

05b tani Avartanam

06 rAse harimiha vihita vilAsam – rAgamAlika ( mOhanam,vasantha,yamunAkalyANi,sindhubhairavi) – Jayadeva

07 nanda gOpAla – yamunAkalyANi ? – Muthuswami Dikshitar

08 vandEmAtaram – dEsh – Bankim Chandra Chatterji

09 bhujaga shAyinO – yadukula kAmbOji – Swathi Thirunal

An outstanding concert yesterday at the Nadasurabhi festival. T M Krishna the team presented a scintillating concert, depite a small hiccup , in the form of power interruptions and a delayed start.

Concert started with the saveri krithi of Swathi Thirunal. Krishna sang the swaras in 2 speeds alternating between slow and fast paced singing. Initially violing followed the same sequence, later switching to the the opposite, thus making it a slow and fast paced jugalbandi. One could call this a gimmick and against the aesthetics, but I liked it. The kannadagaula krithi was not an often heard krithi, and krishna exlpained that this tala has to be called ’tisra chapu’ and not rUpakam with some explanations.

Punnagavarali was a surprice. His typical slow and deliberate alapana with longinsh phrases was very good. So was the krithi and the neraval. Outstanding stuff. Shanmukhapriya was the fast paced filler. The disruption of power started as soon as the Shanmukhapriya krithi was over.  However, Krishna did not hesitate to start the alapana of Kedaragaula and what a marvel. H K Venkatram alsohas to play his turn without the help of the amplification. The power was still at bay. With the help of oil lamps and a couple of emergency lights, he started tanam. Luckily power was restored during tanam. Outstanding pallavi followed set to a very very slow talam. The accompaniment , I should say, displayed very good support during this pallavi.

H K Venkatram was very good through out. Sudheendra dn Udupa did their part good, despite too many slow krithis. The tani avartanam too was pretty good.  Post main section was moer to do with the user request, he had received on mail. This was one fantastic concert to the capacity audience.

 

T M Krishna @ Suswaralaya Music , Banashankari 08 Nov 2009

Vocal : T M Krishna

Violin : H K Venkatram

Mrudangam :  T K Murthy

Ghatam : Trichy Murali

Songlist:

01 era nApai ( varNam) – thODi -  Patnam Subramanya Iyer

02 bhuvini dAsuDane – srIranjani – Thyagarja ( O,N,S )

     neraval & swara @ ‘ nI padamulE gati tyAgarAjanuta’

03 eTula brOtuvO – chakravAkam – Thyagaraja ( A,S )

04 kanukoNTini – bilahari – Thyagaraja ( O,S )

05 gIthArthamu – surutti – Thyagaraja  ( A,N,T )

    neraval @ ‘ hari vara rUpuDu harahaya vinutuDu’

06 RTP – tarangiNi – tisra triputa , 2 kaLai

     pallavi line ‘ mAdhava tarangiNi guruguha mAtuLa ranjani’

     ragamalika swara in  Anandabhairavi &bhairavam  ( anandabhairavi&bhairavi in violin reply), behAg ( behAg&hamIrkalyANi in violin reply)

07 nirai mathi mukham ( thirupugazh) – hamsAnandi – ?

08 mangaLam – saurAshtram – Thyagaraja

A fine concert by T M Krishna and team yesterday to conclude the 10th Suswaralaya Mucis Festival.  The concert started almost 45 minutes late after the felicitation of T K Murthy and an early taniavartanam by the organiser in the form of ‘thanks giving’. The team was eager to get on withthe concert, and one could see TMK gesturing to Sudheendra, to get it over with.

Concert started traditional way with a varnam . Sriranjani krithi was the warmer, with some good neraval and swaras.  The first alapana came with chakravakam, and I thought HKV did a splendid job there. Bilahari , which followed next had some brilliant swara singing, with an apt support by violin and T K Murthy. Surutti main was leisurely paced, with an elaborate neraval. Surprisingly, he turned to T K Murthy after the neraval , without singing swaras. 

T K Murthy, started the concert bit loud, got into the groove pretty soon. What followed since then was awesome. His soft finger touches,  some of the patterns that he exhibited and executed were amazing.  During taniavartanam too, he was all class, to the praise of every one in the stage as well as in the auditorium. 

Tarangini pallavi was a surprice. Krishna announced that he will sing a short pallavi. Tarangini alapana and the tanam were excellent. So was the return by H K Venkatram.  There was no trikalam, but the ragamalika swaras were very nice. Krishna moved from tarangini to anandabhairavi easing into bhairavam. On his return, HKV played Anandabhairavi and bhairavi.  The second set of swaras saw him playing from behAg to hamIr kalyAni ( kind of grahabhedam ) and returning back to behag.

There was again a round of speech, curtailing the post RTP tukkadas. It was already late and Krishna closed the concert with a tirupugazh before the mangalam. Overall a fine concert.

 

T M Krishna , Ramanavami Seshadripuram College , 28 Apr 2009

Vocal : T  M Krishna

Violin : H K Venkatram

Mrudangam : Arun Prakash

Ganjira : N Amrut

Songlist:

01 enthani nE – mukhAri – Thyagaraja   ( A,N,S )

02     – bEgaDa – ??

03 sadAchalEshwaram – bhUpALam – Muthuswami Dikshitar ( A,S )

04 nenarunchinAnu – mALavi – Thyagaraja   ( A,S )

05 mAmava pattAbhirAma – maNirangu – Muthuswami Dikshitar  ( A,N,S,T )

        neraval and swara at ‘chatra cAmara karadhRta bharata lakSmaNa shatrughna vibhISaNa sugrIva pramukhAdi sEvita’

        tani avartanam

06 swAminAtha parupAlaya – nAtta – Muthuswami Dikshitar

07 RTP – kAnaDa – khanda jAthi triputa

       pallavi line  ‘ chith-sabhayil natamADum daivamE kAtharuL karuNai pozhiyum varamE’

       rAgamAlika swaras in kAnaDa , SAma , hamIr kalyANi, shivaranjani

       short tani Avartanam

08 mAnasa sanchararE - SAma - Sadashiva Brahmendra

09  thillAna ( dhim tana dhim jhanuta) – behAg – Lalgudi Jayaraman

10 mangaLam kOsalEndra – behAg

I reached during the begada kriti. The accoustics at the place where I was standing was very poor and I could not identify the kriti. I understand that he had completed an elaborate mukhari before I came in. I wsa late and reached around 7:20. Knowing TMKs usual ritual of tuning the tambura ( 2 in this case) which last about 20 mins and his current trend of starting off with a heavy kriti, I might not have missed many. If there are any ommissions, I stand corrected.

Until the main manirangu, the concert was average. Mainly because of the poor sound systems. Bhoopalam alapana was detailed and the krithi was sung in a slow tempo. I like Krishna’s lower speed renderings, but yesterday it wasn’t as enjoyable as I wanted to be. What followed was a super speed alapana of malavi, HKV trying to match the speed by playing along. I thought that was not called for, as it only added to the overall ‘noise’ in the auditorium, loosing the effect. The kriti followed by another super fast swara singing, handled better by HKV.

The take of the day was the main. By this time, sound was better and what came out was one rendering of supreme quality. The alapana, and a master class neraval ( he chose to sing the entire line as neraval, which is pretty long) and some beautiful swara kalpana. HKV was also into his comfort zone by now, matching and getting praise for his playing. Tani avartanam was notable for some intricate calculations and patterns, even though it is not of the high octane kind which we are used to listen.

The pallavi came in as a surprise, as it was 9:15 by the time the tani avartanam was over.  Kanada ragam and tanam was detailed, pallavi with trikalam was also elaborate.  There was ragamalika swaras however short it was. Unlike many others who do a ‘for the sake of a pallavi’ , this was done in detail to the merit, even as the clock went past 10:00 pm. Wonderful concert from the main krithi.