Vocal : T N Seshagopalan
Violin : V V Ravi
Mrudangam : Trichur C Narendran
Ganjira : Guruprasanna
List:
01 Alapana – pUrvikalyANi
SLOkam ( srI vidyAm shiva vAmabhAga nilayAM ) – pUrvikalyANi
mInAkshi mE mudam dEhi – pUrvikalyANi ( gamakakriya) – Adi x 2 – Dikshitar ( A,N,S )
neraval & swara @’vINa gAna daSa gamakakriyE’
02 amba vANi – kIravAni – Adi- Muthaiah Bhagavathar ( S @varavINa pANi)
03 RTP – bhairavi & sindhu bhairavi – khanDa triputa, 2 kaLai
pallavi line ‘ kapAlini trishUlini Ezhil sindhu bhairavi pAhimAm’
no Ragamalika swaras
tani Avartanam
04 SLOkam ( jagati vijita manthram) – jAunpuri
rAma manthrava japisO – jAunpuri – Purandara Dasa
05 thillAna ( dhim tadana tani nadru dru dru dhIm ) – bilahari – Poochi Srinivasa Iyengar ?
06 mangaLam – saurAshtram – thyagaraja
SLOkam (srIyAy kAnthaya ) – madhyamAvati
The concluding concert of the 5 day Academy of Music Festival at Chowdiah hall. The concert was shortened due to the extended falicitation ceremory, to a mere One and half hour affair, and that was a bit disappointing. He seems to have warmd up but the constant glance at the watch indicated a shorter concert with greater disappointment. On his part, he did not fill in the available time with lot many kritis. Upto the tanam of the pallavi, it was grand. The time pressure seems to have taken off with the tanam and the rest of the concert was not worth mentioning.
Earlier the evening , he received the covetted K K Murthy memorial Chowdiah Award from Suttur Guruji, along with Rudrapatnam Brothers. The speeches and garlands went on for a while , despite the function starting on time. It was 8 ‘O clock, before the concert to kick start. Guruji, bagan his speech mentioning that the audience are here to listen to the concert, and went on to speak for another 20-25 mins.
TNS started off with a brilliant alapana in pUrvikalyani, and some how it reflected as he removed the first couple of pieces from his original list. The alap was detailed and long. Continuing with a slokam before the Dikshtar’s master piece ‘mInAkshi mE mudam’. He chose to do neraval at ‘vIna gAna dasa gamaka kriyE’ with a lot of emphasise on ‘dasa gamakakriyE’ . Kalpana swara was done in two speeds, taking around 35 mins on this composition.
A fast paced AmbavAni followed along with a quickfire rounds of swaras. though it was of high octane and bit rashy, I liked it ( personaly I prefer slower version of Keeravani). Bhairavi alapana ,which followed had all the ingredient of a main. The slow build up, the deliberate and unhurried phrases , the high octave sancharas, the dhruta prayogas that followed and the landing. Including the mrudangist, everyone was ready for a bhairavi heavy weight to follow, but came sindhu bhairavi. Equally eloquent in his typcial fashion, the alapana was fabulous. There was the ‘crowd puller’ grahabhedam ( to what I cant recollect). Alapana concluded with the alternating phrases between the two chosen ragas. Tanam was fast and somewhat hurried. There was no pause as he was clearly trying to catchup on speed. From here the rest of the concert was pretty quick and not very great. Tanam was done in a coupleof avartanam, pallavi was short, there was no trikalam, swara singing was also shortened with no attempt for ragamalika swaras. Tani Avartanam was also short. Trichur Narendran and Guruprasanna was very supportive through out the concert.
Despite the short duration, there was another break with the speech and flowers. Concert was wound up in next 5 mins with a dasar nama and a thillana. On the whole, it was not satisfying, as I did not come for a one and half hour concert. But, it is my experience , that any concert followed by a felicitation function will eventually be truncated by the extention of speeches and the associated delays.
Brain Drain 