O S Thyagarajan @ Nadasurabhi 15th Oct 2017

Vocal : O S Thyagarajan

Violin : Vittala Rangan

Mrudangam : Anoor Ananthakrishna Sharma

Ghatam : Giridhar Udupa

List :

01. erA nApai ( varNam) – thODi – Adi -Patnam Subramanya Iyer ( O )

02. nI bhakti bhAgyasudhA – jayamanOhari – rUpakam -Thyagaraja ( S )

03. sundara tara dEham – pantuvarALi – Adi – Thyagaraja ( N,S )

neraval & swara @ ‘rAgAdi samhAram rAghavam udAram’

04. sanAtana paramapAvana – phalamanjari – Adi – Thyagaraja

05. rAma daivamA – surutti – Roopakam – Thyagaraja ( A,S )

06. amma rAvamma tuLasamma – kalyANi – khaNDachAp – Thyagaraja ( N,S )

neraval & swara @ ‘tAmarasa daLanEtru tyAgarAjuni mitru’

07. ETi janmamidihA – varALi – mishra chAp – Thyagaraja

08. chakkanirAja mArgamu – kharaharapriya – Adi x 2 – Thyagaraja  ( A,N,S,T )

neraval & swara @ ‘ kaNTiki sundarataramaku rUpamE ‘

09. lAli yugavE -nIlAmbari – Thyagaraja (  O )

10. mangaLam – saurAStram – Thyagaraja

Vid OST’s concert have some staple ingredients. These days, they are largely limited to Thyagaraja compositions. He has a sense of measure to his singing. The alapana, neravals and kalpana swaras each of them takes a set pattern, they are apt and appropriate quantities. Which is why I like to attend his concerts. One comes back home with a sense of experiencing the essentials of carnatic music.

Sunday’s concert was also rich in the selection of ragas and kritis. While he mentioned in the middle of the concert that this is going to be an all Thyagaraja composition concert, relating his name and the residence number to the great composer, on a lighter note. However, his selection of kritis and the elaborations were very impressive. We were talking about surutti , the same after noon, and about its disappearance from concert these days and here comes a majestic alapana. Fablous neravals for pantuvarali ( as I always mention, an early pantuvarali neraval and swara can definitely lift the concert), nice selection of jayamanohari and phalamanjari in the middle, grand surutti piece before a surprise kalyani neraval and swaras ( I was happy there was no alapana for kalyani, but I can always manage to sit through kalyani kriti and neravals) were very good.

One should talk about the accompanying artist here. In most of the times it is they who make or break the concert to the audience. From the start it was evident that there is great synergy on stage. Vid Anoor Ananthakrishna Sharma, played delectably through out the evening, supported outstandingly by Udupa. Vittalarangan was on his elements, while following and in his turns. They made the difference in the evening.

Kharaharapriya alapana was very elaborate and good with some interesting phrases and a classy wind up at lower octave. I was hoping for ‘ni samanamevvaru’ but it had to be ‘chakkani raja margamu’. One does not get tired of listening to it again and again. Majestic neraval at ‘kantiki sundara’, detailed swaraprasthana in two speeds etc followed as expected. Percussion team played an excellent tani avratanam. There was no ‘banging’ the instrument, no gesticulation, no unwanted exhilaration, but delectable rhythmic poetry of instruments. I loved some of the ghatam returns.

There was nothing left to do post the main as he had spent enough time through the concert on larger pieces. The concert was soon wound up with a nilambari kriti and mangalam.

 

O S Thyagarajan @ Ranjani Fine Arts , 14 May 2016

Vocal : O S Thyagarajan

Violin : Mullaivasal G Chandramouli

Mrudangam : Akshay Ananthapadmanabhan

List :

01 dinamaNi vamsha – harikAmbOji – Thyagaraja ( O,S )

02. teliyalEru rAma – dhEnuka – Thyagaraja

03. sItamma mAyamma – vasanta – Thyagaraja ( N,S )

neraval & swara @ ‘dharajita bhAgavatAgrEsarulevvarO vArellaru’

04. dvaitamu sukhamA – rItigauLa – Thyagaraja ( A,S )

05. shrI kAnta nI eDa – bhavapriya – Thyagaraja

06. evvarurA ninnu vinA – mOhanam – Thyagaraja ( A,S )

07. dAcukO valEnO dAsharathi – thODi – Thyagaraja ( A,N,S,T )

neraval @ ‘saumitri tyAgarAjuni’

08. eppO varuvArO – jOnpuri – Gopalakrishna Bharati

09. shObanE – pantuvarALi – Thyagaraja

10. vinAyakuni – madhyamAvati – Thyagaraja

11. mangaLam – saurAStram – Thyagaraja

This was the second concert of OST in 7 days, at the same locality. As expected, this was again a ‘Thyagaraja’ special concert, making tribute to the legendary composer on his 250th birth centenary. To most of us who attended the previous concert, it felt as though he started off from where he left us last week. Same exuberance, same focus and involvement passed on to the others on the stage as well as the listeners. I found his voice to be in much better shape than last week. He was able to move up and down the octaves with ease, which he deployed extensively during alapana. However, he was a bit restrained from his free flowing mood of  the previous week, probably because of the ‘sabha concert settings’.

Ritigaula and mohanam alapana were the best part for me. I liked them more than the main thodi alapana he did. Both reetigaula and mohanam were marvelous. He did spent ample amount of time in setting the stage with slow short phrases to some extremely impressive ‘sanchAra’ moving across three octaves as he progresses. Few quick ‘akara’ phrases , quirky shifts of modulation, few longish higher octave expositions of the beauty of the raga were very very impressive for both reetigaula and mohanam, and to a much lesser effect in thodi. Mullaivasal Chandramouli almost always matched the sojourn of the lead singer with his violin during his turn. Some of his ‘deviations’, especially for mohanam was praiseworthy. With his special stand and the placement of violin was a bit unconventional but he was excellent through out.

Concert started with a harikamboji kriti as in the case of last week. It came to full flow only during the vasanta neraval. Interesting place to sing neraval and in his customary style he did a fantastic job. Ritigaula was fabulous. These days one get to hear only ‘janani ninnu vina’ and occassionally  a ‘paripalayamAm’ or’ninnu viDachi’. It’s  been ages since I heard ‘dvaitamu’  in a concert. He did sing this in a faster tempo, not sure  if that was the actual  ‘kalapramanam’. Fantastic rounds of kalpana swaras followed. I hoped for a neraval, though. After a short bhavapriya filler, mohanam came into fore.Very  good again and another nice choice of kriti. Thodi alapana was good in parts, but ‘dacukO valeNo’ choice was superb. Yet another masterpiece almost in obscurity. There was a grand neraval and much bigger and longer kalpana swara befitting a main. I still dont get why artists sing neraval at ‘saumitri tyAgarAjuni’, which to me sounds incomplete and meaningless. Akshay Ananthapadmanabhan was having a difficult day. He was continuously tuning his instrument through out the concert. Probably this pre-occupation affected his performance to some extend. He uses the modern mrudangam and had all the ‘handyman’ tools with him which he used after every kriti and post alapana before the song. The spanners, screw driver, hammer, ‘sAlagrAma :-)’ etc were used alternately. He is a talented musician and that was evident in the brilliant tani avartanam he played post the main.

Eppovaruvaro was an aberration in otherwise a complete ‘thyagaraja composition’ concert. OST sang that well, but one hoped for better support for this song. Shobane and vinayakuni completed the remainder of the evening before the closure. I always believe, singers can do a better preparation and present much better ‘post main’ kritis. Having said that this was another immensely enjoyable concert, very traditional and orthodox classical music performance.

 

 

O S Thyagarajan , Rasanveshanam Concert 07 May 2016

Vocal : O S Thyagarajan

Violin : Vittala Rangan

Mrudangam : B C Manjunath

List:

01. enduku nIrdaya – harikAmbOji – Thyagaraja ( O,S )

02. sundaratara dEham – pantuvarALi – Thyagaraja ( N,S )

neraval & swara @ ‘rAgAdi samhAram rAghavam udAram’

03. nArada gAnalOla – aThANa – Thyagaraja ( S )

04. karuNA ElagaNTe – varLAi – Thyagaraja

05. rAmA nI samAnamevvaru – kharaharapriya – Thyagaraja (N,S )

neraval & swara @ ‘ paluku palukulaku tEnEloluku mATalADu’

06. sItA manOhara – rAmamanOhari – Thyagaraja

07. kSINamai tirugA – mukhAri – Thyagaraja ( A,N,S )

neraval & swara @ ‘Edi jEsina jagannAthuDu shrIramuna ‘

08. ika kAvalasinadEmi – balahamsa – Thyagaraja ( S )

09. sattalEni dinamulu – nAganandini – Thyagaraja

10. E tAvunara – kalyANi – Thyagaraja (A ,N,S,T )

neraval & swara @ ‘shrIkaruDagu tyAgarAja karArchita’

11. kANa vENDAmO – shrIranjani – Papanasam Sivan

12. sadA enna hrdayadalli – behAg – Vijaya Vittala Dasa

13. vinAyakuni – madhyamAvati – Thyagaraja

14. mangaLam – saurAStram – Thyagaraja

Rasanveshanam series of concert is back after a long time, and this time with another big name  known for his traditional approach to music. As Sri Sachi mentioned in his ‘kick-off’, O S Thyagarajan , disciple of T M Thyagarajan, sang at the residence of V Thyagarajan, a concert mostly of Thyagaraja compositions. OST on his part had a free flowing concert. Neraval for 4 compositions, kalpana swaras for 7 kritis, two brilliant alapana , one in mukhari and the other in kalyani, made the day memorable.

Concert started a bit uncoordinated between the three players and it took 3-4 songs and a few tweaking of mike before it seemed smooth. Manjunath probably took a while to adjust or as some one mentioned there was a shruti alignment issue with the main singer. First one hour or so, it wasn’t in top gear. But from kharaharapriya onward, it sorted out by them.

OST, as expected presented his concert almost entirely on Thyagaraja compositions, as the musical world was elebrating the 250th birth centenary of the composer. The mix was intelligent. Few heavy ones in mukhari, kalyani and kharaharapriya with few rare ones in balahamsa, rAmamanOhari, nAganandini etc.

Mukhari and kalyani stood out for their detailed treatment and the way he went about them. Both mukhari and kalyani alapana were awesome. Largely done in short spurts of phrases in medium tempo, gradually singing few longish akara phrases he brought about the intrinsic beauty of mukhari to the fore. I notied, he did not attempt too many higher octave ‘sancharas’ in either kalyani or mukhari. Vittala Rangan’s mukhari was equally brilliant. He played a few mesmerising takes in his turn creating instant responses from the audience. Kalyani was largely structured in the similar fashion but was mostly around the ‘intellectual feel’ of the ragam than the ‘evocative feel’ of the raga for most part. He, however,closed the alapana with a nice melodious phrase. Both mukhari and kalyani neraval was traditionally structured in two speed,  followed with two speed kaplana swaras.

HE sang for full 3 hrs and paced his concert very well. I did have my moments of doubt when he moved on to 6 kritis in succession without an alapana, but I think that was deliberately done. HAving said that, I would have still preferred another alapana on that day, given the overall build up and responses. Post main, Manjunath played a tani avartanam to his credit playing some improvised patterns. I am not a great fan of one-man tani avartanam.

He sang a couple of kritis before looking at his watch and concluding, indicating it’s sharp 8:00 pm to Manju. That was 3 hrs of intense, break-free music to a record attendance for a ‘home concert’. He is coming back to the same area in exactly one week, to sing again at Ranjani Fine Arts.

PS : It would be grave injustice on my part if I do not acknowledge the hosts of the evening. As always, Sri Thyagarajan and his family made excellent arrangements and they probably had one of the largest turn out of their home concert ( under the Pranava Arts). My sincere appreciation to their efforts.

 

O S Thyagarajan @ BTM Cultural Academy 25,May 2013

Vocal : O S Thyagarajan

Violin : S R Mahadeva Sharma

Mrudangam : M T Rajakesari

Ganjira : B N Chandramouli

List :

01.  erA nApai (varNam) – thODi – Patnam Subramanya Iyer ( O,S )

02.  evarani – dEvAmrutakarshiNi – Thyagaraja

03.  dEva dEva kalayAmi tE – mAyAmALavagauLA – Swati Thirunal ( N,S )

neraval&swara @ ‘ jAtarUpa nibhacEla janmArcitam mamAkhila‘

04.  evarUrA ninnu vinA – mOhanam – Thyagaraja  ( A,S )

05.  aTu kArAdani – manO ranjani – Thyagaraja

06.  paridAnamichitE – bilahari – Patnam Subramanya Iyer ( S )

07.  ekAmrESa nAyaki – chAmaram (shaNmukhapriya) – Dikshitar ( A,N,S,T )

neraval & swara @ ‘ kAnchi nagara nivAsinim kaivalya pradAyinim naLinim’

08.  sadA enna hrdayadalli – behAg – Vijaya Vittaladasa

09.  mangaLam – saurAshtram/madhyamAvathi – Thyagaraja

Listening to OST is driving through a road after the rush hour. There are no noisy , screechy maneuvers, no sudden speed bumps, no honking from the sides and you enjoy the ride. There are no exhilaration or rush of adrenalin. The so called ‘Bangalore season’ is now over and the concert scene is silent past two weeks. It was thus the right unwinding after the month long ramanavami season.

But, it wasn’t one such. While the characteristics of his concert was intact, in general it sounded like a hurried affair. Speed was the essence,  most of the kritis were fast paced, madhyamakala rendering. Both Mohanam and shanmukhapriya alapana had aggression and force as virtue rather than the normal slow, melodious meticulous build up. They were good, no doubt, and had some nice posture which aren’t usually seen ( especially the mohanam alapana), but was done in fast paced phrases.

Concert started fabulously with the thOdi varnam. The short sketch set things up beautifully and the swara , albeit very short, was indeed very good. Devamrutavarshini was quick as it is known to be, followed by Swathi kriti in Mayamalavagaula. The neraval was classy affair and so was the fast swaras culminating with some brilliant rounds of swara singing. Mahadeva Sharma was equally brilliant.

Mohanam was the first detailed alapana. As mentioned earlier, it was a done through fast short phrases, with some nice takes. A different mohanam was unveiling due to this. It was interesting. It had to be a fast tempo kriti and evarura was apt. There was no neraval but had some nice rounds of swaram added.

Two quick fillers before the main, mano ranjani and bilahari. There weren’t slow pieces either. Shanmukhapriya alapana was grand. Again, short fast paced phrases, a bit of to and fro with akara singing, but overall it was impressive. Ekamresa Nayaki was very good. As a welcome change, it was in the slow , befitting the 2 kalai adi. Neraval was fabulous, so was the detailed kalpana swara. Mahadeva Sharma was very good in general. His alapana and the neraval and swara accompaniment was very good. On the other side, percussion was a let down. Two senior vidwans on stage, but there was some alignment missing with the rest. There was an issue of overall balanceof the amplification, which would have caused this discomfort. He was playing his part, but it wasnt going in line with the vocalist. Tani Avartanam was decent.

Post main was very short and non-impressive. As the speeches were over, the secretary mentioned that the concert will continue. OST was quick to correct saying “not continue, but to conclude as he has to catch a train”. He sang a quick devarnama in behag and closed with the mangalam. A decent concert, but wasn’t a typical OST affair, which one hoped for.

 

O S Thyagarajan @ Unnati Centre, 13 March 2010

Vocal : Sri O S Thyagarajan

Violin : B K Raghu

Mrudangam : H S Sudheendra

Ghatam : Sukanya Ramgopal

Songlist:

01 sAdhinchanE – Arabhi – Thyagaraja

02 gurulEka ytuvanti –  gauri manOhari – Thyagaraja ( O,N,S )

neraval & swara @ ‘ tatva bOdhana jEsi kApADu tyAgarAjAptuDanu‘

03 sItamma mAyamma – vasantha – Thyagaraja ( A,N,S )

neraval & swara @ ‘dharaija bhAgavatA-grEsaru levvarO vArellaru vara tyAgarAjuniki‘

04 srI mAnini manOhara – pUrNashaDjam – Thyagaraja  ( A )

05 bhAgAyanayya – chandrajyOti – Thyagaraja ( A )

06 manasA mana sAmarthyamEmi O – vardhani – Thyagaraja

07 atukA rAda dani balka? – manOranjitham – Thyagaraja

(  OST announced this as manOranjitham.. IS it not manOranjini ? or is there a different krithi ??)

08 O rangashAyi – kAmbOji – Thyagaraja ( A,N,S,T )

neraval & swara @ ‘ bhUlOka vaikuNTham idiyani‘

09 ArakimpavE – thODi – Thyagaraja

10 challarE rAmachandruni – Ahiri – Thyagaraja

11 lAli yugavE – nIlAmbari – Thyagaraja

12  tirupati venkaTa ramaNa – hamsanandi – Purandara Dasa

13 mangaLam – saurAshtram – Thyagaraja

mangaLam  kOsalEndra – madhyamAvati

A beautifully presented concert by Sri O S Thyagarajan at the Unnati center yesteray. He was in his sublime form and rendered a poised , traditional concert for three hours.  Two early detailing ( with neraval and swara) of gauri manohari and vasantha set the concert up in the tempo. However, he then moved into a series of rare krithi’s and ragams ( poornashadjam, vardhani and mano ranjitham) explaining that these krithi’s are rearely heard at concerts.  Then came a majestic kamboji, presented in a prestine style. What an alapana( which lasted 18 minutes), followed by  O rangashai in its all grandeur,  long and deliberate neraval for 15 minute, 10 odd minutes of swaraprasthana ( In fact, I was hoping for more at this stage);  an hour before he handed over to Sudheendra and Sukanya for their part.

Young B K Raghu, looks very promising, did some good job during chandrajyothi alapana and the initial phrases of kamboji. He did accompany the main artist, decently. Sudheendra and Sukanya were very good through out. A very good concert and a kamboji to remember for along time.

tatva bOdhana jEsi kApADu tyAgarAjAptuDanu