Vocal : Madurai T N Seshagopalan
Vocal Support : T N S Krishna & Anil Murthy
Violin : C N Chandrasekharan
Mrudangam : T A S Mani
Ghatam : Ranganatha Chakravarthy
List:
01. shLOkam ( krSNAya vAsudEvAya dEvaki) – kalyANi
vAsudEvayani – kalyANi – Thyagaraja ( S )
02. sAdhincanE manasA – Arabhi – Thyagaraja
03. AlApana – mOhanakalyANi
shLOkam ( ugram vIram mahAvishNum ) – mOhanakalyANi
bhajarE bhajamAnasa shrI narasimham – mOhanakalyANi – Mysore Vasudevachar
04. bhuvini dAsuDanE – shrI ranjani – Thyagaraja ( A,N,S )
niraval & svara @ ‘padamulE gati tyAgarAjanuta ‘
05. kancadalAyadAkSi – kamalA manOhari – Dikshitar
06. RTP – kIravANi – khaNDa triputa x 2 kaLai +3.5 ( 14 aksharam) eduppu
pallavi line ‘sangIta shAstra kalAnidhi, mysUru vAsudEva guNanidhi ‘
svaras in kIravAni. No rAgamalika svaras
tani Avartanam
07. shLOkam ( jagati vichita manthram) – jOnpuri
rAma manthrava japisO – jOnpuri – Purandara Dasa
08. ugabhOga ( krSNA enabAradE )
narajanma bandAga – madhuvanti ? -Purandara Dasa
09. thillAna ( dhIm tAre nAre tarana diranA ) – hamsAnandi – Muthaiah Bhagavathar
10. tirupugazh ( Erumayil Eri ) – surutti
11. mangaLam ( nI nAma rUpamulaku) – saurAshtram – Thyagaraja
shLOkam (shrIyay kAnthAya) – madhyamAvati
It’s nearly two years since I attended a concert of sri TNS. For one, his appearance in Bangalore seems to have reduced and also with the surge of the new breed of many upcoming young artists in the carnatic performance arena, we seldom get to see him featuring in the mega annual festivals of the leading organisations. Irrespective of his physical limitations of voice off late, his concert always give me something which I don’t usually get in the new stars. That made my decision to brave the distance across the city through the ‘IPL rush’ of the MG Road. Moreover, the outstanding feedback about his concert last week at the Jayarama Seva Mandali, helped me out of the guilt of skipping the Palghat Ramprasad’s concert at my own neighborhood.
In the end, the decision was right. He presented a beautiful concert at Sanjay Nagar. Concert started half an hour behind schedule after the Sabha had honoured him with ‘Vasudevacharya Sangeetha Samrat’ award for this year. He was giving his acceptance speech when we entered the hall. Congratulations to him !
Concert started with a kalyANi shLOkam followed with ‘vAsudEvayani’. I dont remember if he has sung this kriti before, or at least I’ve not heard it from him. It was interesting to observe him referring to the notes while rendering this kriti. Probably another first time sighting of this. The kalpana svaras he sung at the end of the kriti was the curtain raiser for the rest of the evening. In his unique style, mesmerising the audience with some outstanding svara prasthana, amidst some thunderous applause. An ordinary ‘sAdhincane’ came and went without much impact. A short alapana of mOhanakalyAni was also just ok. He did sing some nice phrases, but probably due to some not so appealing violin ‘play along’ some of the subtle nuances of the alapana wasn’t heard properly. As expected the shlokam ‘ugram vIram mahAvishnum’ came in before the predictable bhajare bhajamanasa, a master piece of Vasudevachar was sung. It did rekindle the memories of an outstanding rendition of this from him at M A Narasimhachar Foundation in 2007. Well, this wasn’t anywhere near that experience.
Sriranjani alapana that followed was far better, with C N Chandrasekharan exercising much restraint. He attempted a few traverse to the higher octaves, fairly well executed. C N Chandrasekharan was equally good in his turn. Bhuvini Dasudane was again predictable. He sang an amazing niraval at ‘padamule gati’. The concluding rounds was sung with such a variety of ‘laya variations’ , very impressive. Kalpana svara had more to come. a few round of ‘svarAkshara’ at ‘pa da mulegati’ was later extended as ‘sa da ni pa da mulegati’ to a great effect. Soon, he asked his son to join and the rally between the duo, occasionally joined by the violinist was a treat to watch and hear as the son matching the master fabulously. Overall, awesome treat.
After a quick kamalamanohari piece came in a two phase keeravani alapana. Again, attempting across the octaves albeit with some strain, he presented a refreshing keeravani alapana. C N Chandrasekharan was impressive too with some nice phrases during his turn. TNS continued from his second phase alapana into tAnam. Brilliant. Systematically increasing the tempo, varying the octaves and the style it was done very well. Pallavi line was a tribute to Mysore Vasudevachar, set in khanda triputa started , I think, at 14 aksharam. There was no ragamalika svaras, but as in the case of sriranjini, svara was alternated between the father and the son to a similar impact. Later, he indicated to his son to do the trikalam which was one of the high points of the pallavi. Outstanding effort by the junior with some classy support from veteran percussionist. TAS Mani, with nimble fingers played pretty well through out. The percussion duo later played a structurally intrinsic, rhythmically appealing tani avartanam.
Two devarnama came in post main before the VOT break. The organiser took a little longer than the patience level. Concert continued with a thillana in hamsanandi, which took TNS into some playful best, who nudged his son also to join in. Muthiah Bhagavathar’s thillana was pretty long with all those playful repeats and improvisations. A quick tirupugazh followed with mangalam concluded the concer. Very good concert, indeed.
Brain Drain 