T M Krishna @ Vani Mahal - Dec 10, 2007
R K Sriramkumar (RKS) - Violin
Vellore Ramabhadran (VR) - Mridangam
?? - Ghatam (Sorry I forgot.......)
It has been nearly 2 years since I attended any carnatic concerts in live. This music festival 2007 in Chennai gave me a great opportunity to stop that drought. I am being a very selective listener, was waiting for concerts of my favorite singers. My ears which were lately busy with mazhalai isai given by my little few months old son, for a change got a chance to hear the blissful music by one of my favorite singer
T M Krishna(TMK). I had actually planned to attend
Sowmya's concert in Narada Gana Sabha on Dec 7, 2007 but ended up in the middle of my journey as my vehicle stopped running and I missed an
astounding Mukhari by Sowmya. As Sowmya was mesmerizing the audience with her Mukhari I was dragging my vehicle to the mechanic. My bad luck.
Now coming to TMK's concert, I started from home at the correct time to reach the Mahaswami auditorium,
Vani Mahal but lost out my way due to one-way round abouts and had to ask two or three auto drivers to find my correct way to it. I could only reach by 6.50pm so lost out 20 minutes, again my bad luck. Perhaps I missed one or two songs. When I entered the auditorium Varali was flowing like
Courtallam main falls, in particular TMK was singing niraval at the line "Paramathmudu". Kalpanaswara just flowed spontaneously and with Vellore Ramabhandran's (VR) sarvalaghu it was simply superb. This song being the one to set the tempo of the concert I expected some sequences of fast swaras as he did in the Ille Vaikunta song in the album
O Rangasayee, but anyways this one was also equally good. Then came a short alapana (6 min) of Anandabhairavi at 7.03. It was aesthetic as always and RKS followed him as shadow. I was somehow expecting Marivere but there came the evergreen, astounding composition of Muthuswamy Dikshitir's -- Thyagaraja Yoga Vaibhavam. The slow, laid-back approach for this song gave a great effect and TMK is just a master in that. For me this was the song of the concert. There were no kalpanaswaras but the song itself was well presented and it seldom needs any more creativity to boost the beauty of the song. I still feel Palghat
K V Narayansawamy's rendition of this song is the best solely because of his harmonious and sweet voice. The lyrics of this song can be found
here -- the structure of the lyrics presentation itself will reveal the beauty of it. The ultimate essence of this rendition was seen when TMK gave a pause at the end of the line "rUpa vis'va srSTyAdikaraNam". Anandabhairavi got over by 7.24 but my ears felt the effect for few more hours. Then came relatively a fast piece Majanaki in Kambhoji. The song was rendered in a fast pace to compensate for the previous slow paced songs. Niraval was done at the line "Raja raja" -- starting of it resembled
Madurai Mani Iyer's style. VR showed how even sarvalaghu can impress the audience if it was done in a way which suits the artist's singing style. He was just amazing -- with limited movements of his fingers and idle posture of his body the naadham (sound) coming out from his mridangam is just amazing.
The main piece of the concert was Kamalabam Bhajare in Kalyani. Kalyani was dealt in depth by TMK for almost 13 minutes. What I liked most in this alapana are rendukataan (medium-paced...not fast...not slow....) sancharams. These rendukataan sancharams seems to be easy to sing but when we do them in reality we can experience the difficulties. And another one I enjoyed was the sancharams he did in tharasthayi (higher octave) with his teeth locked. When doing it he even touched the higher sadjam in the higher octave. Creativity was at its best especially in the higher octave sancharams. TMK employed two times the sancharams "sa pa sa pa_ ri" (pa_ is pa in lower octave) but due to my short memory I did not realize that he is symbolically saying Kamalambam bhajahare is going to come after the alapana (I realized this only when he actually started the song). The same sanchara comes in the charanam of the song, in particular in the line "sarvasha pari pooraga". RKS played equally well but at times I felt he lapsed in concentration and I could experience some fuzziness in few sancharams. Niraval was done at the line "Nirvana nijasuka...". Niraval was superb, VR was at his best, ghatam was supporting VR and RKS replied TMK with apt sancharams. It was great to see all of them combining so well. Kalpanaswaras just flowed with ease and to my surprise the last kalpanaswara was without any muthaippu (doing some rhythmic swaras three times...it involves some mathematics). May be TMK wanted to follow the sarvalaghu option, possibly because VR was his accompanist, instead of going to Mathematics in swaras. Full 38 minutes for alapana, song and kalpanaswara. Now the time was for VR and Ghatam to show their powers. VR's nadham was at his best but at times I felt the ghatam sound was irritating may be because of the closeness of microphone to ghatam.
The came a very short Ragam, Thanam and Pallavi in raaga Bhairavi. A very short alapana of Bhairavi was followed by a little lengthier thanam. Thanam was done superbly. RKS was at his best at thanam; VR too joined in thanam; it was so nice to hear them in unison. Anywhere, anytime, any raaga and any-good-singer I can hear thanam for hours -- thanam is the part which I like the most. Pallavi was "Parimalarangapathae" -- that has been sung by many people like Madurai Mani Iyer and even TMK himself, but sung in Kambhoji I suppose. Tala was rendu kalai adi talam with starting point 3/4 of the beat from samam. Three more ragas were taken in kalpanaswara to make RTP more interesting -- Nalinkanthi, Kaapi and Sindhubhairavi. Sindhubhairavi swaras were slightly peculiar, I think TMK tried to be innovative in that. But I heard from one mami sitting in the previous row commenting "nallaavae illiyae" (not good). Yes to people who just want the same repetitions of "Bho sambho" and "Maadu Meikum Kanna" it will not be good. Of course opinion differs!
The last part of the concert consisted of three thukadas: Saramaina in Behag, Saradhe Karunanithae and Thillana in Sakarabharanam.
On the whole the concert was good.
TMK was superb!
RKS was good!
VR was astouding!
Ghatam was good!
A real treat for a man longing for a live concert for almost two years!
My next try would be Sanjay and Sowmya!
Note: All are my personal opinions.
Tags: carnatic, music festival 2007, review, t m krishna
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