Concerts – Part 6 (The last part)

T.M.Krishna’s concerts
I went to 9 concerts of T.M.Krishna in the past one and a half months. I initially thought if I should even write about some of them since it’s already very late and many of you must have read about these concerts. But I am finding time to write it only now (Am not that busy and all but blame it on my laziness). Anyway, this is going to be a long post. Read it if you have the patience.
In TMK’s website, in his profile it is written, “His renditions of vilamba kalam (slow tempo) compositions are soaked with bhakthi (devotion) and bhava (emotion) are a treat to every listener.” In almost all the concerts he proved it. I just love it whenever he sings a slow song with bhava.
On 16th December, at Asthika Samajam, TMK started the concert 15 minutes late since it took him a long time to tune the Tamburas. Many got impatient. In fact a person sitting behind me said loudly, ‘Paadu pa’ (Not sure if TMK heard it). But, when he started singing, the audience was in for a treat. Starting off with Tanavaari Tanamuleda in Begada, he then sang Nagumomu in Abheri and Mokshamu Galada in Saramathi for nearly 40 minutes each with Maakelara in Ravichandrika raaga in between the two songs. I am sure not even a single person would be there who wasn’t moved by TMK’s singing on that day. Well, I got so moved by the concert that I couldn’t stop myself from going to his concert the very next day even though I wanted to go to Sanjay’s concert. The next concert was at Bharat Kalachar. There he sang Janakipate in Karaharapriya as the main piece. In this concert, the ones that I loved were the Mukhari and Karaharapriya alapana, Swarams in Manavyala in Nalinakanti raaga and Tillana in Poornachandrika.
The next concert that I went to was at Music Academy. After reading the review of this concert at Hindu, I actually feel happy that I don’t have in depth knowledge of Carnatic Music. It was written that he didn’t sing Todi alapana in the usual way it is sung and also he sang Anandeshwara in Ananda Bhairavi a bit too slow and there was an exodus of audience after he started singing both these. But, I thoroughly enjoyed both. But more than these two, I liked the RTP in Saraswathi, Brocheva in Khamas and Adineepai in Yamun Kalyani even more.
At Dakshinamoorthy Auditorium on the 29th December, TMK sang O Rangasayee in Kambhoji as the main piece. It was superb. But the highlight of this concert was Enna Thavam in Kapi that he sang in a very slow pace soaked with Bhava. This one is the best rendition of Enna Thavam that I have heard.
The next one happens to be the last concert that I went to in 2006 on the 31st at Jaigopal Garodia School (Rasika Fine Arts). It was just a 2-hour concert. There was a very good selection of songs in this concert: Ekkalatthilum in Nattakurunji, Padavini in Karaharapriya, Nannupalimpa in Mohanam (the main piece), Vishweshwar Darshan in Sindhu Bhairavi, Karapooram Naarumo in Khamas and Sri Ramachandra in Yamun Kalyani.
The first concert of TMK that I went to in 2007 was on 5th January at Vidya Bharati (Sri Bhairavi Gana Sabha). In this concert too another superb Mukhari alapana followed by the Tyagaraja krithi Ksheenamai with neraval and swarams at the line Etijesina Jagannathudu Shriramuna. The raaga chosen for elaboration in this concert was my favourite Sahana! The song was the Tyagaraja kriti, Giripai. M.A.Sundaresan played the violin for this concert. Sometimes, it was difficult to say whether it was Sundaresan’s violin or TMK’s singing that was better! The surprise in this concert was the Kambhoji Raagam Taanam Pallavi. The Kambhoji raagam and taanam were awesome.
The last concert that I went to was on 6th January at Raaga Sudha Hall that was conducted by T.N.Krishnan Foundation. TMK started the concert with Deva Deva in Mayamalavagowlai and then sang Kripajoochutaku (Chayatarangini raga) and Sumasaayaka (Karnataka Kapi). He was about to start singing RaamachandreNa in Maanji when T.N.Krishnan asked him to sing the raga alapana. So after an alapana of Maanji, he sang the song. Here’s what I liked the most in this concert: Maanji and Surutti alapana, his rendition of the songs Kripajoochutaku, Ramachandrena and Sapashya in Jonpuri. The main song of the concert was Endukku Pedale in Sankarabharanam.
Today, I am going to the launch of the book, ‘Voices Within Carnatic Music’ written by T.M.Krishna and Bombay Jayashri with Mythili Chandrasekar. There is going to be a ‘unique music presentation’ by the two of them according to the ads. Let me see how it is.

6 thoughts on “Concerts – Part 6 (The last part)

  1. Sathej

    Hello,
    TMK at Mylapore Fine Arts was just great!Sriram Parasuram on the violin and Shri Umayalpuram K Sivaraman(UKS) on the Mridangam were the accompanists.The main piece was Rama Bana Trana in Saveri with an outstanding Neraval.Shri UKS remarked that it had been a long time since he had heard such a Neraval and asked for the Neraval to be continued for some more time.TMK obliged and then Shri UKS played a fantastic improvised Tani with novel Gathi Dwaitham.Then followed an RTP in Sankarabharanam with Ragamalika Kalpana Swaras.It was truly wonderful.As for the Vidya Bharathi Kutcheri,yes,it was good too,especially the Mukhari and RTP in Kambhoji.Shri Parur MA Sundareswaran(my Guru) played well and Shri UKS accompanied in his usual masterly fashion.
    Sathej

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  2. Yesh Prabhu

    Regarding your comments on T. M. Krishna’s concert at the Music Academy on 12/23/06: I referred to the notes I had written in my book of the reviews of all the concerts I attended last music season (103 concerts in all, over one month). In my notebook I had written that it was a superb concert. And just because the music critic of the Hindu wrote that Krishna’s Todi was not sung the usual way, and that his rendering of Anandeshwara samrakshitoham was too slow, does not mean that it was necessarily so. I was quite moved by both the alapana and the rendering of the kriti. Singing any kriti in vilamba kala is much harder than rendering it fast. The gamakas go out the door if this kriti is sung faster. He sang the kriti the way it should be sung. I have disagreed with several of the reviews that I read on the Hindu, and on more than one occasion I have had discussions with the critic himself when he sat next to me. T. M. Krishna and Sanjay are excellent vocalists, of course, but Neyveli Santanagopalan is superb also. He takes his time while singing, and doesn’t rush through. And last year I observed sadly, that the music of several vocalists had been infected by the speed virus.
    This year, too, I shall be visiting Chennai for two months, during December and January, for the music season.
    Yesh Prabhu
    Plainsboro, NJ, USA
    Yesh Prabhu

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  3. Aparna

    Yesh prabhu,
    Even I enjoyed that concert very much. Yeah, Neyveli Santanagopalan sings well too. Thankfully, the speed virus didn’t seem to have attacked most of the vocalists whose concerts I went to 😉

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