At Music Academy (ICICI Bank Music Festival) on 28th November

I came to know about this concert only on the previous day of the concert. I didn’t even make any attempt to see if I will be able to get a pass for this concert and had almost forgotten about it, when, surprisingly, a friend who doesn’t listen to much of Carnatic music called me and said that she had passes for T.M.Krishna’s concert and the moment she saw TMK’s name, she remembered me. 🙂 Going for a concert unexpectedly has more excitement than going for one which you had already planned to go for! Considering the number of TMK’s concerts I will be missing in December, I was happy that I could go for this concert.

Accompanists:
R.K.Shriramkumar – Violin
Tiruvarur Bhakthavatsalam – Mridangam
E.M.Subramaniam – Ghatam

Concert Duration: 2.5 hrs

List of songs:
1. vA murugA vA – bEgaDA – swarams at vA murugA
2. brOcEvArevarE – Sri ranjani – swarams at brOcevarevarE
3. kAlai tUkki – yadukula kAmbhOji – AlApana
4. kathaya kathaya – kalyANi – brief AlApana – neraval at aravindalOcana arivarga niSUdanam
5. kAru bAru – mukhAri – AlApana; swarams at kAru bAru
tani Avartanam
6. pullAgi (viruttam) – varALi, kharaharapriyA, SankarAbharaNam, danyAsi, kApi, behAg, surutti
mATrariyAda – surutti
7. nandagOpAla – yamuna kalyANi
8. jayati jayati – khamAs
9. nI nAma rUpamulaku (started at prahlAda & not pavamAna) – sowrASTram

Thanks to Sanjay’s Arukkum aDangAda, gAnarasamuDan and anudinamunu to which I have been listening to on a loop for the past few weeks, bEgaDA is my current favourite rAgam and I was so happy that this concert began with a song in bEgaDA. The best part of this first piece, vA murugA vA, was the many sangatis for the words tEn madura in the anupallavi and some awesome swarams in the end.

After this song TMK sang a fast-paced brOcevArevarE. I loved the song rendition and the swarams for this song so much that I thought this would be one of the best pieces of this concert. But as the concert progressed, I started wondering if this would be the only song that I would find to be the best piece of the concert! The yadukula kAmbhOji AlApana as well as the rendition of kAlai tUkki that followed brOcevArevarE was so slow and somehow seemed to lack the beauty that TMK’s slow songs generally have. The song just seemed to go on and on. As the song was concluding, I was debating whether I really didn’t like it, when somebody from the audience shouted something like ‘indha paaTTa idha viDa inime yArum nannA pADa muDiyAdu’! How much opinions differ! 🙂

After kAlai tUkki, while the kalyANi (especially the neraval) was really good, the concert was back to the sloooow pace in which it was going, thanks to the mukhAri AlApanai. There was a perfect ambience in the auditorium with there being almost complete silence apart from the music. Yet the slow-paced mukhAri, which I should have ideally enjoyed in that ambience, didn’t appeal to me much! 🙁 Never before had I found TMK’s slow-paced singing this boring. I wished there would be neraval for the main. But then in the last few concerts of TMK, there has been no neraval for the main. Some fast-paced swarams in the end was kind of a saviour. Yet it was only during the tani Avartanam that I started enjoying the concert again and, thankfully, the pieces post tani turned out to be enjoyable too. 🙂

I loved all the three tukkaDAs – mATrariyAda, nandagOpAla and jayati jayati. I loved the line madusUdana hAra pItAmbaradhara pannaga SayanA in nandagOpAla. The song made me remember TMK’s Sri rAmacandrA krpAlu. It has been a long time since I listened to it. After nandagOpAla, TMK asked if he can sing one more song when somebody from the audience said, ‘evLo nEram pADinAlum kEppOm’!

I guess Sanjay might sing jayati jayati in his Margazhi Mahotsavam concert this year, since it’s a composition of Mayuram Viswanatha Sastrigal (In case you didn’t know, that’s the theme of Sanjay’s concert). Even though I listened to Sanjay sing this song in a concert this year, I liked TMK’s jayati jayati (he forgot a line in between) so much that I am now looking forward to listening to Sanjay’s version just to see how much I like it.

After mangaLam, during which there was the usual TMK’s request to the audience not to get up & leave during mangaLam, the concert ended with the audience giving a standing ovation. Didn’t I already say that opinions differ? 😉