concerts of TNS in Nov.2006

concerts of TNS in November 2006Two of the concerts were already reviewed beautifully by Ram I wish to addsome points to what Ram has written and also report on the two others left out.1-11-2006-Naradaganasabha-oothukkadu compositions.TNS was awarded the title of Bharath sngeetha samrat by the carnatica.comThe concert was different from the later one at RKSwami hall as there were many new compositions while the other one consisted of all the popular ones.The first was svaghatham Krishna as in the other concert, in which he has welcomed the Lord Kriishna in Mohanam ,who must have come and sitting in the front row, surely!Next one in Natakurinji 'kodutthuvaittha punniavan' made all feel that we were kodutthuvaitha punniavangal to hear it.Sloka in sahana 'krshnaya vasudevaya' was followed by 'vasudevaya namo namasthe,' which was also repeated in the second concert and HOW! I will relate the same when I come to it.The next was a new one in kalyani'sarasijabhavajaye' ab nd the kalyani was anantha kalyanagunavisushta kalyani, in the delineation of raga and in the svaraprasthara. Next TNS sang 'pullinvai pilandhittai in kamas, a pasuram, favourite of his rasikas, followed by Nan ennat havam in Kamas which was 'sukamas', sugamanakamas,. The next one was again a new one 'kallame ariyadha,' in amrthavarshini, which was a delightful piece. We were thanking our stars that the rains inChennai stopped for the day and had some trepidation as he sang Amrthavarshini. But we were saved!Next was the rasika's favourite 'thaye yasodha.' The main piece of the day was 'etthanaikettalum in bhairavi,' which was elaborate unlike that in the later concert which was shorter for want of time.Next was a new one 'anname' in Sama. The rest of the concert consisted in muddukrishna,in senchurutti, neelavanam inpunnagavarali and kannallavo insuruti ending with thillana in sindhubhairavi, all of them were dripping with melody and charm and one could feel the presence of Krishna as he did for Oothukkadukavi.12-11-2006-Mudra- One raga one krthi concert-NaradaganasabhaThe raga taken was Kapi and TNS sang the krthi 'inthasoukyamanine' of Thyagaraja. THose who heard the concert that day was really fortunate because the kapi raga was 'KA API'raga, meaning something that could not be described in words."kapi" or "kopi" in sanskrit besides meaning something or someone also used to denote something wonderful that cannot be described in words. The kapi that day was so exquisite that to describe it in usual terms as a kumbakonam degree kapi etc will be a gross understatement!'Inthasoukyamanine' was rendered with such skill and imagination that made the audience exclaim with Thyagaraja ;inthasukyamanine , entho emo evariki thelusuno.' 15-11-2006-Muthiah bhagavathar compositions -NaradaganasabhaRam has covered almost all the points and I will just add a few more.Muthiah Bhagavathar's compositions always attain a special perfection in the hands of TNS he giving full sway to his masterly perfection in svararagalaya.This concert was no exception.16-112006-oothukkadu compositions atRKSwami hallRam has given a true picture of the concert. would just like to share my experience of such a wonderful concert.The atana was adadana! The beauty of the compositon was fully brought out. There is a dificulty in presenting oothukkadu compositions. Unless the musician is skilled there is the danger of the sahithya swallowing the sangeetha because of the abundance of words in the krthis. But TNS enhances the sangeetha aspect without sacrificing the sahitya also. Both sahithya and sangeeth were wellbalanced and presented a bhava which otherwise would have been absent.Padmavathi ramanam was beautiful as Ram has said and the sloka that came next 'krishnaya vasudevaya was something unimaginable. In singing the word Govindaya TNS performed Gvindapattabhisheka as was done to the Lord after the govardhanoddharana by Indra. TNS was transformed into another Indra in crowning Govinda . Next in asaindhadum mayil we could see the cvisualisation that is alwatys present on his concerts and we felt, 'nijamansukham enru onru irundhal' adhu idhudhan.Next piece 'sonnal oziya manam kelaadhe,' exacctly depicts my view in writing this review. Though Ram has given an elaborate review my mind will not be satisfiled unlessI out in a few words cbecause the joy of listening to the concert is overflowing and will have to be spilt out or spelled out!All the songs as Ram has written were beautifully rendered that is, Kalyanarama which was always the favourite of rasikas and the kambhodhi 'konju mazalai,' was a delightful portrait of Krishna and his leela, Bharavi 'etthanaikettalum reflected the feeling of his rasikas, wh o were never satiated in hearing his music. TNS singing 'vanduketpar illaiyo,'a ragamalika , described aptly the performance as it describes the stelaing of the hearts by Krishna, that is exactly what TNS did taht day, stealing thehearts of the audience!Venue: Satguru Gnanananda Hall, Narada Gana Sabha, TTK Road, ChennaiReview in excerpts from rasikas.org
concert on 16-11-2006
It feels like heaven - two awesome concerts of TNS in two days. Awesome. Simply awesome !!!!!! Just what hardcore TNS fans like me would ask for !!The concert started with a beautiful viruttam in shankarabharaNam. padmAvati ramaNam brought back memories of TNS singing the same song in his youth. I have a very old audio cassette back home which has the song beautifully rendered by TNS. sahAnA viruttam that followed it was simply awesome. kalyANa rAmA, one of my favorite songs, was also rendered very beautifully. A classic kAmbOji raga alapana followed that. Sri V.L. Kumar on the violin played a short, crisp and beautiful kambOji alapana in response. I think this performance is one of Sri Kumar's best I have heard in recent times. One of the many good things that Sri Kumar did in this song was to play a small kanakku in the kalpana swarams in response to a plain piece sung by TNS. That set off TNS into kanakku mood for some time resulting in mathematically brilliant, yet melodious kalpana swarams for some time. These of course were somewhat troublesome for Sri Kumar to follow beyond a certain point but he played his replies well. Sri Trichur Narendran played non-intrusively for the songs and his style seemed to match that of Sri Palghat Raghu at many places. He played a short taniavartanam that had just the chatusra naDai. There was an exclusive Oothukkadu Venkatakavi compositions concert presented by TNS just a few days back at the Narada Gana Sabha which was also good. The concert yesterday overshadowed that may be because yesterday's venue was a much smaller hall with good acoustics and may be also because of the choice of songs.The good news for TNS fans is that he seems to be in great form. I think we can certainly look forward to some great concerts in the season. concert on 15-112006 http://ramsabode.wordpress.com/2006/11/ … m-chennai/
What a beautiful concert it was !!! TNS was in great flow almost throughout. After a slightly off color start with a not-up-to-TNS-standards rendition of the mOhanam aTa tala varnam manamOhanA, TNS did a beautiful malahari raga alapana. mAtE malayadvaja was rendered with a lot of involvement. I could enjoy it and appreciate the composition more after attending his lecture on Sri Harikesanallur Muthiah Bhagavathar in Bangalore sometime back. The husEnI alapana was also a detailed one with both TNS and Sri Chandrasekaran excelling in their versions of the same. TNS sang hamsanAdam as it was supposed to have been sung in the olden days i.e., as a janya of the raga neetimati with the ArOhaNam-avarOhaNam S R M P D N S - S N D N P M R S. Again, it was a gem of an alapana.The concert started more than 30 min behind schedule again due to a felicitation ceremony and as a result TNS had to rush a bit through the main composition for the day, the bhairavi kriti. It would have been better had the concert started at say 6:30PM and went on for 3-4 hours. This would have given TNS time to pack in a few more rare compositions into the concert.The percussion support was provided by seasoned vidwans Sri Dorai and Sri Vasan. The taniavartanam they played in kanDa jAti tripuTa tALam was a crisp one. It was so much on the mark that it looked like a well prepared one and didn’t seem at all like they were improvising there. Sri M. Chandrasekaran on the violin, as usual, was in fine form and was very appreciative of all the artistes on stage throughout the concert.http://ramsabode.wordpress.com/2006/11/ … a-chennai/
Longlive TNSeshagopalan and his music

On behalf of rasikas,