TNS concerts-14-12-2006 and 18-12-2006

concert at SAFE-SSHall-14-12-2006
The concert started with a krthi 'abhimanamu' in Begada which served as an appetizer for a wholesome feast that followed. with its racy svaras. Next was he dharu varnam 'mAdhe malayadhvaja ' of Mutthiah bhagavathar in kamas, which asks at every step 'sukamasukama the way it is rendered always by TNS.
Next was the raga alapana in Vachaspathi and the krthi was 'ennALu nee,' by Patnam subramania iyer again and the niraval svara was sung at the first line 'kannathanrinApai ' of the charaNam. The svara that followed was the usual delightful fare by both TNS and TNS Krishna who gave him vocal support and drew applause by himself on his svaraprasthara.
The slow moving 'abhayamba navavarana' of Muthuswami Dikshithar in sahana was the next one which was followed by 'Nadhupai' in Madhyamavathi of Thyagaraja, which had all its usual beauty including the svara combination at 'veda sannutha' as 'sa,' 'ma.' (samavedasannutha)
The soul of the music was delineated in the rendering of "mayamma ' of Shyamasasthri in Ahiri, which was rendered in an exquisite manner , being steeped in bhava as only TNS could do. It was really moving and reflected the exact sentiment the composer has infused into it. Guruvayur Dorai who played the Mridhangam contributed ably to the mood of the song by his soft touch.
The main piece was 'sakkani raja' in Karaharapriya. The ebullient waves of the raga flowed like a high tide on a full moon day and the alapana was spiced with closed mouth singing which was awe inspiring to the rasikas. TNS constructed a rajamarga, a royal highway absolutely clear with no traffic for the royal krthi to follow. When TNS sang 'chikkani paAlu,' the milk (pAlu) was brought to boil and cooled and served with sugar. The svaraprasthara was full of pyrotechniques that never failed to delight his rasikas. The main piece lasted for one hour before the thani was given to Guruvayur Dorai and Sundar kumar, who played on the Ganjira. Sriram kumar on the violin also re ndered able assistance to TNS.
That was not all! The viruttham 'puLLinvai piLandhittai,' and the song KaNNallavo , a Oothukkadu compositon , sung on request from a rasika were like the payasam of the feast. The viruttham was in ragamalia, comprising of sankarabharanam, sarasangi, subapanthuvarali and suruti followed by the song ' kannallavo' in suruti and it was just beautiful. TNS Krishna took over from his father during the subapanthuvarali and did a fantastic job of it. His singing was fully laden with bhava and he has proved his worth, not only in raga, svara and laya but also in bhava, as the offspring of such illustrious father. The song kanallavo one could see Krishna in the act of gobbling butter and the censure of gopi which was brought picturesquely by the singing which amused and delighted the rasikas.
The concert ended with a thillana in Mohanam by Mutthiah bhagavathar and thiruppugaz.
The rasikas left as thrpthas with such a wonderful banquet!

Concert at The Mylapore Fine Arts on 18-12-2006

The concert, which proved to be rich and creamy, started with the Thyagaraja krthi 'aparadhamula,' in raga rasali followed by "merusamana' in Mayamalavagoula with neraval at 'galamuna sobillu kanakabhooshanamula' in charanam and the svara that followed was racy with poise.

The next was 'YarukkutthAn theriyum' in Devamanohari a composition of Gopalakrishna bharathiyar, a remnisence of the lec/dem in the morning on the author by Chinglepet Ranganathan for those who attended it, which TNS as the president of the conference nicely rounded up with his excellent speech and sample of his music as he does every day.The svara that followed the krthi was fabulous that made the rasikas exclaim , "yarukkum thAne theriyum ivar mahamai!"

Then TNS expounded the raga poorvikalyani in his usual fantastic skill of portrayal of the svarupa of the raga and the krthi that followed was 'ninnuvinaga,' of Shyamasasthri. The svara prasthara whcih was at 'pannagabhooshanudaina,' was shared by TNS krishna, who gave vocal support and stole an applause to his own credit, and it was something wonderful experience to listen to the lion and his cub, whcih will be ever green in the memory of the rasikas.

The creamy layers continued to be relished in the Hindolam that followed ,the raga alapana of which was again shared by the two of them and was exquisitely beautiful and here too Krishna was acclaimed for his singing by the rasikas. The krthi was Neerajakshi kamakshi and was juicy with bhava and gamaka. No svara followed but even without it the piece was rich.

The next and central layer of the dessert pudding was Kalyani, the raga was developed with masterly strokes and grahabhedha to suddha dhanyasi and the krthi was 'Ethavunara of Thyagaraja. The neraval at 'sitagouri ,' and the svara that followed was full of gamaka- oriented phrases with the usual laya display. This was followed by Thani by Guruvayur Dorai on Mridangam and N.Govindarajan on Ghatam. It was an elaborate thani and well appreciated by the audience.

It was 9pm and normally one would expect that there will not be a separate RTP after this. But the rasikas of TNS know better! Yes, there was a RTP , that too in three ragas, Kapi, Narayani and Kapinarayani, though it was short. The pallavi was worded 'kapi narayani sapi mokshapradhayini.' meaning, "who is the unparalleled(Kapi) Narayani , she is also mokshaprahdayini" which was explained by TNS himself. Though short it was wonderful and the rasikas became expectant of a more eloborate exposition of it in the near future.The concert ended with the bajan 'thum aza' followed by thiruppugaz and mangalam.
M.Chandrasekharan who accompaied TNS on the violin did an admirable job of it.

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