Vocal : Vid TM Krishna
Violin : Vid Akkarai Subhalakshmi
Mridanga: Vid. K Arun Prakash
Khanjira : Vid G Guruprasanna
01 mAkElarA vichAramu ravichandhrike Adhi thyAgarAja
02 rAga tAna pallavi tODi chaturaSra triputTa 2 Kalai eDupu + 1.5 beat
pallavi line: tAraka brahma swarUpiNi tAmarasa vimOchani
03 chinna nAdenA chEyi kalAniDhi Adhi thyAgarAja and chinna tani
04 pUrvikalyANi AlApane (independent piece continued into next rAga AlApane)
05 mAnjhi AlApane followed by varugalAmO Ayyen mAnji chApu gOpAlakrishNa bhArathi
06 mIna lOchana dhanyAsi cApu shyAma-shAstrI long tani
07 shAnti nilava vENDum tilang SetumAdhava rao
08 viruttum vandE mAtaram ambikAm bhagavatIm mOhanakalyANi manOranjani madhyamAvati sindhu bhairvi
09 tirupathi vEnkata ramanA sindubhairavi purandaradAsar
10 pakkAla nilabaDi golicE muccaTa bAga delpa-kharaharapriyA-tripuTa-tyAgarAja mangaLam
One would (in recent times) go to TMK concert to see what new can be done during the performance and its only a matter of time when the surprises / Krishnovation starts rolling out.
In this case the jampacked hall at 5.45 was treated to the first surprise when the curtains rolled up. TM Krishna was seated to the side while the Violinist sat next to him like a jugalbandi performance.
The voice tests that had begun at 5.30 itself indicated the depth and holding of the voice ... indicating a real treat to the audience.
An announcement was made on the launch of the second version of his book later in March at Bangalore before the start of the concert.
Concert started with a sedate long haul krithi in ravichandrika. While I have always heard the faster version of this krithi, in this case rasikas were treated to understand how melodious the same krithi can be when it is delivered in a sedate mode.
The second surprise came with the tODi AlApane. Expecting a krithi... it TM Krishna turned into tAna. The rAga was explored to its depth apt to the kannaDa anecdote "tOduttA tOdutta tODi.. indicating .. you can dig as deep as you want in tODi". A 27 minute teat of tODi had made the day for me. How can i know.. what more surprises were in store for me ? tODi was explored to greater depths during nereval and swaras. He asked the violinist to lead rAgamAlika swaras.. She took up varALi as the first rAga. Violinist who was almost a shadow till now demonstrated her talent exploring varALi. TMK followed the suit. The next raga elaborated ..??
Chinna nAdena came in as a filler with even more chinna swaras before a chinna tani that followed it. Many (bad customs at Bangalore) who wanted to leave after tani were dissappointed to know that tani came in so early !!.
Trademark experiment of standalone AlApane came in form of pUrvikalyANi. Realised that after he switched over to mAnjhi alapane. I was scratching my head to understand which composition has these 2 rAgas.
varugalAmO was presented in ati tIvra viLamba kAla. Strikers and non strikers were searching here and there to strike or two, but it was a real test between the brains. The violinist turned out to be winner following TM Krishna in each of his sancharas.
It was already 2 hrs into the concert by now. Was (not) expecting a main considering Krishna's approach to concert and now that RTP was already delivered. But the third surprise came in. This time it was dhanyAsi (janya of tODi .. right after a tODi in the same concert)
mIna lOchana brova.. delivered with utmost divinity.. I had sAkshAtkAra of mInAkshi amma right in the concert hall. The main tani followed for around 18 mins after nereval and swaras.
Expecting Krishna to wind up on time was the wrong thing I did. Good 10 minute presentation of shAnti nilava vENDum ended with a good applause.
Viruttum on mAte Ambika was presented in grand style . Each rAga name finding a place at the end of each stanza provided enough evidence of guessing the raga name right.
Obvious conclusion to a viruttum on the last rAga.. tirupati venkaTa ramana ninagEtake bArado karuNa .... was presented. This must have sounded like the last song of the concert as it was almost 8.55 (Scheduled end time is 8.45).
But Krishna after sifting through his notes... decided to end the concert differently. Those who had left by now would be in for an unbelievable surprise.
Me too.. I was taken aback when he started kharaharapriyA alApana which lasted almost 3 minutes in as grand style as it could be in such short span of time. I was expecting a small composition, but Krishna took up pakkala nilabaDi from anupallavi. It was going to be one grand ending. nereval added additional salt to the surprises that were already delivered. Swaras too followed.
kalyANAdbhutAya gAtrAya.. followed in kharaharapriya and indicated an end to a grand 3.5 hrs of concert. A treat to watch and listen.
Blessed are those who had an opportunity to witness TM Krishna in great form.
A friend who did not want to be named shared this review personally (which was almost ready to be published). Since I had already published my review, this friend shared this review to compare and contrast my view
ReplyDeleteWhen Rasikas venture in to TMK concerts with open mind they can really relish the fare he is offering. RLKM concert on 6th reinforce this .
He started with a short ravichandrika raga sketch followed by mAKElara, good neraval and few rounds of viLamba kAla swaras.
tODi AlApana in 3 parts and tAnam followed the mAKElara. tAna was in viLambakala and was enjoyable bringing all shades of tODi.
"tAraka brahma swarUpini tAmarasa vimOchani" was pallavi line selected. varALi and naLinakAnti are the ragas chosen by Akkarai SubhAlakShmi for ragamalika swara as she led the team into rAgamAlikas. TM Krishna even gave the freedom to akkarai to start varALi swaras. After RTP TM Krishna presented the only bit fast kriti chinna nADenA with a sketch of the raga and few rounds of swaras.
TMK gave double treat of purvikalayni and mAnji alapana followed by GKB varugalAmo. But I felt the kriti presentation was in ati (tIvra?) viLamba kala. It looks like nandan is too much polite .
dhanyAsi mIna lOchana moved the rasikAs to different world, another viLamba kAla neraval at "kAma pAlini , bhavani , Chandra Kala Dharini, nirada vENi" gave ample time for rasikas to relish the beauty of dhanyAsi and also made them to feel the presence of mInAkshi amma in front of them. TMK gave a vilambaka swaras for the pallavi line. The only regret/ rather desire is TMK should have treated this with detailed alapana of dhanyAsi. (BTW dhanyAsi is one of my favourite rAgas)
The ragamAlika sloka " Vande matharam ambika... " a typical SSI sloka was treated differently by TMK in ragamalika, akkarai presentation of mOhana kalyANi, madhyamAvathi and Sindhu bhairavi is a proof of TMK's efforts to bring individuality of violinist and his encouragement to accompanist to bring out their talent instead of traditional way of of following main singer as shadow.
Purist may have different views, but this particular experiment of TMk should be a welcome one.
TMK has presented the whole concert in either vilamba kAla or ati viLamba kAla.