2014 Feb 07 TM Krishna, HK Venkatram, Tumkur B Ravishankar @ rAgi guDDa

Panaromic view of the hall

Vocal: Vid TM Krishna

Violin: Vid H K Venkatram

Mridanga: Vid Tumkur B Ravishankar

01 rAma bANa thrANa sAvEri Adhi thyAgarAja

02 sujana jIvana rAma kAmAch rUpaka thyAgarAja

03 dEvagAndhAri AlApane foloowed by kshIra sAgara shayana dhEvagAnDhAri Adhi thyAgarAja

04 mAyAmALavagauLa AlApane followed by mEru samAna DhIra mAyAmALavagouLa madhyAdhi thyAgarAja and tani 

05 viruttum - mauLau ganga  (mukhAri, kApi and yamuna kalyANi)

06 ViTalA SalahO SwAmi dEsh p.dAsa

07 nI nAma rUpamulaku mangaLa sourAshtra Adhi thyAgarAja

This traditional concert of TMK will stay if not eternally atleast for some days in our heart and soul.. ,(not to his usual format) with a brisk  sAvEri  as opening number then another brisk khamAs, followed by meditative, dEva gAndhAri as sub main,then mAyAmALavagauLa as main with ragamalika sloka of mahan "appayya dikshitar" (the sloka given in the begining of this review) in ragas mukhAri, kApi and yamuna kalyANi, closing the concert with good dEsh, here only we can see bit vishamakara krishna after giving a shade of dEsh and encouraged his  violinist to present the rest of  the AlApana (what a short  and sweet dESh!!!!)  and concluded with a dEvarnAma.

TMK presentation of dEvarnAma should be an example  for the other vidhvAns and vidUshis also to show them there are other format of presenting a dEvarnAma.

Is this not a traditional concert format which purist are arguing TMK has abandanded? But this rAgi guDDa concert has proved TMK can present a concert to the likes of purists also.

KhamAs AlApana was short and followed by "sujana jIvana " of saint tyAgarAja. neraval and swara prastAra at charanam line "cAru nEtra shrI kaLAtra " was divine one could really visualise the beautiful  eyes of lord rAma as described by saint as "cAru nEtra"

kshIra sAgara shayana a simple melting song with no extra pleading in the form of neraval at  "tAraka rAma" etc. the dEvagAndhAri AlApana was also with more bhAva created the mood for the kIrtana continued in mAyAmAlava gauLa AlApana and kIrtana that followed. 

One could get a sowkhyam feeling and made us  to soak in the rAga bhAva and nadam TMK and his team created. Swara prastAra was in both viLamba kAla and also in madhyama kAla. Some of the mandra stAyi swaras in madhyama kAla by TMK was brilliant. He never moved out of the sowkhyam feeling even in second kAla swaras.

In this concert as well as the RLKM concert, the concerts were raised to high level not only by TMK but also by accompanist. The Akkarai elder sibling who used to give jet speed vocal concert  (and accompanies jet speed vocalists too) has changed her style totally to synchronize TMK as in RLKM concert.

So this rasika is wishing one of RaGa  sisters should accompany TMK in future, yes it will be a concert made for each other.

For further reading..

mauLau ganga shashAnkau

kara caraNa talE shItalAngA bhujangAha

vAmE bhAgE dayArdrA himagiri tanayA

candanam sarvagAtrE 

idam shItam prabhUtam

tava kanakasabhA nAtha sODum kva shaktihi

cittE nirvEda taptE yadi bhavati na tE

nitya vAsO madhIyE 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Meaning:

On your locks are the river Ganga and the moon. On your your feet and arms are the cold serpents. 

On your left is the compassionate daughter of the snow mountains and you have applied the cool sandal all over your body. 

How, O Lord of the Golden Cosmic Hall, are you able to bear such cold atmosphere? 

You are welcome to stay eternally in my heart which is hot due to the sins I commit.

Classicism to the core.. !

Recently I had an opportunity to attend the concert of a popular vidwan of our generation organised by a non descript sabha and that too at a non descript hall. Bhakatas (as they had come to listen to a pravachana) continued to stay back with additional audience who had come specifically to attend vidwan's concert.

The concert started at 7.30 and the scheduled time to end was around 9.00 pm.

Without much ado to setup of the paraphranelia... Vidwan started off with rAma bANa .. bringing out the essence of rAmA's bANa power in slow motion. Violinist and mridangist indeed did a great job of accompanying at this tempo. Had few bhesh bhesh moments even though they are not regular accompaniments to this Vidwan. They did a job on par with his regular accompaniments.

A detailed khamAs was followed up by sujana jIvana, another rarely heard composition in kutchEris now a days. A good treat of nereval and swaras once again followed at an apt tempo. Vidwan was singing as though there was no derth for time.

Brief dEvagAndhAri Alapane and kshIra sAgara ensured that shEshashayana had a good sleep tonight. The bhakti bhAva was oozing out of both vocal and violin performances.

By now it was already 8.30 and was expecting a main piece to follow.

Vidwan started off with mAyAmAlavagaula (was easy to guess) . But some rasikas (bhaktAs ?) started scratching the head.. which prompted the artist to announce the name of the raga. mEru samAna that followed had all the majestic improvisation to reiterate that it was the majestic composition in mAyAmALavagaula. a 15 min krithi presentation and a 10 minute tani completed the allocated slot for the concert. 

However, a noted artist (read organiser) came out to give a 2 min speech which took up 12 + minutes..

Vidwas was is no mood to stop , He starated off with a viruttum on mAuLav ganga... the traditional SSI trademark. 
( composed by appayya dIkshitar from a village called adatapalam near arani town .. 40 kms away tiruvaNNAmalai. Thanks to his role as mukhya mantri under the nawAb of ArcOT, who was instrumental in preserving hindu temples in north Arcot , Kanchi region from the influence of nawAb). 
This was a way of Vidwan thanking the composer for all the good work he did for hindus.

Violinist accompanied par excellence during viruttum. It was followed up with a small dESh composition of purandara dAsa .. viTala salahO swAmi.

Finally concluded the 2 hrs concert with trademark mangala song nI nAma rupamulaku.

Neither me nor did the other rasikas .. (I believe they wont contest) did expect such a power packed concert in such a short time slot. 

It was a memorable concert indeed, and it was a long time since I heard such a pure classicism in such short concert. Infact I have never heard this Vidwan delivering such short concerts.
 :ymapplause:  :ymapplause:  :ymapplause:  :ymapplause:  :ymapplause:  :ymapplause: 

Your guess to the name of the Vidwan.. will make you feel you missed a treat right at your door step for some of the forumites.

Let the guess work begin.. (those who are very sure... pl PM me.. dont break the suspense online)  :-$ I will reply online for the messages that I receive) . Will break the suspense at an appropriate time.

2013 Feb 06 TMKrishna AkkaraiSubhAlakshmi K Arun Prakash G Guruprasanna @ RLKM Spring Festival

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.

2014 Feb 3 Sanjay Subrahmanyan S Varadaraj, Neyveli Venkatesh M Gururaj @ RLKM Spring Festival

Vocal         :Vid. Sanjay Subrahmanyan   

Violin         : Vid. S Varadarajan    

Mridangam  : Vid. Neyveli Venkatesh

Morsing      : Vid. M Gururaj

01 dAri teliyaka vachchinavEmo varNa darbAr aTa paTNam Subramania Iyer

02 pallANDu pallAnDu pallayirattandu palakkOi (tpl) nATa KChapu Periyazhvar

03 Intanuchu varNimpa taramA bramhEndradulakaina guNDakriya Adi tyAgarAja

04 hamsadhwani AlApane followed by marachEdi nyAyama rAma nIve marachite hamsadhvani Adi paTNam Subramania Iyer

05 shrI mAtrubhUtam trishiragiri kannaDa m.cApu m.dIkshitar

06 naTabhairavi AlApane followed by shrI vallI dEvasEnApatE naTabhairavi Adhi pApanAsam sivan and Tani

07 vidhi chakrAdula yamunA kalyANi thyAgarAja

08 rAga tAna pallavi kAmbOdhi tiSra tripuTa rAgamALika in tODi, husEni , tilAng

yAr pOi shulluvAr ennakAga pErayam ..

09 rAma krishNaru manege bandaru tillAng p.dAsa

10 Emandune muddu bAlAmaNi mukhAri dharmapuri subbarayar

11 viruttum mAlOr maruganE mannADi maindanE followed by solla soll varmam enayya_bEhAg Doraiswamy Kavi

11 mAlaShai kOpam oyAden nALumAyAvikAra tiruppugazh sindhubhairavi Adi Arunagirinathar

12 nI nAma rUpamulaku mangaLa sourAshtra Adhi thyAgarAja

If you were to be looking for an antidote for a hectic work day , Sanjay's concert was a perfect medicine. 

As i reached the hall at 5.00 pm, the hall was almost full on the free section. Many guests were still pouring till 5.45 when the concert began on the dot. 

The expectations on the fireworks rose, as some of the trials behind the screen was also aired to the public.

Full blast take off with the VarNa in darbAr and the nATa composition set the tone for the day. Did realise that the concert did not have any special viLamba kAla krithis as I write this review. Sanjay extracted every bit of energy that was remaining from his team

The first alapana came in the third song, and pretty unusual, it was hamsadhwani.  paTnam SubramaNya Iyer composition was presented with pretty elaborate swaras for almost the lenght of the song duration.

Sri mAtrubhUtam that is otherwise presented as a majestic composition took over the role of a filler.

naTabhairavi (almost unheard these days in concert) was presented with full elaboration and what followed was equally befitting presentation to the AlApane. nereval and swaras were exhilarating. Anticipation demonstrated by his regular team was impaccable. The way they followed like a shadow demanded applause after every return response. shabhAsh moments were plenty throughout the concert.

Without a filler, the kAmbOdhi rAga tAna filled almost 45 minutes of detailed presentation. A simple pallavi was not only elaborated in kAmbOdhi, but also in tODi, husEni and tillang

Master immediatly followed it with a tillAng composition of purandara dAsa.

Could not recognise the tamil song in bEhAg, but the clock was ticking post 9.00 pm by this time.. but master performer never saw the clock. The energy demonstrated even after 3 hrs was commendeble, and the mukhAri and jOanpuri compositions were presented in full blast energy.

The long drawn affair of the evening came to and end after 3.30 hrs !!

A top class concert that would be remembered for a long time. naTabhairavi and the varNa are take away performances for me (heard for the first time from the master)

Will take a couple of day's break just to digest this sumptuous concert.

2014 Jan 25 Hyderabad Brothers and Team @ yAMini, IIM Bangalore

A review will follow soon... Quick list is here.

01 chalame nattakuranji varna
02 teliya leru dhenuka 
03 kedaragaula abhayambikayaya
04 tarunam idamma gaulipantu
05 kalyani. ..eta vunnara tani
06 jalajanabha hari ranjani
07 matada baradeno kamas javali
08 mansa sancharare sama
09 sarvam brahmamayam Ahir bhairav
10 madhyamavati tune to indicate mangala

2014 Jan 25 Dr L Subramaniam , Ambi Subramaniam and Team @ yAmini, IIM Bangalore

The annual cultural affair of IIM Bangalore had a promising list of artists, of whom I planned to attend the first 2. 

The evening that was supposed to start at 6.00 as per the advertisement online, did not even give a hint of starting at 6.45. Many ontime rasikas were left drooling seeing the fuss of the main artists on the love for Base and reverb adjustments that consumed more time than the concert itself.

Violin Duet : Dr L Subramaniam, Ambi Subramaiam
Mridanga: Vid V V Ramana Murthy
Ghata: Vid Giridhar Udupa
Khanjira : Vid Sateesha Pathakota
Morsing: Vid Sateesh Sai

The evening started with a kalyANi varna that was improvised further and a kApi composition (?) with rAgamAlika swaras.

My efforts of annoying my people at home to attend a concert of an artist of this caliber was all went in drain !!.

Poor accompaniments.. they did not even get a chance for a tani.

For an artist who is in the music circle for such a long time, the amount of fuss only indicated that there is a long way to go in demonstrating the professional aspect of the art. No doubt about the mastery on the instrument, but listening to 45 mins of concert was not worth it.

However, whatever was performed was worth listening.

Indeed the whole evening affair was totally drained out by the poor audio system and ind adequately skilled sound engineers on the job. The grand old concert of the same duo that i heard at the Mysore Palace premises almost a decade ago was far more soothing than this one.

Organizers have a long way to go to claim this as their flagship cultural programme. The various advertisements contained various (conflicting) start time. I could overhear someone saying that it was at 7.00 pm as he read in the news paper. Upcoming management graduates cannot set this as an example in their professional career ! poor respect for time 

This leaves me with a question. Answers as comments to this post is welcome. Do we, as we grow, complicate and create a complex personality for ourselves ??

2014 Jan 19 Ranjani Gayathri Mattur Srinidhi KU Jayachandra Rao @ guDiya sambhrama, Bull Temple

Concert organised in first weekend of the 5 weekend long guDiya sambhrama in a serene ambience of open air auditorium right in front of Bull Temple gALi gOpura.

Vocal      : Vid(s) Ranjani and Gayathri

Violin     : Vid Mattur Srinidhi

Mridanga   : Vid K U Jayachandra Rao

01  himAdri sutE pAhimAm  kalyANi  rUpaka syAmA sAstri

02  bhOgIndra  shAyinam  kuntalavarALi  jhampa swAthiThirunAL

03 hamIr kalyANi AlApane followed by venkata shaila vihAra  hamirkalyANi  Adi subbaraya shastri

04  gOvardhana girIsham  hindOLa  rUpaka  m.dIkshitar

05 mAyAmAlavagauLa AlAPane followed by mEru samAna DhIra  mAyAmALavagouLa  madhyAdhi  thyAgarAja and tani

06 shrI rangapuravihAra  brindhAvana sArangA  rUpaA m.dikshitar

07 nIlagiri mama arasi mAnasam rAgamAlika Adi (khamAs, vasantha, AbhEri)

08 venkatAcala nilayam  sindhu bhairavi  Adi purandaradAsa

09 mAtA kALikA ( durga ?? composer??)

10 chalo mandira abhAng

11 nI nAma rUpamulaku mangaLa sourAshtra Adhi thyAgarAja

The series is themed under parvata, and what more could I expect when the artists come on stage with a strong history of excelling in thematic concerts. They had done their homework. I was very sure that the concert is going to be a pure bhakti affair right in front of the temple.

When Ra Ga started  the concert with "kalyAni "that too "himAdrisutE pAhimAm" one had the feeling that have RaGa started following a trend that is being set now a days ? No except the unusual start with "himAdrisutE pAhimAm" which was apt for the theme of the festival.

The niraval line they selected was also  in  anupallavi "sumErumaddhya vAsini (amba) shrI kAmAkSI"  to coincide with the theme of the concert"parvatha"instead of normal charanam "shyama krishna sodari"

Brilliant kalyANi krithi with nereval and swara built the apt mood for the evening. Even the bystanding  bhaktas who had come for temple visit started pouring into the mats that was organised for rasikas to occupy in front of the stage. The bhakti bhAva was very evident from the very first krithi.

From misty himalayas they moved to kerala beach!!!yes maharaja swathi thirunal "kuntala varali" composition "bhOgIndra ShAyinam " on padmanabha swammi. Rasikas would wonder how this composition fits to "parvatha" theme",the charanam lines "mahEndra trikUTavara malayAcalEndra vinutam" which indicate" podigai malai "which was once the boundary of trivancore samasthanam would have prompted Ra Ga to select this krithi.

How one will leave our beloved "malayappa" or "venkatavan" lord of seven hills in a thematic concert on "parvatha"?the lord of seven hills was praised by so many composers from tyAgarAja, MD, aNNamayya, purandara dasa, alwars etc to 20th centurary rajaji, But RaGa selected majestic "venkata saila vihara" master piece of subbraya sastri in mesmarising "Hamir kalyani",the raga alapana was by Ra.

Another beauty of their presentation was this song was sung as a slow number, straight sahithyam with out niraval and swara.

Venkata giri to govardanagiri, hamir kalyani to hindolam, but this song "govardana girisham" will be remembered for the speedy swaras shared by Ra Ga and violinist. Violinist could have done a better job here.

Each song presented had the apt lenght and elaborations to meet the rasikAs heart.

I was wondering why mAyAmAlavagaula is still missing. The sisters had a better plan than me. The most popular mmg krithi mEru samAna was presented with the grandeur that it needed.  The main was "mEru samAna" of saint tyAgarAja where saint tyAgarAja compare sri.rama's parakrama to meru parvatha.

They concluded the concerts with their trade mark bajans on ma durga and abang.

Srinidhi on violin  could have been better considering his potential and KU Jayachandra Rao on mridangam was at his best to follow the artists path wherever they lead.

Post main composed of rasika request who forced the artists to dilute the theme. Gayatri submitted that prayers are more important than the theme itself.

They also presented a raga malika  poem in ragas khamAs,vasantha and Abheri specially composed for this series about  queen of hills "Nilagiri". However, they did not mention the name of the composer. Inputs welcome.

rasikAs applauded for every song that began as per their request.

It was a warm ending for a very chilly and windy evening on top of a small hill where the bull temple is situated.

Overall it was a brilliant concert with all aspects of music finding its right place.