TM Krishna at Gayan Samaj (31st Oct 2010)

While I sit to write this, the smell of TM Krishna’s mellifluous voice is still unsullied. Look at this, my senses seem to be lulled – I smell voice:). Well, just back from Vid. TMK’s concert at Gayan Samaj, what more do you expect from me! This isn’t intended to be a concert review, but is a sincere exposition of what I, as an audience experienced there.

Everyone knows TMK as a man of surprises. One just cannot go and sit in his concert and exclaim, “I guessed TMK would sing this”. The concert opener was one such. “Devadeva kalayami” in mayamalavagowla, the raga often suggested for beginners was handled with “old hands”. What grandeur in rendition! The first brisk krithi in place of the accustomed varnam with a detailed neraval at “Jaatharupa nibhachela” followed by swarakalpana set the concert stage to degree of effervescence. TMK did announce that the concert was dedicated to his Guru Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, so “Deva deva” should have ideally not surprised the audience. The second piece was an atypical composition by Sri Thyagaraja, “Sanaathana paramapaavana ghanaaghana varna kaamadahana” in raga phalamanjari; quite a redolent raga – guess its kharaharapriya’s janyam. Thanks to TMK for introducing such exceptional compositions; every concert becomes a room of learning for upcoming musicians and music students.

A detailed alaapana in Natai trailed. “Jagadaanandakaaraka”  - Thyagaraja’s pancharatna krithi needs no prologue. This was rendered with majesty. Marvelous involvement and an outstanding clarity of diction were exhibited. Surprise element did creep in here too – neraval at “Omkara panjara-kira purahara saroja bhava keshava”.( A sparkling kamach in TMK's style, or SSI’s Kshinamai(mukhari) or Sriranjini(marubalka) was probably what the musical audience looked for.)

Music has come a long way from our learned ancestors. We see a strapping change.  The young artistes have lineage-d the knowledge and skill from our early masters and are seen deploying them with style yet traditionally. If we see the 3 compositions spoken of till now, we will notice that one composition embraced swarakalpana, another - a simple krithi rendition, yet another - alapana and neraval . The various departments of Carnatic system are exhibited with grace and with a difference, each in a separate raga.  

Dikshitar’s “Narasimha aagachcha” in mohanam followed. Crisp clean diction reflected textual understanding, vowel pronunciation, and tonal color. The raga of veera rasa, mohanam was levered with vigor. No show, an undemanding krithi rendition in all its simplicity wedged the audience to their seats.

The main piece began half-way through the concert - an elaborate Natakuranji. After a pancharatna kriti, I was tempted to try a “pattern-find” for the main composition and expected the Navgraha kriti, Budhamaashrayami to commence. Shyamashastry’s “Mayamma nannu brovavamma” was a surprise, extremely pleasant. Natakuranji is a raga which probably goes incomplete if mandara sthayi(lower octave) prayogas are missed out. Krishna demonstrated this aesthetically by reaching down to taggusthayi (taggu = madara = lower octave) nishada and even shadja. What a voice texture!  His voice just listens to his finger movements; as he takes his fingers/hands down, his voice follows like a slave to his command. Can’t imagine the mid-night oil (or should I say early-morning oil :) ) he would have burnt and the energy he would have scalded over the years to master this. The audience were reminded of the masters of the by-gone era for the patient rendition of the vilamba krithi Mayamma. I am tempted to talk about the patterns played-around-with in the kalpanaswara section - the time tested “g3-m1-p-g3-r2-s”, salient use of “m1-g3-r2-s”, natakranji stamp “m1-g3-s-n2-d2-n2-s” or the clever “s-n2-d2-n2-p-d2-n2-s”; sorry (to the non-musical readers) about my indulgence into the technical details, I shall leave it here. But before moving on, the piece was a clear message for the music students on the handling of kampita swaras, exploit of the voice range, and vilamba kriti rendition. 

An impeccable tani by Vid. Shrimushnam Raja Rao and Vid. Ramanujam set in. Sri Raja Rao’s illustrious musical background, his musical voyage speaks for his onstage presence. His scintillating strokes kept the audience seated (there were a few walk-outs during tani, negligible though). His soft and deft strokes were cajoling against the very nature of the instrument. Having performed all over India and the world with leading musicians, he continues to foster his rich heritage and shyli through his numerous students. Vid. G S Ramanujam on ghatam was entertaining and showed his zest and merit while remaining an upa-pakkavadya through the rest of the concert. The masterly duo visually presented the intricacies of laya to the audience consisting of both knowledgeable group and laymen.

 

No filler after this main piece and before the colossal RTP. Expected a thodi, but Shubhapantuvarali was quite welcoming. An intricate aalapana contouring Tarastayi Nishada, shadja with even traces of rishabha(athi-tarastayi) and atimandara stayi sancharams was the pick of the concert. We often get to hear – “it’s the limitation of voice and its range; that’s where an instrument surpasses the vocal instrument.”. Krishna proved this wrong. His sancharams in various octaves looked so much free-of-strain, am still bamboozled.( Should take it up with him sometime over mail if he obliges. )The violin Vid. Sri H.K.Venkatram modestly proclaimed that he needed a 7 or 8 stringed violin to match Krishna’s range. A crisp tanam followed. Pallavi was  a clever-make. It looked custom made for the Bangalore audience “Neere nee kare tare mara sundarana” in chatusra jampa talam(2 aksharam(in 2^nd kala) edupu). His unsophisticated expressions had universality, captured audience of all age groups. The ragamalika section of pallavi revealed an artiste at work, proved that carnatic music is a form that gets structured, chiseled by the musician on stage, a transparent edifice. We heard begada, sri and nalinakanthi in the neraval segment (interesting was the steering-back-to-shubhapanthuvarali part) and a host of different ragams – Kaanada, Hamirkalyani and kapi for swaraprastara. Kapi was outstanding. He exploited the 2 gandharams, 2 daivathas and 2 nishadas of kapi with grace. (Thani thaniya poova thodukaramadri paadi kaamichar). It was precisely a tour de force.

The thukuda section( I understand thukuda is a wrong term, none of our artistes take any composition so light that we can call it a thukuda. anyway….) set in with a beautiful sloka “mounam ganga shasahankam karacharanatale” – a dedication to TMK’s guru SSI. This was set to ragas Aanandabhairavi, sahana , dhanyasi and sindhubhairavi followed by SwathiTirunal Maharaja’s well celebrated Vishvishwar darshan. TMK’s taala jnana is so amazing, he s never seen to tap his lap to keep the calculations unlike some concerts where we see the musician in the center stage vigorously tapping to exhibit the talam (Am not condemnatory, saying TMK is right and the rest are wrong or otherwise; this is just an observation from the concert)

Ka va vaa kanda va vaa in varali was the pre-mangala rendition. It was past 3 hours since Krishna started the concert and the stage looked as if the kutcheri had just begun, there was so much freshness and life in his voice. 

Vid H K Venkatram was never too judgmental or nosey. His rich experience with the instrument never showed up in his attitude but did beautifully screen-up in his playing. His rendition of shubhapanthuvarali was soulful.      

Thanks to Vid. TM Krishna for the brilliant concert.

Concert picks: TMK’s range, his ease of handling daatus(daatu swaras), lucid voice, humorous interludes setting in a homely atmosphere on stage, his warm and witty personality, Sri RajaRao’s speaking mridangam( language is indeed a barrier – I wish to say, avaroda mridhangam pesardhu).