TNS Krishna@Astika samAjam on Jan 19th,2019

[rajeshnat]

TNS Krishna@Astika samAjam on Jan 19th,2019
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Vocal : TNS Krishna
Violin : M Chandrasekaran
Mrudangam : Trichur Narendran
Ghatam : Vaikkom Gopalakrishnan

Concert Type : Nirvana - No concert to follow , Free concert
Day/Duration : Saturday / 2 hours and 30 minutes
sabha/Hall : Aastika samAjam , alwarpet
Time : 6:30 to 9:00 pm
Festival : From 02nd jan to 22nd Jan, all dedicated to thyagaraja

1A.slokham ending with tvam thyagarAjam bhajE - reetigowlai - ??
1B. rAga rathnamAlikachE - reetigowlai
2. girirAja suthA (RS,S) - bangala

• swaras for 2 mins

3. appa rAma bhakthi (R,N,S)- pantuvarali

• 8 mins alapana and 4 mins violin return
• neraval in kapi vArikhi dATunA for 4 mins
• swaras for 9 mins

4. seethavara sangeetha - devagAndhari

5A. slokham - mAtA rAmO mathida ramachandraha - vasanthabhairavi -???
5B. nee daya rAdhA - vasanthabhairavi

6. amma rAvammA (S) - kalyani

• swaras for 5 mins

7A. rAmA kathA sudhA (R N S T) - madhyamavati

• 12 mins alapana and 4 mins violin return
• neraval in bhAmAmaNi jAnaki saumitri for 6 mins
• swaras for 15 mins with swararagamaliga in madhyamavati + nattai+ gowlai+ arabi+ varali + shree + ??? + ??? + hamsAnandi + kuntalavarAli + katanakuthuhalam???

7B. tani for 9 mins

8A. slokham -krishnAya vasudevaya - sAveri + nandagOpa kumArAya - sahana + govindAya - gAnamurthi - ???
8B. gAnamoorthE - ganamurthi

9. pAhi kalyana - piloo
10. ramachandra needaya - shuruTTi
11. pavamAna - sowrashtram

[rajeshnat]

Astika samajam,alwarpet holds an exclusive thyagaraja festival starting Jan 02 till Jan 22.They hold few concerts in dec season and to the best of my knowledge it is from this year 2019 that they are holding more concerts during the month of Jan.I entered few mins late and i heard the finishing line of slokham on sadguru. Krishna's voice was lovely and he moved to a fine krithi ragaratna , certainly a grand krithi to start and pay obeisance to the flagship vaggeyakkara thyagaraja.

The next two numbers were typical TNS sir typecast krithis. Both were immensely enjoyable . giriraja sudha is a bit of racy krithi and apparamA bhakthi is a wonderful krithi that challenges musician . The alapana and neraval were well done, in swaras i wished TNSK had better accompanist support.

After a racy pantuvarali and expansive treatment he cooled well with seethavara in devagandhari . TNS and TVS have a lovely style of dropping whereever possible a slokham or a viruththam. I immensely enjoyed the vasantha bhairavi . I just love this krithi needayaradha , sadguru with needayaradhA is intesely aesthetic , there is just zero sag in every phrase of this krithi in this immensely satisfying vasanthabhairavi. Krishna brough so much of classical oomph there.

Kalyani came quite well with the drop of the krithi,but in swaras krishna was slightly yelling than rather singing , there was quite a lot of animation and athattal there. krishna had to partly work with not great support from accompanist.

The main in madhyamavati was brilliant. Personally the biggest asset of TNS Krishna is that he sustains a all round excellence be it raga alapana, neraval , swaras or krithi , he brought an intense polish. What a beautiful pristine rendition of rama katha sudha in madhyamavati.

There is intensity even when it is tukkadas , krishna sang a lengthy slokham with superb raga bhavam .The slokham with saveri, sahana ended with gaanamoothi ragam , as expected he sang like his lovely appa a very intensely satisfying ganamaoorthE krithi on lord krishna. The brief filler piloo did not register that much for me .The last ramachandra needaya in shuruTTi is a krithi that I was hearing for the very first time

I was not that impressed with maha vidwan M Chandrasekaran. The sound engineer did not adjust the microphone adequately for the violinist for the first two songs . Post that i did not hear that much of divine tone from violin, always bit rough. Also in few high speed swaras in kalyani and madhyamavati the slip was bit noticable. Trichur narendran was bit of mixed bag , the muscle was bit lacking and i found at times he was not in line with the roaring voice of TNS krishna . Vaikkom had his moments and he was better than the other two accompanists . This concert could have been bit better if the pradAna accompanists had better sound setup AND/OR better form.MC the legend in this concert was consistently out of form for sure.

TNS krishna is to me an extremely sincere musician , his forte is his roaring voice and there is great balance and his idealism to stick to chaste music impresses me .But at times the team also has to reach a greater excellence which did not happen.

Overall a very good to excellent concert for 2 hours and 30 mins

[sureshvv]

The acoustics is so atrocious in this place that if they had a Music Sanitation Department, they would close it down

[CRama]

The venue has been given a make over (Whether it was done last year- I dont remember). the rest rooms have been rebuilt. But the accoustcs have not been done. Let them realise the importance of a sound accoustics for the aural pleasure.

I observe that M.Chandrasekar is not able to provide adequate support because of his old age.

[CRama]

Some corrections.

3 rajeshnat wrote; kapi varikhi daatuna - it is kapi varidhi
5A rajeshnat wrote- matha ramo mathida ramachandraha- it is matpitha ramachandraha.

He sang all the charanams of the kriti Aparama bhakthi.

The missing ragas in the ragamalika swarams- Hindolam, Durbar.

It was an excellent concert in the pattern of his father Guru TNS. That Suruti kriti- I have heard from Nedunuri, Voleti, Malladi etc.

[rajeshnat]

Few weeks back before this concert , i attended the concert of shertalai ranganatha sharma in the same venue . That day shetalai realized the not so great quality of microphone and he replaced with his own personal microphone . That day the sound board was handled with different equipment and more responsive person, that day it was aurally far better. Possibly I am expecting an audio overhaul within a year or two.