hello friends..........
Two K’s, I hold
in high esteem….. BMK and TMK. That is, Bala Murali Krishna, and Thodur Madabusi Krishna, popularly known as T M
Krishna. Both have their own inimitable style of originality, and they try out
new innovations in each concert. It may be a rare raga or a totally
unconventional approach, way too different from what rasikas are usually
familiar with. And, whenever possible, I make it a point to be at the venue
where they perform. Last evening was one such occasion when the latter was
performing at our sabha, as part of our 25th Annual Music and Drama festival
2015 in memory Dr. P. Obul Reddy & Smt. Gnanambal, and dedicated to the
memory of our founder secretary, Sri. R Ramachandran.
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| Photo courtesy "Cover Photo of Sangeetha Sivakumar's FB page" |
In
addition to exploring the fathom of Carnatic music and bringing out priceless
pearls of music, T M Krishna also takes lot of interest in philanthropic activities – like the curtain raiser for the ‘Margazhi Vizha’ at
Urur Olcott Kuppam on one of those chill mornings during last December at the Elliots Beach walkway, when along with Sangeetha
Sivakumar, he made the point on how important it is to take carnatic music to the
masses.
Coming
to yesterday’s concert, after the formal intro etc., he straight away got in to
the business by alap in Sankarabharanam, around 6.45. Nobody would have
expected him to do what he did after the follow up of accompanying violinist – he
started Ragam, Thanam, and Pallavi, normally reserved for the latter half of
any standard kutchery. The RTP lasted for almost 40 minutes. Those who are
interested to listen to the famous song ‘Raghuvamsapathe’ in the same raga,
sung by Yesudas with the music scored by Ravindran Master for the Malayalam
film ‘Bharatham’ (1991) may go to the link below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cH1f-fSM4A0&list=PLZ6euNxBCt5YS_QUyLFBtiS080AzD6HWy
Thereafter, he let the
violinist do a short solo alap in Neelaambari, and glided on the Dikshitar
kriti ‘Amba Neelayadakshi’. Then came the main number for the day, ‘Gajavadana Sammodhita’, in Thodi. The alap mostly traversed in the
Manthrasthaayi. Here again, after the Pallavi and Anu pallavi, he dwelled on
swara kalpana for a while before ‘niraval’. What followed was a mind boggling
swarakalpana almost touching the highest octaves at times. ‘Thani’ was short
and sweet, because only mridangam accompaniment was there. Braking convention,
TMK started on the Kalyani varnam ‘Vanajakshi’ as the penultimate number.
Chittaswarams seemed different from what I have heard from the like of MDR.
Those interested in listening to MDR (incidentally hailing from my village,
Manjapra), may go the link below.
He concluded the kutcheri with a kriti in ‘Sahana’.
On the whole, the evening was enjoyable; however, the ‘punch’ which I saw in
his concert at ‘Margazhi Mahotsavam’ at the same venue (the inaugural kutchery)
was missing. People were also seen to be leaving the hall half way through,
(could be due to the ‘grahanam’) which is unusual for his earlier performance I
had been to. May be yesterday was one of his “ off ” days
Enjoy......................
It's about who come and never
leave your side
Varnas is sing in the beginning as a warm up exercise. For a genius like TMK, perhaps there is no need to warm up. Thks for the excellent review
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