T.M.Krishna @ MFAC, Chennai

Venue: Mylapore Fine Arts Club (MFAC), Musiri Subramaniam Road, Mylapore, Chennai

Date: 22 Dec 2006

Organizer: Mylapore Fine Arts Club (MFAC)

Vocal: Sri T.M.Krishna (TMK)

Violin: Sri Sriram Parasuram

Mridangam: Sri Umayalpuram K. Sivaraman

Ghatam: Sri E.M. Subramaniam

List of songs:

1) sarasijanAbhA (varnam) – kAmbOji – kanDa aTa – swAti tiruNAL

2) chAla kallalADu – Arabhi – Adi – thyAgarAja (OS)

3) nenarunchinAnu – mALavi – Adi – thyAgarAja

4) mAyammA – Ahiri – Adi – syAma sAstri (A)

5) unDEti rAmuDu – harikAmbOji – rUpakam – thyAgarAja (ONS)

6) rAma bANa – sAvEri – Adi – thyAgarAja (ANST)

7) vinarAdanA – dEvagAndhAri – Adi – thyAgarAja

8 ) rAgam tAnam pallavi – shankarAbharaNam – kanDa jampa (T)

pallavi wordings: “mahima teliya taramA, srI rAmA nI”

kalpana swaram in shankarAbharaNam, sahAnA, aTANA, tODi, kAmbOji, kalyANi, madyamAvati, kAnaDA, behAg, sindhubhairavi and suruTTi

9) smara sundarAnguni (jAvaLi) – paras – Adi – darmapuri subbarAyar

10) mauLau ganga (slOkam – viruttam) – mAyAmALavagOwLa, sAmA, danyAsi, varALi – appayyA dIkshitar

11) eppO varuvArO – jOnpuri – Adi – gOpAlakrishna bhArati

12) dirana tana dIm (tillAnA) – chenchuruTTi – Adi – vINA sEshaNNA

13) pavamAna (mangaLam) – sOwrAshTram – Adi – thyAgarAja

(Key: O=raga outline, A=raga alapana, N=neraval, S=kalpana swaram, T=taniavartanam)

The time was 5:30PM. The MFAC Hall resembled a vegetable market with a lot of chaos due to people moving here and there. There was lot of noise in the air. People started settling down slowly. The clock struck 6:00 PM and the faint sounds of a tambura being tuned could be heard amidst the noise made by people. Around 6:05PM, the curtains were suddenly drawn up and there came the crystal clear sound of a “chappu” of a mridangam. There was a sudden calm for a second or two after which there was an immediate round of applause to acknowledge the artists of the day who were seated on the stage to begin their concert.

A cracker of a concert it was !!!!! Even the best adjective that describes goodness might fall short of describing the beauty of the concert. Beginning with the kAmbOji aTa tAla varnam “sarasijanAbha“, TMK then sang the Arabhi kriti “chAla kallalADu” beautifully. The kalapana swarams in Arabhi were worth their weight in gold. With “mAyammA“, TMK applied brakes to the concert which was moving ahead in full steam with fast paced songs. A neat alapana of Ahiri was followed by a slow, moving rendition of “mAyammA“. The very detailed alapanas of the day in sAvEri and shankarAbharaNam were very beautifully executed by both Sri TMK and Sri Sriram Parasuram.

Sri Umayalpuram Sivaraman decided to innovate with the taniavartanam and played a sapta gati taniavartanam similar to the one he had played in Sri N. Ravikiran’s concert at Sri Krishna Gana Sabha a few months back. At the start he played all the five nadais (chatusra, tisra, kanDa, misra and sankIrNa). Since there are only five nadais, he chose a combination of tisra and chatusra nadai, labeled “gati dwayam” as the sixth nadai and played a combination of all the nadais in pairs as the seventh, calling it “gati misram”. He said he got this idea by seeing how janya ragas are derived from janaka ragas. He said he derived these two extra “gatis” this way. He single handedly played the entire taniavartanam for the sAvEri kriti.

Sri E.M. Subramaniam on the ghatam got his turn when he played the complete taniavartanam in kanDa jampa talam for the ragam tanam pallavi by himself.

All in all, a very very satisfying concert !!!!!