Venue: Russian Cultural Center, Kasturi Ranga Road, Chennai
Date: 21 Mar 2007
Vocal: Sri T.M. Krishna (TMK)
Violin: Sri Vittal Ramamurthy
Mrudangam: Sri K.V. Prasad
Ghatam: Sri S. Karthick
Tambura: Sri Rithvik Raja
List of songs:
1) tera tIyaga rAdA – gowLipantu – Adi – thyAgarAja (S)
2) sujana jIvana – khamAs – rUpakam – thyAgarAja
3) murugA murugA – sAvEri – misra chApu – periyasAmi tUran (A)
4) bhOgIndra shAyinam – kuntalavarALi – kanDa chApu – swAti tiruNAL
5) sarOjadaLa nEtri – shankarAbharaNam – Adi – syAma sAstri (ANST)
6) mAlai pozhudinilE – rAgamAlikA – Adi (tisra gati) – kalki krishnamUrti
7) bEganE bArO – yamunA kalyANi – outline
krishnA nI bEganE bArO – yamunA kalyANi – misra chApu – vyAsarAya
8 ) sarvam brahmamayam – madhuvanti – Adi – sadAsiva brahmEndra
9) udanata tana tara (tillAnA) – hamIrkalyANi – Adi – harikEsanallUr muthiAh bhAgavatar
10) rAmachandrAya janaka (mangaLam) – kurinji – Adi – bhadrAchala rAmadAs
(Key: O=raga outline, A=raga alapana, N=neraval, S=kalpana swaram, T=taniavartanam)
Sri T.M.Krishna (TMK) started the concert with Sri Thyagaraja’s “tera tIya garAdA” which was rendered with lot of emotion and involvement with kalpanA swarams put at the pallavi line. “sujana jIvana” came next with the same, if not more level of involvement put in. The pallavi was especially brilliant. Brilliant sAvEri alapanas by both TMK and Sri Vittal Ramamurthy formed the prelude to a moving rendition of “murugA murugA”.
The shankarAbharaNam alapana was very nicely done too but was rather short considering it came as a TMK alapana for the main song. If I remember correctly, TMK touched the dhaivatam that comes two octaves below the normal octave’s dhaivatam and the patterns he sang in the lower octave were simply sweet music to the ears. Neraval and kalpana swarams were put at “sAmagAna vinOdini“.
The team of accompanists on stage played with a lot of understanding. Sri Vittal Ramamurthy was brilliant in his individual essays and very supportive when it came to accompaniment. Sri K.V. Prasad and Sri S. Karthick played very well for the songs. Sri S. Karthick was his usual self trying to play in unison with the mrudangam and complementing the mrudangam artist wherever required. The fillers he played for the songs were very nice to hear. Taniavartanam was played in chatusra and tisra nadais. Lot of improvisation was there in the taniavartanam. For example, Sri K.V. Prasad started the taniavartanam in a style that was very similar to the way TMK ended his kalpana swarams. Sri S. Karthick began the taniavartanam using and improvising on a set of calculations used by Sri Prasad to finish off his portion of the chatusra nadai.
All the artists were very appreciative of each other and it was really nice to observe this sitting in the audience. In all, a very good concert and a satisfying experience once again from TMK.
Ramkumar R 
Hi Ram,
This is the Mangalam in Kurinji I was referring to. As I said the last 3 concerts attended in Bangalore had the Mangalam in Kurinji. Interesting…
Oh .. ok.
FYI …. the lyrics for the mangalam are available at http://www.ammas.com/ar/home.cfm?r=va&cid=0&bid=0&tid=96054&topicid=49
Looks like a great kutcheri.TMK’s Sankarabharanam is usually very good.And Saveri,well,his Rama Bana Trana with that great Neraval during the season at MFAC still stands fresh in my mind.I didn’t hear of the kutcheri.Didn’t see it in the papers.
Sathej
Sathej,
It was a very good concert. It appeared to be a private concert that wasn’t advertised about.
Ram
Even I was not aware about this concert 😦
TWO octaves below the regular dhaivatham?! So he’s managing to go lower and lower… Throughout the last Season, he made it a point, in every alapana, to touch the shadjam one octave below the regular one, and now he’s gone two notes further. That kind of vocal range is pretty mindboggling.
Yes,it presents considerable difficulty for the violinist.I remember a concert sometime in October 2006 at Narad Gana Sabha by the legendary Shri Balamuralikrishna.He was repeatedly exploring myriad patterns in his Alapanas and at one stage he jumped sudenly from the lower Rishabam to the upper Rishabham,Shri Embar Kannan,who was the violinist laughed and did not respond.His voice range and control is out of this world.In this context,I am reminded of an anecdote.TMK,by the way seems to be leaving for USA and the West Indies and I’ll miss his concerts for maybe, a month.
Sathej
Aparna,
Keep checking http://www.tmkrishna.com … monthly schedule postings are a bit delayed but at least give a rough idea of the location once they are up. It is then up to rasikas to use their network/internet/phone to find out the timings, exact location etc.
True Samanth. I think the range will expand even more by the time he is back from his trip to the Carribean and the US.
I check his website regularly. But, I didn’t know this Russian Cultural Centre was in Chennai!!!