Carnatica's Rasika Forum

Concert of Madurai TNSKrishna at karthik Fine Arts
on 25-12-2009


The Royal path continues


Krishna was assisted by Madurai Bala subramaniam on the violin, Thanjavoor Subramaniam on mridhangam and ASKrishnan on morsing.

Krishna started the concert with varnam in nayaki, followed by an exquisite alapana of raga panthuvarali, and the krthi was ‘Siva siva ena raadhaa,’ of Thyagaraja. The neraval svara was at ‘aagamamula,’ the svara prasthara was resonant and wonderful.

Krishna then sang a sloka from Meenakshi pancharathnam in Anadabhairavi and the krthi ‘marivere gathi’ of Shyamasastri. The anandhabhairavi was a real ‘aanandha’ bhairavi.

The next was the rama nataka keerthanam ‘yaro enreNNaamal,’ in sankarabhranam. It was rendered full of bhava, for example, ungaL paruttha vil ivan kaikku pOdhumO pOdhaadhO enru paarkka vEndum enrOr aasai,’ in which the words pOdhumO pOdhaadhO and aasai were sung depicting the meaning vividly.

‘Srikantha neeyeda,’ in bhavapriya was the krthi which followed to which kalpana svara was also added.

The main piece however was mohanam and the krthi was narayana ennum naamam of Papanasam Sivan. The mohanam was indeed justifying the name and the manodharma displayed in the delineation of raga and kalpana svara was a marvel. Krishna has clearly chalked out a path of his own in the field of music, a royal path or a highway with no obstacles using the music of his father as guideposts.

In the pasuram ‘kulam tharum selvam,’the kondukootti style of TNS adopted by Krishna added the beauty of the meaning. He applied the adjectives to ‘sollai naan kandukondEn,’ like kulam tharum, nalam tharum, pethre thaayinum aayina seyyum etc.

The krthi itself was rendered extremely well and the neraval at ‘maarajanakan karunaalayan anbar thunbam agala mangalam aruLvOn,’ the whole line treated with masterly strokes in the manner of pallavi singing and the svara that followed showed an expertise in laya and kalpana. It is not enough to say that the offspring of a tiger will never be a cat (pulikkupirandhadhu poonai aagumaa) but Krishna is the lion’s cub showing the signs of becoming a full fledged lion sooner then one would expect. But as TNS himself used to say in his harikatha, music is not a heirloom to be handed down from father to son because it should be ordained by God. Krishna surely has been blessed with that divine grace to carry the torch of the great TNS music tradition.

Krishna next sang ‘kaakaicchirginilE ,’ which evoked nostalgic memories of TNS singing it long time back. Krishna rendered it beautifully and the ending with the word nanadalala with variations of expression was superb.

The last but not least was a viruttham ‘ucchimeedhil oLirum omkaaragaNapathiyai,’ which might have raised an eye brow or two of those who did not know what was to follow and wondered why he sang on Ganesa in the end, but the seasoned rasika would have known what to expect. It was the thillana of TNS in basant on Ganesa with which Krishna ended the concert . Krishna is not only maintaining but increasing the caliber of his music from concert to concert and May sky be the limit!