Madurai T N Seshagopalan performed at the Global GNB Centenary Celebrations, Singapore. He was accompanied by Vittal Ramamoorthy on the violin and T R Sundaresan on the mridangam.
This concert was organised as part of the Global GNB Centenary Celebrations in Singapore by Music Circle.
I have followed TNS sir for the last 20 years or so and have heard more than 400+ live concerts of his. Even so, this concert was a special one that will be remembered for a long time to come.
The concert started with a brisk rendition of the Begada Varnam. There are some ragas that seem to kindle TNS. Begada is one of those. Most of his concerts that have started with Begada have been super hits. ‘Telisi Rama’ is his favourite as well and brisk rendition of swarams kept the violinist challenged. Purnachandrika is not an easy raga to handle on the violin especially during the faster passages. Vittal handled the raga very well.
Pantuvarali was elaborated in the madhyama kala with a lot of akaram usage. Then there were some scintillating jarus and karvais across octaves that gave the first hint that we were in for something special in this concert. The neraval was short and again mainly in madyama kalam. Swarams were soaked in raga bhavam.
GNB’s compositions preceded the Yadukulakamboji alapana. Again one of TNS’ favourite ragas. There is a school of thought (sampradayam) that Yadukulakamboji should not be elaborated beyond tAra sadjam. I do not subscribe to this view because I think it stems from the assumption that one cannot differentiate between Kamboji and Yadukulakamboji effectively in the tAra stayi. TNS’ elaboration in the tAra stayi should put to rest any doubt in this matter. The tAra sadjam was so intelligently and effectively used that even when phrases like S-R-G-S, D-S-R-G-S etc., that were used it didn’t have any ‘vasanai’ of Kamboji. ‘Ninnu Sevinchina’ was rendered with the usual gait with swarams at nI nAma Bhajana.
The main course was the one that really swept everyone off their feet. First the elaboration of Shanmugapriya (35 min) in three stages. Again, instead of using the usual Rishabam as the jiva/nyasa swaram, TNS chose Gandaram. In fact, there were several Rishaba-varjya sangathis that had absolutely no influence of Subhapantuvarali, even when there were flat Gandara prayogas in the madyama-stayi.
 The RTP ‘Guna Nidhi Balasubramanya gAna Vidya Turandara’ on GNB. 4-akshara eduppu with purvangam in Tisram and uttarangam in chantusram. It took a while for me to understand the kanakku swarams, and let me not elaborate here since it was quite complex. Ragamalika swarams in Bageshri, Hamsanandi and kApi followed with a complicated korvai as the climax.
Sundaresan’s tani, as usual, was precise as well as pleasant. He matched the Kanta nadai combinations that TNS sang earlier with his own “abiprayams”. Vittal was effective in his supporting role. It’s no mean task to support an artist of TNS’ calibre.
Slokam was a ragamalika one (too many ragams to list out) followed by Tillana in Sindhu Bhairavi.
The audience were in rapt attention for 3 1/2 hrs even though the concert exceeded by about an hour. We should be proud that we share our lives with this genius.
|