T N Seshagopalan, Indian Fine Arts Society

T N Seshagopalan
V V Ravi
Vellore G Ramabhadran
B S Purushottaman

The Indian Fine Arts Society at German Hall on 29th December 2004 at 7:30 pm

rAma nAma - kAnaDa (AlApanai and svarams)
sObillu - jaganmOhini
thriyambukalika (slOkam) in nATTakuranji followed by budhamAshrayAmi (svarams)
pAsuram on ANDAL followed by ungaL puzhakkaDai - tiruppAvai - Anandha bhairavi
bhuvinidAsuDE - sriranjani (AlApanai, neraval, svarams)
sItA varasangItA - dEvagAndAri
kAmAkshi anudimanu - bhairavi (AlApanai, neraval, svarams)
aNNalum nOkkinAn - hamIrkalyANi
RTP - sAmA - Adi (2 kaLai) 6 akshara eDuppu
"ikapara sAdanamE manasA mAdava dyAnamE"
rAgamAlikA svarams in rItigauLa, sAvEri, varALi, bEhAg, suruTTi
sundari en soppanathil - kamAs
tillAnA - bEhAg
pavamAna - saurAshtram
shriyathkAntAya - madhyamAvati

It was a nice rendition of kAnaDa to start with. The nATTakuranji slOkam on budhan and the vAra kriti were nicely rendered and the svarams were sparkling. Anandha bhairavi was nicely explored during the pAsuram.

The first elaborate piece was sriranjani. The elaboration was very good. The phrases being very innovative and exhaustive. The svarams rendered by TNS and his son were good with kaNakku. The voice of his son lacks weight. dEvagAndAri was lovely.

The bhairavi AlApanai, though could have been a bit more longer, was very good. The madhyama kAla jaNDai phrases and the way his voice glides across the octave(s) is just amazing. The svarajati was rendered with a lot of bhavam true to TNS style. The neraval at the last caraNam was short and the svarams involved a lot of kaNakku and were rendered in tisra, kaNDa and misra naDais. With the grand piece and the AlApanai and the nereval and lovely svarams, one was expecting it to be the main piece, but, the piece was not followed by taniyAvartanam and it was already almost 2 hours into the concert. The hamIr kalyANi piece was nicely rendered.

Then TNS started off with a AlApanai of sAmA. The 10 minute AlApanai was good with a lot of unheard sancArams. The short tAnam and pallavi which were rendered in a race to time were also nicely presented with pratilOma and rAgamAlika svarams in 1 kaLai. It was followed by a short tani, which was racing again.

Sri. V V Ravi on the violin did a decent job and was doing a rather short version of all the ragams. His reply to bhairavi was not even for half the time TNS sang. His sAmA AlApanai was hardly three minutes. He however did not do anything which should not be done.

Sri. Ramabhadran on the mrudangam, as usual provided good support by following the main artist and did a good job with the tani also. Sri. Purushottaman on the kanjIrA also was very good.

Overall a very enjoyable concert. I guess TNS is in form this season.