The Mahathi concert

And yesterday a concert by Mahathi at Bhavan's Andheri. I had heard of her as a child prodigy who was recognising ragas when she was 18 months old. And maybe I had even heard a song or two by her.. but never a full fledged concert.

Mahathi started with the Kalyani Ata tala varnam by Pallavi Gopala Iyer. She has a voice that is capable of moving through musical phrases at  lightning speed. This was demonstrated right in the beginning at Chirunavvu itself and sort of set the pace for the rest of the concert.

This was followed by Deva deva( Mayamalavagoula, Swathi) with neraval at Jaata roopa nibha chela, janmaarjitha maamakhila. And I clearly remembered Dr T S Sathyavathi telling us that if we had to sing neraval for this piece , it would be better to do it at Dithi jaali vidalana, deenabandho maamava. TSS, could in general be extremely acerbic about many musical irregularities. And she used to be particularly biting about people who sang neraval without understanding the meaning of a line. I am unable to remember which workshop she said this in.. so I could not listen to the recording again. But I remember the gist of what she said in this context. It was her contention that all krithis would not lend themselves to neraval( obviously). She believed the musician should select that line which was not just amenable to musical variations but was also a line which encapsulated a lofty thought or idea and was worth repeating again and again so as to bring forth the composer's core vision.

And therefore I came back and sat with my Sanskrit translator and Govinda Rao's book again today morning . And yes, janmaarjitha maamakhila encapsulates an incomplete thought which gets completed only with the next 2 lines paataka sanchaya... karunaaya. All of it together means " Please obliterate all the sins I have accumulated in previous births" .

This was followed by Jagadananda and then Lavangi( Omkaarakarini by BMK). Lavangi as we know is the raaga with the least number of swaras( just 4 .. S R M D). Mahathi of course was able to traverse till the upper dhaivatam easily.

This was followed by a krithi called Saravanabhava, which I had never heard and sounded like it was Sudha Saveri and had all the Sudha Saveri notes. However, it was later announced as Pasupatipriya.. again a raga which I have not heard anything in.

The main piece was Kadanuvaariki. During the thodi alapana, there was a brief graha bhedham to rishabham resulting in mohana kalyani

Followed by a RTP in Malkauns .. other ragas during this piece were Brindavani, Durga, Behag and Revathi.

Followed by a thillana and a mangalam.

The musician has a very flexible voice, great skill and high energy. 

My experience at a TMK concert

Yesterday, I attended a concert by T M Krishna at the Nehru Centre, Worli. TMK was accompanied by Hemalatha on violin and Prasad on the mridangam.

The concert was interesting at various levels. Krishna began the concert with a Kedaragowlai alapana and I wondered if he would really sing Sami dayajuda( way too staid a way to begin for him). But he did not disappoint. He started with Saraguna Paalimpa, the 2 kalai, Poochi Srinivasa Iyengar krithi, which I had learnt a while back. It is always so much more interesting when you are listening to a song you have actually learnt, rather than just familiar with. And if you can actually remember all the sahithya, so much better. I feel it enhances my enjoyment of the process. So there we were beginning with a nice heavy piece. The neraval at shatadrutha poojitha had a number of variations in the mandara sthaayi.. which sounded different and good

He followed this with a Lathangi alapana which moved into taanam I was a bit nonplussed at this point and wondered if he would go into a RTP, this early in the game. But no worries.. he began Aparadhamula( Patnam Subramaniya Iyer). And this piece was lovely as well.

After this, Hemalatha began an alapana moving into taanam and I thought " Well that is democratic.. why should raga delineation always start with the vocalist?" Hemalatha was followed by Krishna's tanams which moved through a number of ragas so quickly that I could not figure out the individual ragas. Nor could my teacher, sitting next to me, who has been teaching and performing for over 50 years. So it was not just a function of my limited musical knowledge. The last taanam ending in Gowlai moved into Dudukugala. And my mind went " Whaaat.. Really? I am travelling 3 hours to listen to Duduku." But then I told my mind to shut up and be with his Duduku, which needless to say was also excellent... at least one variation hat I had not heard before with the ku as 3 perfect superfast upward moving spirals.And while I did sit back, there was just this little seed of inner discontent.

This was followed by Minalochana( Dhanyasi, Misra Chaapu, Shyama Shastri).. No alapana or taanams .. just a virutham preceding it.

After, this piece he started asking the organisers, who were seated in the auditorium well, if he could sing one more piece. And since it was just 9.15 and we had not started till well after 7.30, I was a bit surprised. But I resigned myself to the fact that the concert was maybe going to be one of those smaller affairs. Even though, it had been billed as One evening, One Maestro leading to expectations of a longer duration concert by the one artist.

And while we wondered if it would be Sindubhairavi or Madhyamavathi or maybe even a Hindolam, he started an alapana which sounded like Shankarabharanam. The alapana grew more elaborate and culminated in Dakshinamurthe( Dikshithar, Misra Jhampe).

Every one of the pieces Krishna sang was beautiful. It was melodious, tone perfect, flawless in every respect. The accompanists were of an extremely high calibre. The 5 pieces were individually like 5 perfectly polished high carat diamonds, which for some strange reason when strung together were  resulting in a less than perfect ornament.

And I could not understand why. I have attended concerts of artists of a much lower calibre, where I have left the auditorium feeling replete and content. And yet, I was leaving this auditorium feeling incomplete in some way.