A contemporary critic and also a connoisseur of music once remarked: “TNS takes the audience to a different plane with his music.” Indeed. Madurai T.N. Seshagopalan can take the audience through fluffy clouds or at times in a bullock cart with greenery all the way. Both journeys offer pleasure and catches. On the inaugural day, Seshagopalan presented his vocal concert with ultra ‘sowkyam.'
Even the opening Kalyani Ata tala varnam ‘Vanajakshi' moved a tad languidly. How could Seshagopalan stop with the chittaswarams of Pallavi Gopalayyar? So he added a few rounds of ‘his' swaras. Incidentally, in this concert not even one kriti was left without swarakalpana. In some cases, the swaras were longer than the kriti; for example, the main item ‘Sri Subrahmanyaya Namaste' by Muthuswami Dikshitar.
Well, coming back to the concert, the varnam was followed by a generous alapana of Gowlai. As expected, Seshagopalan touched some exotic notes, displaying exciting phrases and vocal power play. The kriti here was ‘Sri Maha Ganapathi' by Dikshitar.
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The kriti's chittaswaram coupled with jatis were projected at different tempos. It was then followed up with swaras. The pirouetting of swaras on ‘ri' and ‘sa' turned out to be an enchanting exercise. ‘Mariveradikkevarayya' in Shanmukhapriya (Patnam Subramania Iyer) gushed out as a spring with several mini, macro, micro and even nano sangatis on the lines ‘Daya Jesi Broche Dora Neevugata' and ‘Nannu Brovaka Yunduta Nyaayama' more specifically on the word ‘Nyaayama'. This was embellished with a long stretch of swaras once again spinning around ‘ri' and ‘sa'. Amazing!
Khambodi unfolded at a leisurely pace demonstrating the maestro's remarkable vidwat and ability to scale and cover the entire showground. There were hitches in the voice in negotiating and extending the phrases; but can they deter the determination of this singer extraordinaire? Seshagopalan relentlessly pursued in a slow and steady manner settling on the magnum opus of Dikshitar ‘Sri Subrahmanyaya Namaste.' The musical maze started as he landed on the line ‘Vasavathi Sagaladeva.' The rather succinct niraval was overpowered by Seshagopalan's penchant for swaras, this time pitching on dhaivatam.
The concert proved that TNS is capable of both high speed and super slow techniques. Realising that it was time for him to go for a Ragam Tanam and Pallavi, Seshagopalan launched into Subhapantuvarali with all energy and enthusiasm. An almost exhausted M. Chandrasekaran (violin) could not reciprocate during alapana and so Seshagopalan inspired the violinist with his dynamic tanam and Chandrasekaran picked up strength and the exchanges almost sounded frenetic.
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The pallavi, like last year, was dedicated to the ‘Sangita Kalanidhi' of this year. So we had ‘Laya Vilaya Sukha Laya Subramanya, sangeetha kalanidhi' referring to Valayapatti Subramaniam. Surprisingly, in these entirely staid proceedings, Vellore Ramabhadran and T.V. Vasan on the mridagam and ghatam played a quiet but significant role and came up with a crisp thani avartanam.