Violinist T.N. Krishnan is no more

Violin maestro T.N. Krishnan, whose enjoying represented the pristine fantastic thing about Carnatic ragas, died right here on Monday. He entered the music world as a baby prodigy and carried out until his final days. He was 92, and is survived by spouse Kamala, son Sriram Krishnan and daughter Viji Krishnan, who typically accompanied their father.

“None was as gifted as Krishnan when it came to capturing the essence, taste and life of ragas. He had clarity about what he thought was good music and he followed it unwaveringly,” stated singer and creator T.M. Krishna, who, like Krishnan, is a disciple of Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer.

Born Tripunithura Narayanaiyer Krishnan in 1928 in Kerala, he learnt music from his father A. Narayana Iyer. He gave his first solo violin live performance in Thiruvananthapuram in 1939 as a boy of 11. He had a mentor in Alleppy K. Parthasarathy, and Krishnan had all the time acknowledged the help rendered by him in the course of the early days of his profession.

He had accompanied nice musicians comparable to Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar, Musiri Subramania Iyer, Alathur Brothers, G.N. Balasubramaniam, Madurai Mani Iyer, Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar, M.D. Ramanathan and Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer and the recordings accessible nonetheless clarify Krishnan’s expertise as a accompanying artiste earlier than turning into a solo performer.

He shifted his base to Chennai in 1942 and got here beneath the tutelage of Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer and his profession graph emerged.

Krishnan additionally excelled as a trainer and he was the professor of music on the Music College, Chennai. Later, he turned the Dean of School of Music and Fine Arts, University of Delhi. He was generally known as Professor Krishnan within the music world. He received many awards, together with Sangita Kalanidhi of the Music Academy and the Padma Bhushan and the Padma Vibhushan.

“His greatest assets are his understanding of ragas and conviction about music. Even though so many things changed over decades in the music world, he had the conviction about good music and would only offer that — if you like it you come to my concert. It is very difficult to have such a conviction and be successful,” defined Mr. Krishna.

“You will not come across a single non-musical phrase in his playing. You cannot say he experimented with music, but brought out the existing beauty of the Carnatic ragas and you have to be in his concerts to realise how he would reach the higher octaves,” stated Lalitharam, the biographer of vocalist G.N. Balasubramaniam and mridangam participant Palani Subramania Pillai, with whom he had teamed up for a lot of live shows.

He additionally recalled a selected live performance within the Music Academy. “Krishnan played Harikamboji and explained that he played it to tell the world that it could be done without the traces of Khamas, Kamboji and Karaharapriya,” Mr. Lalitharam stated.