Tuesday 28 February 2017

2017 Feb 26 VVV (HKVenkatram, AshwinAnand, Ravikiran) GuruKaraikudiMani Guruprasanna @ OdukatturMutt

Violin: Vid. HK Venkatram
VinA: Vid. Ashwin Anand
vENu: Vid. Ravikiran
Mridanga: Vid. Guru Karaikudi Mani 
Khanjira: Vid. Guruprasanna 

Venue: Odukattur Mutt, Bangalore
Occasion: Maha Shivaratri Celebrations


01 pArvathI pathim praNAmi sathatham hamsadhwani Adi m.dIkshitar
Swara at parvati patim m.dikshitar

02 tyAgarAja yOga vaibhavam Anandhabhairavi rUpaka m.dIkshitar

03 ShObillu saptaswara jaganmOhini rUpaka tyAgarAja

04 shiva shiva shiva enarAdA kAmavardani Adi tyAgarAja AlApane (vINA) (A S )
Swara at Agamamula

05 dattAtrEya trimUrti rUpa ranjani gaNapathi sachidAnanda srIranjani (A-VENu)

06 swara rAga suDhA shankarAbharaNa Adi tyAgarAja (A- Violin, S, T)
Swara at mUlAdhAra

07 shiva darushana namagAyitu kEle shivarAtriya jAgaraNe madhyamAvati Adi p.dAsa

08 tillAna mOhanakalyANi LGJ

09 nI nAma rUpamulaku mangaLa sourAshtra Adi tyAgarAja

Sunday 26 February 2017

2017 Feb 25 TrichurBrothers LRsmakrishnan TrichurMohan KovaiSuresh @ Odukattur


Vocal: Vid. Trichur Brothers 
Violin: Vid. L Rsmakrishnan 
Mridanga: Vid. Trichur Mohan 
Ghata: Vid. Kovai Suresh 

Venue: Odukattur Mutt, Bangalore
Occasion: Maha Shivaratri Celebrations / Kalotsav

01 nera nammithinayya VarNa kAnada k Ata pUchi shrInivAsa iyengAr (O, S)
Swara at sarasUDa

02 gajAnanayutham gaNEshwaram chakravAka or vEgavAhini c.Eka m.dIkshithar (S)
Swara at gajAnanayutam

03 shrI mAtrubhUtam trishiragiri kannaDa m.cApu m.dIkshitar (S)
Swara at  suvAsita nava javanti pushpam

04 raksha mAm sharaNAgatam nATA Adi mInAkshisuta

05 Emani nE nI mahima mukhAri Adi subbarAya sAstri (A, N)
Nereval at  amba charaNa mahima pogaDu taramA

06 ShObillu saptaswara jaganmOhini rUpaka thyAgarAja
Swara at shobillu

07 nArAyaNIyam shlOka in dEsh mAND sAvEri followed by 
bArO krishNayya mAND Adi kanaka dAsa

08 rAga tAna pallavi khaNDa triputa 2 kaLai 1 beat eDupu
pallavi line: Rudra prAyAga sutIrtha swarUpane paramane gaLaga gaLita (Not clear acoustics to sense accurately)
Ragamalika in shaNkarAbharaNa.. hamsadhwani.. HamsAnandi.. violin ??... Vocal ? And return in reverse order

09 ashtapadi (nAtha harE jagannAtha harE) madhuvanti Jayadeva

10 pArtakiTTe irakka tONadu rAgamAlika(bauLi sAranga TBI vasantha rEvati)

11 karpagamE kadaikaN pArAi madhyamAvathi Adi pApanAsham shivan

12 nI nAma rUpamulaku mangaLa sourAshtra Adi tyAgarAja + mangaLa shlOka

Saturday 18 February 2017

2017 Feb 18 AbhishekRaghuram BUGaneshPrasad PatriSatishKumar VSuresh @ Choudaiah Memorial Hall / Bharatiya Samagana Sabha



Vocal: Vid. AbhishekRaghuram 
Violin: Vid. BUGaneshPrasad 
Mridanga: Vid. PatriSatishKumar 
Ghata: Vid. VSuresh 

Occasion : Bharatiya Samagana Sabha - Tyagaraja Aradhana
Venue: Choudaiah Memorial Hall, Bangalore


01 rAma nI pai thanaku kEdhAra Adi tyAgarAja (S)
swara @ rAmA nI pai

02 sItamma mAyamma shrI vasanta rUpaka tyAgarAja (A, S)
swara @ dharaNija bhAgavatAre

03 raghupatE rAma rAkshasabhIma sahAna rUpakA tyAgarAja (A)

04 ADamODi galadE rAmayya cArukEsi Adi tyAgarAja (A, N, S, T)
nereval and swara @ ADamODigalade

05 kOluvai yunnADE kOdanDapANi dEvagAndhAri Adi tyAgarAja

06 pAlintuvO pAlimpava kAntAmaNi Adhi tyAgarAja (A, S)

07 inta soukhya manInE kApi Adi tyAgarAja (O)

08 navanIta chOra vasudEva nandana navarOj tyAgarAja

09 nI nAma rUpamulaku mangaLa sourAshtra Adi tyAgarAja

After such an OUT OF THE WORLD concert at RLKM earlier last week, this was good one too. However, still felt the effects of the previous concert still lingering in my head, this did not penetrate the layers of mind and heart.  

It was more like a 100* in this concert while the previous concert had a double century on your back.

Well appreciated at vital points during the concert by the audience, the concert was another memorable one.

Sunday 12 February 2017

2017 Feb 11 RanjaniGayathri HNBhaskar SaiGiridhar NGuruprassad @ RLKM (Spring Festival)


Vocal: Vid. RanjaniGayathri 
Violin: Vid. HNBhaskar 
Mridanga: Vid. SaiGiridhar 
Ghata: Vid. NGuruprassad 

Organiser: Sri Rama Lalita Kala Mandira
Occasion: Spring Festival

01 sarasija nAbha mAm pAhi varNa nATa Adi paramEShwara bhAgavathar

02 sharANu benakane kanaka rUpane bilahari Adi purandara dAsa (CS, S)
swara @ sharaNu benakane

03 arivAr yAr unnai arivAr mukhAri aruNAcala kavi

04 ninnu jeppa kAraNamEmi mandAri patnam subhramanya iyer (A, N, S)
nereval and swara @ ghanalOlaina vEnakTEsha

05 chEtah sri bAlakrishnam bhajarE dwijAvanthi rUpaka m.dikshithar

06 rAmA nIyeDa prEma rahitulaku kharaharapriyA Adi tyAgarAja (A, S, T)
swara@ pada sowkhya

07 DaNgUrava sArIrayya vasantha Adi p.dAsa

08 rAga tAna pallavi sarasAngi khaNDa tripuTa (chaturaSra , tiSra naDai   dwinaDai)
grahabEdha to ranjani (by gAyatri) during rAga AlApane
Pallavi Line: rAgarasa rAgayuta sarasa rasanE rAsa vilAse sarasAngi krite
Ragamalika Swara : Anandabhairavi, bahudAri, shubhapantuvarALi, kumdakriya, dEsh

09 Viruttum (kuLir mazhai kAkka...) (rAgamAlikA in dhanyAsi, valaji, kAnaDa ) followed by 
enna solli azhaittAl kAnaDa Ambujam Krishna

10 aparAdhi nAnalla rEvati purandara dAsa

11 atha kOTHe dAve mana mana abhang bhImpalAs tukArAm

12 nInAma rUpamulaku mangaLa sourAshtra Adi tyAgarAja



If even at 2045 when the concert is supposed to end, the audience are taking a sneak peek into the hall to find a seat to sit, then undoubtedly, it must be Ra Ga sister's delivering yet another stellar concert. Today was one such day where Bangalore Gayana Samaja's capacity was tested .

With hall filled to the brim 1 full hour before the concert, supplemented by the weekend factor, the sisters were in best of their form another extended concert to the delight of the audience and the organisers. Sisters gave an unforgettable nectarine concert to an "class" audience today, assisted by 2 students playing 2 tambUri for each one of them. 

The concert started on schedule, with a nATa varNa composed by paramEshwara bhAgavatar (although I was expecting one composed by PSI). 

The obesceince to Ganapathi was the apt choice through presenting a purandara dAsa composition in bilahari. The chiTTeswaras (im damn sure it was not a part of the original composition, probably added by the Sisters) and each enunciated sAhitya syllable demonstrated their perfunctory approach in mastering the kannada songs. The swaras @ sharaNu benakane was apt in the choice of cycles and duration. I belive it was their first presentation to a Kannada audience. The jump into chiTTeswaras with ri ga pa mA ga ri sa... added punch to the presentation.

They skipped the convetional AlApane for the 3rd song directly dwelling into a leisurely persentation of mukhAri kriti, an indication of the length of the concert to come. They were unhurried in their approach and emotive.

mandAri AlApane was well paced. Starting with lower speeds and registers, Vid. Ranjani traversed the 0.5 + 1.0 + 0.5 octaves with ease to bring out the essence of the rAga. There was no doubt during any part of the AlApane. Violin accompaniment left wanting more volume for the last row audience. Vid. HN Bhaskar on the violin was good and received abundant applause and frequently through the concert. Ninnu jeppa, the popular composition from PSI was the speedy presentation. The composition ended in a jiffy, inspite of being embellished by nereval and swaras at  ghanalOlaina vENkaTEsha.

chEtah Sri bAlaksrishnam, though a filler, was dealt in a leisurely pace. Sisters make it a point to have one druta gati and viLamba gati fillers in their concert, and today was no exception.

Kharaharapriya AlApane, by Vid gAyatri showcased the depth of creativity and strenth of spontenity. There were many moments of violin exactly replicating the AlApane sangaitis pepping her up to deliver more.  She efforlessly soaring from lower, middle and upper sthayi and seamless traversing between them quite frequently is a delight to watch, with violinist adding the finer touches as he followed like a shadow throughout the concert, especially in the AlApane. The hand signs to increase the violin volume fell on blind eyes of the sound engineer, who hardly made any changes to the volume level. It needed pin drop silence and high levels of attentiveness to grasp the violin returns throughout. Since it was long enough, it gave a clue of a possible pratimadhyama rAga RTP to follow.

rAmA ni yeDa had its full fledged embellishments. Nereval was done in multiple cycles, so was swaras. Vid. Sai Giridhar dominated the percussion support almost like an opening batsman playing with 11th man trying to save the match. There was hardly any opportunity for the non striking partner Vid. N Guruprassad, which I felt was unfair. 

Tani brought out the best of what Vid. N Guruprassad had in store, but could not show through the accompaniment for the songs till then.

Druta kAla filler , yet another kannada in rAga vasanta was delightful. 

Though I felt a higher traces of chArukEshi, sarasAngi rAga tAna shared by the sisters was a delight to listen. Till now, none of the rAgas had repetition to any of the previous concert on this stage during this season. Such was the meticulous preparation as they had the last possible slot to perform in this season.  This AlApane in tandem also swelled into grahabEda (ranjani / dharmavati?) showcasing their strong fundamentals.

They are known to take challenging pallavi, and today was no exception. The dwi-naDai pallavi in khaNDa tripuTa and a pretty long pallavi line with an eDupu challenged each one on the stage to be on their toes for the 30 minutes of pallavi rendition. Few rAgamAlika rounds were delivered leisurely. While most of them were popular, kumudakriya was announced at the end of its rendition.

Vote of thanks (which I usually dont review / speak about) deserves a mention for 2 reasons. Sri Krishna Prasad has been doing a yomen service to the cause of music. He deserves applause from the whole house for organising such a glitch free high quality SPRING FESTIVAL. God bless such organisers. It was also announced that SANGEETHA VEDANTA DHUREENA 2018 will be conferred on the Sisters, next year on the same day ! Even before the sentence was completed, the audience stood up to applaud, one of the longest that I had heard in today's concert. It was a surprise announcement, and the expression on the sister's face was worth a capture, which i missed being in the last rows of the hall today.

rAgamAlika viruttum (kuzhir mazhai kAkka... ) followed by enna solli by Ambujam Krishna and aparAdhi nAnalla in rEvati by purandara dAsa were fillers before the customary abhANG. 

An hour of waiting and 3.5 hrs of concert had not drained me either. Audience were still trying to thong inside the hall to get a glimpse of the stage. The song list shows you how they well deserve the award they would be conferred next year in this sabha. Wide selection in terms of composers, language, tALa is just a glimpse of their repoirtre. They are in the best of their form and one would not want to miss their 2 more visits in as many weeks to Bangalore in the near future. Looking forward for that.

Left with a feeling of 100% satisfaction, as I was accompanied by my K and G, who rarely join me in my concert exploration journeys.

Friday 10 February 2017

2017 Feb 09 AbhishekRaghuram CharulataRamanujam AnanthaRKrishnan GGuruprasanna @ RLKM


Vocal: Vid. AbhishekRaghuram 
Violin: Vid. CharulataRamanujam 
Mridanga: Vid. AnanthaRKrishnan 
Khanjira: GGuruprasanna 

Organiser: Sri Rama Lalita Kala Mandira
Occasion: Spring Festival

01 vanajAkSirO I viraha kalyANi varNa Adi rAmanathapuram srInivAsa iyengAr (O)

02 O jagadambA Anandabhairavi Adi shyAmA sAstri (O)

03 shObhillu saptasvara jaganmOhini rUpakA tyAgaraja

04 nijamuga nI mahimalu shahAna Adi tyAgarAja (A, N, S)
nereval @ nijamuga

05 sAramEgAni anya mArga vicharametike kAmavardhini tripuTa tyAgarAja (A, N, S, T)
nereval @ sAmagAna lOluDou

06 hechcharikAgA rA yadhukula kAmbOdhi khanda jhampa thyAgarAja (O)

07 nAma kusumamulacE pUjincE shrI Adi tyAgarAja (A, N)
Nereval @ vinOduni

08 rAga tAna pallavi shankrabharana tiSra TripuTa 1 Kalai
pallavi line: vinavayya pancha nagadIsha
rAgamAlika: KalyaANi, tODi

09 Adi dEva paramAtma vEda vEdAnta vEdya rEvati aNNamacharya

10 patiki hAratIrE sItApatiki hAratIrE suraTiAdi tyAgarAja

11 nInAma rUpamulaku mangaLa sourAshtra Adi tyAgarAja



It is rarely that a phenomenon takes place in the world, and very rarely you are a witness when its in the making. It is even more rare that you recognise it when its happening and enjoy the feel of being there. An epoch-making artist of far-reaching consequence that would change the course of history, or make an impact that will reverberate for the generations to come, especially in the field of his expertise.

The advent of a younger generation musicians has all heralded new beginnings in their own realms. Especially, in the world of Carnatic music, the advent of artists like Abhishek Raghuram, Vid. Ramakrishnan Murthy, Vid. Saketaraman, Vid. Bharath Sundar, Vid. Shashank Subramanian has changed the course and perception of music, among the generations of rasikas alike. The harbingers of a new age in classical music, these youngsters draw and sustain full house rasikas through the entirety of the concert. No rasika will go back home wanting for more after a full 3-hour treat. Never ever they have ended the concert earlier than schedule, promising 110% of their potential in each of the concerts. Not without reason, the foremost of which was they are contemporaries and their work is such that after their times, Carnatic music was never the same again.

Last 3 concerts of Vid. Abhishek Raghuram (@Nadasurabhi Nov 2016, @MMA Dec 2016 and the current concert in context) has been blowing me and other audience off their foot and elevating to greater heights. His work was an embodiment of grandeur and depth, both in melody and poesy, afford us a glimpse into the summit of perfection he attained and the heights that he can scale when there is no restriction on the closing of the concert.

Vid. Abhishek Raghuram's music is a throwback to many past masters, primarily the late GNB, but the late MDR is not immediately invoked when you hear Abhishek in full flow. Nothing in the music is common at an apparent layer between these two artists. However, Vid. Abhishek Raghuram's recent concert at SRLKM Spring Festival took me back immediately to what is possibly my favourite MDR concert - with the same RTP in SankarAbharaNa (vinavaIyyA panCanadISA) and a reasonably elaborate SrIrAga AlApanE. If you peel the music past the speed, there does exist some commonality of musical sensibilities between these two artists!

Vid. Abhishek Raghuram started with a brisk rendition of the kalyANI Adi tALa varNA, with some quick fire swaraprasthArA. O jagadambA in AnandabhaIravI followed, though not a very sedate pace. 

After a brief outline of jaganmOhinI, sobhillu saptasvara was presented in a majestic gait, with Vid. Abhishek Raghuram's trademark swaraprasthAra at the Pallavi. sahAnA was leisurely by his standards.

The first major AlApanE of the day followed in the form of a brilliant pantuvarALI, followed by the not often heard sAramEgAni of Thyagaraja. An elaborate neraval at sAma gAna vinOduni and swaraprasthArA followed. Then came the elaborate tanI AvartanE - my ability to dissect the technical aspects of the tanI is very limited, so I shall limit myself to saying that it was elaborate, with very clear nAdam from both percussionists and I could make out several patterns in miSram and khaNDam, besides the usual Catusram and tisram. It was received very well by the audience at large. 40 mins did not appear to be a dragging one.

heCCarikaga rArA was rendered again at a pace that was leisurely by his standards, but the closing of the song with sanCArAs in the tAra sthayI, I felt, went against the pleading or cajoling spirit of the song. Minor quibbles I must say.

At this point, Vid. Abhishek Raghuram asked for requests for rAgA for the RTP and there was a veritable Tower of Babel of sounds. What irked me a bit was a consistent call for devarnAmA at this stage - here was an artiste asking to sing an RTP, and a part of the audience was already pushing him to the tukkaDA section! Anyway, AR announced that Vid. Charulatha had requested him to sing nAma kusuma in SrIrAgA, and he proceeded to give a splendid rendition of the same after a fairly elaborate AlApane. Again, having heard this particular kriti by SSI, MDR and a couple of years back by TMK  (@ SRSM, 2014) in Bangalore, it did feel more hurried, but I still came out feeling quite satisfied with the whole piece. The AlApane in particular was grand for a track to be delivered just before RTP.

RTP duly followed and in a grand SankarAbharaNa too! While the AlApane and tAna were brilliant, the pallavI and its neraval was truly stupendous. The technical embellishments that AR provided into the neraval were a tough act to follow and the accompanists did seem at edge! Part of the neraval was done in graha bhEda mode, transitioning to kalyANI and tODI. Unfortunately, as Vid. Guru Prasanna had a hard stop, the pallavi was shortened quite a bit.

For the same reason, the concert wound down pretty quickly after that, with an annamACAryA kriti and patiki hArathI, followed by the mangaLam.


At the risk of hyperbole, I believe AR is truly on the verge of being inducted into the Carnatic hall of fame of all time greats. Some viLamba arrows would complete his quiver and push him firmly into that pantheon.

Wednesday 8 February 2017

2017 Feb 08 ShashankSubramanyam HNBhaskar PatriSatishKumar @ RLKM(SpF)


Flute: Vid. ShashankSubramanyam 
Violin: Vid. HNBhaskar 
Mridanga: Vid. PatriSatishKumar 

Occasion: SRLKM Spring Festival, Bangalore Gayana Samaja

01 chalamEla jEsEvura sArasa varNa shankarAbharaNa khanda Ata swAthi thirunAL (O)

02 praNamAmyaham shri gaurisutam gauLa mysore vAsudEvacarya (O)

03 dAriNI telusukoNTi tripura sundari shuddha sAvEri Adi thyAgarAja

04 ETi janmam idihA O rAma varALi tripuTa thyAgarAja (A, S)
swara @ ETi Janma

05 rAga tAna pallavi vAgadIshwari chaturaSra tripuTa (no eDupu)
pallavi: dEvi brOva samyamide, ativEgame vachhi
rAgamAlika in hamsAnandi, kApi, shubhapantuvarALi

06 bArO krishNayyA rAgamAlike Adi kanakadhAsa (O)

07 jagadOddhArana kApi Adi Purandara dAsa (O)

08 venkatAchala nilayam sinDhubhairavi Adi p.dAsa (A)


Tuesday 7 February 2017

2017 Feb 06 SanjaySubrahmanyan SVaradarajan NeyveliBVenkatesh BRajashekar @ RLKM(SpF)


Vocal: Vid. SanjaySubrahmanyan 
Violin: Vid. SVaradarajan 
Mridanga: Vid. NeyveliBVenkatesh 
Morsing: Vid. BRajashekar 

Occasion: SRLKM Spring Festival @ Bangalore Gayana Samaja

01 sariyO nI sheyyum tAmadam enpAl (tv) bEgaDe Adi Tiger Varadachari (O)

02 ninna nambide nIraja shyAma mukhAri purandara dAsa (S)
swara @ ninna nambide

03 srI kamalAmbikAyA sahAnA tripuTa m.dikshithar (A)

04 eppaDi manam tuNindadO husEni aruNAcala kavi (A, S)
swara @ eppaDi

05 Enna rakShisO nInu dEvara dEva shubhapantuvarALi Adi purandara dAsa

06 enduku peddala shaNkarAbharaNa Adi tyAgarAja (A, N, S, T)
nereval @ enduku peddala

07 mAmava sadA janani kAnaDA rUpaka swAtitirunAL

08 Indu shruti smriti baLasi sArutide kOsala Jhampa purandara dAsa

09 rAga tAna pallavi Anandabhairavi chaturaSra tripuTa 2 kaLai 1 beat eDupu
pallavi line:murugaiyanE pannirukaiyanE... vaLLi daivAne manALane
rAgamAlika : kEdAra, hamsAnandi

10 ellAm sivan seyal enrE kalyANi sudhAnanda bharati

11 nanda tanaya gOvinda bAgEshrI KChApu purandara dAsa

12 nAdi tEdi tiruppugazh bAgEshiri aruNagirinAdhar

13 nInAma rUpamulaku mangaLa sourAshtra Adi tyAgarAja



After a disastrous SankrantiFestival Season @ RLKM (read my views HERE), I was on a self-declared hiatus on listening to concerts. Though I could not resist myself from the 2 concerts in between, I was looking forward to a spectacular series at SPRING FESTIVAL by SRLKM.

I could not attend the inaugural of the event but did not want to miss Vid. Sanjay (it's almost 2 months ! since his last concert at Bangalore). Was back in town and the vocational engagements were minimal on a Monday which paved way for an early exit from office. Concerts being scheduled at 1745 puts additional pressure (unlike other concerts which are usually scheduled at 1830 in Bangalore) to leave office earlier than normal. 

When I reached the hall at around 1715, the hall was filling up. The artists had already arrived, with Sanjay flying down from Singapore where he had delivered another 3 full hour concert, the previous evening. What an energy this team pumps in, for each of their performances!!

The humming behind the screens of recently renovated hall of Bangalore Gayana Samaja was crystal clear with improved acoustics. The audience set their clock to 1745 when the curtains rolled aside. It was yet another ON THE DOT start for the concert.

The bEgaDe varna, one of the newest entries into Varna quiver of Vid. Sanja was presented in 2 speeds. Both his white musketeers have learned the art of running along with him when he presents something new on stage.

First of the surprises for the evening, another new track for Bangalore audience, a purandara dAsa composition in mukhAri ringed the ears. Flourishing swaras added to the clear diction and pronunciation of the kannaDa lyrics of the song. Obviously, the song ended to a thunderous applause from the audience.

Very rarely, Vid. Sanjay takes up a sedate rAga for the first AlApane of the concert, but today was an exception. The very take off till the landing of violin return carried audience to a different world. The kamalAmba vibhakti krithi that followed did not have any embellishments. The AlApane had already taken care of delivering the necessary manodharma for the composition

Without wasting time for a filler, the husEni AlApane followed to the delight of the audience.  eppaDi manam tuNindadO with 2nd-speed swaras back at Pallavi added punch to the presentation. Vid. B Rajashekar was creative in his accompaniment while he attempted to play the swaras on morsing.

2nd purandara dAsa song came in form of enna rakshiso in shubha pantuvarALi was another delightful presentation for the evening. The undoubted enunciation of lyrics reflected the long hours of practices that must have gone behind adding the musical touch and strokes.

The detailed AlApane showcased the creative brilliance, Vid. Sanjay and Vid. Varadarajan carries through their experience. Lasting over 35 mins, the AlApane did not sound boring or repetitive. Neither of them was in a hurry. It was presented very leisurely, of course with some trademark style that Sanjay adds to his presentation. Every time the speed remained constant, I was wondering whether it would eat into the RTP slot in a 3-hour concert.

Enduku peddala and its leisurely paced presentation was a delight to listen as Sanjay seemed to have embellished his own previous best presentation of this Krithi. Detailed cycles of nereval before venturing into swaras at Pallavi was the hallmark of the presentation. Swaras in both speeds and 2 octaves added to the illustrious presentation.

Tani between Vid. Venkatesh and Vid. Rajashekar was akin to watching Sachin and Dravid bat in tandem to score their record partnership 331 in 1999 against New Zealand. The long spells and short cycles had all the finesse and creativity abundantly sprinkled all through the 20 mins performance.

2.5 hours into a 3-hour concert ensured that there was no scope for an RTP. 

A momentary outline into kAnaDa and dwelling into a brief presentation of mAmava sadA janani certainly delighted his first-row audience (Prince Rama Varma) who was all ears and attentive through the concert. 

Indu Shruti smruthi baLasi (in kOsalam), another of the purandara dAsa composition added to Kannadiga Audience. While 2.45 hrs was already into the concert, Vid. Sanjay and team threw the biggest surprise for the audience delight. With octagenarian and septuagenarian VIPs already vacating the front seats by then, I had an opportunity to shift to front seats. 

I had to rub my eyes and ears a couple of times, to believe that Vid. Sanjay had actually taken up RTP at that hour ! Abundant energy indeed. Yet another leisurely presentation of rAga and tAna added more brownie points delighting the audience. Time tested Pallavi line: murugaiyanE pannirukaiyanE... vaLLi daivAne manALane with ragamAlika swaras in pleasing ragas to go with the main raga made the experience more complete. 

ellAm sivan seyal enrE in Kalyani, the first of the flurry of tail pieces had its justified pace and elaboration. 4th (yes 4th) of the purandara dAsa song nanda tanaya added to the delight of the audience who had stayed back till the very end. It was my first experience in a non Kannadiga main artist concert to listen to 4 purandara dAsa (or for that matter, any Karnataka / Kannadiga composer) songs on the trot. 

A tiruppugazh before the customary Pavamana brought an end to the 3.5 hours concert. 

The accompanying artists, Vid. Varadarajan on violin, Vid. Neyveli Venkatesh on mridanga and Vid. B Rajashekar in morsing are all highly accomplished, senior artists demonstrated perfect understanding with Vid. Sanjay and provided excellent support throughout. I think that added to higher energy levels throughout the concert.

Vid. Sanjay is one such artist that none would mind listening longer than the scheduled close. Kudos to Vid. Sanjay for such a meticulous planning and execution of such a memorable concert, with many new tracks by him for the first time to Bangalore audience. A cool pleasant evening had come to and it was indeed one of the best concerts that I had heard by Vid. Sanjay. It was a perfect antidote to the way year started musically for me.

Friday 3 February 2017

2017 Feb 03 GayathriVenkataraghavan HMSmitha HSSudheendra Srishaila @ Bangalore Lalitakala Parishat

Vocal: Vid. GayathriVenkataraghavan 
Violin: Vid. HMSmitha 
Mridanga: Vid. HSSudheendra 
Ghata: Vid. Srishaila 

Organiser: Bangalore Lalitakala Parishat
Venue: National College, Jayanagar, Bengaluru

01 entarAni tanakenta pOni nI centa viDuvajAla harikAmbOdhi Adi tyAgarAja (O, N, S)
nereval @ Agama 

02 shankari shamkuru candramukhi sAvEri Adi syAma sAstri (N, S)
nereval @ shyAmakrishNa sOdari

03 bhajare rE mAnasA abhEri c thripuTa MysUru VAsudhEvAchAr (A)

04 Kallusakkare koLLirO nIvellaru kalyANi aTa p.dAsa (A, S, T)
Nereval @ kallu sakkare koLLiro 

05 jagadOddhArana kApi Adi Purandara dhAsa

06 ugAbhOga followed by nAnEke baDavano nAnEke paradEshi bEhAg p.dAsa

07 iyal isaiyil tiruppugazh dEsh aruNagirinAdhar

08 nInAma rUpamulaku mangaLa sourAshtra Adi tyAgarAja

2023 Apr 30 AbhishekRaghuram HNBhaskar PatriSatishKumar OjasAdhya @ SRSM

Vocal: Vid. AbhishekRaghuram  Violin: Vid. HNBhaskar   Mridanga: Vid. PatriSatishKumar   Tabala: Vid. OjasAdhya Venue / Organiser: SRSM, For...