Sanjay Subrahmanyan November 2012 Koramangala

Whattey way to start the concert (Saranagatha vatsaley, Kadanakuthoohalam) by Sanjay yesterday evening at Koramangala.This is composed by his guru Calcutta Krishnamurthy. The Bangalore Season comes to an end with this concert before moving to Mecca of Music, Madras for the Magnus Opus December Season 2012. For me this is a special concert since he sung finally my request of long time "Sree Lakshmi Varaham Bhajeham" (Abhogi). He had a new team yesterday apart from his usual accompaniants of Varadarajan & Neyveli B Venkatesh. His choice of ragas and krithis stood out as usual and rendered a stupendous 'Sama" RTP (pallavi being "Samaganalolane Sadasiva maganae shanmuganey"). Khambhoji came with Muthu Thandavar's composition "aru marundoru tani marundidi ambalattE kaNDEn". It was simply brilliant with the neraval at "konrai tumbai aNinda marundu". The main piece being Dhanyasi, Muthuswami Dikshithar's another masterpiece "paradEvatA bRhat kucAmbA". evvarE rAmayya - gangeyabhushani,evarikai - devamanohari,rama nama payasake - bhimplas,haridasalu vedale - yamuna kalyani were the other renditions with apolomb. Mysore V Srikanth accompanied on violin was outstanding during the Thanam phase of Sama RTP.
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Ranjani Gayathri November 2012

Sometimes the accompanists take the concert to the next level outside the Vocalist's performance. It was evident yesterday when K Arun Prakash, who read the situation quickly that it will be a capsule 2 hour concert, wherein he will not have much time to showcase his class in Tani, set the tone of brilliance right from the first krithi with a lovely laya nadham and played excellent nadai's for each of the krithis. The best he reserved for Muthuswami Dikshithar's one of the masterpiece in Nayaki, Sri Ranga Nayakam. He was well supported by N Guru Prasad on Ghatam who was also equally impressive. "Pattamma ennama Paaduvaa" my mom's comment while Ranjani & Gayathri sang this and she shared the relative anecdote of this krithi and Srirangam etc. Nostalgic. This is one advantage of attending concerts with my mother. The other interesting thing being the moment the alapana starts she will spring up the raga name and could guess minimum 3 to 4 probable krithis to follow in that. Yesterday Gayathri did a brief alapana on Shubapantuvarali, mother told me it may be "Ennalu Yoorake" of Swamigal or "Sri Sathyanarayanam Upasmahe". But to her delight they sung Super Star and her favorites GNB's "Ni samanavevaru". H N Bhaskar on Violin was quiet all now and showed his brilliance and got his pound of flesh in Mohanam alapana which was the main piece (Evarura Ninu Vina). Yamuna Kalyani (Hari smaraney mado nirantara), Poornachandrika (Ramachandra pahi), Jhinjhoti Abhang were the other renderings from the duo. They ended the concert with a lovely Sri raga Mangala kriti from Navaratna krithis of Dikshithar (Sri Kamalambige).

This performance is seriously a better one from them comparing the one I heard in January here in Chowdiah and the one during last December season 2011 @ Narada Gana Sabha.

Abhishek Raghuram 22nd December 2012

Charulatha Ramanujam is raising the bar of her performance in each and every concert. If it was her Devagandhari last month during Navarathri concert stood out, yesterday she did held forte and the onslaught from Abhishek to render a brilliant Ananda Bhairavi alapana (Marivera gati). What followed was a soulful rendition of krithi by Abhishek. Started with Kalyani varnam (Vanajakshi). Known for hi

s speed and swara korvai’s he didn’t disappoint with a lovely Kanada krithi (Sri Naradha Naadha) with detailed swaras and Purvi Kalyani ( Paraloga samadname) to follow. The main piece was Todi (Emi jesithe) yesterday and Abhishek did an elaborate alapana showing the nuances of the raga with, some mesmerizing pidis, sangatis etc. This is the 2nd Todi of 2012 the earlier one I heard in January by TMK (Dachu kovalena). Anand on Mridangam showed his class on Tani along with very impressive Guruprasanna on Khanjira. Asaaveri (maapla velasiki ra), Garudhadwani (Ananda sagara dhani ) were the other krithis in this concert.
He went on to render a lovely Annamaiyya’s krithi in Sankarabaranam (Navaneetha Chora namo namo) to end the concert

Sanjay Subramanyan

The day I got to know he is performing here was excited for one thing, What RTP he will sing this time? I did tweet him a week before the concert requesting to sing Sri Lakshmi Varahan in Abhogi and Natabhairavi RTP and he did acknowledge. So the excitement was more. He started with Thodi Varnam of Patnam Subramanya Iyer, Era napai followed with Swathi Tirunal’s lovely composition Vande sada Padma

nabham in Navarasa Kannada. The small auditorium was full already. I realized he is already on the zone and its going to be a lovely concert. My mind if filled with the RTP question still as I can’t wait for anymore. Crisp Yadukula Kambhodi alapana to render Ninnu Sevinchina, composition of Subbaraya Sastri. Crowd started swelling more and more in the small auditorium. Saints Nannu palimpa (Mohanam) was rendered beautifully with Varadharajan got his pound of flesh in the brief alapana. Swathi Tirunaal’s Bhogindra Shayinam in Kunthalavarali came in as filler. I was getting restless about the main piece. Lovely Subhapantuvarali alapana and I was kind of made my mind that this is going to be RTP but he did render a melodious Purandara dasa’s krithi Enna Rakshiso. I looked up at the watch its 8 and another one good hour to go. I was kind of decisive that he will do a miniscule RTP for 30 minutes to close at 9 or 9.15. He started a very brief Bhairavi alapana and let Varadhu take over. I told my friend this might be the RTP and he will do it very briefly. To my surprise he did continue the alapana and I did move closer to the dais. Whattay a brilliant Bhairavi!!! He did show step by step taking a graceful tour of Bhairavi raga. Awesome breath control and he was swaying effortlessly in both higher and lower octaves. The crowd was mesmerized for 20 minutes of great alapana. Varadharajan did have his pound of flesh with ease and the Tanam was performed with Mridangam. The pallavi was “Enakku avar sondhamadi, parandhaman govindhanadi mukundhanadi”. My eagerness now shifted to whether will he do a swara ragamalika? But he did that post the Thani in “Desh,Saranga Malhar and Sindhu Bhairavi”. It was 1 one hour 25 minutes of pure bliss. The crowd gave a standing ovation. He did sing Muthiah Bhagavathar’s “ Avan seyal andri oru anuvum” in Hamir Kalyani and “ Mannu Pugazh kosalai” to end a great, grand concert.