R Prasanna – Guitar
Mannargudi Easwaran – Mridangam
Purushottaman – Khanjira

Where & When? – Dakshinamurthy Auditorium (Naadabrahmam) on 7th December

Concert Duration – 2 hrs
Speech before the concert – 20-25 min!

Songs List:
1. Varnam – Begada – Syama Sastri
2. Maha Ganapate – Natanarayani – Dikshitar
3. Nada Tanumanisam – Chittaranjani – Tyagaraja
4. Deva Deva – Mayamalava Gowlai – Swati Tirunal – Alapana & Swarams
5. Marivere – Latangi –Patnam Subramania Iyer – Swarams
6. Karpagame – Madhyamavati – Papnasam Sivan – Swarams
7. Charanam Bhava – Hamsavinodini – Narayana Teertar
8. RTP – Bhairavi – Pallavi (Tyagarajanani endrendrum vaNangi poattriduvaen) composed by Prasanna – Adi
9. Radha Sameta – Misra Yaman
10. ? – Bilahari
11. Mangalam/Nee Naamarupamulaku – Sowrashtram
12. Raaga outline of Madhyamavati

The Concert:
This is the 5th Classical concert of Prasanna’s that I am going to and till now, I have absolutely enjoyed all his concerts. I must say, Carnatic music sounds so beautiful on the guitar!

In this concert, each song he played was of a different composer’s. I especially liked Nada Tanumanisam, Mayamalava Gowlai swarams, swarams in Madhyamavati, Charnam Bhava in Hamsavinodini and the Bilahari one. The RTP, though too short even for a 2-hour concert, was great.

The thing I like about Prasanna’s concerts is that there is only the guitar and other percussion instruments. So for the entire concert duration, it’s just rhythm and the sound of the guitar. Bliss! Needless to say, what with a great team of musicians accompanying Prasanna, from start to finish, the concert was fantastic.

The raaga Hamsavinodini:
I listened to Hamsavinodini for the first time in this concert only. Soon after the song started, there was an argument between my sister and me about what raaga the song, Sowkkiyama from the movie Sangamam is based on. While I stuck with Maand, she felt the song had shades of Hamsavinodini too. I later came to know from a Google search that both Hamsavinodini and Maand are janya raagams of Dheera Sankarabharanam and both the raagas have exactly the same avarohanam.