Accompanists:
S.Varadarajan – Violin
Neyveli Venkatesh – Mridangam
Where & When? – Chettinad Vidyashram (Margazhi Mahotsavam) on 5th December
Concert Duration: 1 hr 50 min
Theme of the Concert: M.M.Dandapani Desigar’s Compositions (Songs written as well as not written but just tuned by him)
Songs list:
1. vAzhndiDuvOm vArIr – Arabhi – Adi – Swarams at vAzhndiDuvOm vArIr
2. aDiyEnai kAttaruL – kAmbhOji – triputa – Alapana
3. pADa vENDumE – hamsanAdam – rUpakam – Raaga outline; neraval at isai pAvil uNarndu poruLai nanguNarndu pADa vENDumE; swarams at pADa vENDumE/isai pADa vENDumE
4. kaDavuLai maRavAdE nenjE – tANDavam – Adi – Alapana
5. nAvukkarasanai gnAnakozhundinai – hEmavati – Adi – Swarams at nAvukkarasanai – tani Avartanam
Songs 1-5: Compositions of M.M.Dandapani Desigar
6. UrellAm tUnginAlum (viruttam) followed by OhO kAlamE – sahAnA – Adi – Composition of Vedanayakam Pillai
7. tunbam nErgayil – dEsh – Adi – Brief Alapana – Composition of Bharatidasan
8. nArAyaNanai tudippAi – kOmalAngi – Adi – Raaga outline – Composed by Raghava Ramanuja Dasar
9. vAzhiya sentamizh – madhyamAvati – Adi
As clichéd as it may sound, I can’t help but start off saying that this was yet another excellent concert by Sanjay! 🙂 But making this concert extra special was an interesting selection of raagams! Right from the opening Arabhi to the final piece in kOmalAngi, it was a delight hearing the beauty of each raagam unfold with every passing moment. 🙂
My favourite in this concert was the hamsanAdam piece. I liked the lyrics of the song too. The neraval at isai pAvil uNarndu poruLai nanguNarndu pADa vENDumE was just awesome. Starting off with SPS pADa vENDumE and then SRMPNS (for the uninitiated, it is the ArOhaNam of hamsanAdam) pADa vENDumE, followed some beautiful kalpana swarams in hamsanAdam.
After that amazing hamsanAdam, followed a detailed alapanai of raagam tAnDavam! The more concerts of Sanjay you attend, the more not-so-often-heard raagams you get to hear!
After a hEmavati that made me go wow and a tani Avartanam which I personally didn’t feel deserved all those thunderous claps it received, followed sahAnA. 😀 Making the always-special OhO kAlamE extra special was the viruttam, which it seems is another charanam of OhO kAlamE, which preceded it. I liked the lines so much that I wrote it down. (Note to self: I really have to improve my Tamil writing speed!) Here it is:
UrellAm thUngilum unakkillai tUkkam
OyAmal oDuvAi unakkuNDO tekkam
yAr kettAl unakkenna ariyAi nI nOkkam
adiga vaDDigaL koDuppavargaL mIdhu Ekkam
adiga vaDDigaL koDuppavaragaLukku un mEl Ekkam
There was a brief alapana of dEsh before tunbam nErgayil. I remember reading that Sanjay sang an RTP in dEsh in US this year. If the few minutes of dEsh in this concert itself were so nice, just imagine how the RTP would have been! Waiting eagerly to hear Sanjay sing it here!
Coming to tunbam nErgayil, one of my most favourite songs, it has been ages since I last listened to it and it was a pleasure listening to Sanjay’s unhurried rendition of it. I just love the way the word mATTAyA in inbam sErkka mATTAyA kaNNE, allal nIkka mATTAyA kaNNE and all those lines ending with kaNNE are sung (you know how the word is split like mA-TTA-A-A-A-yA, don’t you?) in this song. Sanjay sang all those lines twice which just added to the blissful experience of listening to this beautiful song after a long time.
After Q&A Session, the concert ended with the kOmalAngi song providing a fitting finale to it.
Be it a less than 2 hours or a more than three hour concert, the level of satisfaction that one gets from a Sanjay’s concert remains the same and you are always left wishing the concert didn’t have to end so soon! And that’s exactly what happened with the concert on the following day too! Sanjay rocks!
Aparna,
It is quite unusual that the review for a Sanjay concert comes so late:-)
It is sheer “Kodupanai” to have been there at Chettinad Vidyashram for this special DD concert.
I really enjoyed the Hemvathi, Hamsanadham, Sahana and the evergreen “Tunbam Nergayil…” piece. I am left wondering what sort of a editing will JayaTV do while telecasting this concert by the master. I hope they retain the Sahana and Desh pieces.
Do you have the complete lyrics of “Oho Kalame…” and “Tunbam Nergayil…”?
You didnt mention about Varadarajan’s performance? And when is it telecast? any idea?
And also, could you mention briefly about the Q and A session? Thanks
Nice! Can’t wait to catch this on youtube 🙂
I dont mean to Hijack a conversation … but Did you get a chance to listen to Slumdog millionaire ? – Deadly !
Yuuvraaj, vaarnam aayiram, Gajini and Slum dog Millionaire makes my day !
Sridhar,
Been quite busy. Hence, the delay. Anyway, you seem to have written one quickly in rasikas. 🙂
Yup. Am also hoping that they retain Sahana and Desh. But I think they might start showing the audience speaking (read praising about Jaya TV) during the Sahana/Desh song and the last few seconds/minutes of Sahana/Desh will surely be cut!
I don’t have it with me. But I am sure you will get the lyrics of both the songs by Googling.
Sowmya,
Well, because of that sound system, I didn’t find the sound of the violin to be great at times. So I didn’t have anything specific to write about Varadarajan’s playing. But, he always gives an excellent performance 🙂
As for Q&A, wait for the concert to be telecast on TV (I have no idea when it’s going to be telecast). 😉 Or if you want to know it now itself, then please do check rasikas.org.
Dandilsa,
🙂 Am sure you are going to just love it 🙂
Sreekrishnan,
Haven’t listened to it yet! 🙁
I seriously don’t understand what Vaaranam Aayiram is doing in this list! 😛
Dear Aparna,
Cool concert, for me atleast lot the compositions seems new and I haven’t heared most of these.Yeah seems like now people in chennai are going to be treated for extra special season specials by the singers…
Enjoy all!!!
But do remember souls like us who dont have such oppurtunities….
Regards
http://sreekrishnan.blogspot.com/2008/12/slumdog-millionaire.html
Rahman wins the LA Flim Cricts association award for the best music in Slumdog millionaire !
Golden globe ku praying !
Sorry this reply has nothing to do with this post, but i have a burning question about the song Innum Paramukha in Begada ragam. Does anyone know how the chittaswaram goes? This is what I remember:
G, M P D M P G M P G M R S N, D P S, (is this even right?)
I cant remember much after that… thx for the help
Btw, great blog, Aparna!
Hi Aparna,
This is totally out of context,but I thought I would get a faster reply if I post a comment here 😛
Am looking for Bharathiyar songs (incl Children songs) sung by Unnikrishnan or Yesudas .U have any idea if there are any CDs out there that I could buy or any online web site from where I could download ? I thought you might know since you know so much about all this Carnatic stuff and singers.Me a total ignoramus on the subject.
@sangs,
Am immediately reminded of Chandiran Oliyil – a really wonderful song, very emotive in lyrical content by Bharathiyar. Its sung in Chandrakauns by the TNS School, in Keeravani by Unnikrishnan and in Malayamaurtham by Sanjay Subrahmanyan. The Unnikrishnan version should be there online at MusicIndia I guess.
Sathej
@sangs,
There is a very good CD containing Bharathiyar songs sung by Unnikrishnan in a light classical format (with instrumentation).
Check it out here: http://www.tamilmovieusa.com/Carnatic-pages/Unnikrishnan.htm
Saravanan,
Most of the songs for new for me too.
Sreekrishnan,
This has been a great year for Rahman & Rahmaniacs! 🙂
Ish,
Welcome to my blog! Thank you.
I don’t have the chittaswarams for that song…
Sangs,
You are right. Comments will get faster reply 😛 Good that you commented since you have already got replies from others and I have no idea about Bharatiyar songs CDs.
@Sathej & Sridhar :Thanks a lot for the info ! Sure will check out these CDs and songs.
@Aparna : Thanks,yea,it does work a lot faster,what with so many music lovers visiting your blog !
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