On 26th December at Rani Seethai Hall (Kalarasana)

Accompanists:
S.Varadarajan – Violin
Neyveli Venkatesh – Mridangam
K.V. Gopalakrishnan – Khanjira

Concert Duration: 3 hrs 20 min

List of Songs:
1. evvarE (varNam) – sahAnA – aTa
2. marivErE – Anandabhairavi – swarams at marivErE
3. tyAgaraja pAlayASumAm – gowLai – AlApana
4. vENugAna – kEdAragowLai – AlApana; neraval and swarams at vikasita
5. vA vElavA – tAnarUpi – khanDa cApu
6. dhArini – suddha saveri – adi – swarams at dhAriNi
tani Avartanam
7. tAyE EzhaipAl – bhairavi – Adi – rAgA outline
8. rAgam tAnam pallavi – pantuvarALi
kANAmal vITTilE kAlam kazhippOmE sEnADar pORRum tillaiyai – khaNDa jAti tripuTa 2 kaLai
swarams in mALavi, suddha danyAsi, priyadarshiNi, nAgavalli, jOg
9. kANa vENDum – suruTTi – misra cApu
10. kanduga (viruttam – verses of Thaiyumanavar) – kAmbhOji, kAnaDA, mOhanam, senchuruTTi angai koDumalar – rAgamAlikA (senchuruTTi, nAdanAmakriyA) – misra jampai
11. tillAnA – sindhu bhairavi – Adi – MDR – rAgA outline
12. nI nAma rUpamulaku – sowrASTram

Last year’s Kalarasana concert wasn’t all that special. In fact, till the sahAnA RTP started, I didn’t even enjoy the concert fully. Talking about that sahAnA RTP, THE best part of the last Season itself was for me the 7-min-long rAgESrI swarams that Sanjay sang as part of the rAgamAlikA swarams of the RTP. It continues to be on my player all the time even now. In case you aren’t aware, the concert itself has been released by Charsur.

Coming to this year’s concert (Sanjay’s concert is usually on Dec 24th at Kalarasana. But this year it was on 26th.), it was sahAna again with the opening song of the concert itself being a varNam in it! 🙂

Anandabhairavi swarams, an amazing kEdAragowLai AlApana, neraval and kalpanA swarams for the line vikasita, one round of which started with the same swarams as vikasita (PSND?), the mesmerizing vA vElavA, awesome swarams for dhArini, an engrossing pantuvarALi in the form of an RTP, rAgAmalika swarams for it including exotic rAgams like priyadarshiNi, nAgavalli and jOg, the interesting viruttam and a fitting finale in the moving sindhubhairavi tillAnA!

Though I liked kANa vENDum, singing it just as Varadarajan finished playing swarams in jOg brought the RTP to an abrupt end. Why couldn’t he have properly ended the RTP and then started the song?

Just like the previous concert at Krishna Gana Sabha, the upapakkavAdyam (Khanjira) accompanied Sanjay’s singing and mridangam the violin for a few rounds during kalpanA swarams.

On the whole, this was a lively, energetic and an absolutely enjoyable concert!