December Season 2008

After a long hiatus... here I come. Well, this ain't one of my new year resolutions ;)

So, let me dive directly into the details about the concerts that I attended -

The first kutcheri that I attended this year was Shri.Sanjay Subramanyam @ Infosys Hall. I really liked the krithi that he rendered shUlini. The interesting part of the concert was the RTP in madHuvanti with the pallavi "Kuzhal inidhu yaazh inidhu". Was extremely interesting!He also gave us a glimpse into the rAga pRiyaDarsHini. The performance was, I would say, profound.

The next concert was Shri.U.Srinivas @ Vani Mahal. Well, the surprise element for me was the Swarajathi that was rendered, which is composed by SyAmA sHastri that goes like "kAmAkshi ambA anuDinamu mara vakane". Apart from that, there was moHana kalyAni, naLinakAnthi, kApi nArayani and tarangiNi, etc., Overall, it was a good performance.

Next in the list was Ranjani and Gayathri @ The Music Academy. They started off with a varNam in tOdi. Followed by Sri Saraswathi in Arabhi. tiruvadi sharaNam in khAmbOji was the main piece. I wasn't completely impressed by the choice of the krithis and the Alapana.

On the same day, I caught Shri.T.N.Seshagopalan @ Mylapore Fine Arts. I would say this was easily one of the best concerts that I've attended in this season. He started with sAverI "Sri rAjagOpala". Followed by marivERE in shanmukhapriyA. There was a thiruppAvai in shankarAbharaNam "puLum silambina kAaN". He also rendered a krithi in tOdi - dAchukOvalEna in misra jampa! Trust me...he started singing an RTP at 9.00 PM! And it was mind blowing. It was in Poorvikalyani, Bhagesri and Sri! The Pallavi being "vEenA gAna daSa gamadakriye" from meenakshI mE muDam. He aslo rendered revathI and a thillana in the end. It was an eclectic concert, I would say!

Also attended Shri.T.N.Krishan Sir's concert @ MFA. He strung together suruTi, behAg, kharaharapriyA, sindhubHairavi, shanmukhapriyA, etc., in his concerts. He was accompanied by Smt. Viji Krishan and Shri.Sriram Kirshnan. The whole concert was mellifluous.

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The only disappointing thing was, I couldn't get to hear Shri. T.N.Sankaranarayanan's kutcheir this year. Hoping to catch one soon!