Accompanying him were SD Sridhar- Violin , J Vaidhyanathan -- Mridangam
The concert was held in Egmore in a kalyana mandapam under the Kalakruthi Sabha.The famous Caterer Arusuvai NatarAjan is the Chief Patron of the Sabha.
1. NeraNammithi - KAnada Varnam -Poochi
2. Vinayaka (S) - PanchaRatna RAgamaligai - Sachidananda
3. NeeDhAn Mechi (RS)-SriRanjani -OVK
4. ToliJenma MulaSechu (N,S) - Bilahari - Thyagaraja
5. KAmakshi Kamakoti (R,N,S)- Simmhendramadhyamam- Dikshitar
6. Hari Dasalu - YamunaKalyAni -Thyagaraja
7. Manasu Swadhinamai (R S T)- Shankarabharanam - Thyagaraja
8. Govinda Ninna -JanaSammodhini - Purandaradasar
9. Viruttam (Usual Kanda Guha) - RAgamaligai
10. Tillana - Mishra Sivaranjani - Santhanam
Maharajapuram Ramachandran rich base voice is his biggest plus, though there would be repetition of his Dad's popular Krithis.With a brief Raga Stretch in KAnada , the expected Varnam was sung quite well . The next 25 minutes was the Vinayaka , where alankarams in VArali and Swarams in Arabhi was outstanding. A full throated SriRanjani gelled very well with his rich base shruthi, swarams were just good.Bilahari neraval "Palamevu Nee Mahima"was excellent brought all the charm of this quite heavy RAga.
With me longing to hear a Simmhendramadhyamam as simply many musicians donot take it up, was perfect. The Neraval in the lines "Kamalesha Sodhari KamalAkshi NArayani" though not very long was awesome with excellent swarams.I have to admit that SimMadhyamam is one raga that I have not good fully in my head, where I identify it is one that starts like a keeravani and goes more towards ShanmughaPriya .(Any better ideas ???)
The main Shankarabharanam was just good with an average swaram. Tukkadas were all very good , particularly the viruttam in the ragas Brindavana Saranga + SubhapantuvarAli was outstanding.
SD Sridhar was very responsive , but the tonal quality of the violin was disappointing . JV played quite well , but felt the Tani was plain. The only big disappointment was there were just 30 in the audience , despite being a free concert. Overall :arrowu: