I meant to post about this earlier, but I am on vacation and visiting family in India at the moment and I had not found the appropriate time to do it. And when I did find the time, the site was down
The event was a grand affair with a packed hall right from the beginning. Sri Nerkunam Shankar (his father Sri Suryanarayanan, sister Kamakshi and brother Manikandan) were all instrumental in the organization of the event. Ghatam Suresh, students and admirers of Sri Harishankar honour an eminent veteran artiste every year and this year's honours went to Sri Tanjavur Ramamurthy a direct disciple of Tanjavur Vaidyanatha Iyer, and contemporary of Palghat Mani Iyer. Very impressive vidwan... I wish I had the opportunity to have heard him in his prime.
There were speeches in memory of Sri Harishankar by Cleveland VV Sundaram and mridangam vidwan Sri Kamalakar Rao. The former's speech recalled several anecdotes about Sri Harishankar while the latter's focused largely on shared concert experiences. As noted in the Vidwan/Vidushis thread, an excellent video compilation of Harishankar's stellar performances was screened. Ghatam Suresh felicitated the honouree. This was followed by a 90 minute concert by TM Krishna.
TM Krishna - vocal
MA Sundaresan - violin
Kamalakar Rao - mridangam
KV Gopalakrishnan - khanjira
Kannukontinee - bilahari - T - swarams
Chesinadella - Todi - T (ANST)
Viruttam - Pachai ma malaipol meni (begada, forgot?, varali)
followed by Azhi mazhai kanna - varali
Manasa Sancharare - Sama - Sadashiva brahmendra
Tillana - Behag - LGJ
Kaadi modi - Sankarabharanam - tiruppugazh
Mangalam
Although short, it was a sensational concert by Krishna. The Bilahari had a few rough patches, but when he started the Todi the concert dynamic was flowing in full swing. In recent years, I have been noticing an air of confidence in his concert presentations. His voice cooperates with his every whim and every successful thought becomes a melodic phrase. I guess this comes from extraordinary levels of practice and a strong sense of manodharma. The varali was superb.
This was the first time I heard a Lalgudi thillana sung by Krishna. Some of the pidis in the charam had trademark characteristics of the LGJ school. It made me wonder if he had learned the piece through his associations with Bombay Jayashree. Kaadi modi was a request from an audience member that he agreed to sing with alacrity.
Sundaresan was uniformly excellent, but especially in the alapanas which he performed with a strong Parur flavour. Kamalakar Rao was OK. KVG was very supportive, but fairly quiet till the tani. I was expecting more from the tani given the topic du jour. The nAdam from his kappi mridangam reminded one of his guru PMI, especially when he was playing chatusra sarva laghu patterns. I cannot recall the korvai, but I remember it being quite impressive.
There were a galaxy of senior and junior vidwans in attendance. I noticed MS Anantaraman, Srimushnam Raja Rao, Arun Prakash and Manoj Siva.
I was sitting right up front, so I might have missed others. I had the pleasure of seeing Sri VKV and saying a brief hello.
I also heard through the grapevine, and reliable sources too, that TMK will not be taking part in the 2010 Chennai december music season (a la Bobby Fisher). He is planning a total disappearing act around then.