Nada Inbam celebrated the SVK birthday series this year with a series of young and upcoming musicians. I attended a few of them. I attended a few of them partially and some thoughts below.
Prasanna Venkataraman's concert on the 9th with HN Bhaskar and Ganapathiraman was my first. PV presented an absolutely absorbing and majestic kEdAragauLa for main. saraguNa pAlimpA was presented with a punch. Earlier his rendition of ranganAyakam (nAyaki) was awesomeness at its best. His sub main was bhairavi (srI raghuvara sugunAlaya). This guy is just too good. Accompanists were very good too.
R Shridhar on 10th with Akkarai Sornalatha and R Ramkumar, gave a good concert. bEgaDa (tyAgarAjAya namastE) was presented well. The main kAmbhOji was presented in a not-so-orthodox fashion but fitted well with the kriti (O rangasAyI). The accompanists were very good and boosted the concert.
Aishwarya Vidya Raghunanth with Aditi Krishnaprakash and Erode Nagaraj on the 15th was another very good concert. AVR's pUrikalyANi was very good. Her rendition of parIpUrNa kAma with neraval and svarams was very impressive. She sang a very absorbing brOvavammA (mAnji) and followed it up with a wonderful sahAnA (raghupatE rAmA). The main tODi AlApanai was very good as well. AK, as usual, was very good and played well and was supportive of the main artist. EN was just following and played with absolute anticipation.
Heard the main simmEndra madhyamam (rAma rAma guNa sIma) of Amruta Venkatesh's ST special on the 16th, which happens to be actual birthday of SVK mama. Her AlApanai was very good and the kriti was rendered beautifully with very elaborate neraval and svarams at muni mAnasa. Padma Shankar was brilliant with her replies. Arjun Ganesh and Nerkunam Shankar played very well.
On the 17th, V Sumitra sang with Amrita Murali and Shertalai Ananthakrishnan. Sumitra's first AlApanai was sAmA (an endangered species in concert stage). It was elaborated wonderfully and the kriti was rendered well. I wanted to listen to more of the sAmA and hence thoroughly missed neraval and svarams for this. Her kIravANi was very good. The main kEdAragauLA (vanaja nayana) was again brilliant. Just too good it was. The accompanists did a wonderful job with accompanying.
Over all, the series was indeed good. In the middle of dearth for good concerts in the city, this series was indeed awesome. Some regulars at the hall, complained that it was raining tODi all thro' the series with atleast 6 or 7 of them over the 12 days, thankfully i dint get to listen to more than one.