Malladi Sri. Suri Babu (Vocal)
Sri. B V Raghavendra Rao (Violin)
Sri. Ramesh Srinivasan (Mridangam)
Waetjen Auditorium, CSU, Cleveland, OH, USA
2013, April 5th, 1030-1230
1. Ranganaathude - Saurashtram - Rupaka - Thanjavur K Ponnayya Pillai (OS)
2. Paramapaavana Paapamochana - Ranjani - Adi - Meesu Krishna Iyer (R)
3. Neeve Raa Kuladhanamu - Begada - Misra Chapu - Thyagaraja (RS)
4. Raama Nee Daasudane - Malavi - Adi - Spencer Venugopal (tuned by Sripada Pinakapani)
5. Nee Daya Raavale - Thodi - Adi - Thyagaraja (RNST)
6. Sloka - Ragamalika
7. Indendu Vaccitiviraa - Suratti - Triputa - Kshetrajna
8. Ekkadi Nestamu - Saranga - Triputa - Kshetrajna
9. Na Hi Re - Valaji - Adi - Sadasiva Brahmendra
A very good concert made spectacular by the song choices. As Sri. Suri Babu took up Thodi, I was hoping against hope he'd sing Nee Daya Raavale. Sri. MDR has sung this song, but I've heard a lec-dem where Sri. Sanjay sang the pallavi alone, and the sangatis blew me away. There are dozens of popular Thodi songs all in the current concert repertoire, so imagine my delight when Sri. Suri Babu took up this song. He did a bang up job with the niraval at the charanam (aadideva...), and the kalpanasvaras were neat too. Sri. Raghavendra Rao's accompaniment was understated yet enhanced the concert. Sri. Ramesh's accompaniment was adequate.
And then, the padams were another level altogether, with ragabhava dripping out of every phrase. In his felicitation, Sri. V V Sundaram ended up ruing the profusion of non-traditional pieces post-main, at the expense of padams/javalis. In addition to Sri. Sundaram, Sri. Ravikiran, Mannargudi Sri. Eswaran and Nagai Sri. Muralidharan were also in the audience, and I could see Ravikiran especially enjoying the 2 padams.