Sanjay started with the Sarasuda varnam. There were some variations in the mukthayi swaras and you could tell that he came with the intention to convey the singing style of Sethlapathy Balu, which to me seems to be about singing in the moment - losing oneself to the music without losing the music itself.
Raga alapana with emphasis on weaving of sangatis was the theme for the first part of the evening. The ragas chosen for the day were Janaranjani, Harikambodhi, Todi & Mohanam. All were presented with torrents of sangatis and incredible variation in succession. Varadarajan on the violin kept up as only he could but occasionally was content to let Sanjay make the forays that only he could by himself. All the alapanas had the abundance of energy that one had come to expect from Sanjay over the years. The harikambodhi had extended sangatis revolving around the tara sthayee ma and pa. Sanjay showed his voice who was boss
Todi had a few captivating scalar sangatis which shone like an intricately cut gopaldas diamond The trailing end of Mohanam had Bhoop like flourishes which exposed its whole another dimension. The kritis sung were nadadina mata, enadhu manam, tanigai valar and Narayana enum divya namam. Personally I would have preferred a brighter kamala pada instead of enadhu manam.The "thembu" thani was special and it sounded fantastic from my close vantage. There were lot of variations in patterns and even the basic sounds were very distinct and different. It was very well received by the audience and the numbers did not thin out as they do usually.
Tanjore Ramdas spoke after the thani about Sethlapathy Balu and his personal association with him. It was a very moving tribute laced with humor bringing a smile to the lips and tears to the eye at the same time and I have borrowed some of his descriptions in this recap. Mannargudi Easwaran sir, who walked into the hall and sat beside the artistes sometime during the middle of the concert, spoke briefly and mentioned that the way to listen to Sethalapthy Balu was live and how on many occasions people forgot to applaud and were busy wiping away their tears at the end of a song. Sanjay spoke about the inspiration Sethalapthy Balu was and how his passion for singing viruttams came about with the Margazhi bhajanais.
The post thani session featured several slokas and viruttams. Shall continue after I gather my thoughts.