Sikkil Gurucharan, Cleveland Aradhana 2015

[maduraimini]

Let me say here in the beginning, I am a very bg fan of Gurucharan. I love his voice and the way he sings the lyrics- clear and the way it was meant to be said. And, needless to say his music padantharam.
The concert started late, I have no idea why- May be the artists were delayed in their travel or whatever it was. Gurucharan apologized to the rasikas for being late, which put him on a friendly base with them.
1. He started the concert with the Sree raga varnam ,'Sami ninne kori. Very good- picked up the viruviruppu.
2. A little alapana of Kalyani raga and a speedy 'Birana brovayithe manchi samayamu' This fast paced song in Adi talam was composed by Thana(orRa)gmbadi Panchanatha Iyer. There was no swaram but sang Niraval. Very pleasing kriti done well.
3. He did Alapana and announced the raga was Natakapriya (unless I misheard him). Sri Nagai Muralidharan's violin reply was as well sweet. The violin was very calming. Sikkil sang Mysore Vasudevachar's kriti ' Idi samayamu brova rada'. The talam was Roopakam and he sang swarams for Idi samayamu.
4. He sang 'Samikku sari evvare' in Kedaragaula. Wonderful rendition. Another of my favorite.
5. The next song was 'Giri priyam Gangadharam. in the ragam Kathanakuthuhalam. The composer was Harikesanallur Muthiah Baghavathar and as is common with his songs had chittaswarams. This was a speedy song.
6. After a lilting Bhairavi alapana, He sang Thyagaraja's 'Raksha bettave', a favorite of DKP. Nagai's violin was enchanting. The Tani by Vaidyanathan on the mridangam and Guruprasad on the kanjira was very soothing. No thunderous noise, but beautiful, melodious music.
7. Then a very beautiful viruttam on Lord Muruga in Ragamalika - 'Chendanai kandanai.' I forgot the ragams- Arasi or anybody else, please give me the ragas. I thought I heard Jonpuri, but am not sure.
8. The last one was the Paras raga javali ' cheli nenentlu.
he even sang the Mangalam- Sri Ramachandranukku! Because, most of the concerts seemed to be cut short for the next one and they can't sing mangalam.

Sikkil Gurucharan's voice was enchanting as usual and I enjoyed it very much.
Thanks Sundaram and the Aradhana committee for bringing this young man for us.

[arasi]

Maduraimini,
Yes, it was an enjoyable concert. There are some posts about his concert in the Cleveland Festival thread too to look up...