I attended the concert at BTM academy on 12th July 2015. The scheduled programme was a violin duet by Karthik (MYs Nagaraj's son ) and Sumanth (Mys Manjunath's son), with Srimushnam Raja Rao and Giridhar Udupa.
As I entered the hall half an hour behind schedule, Nagaraj himself was on stage with Sumanth. (It seems Karthik was unwell and the dad was substituting for the son!!) For me, it was such a pleasant surprise. As Arunachala kavirayar would have said "பழம் நழுவி பாலில் விழுந்தால் போல் ஆச்சு".
Raghunaayaka was going on when I went in. There was a Kaanada . Main was Kambodhi - Maragatha valli- my favourite. Ragam was played fully by Sumanth. For a 15 year old, he was simply brilliant. He did not feel shy or intimidated by the senior Periappa playing by his side. Played freely and very nicely. I was impressed. Main thing about violin is bowing technique. This boy has got it. Other things can be learnt with time. An electrifying thani by the senior percussionists followed. No doubt SRR showed his class, although a bit too long.
Then came speeches. I think that everyone forgot that the hero of the day was Sumanth. They were heaping praise on SRR. president of BTM Sri.Anantharam spoke. Manjunath spoke and SRR himself spoke.
There was only scope for one song after the VOT. A nice Dharbari kaanada was played. I felt that the most important sangadhi where it slides to the peak and gently slides back was missed out and replaced by a brigaful peak. May be I was influenced by the memory of TNS's Chandrachooda siva sankara parvathy which is a masterpiece in this thukkada ragam.
Overall a very enjoyable concert. Additional surprise of listening to Mys Nagaraj's amazing violin without pre planning.
