Vocal: Sanjay Subrahmanyam
Violin: S Varadarajan
Mrdangam: Neyveli Venkatesh
Kanjira: Sunil Kumar
Song list
1) varnam - kAmbhOji - aTa - Thanjavur Quartet
2) mallAri - gambhira nATa
3) kAkka irakkam unakku illaiyA - kharaharapriya - Adi 2 kaLai - N - Papanasam Sivan
4) pADa vENDumE - hamsanAdam - rUpakam - S- Dandapani Desigar
5)brOchEvArevarurA - khamAs - Adi 2 kaLai - Mysore Vasudevacharya - R, S, TA
6) ettanai kODi inbam - dEsh - Adi 1/2 eDuppu - Subramanya Bharati
7) viruttam (akila charAchara pashupatiyAgiya) - yamunA kalyANi
8) unai ninaindAlE inbam UradE - senchuruTTi - Adi 1/2 eDuppu - Papanasam Sivan??
9) ADum mayilAi uruvam eduthu (viruttam) - sindhubhairavi, nATakurinji
10) karpagamE - madhyamAvati - Adi - Papanasam Sivan
11) nee nAma (mangaLam) - sourAshtramam - Adi (1/2 eDuppu) - Thyagaraja
Sanjay has come to a place where his energy field has reached the point of sending his audience into raptures at will and causing a small town's population worth of crowd to turn up for his concerts. Nevertheless if you want to forgo the chair, one can always get close to the stage. And this concert looks to be another tamizh affair as a generous rasika let me sit in front of him right next to the stage at VayilAr nAyanAr's (if anyone else is here, look for me just behind the metal gate), there are going to be many songs I might not know. So help me fill up the gaps.
Anyway, Sanjay was doing a thunderous neraval for the kharaharapriya piece as I walked in with superb replies by Varadarajan, who has the best and most agile left wrist in the business now. His voice is now at home in the upper ranges, but of late between bouts of very inspired singing, this extra range has led to a few Madurai Somu esque stunts of brawnpower (yes not a typo) making their occasional entry. That said the Kharahapriya neraval was great and the reply by Varadarajan was also gripping. I later learnt it was a composition of Papanasam Sivan.
Then came pADa vEnDumE where Sanjay hit the upper P and held on to it for a while in his final round of swaras. A new number for yours truly again.
Then he took up an excellent AlApanA of khamAs with many Aha moments in both moving phrases and brighas. Varadarajan for his turn went the delicate route but it went on to a more brigha based AlApana that were remarkable for the clarity of bowing and articulation of the notes. The closing phrases earned some Ahas as well. The kriti was the most well known one in this rAgA. Some spicy sprinklings of brighas in some sangatis. The chittaswaram is a highlight special of this kriti and he brought his muscle power to it.
The slower round of swaras had one round of nice dhAtus of all variations in the arOhanam of khamas. All the swaras went the zig zag route to some extent highlighting the non-linear possibilities of khamAs. Some phrases were muscled out for the upper P. But then an anticlimax (
). Can't help but feel that the MDR effect has rubbed on him in those "brahmachari sEshtais". Anyway, the last round was a mini alApana's worth of singing concluded by a witty pattern ending like GM,DN (brOchEvaru). Varadarajan played around with that last pattern in a dozen ways to earn a round of applause and that pattern also kicked off the fast round of swaras. A couple of intense bouts and then we had the sarvalaghu round, then the kuraippu rounds on the D. One thing is very clear, the upper P has become Sanjay's favourite partner in crime. . A round of swaras with Chembai like eccentricities followed which then led to a long and complex kOrvai ending with a high decibel finish. So this was the main item? A rapid fire tani followed with the first round in chatushra and tishra naDais ending in a thunderstorm of a kOrvai played in 2 degrees of speed. Sunil Kumar matched in the fireworks but ended his kOrvai more delicately. Well, Neyveli Venkatesh was the one who was responsible for the thunder and fireworks the whole time, and he went old school 10000 walla fireworks for the kuraippu with Sunil Kumar following suit and they beat even the biggest set you could purchase on Deepavali by miles. That heavy pounding led all the way into a blistering faran, a long winding mohra and a kOrvai that brought the roof down. It was well played, very well played with extraordinary control at high speed in fact, but today's theme was clearly a thunderstorm that would have made up for the non-existent monsoon this year had it rained water instead of sound.
I've never heard ettanai kODi inbam in dEsh before, so I was all ears. A long passage of rAgA in the charanam was the highlight of a brisk rendition.
The viruttam was on Lord Kapali in yamunA kalyANi followed by a tamizh kriti also on Lord Kapali in senchuruTTi. I did not know the composer. Meanwhile I got a chair and spotted Smt. Gayatri Girish in the audience. Alas, my time in the chair was short lived as the mama who was the man in charge of the event and the rightful occupant of said chair returned at short notice.
But he kept standing to wait for the end to do the honours. Meanwhile Sanjay wrapped up a moving rendition of the kriti and took up another viruttam (a tEvAram??), this time on Karpagambal, in Sindhubhairavi and nATakurinji and then in a flash turned to karpagamE in madhyamAvati. In this day and age this song has come up on par with the nayanmar tEvArams sung on this place with the audience responding with equal favour.
And then just so soon, the mangaLam. Sanjay wrapped it up in 2 hours and 10 min. I later found out that he had opened with a mallAri. I wonder how they sing that.
