The concert was slotted as 3 segments of 45 minutes each. Each musician wanting to present a mini-concert was perhaps bit stressful for them, but I certainly liked this concert. Shri UKS was the MC introducing briefly , he supported ably with his mridangam along with MA Sundaresan in violin and BS sundarkumar in kanjirA. Being a thyagarAja aradhana concert , all were thyagabrahmam's composition.
1. mAru balka(S) - shrI ranjani
2. ninnE nera (R N S)- pantuvarAi
neraval in "vEda shAstra purANa"
3. hecharika gA - yadhukulakAmbOdhi
4. dAsharathI(R N S) - tODi
neraval in "bhaktilEni kavijAla"
5. mAnavyAlagincarA - naLinakAnti
One of my friends who learnt CM for 15 years told me that they always start a concert with a hamsadhwani as that rAgAm has a panchamam ,he added that panchamam is a key to adding shruthi, the more earlier the more better it is . I still cannot say whether that statement is perfect, infact I cannot even vouch even today if the statement is right . But What I noticed in this concert with pattAbhir rAmA is he taking a start with shree ranjani (which does not have panchamam) gave atleast a feel that the opposite is true . Without panchamam possibly the shruthi is not going to be well set early in the concert .The swaras of mAru balkA was racy but still noticed a lot of vOttam.
AlApana in pantuvarALi was executed good , he sang ninnE nera quite well with a right dose of fast swaras . Certinaly till then there was no shades of KVN to me. The hecharika showed few glimpses of KVN , but perhaps he could have rendered little more slower. Shri KVN was omnipresent in the dAsharathI right from the alApanai and he was excellent in tOdi, particularly the swaras were perfect. It is always tight rope walking for a musician when given a 45 minute slot. He was little over ambitious in taking nalinAkanthi , not doing full justice and just giving a less than mediocre rendition. On a side note, I did spot pAttabhi rAmA sitting posture is never straight to the mike , every minute he just swirls circularly and sings away from the mike creating at times as though there is a disc jockey who is increasing and decreasing the volume.
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6.mA jAnaki (RS,S) - kAmbOdhi
7. eNNalu oorakE (R) - subhapantuvarAli
8. sarasa sAmadhAna (N,S) - kApinArayani
9. mOhana rAmA (R, N ,S) - mOhanam
neraval in "dhara manujAvatAra mahima vini"
10. meevaLLa - kApi
SuryaprakAsh , perhaps being always experienced in giving cramped concert ,started with a bang in kAmbOdhi.The krithi rendition was excellent , the swaras first half was little repetitive as though hearing a normal omnipresent gmpmg kAmbOdhi phrase , but his second half was excellent . A very detailed vilambakala rendition in subhapantuvarAli was very good . The day's best was his sarasa sAmadhAna , dazzling display of neraval and swaras , especially his swaras were brilliant with copious manOdharmam with outstanding team support by all.
mOHanam was very good , the start was from anupallavi with another nice round of neraval , the swaras were bit measured because of time constraint. The last number in kApi was a poor choice , in first place this kApi is little high in expressions and certainly bit jarring in volume especially hearing kAmbOdhi, kApinArayani and mOhanam, perhaps he could have ended in a rAga like kuntalavarAli than this assertive kApi .
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11.nenaruncarA nApaini(RS,S) - simhavAhini
12.nAdasudha rasA Bilalu (R,S)-ArAbi
13. nee vanti dhaivamu(R, N ,S) - bhairavi
neraval in "pADina ninnu pADavalegA"
14. chalamElarA (R) - Ahiri
15. geetArthamu - shuruTTi - sung by all
SAketarAman started with a bang rendered excellently simhavAhini. THe AlapAnai in Arabi and the krithi rendition was very good , though the swaras did not match as much as krithi. A grand bhairavi alApanai with few sangathis that were bit kharaharapriya'ish was very good. An excellent rendition of neevanti with neraval and swaras, certainly one could easily spot lot of lalgudi sir's bhairavi style pidis. The last in Ahiri was excellent , had the right dose of alankAram. geethArthamu was rendered by all three musicians and was very good.
Shri MAS played excellently despite having little time to adjust 3 different musicians .His best was in pattAbhirAma's tOdi where he gave some excellent returns.Shri UKS was brilliant throughout , I particularly liked his fast stroking and immediate silence in parama sAmbhAva in suryaprakAsh's kApi nArayani(Does he or one of his sishyas sitting nearby have a mute button
) . Sundarkumar's played more only during neraval and swaras where there was rotation.
syndrome from day to night and missing neelAmbari :rolleyes: syndrome from night to day .