in dikshitar day concert.1A.slokham "agajAnana padmArgham"(R) - nAttai - ???
1B.paramEsvara jagaDEEsa(S)- nAttai
2. gaurIshAya namaste - Arabi
3. shree kAnthimathim (R,S)- hemavathi
4. cheta shree bAlakrishnam(R) - dwijAvanthi
5. shree guruguha tAarayAsumAm - devakriya
6A. sundarEsvarAaya namaste (R N S T) - shankarAbharnam
neraval in bhAanukOti prakAasAya bhAsamAnAsa sashi dharAya
6B. tani
7. purahara nandana (RS)- hameerkalyAni
8. shree venkatagirisa - shuruTTi
Shri manakkAl rangarAjan is certainly one rare musician who despite turning 86 years of age gave a glimpse of carnatic vigour that he must have demonstrated at ease in 50's to 80's . His start was very confident with an aggression that I love that generally comes too easily in nAttai. Swaras were excellent and it was like a typical 1960's concert . The nAttai itself was for 20 plus minutes . ManakkAl's music and voice has a certain and definite overlap with GNB, and out popped an expresive Arabi.
The alApana of hemavathi was a definitely well conceived one though at lot of places I was not too sure if he sang vAchaspathi or hemavathi. The brigha uruttal was little too excessive in swaras , certainly all the accompanists were struggling to keep pace with manakkAl's pace,certainly there was quite a bit of hemavathi commotion than musical excellence.
manakkal is known to have mastered dwijAvanthi , I certainly longed for it and that was answered . His alApana was brief and awesome . His krithi rendition was excellent , I noticed he was singing almost with minimal breath pause , the gel of pakkavadyam that was missing came back in dwijAvanthi.Just perhaps when I was expecting a round of swaras , manakkAl movevd to next rare krithi. Devakriya , usually I think it is asampoorna equivalent of suddasAveri was actually slightly different in the way manakkAl handled .
The best no of the concert was shankArabharanam main. This 29th melakartha is generally a sagging main for most of musicians,but manakkAl vigour was excellent . Certainly a rare krithi popped out and manakkAl's neraval was just good . His swaras were top notch, certainly this shankArabharanam had some new piDi's had lot of fast brighas and his speed was quite amazing
Both the post tani numbers were excellent , the hameerkalyAni and shuruTTi was a HM-CM combo well conceived and quite apt as a tribute to dikshitar. Perhaps the disappointment was he could have gone more than 2 hours, but it was 9 pm at the end of shuruTTi.
Shri vellore rAmabadran was bit loud (why does he keep the right mike so close), certainly he played well for most of the songs excepting the prathi madhayama brigha bouncers. karthik was bit low key and whereever he played his support was excellent , their tani was bit dry . Dr narmada was below average most of the time, her bowing produced too much of sound and her play was very intrusive , she could have given more vocal space to manakkAl's . At many times she appeared to lead with manakkal and smt padma appearing to support her.
Overall usually manakkal gives a cocktail of gnb,mmi and ssi , today it was almost gnb like concert with touches of ssi. Can somebody let me know if this rare shankArabharanam krithi is sung by any other musician?