Also at http://groups.google.com/group/rec.musi ... 76180250c3Arunaji began her performance with a composition of Muthuswami Dikshitar in raga Vrindavani Sarang in aaditaal. After this she performed detailed rendering of Carnatic raga Todi in ragam, tanam, pallavi format. She followed this up with her adaptations of Marathi abhang tirth vitthala kshetra vitthala and on kannada bhajan bhagyada laxmi parama on a "one more" request from the public (both originally sung by Pt. Bhimsenji). There was yet another cry of "one more" when Arunaji sang a tillana by Venkata Subbayya in aaditaal (which interestingly had prose in addition to song) to conclude her performance.
On the whole Arunaji's was an excellent performance that was thoroughly enjoyed by the audience (and yours truly). Powerful voice, full throated and tuneful swara lagav and most importantly fantastic planning - taking into account the psychology of the audience - were the main features of her performance. Superb!
From my point of view, Aruna Sairam walked off with top honours this
year - indeed, it would have been fitting if her marvellous 'thillana'
had concluded the festival!
Nice to see a carnatic artiste get praise from normally blinkered northies.