Varadarajan - Violin
Neyveli Venkatesh - Mridangam
Venue : Hindu Temple of Atlanta
Date: Sun Nov. 22, 2009
Time: 4pm -7:30 pm
1) ?
Hey it is not my fault. They started the concert on time before I arrived
There were more people than usual and on time that too. I do not know where many of these people are for other concerts!2) vinAyakA vigna nAshakA - Vegavahini
To me it was just ok. Nothing special about the rendition
3) mArubalkA - sriranjanI
Sanjay presented a very vigorous alapanai, consisting of long karvais and brisk traversal up and down the swaras in one breath and also included some SSI style specials. Varadarajan presented a compact Sriranjani. Pallavi started very nicely but somewhere during the song, I felt that the mridangam sound went very loud and the song became very fast and there just wasn't sowkhyam in the song.
4) kAna Kan Ayiram - nilambarI
Short but excellent presentation as a filler before the main. From here I was very happy with Mridangam sound level and the concert really took off.
5) kArthikEya kAngEya - Thodi
thani avartanam
Maybe he sang this as the day happened to be Shashti. Very elaborate alapanai including some "la la" in MMI style. Varadarjan provided a nice response. A wonderful. rendition followed. There was a nice thani avartanam. No one went out during the thani but there was a very small exodus after the thani!
6) evvarE rAmayyA - gAngEyabhushhani
7) thillai chidambaramE - kApI nArayanI
Sanjay announced ragas of these songs after the song. I could sense the vivadha raga in 6 but the raga name - I would have never guessed. These were two short fillers before the RTP.
8) RTP - "nAdanai dinam ninai manamE brindavana saranga ranga" - brindAvana sArangA
long swara passages in ranjanI , sumanEsa ranjanI and
shorter ones in kEdaram, AnandabhairavI, thodI, kEdaragowlai(?), kadanAkuthUhalam, surutti
This easily was the ones where all the three artistes shined and excelled. All three artistes gelled so nicely and provided a superb experience. I especially liked the variations that he provided in thanam and pallavi and the bhava that he brought in each raga that he took. Obviously the violin lacks the overtones that a voice can produce but Varadarajan stays in the background. He is very subtle when Sanjay is singing. But if Sanjay takes a break, he fills up the gap in a flash. There was a moment when he imitated Sanjay's "GA GA" of Sumanesa Ranjani. It was so exact that the whole hall laughed and for a moment Sanjay also looked at Varadarajan and smiled. The kind of presentation that separate a extradordinary concerts from normal ones.
9) dAsara nindisa bEdara - ? -- purandaradAsA (sorry if I have mangled the words, but thats what I thought I heard)
10) thillai sthalamenru solla thodanginAn - sAmA
11) UrilE kAni illai, uravu mattaroruvar illai
brindAvanam iduvo -suddha dhanyasI
12) nArayananai thudippai - ?
13) Mangalam
It was already three hours when we reached the thukkada stage. But Sanjay presented all the "urupadi" with the same vigour. Sanjay struggles when he reaches upper MA but then he effectively uses his voice within his range to stress the appropriate syllables. You do not even feel the need for other octaves.
This is the final concert at Atlanta for this year and it was a fitting finale. Next concert in Atlanta is on Jan 17, 2010 and is of Bangalore Shankar.