He was supported on the mridangam by Sri Neyveli Venkatesh, on violin by Sri Varadarajan and on the ghatam by Sri Trichy K Murali. The entire team was in an extra ordinary form that evening. The hall was jam packed with rasikas and the noteworthy element was that it was the same till the concert got over. The concert commenced at 6:45pm and went till 10.00pm. The song list was
1.Kaanada Varnam (Ninne Kori)
2.Anandha natana prakasham-Kedaram-Dikshitar[S]
3.Janaka ja sametha-Asaveri-Thyagaraja[S]
4.Kuvalayadalanayana-Natakuranji-Thyagaraja[R]
5.Ma Ramanan-Hindolam-Papanasam Sivan[R,S]
6.Sri Ramya Chiththa-Jayamanohari-Thyagaraja
7.Evvare Ramayya-Gangeyabhushani-Thyagaraja
8.RTP- Bhairavi
thaniavarthanam
9.Virutham
Va Va Vel Muruga-Sindhu Bhairavi-Mayuram Viswanatha Sastry
10.Paayum Oli-Khamas-Subramanya Bharathi
11.Thillana-Darbari Kanada
12.Pavamana-Sowrastram-thyagaraja
The concert began with the Varnam in Kaanada. It was an adi tala varnam and was rendered in two speeds. It was a good start. He sang Dikshitar's Kedaram piece next. He sang a round of swarams at the pallavi. The slower speed swarakalpana at the word "Ananda" and relatively faster swaras at "Natana". I never heard this kind of Kalpana Swaram but I did like it. The next piece was "Janaka ja Sametha" in Asaveri. The song itself was a beauty and the way Sanjay rendered I was just uplifted to some other world. The sangathis he put for the song were just mind boggling. I was astonished at the way he rendered the kalpana swarams for this song. The swarakalpana was literally at a neck break speed and I just sat there in a fix which was a result of many positive feelings and immense satisfaction derived from his singing. The swarakalpana went for long and I never heard anything like this in my life.
The first raga essayed on that day was Natakurinji. The alapana was decent and the song Kuvalayadala nayana followed. The sub main was Hindolam. Being a popular Raga, it was well received by the audience. He sang the alapana for a long time and it was a pleasing rendition. The popular krithi "Maa Ramanan" was sung next. The swarakalpana was done at the pallavi.
The fillers were two compositions of Thyagaraja, Gangeyabhushani and Jayamanohari which were rendered very well. The pronunciation of the lyrics was clear. I still remember the Gangeyabhushani he sang few years back as the sub main piece at the same venue.
The high light of the concert was the RTP in bhairavi. The way he sang, I lack words to express exactly what I felt like at that moment. I am still not out of that RTP effect. The impact it left in my mind I just lack words to express that. The alapana went for 14 mins, 21 secs. An extra ordinary alapana that was! And Sri Varadarajan gave an equally excellent alapana on the violin. This was followed by few rounds of thanam. After the thanam, he took up the following pallavi in misra jathi ata thaalam.
"mAlai pozhuthu pOchchuthu ennAsai kaNNALanE Asai kaNNALanE kaNNALaNe" (I'd be thankful if someone told me the meanings of this pallavi line)
After singing the neraval for those lines in the most amazing and pleasing way possible, he started the swarams, he shifted the thaalam and also the pallavi. He sang the famous pallavi line, "Un darisanam kidAikkumO natarAja dayAnidhE". The way he sang the swarams, I have never heard anyone do that. It was an extra ordinary swarakalpana. After a long round of swarakalpana there was thaniavarthanam by Sri Venkatesh and Sri Murali, which was no way inferior to the grandeur of the Bhairavi rendered by Sanjay and played by Varadarajan. The moment the Thaniavarthanam ended everyone expected for thukkadas, then Sanjay surprised us again with a different pallavi in different thaalam
"ennakavar sondhamaDi paramAnandhanaDI gOvindhanaDI mukundhanaDI"
and he did a ragamalika swaram round in the ragas Mohanam, Atana,Sahana, Poorvikalyani and Kaapi. Each of these ragas were sung very very well in detail manner. Kalpana swaram in each raga was sung in a detail way and the outstanding among all of this was the Kaapi swarakalpana. The violin accompaniment did an amazing job by standing on par with the way the RTP kept flowing.
This was by far the best RTP I heard in my life. It's still ringing in my ears, the way he sang! The entire main piece went for 1 hr,35 mins. It was just so extra ordinary. For a place like Hyderabad, were concerts happen not very frequently, artistes singing RTP is very rare and an RTP like this was far beyond one's expectation. I had the satisfaction of listening to a concert which was exceedingly good. Sanjay never disappoints the rasikas of Hyderabad and this time he satisfied all of us extra ordinarily. The extra ordinariness of the concert can be understood for i have used that word "extra ordinary" too many times till now!
All in all it was THE most amazing concert I ever heard. I was eagerly waiting to share this concert details with the rasikas on this forum.I may have made mistakes here and there, forgive me for those.
