I was in Chennai during the season (8th thro 28th) to be exact. I was fortunate enough to attend a few really good concerts. Below are my impressions of the concerts/programmes I attended (not necessarily in chronological order)
1. T.M.Krishna, Vittal Ramamurthy (dont remember mridangist) @ MCTM Luz. TMK was singing Anandha Bhairavi when I entered. I stayed until the end of a superb Kambodhi RTP with excellent Ragamalika (including Behag). Vittal gave him great support
2. Sanjay Subramaniam, M.A.Krishnaswamy @Narada Gana sabha. A very good (as usual) concert from Sanjay. Never the one to disappoint.
3. Jaya TV margazhi utsavam. I attended Visaka Hari's harikatha on Thyagaraja Charitram. Superb. The place was packed and I was lucky to get in for the previous concert (a very so-so concert by Carnatica brothers). Visaka Hari's musical knowledge, research and story-telling makes her programme a must-attend.
4. Madurai Sundar @Mylapore Fine Arts. The concert started well with Nattakurinji varnam, Sree Ragam etc. But I thought it lost bit of tempo when he started the Kalyani RTP. Very poorly attended (it was the first or second day morning concert - started at 9.00am)
5. Lec Dems at Music Academy
Suguna Purushotaman on Gopalakrishna Bharathiar kritis. A reasonably well done lec-dem. Sang a few rare composition of GB.
T.K.Govinda Rao on Haridasas. Lec-dem showed his depth of knowledge and scholarship on the subject. Sang a few rare Dasa kritis.
R. Vedavalli on Dikshitar Parampara. A clear expert on Dikshitar as well as his lineage.
A very well rendered (rare) dikshitar kriti in Sree Ragam that talks about Tiruvarur Utsavam.
B. Rajam Iyer started a fight after Vedavalli's lec-dem. Vedavalli talked about Subbarama dikshitar's work on SSP and mentioned Dr. S. Ramanathan's involvement. For some reason she did not mention B.Rajam Iyer's name (she later explained that she was talking about scholars who had worked on SPP, but no more with us a). Rajam Iyer literally jumped up after the lec-dem and said "Ennoda pera sollarathuku ivalukku vai varala" (She didn't have the magnanimity to mention my name). Everybody tried to pacify her (P.S. Narayanaswamy, TNS etc). Vedavalli repeatedly apologized and explained that that was not her intent.
One sticky point about the lec-dems was the constant urge of the presenters to praise the front-row vidwans in the audience. I can understand junior artists doing it, but not a pleasant sight to see TKG, Suguna Purushotaman lavishing muga-sthuti (praising to the face) on TNS, MSG etc.
6. Nedunuri Krishnamurthy, Nagai Muralidharan @Academy. Easily the best (and most probably unbeatable) concert of the season. It was simply superb. His Todi was outstanding. The kalpana-swarams were enchanting. He spent half his time on Pa-varjya swarams and then showed the beauty of Pa in the next half. I heard (from my father-in-law, a die-hard fan of Nedunuri) that his other concert was great as well.
7. Gayathri Venkataraghavan @Srinivasa Sastri Hall (Luz, organized by Kapali fine arts). A really good concert one comes to expect from Gayathri ( don't know if someone has posted a review). Good Mohanam (Kadambari Priyayai), excellent karaharpriya with beautiful sangatis on "Chakkani Raaja", followed by a good Kalyani RTP. IMHO, one of the best female artistes in the field
8. Discussion organized by Lalgudi Forum @Krishna Gana sabha. The organizers could only get the mini-hall which was full in no time. We sat outside, where they had setup a speaker and video screen for projecting the stage. The first session was listening session where they played old recording of Lalgudi Jayaraman (also present for the occasion). Disappointed that there was no good commentary from LGJR Krishnan. The second session was Palghat Mani Iyer's son (Rajaraman) talking about the relationship between PMI and LGJ and recouting some memorable moments. Third was an appreciation session by Lalgudi Vijayalakshmi (much better session than her brother's) -- she played some old recordings of LGJ and gave commentary on it. Overall, a very enjoyable evening.
And thats my 2 cents
--Raja