Prasanna Venkatraman Concert - San Jose - Sept 1 2013

[manisubramaniyan]

Accompanists: M Rajeev on Violin and R. Sankaranarayanan on Mridangam.
For all 3, this is a maiden US tour. M. Rajeev is a disciple of Kanyakumari. R. Sankaranarayanan is well known in India while this is his first tour in US.
Song List:
1. Varnam - Chalamu Jesedi - Kamavardhini - Ata - Composer:Ponniah Pillai
2. Ragunayaka - Hamsadhwani - Adi - Thyagaraja
3. Maravakave O Manasa - Sama - Roopakam - Patnam Subramanya Iyer
4. Sri Valli Deva - Natta Bhairavi - Adi - Papanasam Sivan
5. Soundararajam - Brindavana Saranga - Roopakam - Muthuswamy Deekshithar
6. Etiyochanalu - Kiranavali - Adi - Thyagaraja
7. O Rangasayee - Kambhoji - Adi - Thyagaraja
8. Chalamelara - MargaHindolam - Adi - Thyagaraja
9. Gowri Manohari RTP - Pallavi: Sankari Sundari Parameswari Dayapari Gowri Manohari - Ragamalika (Kamala, Rama, Saraswathi-manohari)
10. Chinanchiru Kiliye - ragamalika -roopakam - Bharathiyar
11. Thillana - Darbari Kanada - Adi -
One of the best concerts this year in San Jose and well appreciated by the attendees. Prasanna's voice was 'like a bell' as someone put it - clear, enjoyable, with correct pronunciation and emotion. There was no monitor in the hall and so artists had to take that in stride. Sama, Natta Bhairavi and Gowri Manohari were exemplary in execution.
M. Rajeev, did exceptionally well, considering this is the first tour. Excellent thani and accompaniment by R. Shankar; an excellent team that performed very well together as a whole.

I hope other attendees would post reviews as well. For whatever reason, I see very few reviews of San Jose concerts and hope that changes soon.

[mahavishnu]

My loss for not being able to attend, since I was out of town. Doubly tragic since I really like Prasanna's music and I missed him when he came to Toronto recently.

Look forward to the other Sankritilaya events this year!

[rajeshnat]

Nice song list with lot of weighty numbers . Best wishes to this team in their overseas journey .Tx mani for the review

[rshankar]

What was the pallavi (of the RTP)? After all that 'fuss' about pallavis in the thread on Sri Sanjay's concert, I am very curious...
Disclaimer: Personally, I have no issues with a pallavi in Hindi (or Hebrew, for that matter) as long as the words are pronounced properly - it's the madrAsi hindi that gets me every time!

[manisubramaniyan]

The pallavi was "Sankari Sundari Parameswari Dayapari Gowri Manohari". Prasanna has sung this before, it looks like; I see this thread in the past with the same RTP: http://www.rasikas.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=12466

Regards
ManiS