Accompanists:
S.Varadarajan – Violin
Neyveli Venkatesh – Mridangam

Where & When? – Chettinad Vidyashram (Margazhi Mahotsavam) on 5th December

Concert Duration: 1 hr 50 min

Theme of the Concert: M.M.Dandapani Desigar’s Compositions (Songs written as well as not written but just tuned by him)

Songs list:
1. vAzhndiDuvOm vArIr – Arabhi – Adi – Swarams at vAzhndiDuvOm vArIr
2. aDiyEnai kAttaruL – kAmbhOji – triputa – Alapana
3. pADa vENDumE – hamsanAdam – rUpakam – Raaga outline; neraval at isai pAvil uNarndu poruLai nanguNarndu pADa vENDumE; swarams at pADa vENDumE/isai pADa vENDumE
4. kaDavuLai maRavAdE nenjE – tANDavam – Adi – Alapana
5. nAvukkarasanai gnAnakozhundinai – hEmavati - Adi – Swarams at nAvukkarasanai – tani Avartanam
Songs 1-5: Compositions of M.M.Dandapani Desigar
6. UrellAm tUnginAlum (viruttam) followed by OhO kAlamE – sahAnA – Adi – Composition of Vedanayakam Pillai
7. tunbam nErgayil – dEsh – Adi – Brief Alapana - Composition of Bharatidasan
8. nArAyaNanai tudippAi – kOmalAngi – Adi - Raaga outline – Composed by Raghava Ramanuja Dasar
9. vAzhiya sentamizh – madhyamAvati – Adi

As clichéd as it may sound, I can’t help but start off saying that this was yet another excellent concert by Sanjay! :) But making this concert extra special was an interesting selection of raagams! Right from the opening Arabhi to the final piece in kOmalAngi, it was a delight hearing the beauty of each raagam unfold with every passing moment. :)

My favourite in this concert was the hamsanAdam piece. I liked the lyrics of the song too. The neraval at isai pAvil uNarndu poruLai nanguNarndu pADa vENDumE was just awesome. Starting off with SPS pADa vENDumE and then SRMPNS (for the uninitiated, it is the ArOhaNam of hamsanAdam) pADa vENDumE, followed some beautiful kalpana swarams in hamsanAdam.

After that amazing hamsanAdam, followed a detailed alapanai of raagam tAnDavam! The more concerts of Sanjay you attend, the more not-so-often-heard raagams you get to hear!

After a hEmavati that made me go wow and a tani Avartanam which I personally didn’t feel deserved all those thunderous claps it received, followed sahAnA. :D Making the always-special OhO kAlamE extra special was the viruttam, which it seems is another charanam of OhO kAlamE, which preceded it. I liked the lines so much that I wrote it down. (Note to self: I really have to improve my Tamil writing speed!) Here it is:

UrellAm thUngilum unakkillai tUkkam
OyAmal oDuvAi unakkuNDO tekkam
yAr kettAl unakkenna ariyAi nI nOkkam
adiga vaDDigaL koDuppavargaL mIdhu Ekkam
adiga vaDDigaL koDuppavaragaLukku un mEl Ekkam

There was a brief alapana of dEsh before tunbam nErgayil. I remember reading that Sanjay sang an RTP in dEsh in US this year. If the few minutes of dEsh in this concert itself were so nice, just imagine how the RTP would have been! Waiting eagerly to hear Sanjay sing it here!

Coming to tunbam nErgayil, one of my most favourite songs, it has been ages since I last listened to it and it was a pleasure listening to Sanjay’s unhurried rendition of it. I just love the way the word mATTAyA in inbam sErkka mATTAyA kaNNE, allal nIkka mATTAyA kaNNE and all those lines ending with kaNNE are sung (you know how the word is split like mA-TTA-A-A-A-yA, don’t you?) in this song. Sanjay sang all those lines twice which just added to the blissful experience of listening to this beautiful song after a long time.

After Q&A Session, the concert ended with the kOmalAngi song providing a fitting finale to it.

Be it a less than 2 hours or a more than three hour concert, the level of satisfaction that one gets from a Sanjay’s concert remains the same and you are always left wishing the concert didn’t have to end so soon! And that’s exactly what happened with the concert on the following day too! Sanjay rocks!