Sanjay Subrahmanyan – Vocal
Nagai Muralidharan – Volin
Patri Satish Kumar – Mridangam
K.V.Gopalakrishnan - Khanjira

Where & When? – Narada Gana Sabha on 23rd December

Concert Duration: 2.5 hrs

Songs List:
1. sAmi ni – kEdAram
2. Ongi ulagaLanda – Arabhi - swarams at Ongi ulagaLanda
3. kAlai tUkki – yadukula kAmbhoji – Alapana
4. endu dAginAdo– tODi - Alapana; neraval & swarams at alanADu; tani Avartanam
5. pADa vENDumE – hamsanAdam
6. RTP – darbAri kAnaDA
Pallavi: govindA alarmElmangai manila vA tiruvEnkaTa – kaNDa triputa
7. paniyin vin tuLi - ?
9. mangaLam – sowrAshtram

Say kEdAram and the first thing that comes to my mind, as you might know, is Sanjay’s Ananda naTana prakAsham. Listening to Sanjay begin the concert with the kEdAram piece only made me remember it even more. ;) kEdAram and Ongi ulagaLanda with some awesome fast-paced swarams later came one of the most beautiful Alapanais of yadukula kAmbhoji I have heard! Nagai Muralidharan’s alapana was also equally good. Taking my memory back to this post was the song that followed – kAlai tUkki. :) Any song on the Dancing Lord sung by Sanjay is indeed really special!

Be it the tODi Alapana or the really unhurried rendition of the tODi kriti, endu dAginAdo, as well as the neraval and swarams for it (there weren’t much fast-paced swarams) or the darbAri kAnaDA RTP, soulful is the one word that I would associate with Sanjay’s singing of those!

I really liked the tODi alapana so much that I thought I would give this post the title as ‘When even tODi made my day! :O’ ;) But, the moment Sanjay started the darbari kAnaDA Alapana, it was clear that we were in for something special. No words would suffice to describe the effect that the darabAri kAnaDA raagam, taanam (I have always found Nagai Muralidharan’s taanams special) and pallavi  had! It felt as though Sanjay and Nagai Muralidharan were recreating the bhAgEshri RTP (at Kalarasana last year) kind of magic! It left me totally MESMERIZED! And as was evident from the applause it received, I am sure there wouldn’t have been even a single person in the audience who didn’t find it moving!

pADa vENDumE as the filler between the main piece and RTP and the last song, paniyin tuLi, both of which have got added to my list of favourites were well rendered too and with Patri Satish Kumar and Gopalakrishnan also giving excellent accompaniment, every moment of this concert has become unforgettable.

darbAri kAnaDa was so haunting that I didn’t even feel like going for Mandolin Srinivas’ concert that I had planned on attending after this concert! It’s another fact that finally, I did reluctantly go for it. But, yeah, that darbAri kAnaDA still continues to linger in my memory so much that I don’t even feel like sleeping now!

Anyway, this really is a very special concert of this Season and yet another Sanjay’s concert that I will remember for a long time to come! By the way, tomorrow is Sanjay’s concert at Kalarasana. And, needless to say, I am EXCITED!