Sanjay’s Narada Gana Sabha Concert

On 20th December, 2010 at Narada Gana Sabha

Accompanists:
S.Varadarajan – Violin
Neyveli Venkatesh – Mridangam
S.Karthick – Ghatam

Concert Duration: 2.5 hrs

List of Songs:
1. maguva (varNam) – nArayaNagowLai – aTa
2. sAmagIta – gowLai – Adi – swarams at sAmagIta
3. rAga ratna – rItigowLai – rUpakam – AlApana; neraval and swarams at pADe kIrtanamu
4. ennaDu – kalAvati – Adi
5. buddhi rAdu – SankarAbharaNam – misra cApu – AlApana; swarams at bhaktula, amrita, vAgamrita
6. RTP – hindOLam
pallavi: Ananda naTana prakASam citsabhESam AshrayAmi – Adi 2 kaLai
pallavi in Anandabhairavi, hamsAnandi, kEdAram
swarams in hindOLam alone
tani Avartanam
7. pAril uyarnda (viruttam) – kAmbhOji, danyAsi, sahAnA, paTdIp
en tAi vAzhenum – paTdIp – Adi
8. kANi nilam – rAgamAlikA (hamsadhwani, bhAgESri, sindhubhairavi) – Adi
9. nI nAma rUpamulaku – sowrASTram

This concert started off as a ‘gowLai’ series special with a varNam in nArayaNagowLai, a lovely song in gowLai with some awesome kalpanA swarams and an elaborate rItigowLai. Every moment of rItigowLai was bliss! I was glad to hear the song rAga ratna replete with neraval and swarams.

We were expecting him to sing kannaDagowLai, kEdAragowLai and mAyamaLavagowLai next 🙂 , but the gowLais came to an end with the serene ennaDu in kalAvati rAgA.

As Sanjay started buddhi rAdu in SankarabharaNam, I remembered how much I liked it when he had sung it earlier that year at a concert in Krishna Gana Sabha.

I enjoyed the tAnam and pallavi more than the Alapana simply because hindOLam isn’t a favourite of mine. While the pallavi in Anandabhairavi and hamsAnandi was excellent, the same in kEdAram didn’t appeal to me. I would prefer the original Anada naTana prakASam any day. Varadarajan seemed to find it difficult to play it in an altered tune in kEdAram.

It felt great listening to the lovely pAril uyarnda nilam of Suddhananda Bharati again. kANi nilam, a beautiful song of another Bharati concluded the concert.

I had noted down that I would mention about how Neyveli Venkatesh seems to be playing a similar rhythm pattern on the left side of the mridangam (you know I don’t know any of the technical terms as far as mridangam is concerned, don’t you?) in quite a few concerts and how it’s becoming repetitive. I was surprised to see the review in ‘The Hindu’ praising his playing on the left side of the mridangam.

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