Accompanists :
Mridangam – Tiruvarur Vaidyanathan
Violin – Shertalai Sivakumar
Khanjira – Alathur T.Rajaganesh

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

Concert Duration: 1 hr 15 min?

Songs List: (Incomplete)
1. natajana pAlini – naLinakAnti – swarams at parama krpAkari
2. vAnanai – kIravANi – Alapanai; neraval & swarams at vIranai viDamuNDanai
3. nija marmulanu – umAbharaNam
4. mInAkshi mEmudam – pUrvikalyANi – Alapanai; neraval & swarams at vINa gAna
5. sEndanai kandanai (viruttam) followed by kArtikEyanai kaNNAra kANa – kApi – raaga outline

I reached the venue just as Gurucharan was singing swarams in naLinakAnti. naLinakAnti – What a beautiful raaga to begin the evening with! 😉 Besides, the fact that naLinakAnti is the one that I am hooked to these days, thanks to Sandeep Narayan’s awesome pAlaya sadA (Do check it out here), made me feel so happy listening to it.

Anyway, coming back to the concert, Gurucharan sang quite well. I liked his alapanas and the fast-paced nija marmulanu. Though I did feel that the violinist’s pUrvikalyANi alapana wasn’t that great, I was later left wondering if it was because of the way the not-that-great sound system was making the violin sound!

Though I did like the concert, I didn’t find anything that special to make me want to go for Gurucharan’s concert today also. So, I have dropped my plans of going to his concert today.

Accompanists:
Ganapatiraman – Mridangam

Where & When? – Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan (Kalapradarshini) on 2nd December

Concert Duration: 1.5 hrs

List of Songs:
1. Sri Maha Ganapati – Gowlai – Raaga Outline; Swarams at Sri Maha Ganapati
2. Rama Nee – Kedaram – Swarams at Rama
3. Evari To – Manavati
4. Sankari – Begada – Alapana by Suresh; Swarams at Sankari
5. Enta nerchina – Saveri – Alapana by Narmadha; Swarams at Enta Nerchina
6. Nagumomu – Abheri – Alapana by MSG; Swarams at jageme – Tani Avartanam
7. Tulsidas – Behag – Brief alapana by Narmadha
8. Tarana – Sindhu Bhairavi – Brief alapana by MSG
9. Tiruppugazh – Hamsanandi
10. Mangalam – Sowrashtram
11. Madhyamavati – Raaga Outline

The first three songs were quite good. I especially liked the Kedaram song and swarams. But after that, the Begada alapana by Suresh, which wasn’t that great, left me wishing MSG had played the alapana instead! Sankari in Begada is one of my favourites by MSG and I have listened to it so many times on a cassette of his. Saveri alapana by Narmadha was good. The Abheri alapana by MSG, though lasted just a few minutes, was nice. MSG’s Sindhu Bhairavi was just out of the world! I wish it had lasted for some more minutes! There was no neraval at all for any of the songs. 🙁

Btw, the film song, idhu oru ponmalai pozhudhu was the one that came to my mind on listening to Rama nee in Kedaram!! Never realized this song was in Kedaram till then!

Sandeep Narayan – Vocal
B.Vijayagopal – Flute
Arjun Ganesh – Mridangam
Nerkunam Shankar – Khanjira

Where & When? – At Music Academy (‘The Hindu’s ‘November Fest’) on 19th November

Concert Duration: 1 hr

Theme of the concert (if you could call it that): Desiya raagas – raagas originating from Hindustani classical & folk

List of Songs:

1. reeNa madanuta – Behag – brief alapana
2. Soundararajam – Brindavana Saranga – alapana; neraval & swarams at tumburunuta shrikaNtam duritapaha vaikuNTam – mini Tani
3. apaduru – Khamas – raaga outline

Ever since I saw the schedule of November Fest concerts, this was one concert that I wanted to go for, since the flute + vocal combo got me interested. And I am now happy that I went for it. This is the first time I am hearing Sandeep and Vijay and I should say that they both were brilliant.

Three very beautiful raagams, excellent singing, awesome flute – made my day! Complete silence at Music Academy created a perfect ambience to listen to this concert, making it all the more enjoyable. I really wished the concert could go on for some more time!

Brindavana Saranga itself was for some 45 minutes and every moment of it was pure bliss! I just loved the RMPN, NSRMPN, etc. swarams part of it sung in slow tempo.

I am really looking forward to attending more concerts of Sandeep & Vijayagopal in the future.