Sanjay, Parthasarathy Swami Sabha

Sanjay - Varadarajan - Kamalakar Rao

Sri Parthasarathy Swami Sabha, Vidya Bharati, 25th December 6:30 pm

viribhONi - varNam - bhairavi
enna gAnu - kAmavardini - rUpakam - bhadrAcalam rAmadAsar (neraval and svarams at "rAma rAma rAma yanucu)
sArasadaLa nayanA - khamAs - catusra jhampai
brovabAramA - bahudAri (AlApanai and svarams)
sivakAma sundari - mukhAri - Sivan
gana naya dEsika - rishabapriya - Adi (2 kaLai) - kOtIsvara iyer
taniyAvartanam
aruNacala nAtam - sArangA
RTP (?) - bhairavi

The concert started on a good note with the bhairavi varNam being sung well. The kAmavardini piece and khamAs were not quite upto what one expects from Sri Sanjay.

The bahudAri AlApanai was very cheaply rendered with a lot of gimmicks and generous usage of m d n s phrases and the svarams were also very gimmicky and it was just jugglery all the way. Sri Varadarajan also followed thro' the whole affair just like his shade. (nizhal mAdiri)

After a rather good rendition of sivakAma sundari, the rishabapriyA was the next one to hit us all. It was started on a very very ambigous way. It sounded like charukEsi and vAcaspati mixed up and did not effort to get anywhere close to listenable music. The svarams which were overdone, again invovled a lot of jugglery and gimmicks, making it a flop.

The taniyAvaratanam was the best part of the concert. Sri Kamalakar Rao did a brilliant job with the mrudangam both while accompanying and in the tani.

aruNAcala nAtam was and its preceding AlApanai were a bit healing to all the damage the bahudAri and rishabapriya did. His bhairavi AlApanai was also quite dull and one could not sit in the auditorium any more.

It was on the whole a very mediocre concert.

On a more general note, this year again i felt that the venue is rather uncomfortable in terms of parking lots and seating arrangemnet and all that. The Acoustics are tolerable. I was again reminded of the old Parthasarathy Sabha Auditorium which once stood in Triplicane.