Mohan Santhanam, Sravanam

Mohan Santhanam - Sherthalai Sivakumar - Sherthalai Ananthakrishnan - Madipakkam Murali

Sravanam, TTD Centre, Chennai

6th May 2005.

slOkam (tvamEva mAta cha pitAh tvamEva) followed by vallabha nAyakasya - bEgaDA (S)
endarO mahAnubAvulu - srI rAgam (R)
hiranmayIm lakshmIm - lalitA (R)
nA cheyi vidavakurA - nATTakuranji - Rupaka - Mysore Vasudevachar (R)
vallari samAne - mALavi - Adi - OVK (R, S with corappu)
jesinadella marachitivo - tODi (R,N,S,T)
sonnadai seithida - Ragamalika - adi
pavamAna - saurAshtram

The concert was well planned and presented well. The slOkam displayed a good bEgaDa with the kriti ending in normal svarams. The srI raga sketch started on rather tentative note but was well developed and the pancaratnam was refreshing.

The lalitA AlApanai was well presented and the artist's rendition of the kriti was making many a rasika expect some neraval and svarams which were disappointingly not present. The rare nATTakuranji kriti taken up for sub-main was well presented with a rather restricted AlApanai. There could have been more elaborations done, but then one has to keep track of the time also.

The mALAvi kriti on rAdhE by OVK was well rendered with a nice AlApanai and nice corappu svarams. The main tODi kriti had a good AlApanai. The nerval and svarams at 'rAma tyAgarAja prEma avatAra sItA rAma...' was just nicely planned and presented without any hitches.

The violinst was good in parts, and his instrument decided to not behave well with him as evident with the problems with the strings in the middle of his nATTakuranji essay. The percussionist did a good job in accompanying and during the tani.