violin - m rajeev
mrudangam - r sankaranarayanan
venue: pshs, tag - dakshinamurthy auditorium
430-615pm
varnam - begada - adi - veenai kuppaiyer
vaa vaa sikhivaahana - naattai - rupakam - koteeshwara iyer (s)
akhilandeswari - dvijavanthi - adi - muthuswami dikshitar (r,s)
padhavini - salagabhairavi - adi - thyagaraja
deva deva jagadheeswara - purvikalyani - adi - swathi thirunal (r,n,s,t)
ramanai bhajithal - mand - adi - papanasam sivan
Today I saw the PSHS Dakshinamurthy Auditorium for the first time since it was renovated by the TAG Corporation. I was to sing the inaugural concert for this auditorium but there was a clash in the dates and I was unable to do so. They have done a fantastic job of making it AC and brightening the place with freshly painted white walls and ceiling. This has also improved the sound quality as it is no longer open along the sides.
It's also nice to see that Rasika Ranjani Sabha (commonly referred to as RR Sabha), which has been rebuilding itself in the last few years, has a renovated hall in which to conduct it's festival this season. Their own auditorium, at the previous location near Mylapore Tank, is being completely redone, and should hopefully be up and running by next season. I remember attending concerts at the old RR Sabha auditorium as a kid. It was a fairly big place, but quite old even then. In any case, every senior vidwan would perform there and I enjoyed attending those concerts.
Another highlight for me today was singing a new song in naattai (Vaa Vaa Sikhivaahana), which I learned for a recent recording. It is one of several songs by Koteeshwara Iyer that I had learned, but one of the few that is not in a melakartha ragam. Something about the song's structure and a few different sangathis stood out to me, and it has become one of my favorite songs in practice. Tonight was the first time I sang it in a concert though! I think it went over well, thanks to the support of Rajeev & Sankar.
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| Photo Courtesy of Karthik Nagarajan |
