Simply Scintillating

Venue: Krishna Gana Sabha

Artist: Sanjay - Varadarajan Santhanam - Trichy B Harikumar - Bangaluru Rajasekhar

Date: 24th Dec 13

When one goes to listen to a concert, often you expect the unexpected with full of sweet surprises It was one such moment, when I had been to a recent concert of Sanjay Subramanyam at Sri Krishna Gana Sabha.The hall was jam packed with no vacant seats (needless to state this). From beginning to the end, the concert was brisk and bright and never sagged even once. After his warm up with a varnam in Thodi ("Era naapai" in Adhi taalam), Sanjay moved on to sing a gem from Dikshithar's navagraha krithi, "Budhamaashrayami" in Jhampa taalam. Oh yeah, it was a breezy Wednesday evening. His unique style of presentation came evident with quick swaras at "Budhamashrayami".

Just when he sang a sketch for the next krithi, audiences were doing the guess the raga game. Sensing it, Sanjay revealed the answer by singing a rare raga - Guntakriya (Janya of Mayamalavagowla) and the third krithi for the evening was "Inthanusu" by Thyagaraja in Chatusra jathi triputa talam.  The next aalapanai was in Bhairavi (Sanjay to ease the environment revealed it immediately and there were peels of laughter). After singing the krithi on Mercury, Sanjay chose to invite the prithvi lingam.This time again, the krithi was of Dikshidhar's "Chintamaaya" (Earth - Pancha bootha sthala linga krithi) in rupaka taalam. The brisk and sprited swaras at u-thungam kamaneeya was classy. Sanjay was on a roll with his swaras. Varadarajan on the violin followed Sanjay like a shadow yet with his own magical fingers, he played brilliantly.

Jyothiswarupini, a vivadi raga took the center stage in his concert. He gave a detailed aalapanai to sing an excellent krithi "Gaanamutha paanam"(Koteeswara Iyer). The slow and steadily built neraval and swaras at "Gaanamutha paanam" was an aural treat. 

Sanjay then gave a brilliant and quick RTP in Kambhoji. The pallavi was from Ghanam Krishna Iyer's padham "Yaar poi solluvar yanakkaana periyaium kaanen" set in triputa taalam. Varadarajan's playing was so aesthetically appealing and it was followed by a slokam in ragamalika with Anandhabhairavi, Priyadarshini to name a few. The slokam gave way to "Samayamidhe Ra ra" in Behag. 

Trichy B Harikumar(Mridangam) and Bangaluru Rajasekhar(Morsing) were on the percussion. Both of them moulded a reverberating tani and made the session very lively.

PS: If I have failed to mention a unique sound that came from my back, it was a Maami who was sounding like "uchh" some one thousand times, an irritating one!.Only God knows if she even understood the aalapanai..