with Vittal Rmamaurthy on violin and Anand Ananthakrishnan on the mridanga. 3 hr concert.

song list. Corrections welcome.
calamEla jEsEvayya-nATakuranji varNa-M.Rangasami Pillai-Sk
vAtApi gaNapatim-hamsadhvani-Dikshitar-S
rAma nannu brOvarA-harikAmbhOji-Tyagaraja
mEru samAna-mAyAmALavagauLa-Tyagaraja-A, N@ gaLamuna shObhillu, S,Tani
kAmAkSi ambA (SJ)-bhairavi-Shyama Shastri -N@bhakta jana
sarasa sAmadAnA-kApinArAyaNi-Tyagaraja
RTP in 4 rAgAs-simhEndramadhyam, rasikapriya, tODi and hamsavinOdini-Adi tALA-pallavi line:
nigama sudhA vinOdini nIrajadaLa lOcani sadA-tAnam in all 4 rAgAs, svarAs in all 4 rAgAs
enna tavam-kApi-Papanasham Shivan
muruganin marupeyar-behAg-Guru Surajananda
piraviyalai ATrinir-sindhubhairavi-Atrunagirinathar
mangaLam

sarasa sAmadAnA-cittaranjani-Tyagaraja; should read kApi nArAyani, I suppose

L-ji, that was quick! thanks for the songlist.

An extraordinary concert. That I am an avid admirer of Abhishek's music is no secret. It was doubly gratifying for me to hear his music at a local event.

Abhishek brings such unusual prayogams, pidis and dimensions to the tried and tested ragams and compositions. In these 3 hours, he explored unchartered regions of ragams like mayamalavagowla, bhairavi, kapi and behag. The four-raga pallavi was superbly handled, especially the tAnam. He seamlessly switched from the very differently structured grammars of rasikapriya to Hamsavinodhini and back to Todi and Simhendramadhyamam.

The best I can say to anyone reading this is, wish you were here to experience this.

Ananthakrishnan's accompaniment was nothing short of spectacular. He had all the glorious strokes of Sri Palgat Raghu on his kappi instrument, but with added thoppi embellishments. He played with such anticipation. The two cousins make an excellent team.

Vittal played his usual self, his alapanai returns were very classy.

This was one to relish even for the Abhishek regulars. What manodharmam, what unbridled creative energy! I don't think I can sleep tonight...

mahavishnu
I assume the sedateness of mmgowlai and a bhairavi(I would love to hear that neraval line bhakta jana in this bhairavi) must have given a different abhishek and then abhishek ending with a slog of 4 raga pallavi , that must have drenched toronto. Loved the song sequence.

Unbelievable to read 4 rAgAs RTP, all the 4 are not so easy rAgAs to render together.. Great. True mahAvishnu, I have missed this. By the way. Did you sleep that night ?

kuntalavarali: Yes I realized my mistake. It has been corrected. Thanks.

Rajesh: Yes, the neraval @ BhaktaJana was wonderfully refreshing and sedate. I am so used to SSI singing a Neraval @Syamakrishna. Bhairavi affords exploration in every frequency range. I think the choice also reflected the state of Abhishek's voice that day. He rarely went higher than the upper octave madhyamam.

GRS: I did get to sleep eventually

3 hours of shek can be quite a sensory overload.

Was this concert recorded? Would like to hear this concert.

Yes - I will put up the video of pallavi parts - have asked Abhishek's permission. Sharing of audio recordings are not yet allowed - sorry.

mahesh3 - thanks - I wanted to purchase the concert provided it was available for sale with artist consent. Not looking for free downloads

If you are in town next saturday for Ranjani Gayathri concert, you can probably pick up a set of recorded CD's for abt $20, if they are ready.

rajsanthanam - I am a Detroit Vaasi and currently have no plans to visit Toronto for Ranjani/Gayathri concert(btw they are performing in Detroit,Friday,June 1). Is there any way I can send a check and have the CDs mailed to me or any online payment option and downloadable tracks?

Sorry, the artists have not been asked permission for the recording nor has the permission been provided for the concert to be sold - so, not sure of the propriety of this!

Rajsanthanam: To the best of my knowledge, Bharathi Kala manram has stopped releasing concert CDs for sale (as of this year) due to copyright issues.

You can reach them at info@manram.org for further information.

Ok. I saw some of the older concert cd's recorded from 2011, being sold last week. I didnt know they stopped recording. I live in NJ 5 months and 5 months in Toronto. So was not uptodate on this info. My apologies!

In Montreal, Abhishek sang Aaragimpave (Thodi), Ninne Nera Namminanura (Panthuvarali) & a Shankarabharanam Pallavi composed & performed extempore -Adi talam - lagu in Khanda Nadai & the 2 Dhrthams in Tisra Nadai. He closed with Bhavani Dayani in Sindhubhairavi.

Mahesh3
Nice to hear of aaragimpave being taken , such a lovely composition.Can you also recollect the words of the pallavi line. Montreal means royal mountain and looks like abhishek has given quite a few royal-weighty ragas in montreal.

Rajesh: here is a link to the Montreal pallavi (courtesy abhifan101 on youtube).
sankarAbharaNanai ninai manamE dinamE sada siva

http://youtu.be/KvcWMyNWsWk

Thanks Mahavishnu for the sample. Abhishek lucidly explains the mixed nadai and so I could follow the structure.
Given the 16 counts before arudhi, he has to start the pallavi 4 kandam sub-beats ( splits ) into the first beat, so 1 + 3 * 5 = 16 gets him to the arudhi.

Arithmetic wise it all makes sense. Question. Abhishek sings the pallavi line the same way in both ways of reckoning the thalam.
I do not sense a kandam and trisram pulses ( as in the typical case if a beat is split into 5 and 3 parts respectively ) and the stressed portions of the line do not fall on the beat. I am curious what is achieved musically? Does this set him up for different types and flavors of pallavi renditions during trikalam, anuloma, pratiloma or during niraval and kalapanaswara or the difference is only in the different way of externally keeping the thalam?

VK. Good question. Although the pallavi line appears mathematically equivalent at 20 (-4 for eduppu) = 16 for the arudhi, the druthams appear to stretch and fold the line to fit it into 3 (counts) x 4 (beats) = 12. This is probably why the said aksharams do not fall on the beat. So, I am not sure if the trikalam, tisram etc will be trivial extensions with only the external meter changing. My guess is that they will not.

Mohan was working on a dvi-nadai pallavi (see tech discussions thread), perhaps he could chime in...

Yes, mathematically it is all the same and musically it sounds the same too. It is just complicated (challenging) for the artistes on the stage to execute this due to the nadai change and the varied eduppu. Technically the tri-kalam is also the same but is more tricky to exucute in this tala.

I checked with the Toronto organizers and they have indeed stopped recording concerts. Pity indeed.

Thanks for the song list of Abhishek's concert in Toronto. Next you have Ranjani/ Gayathri ? Lucky you! I don't know if Abhishek is coming this way. I did hear Ranjani/ Gayathri in Tampa. Don't miss them.

Maduraimini: Unfortunately I don't think Abhishek is coming your way. Abhishek's current tour exclusively covered Canadian venues (Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa and Calgary). This was a special arrangement since they came to the US last fall, but we could not manage to get them to Toronto. I believe Sri Vittal Ramamurthy was the major mover and shaker behind this short tour.