Hari Samarpanam – Audio CD release

[divyamramesh]

Sampath Kumar’s Hari Samarpanam - CD release

Padmabhooshan Sangita Kalanidhi Shri T N Krishnan will release an album containing Vishnu-based compositions of Shri Thirukudandai Sri G Sampath at 6.30 pm on March 6, 2008, at Srinivasa Shastri Hall in Luz, Mylapore. Well known promoter Mr ‘ Cleveland ’ Sundaram, will receive the first copy of this album for which Chitravina N Ravikiran has scored the music. Sri R. Krishnaswamy, Secretary, Narada Gana Sabha will be the Chief Guest. The programme will include a short invocation by Kum Anahita and also a short concert by Sri Suryaprakash.

The Album

Shri Sampath has composed songs praising Lord Vishnu as worshipped in several leading temples in Tamil Nadu, with a brief sketch of the sthala puranas as well.

Hari Samarpanam, Vol. I, includes nine of these songs for which Ravikiran has used ragas such as Harikambhodhi, Kalyanavasantam, Bhairavi, Mayamalavagowla and Ramapriya. There is also an attractive ragamalika piece, Anandanilaya, on Lord Srinivasa of Tirupati. Ravikiran has employed interesting rhythmic features in compositions such as Sri Parthasarathi (Hindolam).

Ravikiran has also directed the entire production which features well known names such as Sikkil Gurucharan, Suryaprakash and mrdangam maestro Srimushnam Raja Rao as also highly talented performers such as Deepika Varadarajan, Anahita Ravindran, Bhargavi Balasubramanian and Apoorva Ravindran (voices), Ranjani Ramakrishnan (violin), Venkatasubramaniam (mrdangam) and Trichy Murali (ghatam).

The Composer
Thirukudandai Sri Sampath, 69 years old, served in the Revenue Department of the Government of India and retired as Additional Commissioner of Central Excise, Chennai, in 1997. He had developed interest in music at a very young age, which has been sustained over the years by constantly listening to concerts. This, combined with his proficiency in languages and the knowledge of Hindu mythology and philosophy, spurred him to express his spiritual thoughts in a poetic form. He started writing in the 1970s, with a piece on Sri Ramanuja, and others followed in due course.
Sri Sampath has composed several songs in Sanskrit, most of which are on Lord Vishnu as enshrined in various temples. Two of them are on the saint Andal, one on Sri Ganesha and two on Lord Shiva (Kapaleeshwara of Mylapore and Kumbheshwara of Kumbakonam). The lyrics of most of these Sanskrit songs have been duly vetted by Dr M.Narasimhachari, a renowned scholar in Sanskrit and Vaishnavism; the other songs have been vetted by Dr. C S Radhakrishnan, formerly of Vivekananda College and now working with the Pondicherry University . Some of these have also been choreographed for dance and presented by artistes such as guru Rhadha.

[srinivasrgvn]

Where can I buy this CD? How much does it cost? Can you please give me some more details?

[rajeshnat]

I bought it on the day of the concert for 100Rs, in the card inlay it says contact cell 92831 08765. Please buy this cd appears worth it , in the concert that I attended I liked the three no's too that suryaprakAsh sang, particularly the rAmapriya krithi chakrAyutha pAni where he sang the neraval. Incidentally all his songs have his mudra sampath kumAra and all appears as sanskrit compositions .

I also had a brief chat with sampath kumAr , he has taken a lot of attention to dedicate his no's to specific vishnu sthalams too.He told most of his no's are centered on Lord vishnu and few no's he composed on karpAgambal and Lord shiva(which have not come in the CD as it is a hari samarpanam cd)