1. Sami Ni Rammanave - Pada Varnam - Kedaram - Tiruvottiyur Thyagayya
2. Sattaleni - Naaganandini - Thyagaraja (S)
3. Nannu Vidachi - Reethigowla - Thyagaraja (R)
4. Siva chidambarame - Nagaswarali - Muttuthandavar (R,S)
5. kAyArohanEsham - dEvagAndAram - rUpakam
6. Koluvamaregadha - Thodi - T (R,N,S,T)
7. Aarukkum adangadha - Begada - Harikesanallur Muthiah Bhagavathar
8. RTP - Bhagesri - Tisra Triputa
Pallavi - "Ka Va Va Vala Va Then Pazhani malai urayu Muruga"
Ragamalika Swaras - Hameer Kalyani, Sahana, Varali, Sri
I had to leave after the Thani. Someone can fill in the rest of the songs.
Sanjay was returning to the Bay Area after two years and a good-sized crowd turned up with great expectations. After a breezy Kedaram varnam, where he handled the S-P-S phrases beautifully, he launched into Sattaleni in a sprightly manner. Sanjay's expert handling of vivadhi ragas has been widely discussed here and I shall refrain from singing his glory on that aspect here. Suffice it to mention that as someone who enjoys vivadhi ragas, I loved the way he projected the raga rather than just going up and down the scale.
The Reetigowla alapana that followed next had the right 'pidis' (phrases?) and Nannu Vidachi was rendered well. I like his exposition of this krithi better than the other Reetigowla krithis that I've heard him sing. I would love to say that the Nagaswarali alapana was awesome but can't since I didn't recognize the raga, having never paid close attention to the filler (Sripathe niPada)s
![Wink ;-)](./images/smilies/icon_e_wink.gif)
The krithi list matched very closely with his Hyderabad concert in May. After he started Thodi, my interest wavered. Unpredictability is one of the aspects I enjoy in Sanjay's music and to see the concert list reproduced was a bit of letdown. But the artist is not to blame, given his tight schedule and also the fact that I was not present in the other concert. Moving on from my whining, I actually enjoyed the Thodi alapana which had a different hue to it. The neraval was good but seemed to have been cut short. The swara prastharas had some interesting passages with a few kanakkus centered around M P D. I will not embarass myself further by discussing about the thani but again, as with the other parts of the concert, it had the right phrases and Venkatesh did a fine job of keeping the tempo alive.
Sanjay brought out his famed Bhagesri RTP next and showed us why it had become popular . He deftly managed to retain the delicate nature of the raga without Hindustanizing it and not moving away from his alapana-rendering style. The thanam and the pallavi were good. As with the neraval, the Pallavi was rationed inexplicably. A note about Nagai Muralidharan's playing. In my opinion, it was probably not his day. The violin sounded squeaky at times and his responses were nothing to write home about.
I had to leave at this point having made other plans for the evening. Overall, it was a satisfying concert in my opinion but definitely not the best of the season. The best was probably TM Krishna's followed closely by Mysore Nagaraj and Manjunath two weeks back.