The third item was a lovely shanmukhapriyA. I also heard a very well-rendered paramapurusham in lalitha panchamam (which rang in my ears the next day) and a very good kambodhi alapana. Sandip started the post-thani session with "meypporuL kaNDu". When he asked "tEngayppAl EdukkaDi?" (why do you need coconut milk?), my stomach growled in reminder of the delicious green curry I had in Bengaluru a few days ago. I was getting hungry. The concert ended shortly thereafter. To my surprise, my limbs were in working order. The previous time I attended a concert here, a backless chair troubled me. I shudder to think what havoc the next concert here will wreak.
I experienced the rest of the season from the relative comfort of my armchair, sabha-hopping on YouTube from Madhuradhwani to Mudhra to Parivadini with an occasional foray to Ragamalika TV and mdnd.in, which presented some ticketed concerts from Narada Gana Sabha at $15 a pop. Here is my summary.
I had my fill with 25 concerts spanning over 200 songs and 110 unique ragams (not counting those in ragamalika pieces).
7 shankarabharanams, 5 bEgadas, kalyAnis, nAttais, and rItigaulas.
4 RTPs (khamas, hindolam, dwijavanthi, pUrvikalyAni).
3 neravals at uncommon lines.
2 kalAnidhis (not a concert by the Lalgudi siblings but of the chinna nAtana variety).
1 four-hour concert.
Only three songs in common to multiple concerts: the chArukEsi varnam by Lalgudi G. Jayaraman, both in Marghazhi Maha Utsavam, but chosen for different reasons, an Arabhi starter, and eppO varuvArO
Concerts I enjoyed the most
- Shruti Sagar, Sruti Sarathy, K V Prasad, and Anirudh Athreya at Madhuradhwani. The sound of his flute was heavenly. There was an excellent alapana for nItimati, followed by aravinda lOchanane, a song by Ambujam Krishna, which I have not heard before. Also loved the hindOlam and pUrvikalyAni alapanas. The second one started differently from usual renditions but was still distinctive from the first g-r-s phrase. One phase of Sruti Sarathy's alapana was just superb. I enjoyed tatvameruga taramA, which he started at the anupallavi with a big flourish and a beaming smile. The penultimate piece was a lovely item in chandrakauns. I could not identify the song.
- Kruthi Vittal, Sruthi Sarathy, S. J. Arjun Ganesh, and Prasanna Hariharan at Mudhra. The sub-main in subhapanthuvarali was very good followed by Mysore Vasudevacharya's paripAhimAm sri dasaratE, a song I have not heard before. The main piece was EthavunarA with a very good alapana and an equally good response on the violin. Other items of note were shrI bhArgavi bhadram, chinnanjiru kiliyE kannammA tuned in a different set of ragams, and a thillana in karnaranjani.
- Swarathmika Srikanth, Sreelakshmi Bhat, Surya Nambian, and Sarvesh Shankar at Sri Thyaga Brahma Gana Sabha (Vani Mahal). I have loved her music ever since a rave review at rasikas.org sent me to her debut concert at NAda Inbam in April 2021. This concert had a vasantha alapana cut from a different cloth, somewhat poignant and not the usually happy version. Both the alapana and the swarams in vijayanAgari were top notch! The main ragam was shankarAbharanam. The alapana was excellent from both Swarathmika and Sreelakshmi. It was a pity that this one was a 90 minute concert. This supremely talented singer deserves a longer slot.
- Swarathmika Srikanth at Naada Inbam, again with Sreelakshmi Bhat and Suriya Nambisan. Swarathmika and Sreelakshmi make a potent combination. An outstanding sarasAngi and hamsAnandi. Another shankarAbharanam, which seemed different from the one in Vani Mahal, although I have not heard both back to back to confirm.
- Anahita and Apoorva Ravindran at Madhuradhwani. Excellent elaborations of chandrajyothi and sarasangi. The kalpana swarams were top notch, especially in chandrajyothi. Anahita's imagination was outstanding at times.
- Sriranjani Tapasya Santhanagopalan, Kamalakiran Vinjamuri, Sumesh Narayan, and Anirudh Athreya at Narada Gana Sabha. I had to wait till the last day of the year for a concert by her, when there were two available with the other one at Margazhi Maha Utsavam. This one had a lovely alapana of nalinakAnthi, showcasing the range of her voice and exquisite control. Kamalikiran's reply was also very good, but with a different shade of the ragam. Not the lively mood I associate with it but a more sombre and reflective one. The main piece was an excellent kAmbOdhi. A slow and unhurried elaboration with an equally good violin return. The song was O rangashAyI with a very good neraval at the usual bhUlOka vaikuNTham line.
Other highlights
- Kharaharapriya alapanas by R Suryaprakash at Madhuradhwani and Gayathri Venkaraghavan at Narada Gana Sabha. I find this ragam boring and most renditions cut from the same cloth. But I vividly remember an "exotic" alapana by S. Sowmya in 2020 at the Music Academy (quotes because I am using an adjective from a rasikas.org post) which opened my eyes to this ragam. These alapanas were close to that one.
- The silken transitions during the ragamalika swarams in Vignesh Ishwar's concert executed by him and R K Sriramkumar from khamas (the main ragam) to nIlAmbari to Ananda bhairavi to kuntalavArali and back to khamas.
- Sruti Sarathy's playing was a revelation. She outshone Shruti Sagar at times. There was one phase in the Poorivkalyani alapana to which I will return.
- So was Kamalakiran Vinjamuri's playing. He outshone Kruthi Vittal at times in Parivadini.
- In general, the current crop of young violinists is very talented. Shraddha Ravindran, Sreelakshmi Bhat, Gayatri Sivani, to name a few.
- An unheard charanam with a neraval in shankari shamkuru. Gayatri Venkaraghavan sang the charanam that begins with "jambupati vilAsini jagadavannOlAsini". Looking up the lyrics, people normally skip this and the next charanam, jumping directly to "shyama krishna sOdari".
- Vignesh Ishwar's neraval at nityakalyANIm kAtyAyinIm for kamalAmbAm bhajarE. Most renderings I have heard of this song eschew a neraval.
- A thillana in ratipatipriya composed by T V Gopalakrishnan that Amrutha Venkatesh sang at Margazahi Maha Utsavam. She also sang iniyA, a ragam created by him, at this concert. It is chalanata without a rishabam in the arohanam. I have heard her sing this ragam once before at the beginning of the year.
- Kalpana swarams for bhairavam sung by T V S Mahadevan for a 4-hour concert at Mudhra to commemorate his father T V Sankaranarayanan's 80th birth anniversary,
- A virutham in priyadarshini composed by TVS and sung by T V S Mahadevan, followed by a song in this ragam composed by the son. I read on rasikas.org that R. Suryaprakash sang an RTP in this ragam at Parthasarathy Swami Sabha.
- Chittaswarams in vijayambikE sung by Swarathmika Srikanth at Vani Mahal. I don't recall hearing chittaswarams in other renditions of this song
- An alapana in kalAvati (a la Thyagaraja) sung by V. Subashri at Naada Inbam. I had read @rajeshnat's review earlier so I knew to look out for it. I remember Ramakrishnan Murthy's kalAvathi RTP at the Madrasana concert in 2020. Just like him, she sang the Dikshithar kriti in kalAvati/yAgapriyA next.
- sundaramurthim AshrayAmi, a song in takka sung by Vijay Siva at Margazhi Maha Utsavam by Muthuswami Dikshitar. Till then I had heard only rAka sasivadanA in this ragam. To my ears, the two treatments of takka sound about the same.
- Spoorthi Rao and Vishwas Hari (whom I am hearing for the first time) presented a thematic concert on "Vaadhya vinodamu" at Margazhi Maha Utsavam in celebration of all the musical instruments that are the soul of classical music. In 90 minutes, they succeeded in including a ragam, tanam, krithi. For mInAkSi mE mudam dEhi, they performed a neraval at an unusual line but one that was in keeping with the theme: vINAgAna dasha gamakakriyE, which apparently means "one who can play 10 types of gamakams on the veena".
- Sitting by the stage had its perks. Even as my limbs were going numb, my eyes lighted on the kanjira during the thani avarthanam.. Since I was sitting to the left of the artistes from their perspective, I could see the back side of the kanjira. It was mesmerising to see the shadow of the Anirudh Athreya's hand and fingers through the head of the kanjira as he played.
- The GNB-like phrases in Nandita Krishnan's Kalyani alapana reminded me of his alapana for sivakamEshwarIm in an LP my parents used to play when I was growing up (when I couldn't distinguish between that ragam and the Todi on the flip side or any other ragam for that matter).
- Suryaprakash saying "enga vadhyar sangathi" (my teacher's sangathi) during a kharaharapriya alapana.
- Hearing his rItigaula swarajati, which has been praised on these pages.
- The volume level on occasion in Sandip's concert, not aided by mridangam reaching Jasonesque-levels (bringing to mind a memorable post). I didn't enjoy his sped-up version of eppO varuvArO either. 2 Fast 2 Furious.
- An awful apaswaram in a Hindolam alapana during a short RTP by a vidushi.
- An obvious instance of the singer forgetting lyrics and later on in the concert changing the complexion of suddha sAvEri completely by singing a durga-like madhyamam during the swarams.
- I was disappointed by the ordinariness and shakiness of the voices of many youngsters. One of them lost steam in the first item itself. Their voices are not pleasant in the lower octave. Horror of horrors, some of them go off shruthi early in the concert and often. I could not hear them for more than a minute or two.
- Of course, this malady is endemic, plaguing many older vocalists as well, some of whom I noticed only this year. One singer in the early 30s lost shruthi in the middle of three different alapanas. It was only for a second or two each time but it was noticeable and jarring.
- Some artistes were elusive. I could not hear Abhishek Raghuram, Ramakrishnan Murthy, N J Nandini, Jayanthi Kumaresh online. I had to make do with some mind-blowing snippets of the first two on Instagram.
- My Instagram feed was replete with music. I especially enjoyed posts by Pramod Kumar (@gkumarpramod).
- Yet to come are the concerts in Charsur's vodcast in the first half of January. I am also eagerly looking forward to hearing Swarathmika/Sreelakshmi/Suriyan when they tour the USA in spring 2026 so that I can hear them perform live; so far I have heard her only online. I hope they come to a city close to where I live!