Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Sikkil Gurucharan at Parthasarathy Sabha


My second concert of the day was by Sikkil Gurucharan at Parthasarathy Sabha. From a veteran in the morning to a youngster who is just 30, I was somehow seeing two ends of the spectrum on the same day. With Umayalpuram Sivaraman on mridangam, T.V.K.Ramanujacharyulu on Violin and Giridhar Udupa on Ghatam, it was a high profile team accompanying Gurucharan.

After the second song, Gurucharan announced that the theme he had chosen was popular raagas but less popular krithis. Based on Dr.Sivaraman's request , he had chosen a song on Sri Thyagaraja in the raga Kalyani to start off. The song goes like "Sri Madaathi Thyagaraja guru". After a quick "Vidajaaldura", the main song was set in Thodi, "Amba nannu Brovave". The renditions of Kalyani and Thodi were really power packed. 

Dr.Sivaraman really has some magic about him. The Tani as part of the main song was exemplary, so much so that for a change, the crowd that usually leaves when the Tani starts, waited for the Tani to be over before rising with a heavy applause. There was a good contest between mridangam and ghatam and it was a rhythmic treat.

"Enna Vidham Pizhaippom" was a the first Tamil song and then there was an RTP in Sunaadha Vinodhini (as announced by Gurucharan. Hope I got it right), which was simply brilliant.

Dr. Sivaraman could not hold himself and picked up the mike to speak a few words on Gurucharan's uniqueness. "The wisdom of an old man in a young head and an amazing creativity" was what the great man had to say on Gurucharan. It was raining songs as Gururcharan went on. He ended the concert After "Kanagasabai Kanda piragor" and a thillana. The concert went on for nearly 3 hours in total and the audience was not complaining. 

Another concert for the day that ended with a standing ovation! Sikkil Gurucharan is another youngster who has taken up Carnatic music as his full time profession and he certainly holds a lot of promise!

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