T.N.Seshagopalan at Parthasarathy Sabha

I had to battle the traffic to reach Vidhya Bharathi today for T.N.Seshagopalan's 6:30 pm concert. I managed to reach just in time and hurried into a parking slot in the one of the lanes. As I sat down the curtains were just going up to reveal the smiling maestro and his accomplished team, M.Chandrasekaran on the Violin, Mannargudi Eswaran on the mridangam.

The concert started off well with the varnam Ninnu kori followed by "Rajagopalam bhaje". The maestro then started of on the aalapana of Khamas , recognized thanks to the popular "Broche va" in movie Sankarabharanam. And what and aalapana it was! the kalapana swaras just seemed to be flowing endlessly. It was as if he was making garland after garland out of the swaras and offering them to Lord Vishnu. "Sarasa Dhala nayanaa sankata haranaa" was the song. I have always loved Khamas and this composition and the rendition were sublime.

The next song was the third song in Andal's Thiruppavai, "Ongi Ulagalandha", today being the third day of Margazhi. There was a prelude sung to that which praised andal's tamil which was touching.

The ragam chosen for the main song was Subha Panthuvarali. Before you get any ideas, the alapana had shades of the Ilayaraja song "Vaigarayil vaigaikarayil" which is one of my favourites and I have heard from my uncle that it is set in this ragam. I think it takes years to understand a raga and that experience really stood out in his Subha Pantuvarali main song. The song was "Sri Satyanarayanam Upasmahe". Learnt from Wikipedia that it is a composition by Muthuswamy Dikshithar.

"Sri Parthasarathy Nannu Paalimparadha" the next song made me nostalgic and had me in tears. This was one of my mother's favourite songs and she used to sing it almost every time, out of love for both the reigning deity of Triplicane and her dearest son she had named after him.

M.Chandrasekaran on the Violin was really enjoying every improvisation and was quite vocal about his appreciation. There are only some people gifted enough to make the violin talk and follow the vocalist. Kunnakudi is one of them. M.Chandrasekaran also has that gift. In the middle of one of the swara improvisations, he said "idha padarathum kashtam, vaasikarathum kashtam" but went on to play it and it was a treat to the ears. I liked the way he nodded his head and acknowledged every time there was an applause from the audience.

Mannargudi Easwaran is an accomplished and sought after Mridangist and B.S.Purushothaman on the Ganjira was also up to task. The two percussionists enjoyed each other's company and the result was a great Tani.

Loved every moment of the concert and hated missing the last few songs. It has been 2 days in Parthasarathy Sabha now and am yet to visit to the canteen. Maybe tomorrow I will have time for a Chocolate Dosa at the canteen run by Mount batten mani:-)