Venue: Raga Sudha Hall, Luz Avenue, Mylapore, Chennai
Date: 06 Oct 2006
Vocal: Gayathri Venkatraghavan
Violin: Amritha Murali
Mridangam: T.K. Ramakrishnan
List of songs:
1) srI kAmAkshI – sArangA – Adi – annaswAmi sAstri
2) nijamukha rAmA – kIravANi – Adi – rAmanAthapuram srInivAsa iyengAr
3) ninnu sEvinchina – yadukula kAmbOji – misra chApu – subbarAya sAstri
4) appan avadharitha – karaharapriya – Adi – pApanAsam sivan
5) mAyammA – nAttakurinji – Adi – syAma sAstri
6) pibarE rAmarasam – yamunA kalyANi – Adi – sadAsiva brahmendra
7) pavamAna (mangaLam) – sOwrAshtram – Adi – thyAgarAja
The concert was a musical homage to famous music critic Sri K.S. Mahadevan who passed away recently. Smt Gayathri Venkatraghavan said the kritis she sang were a few among those that Sri Mahadevan used to like a lot. She sang most of the kritis in a slow tempo and looked totally immersed in the beauty of the songs while rendering them. Bhrigas seem to come to her naturally without much of an effort (or may be it is an outcome of the hard work and practice she must have put in) and she made good use of them at key places. She did not sing any elaborate rAga AlapanAs, neraval or kalpana swarams. She just sang the kritis as her way of paying homage to the departed soul in whatever limited time was available following the condolence meeting that had been organized in which many eminent musicians participated.
Ramkumar R 