Venue: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan Main Auditorium, East Mada St., Mylapore, Chennai

Date: 29 Nov 2006

Organizer: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan & Kala Pradarshini

Vocal: Sri P.Unnikrishnan

Violin: Sri S. Varadarajan

Mridangam: Sri Srimushnam Raja Rao

Ghatam: Sri N. Guruprasad

List of songs:

1) sAmI nI tODI (varnam) – pantuvarALi – Adi – vINai kuppaiyer (O)

2) sarasIruhAsana – nATTai – Adi – puLiyUr doraiswAmy iyer (S)

3) nI irangAyenil – aTANA – Adi – pApanAsam sivan

4) kAmAkshI kAmakOTi – simhEndramadyamam – rUpakam – muthuswAmi dIkshitar (ANS)

5) murugA murugA – sAvEri – misra chApu – periyasAmi thUran

6) inta sOwkhya – kApi – Adi – thyAgarAja (AST)

7) dikku teriyAda – rAgamAlikA – Adi – subramaNya bhArati

8 ) rAdhA samEthA – misra yaman – Adi – ??

9) karAravindEna (viruttam) – rAgamAlikA

kalyANa gOpAlam – sindhubhairavi – kanDa chApu – nArAyaNa tIrtar

10) eppO varuvArO – jOnpuri – Adi – gOpAlakrishna bhArati

11) kurai onrum illai – rAgamAlikA – Adi – c.rAjagOpAlachAri

12) puLLi kaLAbamayil – kAvaDi chindu – Adi – aNNAmalai reDDiyAr

13) vijayagOpAlatE (mangaLam) – suruTTi – Adi – nArAyaNa tIrtar

(Key: O=raga outline, A=raga alapana, N=neraval, S=kalpana swaram, T=taniavartanam)
Detailed raga alapanas were done only for simhEndramadyamam and kApi. Both these alapanas were very well done by Sri Unnikrishnan and later elucidated succinctly and in a very beautiful fashion on the violin in less than half the time by Sri S. Varadarajan. Sri Unnikrishnan showed some very good prayogas in these alapanas. When Sri Unnikrishnan sang “nI irangAyenil” and then started the simhEndramadyamam alapana, it looked as though he is going to sing the songs from his earlier commercial recording release “Anandam” one by one. But luckily, he didn’t sing “unnai allAl” and took up “kAmAkshi kAmakOTi”. I was also relieved when he took up kApi for the main piece and was happy I didn’t have to hear him sing karaharapriyA again, which has been kind of his favorite these days. He has sung almost the same karaharapriyA alapana with graha bhedam done using rishabam, gAndhAram and madhyamam as shadjam one after the another in many of his concerts now. I have heard two of those concerts in Chennai itself in the last 2 months. I heard from a friend of mine that he repeated the same thing in a concert in Delhi a few days back.

Sri Varadarajan on the violin proved why he is one of the best violin accompanists in the field today. He was clearly a class apart. Sri Srimushnam Raja Rao on the mridangam was his usual self, blasting his way to glory at times while playing with sowkhyam for the most part. Sri N. Guruprasad on the ghatam was allowed to prove his mettle (in fact I must say allowed to play the ghatam) only in the taniavartanam which comprised of the chatusra and the kanDa naDais.