Venue: Sastri Hall, Luz, Mylapore, Chennai

Date: 14th Dec 2006

Organizer: SAFE

Vocal: Smt. Pantula Rama

Violin: Sri M.S.N. Murthy

Mridangam: Sri Vellore Ramabhadran

Ghatam: Sri N. Guruprasad

I reached the concert about 10 min late and left a bit early to reach Sri Karaikkudi Mani’s taniavartanam concert on time. Here is the partial song list:

* sharaNu sidhi vinAyakA – sOwrAshtram – misra chApu – purandaradAsa

* mArubalka – srIranjani – Adi – thyAgarAja (AS)

* sarasa sAma dAna – kApinArAyaNi – Adi – thyAgarAja (O)

* rAmA vishAla vikrama (viruttam) – pantuvarALi

ennagAnu rAma bhajana – pantuvarALi – rUpakam – bhadrAchala rAmdAs (NS)

* nA jIvadArA – bilahari – Adi – thyAgarAja (ANST)

(Key: O=raga outline, A=raga alapana, N=neraval, S=kalpana swaram, T=taniavartanam)

A top class concert in which the rasikas never stopped saying “sabaash” or “bale”. This is the first time I am hearing Smt. Pantula Rama live. I knew that I was in for some good quality music having listened to a few of her recordings on AIR before and quality music was what she delivered. The srIranjani alapana was, for example, pure gold.

I was left wanting for more when I had to move after the bilahari composition. Hope I do get to listen to at least to one full concert of hers this season.