Venue: Asthiga Samajam, Venus Colony, Alwarpet, Chennai
Date: 16 Dec 2006
Organizer: Sruthi Laya Kendra
Vocal: Vid. Ranjani & Vid. Gayathri
Violin: Smt. Nalina Mohan
Mridangam: Sri Parupalli Phalgun
Ghatam: Sri Udupi Sridhar
List of songs:
1) rAmA nIpai – kEdAram – Adi – thyAgarAja (OS)
2) manasAramati – sAramati – Adi – tanjavUr shankara iyer (O)
3) manasA yaTulO – malayamArutam – rUpakam – thyAgarAja (ANS)
4) ranganAyakam – nAyaki – Adi – muthuswAmi dIkshitar
5) saravaNabhavA – pasupatipriyA – Adi – harikEsanallUr muthiAh bhAgavatar
6) mAmava karuNaya – shanmukhapriyA – misra chApu – swAti tiruNAL (ANST)
7) kAdalAgi (viruttam) – sAvEri, hindOLam & behAg
idu thAnO tillai sthalam – behAg – Adi – gOpAlakrishna bhArati
8 ) sharaN sharaN EkanAtha (abhang) – pIlu – Adi – tukArAm
9) pavamAna (mangaLam) – sOwrAshTram – Adi – thyAgarAja
(Key: O=raga outline, A=raga alapana, N=neraval, S=kalpana swaram, T=taniavartanam)
This is the first time I am hearing the sisters live and I must say they were as impressive as they sounded in their audio releases. They sang in almost perfect unision and when required, sang individually and used the other person very well for support. For example, while singing the ending portion of the abhang in a hindustani-music-like style, they alternated between singing the base note and doing the bhrigas which had a very good effect and also allowed each one of them to easily plan and execute what they were going to sing next.
Special mention must be made of Sri Parupalli Phalgun on the mridangam who played superbly. He followed the songs very well and played with a fingering that appeared similar to Sri Pathri Satish Kumar’s.
Ramkumar R 
Hello,
Looks like a new violinist.Abhangs seem the order of the day.Wonder if future musicians would ever sing Padhams and Thillanas.
Thillanas are fairly common. I agree with you on padams though. They are a rarity.
Sathej,
Thought you might want to attend this concert today:
2.00 PM – Nirmala Sundarrajan & Subhashini Parthasarathy (Vocal – Padam & Javali concert) – Poorna Vaidyanathan (Violin) – J. Vaidyanathan (Mridangam) @ Sri Parthasarathy Swami Sabha, Vidya Bharathi, 55, Bheemasena Garden St.., Mylapore, Ph: 24991248. 28441837, 9444701446
Thank you.But,I wil not be able to make it at 2 PM.And by the way,do today’s kutcheri at MFAC by Priya Sisters is cancelled.Instead,we have Raji Gopalakrishnan with the same accompanists in the 6PM slot!Wonder what happened.
Hi Sathej,
Regarding the rarity of padams at concerts these days: I think Hyderabad brothers often sing padams at their concerts. In their concert at Brahma Gana Sabha on Dec 24, 2006, (6.30 pm), they sang one in Bhairavi. I heard an elderly lady vocalist a few months ago at a concert in Pennsylvania, saying that it requires not only mastery over the ragam, but also a delicacy of voice to sing padams properly. Padams should be sung at a slow speed to bring out not only the raagaswaroopa, but also the bhaava and meaning of the song. But the trend is towards singing everything so fast that the gamakas go out the door, and because padams do not sound well when sung fast, musicians tend to avoid singing them. Also, if sung at all, padams are sung at the end of the concerts, as if they were “tukdas”. It’s a pity. There are no tukda padams; only tukda musicians.
Yeshwanth Prabhu
Plainsboro, NJ
I appreciate them singing abhangs actually!
Hello, from Toronto, Canada
Just a quick hello from as I’m new to the board. I’ve seen some interesting comments so far.
To be honest I’m new to forums and computers in general 🙂
Mike