The maestro and his music!

I am not sure if only I feel this way but almost every favorite artist of mine seems to give his/her best performance in venues that are not very famous and that many a times have just a handful of people attending. For example, some of the best concerts of TNS, Sanjay and TMK that I have attended have been at such venues at far flung places or at very small temples with very little publicity.

With this feeling providing me confidence, I decided to try attending the TNS concert today at Balavinayagar Temple, Warren Road, Mylapore. With TNS’ voice not in a very co-operative state in the last few concerts of his, I was not sure what to expect at this concert. To add to the discouraging factors were a poor mic system, disturbing noise from the traffic outside and smoke from the yagna earlier in the day that just seemed to linger on in the air.

To say TNS sang superbly would be an understatement. It was one of the best concerts I have heard in recent times. The kind of ideas he brought forth, be it in a raga alapana or kalpana swaram, were just unmatched. His fertile imagination seemed to know no boundaries. Whatever ragas he touched seem to turn into gold. The alapanas of hamsadhwani, malahari, shanmukhapriyA and varALi were all outstanding. The crowning glory was the RTP in varALi.

There was this feeling of contentment when the concert finally ended past 11:30 PM and I walked back totally soaked in the day’s varALi! Looking forward to the concert of another of my favorite artists – Sanjay Subrahmanyan this Sunday. Sanjay has been giving top notch concerts consistently and I am sure listeners are in for another grand treat this Sunday before he leaves on his US tour.