Vocal : Abhishek Raghuram
Violin : Vittal Ramamurthy
Mrudangam : N C Bharadwaj
Gnjira : G Guruprasanna
List:
01 tyAgarAja gurum AshrayE – kEdAram – rUpakam – M D R ( S )
02 budhamAshrayAi satatam – nATakurinji – mishra jhumpa – Dikshitar
03 ennaDO rakSincitE – saurAStram – Adi – Thyagaraja ( O )
04 nI bhajana gAna – nAyaki – Adi – Thyagaraja ( A-vocal,S )
05 suguNamulE – cakravAkam – rUpakam – Thyagaraja ( O,S )
06 durmArga carAdhamulanu – ranjani – rUpakam – Thyagaraja ( A )
07 rAkA shashivadana – takka – Adi – Thyagaraja ( A-vocal )
08 nijamuga nI mahimulu – sahAna – Adi – Thyagaraja ( A,Nx2, S,T )
neraval @ ‘bhajana sEyu maNi palikiri dAni’
and @ ‘buddhiyanu talli nI viSaya viTulaku’
09 sItAnAyaka shrtajana pOSaka – rItigauLa – mishrachAp – Thyagaraja
10 balamu kulamu – sAvEri – Adi – Thyagaraja
11 gItArthtHamu – suruTTi – Adi x 2 – Thyagaraja
12 nI nAma rUpamulaku – saurAStram – Adi – Thyagaraja
On the ‘Thyagaraja Aradhana Day’, you cant give a better tribute to the Vaggeyakara, than what was offered by Abhishek, yesterday at the Gayana Samaja.
He was in an exploratory mood yesterday. Despite stretching my limits, at many times, I thought he gave a splendid concert. Started off with MDRs salutations to the Guru – an apt way on this specific day followed by the ‘vAra kriti’ of Dikshitar. The rest was all the way of Thyagaraja. Many of the shorter alapanas were done only by him, starting with nAyaki. First major ‘break out’ happened with the chakravakam swaras, some brilliant takes and a tremendous karvai to finish. Percussion duo, lead by Bharadwaj, reproduced the same in his ‘theermanam’ to conclude. I loved that.
Ranjani alapana ( and the kriti) was done in a changed shruti and sounded very different. Nice little alapana of Takka was also interesting, but difficult to decipher ( beyond a janya of Mayamalavagaula ) while it was sung.
The evening belong to the grand sahana. Very loooooong alapana, stretching in every possible way, many a times beyond the ‘comforts’ of my sahana imagination, but again bringing out some of the beautiful sahana phrases that I am familar with. Which is why, I repeated it as an exploratory mood of the artist. I was expecting a Giripai to come. Very surprised with the choice of the kriti, listening for the first time in a concert. Detailed neraval at two places, at the anupallavi and the first line of charanam’ one after the other, both superbly done. Fabulous swara prasthana too. N C Bharadwaj and Guruprasanna were on sublime form. The Tani Avartanam was very very good.
Brain Drain 
Rajeev Siddhan
February 12, 2020 at 10:45 am
Hi Jayan, Do you happen to have a recording of this concert ?
Someone
January 20, 2020 at 11:07 pm
Once Ariyakkudi was invited to perform in the marriage of a very rich zamindar, who owned a fleet of majestic, awe inspiring cars like studebaker, chevrolet, chrysler, desoto etc One of the big cars was sent to pickup Ariyakkudi. In those days It was a status symbol to arrange Ariyakkudi’s kutcheri, though many of them knew nothing about music. At the end of the performance , just to impress Ariyakkud, the zamindar said ‘Swami, there is a marked improvement in your performance,since the last time I heard you. Ariyakkudi replied ‘Zamindar val. I have been singing like this for the past 20 years,. Your gnanam has improved considerably”.
Kiran
January 17, 2020 at 5:50 pm
“Very loooooong alapana, stretching in every possible way, many a times beyond the ‘comforts’ of my sahana imagination”….. This is why some times I don’t attend Abhishek’s concerts because he is doing some “out of syllabus phrases” :-). I am yet to cover/digest all the currently popular phrases (i.e existing syllabus) of those raagas”. I love his brilliance etc and hope one day would be in a stage to appreciate all he delivers in a ragaa. I once heard his Pantu Varaali (a raaga I love) alaapana and for all those 10 minutes I couldn’t tell with certainty if it was Pantu varaali !!
But I will attend more of his in the coming months/years.