Bangalore S Shankar @ Essae Music Foundation , 18th Dec 2022

Violin : Avaneeswaram S R Vinu

Mrudangam : TR Sundaresan

Ganjira : A S N Swamy

List

01 ninnu kOriyunnAnurA ( varNam) – mukhAri – Adi – Mysore Vasudevachar

02 vinAyaka ninnuvinA brOcuTaku – hamsadhwani – Adi – E V Ramakrishna Bhagavathar ( A,N,S )

neraval & Swaras @ ‘parama krpA sAgarA varasuguNA

03 shrI venkaTesham bhajAmi satatam – kalyANavasantam – rUpakam – Ambi Dikshitar ( A )

04 heccariga rArA – yadukula kAmbOji – khaNDa chAp – Thyagaraja

05 shrI venkaTesham vAram cintayAmi – thODi – rUpakam – Poochi Srinivasa Iyengar (A,N,S)

neraval & Swaras @ mArajanakam mAdhava nAmakam

06 venkaTa shaila vihAra – hamIr kalyANi – Adi – Dikshitar

07 sAmOdam cintayAMi – shuddha dhanyAsi – mishra chAp – Swathi Thirunal ( O,N,S )

neraval & Swaras @ ‘ syAnandura nagari shObhAyamAna gEham’

08 sharaNu shAradE vANi – karNaranjani ? – khaNDa chAp – His Own Composition ?

09 raghuvarA nannu – pantuvarALi – Adi – Thyagaraja ( A,N,S,T )

neraval & Swaras @ ‘manasuna nIki maruLu konnAnu

10 shLOkam ( sapta prakAra madhyE ) – kEdAragauLa, sAvEri , kApi, bhAgEshrI

sAgara shayana vibhO – bhAgEshrI – Adi – M D Ramachandran

11 tirupati girivAsa shrInivAsa – yamunAkalyANi – Adi – ?

12 mArajanaka chaturAnana (mangaLam) – sindhu bhairavi – Adi – ??

An absolutely stunning concert by Vid Shankar and the team. His music has the quality that is traditional, yet a freshness that is uniquely attractive. Be it his class in singing neravals ( there will be 3-4 in a concert) or the clarity of diction, or the way he brings out the musical essence of the composition and raga, or the selection of compositions – I like his presentation and concerts immensely.

Some of the high points were the Mukhari varnam, kalyanavasantam alapana ( especially by Vinu) , almost all the neravals, the thodi alapana ( goosebump moments with that fabulous start – musiri’s alapana for endu dAginAdO like) , pantuvarali alapana of Vinu and the beautiful ragamalika shlokam preceding sAgara shayana vibho.

Personally that thOdi was the piece de resistance. The alapana stood out. I’ve heard him sing this before, but this alapana was special ( too many tch tch or gasping in awe sounds all around me ). The swaras singing ‘ sA,ri ga,mArajanakam’ etc were really brilliant. Vinu’s pantuvarALi alapana also caused similar response from the audience. He was awesome in his turn.

Sundaresan and ASN Swamy played a two stage tani avartanam, splendidly. Arguably the best I’ve seen of ASN Swamy play.

Fabulous concert by the team, well organised by PRakash and Family under their Essae Music Foundation banner.