Live at All India Radio

After a rather long time (6 months at least), I was back at AIR for another live program - 8:30 am to 9:30 am on 100.1 FM.

I chose three compositions - each dear to me for different reasons:

1) entha vedukontu raghava - saraswati manohari - adi - thyagaraja

2) sharade veena vadana visharade - devagandhari - adi - papanasam sivan

3) ksheenamai tiruga - mukhari - adi - thyagaraja

Entha Vedukontu has always been a kriti which I wanted to begin a concert with - but never got around to do it. It happened this time around though - sang a few swarams for the anupallavi as well. Musuri's version is just too haunting - you need quite a bit of lung power to pull it off though!!

Sharade is one of my all time favorites in Devagandhari. One concert of my guru Sri TM Krishna is still etched in my mind. 1999, DKJ Foundation anniversary celebrations at Narada Gana Sabha Mini Hall, Chennai. It was pouring cats and dogs and the entire team walked through the jam in the rain and reached the hall a few minutes late. But the Devagandhari that he sang that day and this kriti in particular is etched in my minds forever!!!

Mukhari and Ksheenamai is ofcourse one my top ten favorites!!! And each time you sing it, Semmangudi maama's passionate renditions just ring in my ears!!! What energy!! What verve!!! What a musician!!!