Vocal Concert by Arun Mahadevan at IISc

At Choksi hall, IISc organised, by Samskrta Sangha of IISc on 2nd January 2010.
Vocal: Arun Mahadevan
Violin: Satyaprakash K R
Mridangam: Balakrishna

01. varna - valachi - Adi - lAlguDi jayarAman
02. mumuchuvEnirAma - darbAr - rUpaka
03. shrIsatyanArAyaNa - shubhapantuvarALi - rUpaka - dikshitar
04. mOhana AlApa - rArArAjiva lOchana - Adi - mysUru vAsudevAchAr
05. aTukAdarA - manOranjani - Adi -
06. bhairavi - AlApa - lalite shrI- Adi- thyagarAja
07. bEhAg - irakkam - rUpaka
08. jagadoddhArana - kApi - Adi - Purandaradasaru
09. tillAna - mOhanakalyANi
10. mangalam

Review: 

Arun Mahadevan -  a BE student gave a good concert at IISc. He is trained under O S Thyagarajan and T R Subramanian. The concert started with a varnam in valachi. This was follwed by a short AlApa in darbAr and mumuchuvEnirAma. The main item was bhairavi and the sub-main was mOhana. It was nice to hear Mysore Vasudevaachaar's  rArArAjIvalOchana - a krithi rarely heard these days. Yet another rare composition  aDugAna in maNoranjani was rendered with full bhAva. The main piece bharavi was rendered very well with neraval and swarakalpana at teliyani-bAluDa. Sathya on violin and Balakrishna on mridangam provided able support. Sathya's ideas were notable. Balakrishna - a student of ShreemushNam Raja Rao followed up the krithis very well with a good aesthetic sense. At no point of time mridangam sounded noisy. Arun is gifted with a very good voice and his rendering sounds effortless. He has to improve his grip on laya.

Thematic concert on the occassion of Thyagaraja Aradhana at IISc

At Satish Dhawan Auditorium, IISc. Organised, by Praharshini - a students' group of IISc on 5th January 2010.
Vocal: Vid. Manasa Nayana
Violin: Vid. Mattur Shrinidhi
Mridanga: Vid. H S Sudhindra
Ghata: Vid. Phanindra Bhaskar

01. jAnakIramaNa - shuddhasImantini - Adi - thyAgarAja (Swara@raktanaLinadaLa)
02. shrImadAdi thyAgarAja guruvaram - kalyANi - rupaka
03. rItigowLa - AlApa - sadguruswAmiki - Adi - poochi srInivasa iyyengAr
04. sItAmanohara - rAma manohari - Adi - thyAgarAja
04. shankarAbharaNa - AlApa - gurucharaNam bhajarE - Adi - vAlAjapeTe venkataramaNa bhAgavatar (nereval, swara  )
05. mangalam - lAli - kEdaragowLa -khanDachApu - thyAgarAja

Review: 

Praharshini - a students' group of IISc had organized this thematic concert on the occasion of Thyagaraja Aradhana. Vid. Manasa Nayana had chosen the compositions of thyagarAja and compositions on thyagarAja on this occasion. The concert started briskly with jAnakIramaNa. This was elaborated with kalpanAswara  at raktanaLinadaLa. The main item of the concert was shankarAbharaNa. Manasa explored this raga in great detail with AlApa, neraval and kalpanaswara. The sub-main was rIthigowLa. Violinist Mattur Srinidhi gave an apt support on violin. His AlApa and kalpanAswara were classic. Vid. Sudhindra on mridangam followed up the  krithi-s  superbly. Phanindra on Ghatam supported very well. taNi was excellent and an entertaining part of the concert. The vocalist's voice cracked at many places and was not at its best. Too many briga-s and complicated kalpanAswara-s marked the vocalist's performance in this concert.