Day 5 - Madras Music Season - OS Arun/Priya Sisters

OS Arun (stayed only for half concert). Concert was at Bharath Kalachar. Got very bad seats. The burnt oil smell (or should I say stink!) from the canteen wafted too strongly for comfort. Disgusting, and distracting.

• Ok crowd.
• Ghana ragam was Kalyani. He was experimenting something - mixed in a few other ragams. In my humble opinion, they did not mix well.

Priya Sisters. Concert was at Parthasarathy swamy Sabha - Bheemasena Garden Street - off Luz.

• Concert was awesome. Very fast paced. Good selection of songs.
• The elder sister had a bad throat, and there were some times, when she struggled. But other than those times, the concert was very enjoyable.
• Sujanajeevana (Kamas) and Soundararajam (brindavana saranga) was highly enjoyable.
• The next day was Arudra Dharshanam - so they sang a kriti on Mylai Kapaleeswarar (Nambi kettavar evvarum illai) - Hindolam - one of my favourite raagams.
• For the ghana ragam - it was Mohana Rama (Mohanam) - very well sung. A long time, since I heard Mohanam being picked as a ghana ragam.
• Then they shifted into bhajanai mode (for the mylapore maami's who were the overwhelming majority in the crowd - I even wondered if the entire sanskrit college crossed the road and came to the concert). A neat fast paced kriti - Matsya Kurma Varaha was sung to set the stage.
• Sree Chakra Raja Simhasaneswari was beautiful. One of my favourite songs as well. But then, the master of this song - Maharajapuram Santhanam - is no more!
• Jo acchuthananda (nilambari) - put us all into a somniferous state - with the entire mami population - swaying.
• There was also a nice Kabir bhajan - chadhariya - fast paced and nice.
• All in all, a very entertaining concert.
• Canteen was also good - had a plate of bonda - very tasty.