Concert by Smt. Vasundhara Rajagopalan

Sri Lakshmi Nrisimha Swamy Seva Samathi, Hyderabad-Secunderabad organized a 5 day mega musical festival from 28th May to 1st June, 2008 at Keys Girls High School, Secunderabad. As a part of it, on 31st May 2008 carnatic vocal concert by Smt. Vasundhara Rajagopalan was organized. She was accompanied by Sri Dwaram Satyanarayana Rao on violin, Sri Nemani Somayajulu on ghatam, Sri K. Shyam Kumar on Kanjira and Sri Borra Sriram on Mridangam. I thoroughly enjoyed the concert which included the ragas Kambhoji, Vasanta Bhairavi, Kamala Manohari, Hamir Kalyani among others. Though I cannot comment on the technical aspect of the concert with my limited knowledge, I felt that the concert maintained a fine balance between the bhakthi and music.
The open air stage allowed us to enjoy the concert as the cool evening breeze added a soothing effect. Though it was partly cloudy when the concert started, it drizzled a bit only at the end of the concert. In fact, you can hear the drizzle in the background in the last but one MP3 when I was trying to run with my recorder as the rain started :).
File Photo - Courtesy: The Hindu I have recorded the concert and links to MP3 are given below. I am beginner and still learning elementary carnatic music. So please excuse me if there are any mistakes in identifying the raga or the tala or the composer. Please correct me if you find any mistakes.
Update 23rd June, 2008 - If there are any copyright issues for putting the MP3s for free download, please let me know. I will remove the access to files in that case. I am hoping that the MP3s downloaded from here are ONLY for personal use and will NOT be used for commercial purposes.
Update 29th October, 2008 - All the links are working fine.
You can download the entire concert in two zip files: file 1 and file 2.

1. Introduction (MP3)
2. Sarasija Nabha - Mayamalavagowla - Ata - Swathi Tirunal - Varnam (MP3)
3. Vishwak Senam Shreyamyaham - Kokila Priya Ragam (MP3)
4. Nee daya rada - Vasanta Bhairavi - Rupaka - Tyagaraja (MP3, Lyrics)
5. Tamil Krithi (MP3)
6. Sree RangaNathudein - Sourashtram - Rupaka - Ponniah Pillai (MP3, Lyrics)
7. Kanchadalayatakshi Kamakshi - Kamala Manohari - Adi - Mutthuswamy Dikshitar (MP3)
8. Venkata Saila Vihara - Hamir Kalyani - Adi - Subbaraya Sastri (MP3, Lyrics)
9. Antaryami Alasithi Solasithi - Kunthalavarali - Adi - Annamacharya (MP3)
10. Tamil Krithi written by Thirumangai Azhwar (MP3)
11. Maragatha Lingam - Vasantha - Muthuswamy Dikshitar (MP3)
12. Ragamalika, Thaniavarthanam (MP3)
13. Tamil Krithi (MP3)
14. Mangalam (MP3)

The Hindu gave the following review of the concert:
"Vasundhara Rajagopalan’s vocal concert ran as a routine exercise. Amiable in her manners and beautiful in structural form of music, she is an artiste of boundless curiosity, incessant diligence, of quick apprehension and tenacious memory, accurate without narrowness, and eager for novelty without inconstancy; her virtues and ability have raised her to distinction. She included in her concert ragas Mayamalavagowla, Sowrastra, Kamalamanohari, Kamboji, Vasantha and Dharmavathi, amongst which the RTP in Dharmavathi set to Khandajathi thriputa thalam displayed her scholarship."