Gems of Tyagaraja- 1

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Saint Tyagaraja is very well known to all Carnatic Music Lovers.Telugu enthusiasts especially and to some extent some of Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada folks are acquinted with the beautiful Telugu compositions of this prodigal music composer of the 17th Century.
And when it is rendered by Smt M S Subbalakshmi, there is an extra bit of magic associated with the songs.

I bought a 3-CD set of MS amma rendered Tyagaraja compositions called the "Gems of Tyagaraja".I have bought the entire set for one song, "Nagumomu Kanaleni", a divine composition in the Abheri raga. It is astounding and I kept playing the song in my car from office to home and back, which was about 5 mins in duration.
Recently I started listening to others as well, since back in India, travel time increased manifold (from 5 mins in US to about 90 mins here!!).
I discovered some even more amazingly divine songs, two of which are:
1) Ninnu Vina Naa Madendu (in Navarasa Kanada raga) and
2) Venu Gana Loluni Kana Veyyi Kanulu Kaavalene ( in Kedara Gowla raga).
I just get mesmerized whenever I listen to these and feel like getting transported to Vaikuntha through this medium.Hats off to MS amma and many many salutes to the one and only Tyagaraja.

-Siddartha Pamulaparty
Dec, 2008.

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