Muthuswamy Dikshitar - Vande Meenakshi - Western Note

A huge fan of Dikshitar's Western Notes, Prince Rama Varma was one of the first performing musicians from South India to include a Dikshitar Nottuswaram in almost all his concerts, giving them the same level of respect, attention and loving care that he gives much bigger and heavier compositions like Maharaja's Thodi Pada Varnam or Shyama Sastri's Bhairavi Swarajathi. Here he brings us a relaxed, playful and enchanting version of Vande Meenakshi, on Goddess Meenakshi of Madurai, with beautiful accompaniment by Sri S.Varadarajan, Sri S.J.Arjun Ganesh and Dr.S.Karthick. Despite the not too great audio quality of the recording, we get a glimpse of the range and depth of Varmaji's magnificent baritone voice. I keep wishing that he would make a few CDs of his unaccompanied singing, which is just Out of the world!