AndyMusicBlog-thodi

Read in today's Hindu that veteran singer and guru Smt. Anathalakshmi Sadagopan passed away in Chennai at the age of 85. One of the earliest recordings of hers which I have listened to (along with my grandma) was of Chatur ragamalika pallavi in Shankarabharanam, Thodi, Kalyani and Durbar and a Hindi bhajan (forget the raga). Smt Anathalakshmi learnt from a host of veterans including Sathur A.G.Subramaniam, Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, Nedunuri Krishnamurthy, V.V.Sadagopan and Smt. T.Muktha. She was also trained in Hindustani music by Pandit Wamanrao Sadolikar of Jaipur Atrauli Gharana. (He was a direct disciple of Ustad Alladiya Khan Saheb, the founder of Jaipur Gharana.) She also was a tunesmith and tuned many of Ambujam Krishna's compositions. Her students include her daughter (Smt Sujata Vijayaraghavan), nephew Madurai R. Sundar and grand-daughters. I don't possess too many of her recordings but one that I really love and have listened to multiple times is her Charsur...

74th SREE RAMAVNAVAMI CELEBRATIONS Fort High School Ground 1st April 2012 to 06th May 2012 Note : all concerts are ticketed. Tichet Rates and availability is not know to me. Will update as soon as I have some details. 01.Apr   Sun  6:00pm  Inauguration 6:45pm   Kadri Gopalnath( Saxaphone) / Kanyakumari / B Harikumar/ Rajendra Nakod / B Rajasekhar 02.Apr   mon 5:15pm    Arjun Srivatsan& R Narayanan(keyboard) & Party 6:30pm   M S Sheela/Dr Jyothsna Srikanth/ S Ashok / Sukanya Ramgopal 03 Apr Tue 5:15 pm   Abhishek N S & Party 6:30pm  Hyderabad Brothers/ Delhi sundararajan / Trivandrum Balaji / B N Chandramouli 04 Apr Wed 6:30 pm  K J Yesudas/ Mahadeva Sarma/ Tiruvarur Bhaktavatsalam/ Tripunithura Radhakrishnan 05 Apr Thu 5:15 pm   H S Bhavya (Veena) & Party 6:30 pm  Sudha Raghunathan & Party 06 Apr Fri 5:15 pm  Vandana B...

The next concert we attended was of Hyderabad brothers at ParthasArathi Sabha. Some details for those who didn't read my blog last year. This sabha was founded in 1900 and is the oldest music Sabha in Madras. It seems to be caught in a time warp - old auditorium, tall fans, not too great acoustics . Wonderful pictures of Lord Parthasarathy at the venue. Vocal: Hyderabad Brothers Violin: S. Varadarajan Mridangam: Karaikudi Mani Khanjira: N Amrith 01. kanjadalAyadAkshi - kamalAmanOhari - Dikshithar - Adi - Crisp rendition. 02. samayamidE nannu brOva (S @ pallavi) - kEdAram - MDR? - rUpakam 03. nI paramA nAma (sketch, S @ pallavi) - Ananda bhairavi - St. Thyagaraja- Adi 04. sogasujUda tharamA - kannada gowLa - St. Thyagaraja- rUpakam 05. pAmarajana pAlini (R, N @ kAmikAntha paladAyini, S) - simmhEndramadhyamam - Dikshithar - rUpakam 06. palukuTEchE palamEni (short sketch) - phalamanjari - St. Thyagaraja- rUpakam 07. vidajAlathurA - janaranjani - Ad...

We had decided to meet up at the Music Academy at 8.30 to pick up daily tickets for Bombay Jayashree's concert. We bought the tickets and realised that even if had arrived 10 mins later than we did,all the tickets would have been sold out. Bombay sisters were singing at the Academy in the morning. Listened to their Ritigowla and found their voices pleasant ( after a long long time. ) Met my friend KumAran from Charsur Digital Workstation and he talked about Sanjay's concert at Krisha GAna Sabha being excellent. I bought the new Paddhati CDs of Sangeeta KalAnidhi Palakkad KVNarayanaswamy which contained a Navaratri Mandapam concert of his (all Swathi Tirunal compositions.) We then went to Bharat KalAchar to listen to veteran vocalist Parassala B PonnamAL. (Excerpt from an earlier blog post of mine : Parassala PonnamALis one of Semmagudi SrinivasIyer's senior disciples and blessed with a rich, deep and sweet voice which belies her age. (She is almost 85) My grandma was an a...

I was in Chennai last weekend for attending Carnatic music concerts during the December season, 2008. We left from Bangalore on 24th December and reached Madras (aka Chennai) on 25th morning. I'd taken along printouts of the concert schedules from 25th to 28th. As in 2007, I had a tough time deciding on which concerts to attend as various Sabhas host concerts of front ranking artistes simultaneously. I was slightly sad that I couldn't attend any concerts of Vijay Shiva and Vedavalli mami as they had no concerts scheduled during this time-frame. The first concert I attended was at The Madras Music Academy.The Music Academy auditorium named after TTKrishnamachari has excellent acoustics with Bose Speaker systems and paintings of Purandaradasa , the Trinity and Swathi Tirunal by S.RAjam adorn its walls. Prof. T.N.Krishnan was scheduled to play at 9.15 AM and arrived at the venue a little late. He was accompanied on the violin by his daughter Viji Krishnan and son Sriram Krishnan...

Vocal : Sanjay Subrahmanyan Violin : H K Venkatram Mridangam : Tumkur Ravishankar KhanjirA : Guruprasanna 01.) jalajAkshi ninne ( varNam) - chakravAkam - Patnam Subramanya Iyer - Adi Talam 02.) tyAgarAja gurum AshrayE - kEdAram - M D Ramanathan - Rupakam Heard this Kriti in a live concert for the first time. (Last heard this kriti in a vintage MDR rendition). Being highly innovative, Sanjay always chooses to do something novel in his Kucheris. 03.) MandAri - Brilliant Alapanai by Sanjay- paralOka bhayamu -St. Thyagaraja - Adi tALam.Neraval & swarAms @ ‘dEva lOkamani tannukollulO tyAgarAjanuta’ 04.) kAntimati annai nI gati - kAnaDa -Adi Talam - PApanAsam Sivan. Another kriti which people have rarely rendered in concerts. mahArAjapuram Santhanam used to sing this kriti with great fervor and Sanjay's rendition reminded me Santhanam's kAntimati.