AndyMusicBlog-thodi

Though this is 4+ years old, I am publishing it as it was among the many drafts which I never published :( Vidushi Neela Ramagopal - vocal Vid Mysore K Srikanth - violin Vid Nanjil Arul - mridhangam 08 Nov 09, 4pm, Essae Music foundation (chamber concert) 1. vanajaksha ninne namidi (varnam) - behag - adi 2 kalai 2. mahA ganapathim - naatai - chatusra ekam - muthuswami dikshitar (s @ maha ganapathim) 3. sadA sAranga nayanE - ranjani - adi - H.Yoganarasimham (R) 4. sri sankara guruvaram - nagaswaravali - rupakam - mahA vaidhyanAtha Iyer (R, S @ sri sankara) 5. inta parAmukham Edu - puri kalyani - adi - Shankardas Swamigal (N & S at nI oru silayO en murai kEttilayO) 6. ramA niyeda - kharaharapriya - adi 2 kalai - thyagaraja (R,N & S at tana saukhyamu tAnErugaka yorukalu tanu bOdhana sukhamA, tani avarthanam) 7. manda matiyu nAnu madana janakanu ninu - Durga - kanda chapu - purandara dasa 8. RTP - behag - kanda jati triputa (2 kalai) pallavi - muruGa unai nAn mara...

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.

MallAdi brothers (SrirAm PrasAd and Ravi KumAr) Dr. Mysore M ManjunAth - Violin Arjun Kumar - mridangam N. Amruth - KhanjirA I try and attend as many concerts of Malladi brothers in Bangalore as possible ( Their gurus VidwAn Voleti Venkateshwarulu and VidwAn Nedunuri Krishnamurthy have been all time favorites at home.) MallAdi brothers commenced their concert with an Adi TAlam varnam in AnandaBhairavi. 2.) GajAnayu sadA Pada -Thodi - (not sure whose composition it is ?) - Adi 3.) NAgaswarAvali (GarudaDhwani) - Sripate - St. Thyagaraja - Adi Racked my brains over the identifying the ragam but was able to . Brilliant swarams by both of them. 4.) MukhAri - ksheenamai - St. ThyAgarajA - Adi 5.) Simhendramadhyamam - KAmAkshi KAmakoti Peetha Vasini - Dikshithar - Rupakam . Neraval and swarams at Nadabindu KalAswarupini katyayani. 6.) Vara RAga laya - Chenchu Kambojhi - St. ThyAgarajA - Rupakam . 7.) SAveri - Excellent alapanais by Ravi KumAr and Manjunath . DurusugA Kripa - Shyama Shastr...

Am back to blogging after a hiatus. There weren't too many concerts in Bangalore since last few months (and I was busy with work too.) Unnikrishnan was accompanied by Charulatha Ramanujam on the violin, senior Vidwan A.V.Anand on the Mridangam and Srisylan on the Ghatam. List of songs rendered : 1.) SAmiNeeTodi - PantuvarAli Varnam - Adi TAlam 2.) Sugunamule - Chakravakam - St. Thyagaraja - Rupakam 3.) Varali - karunayelA kanden - St. Thyagaraja - Adi I have always liked Unni's renditions of Varali. This was no exception. The only other recording of this kriti which I have listened to is by Semmangudi SrinivAsaier. 4.) Dhanyasi - bAlakrishnaPAdamalar - PApanasham Shivan - Adi 5.) BahudAri - BrovabAramA - St. Thyagaraja - Adi Exquisite alapanai by Charulatha . 6.) KirvANi - kaligi yunte - St. Thyagaraja - Adi This was boring (only a maestro like MSS or KVN can do justice to Kirvani ) and we left after listening to it for a while.While listening to Unni's concerts I have no...

Yesterday I had the rare privilege to attend a chamber concert by veteran vocalist Sangita KalAnidhi Smt. R. Vedavalli. She was accompanied by Smt. Charulatha Ramanujam on the violin and Shri Anoor A. Sarma on the Mridangam. I have always been a die-hard fan of her music (do check out older blogs of mine for more details ) and didn't want to miss this opportunity. I am attaching details of the artistes by pasting the original invite from Essae Music foundation. Vocal support was provided by her senior disciples Smt Sumitra Vasudev and Smt. Sumathi. 1.) SarasiJAkshi - Varnam in Sri RAgam 2.) Sariyevvare - Shriranjani - St. Thyagaraja - Adi 3.) Entara - Haraikambhoji - St. Thyagaraja - Adi (Neraval and swarams at SheshuduShivuniki) 4.) praNatArTiharAya namastE vara - sAmantAm Muthuswamy Dikshithar - Adi - This was the first time I heard this kriti and had to refer to my book on Dikshithar kritis on getting home to identify the rAgam. 5.) brOvavammA tAmasamElEbirAnabrOvavammA - Ma...

My tribute to vocal maestro Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer on his 100th Birth centenary. The first thought that came to my mind is that had I been born a day earlier, I would have had the privilege of sharing my birthday with this great maestro. People (musicians /his students/ critics ) have written a lot about this doyen of music who also earned the name Pita Maha of Carnatic music as he had a long innings of 70 + years as a performing artiste and lived to a ripe old age of 96. So I won't delve on these aspects. I felt that the best way of paying tribute to SSI on his birthday was by listening to a concert of his as he he will leave on for ever in the form of his music. I chose a vintage concert of his in which he is accompanied by Lalgudi G Jayaraman and Vellore Ramabhadran. I had picked this concert album released by Carnatica at the Rama Navami Festival at Fort High school ground music this year. It includes a lot of songs which SSI made famous and which one will always associate...

I attended a concert by Smt. Kalpakam Swaminathan at Bangalore Gayana Samaja yesterday morning. She is a brilliant artiste who plays the Thanjavur Bani and an acknowledged master of Muthuswamy Dikshithar Compositions. What I found more amazing is her energy and dedication to the art of Carnatic music at the age of 87. An article by Gowri Ramnarayan published in Hindu on Smt. Kalpakam Swaminathan http://www.hindu.com/fr/2007/07/27/stories/2007072750570300.htm She was accompanied by Sri Cheluvaraju on the Mridangam and a disciple of hers on another Veena. Reached the venue a little late. Listened to the following songs by her. Meenakshi Memudam Dehi - Purvikalyani , Muthuswamy Dikshithar GowliPantu- could not identify the composition. Ragam, Tanam, Pallavi - Dharmavati (It was announced later that she learnt the composition by Veena Seshanna just the day before the concert , as a tribute to the Veena maestro, which shows her greatness.) Tillana - Chenchurriti. She was conferred the pres...

Sunday 27th July, 2008 to Sunday 3rd August, 2008 - Evening Music Concerts Daily 6 PM Sunday 27th July, 2008 Sri SANJAY SUBRAMANYAM - Vocal Sri S. VARADARAJAN - Violin Sri NEYVELI B. VENKATESH - Mridangam Sri G. GURUPRASSANNA - Khanjira Monday 28st July, 2008 Sri T.M.KRISHNA - Vocal Sri H.K.VENKATRAM - Violin Sri GURUVAYUR DORAI - Mridangam Sri GIRIDHAR UDUPA -Ghatam Tuesday 29th July, 2008 Prof. T.K.KRISHNAN - Violin Sri VELLORE RAMABHADRAN - Mridangam Sri M.A.KRISHNASWAMY - Ghatam Wednesday 30th July, 2008 Sri BELLARY M.VENKATESTACHAR and M.RAGHAVENDRA - Vocal Sri MYSORE M. NAGARAJ - Violin Sri H.S.SUDHEENDRA- Mridangam Sri M.GURURAJ - Morsing Thursday 31st July, 2008 Sri T.V. SHANKARANARAYANAN - Vocal DR. MYSORE M. MANJUNATH - Violin Sri B.HARIKUMAR - Mridangam Sri B.N.CHANDRAMOULI - Khanjira Friday 1st August 2008 Sri LALGUDI J.G.R.KRISHNAN & Smt. LALGUDI VIJAYALAKSHMI (VIOLIN-DUET) Sri PATRI SATISH KUMAR - Mridangam Sri AMRUTH N - Khanjira Saturday 2nd August 2008 Smt. RANJAN...

40th MUSIC CONFERENCE AND BIRTH CENTENARY OF SEMMANGUDI SRINIVASA IYER Conference President : Bellary M Venkateshachar Theme of the Conference : Semmanugudi Experts Sessions : Monday 28th July, 2008 to Saturday 2nd August,2008 Daily 9.45 AM to 12.30 PM Monday 28st July, 2008 Semmangudi's Life and Achievements - Sangeeta Kalanidhi Dr. Sri R.K.Srikanthan Semmangudi's Research in Music - Sri. T.M.Krishna Pallavi - Bellary Venkateshachar - Demonstration - M.Raghavendra Tuesday 29th July, 2008 Semmangudi - The Ideal Guru - Sangeeta Kalanidhi Prof. T.N.Krishnan Laya Excellence in Semmangudi' music - Sangeeta Kalanidhi Vellore Ramabhadran Neraval - Smt. Neela Ramgopal Wednesday 30th July, 2008 Semmangudi - The Tunesmith - Sangeeta Kalanidhi Madurai T.N.Sheshagopalan Kucheri planning of Semmangudi - Sri. V. Subramanyam Semmangudi Bani - R.K.Padmanabha New Compositions promoted by KrishnaRaja Wodeyar IV Thursday 31st July, 2008 Social and Public Services by Semmangudi Reminis...

The Bangalore Gayana Samaja, Sri KR Road, Bangalore, 560004, Cordially invites you to the BIRTH CENTENARY OF SEMMANGUDI SRINIVASA IYER Sunday 20th July, 2008 to Sunday 3rd August,2008 40th Music Conference Conference President : Bellary M Venkateshachar Theme of the Conference : Semmanugudi Inauguration : Sunday 27th July, 2008 Experts Sessions : Monday 28th July, 2008 to Saturday 2nd August,2008 Daily 9.45 AM to 12.30 PM SADAS : Sunday 3rd August,2008 at 10 AM Conferring titles and honoring "Artistes of the Year" Sunday 20th July, 2008 to Saturday 26th July, 2008 - Daily 6 PM Sunday 20th July, 2008 RUDRAPATNAM BROS. - Sri R.N.Thyagarajan and R.N.Taranathan Smt. AKKARAI SUBBALAKSHMI - Violin Sri GURUVAYUR DORAI - Mridangam Sri B.N. CHANDRAMOULI - Khanjira Monday 21st July, 2008 Sri MALLADI BROTHERS (SRIRAM PRASAD & RAVI KUMAR) Sri H.K. VENKATRAM - Violin Sri ARJUN KUMAR - Mridangam Sri N. AMRUT - Khanjira Tuesday 22nd July, 2008 Sri. A. CHANDANKUMAR - Venu aka flute Sri G...

Conferring of Awards by Percussive Arts Centre (founded by Sangeetha Kalarathna Bangalore K. Venkatram) , Organizers of the 5 Day music festival. 1.) Palani Subramanya Pillai Memorial Centenary Award to Smt. D.K.PattamAl 2.) Palghat Maini Iyer Memorial Award to mridangam maestro Sri Madurai T.Srinivasan 3.) Bangalore K. Venkataram Memorial Award to Dr. R. Sathyanarayana 4.) H. Puttachar Memorial Award to Sri N. Vasudev 5.) PAC - CMANA Endowment Prize to Sri B.S. ArunKumar (Courtesy: Carnatic Music Association of North America) This was followed by laya VinyAsa a TAla VAdya Kucheri by Vrushti (Percussion Ensemble Of Percussive Arts Centre) directed by Anoor Anathakrishna Sharma, B.Krishna (mridangam - shadja), G.Guruprasanna (khanjira), B.S.Arun Kumar (drums), Anoor Anathakrishna Sharma (dolu /thavil), Udayraj Karpur (tabla), B.C.Manjunath (konakkol & mridangam - panchama) with M.K.Pranesh (flute) The composition was a raga malika in Kalyani, ShankarAbharanam and Shanmukhap...

Vijay Siva - vocal Charulatha Ramanujam - Violin Arjun Kumar - Mridangam Guru Prasanna - Kanjiri B.S.Arun Kumar - Morsing This concert was part of the 5 day festival organized by Percussive Arts Center Foundation. We reached the venue a bit late and came to know from a mAmi sitting beside us that we had missed the first couple of songs which were : 1. nAda tanumanisham - Chittaranjani - Adi - Saint ThyAgarAja 2. innum parAmukham eno - begadA 3. karuna judavamma in Ragam PantuvarAli (Adi 2 kalai ) by Shyama Shastri was in progress as we entered the Venue. He sang Neraval & swarams @ marakatAngi panchanadisu rani. 4. Vijay Siva sang a nice Alapanai in Yadukula Kamboji. Since it was a Saturday, I assumed he would sing Dikshithar Navagraha Kriti. He did just that. After a befitting reply to his AlApanai by Charulatha, he sang "niLAnjana-samAbhAsam ravi-putram yamAgrajam chAya-mArtaAnda-sambhutam tam namAmi shanaishcharam" a Shloka dedicated to Lord Shani from the Navagraha...

I saw this mail on the sangeetha priya forum : "Dear rasikas, I have uploaded the concert of Sri TNS held yesterday at Sree Ramaseva Mandali, Bangalore. Date: May 7th 2008 Vocal - T N Seshagopalan Violin - H K Venkataram Mridangam - Guruvayur Dorai Ghatam - M A Krishnamurthy 01 ata tala varnam - kalyAni 02 bhuvinidAsuDanE - srIranjani 03 muddumOmu - sUryakAntam - 04 endukku dayarAdurA - thODi 05 slOkam - rAgamAlikA and shObhane - pantuvarALi 06 nagumOmu galavAni - madhyamAvathi 07 virutham and rAma manthrava - jOnpuri 08 vadana sukhaja - mAnd 09 mangaLam Location: http://sangeethamshare.org /krishna/TNS-Ramaseva-Mandali/" Adding my reply to this mail: Download this concert at your own risk or if if you want to have a hearty laugh.TNS was in worst form and we were forced to walk out of the venue in less than an hour (as did many others in the audience.) I might sound sarcastic but I guess he was trying to set a Guiness Record for maximum times somebody goes off key in a live p...

Vocal recital by Neyveli Santhanagopalan Violin - Charulata Ramanujam Mridangam - K.V.Prasad Khanjira - B.N.Chandramouli I've always been a fan of Neyveli Santhanagopalan and regularly watch his music lessons on Jaya TV. He sang just 4 songs during the 2 hrs. I was present at the venue but everyone of them was well sung. 1.) Karunimpa - Sahana Varnam 2.) Meru Samana - Mayamalavagowla -St. Thyagaraja- Adi - Neraval and swarams at "shObhillu kanaka bhUSaNamula" 3.) Niravati SukhadaRavichandrika - St. Thyagaraja - Adi Tala 4.) Meenakshi meMudam Dehi - purvi Kalyani (gamakakriya) Dikshithar - Adi - neraval and swarams at "madhumadamOdita hRdayE sadayE " Mayamalavagowla and Purvikalyani were extremely beautiful. His was one of the best concerts I heard at Ramaseva Mandali this year

This year's RamaNavami festival at Fort High School commenced with a recital by KJY. Dr KJ Yesudas - Vocal Mahadeva Sarma - Violin Tiruvarur Bakthavatsalam - Mridangam Radha Krishnan - Ghatam 1. Valachi vacchi - Navaraga malika Varnam 2. Vatapi ganapathim - Hamsadhwani - MD - Aadi (Neraval and Swarams @ pranava swarupa) - nowhere close to his old recording where he has sung Vathapi for an hour and one doesn't get bored for a single minute. 3. Guruvina gulama - Hamsanandi - Purandara Dasa - Adi - This was preceded by a big lecture on Guru Bhakti. 4. Entaveduko - Saraswathi Manohari - St. Thyagaraja - Adi 5.Enanittu mecchisuveno - Dharmati - PD - Aadi (A, S @ Enaniku mechisuveno) 6. Balakanaka - Atana - St. Thyagaraja - Adi 7. Ennalu urake - Subhapantuvarali - St. Thyagaraja - Adi. Very boring and lack lusture interpretation of this pensive ragam in contrast to a vintage MS recording from AIR where she has rendered this kriti beautifully. 8. Sriramam Ravikula - Narayana Gowla -...