Aparna’s Blog

Sanjay Subrahmanyan – Vocal
S Varadarajan – Violin
Neyveli Venkatesh – Mridangam
Anirudh Athreya – Khanjira

When & Where? – Music Academy Mini Hall on 1st December

Songs list:
1. Sami nee rammanave – Kedaram
2. Bhavanuta naa hridayamuna – Mohanam (Swarams at Bhavanuta)
3. Nee madhi – Ananda Bhairavi
4. NaaDaaDina maata – Janaranjani (Neraval & Swarams at talaku vaccina bAdha talapAgaku – hope the lyrics is correct)
5. Korina Varamosagu – Ramapriya (Neraval at Sari Vaariko)
6. KaaNa kaNNaayiram – Nilambari
7. Raa Raa Raghuveera – Atana
8. Shantamulekha – Sama (Swarams at Shantamu) (Main piece of the concert)
9. Vishweswar Darshan kar – Raagamalika (Sindhu Bhairavi and two other raagams I couldn’t identify at that time)
10. Haritasulu vedale – Yamun Kalyani
11. Pittam theLiya – Senchurutti
12. Mangalam – Sowrashtram
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“Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take but by the moments that took our breath away!”

- This quote that almost all of us would have got in forward mails, is a favourite of mine.

Since I wanted to know whose quote it was, I did a Google search came to know from here that the original quote was:

“Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take, but by every moment that takes your breath away”

The original is good too.

Akkarai Sisters – Subhalakshmi & Swaranalatha – Violin duet
Tiruvarur Vaidyanathan - Mridangam
S Karthick - Ghatam

When & where? – Dakshinamurthy Auditorium on 29th November

This happens to be the first concert of the Sisters I am going to. I went to this concert too only an hour after the concert had started. In complete contrast to the previous concert, this time I was the only one sitting on a whole row. So I was able to enjoy the concert without any disturbances. The sisters were playing swarams in Latangi when I reached. Here’s the partial song list: (As usual, in case anyone knows the full list, please do let me know)

1. Mariveregati – Latangi
2. Manavyala – Nalinakanti
3. Mariveregati – Ananda Bhairavi
4. Sankarabharanam – (didn’t know the song!) – the main piece of the concert
5. Kalai amudam – Neelamani – composed by the sisters’ grandfather, Sivasubramania Pillai
6. Sindhu Bhairavi (don’t remember the song)
7. Tillana – don’t remember the raaga

While all the alapanas were played by Subhalakshmi, Swarnalatha joined her in playing the songs and occasionally swarams. Apart from Sankarabharanam and Ananda Bhairavi alapana, a raga sketch was played for Nalinakanti and Sindhu Bhairavi.

The Sisters played quite well and I am looking forward to attending more concerts of theirs in the future.

Nithyasree Mahadevan – Vocal
Raghavendra Rao - Violin
I. Sivakumar - Mridangam
S Karthick - Ghatam

A few years back, I used to look forward to attending Nithyasree’s concerts. But the last season, I found her concerts boring! So this concert on last Wednesday was the first concert of hers that I went to this year. I reached the venue (Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan) at 8 pm, a good one hour after the concert started, knowing well that I won’t get a place to sit. Nithaysree had just started singing an alapana of Abheri, yet another favourite raagam of mine.
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