It was a pleasure to hear the great violin maestro M.S.Gopalakrishnan play the violin. The concert was at Dakshinamurthy Auditorium yesterday. Here’s the list of songs and raagas (I didn’t know most of the songs so I am writing only the raagas for the same):
1. Kambhoji Ata Taala Varnam
2. Siddhi Vinayakam – Shanmugapriya
3. Atana
4. Poorvikalyani
5. Seethamma Mayamma – Vasantha
6. Pakkala – Karaharapriya
7. Behag
8. Khamas
9. Sindhubhairavi
10. Hamsanandi
11. Mangalam – Sowrashtram

MSG and Narmada were accompanied by Karthick on the Ghatam and J.Vaidyanathan on the Mridangam. The concert was excellent as expected. The Karaharapriya alapana played by MSG was superb. I loved the brief alapana of Behag that Narmada played.
I thought the auditorium would be full since this is the only concert of MSG in the whole season. But not many turned up for the concert. I consider myself very lucky to have got an opportunity to listen to him live!

List of songs:
1. Mathe (Daru Varnam) – Khamas
2. Jaya Jaya – Nattai
3. Yagyatulu – Sri Ranjani
4. Maamava Meenakshi – Varali
5. Ma Ramanan – Hindolam
6. O Rangasayee – Kambhoji
7. Kamalacharane – ?
8. RTP – Reetigowlai
(Pallavi – TamarasadaLa Nethri Tyagarajuni mitri)
9. Pullaagi (viruttam) – Sahana, Hamsadhwani, Suruti
Maatrariyaada – Suruti
10. Bare Panduranga – Misra Maand

Accompaniments:
Vioiln – B.U.Ganesh Prasad
Ghatam – N.Guruprasad
Mridangam – N.Manoj Siva

Sangeetha started the concert with a very beautiful song in Khamas, Maathe. Then she went to sing all the songs in quick succession before starting with Kambhoji alapana, the raaga chosen for singing elaborately. Reetigowlai RTP and the last two songs were the ones that I liked in the concert very much. She sang the pallavi in RTP in raagas Kalyani and Kanada also.
Sangeetha’s concert was at 7.30 PM yesterday. It was very sad to see the auditorium almost empty. At the beginning of the concert, only around 100 of us were there in the balcony. By 8.30, almost half the audience had left. An hour later, around 25 of us were only there in the balcony which can actually accomodate a little more than 750 people!
One very big surprising thing in yesterday’s concert was not even a single person’s mobile phone started ringing loudly in the middle of the concert! (Till now there was not even a single concert to which I went where the mobile didin’t start ringing loudly right in the middle of the concert thereby disturbing the performing artistes as well as the others in the audience).

Ganesh & Kumaresh’s Violin concert was the next one after Prasanna’s concert day before yesterday at the Margazhi Mahotsavam. They were accompanied by Sivaraman on the Mridangam and Sundar Kumar on the Khanjira. The theme of their concert was ‘Shadjam – Adhara Swaram’.
Ganesh first explained what is Graha Bedham and said that they were going to take up Kalyani Raagam for doing the graha bedham in the concert. He then explained how each raaga was arrived at by doing a graha bedham on Kalyani. By shifting the Shadjam to the position of ‘Rishabam’ in Kalyani, you get Harikambhoji raaga. By shifting it to the position of Kalyani’s ‘Gandharam’, you get Natabhairavi raaga; Hindolam by shifting it to ‘Madhyamam”s position; Sankarabharanam by shifting it to ‘Panchamam”s position; Karaharapriya by shifting it to Daivatam’s position and Todi by shifting it to Nishaadam’s position. (Hope whatever I have written is correct as this what I understood after listening to his explanation. If there are any mistakes, please do let me know).
He then gave a list of the raagams that they were going to play in the concert. The raagas were all the janyas of the raagas derived by doing graha bedham on Kalyani.
Here is the list of raagams and the song in each that they played:
1. Varnam – Kalyani – Adi
2. Sri Vathapi Ganapatiye – Sahana (Janya of Harikambhoji)
3. Mokshamugalada – Saramati (Janya of Natabhairavi)
4. Manasuloni – Hindolam
5. Narasimha Mamava Bhagavan Nityam – Aarabhi (Janya of Sankarabharanam)
6. Aadaadu Asangaadu – Madhyamavati (Janya of Karaharapriya)
7. ? – Desiya Todi (Janya of Todi)
Sivaraman used 7 different mridangams, one for each song as the shruti was changed in the Tambura for each raaga for doing a graha bedham.
After playing all the raagas, there was the Tani Avartanam. What followed next was Shruti Bedham where they played some Divya Naama Kritis (Ganesh explained what Divya Naama kritis are. They are those that have many charanams and all the charanams are in the same tune) of Tyagaraja.
It was a wonderful concert and an informative one too!