Category Archives: Carnatic Music

Am super-excited!

It’s a Friday today and weekend is just a few hours away! 🙂
There is a T.M.Krishna’s concert today! 🙂
It is Sanjay’s first concert of the Season tomorrow! 🙂

Today morning, I had so many things to be happy about and I was, indeed, so very excited that I thought it wouldn’t be possible for me to be more excited than I already was, when I saw in ‘The Hindu”s ‘Friday Review’ that Mani Ratnam is going to be one of the guests of honour at the release of the DVD of T.M.Krishna and Bombay Jayashri’s ‘Margazhi Raagam’!!!

The day in 2005 when I saw in ‘Metro Plus’ that DVDs of Mani Ratnam’s movies are going to be launched by Mani Ratnam himself still remains evergreen in my memory, while seeing Mani Ratnam and even getting his autograph still seems like an unbelievable dream!! Despite all the excitement, there is this big disappointment that my sister is not there in India now. 🙁 She wasn’t able to come for the DVD launch of Mani Ratnam’s movies itself! 🙁 Anyway, irrespective of whether I see Mani Ratnam this Sunday or not, I am super-excited!!! 🙂

The ‘Margazhi Raagam’ DVD launch is going to happen at Cafe Ashvita in Radhakrishnan Salai on December 6th (4 pm – 5 pm). I don’t think any invite is needed for this. So, all you Mani Ratnam fans out there, mark your calendar! 🙂

And thus ends the countdown! :)

I am now at the Koothambalam auditorium in Kalakshetra all set to attend the first December Season concert of T.M.Krishna! The concert will start after some DVD launch programme (I really don’t remember the details of the DVD now!) at 6:30 pm. I hope the speeches get over soon.

Coming straight from office, it took me a good 20-min walk to reach here from the signal near Marundeeshwarar temple. Thanks to the intermittent heavy rain all through the day, the roads were bad and it was difficult walking on the slushy road. But the moment I entered Kalakshetra, I loved the peaceful atmosphere that welcomed me. 🙂 The road which the security directed me to take wasn’t the one used by vehicles. So there was absolute silence except for the sounds of the insects and the sounds of vehicles which was so low that it seemed to come from a far-away place. The pleasant weather, the water droplets falling from the trees, the serene atmosphere, everything in complete contrast to the bad roads, the maddening traffic and the noise in ECR, made me forget everything and set the mood to enjoy the music that is soon going to follow. The programme is about to begin! Cya later!

T.M.Krishna’s Concert

At Music Academy (ICICI Bank Music Festival) on 28th November

I came to know about this concert only on the previous day of the concert. I didn’t even make any attempt to see if I will be able to get a pass for this concert and had almost forgotten about it, when, surprisingly, a friend who doesn’t listen to much of Carnatic music called me and said that she had passes for T.M.Krishna’s concert and the moment she saw TMK’s name, she remembered me. 🙂 Going for a concert unexpectedly has more excitement than going for one which you had already planned to go for! Considering the number of TMK’s concerts I will be missing in December, I was happy that I could go for this concert.

Accompanists:
R.K.Shriramkumar – Violin
Tiruvarur Bhakthavatsalam – Mridangam
E.M.Subramaniam – Ghatam

Concert Duration: 2.5 hrs

List of songs:
1. vA murugA vA – bEgaDA – swarams at vA murugA
2. brOcEvArevarE – Sri ranjani – swarams at brOcevarevarE
3. kAlai tUkki – yadukula kAmbhOji – AlApana
4. kathaya kathaya – kalyANi – brief AlApana – neraval at aravindalOcana arivarga niSUdanam
5. kAru bAru – mukhAri – AlApana; swarams at kAru bAru
tani Avartanam
6. pullAgi (viruttam) – varALi, kharaharapriyA, SankarAbharaNam, danyAsi, kApi, behAg, surutti
mATrariyAda – surutti
7. nandagOpAla – yamuna kalyANi
8. jayati jayati – khamAs
9. nI nAma rUpamulaku (started at prahlAda & not pavamAna) – sowrASTram
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T.M.Krishna & Sangeetha Sivakumar’s Concert

This is the first concert that TMK & Sangeetha are performing together. It seems yesterday was their wedding anniversary. Here’s wishing them a long musical life together! 🙂

Concert at Narada Gana Sabha (Bharat Sangeet Utsav) on 6th November, 2009

Accompanists:
Akkarai Subbulakshmi – Violin
Poongulam Subramaniam – Mridangam
B.S.Purushotham – Khanjira

Duration of the concert: 2hrs 30 min Continue reading

Ebony & Ivory – Celebrating M.S. & her piano

A concert by Anil Srinivasan (Piano) & Sikkil Gurucharan (Vocal), accompanied by B.S.Pururshothaman on the Khanjira on 24th July, 2009

See the date of the concert. This is another of those posts which I never got around to publishing here. But today when I am lost in the music of Anil Srinivasan & Sikkil Gurucharan, I feel I shouldn’t leave this post unpublished here. So, after adding/rearranging a few lines and reliving the concert all the while, here it is.
Continue reading

Sowmya’s Concert

At Sastri Hall on 24th October

Accompanists:
B.U.Ganesh Prasad – Violin
Manoj Siva – Mridangam

List of Songs:
1. varnam – Sankarabharanam
2. nArada gAna – Atana – Swarams at nArada gAna
3. sandehamunu – Ramapriya – Alapana; neraval at varamunu
4. kumaran tAL – Yadukulakambhoji
5. Sri guruguha pAlitOsmi – Padi – swarams at Sri guruguha
6. koluvaiyunnADe – Bhairavi – Alapana; neraval & swarams at manasu ranjilla
tani Avartanam
7. vagalADi – Behag
8. yAr pOi solluvAr – Todi
9. bhoolOka kumAri – Bhimplas (Bharatiyar’s composition in Sanskrit)
10. tillAna – Purnachandrika? (Don’t remember)
11. mangaLam – Sowrashtram

Overall, a good concert. I liked nArada gAna lOla and Sri guruguha pAlitOsmi the most.

Blue, Passage, Sanjay’s concert

What more can I ask for? I am finally listening to the ‘Blue’ songs now. The songs are all excellent!! 🙂 I will try to write an elaborate post on it later. For now, I am happy getting lost in the magic of Rahman’s music. I listened to the tracks from ‘Passage’ yesterday and liked those too. I went for a Sanjay’s concert in the evening. Nattakurunji alapana & Begada were the highlights of this concert. I managed to read a book too today – Sudha Murty’s ‘How I Taught My Grandmother to Read & Other Stories’. Today has been a very satisfying day! 🙂

P.S.: There seems to be some problem with my blog. 🙁 Your comments will have to wait till it gets resolved. 🙁

Dwijavanti & Delhi 6

I have been hooked big time to TNS’ Dwijavanti RTP and Delhi 6 (the title song) for the past one week. 2 completely contrasting songs! Can’t stop humming ‘ye dilli hai mere yaar’. Won’t Delhi 6 be the perfect song to listen to when you are going for a drive on a highway? The magic of TNS’ Dwijavanti continues! Absolute beauty, isn’t it? It just makes you lose yourself in the blissful music! 40 min seem to pass by in a jiffy! 😉