Accompanists:
Ganapatiraman – Mridangam

Where & When? – Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan (Kalapradarshini) on 2nd December

Concert Duration: 1.5 hrs

List of Songs:
1. Sri Maha Ganapati – Gowlai – Raaga Outline; Swarams at Sri Maha Ganapati
2. Rama Nee – Kedaram – Swarams at Rama
3. Evari To – Manavati
4. Sankari – Begada – Alapana by Suresh; Swarams at Sankari
5. Enta nerchina – Saveri – Alapana by Narmadha; Swarams at Enta Nerchina
6. Nagumomu – Abheri – Alapana by MSG; Swarams at jageme – Tani Avartanam
7. Tulsidas – Behag – Brief alapana by Narmadha
8. Tarana – Sindhu Bhairavi – Brief alapana by MSG
9. Tiruppugazh – Hamsanandi
10. Mangalam – Sowrashtram
11. Madhyamavati – Raaga Outline

The first three songs were quite good. I especially liked the Kedaram song and swarams. But after that, the Begada alapana by Suresh, which wasn’t that great, left me wishing MSG had played the alapana instead! Sankari in Begada is one of my favourites by MSG and I have listened to it so many times on a cassette of his. Saveri alapana by Narmadha was good. The Abheri alapana by MSG, though lasted just a few minutes, was nice. MSG’s Sindhu Bhairavi was just out of the world! I wish it had lasted for some more minutes! There was no neraval at all for any of the songs. 🙁

Btw, the film song, idhu oru ponmalai pozhudhu was the one that came to my mind on listening to Rama nee in Kedaram!! Never realized this song was in Kedaram till then!

Savage Garden’s Truly Madly Deeply is the one that I have been listening to on a loop since today morning. I now, like this song so much that I couldn’t resist writing this one-line post. 😛

Accompanists:
T.K.V.Ramanujacharyulu – Violin
Karaikkudi Mani – Mridangam
B.S.Purushottaman – Khanjira

Where & When? – Narada Gana Sabha (Kartik Fine Arts) on 2nd December

Concert Duration: A few minutes less than 2 hrs

List of Songs:
1. Enduku Niradaya – Harikambhoji – Neraval & Swarams at dharalO neevai
2. Vinata Suta – Jayantasena – Swarams at Vinata Suta
3. Paripurna Kaama – Purvi Kalyani – Alapana; Swarams at Saketadipa
4. Velaiyya Dayavillaiya – Saveri
5. Nadachi Nadachi – Kharaharapriya – Alapana; Neraval & Swarams at puDamisuta sahAyuDai; Tani Avartanam
6. Idhudhaano Tillai Stalam – Behag – Raaga Sketch
7. Tillana – Khamas
8. Madhyamavati – Raaga Outline

Though I heard completely contrasting views with mine right after the concert, my opinion about this concert hasn’t changed. I really liked this concert. The Harikambhoji, Jayantasena swarams and Purvi Kalyani were all too good. I wished there had been a neraval for Paripurna Kama. But it was more than compensated by the Kharaharapriya, every moment of which was awesome. I was so happy to hear TMK’s Kharaharapriya after a long time. The Tani Avartanam was good too. After a soft and pleasing Behag piece, Idhudhaano Tillai, the Khamas tillana was a bit too loud!

‘Analyzing’ the Dec Season concert schedules of Sanjay and T.M.Krishna almost a month back and arriving at the final list of concerts that I should try to attend, with Sanjay’s concerts taking the first preference and the proximity of the concert venues being the other deciding factor; waiting for the entire or almost-the-entire list of concerts happening during the season to be updated in Ram’s blog and then, preparing the final list of concerts/lec-dems that I should try to attend, I couldn’t wait to start going for concerts after concerts the whole of this month! And now, the December Season has finally begun! Yay! 🙂
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Kaise Mujhe (Instrumental)/Kaise Mujhe – Benny Dayal, Shreya Goshal

From being a boring song after the first listening, this song has gone on to become what I would call a haunting melody, the kind of song that lingers in your mind long after you have stopped listening to it and transforms you to a sort of tranquil state. At least that’s what it has done to me. But, it wasn’t the vocal, but the instrumental version, that did that to me. The flute parts are so beautiful! I started enjoying the vocal version only after the instrumental version had me mesmerized by it.
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Sandeep & Vijayagopal’s awesome Brindavana Saranga in yesterday’s concert has got me hooked to this raagam. T.N.Seshagopalan’s Soundararajam, MS’ Rangapuravihara, Pandit Bhimsen Joshi’s Vrindavani Sarang and now, Sanjay’s Brindavana Saranga RTP. Can’t have enough of enjoying the various shades of this beautiful raagam!

Btw, I got to know from here and here that Pushpalatika is the Carnatic equivalent of Vrindavani Sarang. I haven’t heard this raagam at all. So, as usual, I had to check this page to know the aarohanam and avarohanam of this raagam. I am planning to listen to some songs in Pushpalatika tomorrow…

There are times when once you start laughing, you cannot control your laughter at all. And, the worst part is when once you start laughing, you might remember some funny incidents that made you laugh like this in the past, thereby making it even more difficult to stop laughing! Now, imagine this happening so very often for two days continuously! 😐 Makes you feel so stupid! I am very badly in need of some laughter control therapy. 😐

Sandeep Narayan – Vocal
B.Vijayagopal – Flute
Arjun Ganesh – Mridangam
Nerkunam Shankar – Khanjira

Where & When? – At Music Academy (‘The Hindu’s ‘November Fest’) on 19th November

Concert Duration: 1 hr

Theme of the concert (if you could call it that): Desiya raagas – raagas originating from Hindustani classical & folk

List of Songs:

1. reeNa madanuta – Behag – brief alapana
2. Soundararajam – Brindavana Saranga – alapana; neraval & swarams at tumburunuta shrikaNtam duritapaha vaikuNTam – mini Tani
3. apaduru – Khamas – raaga outline

Ever since I saw the schedule of November Fest concerts, this was one concert that I wanted to go for, since the flute + vocal combo got me interested. And I am now happy that I went for it. This is the first time I am hearing Sandeep and Vijay and I should say that they both were brilliant.

Three very beautiful raagams, excellent singing, awesome flute – made my day! Complete silence at Music Academy created a perfect ambience to listen to this concert, making it all the more enjoyable. I really wished the concert could go on for some more time!

Brindavana Saranga itself was for some 45 minutes and every moment of it was pure bliss! I just loved the RMPN, NSRMPN, etc. swarams part of it sung in slow tempo.

I am really looking forward to attending more concerts of Sandeep & Vijayagopal in the future.

2 years it has been since I started blogging. Thanks a ton to each and every one of you for making this happen! 🙂

It took me two long weeks to overcome my laziness and type the songs list and write a small post on the concerts. What I did was type it in a word doc and without saving it, cut and paste it to wordpress. Just as I clicked on ‘Save and Continue Editing’ button, there was some problem with the net and my post never got saved! 🙁 To think that I have to write the post again! Anyway, here goes.
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