Sanjay Subrahmanyan – Vocal
M.R.Gopinath – Volin
Tumkur Ravishankar – Mridangam
N.Govindarajan – Ghatam

Where & When? – P.S.B.B. School (Bharat Kalachar) on 18th December
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Waking up feeling so fresh (this is surely not a thing that happens often on a working day 😛 ), with Dad deciding to drop me at office, me happily listening to Sanjay’s Padmanabha CD (had a tough time choosing between Ghajini and Padmanabha!) and enjoying a beautiful sunrise on the way 🙂 , reaching office in record 20 min!, this day couldn’t have had a better beginning! And with a Sanjay’s concert today evening and a whole lot of concerts/lec-dems, including a concert of Sanjay, lined up during the weekend, the next couple of days is surely going to be even better with me doing a lot of sabha-hopping! Just thinking about it has got me even more charged up that I cannot wait to finish my work soon and leave!

Btw, this morning, yet again, I started feeling that it’s high time I started driving the car. 😐 It would be great coming to office in your own vehicle without having to hurriedly get ready every morning worrying all the time about missing the bus! And with good music for company, it would be even great!

Sanjay Subrahmanyan – Vocal
S.Varadarajan – Volin
Guruvayur Dorai – Mridangam
Bangalore Rajasekar – Morsing

Where & When? – Infosys Hall, Ramakrishna Mission School (Mudhra) on 17th December

Concert Duration: Almost 3 hrs 15 min
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The line that I keep telling myself these days is ‘Life is like a see-saw!’ And proving that line yet again was last week, the busiest and stressful of weeks in the recent times, when the week transformed from one full of stressful days to blissful days. Except for those times when I was attending concerts, I have been totally busy juggling a lot of tasks. Adding to it is computer at home not working. 🙁 Anyway, even if there had not been a problem with computer, I am not sure if I would have found time to even go near it. Screaming for my attention are hundreds of unread blog posts, thousands of unread messages in Rahman fan club and a lot of posts waiting to be transferred from my mind to my blog! But, with lots of other pending tasks too waiting to be completed, those have to wait for at least the next few days. Cya all soon with a series of posts on the December Season!

Accompanists:
S.Varadarajan – Violin
Neyveli Venkatesh – Mridangam

Where & When? – Chettinad Vidyashram (Margazhi Mahotsavam) on 5th December

Concert Duration: 1 hr 50 min

Theme of the Concert: M.M.Dandapani Desigar’s Compositions (Songs written as well as not written but just tuned by him)
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Accompanists :
Mridangam – Tiruvarur Vaidyanathan
Violin – Shertalai Sivakumar
Khanjira – Alathur T.Rajaganesh

Where & When? – Chettinad Vidyashram (Margazhi Mahotsavam) on 5th December

Concert Duration: 1 hr 15 min?

Songs List: (Incomplete)
1. natajana pAlini – naLinakAnti – swarams at parama krpAkari
2. vAnanai – kIravANi – Alapanai; neraval & swarams at vIranai viDamuNDanai
3. nija marmulanu – umAbharaNam
4. mInAkshi mEmudam – pUrvikalyANi – Alapanai; neraval & swarams at vINa gAna
5. sEndanai kandanai (viruttam) followed by kArtikEyanai kaNNAra kANa – kApi – raaga outline

I reached the venue just as Gurucharan was singing swarams in naLinakAnti. naLinakAnti – What a beautiful raaga to begin the evening with! 😉 Besides, the fact that naLinakAnti is the one that I am hooked to these days, thanks to Sandeep Narayan’s awesome pAlaya sadA (Do check it out here), made me feel so happy listening to it.

Anyway, coming back to the concert, Gurucharan sang quite well. I liked his alapanas and the fast-paced nija marmulanu. Though I did feel that the violinist’s pUrvikalyANi alapana wasn’t that great, I was later left wondering if it was because of the way the not-that-great sound system was making the violin sound!

Though I did like the concert, I didn’t find anything that special to make me want to go for Gurucharan’s concert today also. So, I have dropped my plans of going to his concert today.

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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