Concerts – Part 4

1 Reply

Rithvik Raja on 30/12/2006 at Sivagami Pethachi Auditorium (Brahma Gana Sabha)
Rithvik Raja is T.M.Krishna’s student and you can spot him on the stage with TMK in all his concerts. After going to too many concerts of TMK, I went to Rithvik’s concert just to see how he sings. I must say I was not disappointed. He sang quite well. Starting with Sahana varnam, he then sang Rama Neepai in Kedaram. After a neat alapana of Varali, he sang Seshachala Nayakam. Neraval was done at the line Aravindapatra Nayanam. The main piece was PuNNiyam Oru Kodi in Keeravani raagam. Rithvik concluded the concert with Tirupati Venkataramana in Sindhubhairavi.

Saketharaman on 30/12/2006 at R.A.Puram Bhakta Jana Sabha
I had gone to Saketharaman’s concert at Music Academy last year and it was pretty good. This concert was also equally good. Starting with Saveri varnam, after a couple of songs, he sang a Tyagaraja kriti in Subhapantuvarali after a raaga alapana. Saraguna Palimpa in Kedaragowlai was the one chosen for elaboration. But for the slip at one point when putting the swarams at the line Varaguna Seshadri, he sang it quite well. After Om Namo Narayana in Karnaranjani, the concert concluded with a beautiful Tillana in Madhuvanti. Akkarai Subbalakshmi on the violin was very good.

Carnatica Brothers on 31/12/2006 at Raga Sudha Hall (Naada Inbam)
This is the first time I am listening to the Carnatica Brothers sing. I liked Ganesh’s voice more than Sashikiran’s. I had to again listen to Saveri varnam in this concert too. Ne Jesina Neramu in Poornachandrika, Sooryamoorthy in Sowrashtram, Ini Enna Pechirukkudu in Sahana and a song in Begada were the ones I liked very much in this concert. Devi Brova in Chintamani raaga was the main piece of the concert. Though the concert was good, their singing didn’t impress me enough to make me go to another concert of theirs in the near future.

Happy Birthday Rahman!

17 Replies

worldspace1.jpg

As I look back, A.R.Rahman’s music has been there with me at all times in my life. Be it celebrating a moment of success or brooding over a failure or just relaxing, it is Rahman’s music that has been a constant companion to me. I can think of many instances when I have felt a bit low and cheered up immediately after listening to Rahman’s music. Only his music has that magic.

Right from Chinna Chinna Aasai to Barso Re, there is something special about each and every song. When you want to get up, dance and enjoy your life, I don’t think any other song can come near Humma Humma, Fanaa, Lose Control or Thee Thee (I can list many more!). At the same time, if you take some of his sweet melodies with a tinge of sadness like En Kadhale or Idhuthaan Vazhkkai Enbadhaa (Puthiya Mugam) you will be able to relate to the feelings of the characters even without the lyrics! Didn’t the music of Telephone Manipol sound so beautiful even without lyrics when it came as just background music in Roja? Talking about BGM in Rahman’s movies, there are a quite a few BGM for which alone you can watch the movie. The BGM that comes in Bombay when Arvind Samy sees Manisha in the bus (It goes like Pa Sa Ni Sa Ni Sa), So Gaye Hain (from Zubeida) as a BGM again in Bombay, the one in Alaipayuthey that comes whenever Shalini and Swarnamalya are shown, Munbe Vaa as a BGM in Sillunu Oru Kadhal when Suriya first sees Bhoomika, the BGM in Swades everytime Sharukh and Gayathri are shown. The list is endless!

I recently got hooked on to one of Rahman’s oldest compositions, the Spirit of Unity Concert title music. The moment I hit the Play button I lose track of the number of times the track gets played. The play count in my Player reads more than 500 times! The freshness or magic or whatever you call it has not been lost in all these years! His present compositions too have the same magic that was there in his earlier compositions. I am amused when some people say they feel the quality of Rahman’s music has come down over the years.

Recently when I was asked by someone what I do to motivate myself, I said I listen to Rahman’s music! I don’t know why but my efficiency almost doubles up when I listen to his music! I wonder what is it that is there in his music that fascinates me so much. I don’t think I can ever find the right kind of words to describe his music.

May he be blessed with a long musical life and may all the millions of his fans continue to be blessed enough to listen to more and more musical creations of this musical genius!

Happy Birthday Rahman!

Good Morning!

Leave a reply

It’s that time of the day again when my mailbox has started getting flooded with mails wishing me Good Morning. From where did people get this idea of sending forwards wishing people Good Morning along with lengthy inspirational quotes? And today being Friday, I will soon be getting mails saying its Friday today and it’s time to enjoy the weekend. After getting too many mails like this, I too will forward some of them since I don’t want anyone’s mailbox to be empty when my mailbox is full of mails of these sorts. 😛 Here’s wishing all the readers of my blog a very good morning and a great weekend minus all the inspiring quotes and poems.

Concerts – Part 3

Leave a reply

Guitar Prasanna on 28/12/2006 at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan
Prasanna started the concert with Nattakurunji varnam. He was accompanied by J.Vaidyanathan on the Mridangam and E.M.Subramanian on the Ghatam. After playing compositions in Abhogi, Devaranji, Kapi, Jayantasena, Kedaragowlai and Sindhubhairavi, he played an alapana of Harikambhoji raagam and did a raaga bedham at madhyamam and played Mohanam. After this he played Raghuvamsasudha after someone in the audience asked him to play it. While playing Kalyani alapana he did a graha bedham and played raagas Harikambhoji, Karaharapriya and Sankarabharanam. Talli Ninnu Nera, a composition of Syama Sastry was the one he played in Kalyani. After playing Vanchatonuna in Karnaranjani, again an audience request, he concluded the concert with ‘Bowling for Peace’, that he termed as neither a varnam nor a kriti but just a piece of music that he had composed for his album, Electric Ganesha Land’.

Guitar Prasanna on 30/12/2006 at Sivagami Pethachi Auditorium (Brahma Gana Sabha)
In this concert, Prasanna was accompanied by Mannargudi Easwaran on the Mridangam and Purushotthaman on the Khanjira. The highlight of this concert was the Raagam Taanam Pallavi in 4 raagams that he said he had composed only on the previous evening. The pallavi was Anandam Sachchidaanandam Paripoorna Brahmosmi where Anandam was in raaga Revathy, Sachchidaanandam in Hamsadhwani, Paripoorna in Hindolam and Brahmosmi in Mohanam! The composition was superb! The tani avartanam was one of the best that I have heard in the season. After the Tani, Prasanna said in all his concerts people left only after the Tani Avartanam! Some of the other songs that he played are Nannuvidachi in Reetigowlai, Endaro Mahanubhavulu, Alaipayuthey. He ended this concert also with ‘Bowling for Peace’.

I enjoyed both the concerts very much. Does the fact that not many people turned up for both his concerts inspite of Prasanna playing so beautifully show that still not many like to hear Carnatic music played on guitar?

Concerts – Part 2

Leave a reply

Sangeetha Sivakumar on 24/12/2006 at Rani Seethai Hall (Kalarasana)
Though my initial plan was to go only to Sanjay Subrahmanyan’s concert at Rani Seethai Hall at 6.15 pm after attending Sowmya’s concert for an hour at Music Academy, my plan changed thanks to Sowmya deciding to postpone her concert that day due to a bad throat. I reached the place when Sangeetha was finishing a kriti in Kalyani. After singing Vinaraadana in Devagandhari, she started the Keeravani alapana, the raaga chosen for the main piece of the evening. She sang Tyagaraja’s composition, Kaligiyunte with neraval and swarams at the line, Baguga Sri Raghunathuni Padamula. After one more song, she wound up the concert with Khamas Tillana. I liked this concert of hers more than the one at Academy.

Nithyasree Mahadevan on 25/12/2006 at Music Academy
I missed the first one-hour of the concert. Nithyasree was singing Kaya Roshanesham in Abheri when I entered the auditorium. Here’s the partial list of songs:
1. Anandutanu – Jingala
2. Maamava Satatam – Jaganmohini (Main piece of the concert)
3. Maalon Maruganai (Viruttam) & Koovi Azhaikka Koodaathaa – Sindhu Bhairavi
4. Begada – Raagam Taanam Pallavi
She sang the pallavi in raagas Vasantha, Atana, Hameer Kalyani, Varnaroopini
5. Tum Bi Kaun Khabar – ?
This happens to be the third concert of Nithyasree’s that I went to in this Season. I don’t know why but I didn’t enjoy any of her concerts as much as I used to earlier. Initially I thought since it has been more than a year since I last went to her concert, I should go to one more Nithyasree’s concert and see. But I got a bit bored too during her concerts! But the fact that the auditorium was jam-packed shows that not everyone felt the same way as I did.

P.S.: I am not writing about any of Sanjay’s or TMK’s concerts now since I have reserved the best concerts for the last!

Concerts – Part 1

4 Replies

As I didn’t write about the concerts I went to for quite sometime now, here you go. I am planning to write in parts about all the concerts I went to till now. Those who are not interested in Classical music, please skip these posts!

Concerts at Music Academy:

Lalgudi G.J.R.Krishnan & Vijayalakshmi – Violin Duet on 22/12/2006
This happens to be the first concert of theirs that I am going to. Each and every song/alapana they played were so good. The raaga chosen for elaboration was Todi and RTP was in Vachaspati. I now want to go to more concerts of theirs.
Continue reading →

Does your name start with ‘A’?

2 Replies

I have always wondered whether having a name starting with the letter ‘A’ is advantageous or not. (I know you must be thinking idhellaam think panra vera velaiye illayaa! Seriously ippo vera velai illaye & blogla edhavadhu ezhudhanume! 🙂 )  Be it in school or in college or for that matter even at work wherein employee number is allotted according to the alphabetical order if more than one person joins on the same day, mine has always been among the first few roll numbers. As a result of that whenever a teacher/lecturer asked a question to the class and no one answered, as would usually be the case, the teacher would immediately say that if no one volunteers I will start with the first roll number then! That’s it! You would end up standing in front of the class without knowing the answer! The worst thing happened in college where we were asked to give seminars in some subjects. Since no one volunteered, it was decided that starting with the first roll number everyone will give a presentation every week. By the time not even half the number of students had given a seminar, the semester was over and the others escaped. The same thing had happened in many semesters.
As they say, there is always another side to the coin. Having a name starting with ‘A’ meant all the practical exams and viva got over for you first. It felt good to relax when others were studying hard. 😛

My Favourite Hindi Songs

1 Reply

After the list of my favourite Tamil film songs, here’s the list of my favourite Hindi film songs (that I would like to repeatedly listen, watch and hum) :

Kabhi Neem Neem from Yuva
Rang De Basanti & Tu Bin Bataye from Rang De Basanti
Chayya Chayya and Dil Se Re from Dil Se
All the songs from Lagaan
Yeh Tara Woh Tara from Swades
Ishq Bina from Taal
Is Deewane Ladke Ko from Sarfarosh
Suraj Hua Maddham from Kabhi Kushi Kabhi Gham
Ban Ke Tera Jogi from Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani
Jaane Kyon from Dil Chahta Hai

Old songs:
Saare ke Saare from Parichay
Ab Ke Sajan Sawan from Chupke Chupke

This is just a random list. I have written whatever I remembered now.