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It just can’t get any better!

Last weekend was too good! An excellent concert of Chitraveena Ravikiran on Saturday! (There’s nothing more to add to what Ram has written about the concert) I am not going to miss any concert in which M.A.Sundaresan plays the violin from now on. M.A.Sundaresan and Umayalpuram Sivaraman were the main reasons why I went to the Ravikiran’s concert. The concert had a line-up of my favourites, Reetigowlai, Vasanta (It has become my favourite recently), Surutti (No words to describe those!) and Neelambari!

Yesterday, I got to listen a Dikshitar krithi, ishAnAdishivAkAramanche in Sahana raagam, for the first time, thanks to Sai Prasad. The krithi was lovely! (Sahanavaache kaekkaNumaa 😉 )

The only disappointment in the weekend was watching Federer lose the match. 🙁

It’s Monday today and the weather here is so pleasant. It rained in Madras! Yay! Just when I started from home, the first song that I listened to in the radio was one of my most favourites, Thee Thee! (Rahman, you are the best! 🙂 ) Right now, I am listening to a wonderful Kedaragowlai by MDR! What a way to begin a week!

Hope the week remains as great as it has started! Good Morning and have a great week ahead, folks! 🙂

Kharaharapriya all the way!

Today, I got the recording of a concert of Sanjay Subrahmanyan held on 30th July, 2002 at SVN Music Academy, Bangalore. It had a 1-hour 5-minutes RTP in Kharaharapriya sung by Sanjay! What more can you ask for! In the RTP, he has sung the Pallavi ‘rAma nI samAna’ in raagas Kanada, Salaka Bhairavi, Darbar and Siva Ranjani. It’s too good! Sanjay had sung Raga Sudha Rasa in that concert. A 4-minute alapana of Andolika followed by the song is awesome! Can’t stop listening to it! (I am listening to T.M.Krishna’s and Sanjay’s Raga Sudha Rasa alternately now!) I am yet to listen to other songs in that.

Incidentally, today has been a day full of Kharaharapriya!
I listened to Chakkani Raja sung by Sri Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar, then, another 1-hour RTP in Kharaharapriya sung by Vedavalli and above all, the song I am learning now is Chakkani Raja! 🙂

Concerts – Part 3

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?