Start of 2013 season - R.Vedavalli at Parthasarathy Sabha

I have taken a season ticket at Sri Parthasarathy Swami Sabha again this year. The 113th year music season was inaugurated today. The first concert was that os Smt R.Vedavalli.

This being day 1, the concert was a free concert. I had 2 other choices, both free and within 5 kms radius from my home - Visakha Hari at Chettinad Vidhyashram, Malladi Brothers at P.S. senior school. I still chose to find my way to Vidya Bharathi Kalyana Mandapam to listen to Smt R.Vedavalli and I am glad I made that choice.

The concert was supposed to start at 5:15 pm but as is common in these inauguration ceremonies the speakers went on an on and finished only at 5:45 pm, which meant the concert started only at 6 pm. What a waste of precious concert time of 45 mins it was! The whole concert was reduced to 1 hour as Sashkank was up next at 7 pm. Smt.Vedavalli sang only 3 songs and 1 pasuram.

The kritis taken up were, Tulasi Dhalamulache in Mayamalava gowla, Unnai allal in Simhendra madhyamam and Endukku Peddala in Sankarabharanam.

All well known songs and known ragas but the feeling evoked was unknown. She was really able to trasnport the listeners to a different world altogether. To me it seemed like goddess Saraswathi  was sitting there demonstrating how those ragas and krithis should be sung (She is much older than the lady smiling in calendars alright but then isnt it knowledge that matters when you talk of goddess of learning?). The music was simply divine. If Mayamalava gowla was moving, Shankarabharanam brought out so much joy!

R.K.Shriram kumar on the violin and Arun Paakash on the mridangam gave excellent support and their expressions seemed to echo the feeling of the audience around, that they were privileged to be part of this experience.

A great start to 2013 season indeed!

On the way back we did find some time to pay a visit to Mountbatten Mani's canteen and made a modest start to the food part of the season, by having some light snacks - read as Vazhappo Vadai and Kuzhi Paniyaram, washed down with strong filter coffee! More to come in the days ahead :-)

Chennai Music season 2013 is here

The music season in chennai is no longer restricted to Margazhi. There is Bharat Sangeet Utsav which happens in November, Bharathi Vidya Bhavan and Karthik fine arts start in the first week of December. Maybe that is why it is called the Chennai music season now! I attended a few concerts in Bharat sangeet Utsav and one concert of OST at Tatvaloka but I consider them more as a curtain raiser to the main event. After all music season is not only about music .. It is a wholesome experience!

Anyway I am a regular at Parthasarathy Swamy Sabha and they start only mid December.I have listed all the artists I want to listen to and worked out a schedule .. Schedule is really packed for the next 2 weeks, not the lunch!

My list of "must go" concerts:

Veterans (generally available in free slots)
T.N.Krishnan
R,Vedavalli
T.N.Seshagopalan
O.S.Thiagarajan
R.K.Srikantan


Seniors / Prime slots (Mostly ticketed)
Sanjay Subrahmanyan
Gayathri Venkataraghavan
Malladi Brothers
Vijay Siva
Bombay Jayashree
Saketharaman
Abhishek Raghuram

Sub juniors / Juniors (generally available in free slots)
Nisha Rajagopalan
Sandeep Narayan
Ramakrishnan Murthy
Bharat Sundar

Sanjay Subrahmanyan at Parthasarathy Sabha

Sanjay's concert at Parthasarathy Sabha on 30/12 was a real delight. Though I have heard a lot about Sanjay, this is the first time I heard him LIVE. Sanjay definitely has a unique style and his expression and exploration of ragas really stand out.I found the selection of songs also to be really attractive. There was one song for each of the Trinity and then there were 2 Bharathiyar songs.

If "Karuna Jooda nammina" in Shri ragam was soothing, the lovely lullaby "Chetashri Balakrishnam Bhajare" in ragam Dwijavanthi was simply amazing. "Manam vaitharul Thaaye" in Sankarabharam was a fulfilling main song. While "Sollavallayo Kiliye" in Ritigowla was still resonating in your ears, "Ethanai Kodi Inbam Vaithai" another Bharathiyar song left you really speechless. The RTP which was Rendered To Perfection, was again unique. I thought I had atleast 2 different ragams, the aalapane seemed to be Hamsanandhi but the pallavi at the end was in clear AnandhaBhairavai.

Sanjay went on by himself for slightly more than 3 hours, always his cheerful self, enjoying every bit of his singing and never missing to acknowledge an improvisation by one of the accompanying artists. However the crowd was fully absorbed and not complaining even a bit.

His popularity also seems to be at its peak, for at the end of a 3 hour long concert, the hall was still almost full and for the first time they had put additional chairs in the parking area at Parthasarathy Sabha :-)

I came out still mentally repeating the lines "Ethanai Kodi inbam vaithai Iraiva" (Pardon me for the shoddy translation but this is my interpretation for people who don't know Tamil- In this world that you have created Oh Lord, I am amazed by the care you have taken to ensure so many crores of pleasures for us to enjoy!)

Sanjay is clearly the Carnatic musician of the decade if not the last two!

Abi"shake" Raghuram at Parthasarathy Sabha

It was Abishek Raghuram singing at Parthasarathy Sabha today. I googled to find out that he is a child prodigy with a good music lineage and has been rising in popularity of late.

After the opening Varnam passed, the next song went like 'Virulavu o kedha'. It took me a while to get used to Abishek. The way he was swaying between the violinst and mridangist, who by the way where atleast 5 ft apart, like he was possessed, with his convulsions and contortions, I really thought he was in serious trouble and needed a bunch of keys right away. The audience was also finding it very difficult, as half the time it looked like he was speaking to the Violinist or the Mridangist. The audio guy for his part didn't know what volume to give him. At the end of the second song, it was figured out that he needed more than one microphone and he was given the same!

The crowd was so much that the sabha guys had put additional chairs all over the place and moving out of one's seat to the rest room or the canteen was a real ordeal. Wish they had done something upfront to confine Abishek within a "comfortable" zone!

However once you get used to his idiosyncrasies, you realize that this guy is a real genius.The crowd just loved him. The third song he chose was the popular "Nee Vaadane gaana" which was dealt with in detail. The main song chosen was set in Pantuvarali and the Swara improvisations and the way they were presented, at really fast pace at places, was simply mind boggling. The Tani was  worth hearing and the accompanying artists (Akkarai Subbulakshmi on the Violin, the other 2 names skip my mind) did their part well.

Abishek is really a genius, a great entertainer and a musician to watch out for in the future.
However till he stops swaying, which hopefully he will do with age and maturity, Abishek is best listened to on CD or in an auditorium that has several microphones placed before him much like those bowls arranged in front a Jalatarangam artist :-)

Sikkil Gurucharan at Parthasarathy Sabha

My second concert of the day was by Sikkil Gurucharan at Parthasarathy Sabha. From a veteran in the morning to a youngster who is just 30, I was somehow seeing two ends of the spectrum on the same day. With Umayalpuram Sivaraman on mridangam, T.V.K.Ramanujacharyulu on Violin and Giridhar Udupa on Ghatam, it was a high profile team accompanying Gurucharan.

After the second song, Gurucharan announced that the theme he had chosen was popular raagas but less popular krithis. Based on Dr.Sivaraman's request , he had chosen a song on Sri Thyagaraja in the raga Kalyani to start off. The song goes like "Sri Madaathi Thyagaraja guru". After a quick "Vidajaaldura", the main song was set in Thodi, "Amba nannu Brovave". The renditions of Kalyani and Thodi were really power packed. 

Dr.Sivaraman really has some magic about him. The Tani as part of the main song was exemplary, so much so that for a change, the crowd that usually leaves when the Tani starts, waited for the Tani to be over before rising with a heavy applause. There was a good contest between mridangam and ghatam and it was a rhythmic treat.

"Enna Vidham Pizhaippom" was a the first Tamil song and then there was an RTP in Sunaadha Vinodhini (as announced by Gurucharan. Hope I got it right), which was simply brilliant.

Dr. Sivaraman could not hold himself and picked up the mike to speak a few words on Gurucharan's uniqueness. "The wisdom of an old man in a young head and an amazing creativity" was what the great man had to say on Gurucharan. It was raining songs as Gururcharan went on. He ended the concert After "Kanagasabai Kanda piragor" and a thillana. The concert went on for nearly 3 hours in total and the audience was not complaining. 

Another concert for the day that ended with a standing ovation! Sikkil Gurucharan is another youngster who has taken up Carnatic music as his full time profession and he certainly holds a lot of promise!

Sabha Canteen gossip - 23 & 25/12

After the exquisite lunch on Friday, I had no two thoughts about where to go when I decided to have lunch outside on Sunday 23/12. When I walked into Vidhya Bharathi Kalyana Mahal, I thought I heard a very familiar voice on the speakers. I was in for a shock when I peeped in because I thought for a moment that I saw the late Maharajapuram Santhanam singing. Then I told myself it must be one of his sons at sat down. After listening to an elaborate "Bhayami Raghuramam" by Maharajapuram Ramachandran, which took me back in time, I walked straight to the canteen. 

After a few minutes I realized that I had got caught between two extremes. The guy on the left was repeating every thing and took a long time to move out of Sambar rice. The elderly gentleman on the right however was more a sanyasi who was shooing away everything. This had a real frustrating effect on the waiters and I had to put my foot down to prevent getting impacted and I did just that. 

MM did not disappoint. It was another special feast with the likes of Uralai vadhakkal, Cabbage Poriyal, Paal Payasam, Kadhamba Sambar, Kariveppilai Kuzhambu, Paal Payasam. Even after 2 helpings of Kariveppilai Kuzhambu, the banana leaf was wiped clean. I stood up after having one more go at Pal Payasam, really "stuffed to the gills", if those are the right words.

On Christmas day, after the TN.Krishnan concert, I thought I should give Iyengar another chance. I walked down from the balcony and took a look at the menu board. I was glad to see traditional Iyengar items on the menu. the likes of Aviyal, More Kuzhambu. Maybe because of Vaikunta Dwadesi, there was no onion in the food. Puliyodharai would have made it a perfect combination but even with lemon rice it was good food. Aval Payasam was really special and worth a second attempt.

This time I was caught between two old couples who knew each other. The second couple came a bit late and I had started eating, otherwise I would shifted to a different seat. It is really irritating when you have to listen to people talking behind your back! If only there were an option to switch off your ears, I guess life would be a lot better. It was only the ladies who were talking. The men were busy lapping up the Iyengar fare. Unfortunately for me, these 2 ladies had been looking out for each other from day 1 of the music season both in canteens and the halls but met only today. By the time the ladies turned to their food and asked for Sambhar, the men around were having rasam after finishing More Kuzhambu. In the time that had elapsed, they had been talking non stop as they moved from concerts to lecture demo by Shriram Kumar to dance jugal bhandhis to sabhas and even the evening traffic on the way to music academy. Wonder how these old ladies go on an on. So much so for the Sabha / Canteen experience! Tomorrow is another day :-)

Maestro T.N.Krishnan at Music Academy

It was Christmas special today at Music Academy. The Violin trio of T.N.Krishnan with Sriram and Viji Krishnan at 9:15 am. I had missed their concert and Parthasarathy Sabha and marked this one as a must attend.  I had set the alarm in mobile but unfortunately didn't notice that it was for 7:30 pm! I woke up around 8:45 am and had to really rush. By the time I reached the academy it was 9:25 am but the parking was full and I had to rally around to St.Ebbas school, which cost me another 15 mins. I found my way to the balcony at 9:45 am, as the hall below was full. I found the same seat I had sat in at Shreya Ghoshal's concert a few months back. First row corner seat with a good view and enough space to stretch my long legs.

The first song was one of the Panchratna Krithis, "Endharo Mahanu bhavulu". There was an elaborate main song which I liked but failed to recognize. The maestro then spoke and he wished the audience a merry christmas and a happy new year. He even followed it up by playing "Jingle bells" on the Violin. The popular english note in Sankara Bharanam was lovely. Sriram and Viji played perfect foil and the trio dished out a real treat. After 2 hours I walked out thinking that if Goddess Saraswati were to listen to the maestro, she would give the Violin a serious thought. The packed audience fittingly gave them a standing ovation.