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!