Smt Sudha

Mesmerising. Peaceful. Maybe because it was her Birthday. Maybe because she chose the songs she did (Tamil, M.S songs, but no Purandaradasa or Sivan songs- why?). Maybe because she posed as a gopika searching among the audience for the omniscient yet playful Krishna. Maybe because I could sit on the floor close to the stage....
Ragams I could identify were Nattakuranji, Kalyani, Mohanam, Behag.
The violinist Sriram was reverent to the vocalist, displaying his talent at the same time. The Thani was just right. The singer was off-shruthi when she resumed after the Thani. She also clarified that she wanted to sing songs of other composers in the thukkada section (maybe that answers my question about song-choice)
Usually the King perched on the throne gives out pearl necklaces to others. In this case, Smt Sudha was the recipient of one from a rasika (alongwith beautiful bouquets).
Avaneesh was sleeping peacefully when I found him at the end of the concert!

Carnatica concert

Boring. The songs were okay. But I did not feel that the artists were giving a team performance.

Mandolin concert and Sri Vijay Siva vocal concert

This is the review of concerts I atteneded back in April 2010 (Sri U. Shrinivas' and Sri.U. Rajesh's mandolin concert). The Mandolin sounds like the veena and a North Indian instrument. The accompanists were good and played sincerely. The audience made the artistes play the mangalam to end the concert.
Sri. Vijay Siva's vocal concert was pretty good. He looked composed throughout and gave a variegated treat for the rasikas. Starting with the Thodi varnam, he moved on to Poorvikalyani, Bhairavi, Ataana. The RTP was in Nattakurinji (I could find that it was Harikambhoji-janya but could not get the exact ragam). He sang a song about Sharadamba in Sanskrit. He ended with the Kamalamba navavarnam in Sri ragam. Sri.J.Vaidyanathan on the mridangam gave good support. Sri. RK Shreeramkumar on the violin was excellent.

Violin Duet and Kunnakudi Balamuralikrishna concerts

SIMA organised the above concerts. The violin duet was good. I was glad to hear Panthuvarali ragam. I really liked the rendition of Dikshithar's Sri Subrahmanyaya Namaste.
Partly due to tiredness, I could not enjoy Sri. K. Balamuralikrishna's concert. I had to leave when the artiste was singing Pankaja lochana in Kalyani. The violinist was a senior artiste with wide-ranging experience.

Recital

Some people keep pestering you. They cannot keep the distance. With guidance, you can learn to turn it into an advantage - one of the reasons why we need a Guru. While I am thinking of the DakshiNamurthy stotram that my dad wants me to memorize, the annual recital of Sampradaya School of Music came and went. It was not like a wedding - no shoes were lost afaik. The perfectionist teacher put each of the disciples to task - was one spared, perhaps? Food was good but youngsters could benefit by starting right. Samosa for snack? Naa naa. We are brown all right. The quiz was long. Btw, why the Sahana obsession? All said and done, good.

Concert and Aradhana

Last Friday, I was able to attend Aditya Prakash's concert at UCLA(organized by Spic-Macay). His accompanists were Shiva Ramamurthy on the violin and Nirmal Narayan on the mridangam. We reached half an hour late. Aditya sang well. Good alapanas and smooth change of speed in swaram singing. His Dwijavanthi alapana reminded me a little of Sahana ragam. Upon discussing with Teacher, I learnt that these ragams have similarities, being janyas of the same karta (Harikambhoji). The violinist was good. All three artistes showed a good command over music.
On Saturday, Sri Thyagaraja Aradhana and Other Composers' Day was celebrated at Malibu Temple. Some of my favourite songs like Gaanamurte and Nambikkettavar evarayya were sung. I was able to identify Nattakuranji ragam. I liked the rendition of Bhagyada Lakshmi baaramma. I listened to Manirangu ragam for the first time. The Ashtalakshmi song was long but a good display of teamwork. The singer of 'Maa Ramanan' could have sung the lines about 'thanjam endru.... anjel..' with more bhavam.

The beauty of Sri Sanjay Subrahmanyam's music

It was five years ago when Suresh anna told me about Sri Sanjay Subrahmanyam. He pointed out that this singer of Carnatic music was qualified as a Chartered Accountant and had been a Ranji Trophy cricket player. In 2007, my teacher said that her son was an upcoming concert musician and a disciple of Sri Sanjay. I got my first chance to attend his concert in 2008 in Los Angeles. He bowled me over with his lilting voice and heartfelt, detailed renditions. I felt that his was a vibrant and power-packed concert. I purchased two of his CDs and listened to them over and over again. I learnt to like Malayamarutham and Madhyamavathy listening to his alapanas. He really enjoys his singing on stage. He also has a good sense of humour and an unassuming personality. But he takes music very seriously and has an infectious passion for it. I was lucky to get his autograph during his concert in 2009. The songlist for the concert is at http://simala.net/pastevents/2009Events/october24/sanjay-subramanyam-october24.html .Here is my short review of his 2009 SIMA concert:

After a powerpacked concert last year, Sanjay gave us more bhavam and detailed singing this time. He started with an Ata thala varnam Neevanti deivamu (Neelambari) followed by 'Vande sada Padmanabham'. He sang beautiful swarams. The next krithi in Reethigowla was good. 'Saravana bhava guhane' in Madhyamavathi was excellent. The RTP started in my favourite ragam Abheri. For the pallavi, he used a ragamaalika. The line was 'Vellai thamarai poovil iruppaal.' I particularly liked the way he interspersed the words with swarams like ' Vellai Thamarai Poovil Iruppaal.' It sounded very good. It must be difficult because I have not heard a lot of this type of swaram-singing. The young violinist got a couple of 'sabash'es from Sanjay for his keen following of the singer's swarams. He then switched to Tamil and sang in Kalyani, Sahana, Mohanam etc. He switched from Bhakti rasam and sang 'Oho kaalame' about time. Another good one was 'Thunbam nergayil' in Desh. Subrahmanya Bharathi's 'Ninnaye Rathi endru' sounded pleasantly different from the film-version I am used to hearing. We could glimpse Sanjay's sense of humour when he sang 'nee nillaadu ooduvai' (about time) just when a playful boy was rushing onto a first row seat; he also pointed to Mr.Narayan while singing 'Narayananai thudi maname.' On the whole, a very enjoyable concert.

As the December season 2009 draws to a close in Chennai, I am busy reading reviews by newspapers and detailed accounts by bloggers. Many thanks to all for giving me vicarious pleasure about the season. Los Angeles is waking up to music with at least two house-concerts in January:

1) Vidhwan S.Shankar on Jan10.
2) Sri Aditya Prakash on Jan17.

Then, there is the Thyagaraja Aradhana at Malibu temple on Jan23.

Let us look forward to great music in 2010. Happy New Year!!