Pancharathna krithis

Avaneesh was playing on his wiggleworm gym while I listened to Jagaddanandakaraka today. I was able to recollect it is in Nattai ragam.

Ranjani and Gayatri concert on 2 Oct

This was a well-planned and crisp concert that was enjoyed by many. Smt.Ranjani sang some inspiring alapanais. The duo's various sangathis and ease with Hindustani ragams was wonderful.

Ragam Jaganmohini

I have been listening to "Sivakama Sundari" sung by Bombay Sisters (Sri. Gopalakrishna Bharathi composition) and "Sri Vidya Rajagopalam" sung by Smt. R.Vedavalli (Dikshitar composition).
Malladi Brothers concert last Saturday (www.simala.us) woke me from my sleepy attitude towards music.
I was happy to identify ragams Khamas, Kathanakuthuhalam etc during Divya Asuri's houseconcert (Sri Arun Ramamurthy on the violin and Sri Sudhakar on the mridangam). Kalyani renditions by the vocalist and violinist reminded me of Shankarabharanam - I have to understand these ragams better. During one song, she showed that she was in control of the concert. However, I had to leave during the Mohanam song.

Ragam confusion

While listening to an alapanai, I started wondering why I kept thinking of Kharaharapriya while the artiste is supposedly singing Bhairavi. I am still getting an idea of the relationship....

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.

http://www.hindu.com/fr/2010/04/09/stories/2010040951070200.htm

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.