December Music Season Update - Final

Venue: Narada Gana Sabha

30 Dec 2008 – Vocal - Sudha Raghunathan; Violin R K Sriram Kumar

Excellent concert. Some of songs were: Sri jalandharam, karuna jooda vamma (thodi), rama rama payasage (pandhuvarali), mrudanga thalamu (sri ranjani), sathurdasya ragamalika, arul seyya venumayya (rasigapriya), kandha un aadhara vindham thunai, thaye gopalakrishnan yasodha, jagadho vaaraname. It was little sloppy in the beginning but picked up admirably during second half. Kandha was the pick of the day.

The sad part of the day was the body language of violinist Sriram who behaved as if he is playing music on sudha's private reception. He hardly turned and looked at the crowd !

Some general observation of mine on this season:

1. 80% of the crowd consists of oldies.... They are extremely good and knowledgeable in carnatic music. They come early and they keep their cell phones in silent mode. They share musical information. Good company indeed !

2. Singers should look at the crowd for the first 2 songs to get the feedback on mike / sound.

3. Why dont the sabha's keep some dust bins reachable?

4. Sabha should introduce the musicians before the start of kacheri.

December Music Season – Update 5

Venue: Narada Gana Sabha

28 Dec 2008 – Mandolin U Srinivas Violin – Mullaivasan G Chandramouli; Mrudangam –

Tanjore Murugabhopathy; Ghatam – S V Ramani; Morsing Srirangam Kannan

Good concert. Some of songs were: Shanthamuledhu, balayamam, ranjani niranjani, Chinnan Chiru Kiliye & Saibhajan. Lovely concert with one of the best thani avardhanam performance.

28 Dec 2008 – Vocal - Neyveli R Santhanagopalan; Violin – V V Ravi; Mrudangam – Neyveli R Narayanan

I listened to first two songs - Ninnukori & Vathabi and left the concert hall as I felt overflowing with music for a given day.

29 Dec 2008 – Vocal – Bombay Jayashri; Violin – Embar Kannan; Mrudangam – Patri Sathishkumar

Excellent Concert. Some of the songs were: Nin thaathpamariya, Tripura sundari, hiranmayi lakshmi, manabyasa sarala, kalisiyunde, sivabalane vadivelane, kanda naal mudhal & thillana. Well executed concert and enjoyed well by rasigas. Sivabalane received maximum applause.

29 Dec 2008 – Vocal – O S Arun; Violin – Vittal Ramamurthy; Mrudangam J Vaidyanathan

I listened to first two songs - Vathabi & Brocheva and left the concert hall as I felt overflowing with music for a given day.

December Music Season – Update 4

Venue: Narada Gana Sabha

26 Dec 2008 – Vocal – T V Sankaranarayanan; Violin – H K Venkatraman; Mrudangam – Tanjore Murugabhopathy

Good concert. Some of songs were: Gajananam, sfri naradha, sri guru praba, abaya varadhe saradhe (Hindolam), Saroja nala nethri (shankarabharanam), Karpooran narumo & venkatajala nilayam. For his age, he sang very well and sounded fully passionate. 65% of the hall was occupied and it looked like it was filled up with his fans that seemed to have enjoyed the concert fully. I liked it.

26 Dec 2008 – Ganesh, Kumaresh & Jayanthi Kumaresh

Bad Concert. Looked like one quite an unprepared concert. They failed miserably to keep the attention of listeners at the end.

27 Dec 2008 – Vocal – Ranjani & Gayathri; Violin – Charulatha (?); Mrudangam – Manoj Siva

Excellent Concert. Some of the songs were:Vallava nayaga, palil, nava siddhi petralum, sri kamakoti peeta, nee kelara, anjile ondru petran. I simply loved the song anandha bairavi unai allal aarabi specifically. The crowed guessed the song, raaga and hence, the built up was very enjoyable. Kudos the college going like Violinist Charu ended up playing her role very well.

Crazy Mohan's Chocolate Krishna

I watched Crazy Mohan's latest play called Chocolate Krishna at Narada Gana Sabha. It was 119th performance and has duration of 90m.

It is about self belief than getting addicted in god's belief. It provoked good amount of laugh and filled up with funny one liners. The linking up of Vodafone commercial is too good. Worth seeing once.

December Music Season – Update 3

Venue: Narada Gana Sabha

25 Dec 2008 – Vocal – Priya Sisters; Violin – V V Srinivasa Rao' Mrudangam – B Sivaraman

Good concert. Some of songs are: Sri valli devasenapathy, kanda purama soundaryam, kali dhanushkodi with ponguju sri raghu, rasika jana mohana ranjani, jo achudananda. I loved thirumal kunda and chinnan siru kiliye especially. They are sounding very fine while singing melody or in a soft voice.

25 Dec 2008 – Bharathanatyam by Shobana

Decent show. Shobana looked like an angel and danced with complete grace. Facial expressions were very good especially while she was dancing for yadhava Krishna, yadhukula Krishna. She played to gallery when she danced for nadhar mudi mel irukkum nalla paambey ! But I felt lost as it had no story like what Sonal Mansing gave on 24^th Dec. Hence, my satisfaction level was not that good. But the hall was full for Shobana.

December Music Season 2008 – Update 2

Venue: Narada Gana Sabha

23 Dec 2008 – Vocal – Sanjay Subramaniam; Violin – Nagai Muralidharan; Mrudangam – Patri Sathishkumar

Excellent concert. Ongi Ulagalandha, Kaalai thooki nindradum, Alanaadu, Isai paada vendumey are some of the songs he sang. Alanaadu in Thodi was mesmerizing and he just made people to hook it on so easily and held the control on through the concert. The crowd showered him with affectionate applauses. Govinda alalem mangai manaala vaa was another damn good song he sang and I loved. In fact, I started even imagining that song in fusion, percussion type while sipping coffee.

24 Dec 2008 – Vocal – T M Krishna; Violin – Mysore Manjunath; Mrudangam – Trichy Sankaran

Excellent Concert. Ayyappan avadharitha, maakelara vicharam, sri guru kula murthy (udayaravi chandrika raagam), vinaradhana manaveer, mari mari nine with karuna govinda (RTP) are some of the songs he sang. I loved maakelara vicharam and dasaratha bala ramachandrayya especially. Sound engineering issues did neither dither the singers nor the audiences.

24 Dec 2008 – Odissi – Sonal Mansing

Lovely. My first brush with Odissi. The theme was panchakanya – Ahalya, Tara, Kundi, Mandothari & Draupati. While kundi episode depicted poignancy, anger was the highlight of Draupati. Every character / story is introduced by a crisp 2-3min speech im impeccable english and the dance followed.Amazing expression, subtle body language, engaging music kept us on good mood throughout.

December Music Season 2008 – Update 1

I wanted to attend one full season of December music for quite some time. But never had time to fulfill that. But this time, I did it due to recession. Self and my friend Mr.C attending concert / Kacheri in narada gana sabha, ttk road. I love Carnatic music but never learned so I cant identify Raagas but at the same time I am very familiar with lot of songs due to continuous listening. Mr.C is very much aware of raaga and hence, no issues in information.

17 Dec 2008: Vocal - T N Seshagopalan; Violin – V V Ravi; Mrudangam – Trichur Narendran

I went 30m late., hence not really enjoyed the concert.

18 Dec 2008: Vocal – Nithyasree Mahadevan; Violin – Hemalatha; Mrudangam – Neyveli Skandasubramaniam

Good concert. Sasivadana, Allal Enum, Un perumayai evar arivar & Ramakrishna govinda murare are the highlights of this concert.

19 Dec 2008: Vocal – K J Yesudas; Violin – Nagai Muralidharan; Mrudangam – K V Prasad

Average concert. As always, Yesudas impressed us through his devotional songs – like om enbathu omkaram, Harivarasanam Viswamohanam, Krishna nee begane, Innoru jenmam venduma; Solla vallaya kiliye and enna varam ketpen naane is something I listened first time and I fell in love with those song and lyrics. K V Prasad was full of smiles when he was performing and he was interacting with Yesudas nicely throughout.

20 Dec 2008: Vocal – P Unnikrishnan; Violin – S Varadarajan; Mrudangam – Mannargudi A Eswaran

Good concert. Lot of hand movement while singing; I loved the song "Sri Paramaguru" which was sung for 20m. By the way, have you noted the Unnikrishnan's Leg thumb finger movement while he performs?

21 Dec 2008 – Vocal – Aruna Sairam; Violin – Embar Kannan; - Mrudangam – Patri Sathish Kumar

Good concert by the biggest crowd puller of this season. Her concert tickets are getting sold like Rajinikant's movies; As usual, she sang one catchy kavadi sindhu before winding up. I could feel lot of improvement in her singing from last year.

22 Dec 2008 – Vocal – Ranjani & Gayathri ; Venue – Kamaraj Arangam

I went to this concert with zero expectation and I loved it fully. Excellent singing by both – Highlights – Marukelara oh raghava and Sharan Sharan ekanatha (Abhang).

22 Dec 2008 – Instrumental – Kadri Gopalnath; Venue – Kamaraj Arangam

Very good concert. Nagumo was the highlight. But his moresing man Bangalore Rajasekhar's expressive face is even more good. His capturing of Taala for every song reminds us of movie acting !