Friday, November 23, 2012

CARNATIC MUSIC - DECEMBER SEASON 2012 PREVIEW



Well I could see so many pre-match forecasts in all the sports. If there is going to be a World Cup, the discussions for the same starts even before 6 months. These are made mainly due to the interest shown by the fans and the number of followers it has.

Music as such has huge following world-wide. But, Carnatic Music has only little following (compared with western even in India). Despite that I could see many starting to go to carnatic concerts, just to know what’s there in it. Many groups in Facebook have started discussing on carnatic music, which is very great thing J.  Only this way, even I started listening to it and am sure I can never come out of it in my life.  During december Chennai welcomes so many tourists and people all around the world to celebrate the Margazhi Music Festival. All the sabhas will already be making arrangements for audio, canteen, etc. And its time for Music, Music and Music everywhere, every single second in Margazhi. 



Previously I wrote my pre-season expectations for Football. Then a thought struck me. Why not write for Music season too, as I value it more than anything else (incl football ;P ). This article is about ‘pre-season forecasts’ or to put it rightly what I expect from this December 2012 Music season, and the concerts that am planning to attend (hopefully). Just writing this out of enthusiasm, so if you find any mistakes, please do let me know in the comment segment in order to rectify the same.




First of all, many congratulations to Trichur Ramachandran, who has been awarded The ‘Sangita Kalanidhi’ by Academy. Very happy that another artist from GNB School has got it. He is giving Lecdem on “GNB’s Raga prastara and Thanam” on Christmas morning at Academy.


 
Vidwan Nedunuri Krishnamoorthy is presenting a lecdem on The music of Sripada Pinakapani on 30th December.

Sri. Malladi Suribabu, student of the Legend Voletti Venkateswarulu and father of Malladi Bros is performing in academy this year. I heard him sing few songs at Sripada Pinakapani’s house in a function for entering 100 years of age. Absolutely brilliant sangathis by Suribabu, that reminds us of the Great Voletti himself.




The first thing I noticed when I saw the concert schedule was Sri. TM Krishna giving out free concerts by singing in the morning sessions. Now people need not wait for tickets in queues to listen to him. But then I really don’t know whether this would help the sabhas’ finance, (which again only those incharge of the sabhas would know) and for those who will not be able to afford to take leave or permission from work in the morning. But then, its really a joy to all TMK’s fans. Also it helps to sort out for his fans, to some extent, to select the concert to attend in the evenings. This year too TMK - Trichy Sankaran combo will be giving the Special 4 hour concert at kalarasana, which they have been doing for years together.




And the second thing I looked forward was Sri. Mandolin Srinivas – Sri. Trichy Sankaran Combo in Bharat Kalachar. Unfortunately this time they have made different accompaniments for  Srinivas. I hope Bangalore Praveen will make a good substitute. And as usual the Mandolin Wizard is playing at academy on 23rd, MFAC on Christmas and Kalarasana on New Year, while the Mridangam Legend plays for most of Vijay Siva and OST concerts. Such a Made for each other Duo Vijay Siva - Sankaran are. But ofcourse, Sankaran can make us look like that to whoever he accompanies. They perform together at Asthika Samajam, MGR Janaki College, Kalarasana and IFAS.

Lalgudi Duo – Trichy Sankaran combo are performing as usual on Jan 1st at MFAC. Another must-listen one for the Music Lovers.


Sri. Sanjay Subramaniam's performance at Kalarasana is one of the most sought after performances for a long time. They share a great connection in my opinion. Everyone can expect a very satisfying and lengthy concert by Sanjay on 23rd.


Couldnot find Smt. E Gayathri concert anywhere. Seriously I donno whats wrong with the sabhas. Or maybe she is not available. Very sad really given the kind of knowledge and prowess she has and the spells she can cast with her veena. Will miss her for sure.



Dr. Vijayalaksmi Subramaniam  has been performing in the top tier for years. Recently her guru Shri. S Rajam's DVD was released. S Rajam stood for popularising Vivadhi Ragas and Koteeswara Iyer Krithis all his life. So we can expect a rare raga treat from Vijayalakshmi Subramaniam.


Most of the top senior (super senior) artists like TNS, TVS, Ramani, TNK, Sivaraman and Guruvayur Dorai are giving lesser concerts compared to last few years. Its high-time we hear them to the maximum possible extent, before they retire (which I hope shouldn’t happen).


In the upcoming artists segment – RamaKrishnan Moorthy, Prasanna Venkatraman and Amrutha Venkatesh are in the must-listen list. K. Ashok, Son of Vidwan Kalidas (Disciple of Legendary Palani Subramaniam Pillai) has started performing again from last season. A great talent in Mridangam like his father, worth listening to.




TNS Krishna, Abhishek Raghuram and Saketharaman’s Academy performances for the last 2 years have been spell bound. The only worrying thing is the availability of tickets. This should be in the schedule of everyone. Also everyone can make sure you would get to listen atleast 3 hours of great music in Abhisek’s performance at academy, which ofcourse is a great treat for all of us. TNS Krishna resembles his legendary father in everyway possible and his laya gnanam and Poruthams in swara patterns are amazing. Saketharaman's Rasikapriya last year was outstanding. Many senior accompanists including Umayalpuram Sivaraman have been accompanying him in the last few years. This trio should be in top-of-the-list of any rasika.


Sri. Injikkudi EM Subramaniam’s performance in Ragasudha Hall was THE BEST I heard last year. His Nalinakanthi and Thodi were out of the world. But on the downside of it, only very few rasikas attended it. This year too he is performing on Christmas morning at the same place. I sincerely hope to see more fans turn out for Nadhaswaram this year atleast.






Vidwan Karaikudi Mani, another legendary Mridangam artist is giving a lecdem on "Possibilities in Misram" at Narada Gana Sabha on 22nd.

Vidwan Sri. J Venkatraman, disciple of Alathoor Bros is giving a lecdem on Canda Tala Pallavis, which are exclusively used in Thiruppugazhs on 23rd at Academy. 
This is a rare treat for those interested in Layam J.

One more curious Lecdem is the “Automatic Gamakam Generation – Computer Synthesis” by Sri. M. Subramanian. Just wondering how is it even possible. Very much looking forward to it.


I have already attended few concerts in November and most of them had Kambodhi as Main Raga. Too much of something good is also bad. This happened in 2007 where around 65% of the concerts I attended had Kambodhi as the Main raga and it was too much to take in. I hope its not the case this year. I also wish everyone starts performing some rare ragas and Vivadhi ragas and most important thing of all, I request all the rasikas not to leave during thanis and hope to listen to Good Music in an environment I desired for in my previous article.


Some Notable Concerts:

Date
Time
Artists
Place
26th Nov
5.00pm
T. Lokanatha Sharma – K. Ashok followed by
N Ramani – T. Bhaktavatsalam
Arkay convention centre
29th Nov


6.45 pm

Vijay Siva

Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan


DECEMBER 2012
4
4.30 pm
Ganesh Kumaresh followed by
Unnikrishnan
Narada Gana Sabha
6
4.30 pm

6.00 pm
Sowmya followed by TVS

Abhishek Raghuram
Narada Gana Sabha

Brahma Gana Sabha
7
6.00 pm
Vijay Siva
Brahma Gana Sabha
8
4.00 pm
Malladi Bros – Trichy Sankaran
Narada Gana Sabha

11
5.00 pm


6.00 pm
Guitar Prasanna followed by TN Seshagopalan

Shashank
Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan


Brahma Gana Sabha
12
9.30 am

4.00 pm
Prasanna Venkatraman

Bhushany Kalyanaraman followed by Neyveli Santhanagopalan
MFAC
14
4.30 pm
PKM Ravi (Nadaswaram) followed by
Kadri Gopalnath – Kanyakumari – H. Palanivel
Narada Gana Sabha
15
4.30 pm

5.00 pm



6.00 pm
U Srinivas

Vijayalakshmi Subramaniam
followed by
OS Thiyagarajan

Sanjay Subramaniam
Krishna Gana Sabha

Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan



Brahma Gana Sabha
16
4.30 pm
TNS Krishna followed by
KJ Yesudas
Nungambakkam Cultural Academy
17
8.05 am


 9.15 am

4.30 pm
M Subramaniam (Lecdem on Automatic Gamaka Generation)

Raji Gopalakrishnan

Ramakrishnan moorthy followed by Amrutha Venkatesh
 Music Academy




Narada Gana Sabha
18
9.15 am

4.30 pm
Malladi Suribabu

OS Thiyagarajan followed by
Sanjay Subramaniam
Music Academy

IFAS
19
4.30 pm



7.00 pm
N Ravikiran – Trichy Sankaran followed by
KJ Yesudas

Abhishek Raghuram
Narada Gana Sabha



Music Academy
20
4.30 pm
Sanjay Subramaniam – Mannargudi Easwaran
followed by Pantula Rama
Narada Gana Sabha
21
9.15 am

 4.15 pm
OS Thiyagarajan – Trichy Sankaran

Sowmya followed by
N Ravikiran
Music Academy



22
8.30 am


9.30 am

4.00 pm



4.30 pm
Karaikudi Mani (lecdem on Possibilities in Misram)

TM Krishna

Vijayalakshmi Subramaniam followed by
Malladi Bros

Shashank followed by
Abhishek Raghuram
Narada Gana Sabha


MFAC





IFAS
23
9.00 am


9.15 am onwards




10.00 am

3.00 pm


4.30 pm


6.15 pm

J Venkatraman (lecdem on Canda Tala Pallavis)

Vedavalli
Trichur Bros
Prasanna Venkatraman
U Srinivas
K. Balamuralikrishna

TM Krishna – Karaikudi Mani

Aishwarya Vidyaraghunath – L. Subramanian

Jwala Ensemble – Umayalpuram Sivaraman

Sanjay Subramaniam
Music Academy








Narada Gana Sabha

Sastry Hall


Krishna Gana Sabha


Kalarasana
24
9.15 am


4.00 pm
Trichur Ramachandran – Mannargudi Easwaran

TNS Krishna followed by
Bombay Jaishree
Music Academy


MFAC
25
8.05 am


10.00 am

4.00 pm
Trichur Ramachandran (Ledem on GNB’s raga prasthara and Thanam)

Injikkudi EM Subramaniam

Saketharaman followed by
U Srinivas
Music Acadmy


Ragasudha Hall

MFAC
26
4.15 pm
Vijayalakshmi Subramaniam
Followed by
Sanjay Subramaniam
Music Academy
27
8.30 am
Suguna Purushothaman (Lecdem on Thiruppugazh)
Narada Gana Sabha
29
8.30 am


9.15 am


6.15 pm

7.00 pm
Ghatam Karthick (Appreciation of Rhythm in a Concert)

TV Sankaranarayanan followed by
Ramakrishnan moorthy

Vijay Siva – Trichy Sankaran

Saketharaman
Narada Gana Sabha


Music Academy


Kalarasana

Music Academy

30
9.00 am


9.15 am

4.30 pm



7.00 pm
Nedunuri Krishnamoorthy (lecdem on Music of Sripada Pinakapani)

TN Seshagopalan

Kadri Gopalnath – Kanyakumari – Guruvayur Dorai – Bangalore Amrit


TNS Krishna
Music Academy




IFAS



Music Academy
31
4.30 pm



6.30 pm
Sudha Raghunathan
followed by
Abhishek Raghuram

OS Thiyagarajan – Guruvayur Dorai
Narada Gana Sabha



MFAC
1st Jan
9.15 am

9.30 am

6.15 pm
Shashank

Lalgudi Duo – Trichy Sankaran

U Srinivas
Music Academy

MFAC

Kalarasana
6th Jan
5.00 pm
TM Krishna – Trichy Sankaran
Kalarasana

 The full Schedule is available HERE


JUST FOR LAUGHS :-













PS – If anything in the content needs edition, please do let me know in the comment segment. (All the images  have been taken from google :P )


A VERY HAPPY MUSICAL MONTH TO ALL THE RASIKAS J

11 comments:

  1. Hi Very interesting. Have you ever been to Prince Rama Varma's concert? If not, you have missed a wonderful artist, par excellence. Please do check out his schedule. It's pure bliss !!! There is one this evening if you can manage :-)

    http://ramavarma.yolasite.com/

    Regards
    Mini


    Bharatiya Sangeeth Utsav 2012, Tuesday 27th November 2012
    5:00 PM
    Aswathi Thirunal Rama Varma (Vocal)
    Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan
    Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan - Main Hall

    December 2, 2012 , 5:30 pm
    Concert at Thrimurthi Sangeetha Sabha
    Aasthika Samajam, Pozhichalur,Chennai
    with Sri S.Varadarajan , Sri B.Harikumar(Mridangam) , Dr. S.Karthick(Ghatam)


    December 16, 2012 , 9:30 am
    Musiri House, 28/2 Musiri Subramaniam Road, Mylapore ,Chennai
    with Avaneeswaram Sri S.R. Vinu (Violin) , Sri B.Harikumar(Mridangam) , Dr. S.Karthick(Ghatam)


    December 22, 2012 , 7pm
    Concert at TVG's AIMA at Besant Nagar Vinayakar Temple, Adayar,Chennai
    with Ms Akkarai Subhalakshmi(Violin) , Sri B. Harikumar (Mridangam) and Dr.S.Karthick (Ghatam)

    December 31, 2012
    Concert at Nanganallur Anjaneya Temple, Chennai
    with Avaneeswaram Sri S.R.Vinu(Violin) ,Sri B. Harikumar (Mridangam) and Dr.S.Karthick (Ghatam)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sure.. Will listen to him this time..
      Thanks for putting in his schedule..

      Delete
  2. Gayathri Girish [student of TNS], Pattabhirama Pandit are two more worth listening to. Hope you have a good time!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Mahesh.

      Hope you have a great time as well :)

      Delete
  3. E Gayathri is performing on December 2nd in Jaya Tv @ Raja Muthiah Hall

    ReplyDelete
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