Recently in Music Category
Since I see lot of hits on my blog looking for the concert details, here is the link to the mandali's website with the concert list.
It has been hectic and have not been to a single concert yet. Hope to listen to a few concerts in April
One day I wandered into The Forum Mall and listened to Worldspace. They were playing a Haridas bhajan which was one of my favourites. Immediately decided to pick it up. My parents enjoyed having Shruthi for company. Especially my mother, who is an avid carnatic music rasika. Though I had mostly listened to only Shruthi, I would occasionally listen to other channels as well. KL Radio had some fantastic programmes on Saturdays and Sundays.
We got back from vacation and figured Worldspace was not working. On reading the news and talking to a few people, we got to know that the India Operations is shutdown for good. It has been almost a week now and the house is so quiet, having a haunted feel. Hope a miracle happens and Shruthi is heard again in our home entertaining, educating and soothing me with its collection of carnatic music.
It gave me company for almost 3 years.
It helped me listen to some good quality music.
It helped me in learning and identifying Raagas.
It brought me some good interviews with stalwarts,
It helped me in staying away from the idiot box.
It was good while it lasted.
Bye Bye Worldspace.
The concert schedule for the 71st Sree Ramanavami Celebrations at Fort High School is available on the mandali's website. As usual it is a star studded list. Be there and enjoy.
Yamini, the annual dusk to dawn musical festival, happens on the evening of 25th Jan every year. I was there last year and it was an amazing evening / night. The event is back this year again with another set of maestros.
This year's performance includes
- Carnatic Vocal by Ranjani & Gayatri
- Violin by Mysore brothers Nagaraj and Manjunath
- Bharatanatyam by Urmila Sathyanarayanan
- Flute by Pt.Ronu Mazumdar
Passes are free for download at the concert website. Be there, clothed in warm clothing and enjoy an amazing evening / night
I was reading a tribute to Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan last week when a couple of incidents came to my mind.
The first one happened more than 15 years ago. The movie Keladi Kanmanai was just released. DD Tamil was doing a special program for some festival occasion. There was a program by Kunnakudi and someone requested him to play the song "Mannil indha" from that movie. The song was a big hit and was famous for its breathless song by SPB. So, Kunnakudi asked the person, how should he play it. "Moochu vidama padanuma illa Moochu vittu padanuma". (Should it be played without taking a breath as in the original song or otherwise). The compere was stunned for a minute. Kunnakudi laughed and explained. If the bow stays on the strings continuously throughout the song it is called "Moochu vidama" and if the bow loses contact with the string, it is "Moochu vittu padarathu". And then to everyone's astonishment, he played it as he told.
The second incident I remember happened last year at the Sree Ramanavami Concerts at the Rama Seva Mandali. Kunnakudi had finished a song and was getting ready to start the next one. One of the accompanists got up and started walking down the stage, most probably to take a bio-break. When Kunnakudi saw this, he played the tune of "Ponal pogattaum Poda", a famous tamil film song. The entire audience burst into laughter and started clapping. The accompanist must have been embarrassed.
The few times that I have seen him play in concerts live, I have come back dumbstruck, amazed at the way he makes the violin dance to his tune. One of the best violinists of our era is no more. May his soul rest in peace.
PS: Another amusing incident happened at the same concert. He had come to the concert from Delhi after playing for the President and was accompanied by his wife. After the concert was over, I went closer to the stage to get a better look of everyone. I was standing behind his wife, when one Mami approached her and asked:
Mami: Neenga enna Iyera? Kunnakudi's Wife: ... (with a surprised look) M: Ungaluku ponnu irruka? K: ... (Even more surprised) M: En payanuku pakkalamnu ... K: Yes, but she is married and has a kid. :-) M: speechless (people around start laughing)
A little after I wrote my post about the schedule, I noticed that the official site also has the same listed. This looks better than my scanned copy. Enjoy.
The schedule for the annual Ramanavami celebrations at Fort High School, Chamarajpet is out. It runs from April 7th till May 14th. I have been having a copy of the schedule for almost month now but I was hoping to find a copy online so I can pass it along. Today, Sashi volunteered to scan the schedule and give it to me as a PDF. So here it is. Check out the schedule and be there.
It is also there on upcoming. Add yourself if you are attending.
I was aimlessly browsing on Sunday night when I glanced upon Radioverve's new classical channel. I listened about for a couple of hours and the experience was fantastic. They are bringing together in association with Ananya, non-profit cultural orginazation. I hope this will help bring more new faces into fame and also help reach to a bigger audience. My only request now is to have a longer play list and more variety.
The website design is also amazing. Head over there, start listening and spread the word.
Sree Rama Seva Mandali, Chamrajpet's Ramanavami concert schedule is out. Check out the star studded schedule at the link below. Enjoy!
69th Sreerama Navami Celebrations, Sree Rama Seva Mandali,Chamarajpet
