Day 7: Madras Music Season

My father was the one who noticed that, I had not logically concluded my series of posts on the Madras Music Season, which I thoroughly enjoyed the whole of last week.

The last concert on the day that I left for Bangalore, was Sanjay Subramanyam, at Rama Bhaktha Jana Sabha (at PSBB schook KKNagar). My bus was at 11PM, and I was at the concert until 9:20PM. :=). So yes, I was listening to music until the last minute of my Chennai trip.

My comments on the Sanjay concert:

  • Outstanding performance
  • His maturity and control over the music is evidently visible.
  • One thing that I noticed was, how he enjoyed the concert. He was smiling, and encouraging the mridangam, ganjira, and the violin (genuinely!). You can easily see that, he was enjoying the concert, as much as the listeners were. I think that’s made the concert class apart. The only other concert, in which I got this vibe, was TM Krishna. Every other concert, the singers were so engrossed in making sure they sounded good, they chose the right songs, they did on time etc etc etc. Sanjay’s music just flowed.
  • Bilahari, Amir Kalyani, and Vagulapriya, were few of the ragams delivered flawlessly.
  • Virutham before Aadum Chidambarame was amazing.
  • He was almost dancing while singing the fast paced Nijagaadasa Yadunandane.
  • It was a pity, that I had to leave at 9:20PM. Not sure how long he sang. I am sure there would have been atleast 2-3 thukkadas. He is famous for singing tamil songs. I sure missed them.

 

That ends my series of posts on the Madras Music Season 2009-2010. I had tons of fun. I hope reading these posts encourage/enthuse people to come to Chennai next year, and have the same feeling that I had this year.

Happy listening!

Day 6: Madras Music Season

Day 5: Madras Music Season

Day 4: Madras Music Season

Day 3: Madras Music Season

Day 2: Madras Music Season

Day 1: Madras Music Season

Day 2: Madras Music Season

Had bought tickets for T. M. Krishna (7PM) at German Hall (Indian Fine Arts). The ticket is for both the 4:00PM and the 7:00PM concert. The 4PM concert was Hyderabad Brothers. So we (mother and me) reached there around 5PM (after getting tickets for Wednesday’s Ranjani Gayathri concert in Rani Seethai Hall). Observations about the 2 concerts below.

Hyderabad brothers – Indian Fine Arts (German Hall)

  • Went in about an hour after the concert had started. It had not quite warmed up yet.
  • About 50% of hall was empty.
  • SriMushnam on the mridangam was just fantastic.
  • Manasu swadinamai (Sankarabharanam) was soulfully rendered, but something was missing (my opinion).
  • Simlar case with Shanmugapriya. Shanmugapriya when well rendered, can make you soar. Did not happen for me. I was still in my seat.
  • About 7ish (when they should have finished), they were still going. Thani Avarthanai started at 6:50PM. Pretty bad time management.
  • The secretary mama, after trying to give lots of secret signals regarding time-up, and failing, moved into stage, and grabbed the mike, and said a few good words about the artists and said, “they will be concluding now.” This (I think) pis*** off the brothers. And they sang, “Naan oru vilayattu bommaya” – a subtle way of saying – Do you think you can control me like your toy.
  • They sang 2 more songs and closed up at 7:10PM.

T. M. Krishna

  • This was just another play ground all together.
  • The sabha had filled up to the brim.
  • TM Krishna was at his best – just brilliant.
  • Two small songs + 2 RTP (Ragam Thanam Pallavi’s) + 2 small songs
  • Excellent time management.
  • Both the RTPs were off unusual raagams, and he said out the ragams. I really appreciate the artists letting us know what they are singing. Makes me appreciate the music better (else I am quizzing myself in my brain, as to what ragam it is!).
  • First RTP was in Narayanagowla (it was Vaikunta ekadasi yesterday).
  • Second RTP was in Rishabapriya (very closely resembling Shanmugapriya).
  • Guruvayoor durai on the mridangam did his magic.
  • Performance par excellence.
  • He has inherited the “playing-with-the-swarams” capability from Semmangudi.