Best of Season 2010

[bilahari]

The season has drawn to a close for me, and here are my favourites.

Concerts Attended:

MSG Trio, MFAC
KBMK, KGS
Suryaprakash, MA
Rajee Gopalakrishnan, PSS (partial)
NSG, PSS
Amrutha Venkatesh, Carnatica
TNK Trio, Carnatica
Hyderabad Brothers, Carnatica
TNK Trio, MA
Aishu Venkataraman, KGS
Gayathri Venkatraghavan, Nada Inbam
R. Vedavalli, MA
Sanjay, Kalarasana
VVS, Nada Inbam
PP, MA
Prashant Prasad, Nada Inbam (partial)
RKS, Mudhra
Amritha Murali, MA
Aishwarya Vidya Raghunath, Nada Inbam (partial)
Kalyani Ganesan, Nada Inbam
PP, Nada Inbam (partial)

Best Concert of the Season:
TNK Trio, Carnatica
NSG, PSS
R. Vedavalli, MA

Best Violin Accompaniment:
RKSK for R. Vedavalli, MA
RKSK for RKS, Mudhra
Nagai Sriram for Hyderabad Brothers, Carnatica
Varadarajan for Sanjay, Kalarasana
M.A. Sundaresan for NSG, PSS

Best Mrudangam Accompaniment:
Mannargudi A. Easwaran for NSG, PSS
Kamalakara Rao for TNK Trio, Carnatica
Tanjore Kumar for Kalyani Ganesan, Nada Inbam
K. Arun Prakash for R. Vedavalli, MA

Best Opening Item:
Mugattai kATTi, R. Vedavalli, MA
EntO prEma, TNK Trio, MA
ViribhOni, MSG Trio, MFAC
VanajAKSi, Kalyani Ganesan, Nada Inbam

Best Alapanai:
SavEri, NSG, PSS
DEvagAndAri, RKS, Mudhra
DEvagAndAri, TNK, MA
DES, VVS, Nada Inbam
MadhyamAvati, MSG, MFAC
Arabhi, PP, Nada Inbam

Best Neraval:
Mugattai kATTi, R. Vedavalli, MA
MATi mATiki, R. Vedavalli, MA
Sankari Sankuru, NSG, PSS
Madhava mAmava, TNK, Carnatica

Best Kalpanaswaras:
SrI kAnta nI, TNK Trio, MA
Janaki ramaNa, PP, MA
BhajarE rE, R. Vedavalli MA

Best Thanam:
Arabhi, Gayathri V., Nada Inbam
Bilahari, Amritha Murali, MA
KalyANi, R. Vedavalli, MA
Bhairavi, TNK Trio, MA
KIravANi, MSG Trio, MFAC
NilAmbari, NSG, PSS

Best Post-Main Item:
KriSNA nI, TNK Trio, Carnatica
Vruttam, Sanjay, Kalarasana
KinkiNi nAdam, PP, MA
PadAra vindamE, PP, MA
Kanagasaila, Gayathri V, Nada Inbam

Best Lecdem:
SRJ, PSS
Suguna Varadachari, MA
RKSK, PSS

Raga of the Season:
KiravANi (4 mains!)

The junior musicians were quite impressive, but the seniors still remain much more memorable for me.

Now let's hear from others who have attended the season.

[Nick H]

As people know, it was a washout for me, but, despite having attended so few concerts, my best of season is the number of fellow members I have met on 19th and subsequently. That has been, for me, the wonderful thing about December 2010.

[semmu86]

Concerts Attended:

TNK Trio, MA
Gayathri Venkatraghavan, Nada Inbam
R. Vedavalli, MA
VVS, Nada Inbam
PP, MA
RKS, Mudhra
PP, Nada Inbam (partial)
Malladi Bros (MudhrA).
Vijay Siva (Krishna gana sabha)
Kunnakudy BMK (PSS)

UpanyAsams and harikathA attended :

Sri.kalyANapuram ArAvamudhAchAriAr's thiruppAvai (NGS mini hall for 10 days)
vibhEEshaNa saraNagathi (NGS main hall)
kulasEkar AzhwAr vaibhavam (PSS)

Best Programme of the Season:

PP (Ragasudha and MA)
Vedavalli (MA)
VVS (Ragasudha)
KA's upanyAsams and harikathA... (Definitely THE HIGHLIGHT of the season for me as always)

Best thani avarthanam and Mrudangam Accompaniment:
UKS sir for Kunnakudy BMK (PSS)..
Sankaran sir for VijaySiva (KGS)

Best Kalpanaswaras:
PP for tSalakalla lADu (Ragasudha - Brought out the beauty of sarvalaghu in ample measure, a tribute to SSI's music i would say)


Best Lecdem:
Attended only one And that TRS sir's one which i attended proved to be quite an absorbing one....

[rajeshnat]

The season 2010 , if I could say is a testimony of a case of more and more concerts with less and less rasikas or put it differently supply is going exponential , but demand is fairly the same as last year.

Attended 18 concerts , considering the period of Dec 1st to Jan 10th,2010. Attended 17 different artists in these 18 concerts. All the reviews are there. The main attraction of concerts is to do with the following

1. There should be no airconditioning in the hall, so avoided kelvinator-BGS , Godrey-MusicAcademy, Samsung- kalarasana etals.

2. Could not go for any afternoon or morning concerts , attended mostly evening 1 and evening 2 slots

3. Missed a crucial week of Dec 20 to 24 as I had my customer visiting .

Artists Attended for the first time Ever:
SAthur Sisters, rAdha venkatAchalam ,Lalgudi Siblings (violin), vidya kalyAnarAman and a portion of NC Soundaravalli

Artists that I wanted to hear but could not:
Erode Anantharaman(for almost 5 to 6 years I wanted to hear him), Ramakrishna murthy (wanted to hear him in the last 1 year) and VR Dileep kumar (if ever he sings in chennai in season) .... few more that I cannot recollect now

Best Varnam:
maharAjapuram rAmachandran@MFAC on Dec 14th,2010
innam eN manam - chArukEsi - LGJ
That too when he started with a 2 minute leisurely alapana of chArukEsi , I just loved it.

Best #2:
No #2 which in my opinion should have a fast kAlapramAnam and a round of bountiful swaras
Unfortunately none of the concerts interested me that much, zilch

Best Submain
SuryaprakAsh@vAnimahAl on Dec 25th,2010
O rAmA ni nAMam (R N S) - poorvikalyANi -BR
This number is a madurai somu popularized one . When voice opens out and there is lot of assertion during quick turns in sangathis creates a lasting impact.SuryaprakAsh did this in style

Best Slow Number between Submain and Main
maharAjapuram rAmachandran@MFAC on Dec 14th,2010
bAlakrishnan pAdamalar (R) - dhanyAsi -psivan
maha ramachandran when he sings with his baritoned voice , there is so much of perfection be it alap or krithi a touch of azhuttam and intense classicism

tied with

rAdhA venkatAchalam@Connisseurs trust on Dec 11th,2010
payOrAsi bAlE (S) - dwijAvanthi - kalyAni varadarAjan
One usually sings a slow number between main and submain where alAp is there or Swaras are there . this one by Smt radha was really a superb rendition , a touch of some really lovely swara poruttams that reminded her guru TRS

Best Fast number between Submain and Main
SuryaprakAsh@vAnimahAl on Dec 25th,2010
viDajAladurA(S) - janaranjani - T
A fast filler with a really top notch speed Swaras with suryaprakash running with a faster tanjore murugabhUpathi

Best Main Krithi
Quite a few that puts me in a spot to select, ranging from tamAdam en Swami (todi)by suryaprakash@GNB Day safe concert, RanganAyakam(nAyaki)@Mudhra by TNS and rA rA rAjeevalochana(monhanam)@MFAC by maha ramachandran.
But I would give it to

Vijaysiva@SKGS on Dec 30th,2010
nee pAdaulE gati(R N S T)- bhairavi - patnam

Perhaps the choice is because of an outstanding mridangam support by Trichy sankaran sir and a really lovely support by Lalgudi viji that day, certainly it was a very lovely rendition

best single rAga RTP
rAdhA venkatAchalam@Connisseurs trust on Dec 11th,2010
RTP in kharaharapriyA

11 mins alApana , 5 mins violin return
6 mins tAnam
pallavi in mishra triputa talam
pallavi line was "nArAyani paradevatE pari pAhimAm namAmi santhatam"
pallavi was for 13 mins with trikAlam
swaras in kharaharapriyA 6 mins

This pallavi was composed by her that day and she told me she always sings a a pallavi in any concert .

RTP with rAgamAliga pallavi
Quite a few contenders like maha ramachandran(shanmughapriya + swararAgamALiga)@MFAC, suryaprakash(kApi + swararagamaliga)@vanimhal, TNS(brind saranga+ medlay of swaras)@mudhra (unfortunately during swara session I had a call I had to go out , only one ear heard it)

But the best was
Lalgudi Krishnan and Vijayalakshmi@bhAratkalAchAr on Dec 25th ,2010

RTP in behAg
9 mins alapanai ,
4 mins tAnam
pallavi line was "harE rAma govinda murArE mukunda sowrEsha muraharE"
pallavi talam was in chatushra jampa tAlam - khanda nadai
Swara rAgamAliga in a garland of sapta ragas apart from behAg

If there was anything best in the concert it was changing pallavi with a sprinkle of swaras with the sapta rAgas. Krishnan took sAveri without a doubt, Viji followed with hamsadhwani .The next two in gAnamurthi ???(hopefully not vanaspati)was superbly played by Krishnan, Durga was played well by Viji though I recognized bit late, Chandrakowns ?? (hopefully) was played beautifully by krishnan and viji wrapped beautifully with Desh.

Best tAnam
Hands down it was
Madurai TN SeshagOpAlan@mudhra dec 16th,2010
TAnam was in brindAvana sAranga

Best viruththam
maharAjapuram rAmachandran@MFAC on Dec 14th,2010

8A.viruththam "mazhai mukhiL vannA ...meigai marantha puLLum" - bhAgeshri - ??
8B. sAgara sayana vibhO - bhAgeshri - MDR
Sowkhyam sowkhyam with such a lovely pitch and voice

Best Slokham
No one qualified to be put as best

Best tukkada
Sattur Sisters@nAdaInbam on Dec 09th,2010:
10) Pancha bhanudu napai- Javali-Mysore Sadashiva Rao in Ragam
Todi, Abhogi, Shankarabharanam, Kambodhi and Sahana.

Best thillAna
Lalgudi Krishnan and Vijayalakshmi@bhAratkalAchAr on Dec 25th ,2010
thillana("kOla mayil") - revati - LGJ

Best Violinist
MA Sundaresan in MFAC during
maharAjapuram rAmachandran@MFAC on Dec 14th,2010

Best Mridangaist
Trichy Shri sankaran in
Vijaysiva@SKGS on Dec 30th,2010

Best upapakkavAdhyam
Dr S karthik(ghatam) in
RK Shrirkantan@Mudhra on Dec 28th,2010

[rajeshnat]

Concert of the season
maharAjapuram rAmachandran@MFAC on Dec 14th,2010
http://www.rasikas.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=15099

Every note filled its right place , there was so much attention all the way from varnam to the last tukkada thru the mohanam main and shanmughapriya pallavi. A truly great concert with fine violin and ghatam support and somewhat ok support by mridangist.Not just me the 400+ rasikas had a lovely experience with very less exits post tani.

My Seasons worst accompanist:
Amoxycillin + Dolo 650 and a ragamAliga medlay of Corex, Coscopin Linctus and phenesedyl and many many ,that is all fad. :devil: :devil: :devil:

Special note to Musicians:
--------------------------
If I could say artist friendly note from a rasikA:

To all the vidwans and vidushis, while you run the race rather the rat race of going on and on with the next sabha and the next concert in vidapiDi viral kuluru of margazhi season, if there is some divinity in each of your music , it is not the O ramA or Krishnam bhajE that you all sing in search of Lord rama or Lord krishna , but I am just awed with how each of you sing and play instruments for hours together doing so much of concerts in season , well at least that aspect of endurance is truly and surely divine.

[rbharath]

i was essentially out of circulation this season, thanks to pressure from thesis front.

I attended some evening concerts at raga sudha and one concert each at academy, Tamil Isai Sangam, Musiri chambers, BGS and BVB mini. And essentially that was my season.

kalyANi and kharaharapriyA and pUrvikalyANi chased me thro' the season.

and, I heard quite a few sAvEris too.

Otherwise I enjoyed whatever bits and pieces i could actually sit and listen during the concerts i attended,

list of concerts i attended:
Chingleput Ranganathan, Rama Ravi, Ritha Rajan, Seetha Rajan, Suguna Purushottaman, Suguna Varadachari, Parassala Ponnammal, T K Govinda Rao, V Surbramanian & Palai Ramachandran, Mangalam Shankar, B Balasubramanian, Sathur Sisters, Rahul Narayan at Raga Sudha
TK Govinda Rao at Musiri Chambers
TN Krishnan at Tamil Isai Sangam
R Vedavalli at Academy
Manda Sudharani at BGS
Lakshmi Sriram at BVB mini

could not sit thro' any of them fully. in short, i put attendance at all these places during season. thats all

[Nick H]

Bharath was taken by his thesis, I was taken by my microbes, but it seems rajesh was not beaten, despite needing an assortment of medicines too. Hats off to your endurance!

[vasanthakokilam]

>kalyANi and kharaharapriyA and pUrvikalyANi chased me thro' the season.

It was kIravANi that chased me, but in a pleasant and joyous way.. I have been trying intently to latch on to another dimension of kIravANi, namely a more romantic/esoteric side. ( tough to describe ). It may be a self-fulfilling perception, but with all the renditions I heard, I was beginning to sense that in the alapanas.

Bilahari and I had zero overlap of concerts we attended but he also seemed to have encountered quite a few kIravANis. Would kIravANI be the raga of the 2010 season?

[rajeshnat]

For me there was a fairly even spread of big rAgas,
1 of kalyani,sbharanam, lathangi,keeravani,bhairavi,varAli,nAyaki,bEgaDa and tOdi
2 of kAmbOdhi and mohanam
I think the maximum was 3 of kharaharapriya.

[arasi]

This year I did not hear any repeat rAgAs which were back to back ((whichcan tire you out). Repeat of a few rAgAs were there of course, but not more than twice and they were sung by different people and in different songs too. While others enjoy it, I'm not keen on listening to any pancha ratnam kruthi in a concert (gems they are, I agree). I didn't have to this year but may be I did, because I caught myself napping in an afternoon concert or two!

[arunk]

Among the very few I attended, Jayanthi Kumaresh at the Academy was the best. She was simply fantastic - the begada and in particular the Charukesi RTP. My friend who attended many concerts this season told me that tODi and charukesi seemed to be featured more - particularly at the Academy concerts.

Arun

[vasanthakokilam]

>I caught myself napping in an afternoon concert or two!
The musical gods sentence you to eating at the MA canteen next season. At least you would not be caught napping

[arasi]

Come, come, I have been such a good girl in being awake even in concerts where the music was sub-standard! From elderly vidwans/vidushis to citizens who solely come for the food (in aRusuvai days at least) but wanted a nap in an air-conditioned hall before heading back home, there are nappers galore in the hall.
As for you, you were having a giddy musical journey, given your short season which made you miss the sleeping beauties (?)

[arasi]

Every season is the best experience of the year for those of us who come from afar to Chennai. The magic of music in the Chennai air, tasty canteen fare (well, like concerts, not in all of them) and meeting of friends and relatives (mostly in concert halls and eateries).
I have been meaning to write more of my impressions earlier this month. After searching high and low for my handy dandy little note book from the season, I've given up looking. There were too many concerts. As much as I have enjoyed them, the details of them were not retained in my brain. Instead of trying to remember (and not correctly in some instances), I thought I would just ramble a bit.
Sanjay was in such good form and voice and each of his concerts that I went to was different (yes Bilahari, a shame. Due to your short stay you had to choose just one, the very one which was not the right fit for your taste!

That Parthasarathy concert of Neyveli which Bilahari heard too was sowkyam personified. Daughter Shriranjani did very well too at MAF--both fellow members. I heard some very good concerts--of other forumites too. Missed some I was happy that I could listen to Suryaprakash twice (would have been thrice had it not been for the RasikAs meet). Ram and Prashant were very good. I had family commitments too, so had to miss Nagaraj (aravarasar), Balaji (mrudangam) and J and J's vINA. I also had to miss Raji Gopalakrishnan's concert because of a commitment (I apologized to her when I met her in a family wedding celebration).
I hope Gayatri Girish and Vijayalakshmi Subramaniam are still members at Rasikas.org. I went to their concerts. Both sang very well. Though I had intended to stay the whole time for Gayatri's concert at MAF, I had to get up and go away for a while--the tani at that! Apologies to Gayatri and Pungulam. The noise level of the mike for the mrudangam at MAF was too high, even with my poor hearing. The tani at that rate was too much for me. I got up at the beginning of it and returned only after it was over. A shame. Yet, I knew how well Pungulam played because I heard him twice again at different venues and found his playing very pleasant. Oh, the next day when I went to MAF again, one of the organizers said that several others had also complained about the volume the previous day. I didn't feel that bad about getting up during the tani then. The mikes are not perfect, we know. We also know that they can irk the performers even more, but while the screeches and booms of the mikes are not pleasant, noisy mrudangam is the worst of all from the listener's point of view.
I had to run after listening to a very nice concert of Vijayalakshmi Subramaniam at NGS three quarters of the way through. I meant to meet her and say hello but was reluctant to speak to her before the concert (performers need some quiet time before a concert). She could not recognize me because we haven't met face to face.
It so happened that I did something different this year in that I went to more instrumental concerts. Missed my customary TNK concert (again, a family commitment) but filled my heart with more of instrumental sound. I think it started with Injikkudi's nagasvaram at Kamaraj Hall. I loved his playing. My only nagasvaram concert this year. I heard from someone I know that Kodandaraman is another one I should listen to.
Then I listened to Ravi kiran's chithra vIna at Brahma Gana Sabha. It was an excellent concert. VK was there as well.
MSG and Narmada's violin concert at MAF which is reviewed by Bilahari was again a superconcert. Then came the fusion concert of TVG at Ramarao Mantap (I went because I knew that it wouldn't be a fusion of the popular kind). It was well worth it. TVG sang CM in HM mode in the first part, sang with tabla ( by a young woman who was very good) and harmonium the HM way and the third part of it featured a not well known but excellent mrudangist (Sundareswaran?)from Kerala and a woman drummer from Europe who was very good!
Then at NAda Inbam, VVS on the violin, TVG on the mrudangam and that was another evening of rich musical experience. Tiruppunithura on the ghatam. I am very fond of his playing.
I went to just one vInA concert this year at Shastry Hall. Jayalakshmi Shekhar played unhurriedly, with a lot of sowkayam. It was peaceful and yet pleasing. A quality performance. TRS was in the front row, and it was nice seeing him appreciating Jayalakshmi's playing. Then again, bless him, he attends many concerts, even those of youngsters. As usual, he was keeping tAlam in the air, but at some point, I heard this cricket chirping kind of sound and then realized that he was drumming his fingers on the side of his chair!
These impressions are posted a bit late, but it's still January, folks

[rajeshnat]

Arasi
At the end of our meet , did you not go to Sumitra Nitin's concert . How was that ,did you get any of your numbers there?

[arasi]

Rajesh,
If you remember, I left the meet after the coffee break to catch the whole of Sumitra's concert. K was at Partha listening to the whole of Surya's morning concert. I was hoping to hear at least a few tukkaDAs from Surya but the concert was almost over when I reached there:( His mother told me that he had sung inRu varuvAnO? at MAF.

Sumitra Nitin had the two hour slot this time at the Academy and she chose to sing a pallavi because of the extra time which meant she could sing only a few songs. I was happy that she chose to sing an Ambujam Krishna song this time. Last time at the Academy, she sang
my vEngaDavA unai vENDinEn in SAma.Yes, she gave a very good performance this year--even better than the one a few years ago at the Academy. Last year, she had five concerts in the season and she sang four of my songs, I think. The Academy concert was the only one she had this season
I met Pratyaksham Bala and Ponbhairavi after the concert. I do not know if they had listened to her at least for a few minutes.