Bhairavi Music Circle, Puducherry. September Programme

[V.Mahalingam]

Vocal Concert
on
12/09/2010 (Sunday)

Vocal: Padmasri. Smt. Aruna Sairam
Violin: Sri. H.N. Bhaskar
Mrudangam: Kalaimamani. Sri. J.Vaithinathan.
Ghatam: Sri.S.V. Ramani

Time; 6 P.M.
Venue: Vivekanandha Higher Secondary School,
ECR Road, Lawspet,Puducherry-605 008

[rajeshnat]

Hope it is a big hall that you are arranging and making it ticketed to control crowd . It would be nice to know roughly how many rasikas are there. Just curious to know how the biggest crowd puller of CM is faring in pondichery.

[HarishankarK]

Hope it is a big hall that you are arranging and making it ticketed to control crowd . It would be nice to know roughly how many rasikas are there. Just curious to know how the biggest crowd puller of CM is faring in pondichery.

Please don't be so sarcastic with any artiste. Aruna ji is also a good singer. We shd not blame her if she makes her concerts popular (janaranjakam) by striking a balance between classical songs and light thukkudas. Somehow i felt personally that your words were sarcastic!!
We must not fret and degrade Aruna ji's music simply because of our frustrations regarding other artistes not getting enough crowd.

If Madurai G Mani's breaks boundaries then you are willing to respect him and regard him as self made etc etc
But when Aruna ji is gaining popularity then why this dislike !!

[rshankar]

But when Aruna ji is gaining popularity then why this dislike !!

I think you are being a tad ''sensitive'...If you know Rajesh, you'll realize that it was a genuine query. And, it is a legitimate one - I had the same thoughts - i.e., the hall better be BIG. Rajesh just followed it up by asking for numbers, that's all.

[mahakavi]

Please don't be so sarcastic with any artiste. Aruna ji is also a good singer. We shd not blame her if she makes her concerts popular (janaranjakam) by striking a balance between classical songs and light thukkudas. Somehow i felt personally that your words were sarcastic!!
We must not fret and degrade Aruna ji's music simply because of our frustrations regarding other artistes not getting enough crowd.

If Madurai G Mani's breaks boundaries then you are willing to respect him and regard him as self made etc etc
But when Aruna ji is gaining popularity then why this dislike !!

I agree. There is a bias in the rasika community both towards and against certain artistes. Yesudas is a crowd puller too. Some do not care. Aruna Sairam has a resonant voice and she does both heavy and light items with equal justice. rajeshnat may not have meant what is superficially evident. But the organizers know to arrange a big hall if they go by previous experience.
By the way the new name is PuduchEry (has been for a while).

[rajeshnat]

Harishankark
You have read much much more than what I wrote . There is no sarcasm at all. I am interested in how arunA pulls crowd in a city like puduchery which does not have much CM . That is all.

[Pratyaksham Bala]

rajeshnat,
Thank you for the interest shown.

Though Puducherry is a small city, during the last two centuries it has patronised a number of musicians. There are a good number CM rasikas, and MSS had performed twice in Puducherry and MKT a few times.

P.G. Venkatesan, who was a famous Carnatic Musician of Puducherry, had acted as the hero in the first-ever Tamil movie 'Kalidas' released in 1931. It is believed that there were a number of CM songs in that movie.

In 1982, Bhairavi Carnatic Music Circle was formed and the first programme held on 26.09.82 had Mani Krishnaswami. Since then, almost every month Bhairavi has been offering a CM programme and all notable musicians have performed here. The sabha has so far conducted more than 300 kucheries.

I give below a 'select list' of the participants upto 1990s:-
1982 Mani Krishnaswami, P.S. Narayanaswamy, Dr. N. Ramani (Flute) ...
1983 Tiruchur V. Ramachandran, Palghat K.V. Narayanaswamy, Sudha Ragunathan, Maharajapuram Santhanam, Sikkil Sisters ...
1984 Padmasri M.S. Gopalakrishnan, S. Rajam, T.N. Seshagopalan, R. Vedavalli, TV Sankaranarayanan, Aruna Sayeeram, Lalgudi G. Jayaraman & Lalgudi GJR Krishnan ...
1985 D.K. Jayaraman, Palladam Venkataramana Rao (Harmonium), Dr. Chitti Babu (Veena), Dr. N. Ramani (Flute) ...
1986 Neyveli R. Santhanagopalan, Dr. M.L. Vasanthakumari, U. Srinivas (Mandolin) ...
1987 R. Vedavalli, O.S. Thiagarjan, K.V. Narayanaswamy, BV Raman & BV Lakshmanan ...
1988 Kunnakudy Vaidyanathan, S. Sowmya ...
1989 Ravi Kiran (Chitra Veena), Bombay Jayashree ...
1990s Vijay Siva, TM Krishna, Sanjay Subramanian ... ... ...
(A few of these artistes have performed again once or twice at Bhairavi.)

Bhairavi has more than 200 members, and many of them (including the u/s) come forward to sponsor programmes. Ponbhairavi, our forum member, was the founder-secretary and the credit goes to him, Mrs. Maya Chandrasekar (founder-president) and a few others, for the success of Bhairavi during the early years. Prof. V. Mahalingam, who is the Secretary now, is also a member of this forum.

Though a small city, a large number of youngsters are learning CM. There are at least four bright youngsters of Puducherry -- Bharati, Sankari, Mahima and Aswin Kumar -- who are expected to shine well in the field of CM.

For Smt. Aruna Sayeeram this is her second programme, after the one she gave in 1984. A bigger venue has been arranged, and we believe it will be a grand success.

Pratyaksham Bala.

[rshankar]

1982 Mani Krishnaswami

I remember that one - IIRC, it went on for nearly 4 hours and was fabulous...

[MaheshS]

Bravo!! That's a Who's Who of CM Hope the concert is successful!! I reckon the advantage of hosting someone like Aruna Sairam is the money made on tickets not to mention the music she provides and that can be used to fund the next few concerts of lesser known / local artists. If Bhairavi is not charging rasikas then more power to you. I hope, one day I will have the pleasure of coming to Puduchery to attend one of the concerts organised by Bhairavi!!

[Pratyaksham Bala]

rshankar:
I am happy to have kindled your Pondicherry-memories!

MaheshS:
Thanks for your best wishes. And, please do visit Puducherry, and be our guest!

[VK RAMAN]

Pratyaksham Bala: Good answer to Rajeshnat's querry without any aspersion on the questioner!

[Pratyaksham Bala]

VK RAMAN ji,
Thanks.

[V.Mahalingam]

As Secretary of the Bhairavi Carnatic Music circle, I am extremely happy and grateful for the interest that you have all shown to us. As Mr. Pratyaksham Bala has given, we have been giving, for the last so many years, atleast one programme a month though our resources are much limited. This is possible more because of the will power and untiring efforts of our office bearers and as well as the interest that our members show. With all your good wishes, not only Aruna’s programme but the forthcoming programmes will also be successful. Thank you all very much. Please sustain this interest.

[rajeshnat]

Tx Pratyaksham bala, v .mahAlingam and Ponbhairavi . It is very nice that each of you sabhA organizers come and post in our forum , it is certainly a good sign for CM. Hope you have a cracker of a concert , I see Ponbhairavi in the past has shown a lot of liking to OVK , with Smt ArunA you are indeed lucky . Best wishes!!!

Incidentally among the sabha organizers only you folks in Pondy , Kssr and harini from bangalore are actively posting. I am yet to see anyone in chennai participate as actively as you four , perhaps most of the organizers are bit old and not net savvy (Not all of them are cmlovers and arasi), I wish there is more openness there from chennai.

I was just thinking about one Shri Arusuvai Natarajan who is very old now , when he holds concerts in kalAKruthi in egmore , about 3 to 4 years when his age was 80 + , he gives filter coffee for each of the rasika and musician , incidentally he never sits in the concert , as he feels from his early days in organizing concerts in Trichy -kumbakOnam belt , he used to stand and always be in the line of sight for every musician to summon him, and he told me he intends to always carry that legacy .

It is always a struggle when you are small and dont have your own auditorium to hold your concerts . You all are doing fabulous work.

[tkb]

Its a great forum and also have some foreign nationals & tourists who come for the concerts organised by Bhairavi Music Circle. The audience are mostly knowledgeable and the artists are also happy to give their best.

[bilahari]

Excellent to hear about the active CM circle in Puducherry and kudos to the organisers!

[Pratyaksham Bala]

Its a great forum and also have some foreign nationals & tourists who come for the concerts organised by Bhairavi Music Circle. The audience are mostly knowledgeable and the artists are also happy to give their best.

Thank you! Excellent summing up!

[Pratyaksham Bala]

rajeshnat:
bilahari:

Thanks to both of you for your encouraging words!

[ragam-talam]

P.Bala, Mahalingam and others:
The line-up of artistes who have performed at your sabha is so impressive: DKJ, MLV, PSN, KVN, MSG, TVR, early TNS, Raman-Lakshman, et al.
Have you built up an audio archive of these concerts?

[V.Mahalingam]

For Ms. Smitha Programme Photos Please visit http://bhairavimusiccircle.blogspot.com/

[Ponbhairavi]

I would like to add to the list the names of shri Nedunuri krishnamurthi and voleti venkateswaralu. Smt Aruna Sayeeram has performed a couple of months back at Auroville near Puduchery for a select audience
Ps I may be excused for this delayed posting as I am now out of the country on travel
Ponbhairavi

[rshankar]

Was is Bhairavi that organized a concert by Smt. E. Gayatri sometime in the 80's? If my memory serves me right, it was one of the first concerts I had attended with a packed audience.

[kssr]

I share Rajeshnat's concern about the size of the hall. I heard that Chowdiah hall in Bangalore was overflowing during Ganjam's Flight of Fantasy concert of AS a couple of years back( or was it last year?). Whether or not you like her music , one thing that everyone knows is that she is a genuine crowdpuller, esp for Maadu meykkum, etc.,
I would like to take Sri.Mahalingam's "limited resources" claim with a pinch of salt. AS is not one who is swayed by rasikas' interest or the greatness of any sabha. She has only one criterion for accepting concerts. Of course the word "limited" is a relative term