Carnatic Music for the solo piano

[bill_tvm]

Hi all,

I am looking for any albums/ recordings of Carnatic Music for the solo piano? Searching on google fails to bring up anything relevant

Cheers,
Bill

[rshankar]

I am sure someone else more knowledgable will chime in...but you can start with the album madirakshi...
Can you share with us the context of this request?

[Lakshman]

There are songs in western notation available in some books. I have three books - Oriental Music in Western Notation which has a number of Tyagaraja songs and some others. The second book is a group of varNas by Dr.Emme te Nijenhaus. The third book is by a musician from Texas who has included some varNAs and some songs. All of these are in western notation.

[arasi]

The CD Madirakshi by Anil Srinivasan with vocalist Sikkil Gurucharan is apt.
Anil studied western music in Oxford (correct me if I'm wrong) and has played the piano with several Carnatic musicians. His experiments have been responsible and fruitful in that neither genre of music is compromised.

Ravi,
The first time I heard Anil Srinivasan play was when a number of us rasikas (you were one!) were there to hear him play with Gurucharan singing. It was a Charsur concert.
His playing with a CM orchestra led by ViNA B. Kannan was very appealing too. I also liked it when he gave a short chamber concert. He and violinist Viji Natarajan played so well together.

Wonder if Sachi was there when he played at Jagan Mohan Palace in Mysore on the Wodeyar piano with Lalgudi Krishnan playing the violin.

The past few years, I have not seen his name in the season lists.

[bill_tvm]

@arasi and others "CD Madirakshi by Anil Srinivasan with vocalist Sikkil Gurucharan is apt.", though it appears that this recital has piano, I was looking for solo piano works without any accompaniment vocal or instrumental.

@rshankar : I greatly enjoy listening to solo piano works and the western classical music has a very rich repertoire for it. I was trying to explore carnatic music, and I was just curious that if I can find any albums/ recordings for the solo piano.

[Lakshman]

I have only heard of one piano recording LP by Kantilal Sonchatra but it is Hindustani music.

[bill_tvm]

@Lakshman, thanks for the info about Kanthilal Sonchatra.

I found this of him on Youtube, interesting, but way beyond me to tell what is being played: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flaDUQ3eVcs

Cheers,
Bill

[Lakshman]

The video is a fusion music clip. The LP I have is hindustani classical.

[mahavishnu]

There is a Hindustani pianist called Utsav Lal. More about him here http://www.utsavlal.com/biography.aspx and a few samples: http://www.amazon.com/Piano-Moods-of-In ... dian+piano

My wife's cousin in an Indian pianist named Vijay Iyer. Although he is well-trained in Carnatic music, he almost exclusively plays jazz these days (and very good music at that). More about him: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vijay_Iyer
He is also a music theorist and musicologist of some standing; but his performance career keeps him very busy.

Bill_tvm: Anil Srinivasan used to post here on rasikas.org from time to time. We haven't heard from him in a while though.

[mohan]

Carnatic music can't be played properly on the piano due to fixed key nature of the instrument. This limitation is somewhat overcome in keyboard synthesizers which have other special effects like portamento control and pitch benders, allowing ornamentation (gamaka).

[Ponbhairavi]

There was a Mysore artiste by name john Durai shetty who played carnatic music in piano and gave a CM concert in Bhairavi pondy in march 1988 with only mridangam accompaniment by Seshappa. I do not know whether any recordings are available.

[seema]

The CD Madirakshi by Anil Srinivasan with vocalist Sikkil Gurucharan is apt.
Anil studied western music in Oxford (correct me if I'm wrong) and has played the piano with several Carnatic musicians. His experiments have been responsible and fruitful in that neither genre of music is compromised.

Ravi,
The first time I heard Anil Srinivasan play was when a number of us rasikas (you were one!) were there to hear him play with Gurucharan singing. It was a Charsur concert.
His playing with a CM orchestra led by ViNA B. Kannan was very appealing too. I also liked it when he gave a short chamber concert. He and violinist Viji Natarajan played so well together.

Wonder if Sachi was there when he played at Jagan Mohan Palace in Mysore on the Wodeyar piano with Lalgudi Krishnan playing the violin.

The past few years, I have not seen his name in the season lists.

Arasi I find that Anil Srinivasan has been hyperactive playing with almost everyone from Rakesh Chaurasia to Jayanthi Kumaresh and keeps himself very noticeable during the Chennai season. I particularly enjoyed the concert with Shri Chaurasia. His articles are also interesting. Was surprised by your comment:) !

[arasi]

Good to hear from you. Shows how very 'with it' I'm these days!
Last season, I did not see his name in the concert guide (kachEri kaiyyEDu). At least, I didn't notice it.

[Thalaivarda]

http://www.welove-music.org/2013/01/mer ... .html#more

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNmuSx5uOGg

Hope this helps as well.

Cheers
Varadarajan.R

[seema]

Good to hear from you. Shows how very 'with it' I'm these days!
Last season, I did not see his name in the concert guide (kachEri kaiyyEDu). At least, I didn't notice it.

Nice to be back arasi . He was at Karthik Fine Arts (NGS), Brahma Gana and also at KGS for a delectable concert featuring Lalgudi Jayaraman's compositions presented alongside Aaron Copland. Lalgudi sir was there for this concert, I believe it was the last concert he physically attended, which made it all the more special. This was all there in the Nalli guide. Actually these sorts of events are very special and memorable, not to mention informative. Wonder why there is never much discussion on it.

[arasi]

Thanks.
I must have missed seeing those because I only zero in on the concerts listed for the days I am in Chennai!

[varsha]

Adnan Sami , long ago cut an album of a concert he performed with Zakir Husain. He has played Durga very refreshingly and in a chaste manner .
CM - how can a piano ever fit in the scheme of things ? Maybe an occasional song here or there

[venkatakailasam]

" There are two aspects to Anil's musical schizophrenia : when he plays solo,he plays western classical music.When he plays with other musicians,he is a Carnatic pianist in the strictest sense of the word.On both concert stages,he is a purist."

Read more at

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes ... srinivasan

[venkatakailasam]

Madhirakshi

A project by Anil and Gurucharan....

http://baradwajrangan.wordpress.com/200 ... the-piano/

[seema]

http://themelodicmuse.wordpress.com/201 ... abharanam/

Arasi : this was in your city, if I am not mistaken. Do take a look.

[arasi]

Seema,
I wish I were there in Bengaluru in May.

No, I'm not a resident of the city--only a regular visitor who spends several weeks in a year there.

From all your accounts, Anil seems to be doing fine, performing frequently.

[arasi]

VKailasam,
Thank you for the Times of India article.