For those of you seeking music, you may find some under 'Audio' (below) or in an index regarding the others under the 'Audio Postings' Label . We will either be embedding some concerts of the Vidwans in the 'Audio Postings'section itself or providing pointers to the appropriate posting in which they could be found
Dr. Sukanya Prabhakar - 2014 Putturao Memorial Concert
Dr. Sukanya Prabhakar is a well-known musician and teacher as well as an acclaimed researcher in Carnatic music. She hails from Mysore and comes from a family of musicians. She did research on Sri Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar krithis as well as musical instruments collected in the Mysore Palace many many years ago. She studied under maestros Vid. Ramaratnam and Vid. Gowri Kuppuswamy. She has been running her own music school as well as a publication under the name Surabhi. She is ably assisted by her daughter Dr. Sumana Vedanth in this concert. With doyens from Mysore on accompaniment - Sri.H.K. Narasimha Murthy on the violin and Sri G.S. Ramanujam on the mridangam as well as Sri Ramesh on Morsing, she presents here a consummate concert in characteristic style with palpable depth.
What characterises great Carnatic music? This is a debatable subject. But all our esteemed composers opine that really great music leads one to inner calm. If that is missing, music could well become a circus.
Here, the Vidushi espouses this idea with choice songs, all presented in a sedate style, lacking nothing in Vidwat or musical appeal. Sonorous voices of the mother and daughter take turns in alapana and swaras and give us a wholesome fare.
The idea of inner calm is expressed beautifully by Saint Gopala Dasa in his song "ಏನು ಸುಖವೊ ಎಂಥಾ ಸುಖವೊ ಹರಿಯಧ್ಯಾನವ ಮಾಡುವರ ಸಂಗ", sung in Brindavani here.
In this concert, there are wonderful compositions presented of famous composers in scintillating ragas. Two Kannada songs, one of them a Vachana, and a rarely heard Shanmukhapriya composition of Mysore Vasudevacharya, point to the Vidushi's expansive repertoire.
Concert Details
Sri K. Putturao Memorial Concert 2014 - jagan Mohan Palace, Mysore.
Vid. Ramakrishnan Murthy, Putturao Memorial Concert -2014
An appreciation from R. Sachi
We welcome sunny days and cool showers everywhere by featuring this wonderful concert of Vid. Ramakrishnan Murthy, held on 3rd September 2014 in the Putturao Memorial festival at Jaganmohan Palace, Mysore.
Spring is the god among seasons: RutUnAM kusumAkaraH (BG 10.34) Poet Jayadeva begins the AShTapadi with the words, vasante vAsantI, comparing Radha to a beautiful flower in spring. He goes on to say:
TRANSLATION: The Malaya breeze is so enchanting as he arrives and impetuously embraces the tender, charming creepers again and again. The forest bower is permeated with the sweet kuhu sound of the cuckoos and the drone of bees as they bumble to and fro.
Cometh spring, and cometh the song-bird. Poets never tire of describing the mystique of this wonderful phenomenon. Just as spring arrives invariably on Life's cue, the song-bird arrives, from nowhere almost, replete with song and celebration, schooled mystically in a long tradition of song which defies logical comprehension.
The mystique of spring and song is enacted also in Carnatic music year after year. Somehow, as mysteriously as the advent of spring brings the song-bird, the nurturing environment of Carnatic music brings out a bouquet of fresh, bewitching, talent amidst us. Sri K. Srikantiah expresses this sentiment after almost every Parvathi festival. The young Vid. Ramakrishnan Murthy (or RKM) stands out amidst such talent. For anyone who thought Irvine, California is no match for Mylapore in cultivating Carnatic talent, RKM offers a big surprise.
All credit to his parents for nurturing RKM's musical sensibilities from his school days. He pursued music with a precocious passion, even through those teen years of breaking voice. He learnt from Smt. Padma Kutty whom he describes as the finest teacher for serious beginners. He continued with Vid. Delhi Sunderrajan, Vairamangalam Lakshminarayan, Chinglepet Ranganathan, and is now under the well-known Vidwan R.K. Shriram Kumar. All these teachers have sculpted a musician of great maturity, serious talent, versatility, and endearing charm. Many who hear RKM for the first time remark how he is a "young KVN" (you will also agree after hearing his rendering of the tillana here!). His niravals, swaras, and alapanas stay long in our memory after each concert. He is honing his diction in every language- Sanskrit, Telugu, Tamil and Kannada. He never hurries through any song. To add to all this, he takes in his stride with genuine humility the awards, positive reviews, and audience applause.
True to its tradition of bringing the best talent to Mysore, Parvathi featured RKM in the 2014 Putturao Memorial festival. An added attraction was the senior accompaniment arranged for the young RKM - in Vid. H.K. Narasimhamurthy, Vid. Anoor Anathakrishna Sharma and Vid. Manjunath. The audio recording is excellent and brings out the mridangam naada very well.
We can see the result right away in the very first song, Shobhillu. In this song in Jaganmohini, Saint Thyagaraja exhorts every musician to sing with melody, grammar, and correct voice technique as a form of worship, in a musical tradition going back to the Vedas. The concert continues with the Subbaraya Shastry composition, Janani Ninnuvina. Then comes the pièce de résistance, Meenakshi Memudam Dehi, a masterpiece of a composition of Muthuswami Dikshitar, with the words vINA-gAna-daSa-gamaka-kriyE.
The navarasa shloka has been sung by RKM with great panache. This shloka is quite famous, and a staple of performers from the time of Semmangudi. IN RKM's exquisite rendition, words come out with beauty and melody, in a flurry of ragas matching the rasas respectively: Mayamalavagowla, Nata, Shahana, Hamir Kalyani, Ananda Bhairavi, Shubhapantuvarali, Begada, Hamsanandi, and Tilang. What a veritable treat!
This solid concert is a celebration at many levels: brilliant young talent, excellent concert manodharma of the main and accompanist performers, the tradition of Parvathi, and the great body of our compositions.
Concert Details
Ramakrishnan Murthy --- Vocal
H.K.Narasimhamurthy -- Violin
Anoor Ananthakrishna Sharma -- Mridangam
M.R.Manjunath --- Ghatam
The concert was held on 3rd Sept 2014 during the K.Puttu Rao Music Festival at Mysore.
We are very happy to share with Rasikas worldwide excerpts from a brilliant vocal duet of the senior vidwans, D. Seshachary and D. Raghavachary, popularly known as Hyderabad Brothers, held during the Ramanavami festival at "Parvathi", Mysore, in 1998.
The Hyderabad Brothers duo made a mark for themselves during late 1970’s and have won many honours since, especially the prizes for for the best concerts of the season in the Music Academy, Madras, year after year. They have a beautiful vocal duet technique and employ a deeply classical idiom to connect instantly with their audiences. They received the Sangeet Natak Akademi award for the year 2013.
The excerpts we share here have an enduring musical value. Consider the range of ragas essayed: Nata, Sriranjani, Ravichandrika, Kambhoji, Bhairavi, Tilang, Durga…What a range of krithis, and what contemplative lyrical depth. Many of the compositions dwell on the aspect of divine grace. What is divine grace and how does one become ready for it?
The very first song, a classic composition of Muthuswami Dikshitar, gives an inkling…
So at a basic level, the Lord protects and nurtures us. At the next level, He fulfils our desires and wants. But His grace has its full effect in enlightening us on the ultimate reality of divine bliss, and taking us beyond worldly wants.
The following songs also highlight the same theme:
Who else, but you, oh Rama, will take me across by hand over the ocean of worldliness.
Niravadhisukhadaa..saadhumaanasa susadana
Dwelling in the pure heart, you confer eternal bliss…
The Kshetrayya padam sung here, Rama Rama in Bhairavi, may appear at one level to depict the pangs of a lover, but Shringara is one of the nava vidha bhaktis. Radha, Andal, and Meera, all represent the yearning for the Lord that results in Mukti.
We also have in the concert an interesting admonition to the worldly man by Purandara Dasa. This Durga raga composition Dharma Shravanavidetake was made famous by GNB. The words used by the composer are quite strong, stating that it is totally futile for a man, even if born in the upper caste, to observe religious rituals and listen to spiritual discourses, until and unless he realises the futility of pursuits in the material world and yearns for liberation. He says, huttukurudage deepavidetake bhrashtanigeke kuladharma, meaning that the light of a lamp is useless for a man born blind, just as a depraved man should not flaunt the rituals of his high birth.
We can thus conclude that being eligible for grace is the only thing within our powers. Grace flows and confers on us the pleasures of this world, but more importantly, the bliss of liberation. And as all the saint composers stress, it is a question for us of looking for the true enduring reward of existence and not the trinkets of material prosperity.
Come, let us enjoy a brilliant concert recorded at Parvathi 16 years ago!
Concert Details
Hyderabad Brothers
(D.Seshachary and D.Raghavachary) -------- Vocal
We congratulate Vid. M. S. Sheela on receiving the Chowdiah Award from the Academy of Music Chowdiah Awards & Sri. K.K.Murthy Memorial Music Festival 2013. She is a very popular vocalist and has received many awards in the past, including the Ganakalashree. She has just returned from a triumphant concert tour in the north American continent.
(Photos courtesy The Hindu and Deccan Herald).
The multi-faceted repertoire of Carnatic music is something to marvel at. We have over 500 years of compositional reservoir, full of absolute gems composed by saints and scholars from several parts of India. These krithis as we call them abound in languages, styles, structural variations, moods and mythological, architectural and geographical references. This mind-boggling body of work is the mainstay of the Carnatic musician. Some accomplished vocalists regularly take up a wide range of krithis including rare ones in less-heard ragas and show great felicity of presentation. Vid. M.S. Sheela is one of the foremost of such exponents.
We feature, this time, Vid. M. S. Sheela’s concert - from the 2012 series of Sri. K. Putturao Memorial festival, held at Jaganmohan Palace, Mysore.
The concert covers a wide range of compositions from a wide variety of composers spanning a gamut of ragas. Vid. Sheela is accompanied by Vid. Narasimhamurthy, Vid. Ravishankar, and Shashishankar.
Concert Details
K. Putturao Memorial Music Festival, Jaganmohan Palace, Mysore held on 3 Sept. 2012
Vid. M. S. Sheela – Vocal
Vid. H. K. Narasimhamurthy- Violin
Vid. B. Ravishankar – Mridangam
Vid. B. Shashishankar – Ghatam
Vid. Vidyabhushana – K. Puttu Rao Memorial Concert 2011
We are happy to share a special concert focussing on the compositions of Haridasas, from the 2011 festival. Aptly, the concert features the inimitable Vid. Vidyabhushana, in the company of Vid. H. K. Narasimha Murthy (Violin), Vid. Shivashankaraswamy (Mridangam), and Vid. Ramanujam (Ghatam).
We share the following information from Wikipedia:
Sri Vidyabhushana is a vocalist from Karnataka. He sings devotional songs, chiefly Haridasa compositions, and carnatic classical music. He has hundreds of albums to his credit, mainly devotional songs in Kannada, and has given many concerts all over the world. His first album was the extremely popular "Dasara Padagalu" and the 100th - "Tanu Ninnadu Jivana Ninnadu". Performing for more than 20 years, he has traveled to many countries including a successful tour across the length and breadth of USA in 1999. He was honoured with the title of Sangeetha Vidya Nidhi in 1994. He was also conferred an honorary doctorate by Hampi University.
Sri Vidyabhushana began to learn music when yet very young, from his father late Sri Govindacharya , and for several years was an ardent disciple of Sri B. V. Narayana Aithal of Udupi. In the later years he got training from the famous musician, Sangeetha Kalanidhi Sri R. K. Srikantan and then from the well known exponent T. V. Gopalakrishnan of Chennai.
He continues his constructive activities in music, and the spread of devotion and service to the community through "Bhakti Bharathi Prathistana", a trust for which he is the founder trustee. This trust conducts extensive musical programs to commemorate Shri Purandara Dasara Aradhana and other events.
He is a native of Dakshina Kannada district. He lives with his wife and two kids in Bangalore. He was the pontiff of Subrahmanya Matha, before becoming a full-time singer.
Concert Details
Held at Jaganmohan Palace, Mysore on 2 Sept. 2011 during the K. Puttu Rao Memorial Festival.
Vid. Vidyabhushana – Vocal
Vid. H. K. Narasimha Murthy – Violin
Vid. Shivashankara Swamy – Mridangam
Vid. Ramanujam - Ghatam
