A Grand Classical Concert - Aruna Sairam

From the blog that has been bringing you inconsistent, irrelevant and incongruous posts all these years, I present another random blog post. This is the kinda topic that I am not exactly an expert of, well for that matter i am also not an expert on animal husbandry but history is witness to the several speeches i have made on that subject to rapt audiences. OK, without further ado, may i present what i did this Sunday the 4th of September 2011.

As most youngsters are subjected to the perfunctory violin, vocal classes during their formative years by 'culture' loving parents i was too. I had to balance my two classes a week of violin and two classes a week of carnatic vocal classes along with my academics. I realized early after my voice cracked that i was not cut out for a career as a musician. But i could sleeplessly sit through a concert of three hours without giving the impression of a man asleep with his eyes open. As for my career as a violinist, it withered away the day my teacher kicked the bucket. I wasn't exactly shattered by all the extra time i had on my hands to while away in playgrounds and libraries.
The Concert
Today, a few years later i walk into Chowdaiah memorial hall, Bangalore's last and only bastion of old world culture hospitality and a faithful symbol of stubborn carnatic resistance in a city thats rapidly embracing hiphop, house, rap and other new age strains of music. Once you enter the gates, it was as if the city had hidden people of this kind away from prying eyes. Everyone who has come to the concert was well spoken, well dressed in their sociable Kanchipurams, the mildly menacing Molakalmuru's, and the ubiquitous Kumaran silk sari. Basically if you were a South Indian, you'd feel really happy to be at Chowdaiah  today -  All round goodness. There are two loud bells that ring before the concert starts and when the second blast went off i was  threading my way through the aisle to my seat at U-34(not exactly the best seats in the house, but not bad at all for the Rs.500/- ticket and the splendid acoustics of the hall.

We settle in and (see pic)this is my view. 

I know it is not too impressive but i wasn't complaining.

Aruna Sairam was someone who i'd been following on the internet for a while now. She is surely one of the bright spots on the Carnatic music scene, and who is known to research her material for a concert and not just sing anything that's in fashion. As it is the Ganesha Chathurthi season she started with
1) Shri vigna rajam bhaje (Nattai)

2) vandanam (sahana)
3) Thiruvachagam +sabapathy
4) venkataramanane baro
5) Amba mohini
6) panduranga baro)
7)Rama namamu (madurai - Mr.. Somasundaram)
8)banda nodi, govinda krishnana.
9)Abhang - Teertha Vittal
10)Brindavana Nilaye
(11)Baje mridang
(12)Vishamakaara kannan
(13)Brindavane venu - Abhang
(14)Yenna kavi padinallum(Abhang)
(15)Kalinga narthanam
(16)Mangalam
Do you rate a concert based on the way everyone is enjoying it and requesting songs from the singer? 
Soon she succumbed to the requests and promptly switched over to a popular abhang.

Well overall it was a nice experiment on how to make carnatic sound modern and pertinent.


- krishnaprasad
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------