Laksha Deepam

Anantha Padmanabha Swamy temple seen on a car side view mirror. 

It is time for Laksha deepam at Sri Padmanabhaswamy temple, Thiruvananthapuram. This occurs once in 6 years. I was fortunate to witness 2 deepams with the temple tower and the surroundings in full glory. The deepam is preceded by 40 days of Mura Japam (chanting). 

Then there is the Annual Swati Sangeethotsavam n the Kuthira Malika (palace) where the atmosphere is ethereal. 

Sadly, I will miss al these this year. 

OS Arun at Swati Sangeethotsavam

The major event in Trivandrum at the start of the New Year is the Swathi Sangeethotsavam at Kuthira Maalika. As we were travelling, we missed most of the kutcheris except on the last day . We could get a flavour of OS Arun towards the end of his kutcheri on the 13th of January.I also missed the Nishagandhi events. Hope I can make up after I return from the US. 

Vylopilli again

Saturday, the day after the Independence day, was a rather quite day for me. After attending to some bank work in the morning and  a short afternoon nap, I was at a loose end in the evening. On browsing through the Metro Plus of The Hindu, I was happy to see that the Bharat Bhavan at Thycaud had a kathak performance at 6-30. On reaching the Bhavan at 6-30 I found the place deserted and locked up. The Hindu had goofed up. The program was two days earlier according the banner on the site. Disappointed, I moved on to Vylopilli Samskriti Bhavan, not knowing what to expect there. The program there was a Carnatic kutchery  by a young artiste from Ernakulam, Sreenath Nambudiri. Mr Nambudiri holds a lot of promise but has a long way to go. It was a pity that there were only about 10 people in the audience!. 

Homage to Dakshinamurthy

Master Mahadevan, an upcoming artiste renders kritis by Sri Dakshinamurthy at the Co-Bank Auditorium as part of the Soorya festival (from my phone camera) 

Veena concert at Levee Hall

Anantha Padmanabhan and Anand Kaushik on the Veena at the Swati Sangeetothsawam conducted by Doordarshan Kendra, Thiruvananthapuram, at Levee Hall, fort.

Swathi Sangeethotsawam 2013 at Kuthira maalika

The generally sleepy Kuthira maalika comes alive every January with the Swathi Sangeethotsavam.- a week long festival of concerts. It was inaugurated on Friday, the 4th January this year  with a concert by Sanjay Subramanyan.

On 5th January, Price Rama Varma was the artiste. Here are some pictures of the concert and the venue.

This being the Bicentenary of Maharaja Swati Thirunal, it is a 10 day festival from 4th January to 13th January, instead of the usual 7 days. The detailed programme is given below: (courtesy: kuthiramalika info)

Swathi Sangeethotsavam January 4th to 13th ,2013

              At Kuthiramalika Palace , East Fort , Trivandrum

 

4-1-2013                   Sri Sanjay Subrahmanyan              -    Vocal                     

Friday                       Sri S.Varadarajan                          -    Violin

6pm to 9pm              Sri S.J.Arjun Ganesh                     -    Mridangam

                                Udupi Sri Srikanth                         -    Kanjira

                                Dr S.Karthick                                -    Ghatam

                              

 

5-1-2013                   Prince Rama Varma                      -     Vocal

Saturday                   Sri S.Varadarajan                          -     Violin

6pm to 9pm              Sri B.Harikumar                            -     Mridangam

                                Dr S.Karthick                                -     Ghatam

 

 

6-1-2013                   Master Siddharth                            -     Vocal         

Sunday                     Sri Sampath                                   -      Violin

5 to 6:30pm              Dr G.Babu                                     -      Mridangam

 

6:30pm                     Sri J.B Sruthisagar                         -      Flute

                                Sri Sampath                                  -      Violin

                                Sri N.C.Bharadwaj                        -     Mridangam

                                Nerkunam Sri Shankar                   -     Kanjira

                                Sri Hariharasubramaniam               -     Ghatam

 

 

7-1-2013                   Ms Amrutha Venkatesh                 -     Vocal               

Monday                    Avaneeswaram Sri S.R.Vinu         -     Violin 

6pm to 9pm              Dr G.Babu                                   -    Mridangam

                                Perukavu Sri P.L.Sudheer             -    Ghatam

                                                                                          

 

8-1-2013                   Sikkil Sri Gurucharan                     -    Vocal

Tuesday                   Sri V.Sanjeev                                 -    Violin

6pm to 9 pm            Poongulam Sri Subramaniam          -    Mridangam

                               Manjoor Sri Unnikrishnan               -    Ghatam          

 

 

9-1-2013                 Ramakrishnan Murthy                     -    Vocal

Wednesday            Avaneeswaram Sri S.R.Vinu            -    Violin

6pm to 9pm            Palghat Sri Maheshkumar                -    Mridangam

                              Perukavu Sri P.L.Sudheer               -    Ghatam

 

 

 

10-1-2013                Smt Ranjini Guruprasad                 -    Vocal

Thursday                 Sri R.K Sriramkumar                     -    Violin

6pm to 9pm             Sri B.Ganapathyraman                  -    Mridangam

                               Udupi Sri Sridhar                          -    Ghatam

11-1-2013                 Sri Debapriya Adhikary                 -    Hindustani Vocal

Friday                      Sri Samanwaya Sarkar                   -    Sitar     

6pm to 9pm              Sri Nitin Mitta                               -    Tabla                                                               

 

 

12-1-2013                 Sri Vighnesh Eashwar                   -    Vocal

Saturday                   Sri S.R.Mahadev Sarma               -    Violin

6pm to 9pm              Sri K.V Prasad                             -    Mridangam

                                Udupi Sri Srikanth                        -    Kanjira

                                Sri Guruprasad                             -    Ghatam

                               

 

13-1-2013                 Sri O.S. Arun                                -    Vocal

Sunday                    M.R.Gopinath                                -    Violin

6pm to 9pm             Sri J.Vaidhyanathan                        -    Mridangam

                               Dr S.Karthick                                 -    Ghatam

                               Sri Ganapathi                                 -    Tabla    

Swathi sangeethotsavam where royalty and divinity meet

The much awaited Swathi Sangeethotsavam 2012 started on Friday, the 6th January at the Kuthiramaalika palace built by Maharaja Swathi Thirunal. The royal courtyard reverberated with the divine voice of Sanjay Subrahmanyan. Truly an unforgettable experience.

The programmes to follow:
7th January: Prince Rama Verma
8th : Bangalore S Shankar
9th : Venkataraman
10th : Master G Abhilash
11th: Abhradita Banrjee - Hindustani Bhajans
12th: Akkarai Sisters

Sri Swati Tirunal Jayanthi

The 197th Swathi Thirunal Jayanthy and 68th Anniversary of Sri Swati Tirunal Sangita Sabha is being held between 28th April and 9th May, 2010 at the Karthika Thirunal Theatre, East Fort, Trivandrum.

Following is schedule of some of the performers.

28th April: Bombay Sisters

29th April: Sreevalsan Menon

2nd May : Rudrapattanam Brothers

4th May: Neyveli Santhanagoplan

5th May : Dr.Ranganath Sharma

7th May: Madurai GS Mani

9th May: TV Gopalakrishnan

I was able to attend the concert of Srivalsan Menon on 29th.

Here is a partial list of songs from his concert.

Jaya jaya padmanabha : Sarasangi

Paripaalayam - Reeti gowla

Paalayamam -Khamas

Anjaneyane -Saaveri

Paramapurusha - Vasantha

RTP- Kaapi , (Misra chaapu)

(sorry, no pictures, as I had not taken my camera. Let me see if the phone cam picture is good enough to post.)

Jugalbandhi

The Vyalopilli Samskrithi Bhavan in Nanthancode provides varied fare every month. The January programmes started with a Jugalbandhi - Maya Varma on Veena and Murali Menon on Sitar.

Parassala Ponnamma

Parassala Ponnamma   sings as part of the Sadhana programme at the Music College. The octogenarian, sitting in a chair effortlessly performed.I was however, informed that her voice was no longer what it used to be.
She was accompanied by Dr. Moorthy, HOD of the Department of Violin and prof. Balasubramoniam HOD of the Dept. of Mridangam, Sri Swati Thirunal College of Music.

From Blogger Pictures

From Blogger Pictures