South Indian Carnatic Classical Music

[nandakumarhv]

Hi guys,
I am also a great fan of classicial music both hindustani and carnatik. I feel we atleast banglore guys should exchange cd's or guide us to buy cd's.
These are my favourite no:
1) Milan by praveen godkhindi and mysore nagaraj.
Hindola - malkauns -aditala
2) Thillana by Dr. Balamuralikrisa - aditala
3) Shaan and Shennai by Bismilliah Khan
Raag durga in teen tal.
4) Thillana thillana by jayanthi Kumaresh
mohana kalyani - adital
5) Raag Durga by Pt. Hariprasad chaurasia
6) Alai payude by Kannakudi Vaidhyanathan
arul purivai -adital-hamsadwani.
7) Mohana murali by Dr.N.Ramani
vatapiganapathingbaja - adi
8) Chants of India
Veena murali
9) H2o by rahul sharma
dewdrops.
10) Call of the valley by hariprasad chaurasia, shivkumar sharma and Brij Bhushan Kabra
Boop- jap tal
Any my list will go on.
I was searching to cd named masters of percussion by zakir hussain etc, If any one could help me to buy this I will be very greatfull to them

 

[venkatcr]

Please let me know the number of the CD (every CD has a number, something like the ISBN numbers of books, although I do not know if they are really unique as in the case of books). You said it's from HMV, so I can see if some store here would have it. Also let me know the name of the album.

The Title is 'Palghat T.S. Mani Iyer'
Mridangam Homage to the Immortal Percussionist with L.Vaidyanathan, L. Subramaninan, L. Shankar, Chittibabu, and Zakir Hussain.

The numbers are CDNF 147899 and the ISBN type number is 8901112478997. I will see if I can scan the cover tomorrow and post it.

Cheers

 

[murali_n]

Hai Venkat,

I recommend the following:

CDs :
1. Carnatic Classical Instrumental - Various artists -
Lahari Recording Co. CD No. LRCD 587
2. Gaayathri Performs for You- Super Audio (madras) -CD SA -038
Cassettes
3. TAYE YASHODA - Veena gayathri - Media Dreams Ltd. - MDC 239 - :.
4. Thyagaraja master Pieces- Vol-2&4 , by Music Today.
5. Maestro's Choice TN Krishnan Violin- Music Today.
CDs for S.No 3,4 & 5 may also be available pl check with AVM Sound Zone or Music Worls @ Spencers Plaza.
There are also many Mandolin Srinivas Albums released by Sangeetha cassettes which may be available as re-issue . If u are interested, I have them on CD after transferring from Tape.

thanks ,

N MURALI

 

[venkatcr]

Thank you so much Murali. I will certainly be interested in the CDs.

After seeing the photograph, I thought for a minute that Ilayaraja has graced us with his membership. My heart actually started beating at high speed, and I screamed at my wife to show her who has joined as a member.

I will PM you about the CD separately. My PM box is full, and I need to clear a lot of trash.

Cheers

 

[gobble]

I just made a few posts about the fav cds in my collection that include carnatic instrumental

http://www.hifivision.com/music/3513-indian-classical-music-post34080.html#post34080

scroll down for more

Hope you try them and like them
Cheers

 

[thevortex]

I feel that this thread and the other thread dealing with Indian Classical music recommendations (link given by Gobble) must be made 'stickys'. That way they would be there for easy reference for enthusiasts.

For the moderators' consideration.

 

[srramanujam]

A few absolutely wonderful CDs that i listened to recently.

1. Lute Maestors by Mysore Doreswamy Iyengar, has come of the most lilting songs. Recording quality appears good, not great though.
2. Thyagaraja masterpieces, Sangeeta Kalanidhi of TN Krishnan, both released by Music Today, wonderful recordings. Some songs are common between the CDs.
3. Sangeeta Kalanidhi, Balamurali Krishna, Music Today. Mesmerising.
4. Thillanas, Lalgudi Jayaraman, saregama, ok recording. I grew up listening to this in a cassette in old two in ones. Somehow that memory sounds much better than the current experience.

I am getting more and more convinced that HMV has killed two or three decades of Carnatic Classic Music (along with Tamil Film Music).

 

[gobble]

Hello sgmane

I too am a fan of carnatic and like you I have no guide to selecting and listening.
So I buy whatever catches my fancy. I have a good collection of carnatic fusion too.

In fact my taste for Carnatic has lead me to purchase new fostex single driver speakers (within 6 months of having purchased and setup my system) and I am looking for a tube preamp to complement it - exclusively to listen to carnatic music .

I am really glad you started this thread. I too started out not fancying vocals but it was more of a purchase preference because one has to admit the fact that vocal music does impact the consciousness in a major way.

If you are in Bangalore, and I see there are many who like Carnatic - why don't we get together fortnightly or once every 3 weeks on weekends for some listening sessions - we can share what we like during these events.

I will post an album cover or link to the album online every few days and point out what I heard was good in Carnatic. I invite all to do the same once every few days (so as not to overwhelm with too much information). Please make it one album per post.

PS: MSG is very very good. I am listening to his performance of Raga Begada everyday since 10 days now, and am full of awe for his performance - very sublime and mature, quite and steady (if music can be described as quite ). A master musician.

Regards

 

[thevortex]

Gobble - my sentiments exactly and I was just going to suggest a listening session for Carnatic/Hindustani in Chennai. You beat me to it

Anybody up for that, Chennai crowd?

On another note, Gobble, could you share some more information about your single driver Fostrex speakers? Why did you choose them instead of other conventional speakers? Where did you source them from? A mention of the cost outlay if possible? And if you were to pair these with a valve amplifier which one would you choose? SET or push/pull designs?

I know ... too many questions. But that is because I am inclined to go the same way and am scouting for information.

 

[thevortex]

By the way who is MSG? Sorry if this is too obvious but I did not get it.

 

[gobble]

By the way who is MSG? Sorry if this is too obvious but I did not get it.

MS Gopalakrishnan not MonosodiumGulatemate or Ajinomoto as its popularly known

Its an Audire Callisto BS. I will post some pics and a very brief review sometime this month.

cheers

 

[Asit]

Hi fellas,

Here is something interesting. I saw the mention of Raga Begada in gobble's post. I am not familiar with this name, so I just googled it to find out if it is close to any North Indian Raga, and there I found a whole forum for Indian Classical music, most current threads are on Carnatic.

The forum is Indian Classical Music Forum - Carnatic & Hindustani

There are discussions on Ragas, albums, Pancharatnakriti's and so on. I am really thrilled to find such a thread. May be, some of you already know about this?

Regards.

 

[thevortex]

Yes, Asit it is a treasure trove of information. I have not yet posted in that forum but it is immensely interesting to just go through the threads and posts there.

 

[gobble]

Its actually more useful to students to who practice music , not to laymen and listeners who have never learnt any raagas .. Don't you think so?

Regards.

 

[cooltoad]

wow... interesting to see such an in-depth thread on carnatic music at hifi. Been too much into rock lately that i forgot my collection of carnatic music. Thanks to the thread, now listening to sikkil Gurucharan's Bharat sangeeth Utsav CD. If anybody wants to get interested in vocal listening just listen to this guy. amazing voice.

Gobble just give this guy a try and you'll love vocals and in fact, just to listen to my carnatic music un-audiophile collection(needless to say about even Cd quality which is sometime outrageous), i am in search of that forgiving quality for my new speaker and i want led zepps and floyds to rock on my system too.

 

[thevortex]

Yes, cooltoad, I do have a few Sikkil Gurucharan vocals. He has a very interesting voice. Typically the more deeper baritones tend to be less flexible when it comes to Carnatic music. But Gurucharan defies the norm and actually has a very rich repertoire. His Madhirakshi and Rain albums are excellently recorded and well presented and packaged.

Sometimes though he tends to over-improvise and this tends to detract from the magic of the song. That is just my opinion though.

 

[sunder]

Hi sgmane,

If you like karnatic violin, my most favorite artiste is T. N. Krishnan. Please try him. Very calm and quiet without gimmicry, but very deep, musical and enjoyable, takes you within yourself.

In Karnatic violin, apart from Lalgudi, I also liked MS Gopalakrishnan. He used to come to Calcutta also to perform in the North Indian classical music festivals to perform in the Hindustani style.

Since you have mentioned L Subramaniam, please try to get one live duet performance by LS and Ustad Ali Akabar Khan, accompanied on the Tabla by Ustad Zakir Hussain and on the Mridangam by LS's uncle (I think) Ramnad Raghavan. This was recorded some place in California I believe. The ragas played are Raga Nattai (called Jog in Hindustani) and Sindhi Bharavi (called same or similar in Hindustani, there are a few flavors of Bhairavi), if my memory serves me right. I have this recording, but haven't heard it in a while and I am now in my office writing this mail> So no way to check. Well, get this. You will enjoy.

You do not enjoy Karnatic Classical vocals, you said. But if you keep on listening to the instrumentals, one day you shall also develop tastes for vocals. I would request you to start with KV Narayanswamy in vocals. He is one of my great favorites. Also if you ever get hold of his CDs, please let me know. Because I do not have a lot of music of him. By the way, another of LS's uncles was Ramnad Krishnan who was a very very good vocalist, unfortunately died at a premature age. He cut one LP, I know. I have heard it but do not have it with me, but may have a cassette where the LP was recorded into.

In the above, I have suggested some names everyone may not recommend. Of course there are so many renowned instrumentalists from South India.

Now to Mridangam. Get as much as you can of Palghat Mani and Palghat Raghu. These are the legends. Let me also know which ones you got and where you got them from.

I will not be of much help in Karnatic Veena. I myself have learnt North Indian classical vocal music from childhood basically belonging to the Senia Veenkar school and as a result did not develop any fondness for the Karnatic Veena. Please ignore my taste on this. I am obviously biased. But at the same time, I cannot stand North Indian violin. The only Hindustani violin player I can listen to is N Rajan, but she is also from South India; and to a much lesser extent Kala Ramnath (a student of Rajan, I believe). These are very much personal preferences I am sharing with you. You do not need to pay a lot of attention, if you do not want to.

This post getting long. Later with tabla etc.

Hi Asit,gd evng. Glad to hear that you are having interest on INDIAN classic. I am a fan of Dr.N.Rajam(violin),Pandit V.G.Jog (violin),Ustad Rashid khan (vocal). Different tittles in cassettes only,But few numbers only in cd. Asit do you have any idea in that what are the interesting tittles & labels on Pandit Omkarnath Thakur?.Olden days indian rcordings are very poor. They were not concentrate on the quality of recording. This is the painful thing of the deserved listeners of Indian music. Isnt that Asit?
regards.

 

[iyersn]

Hi fellas,

Here is something interesting. I saw the mention of Raga Begada in gobble's post. I am not familiar with this name, so I just googled it to find out if it is close to any North Indian Raga, and there I found a whole forum for Indian Classical music, most current threads are on Carnatic.

The forum is Indian Classical Music Forum - Carnatic & Hindustani

There are discussions on Ragas, albums, Pancharatnakriti's and so on. I am really thrilled to find such a thread. May be, some of you already know about this?

Regards.

Nice one - Pal, truely appreciated.

 

[iyersn]

Guys - get on to Shruti Channel on World Space. The SQ is amazingly clear and this is wherefrom I started liking Carnatic Classical.
I am having no knowledge of Carnatic but I love hearing Carnatic instrumental.
Also check out on Silver Lining by Chirag Katti -sitar - had heard his performance for a few minutes on TV and instantly bought his album the next day - truly enjoyed it throughout.
While buying CDs, my problem is that I am unable to find out if any score has been repeated in any other album by the same artist unless I have both albums side by side. So if i have bought an album by an artist earlier, if I look at any other album by the same artist, I may not necessarily pick up if any score have been replicated unless played. Any solutions for this?

 

[murali_n]

Hai All,

I recently purchased "Vaadya" - A timeless Celebration of Carnatic Classical Music by MUSIC TODAY group. It is a 8 CD Collection . The artists are
V.Doreswamy Iyengar - Veena
TN Krishnan - Violin,
N.Ravikiran - Chitraveena,
Mambalam MKS Siva - Nadaswaram,
Kadrigopalnath - Saxophone,
U.Srinivas- Mandolin,
Prasanna - Guitar,
Dr.N.Ramani- Flute.

Each Cd is about 1 hour duration. The selection of songs are good. Recording is top-class.
I paid Rs.500/- for the entire set ( Purchased from a direct selling agent at Vadapalani). The actual MRP is Rs.2000/-.

N.Murali