South Indian Carnatic Classical Music

sgmane

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Hi folks,

Iam interested in south indian classical instrumental music viz., violin, veena.
Also interested in other classical instrumental such as tabla, mirthangam.
My listening experience on the instrumentail side was few, and i have had a chance to get through violin (Lalgudi Jayaraman, Dr. L Subramanian, Kunakudi Vaidyanathan) compositions and for veena (Veenai gayathri) to name a few. Really a fan of them.

Iam not restricted to the above, but there was not much exposure on this carnatic classical instruments other than the above.
I did listen 1 or 2 performance of the usual "Chennai Marghazli Maatham".That's chennai's Musical festival every year during the period Dec -Jan).

Iam looking for pure instrumental as my taste is not on carnatic vocal. Can anyone direct me to any site where i can free download those? Also a list of best best carnatic classical instrumental albums that i can buy too!

Iam going only for CD's and not MP3's, as i would like to enjoy the pure music of those instruments played (violin and other string instruments).

I would like to first listen to them, and then finally go for my home collection.

thanks
 
seeing that you are in bangalore. i get my carnatic cds from the malleswaram. just north of circle near the td shah store its in a little passage. there are 2 guys both gujrati speaking. also they will give you a discount if you bargain a bit.
 
seeing that you are in bangalore. i get my carnatic cds from the malleswaram. just north of circle near the td shah store its in a little passage. there are 2 guys both gujrati speaking. also they will give you a discount if you bargain a bit.

Thanks Marsilians. I shall check the same. Iam looking for those albums/ compositions by said artisties (and other artisties) which are best in the chart list (just like top 100 movies list). As informed earlier, my exposure is less and so if i can have an opportunity to listen to whatever "albums, compositions" you people suggest are good, i shall listen to them and finally buy the same. (I understand personal taste differs, but there would be general blockbuster list which every one likes). Iam looking into that kind of tracks/albums/jugalbandhi etc.
 
Iam interested in south indian classical instrumental music viz., violin, veena.
Also interested in other classical instrumental such as tabla, mirthangam.
My listening experience on the instrumentail side was few, and i have had a chance to get through violin (Lalgudi Jayaraman, Dr. L Subramanian, Kunakudi Vaidyanathan) compositions and for veena (Veenai gayathri) to name a few. Really a fan of them.

I would like to suggest you Kadri Goplanath , the only world famous Saxophone player from India. He had cut quite a number of Indian Classical albums. Most of his albums are from Sound India labels, while there is one from Music Today that contains North Indian style classical by Kadri.

Also check some albums from Nadswaram (or Naag Swaram?) players, I have one album in my collection .

Regards
 
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Iam interested in south indian classical instrumental music viz., violin, veena.
Also interested in other classical instrumental such as tabla, mirthangam.
My listening experience on the instrumentail side was few, and i have had a chance to get through violin (Lalgudi Jayaraman, Dr. L Subramanian, Kunakudi Vaidyanathan) compositions and for veena (Veenai gayathri) to name a few. Really a fan of them.

/QUOTE]

I would like to suggest you Kadri Goplanath , the only world famous Saxophone player from India. He had cut quite a number of Indian Classical albums. Most of his albums are from Sound India labels, while there is one from Music Today that contains North Indian style classical by Kadri.

Also check some albums from Nadswaram (or Naag Swaram?) players, I have one album in my collection .

Regards

Thanks so much. Yes.. ofcourse i did hear about Kadri Gopinath. Shall surely get his album.
 
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.
 
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Sgmane,

These are some sites where I've bought the classical music.

Manorama E-Mart

ManoramaemartBuy online at India's largest online shopping mall

Sargam Musics

Sargam Musics| Malayalam | Tamil | Telugu | Kannada | Sanskrit | Devotional Music | Classical Music

I really liked these two from Sargam musics sung by Jayashree Rajeev

Karuna cheyvan - Classical kritis on Krisha
Amritavarshini - Devi kritis

Both of these sites have instrumental and vocals.
I've recently bought 2CD pack of Kadri Gopinath Saxophone. It is also good

I have some flute collections by Kudamloor Janardhanan. These are also very good and available in Manorama e-mart.

Madhava Murali ( Liked most especially the track " Alaypayuthe" )
Swathi Murali ( Swathi thirunal kritis )
Gokula Murali ( On krisha )

I could not find any of these collections in any music shops in Bangalore.

Thanks,
Sunil
 
Hi again,

One more name I wanted to mention in my post above, but somehow missed it. It is U. Srinivas who plays the mandoline. It's not a traditional instrument in Karnatic classical, but the guy has made it his own. Srinivas was a child prodigy. I heard him for the first time in a live concert in a temple when he was just 12, playing with his father if I remember correctly. I will never forget that performance. Just magical. Very very creative, at the same time technically very very proficient. A little bright presentation perhaps, but brilliant combinations of notes. I suppose he is now a very well known musician.

In 2000, I was one of the organisers of an international conference in theoretical physics held in Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. As cultural program of the conference, we organised a concert by U. Srnivas and also a dance recital by Malavika Sarukkai (Bharatanatyam). The international audience was spell-bound. I spent the next day talking to all these physicists about Indian classical music and many of them rushed to the nearet CD store to get some recordings by Srinivas and by some others.
 
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Asit has put forth some very great Carnatic violinists. I would also like to add T. Chowdiah, R R Keshavamurthy, Lalgudi Jayaraman, Lalgudi Krishnan, Vijayalakshmi, Ganesh & Kumaresh, Mysore Nagaraj & Dr. Manjunath are some you can listen to.

Also Balamurali Krishna also plays the Viola.

Also we cannot forget Chitti Babu, Doraiswamy Iyengar, Emani Sankara Sastry, S. Balachander and K.S. Narayanaswamy for Veena

Oh dont forget U Srinivas.

Personnaly I am very disappointed in the music producers of Carnatic. There is no proper mixing, cleaning at all. Some of the great recordings have so much noise, its a strain to listen to the entire CD.

On the other hand, Hindustani music is very well produced and there is hardly any distortion esp. when you listen to Jasraj, Mallikarjun Mansur, Shiv Kumar sharma, Hairprasad, or Zakir to name a few.

I am a southie BTW but cannot go through a CD of Kunnakudi as its too high pitched. I have seen his group many times live and its such a different feeling. YOu would think a studio album would be better, alas no in many instances.
 
Take a look at Charsur. They have been making some really good recording for the last 10 years and have become some sort of official recordists for all December seasons in Chennai. They have good collection of all genres of Carnatic music.

Charsur Digital Work Staion

In addition to all the artists, please also consider the following:

(a) See if you can hear the Veena recitals by Sangeeth Kalanidhi Mysore Doraiswamy Iyengar. He was, in my opinion, one of the greatest Veena exponents. I have heard his recital in Pune when I was very young and was completely mesmerised.

(b) Listen to a modern Veena artist - Rajesh Vaidhya. Rajesh is attempting to modernise Carnatic music and is succeeding in it to a large extent.

(c) Listen to Ganesh Kumaresh. They are very good on the violin.

There are so many good artists it is difficult to list all of them. Some of the greats that come to mind are Umayalapuram K. Sivaraman. Padmashree MS Gopalakrishnan, M. Balamurali Krishna, TN Krishnan, MS Subbalakshmi........

Cheers
 
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Hi Venkat,

Can you let me know of any good recordings of Mridangam legends Palghat Mani and Palghat Raghu? If you do, kindly also tell me where to get them from.

Sometimes what happens, even if there were no official good recordings done by HMV or some such company, there are good quality recordings done privately (may be even for house concerts). Later some of these recordings are sold to public. This is exactly what is happening with one of the legendary North Indian Khayal (Vocal) exponent Ustad Amir Khan. Recently I am finding in CD stores many many recordings of his. He died in 1972. So obviously these recordings were lying with private people and now being released commercially, I think. I have already bought more than 10 CDs of him like that whereas HMV has only 2 CDs of Amir Khan I think. Not all of them have acceptable quality though.

I am just wondering, similarly there may be recordings available of Palghat Mani and Raghu. I am very very interested in their playing. Just from the tonal quality of Raghu, I feel a sense of upliftment from the mundane world.
 
Hi Venkat,
Can you let me know of any good recordings of Mridangam legends Palghat Mani and Palghat Raghu? If you do, kindly also tell me where to get them from.

I will check in a few shops in Chennai and let you know. I have heard Palghat Mani and he is truly phenomenal. I have not heard Raghu, but you have kindled my curiosity.

Cheers
 
A big thanks thanks to all you folks. That was overwhelming to see all your posts and educating me on the instrumental (and not to leave alone - some vocal artists name too!!).

You have really shown me light on this path of music.
All those artists, albums et al.
Surely, my list on the home library collection increased further.
Iam surely gonna get them.
 
Can you let me know of any good recordings of Mridangam legends Palghat Mani and Palghat Raghu? If you do, kindly also tell me where to get them from.

I am just wondering, similarly there may be recordings available of Palghat Mani and Raghu. I am very very interested in their playing. Just from the tonal quality of Raghu, I feel a sense of upliftment from the mundane world.

Asit:

You really have given me a huge push. I roamed about Mylapore today and was able to get one CD of Palghat Mani Iyer from a small and obscure shop in North Mada Street. This is an HMV release and contains the following numbers:

1. Siddhi Vinayakam with Violin Trio. This is based on Shanmugapriya in Rupaka Thalam and composed by Muthuswami Dikshithar.
2. Sogasuga with Chittibabu on Veena. This is Sriranjani in Rupaka Thalam and composed by Thyaharaja.
3. Pallavi with Dr. L. Shankar and Zakir Hussain (This must be phenomenal)
4. Mridangam Solo in Adi Thalam
5. Khanda Eka

Though I am tempted to use the CD, I am keeping it in the original packing and can courier it to you. In return I will demand a cup of hot chocolate from you if and when we meet. This must be a rare CD as I don't see it in http://www/hamaracd.com.

In terms of sourcing these elusive artists some of the possibilities are as follows:

1. AIR. I believe they are converting some of their archives into CD and selling them. Have to visit the AIR office on Beach Road opposite the Lighthouse.
2. There is a private library called 'Sampradayam' that has a large collection go recordings. They were operating from Oliver Road and have moved recently. I am trying to get their new address.
3. The Hindu has recently created and opened to the public a large digital library in their office. Shall visit and see what they have. I am not sure they allow downloads. I believe you can only site there and listen. We shall see.

On a more general note for you, Sgmane, and others - take a look at Welcome to AddKIOSK - ANYTIME DIGITAL DOWNLOADS. This is run by Giri Traders and have kiosks in Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and other cities. The kiosks have a CD writer and they can cut the CD on the spot. It might make sense to search first and take a list with you.

Cheers
 
Hi Venkat,

You are one unbelievable fellow, I must say. No matter how tempted I am to get it from you, you did the hard work and you deserve to keep it. 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.

In the mean time, please open the pack and give yourself a listening session even if you later give it to me. You really deserve it.

I am aware of the AIR CDs. I have about 10 CDs or perhaps more from the AIR series. However, their quality is not good. That's a pity.

The fifth item in the CD is also got to be a Mridangam solo, because "Khanda Eka" is a particular taalam (rhythmic cycle). "Khanda" refers to "Jaati" and the actual name of the talam is "Eka Talam" (just like "Mishra Chaapu"). Once you listen to it, let me know how you like it.
 
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