In the recent months, I have been going thru the recordings of S Kalyanaraman that I have not listened to at all. It is a combination of duplicates, poor recording qualities etc. The intent is to identify the ones that are different from the ones already on my blog and add them to the current set.
And it is then, that I ran into a whistle concert, the one and only one among the set I was going thru; I do remember that in his later days he had difficulties with his voice and have read about his attempts (for want of a better word) in whistling rather than singing. To my knowledge, whistle is often used in the back ground music and interludes in the movie songs, but a full fledged concert was something that I could not wrap by head around at all.
So, with some trepidation, I started listening to the concert only to realize that my assumptions and expectations were completely wrong. In almost every way, this concert is a typical Kalyanaraman concert, with the only difference that he is whistling. He has brought in pretty much almost all elements of his singing style and everything that goes with it into his whistling.
The accompaniments have done a great job of ensuring that they are not overpowering the whistle which for obvious reasons has a low volume levels.
Hope you enjoy this concert as much as I did.
with A Kanyakumari, S V Raja Rao and E M Subramaniam
- vAtApi gaNapatim – hamsadwani
- bAgAyanayyA – chandrajyOti
- jAlandara – valaji
- nannupAlimpa – mOhanam
- suguNamule – chakravAgam
- rAgam tAnam pallavi – shanmukapriyA
- dikku teriyAda kATTil – rAgamAlika
Shankar Krish's Blog 
Dear Shankar, Thank you for the wonderful blog! You brought to my memory of our 4 years in Melbourne 87-91 during which period Sri Kalyanaraman visited and stayed with a music family (Kalyan) to teach, pretty much all day during I believe a 6-month period! I sat in a number of his classes to Geetha (Vocal, Kalyan’s wife), her brother in law Mani (Voilin) and local Vidwan Ravi (Mridangam) as though they are in a concert. The host Kalyan family made cassettes of all 72 melakartha raagas at that time. That was the period when he had voice issues.. I remember that he gave a concert in whistle, strong and rich music. He and his wife Bhushani visited our home in Clayton, a suburb of Melbourne. And he had my 4-year old son on his laps and had him sing and repeat the music, which my son at the time could repeat nicely! We have been in USA since leaving there.
Best Wishes, Sri Sridhara
Your sitting in during the classes must have been a great experience.