The first time I listened to him in person was at S V Temple Pittsburgh in 1984 and I have very little recollection of the concert except that I did not listen to the entire concert when I was on a short visit to Pittsburgh. But I had listened to him on AIR, but again my recollection on that front is quite poor.

As you can read on the Wikipedia page about him, he was a versatile musician, music director in movies early in his career, composer, director of the national director etc.. And when you listen to his concerts, in you can hear the influence of the various backgrounds in his music.

Though he did use a pickup to amplify the sound of the instrument, I felt his techniques and handling of the instrument was true to the Veena including how the instrument sounded, unlike the guitar like sound that is produced by quite a few vainikas of today. I found his meanderings into the lower octaves was very captivating and again this would be attributed to the sonorous sound he was able to produce on his instrument. I say this with very little qualification on the knowledge of Veena playing !! Perhaps ones with a better Veena knowledge can comment accurately.

In his collaboration with M S Gopalakrishnan and Lalgudi Jayaraman, you have concerts that are fabulous where you get to listen the two artists improvise on their techniques feeding off each other – these are what I would call as ‘must listen’ concerts.

Around 10 years ago, I listened to his daughter Kalyani Laxminarayana at the very same S V Temple in Pittsburgh, which was a very nice concert and she truly represents her father’s style. She has played with him in some of the concerts from as early as 1960!

• mOkshamu galada – sAramati
• ??? – varALi
• brOcEvArevura – kamAs
• RTP – shanmukapriyA

Circa 1970

• varNam – bhairavi – aTa
• varanArada – vijayasri
• ninnuvinA – navarasa kannaDA
• parama pAvana rAma – poorvikalyANi

AIR – 16 Oct 2004 with KalyAni Lakshminarayana (daughter), Palghat Hariharan & G Harishankar

• rAma bakti sAmrAjya – suddhabangaLa
• teliya lEru rAmA – dhEnukA

• mahA gaNapatim – nATTai
• dEvi meenAkshi – kalyANi
• sAamaja vara gamana – hindOLam
• nannu pAlimpa – mOhanam
• ksheera sAgara – dEvagAndhAri
• nAdupai – madyamAvati
• Ragam & Tanam – sankarAbaraNam
• bhajan
• Vedic Chanting
• mangalam

AIR National Program 1960 with E Kalyani (daughter) & Yella Venkateswara Rao

• Announcement
• mahA gaNapatim – nATTai
• tyAgaraja pAlayAsumAm – gowLa
• nAada sudha – Arabhi
• mAmava meenAkshi – varALi
• nAma kusuma – sree

Doordarshan 1981 with E Kalyani (daughter) & Yella Venkateswara Rao

• sObillu saptaswara – jaganmOhini
• sri kAntimatim – hEmavati
• jAvaLi – kamAs
• nAma kusuma mulacE
• Vedic Chant

• RTP – kalyANI
• RTP – tODi

• varNam – nATTaikurunji
• gAnamoortE – gAnamoorti
• brOcEvArevarurA – kamAs
• rAgam tAnam pallavi – gamanAshramam
• bhajan – sindhubhairavi

with Dandamudi Rammohan Rao

• saraseeruhAsanapriyE – nATTai
• mEru samAna – mAyAmALavagowLa
• neerajAkshi nee muddhu mOmu – neetimati
• namasivAya namO namO – sankarAbaraNam
• needu caraNamulE – simhEndramadyamam
• shambO mahAdEva – pantuvarALi
• makhajana – kamAs
• ab tO prakaT bhayi – subapantuvarALi
• Vedic Hymn
• mangaLam

with Tiruchi Sankaran

• varNam – aTa – bhairavi
• SObillu saptaswara – jaganmOhini
• sAmaja vara gamanA – hindOLam
• sringAra lahari – neelAmbari
• manavyAla – nalinakAnti
• needu caraNamulE – simhEndramadhyamam
• mOkshamu galadA – sAramati
• raghu vamsa sudhAmbudhi – kathanakutoohalam
• siva dikshA – jAvaLi – kurunji
• ab tO prakaT – bhajan
• Lullaby

Radio concert with M S Ramiah and K Venkataram

• tyAgarAja pAlayasumAm – gowLa
• needAsudanO – varALi (self composition)
• sringAra lahari – neelAmbari
• bAgu meeraganu – sankarAbaraNam

Radio Concert with Kolanka Venkataraju

• varNam – kalyANi
• neerajAkshi – neetimati (own composition)
• geetArtamu – suraTi

Radio Concert with Kalyani Lakshminarayana and Yella Venkateswara Rao

• mahAgaNapatim – nATa
• marivEre dikkevvaru – latAngi
• mAmava meenAkshi – varALi

Radio Concert with Palghat Hariharan, Palghat V A Sundaram and G Harishankar

• tyAgarAja nee bhAgyamu – mukhAri
• vaddanE vAru lEru – shanmukapriyA
• namasivAya – sankarAbaraNam (self composition)

• nAda lOluDai – kalyANavasantam
• brOva bhArama – bahudAri
• appa rAmabhakti – pantuvarALi
• shrungAra lahari – neelAmbari
• nee daya rAdA – vasantabhairavi
• tbd – kalyANi

Radio Concert with Tanjavur Ramamurthy

• sObillu saptaswara – jaganmOhini
• kaNTa jooDumi – vAcaspati
• ksheera sAgara – dEvagAndhAri
• krupajoocu – varAL (self composition)
• nATTuppADal

Radio Concert with Kalyani Lakshminarayana and Yella Venkateswara Rao

• tbd – vishAradhA (self composition)
• marivErE – Anandabhairavi
• sree venkatEswaram – kalyANAvasantam
• Alapana – vAgadeeswari
• paramAtmuDu – vAgadeeswari
• tani Avartanam

• vAtApi gaNapatim – hamsadwani
• gnaana mosaga rAdA – poorvikalyANi
• raguvamsa – kadanakutoohalam
• mAyammA yani nE – Ahiri
• AlApana – kalyANi
• E tAvunarA – kalyANi
• tbd – kurinji
• jazz like improv
• mantra pushpam

• jagadAnandakArakA – nATTai
• E tAvunarA – kalyANi
• singAralahari – neelAmbari
• eTula brOtuvO teliya – cakravAgam
• endarO mahAnubhAvulu – sree
• brOcEvArevarurA – kamAs

Radio Concert

• upendramAsrayAmyaham – kamAs (vasudevachar)
• rAgam tAnam pallavi – tODi
• nirupamAna – behAg
• bhajan

Radio Concert with Umayalpuram Sivaraman

• varNam – aTa – bhairavi
• neerajAkshi – neetimati (Self Composition)
• endarO mahAnubhAvulu – sree
• rAgam tAnam pallavi – tODi
• bhajan

Tracks from different concerts

• E tAvunara – kalyANi
• Lec Dem
• appa rAma bhakti – pantuvarALi
• brOchEvArevarurA – kamAs
• chakkani rAjamArgamu – karaharapriyA
• eTula brOtuvO – chakravAgam
• geetArtamu – suraTi
• mAmava meenAkshi
• nAdalOluDai – kalyANa vasantam
• nAma kusuma mulacE – sree
• narasimha mAmava – Arabhi
• nee bhAgyamu – mukhAri
• nenaruncinAnu – mALavi
• ninnu jooci – saurAshTram
• nirupamAna – behAg
• paramAtmuDu – vAgadeeswari (with M S Gopalakrishnan)
• raghu vamsa – kadanakutoohalam
• sObillu saptaswara – jaganmOhini
• sringAra lahari – neelAmbari (from a different concert)
• sringAra lahari – neelAmbari
• upEtram – kamAs
• vanTi dinamu – kamAs

Concerts with M S Gopalakrishnan

Concert at Parvathi, Bangalore – April 10, 1971 with Gurvayur Dorai

• varnam – bhairavi – aTa
• vatapi gaNapatim – hamsadwani
• meusamana – mAyAmALavagowLa
• orajoopu chuchedi – kannaDagowLa
• gnana mosagarada – poorvikalyANi
• raghuvamsa – kadanakuthoohalam
• brochevArevururA – kamAs
• sudhAmayi – amrutavarshiNi
• RTP – karaharapriya
• surdas bhajan
• jagadodAraNa – kApi
• Vedic Hymn & mangalam

Possible that Jamshedpur is the venue of this concert.

• bhajana sEyavE – kEdAram
• kaLalanErchinA – deepakam
• sri kAnthimatim – hEmavati
• srungara lahari – neelAmbari
• eTulA brOtuvo – chakravAgam
• swararAgasudha – sankarAbaraNam
• visweswara darshan – sindhubhairavi
• bhajans & more

Although the recording was documented, I am not entirely sure that it is M S Gopalakrishnan on the violin, although it is clearly someone from the Parur family.

• varnam – amrutavarshiNi
• telisi rAma – poorNachandrikA
• teliyaleru – dhEnuka
• rama nee samAnamevaru – karaharapriya
• rama ninnu nammina – mOhanam + ragamalika
• various

Starts midway the first piece

• eTulAbrotuvO – chakravAgam
• nata jana – simhendramadyamam
• paramAtmuDu – vAgadeeswari

with Palghat Raghu

• mahA gaNapatim – nATTai
• mEru samAna – mAyAmALavagowLa
• marivEre gati evarammA – Anandabhairavi
• marivEre dikkevvaru – latAngi
• cakkani rAjamArgamu – karaharapriyA
• jAnaki jeevan ki – hamsAnandi
• visveshwar darshan kar – sindhubhairavi
• Vedic Hymn
• mangaLam

Concert with Lalgudi G Jayaraman

with Madirimanglam Swaminathan on midangam, V Nagarajan on kanjira & T H Vinayakaram on ghatam

• varNam – nATakurunji
• sObillu – jaganmOhini
• swara rAga sudhA – sankarAbaraNam
• RTP – simhEndramadyamam
• ??? – kamAs
• bhajan – sindhubhairavi
• bhajan

Recordings on the Web

with Kolanka Venkataraju on Mridangam & Nemani Somayajulu on Ghatam

• mahA gaNapatim – nATTai
• tyAgaraja nee bhAgyamu – mukhAri – roopakam (Emani Achyuta Sastry)
• ninnu jooci – saurAshTram
• enduku nirdaya – harikAmbhOji