S.Aishwarya at Fort High School - Bangalore 12th April 2017

[s.harinie]

Kumari S Aishwarya - Vocal
Smt Charulatha Ramanujam - Violin
Sri C Cheluvaraju - Mridangam
Sri N Gurumurthy - Ghatam

Varnam - Sriragam (Kalapana swarams)
Dayanidhe - Nattai - Adi - Papanasam Sivan
Merusamana - Mayamalavagowla - Adi - Thyagaraja
Raghuvamsa Sudha - Kadhankuthugalam Adi - Patnam
Ennalu Orake - Shubha Pantuvarali - Misra Chapu - Thyagaraja
Jagadhodharana -
Shantam Shasvatam - Virutam - Valmiki
Sree Ramachandra Kripalu - Tulasidas.
Kurai Onrum Illai

It was an evening which will stay in my memory for a long long time. This was the stage that M.S.Subbulakshmi had sung for almost 40 years and Aishwarya undaunted by the inherent pressure which comes as part of this legacy, unquestionably cast a spell on the audience.

Beginning with Sriragam Varnam, Aishwarya sang a racy Dayanidhe with a beautiful Chittaswaram. Mayamalagowla ragam was a class act done in a detailed fashion and what an alapana it was.The kirthanam was rendered in the inimitable style of MSS. The neraval at Ganamula Shobillu was spell binding.
Subha Pantuvarali Ragam deserves special mention and had a distinctive stamp of Aishwarya followed by the rarely rendered Ennalu Orake

Raghuvamsa Sudha, the delightful krithi of Patnam, which was in between the two main pieces had the adrenalin in the audience flowing with the chittaswaras being rendered in 3 speeds by Aishwarya.

All other concert songs were requests given even before the concert commenced.

It was moving to see an old lady connoisseur go up to the stage after the concert and bless Aishwarya saying that she could now sleep in peace that the MS legacy is now in safe hands.

Aishwarya was surely fortunate to have the support of senior Vidushi Smt Charulatha who supported excellently. Sri Cheluvaraj on the mridangam is an asset to any artist and gave exceptional support. He and Sri Gurumurthy played a brief tani.

Sree Ramaseva Mandali also honoured S,Aishwarya with the SVN Rao Award for Excellence before the commencement of the kutcheri.

[cienu]

Thank you Harini for the review..
I am appending below a few pictures taken at the function. The stage is certainly fantastic and the Pandal and acoustics are well managed.
The concert - Aishwarya with Smt Charulatha Ramanujam, Sri C Cheluvaraju, Sri Gurumurthy and Sri Shiv Shankar and Sri P Manjunatha on Tamburas

A picture of a cross section of the audience (Smt Geetha and S.Saundarya can be seen in the front row)

Smt Prema Krishna - wife of former Karnataka CM Sri S M Krishna conferring on S,Aishwarya the SVN Rao Award for Excellence.

The Times of India - (Bengaluru edition) covered the concert on the next day (13th April 2017) with a picture and caption as below.

[Sjayanth]

I must say that we were all blessed with a great Musical evening on 12 .April at Sri Rama Seva Mandali. I also witnessed this concert along with family -my aged parents.
We literally enjoyed the concert, though I had to leave early.

I must admit that the way Aishwarya starts the concert with "Sri Dakshinamurthy stotram', she brings in the Devine Legacy of her great grand mother and legendary Smt. M.S. Subbulakshmi and sets up the 'Musical aura' for the next hours.
The Alap, Neraval and Chitteswara for Merusmana krithi was very delightful to the ears and gave a unique style of rendition.

While congratulating Aishwarya for being conferred with the Sri SVN award that evening, Wish her the very best for decades to come, who without doubt is a great musician in the making. She deserves all the encouragement.

Thanks and Regards,
Jayanth