Aishwarya and Soundarya in Hyderabad

Review the latest concerts you have listened to.
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cienu
Posts: 2387
Joined: 04 Feb 2010, 11:40

Re: Aishwarya and Saundarya in Hyderabad

Post by cienu »

Thank you Shreyas for your report on the concert by S Aishwarya & S Saundarya.

This concert was planned almost 9 months back for the Rama Navami Festival & there were only two conditions by the organisers, one of which was that this concert by Aishwarya & Saundarya should be an “MSS concert” list with a preponderance of songs popularised by Smt MSS & Smt Radha.

While readers in this forum do know that S Aishwarya has a huge repertoire of “Non MSS songs” and this has been widely reviewed by the likes of Sri C Rama, Sri Sivaramakrishnan, Sri K Srinath & Sri Vignesh, whenever they have an opportunity to showcase the songs of their family legacy, the sisters will do so with a lot of pride & gusto.

I would like to nevertheless thank you for your feedback, more importantly that you were there from start to finish & I do look forward to seeing you next time 😊

For the benefit of rasikas here are a few pictures from the evening of 15th April 2019:

The concert in progress,
Dr M Narmadha , Sri M S Venkatasubramaniam and Sri S Venkataramanan were the accompanying artists. On the Tamburas were Smt Sirisha (mother of singer Prachotan) and Smt Aruna Ram (on the right)
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A cross section of the massive audience for the concert especially considering that this was a working day. The organisers were delighted beyond measure at the size of the audience.
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Another view of the audience, who were immensely delighted by the concert and many stayed back to take autographs of Aishwarya & Saundarya post the concert.
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S Aishwarya being interviewed by the Telengana News Channels (TV) after the concert.
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Last edited by cienu on 17 Apr 2019, 20:01, edited 2 times in total.

arasi
Posts: 16774
Joined: 22 Jun 2006, 09:30

Re: Aishwarya and Soundarya in Hyderabad

Post by arasi »

Cienu,
Thank you for the pictures and the background about the organizers wanting it to be a replica of their great grandmother's concert. While Aishwarya's repertoire for her age is mighty impressive, since it includes many of the kritis sung by MSS, it's no surprise that they sang songs that they were expected to sing...

rajeshnat
Posts: 9906
Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 08:04

Re: Aishwarya and Soundarya in Hyderabad

Post by rajeshnat »

cienu
Are the organizers kalasagaram and is the venue keyes high school. ? Nice to see the pictures .

cienu
Posts: 2387
Joined: 04 Feb 2010, 11:40

Re: Aishwarya and Soundarya in Hyderabad

Post by cienu »

rajeshnat wrote: 17 Apr 2019, 09:18 cienu
Are the organizers kalasagaram and is the venue keyes high school. ? Nice to see the pictures .
Dear Rajesh
You are partly right. The Venue is indeed Keyes High School. However the Rama Navami Festival is organised by the trio of G. Venkatraman (president), J. Mahalingam (vice-president) and Sridhar Subasri (secretary).
They are the pillars behind the celebrations which is now in its 58th year

shreyas
Posts: 251
Joined: 03 Mar 2018, 13:16

Re: Aishwarya and Soundarya in Hyderabad

Post by shreyas »

I can locate myself in both pictures :)

1. Slokam about Dakshinamurthi - Yamunakalyani
2. Jalajakshi - Hamsadhwani - Adi - M Venkatasubbier
3. Sriman Narayana - Bowli - Adi - Annamacharya
4. Terateeyagarada - Gowlipanthu - Adi - Tyagaraja
5. Brief Slokam on Ranganatha followed by Sri Rangapura Vihara - Brindavana Saranga - Rupakam - Muthuswami Dikshithar
6. Ennaganu Rama Bhajana - Kamavardhini - Rupakam - Bhadrachala Ramadasu [Elaborate, briga-laden A, N @ Rama Chiluka, S]
7. Raghuvamsa - Kadana Kutuhalam - Adi - Patnam Subrahmanya Iyer
8. Dolayam - Khamas - Rupakam - Annamacharya
9. O Rangasayi - Kambhoji - Adi - Tyagaraja [A, N @ Bhuloka, S, T]
10. Brief Virutham in Simhendramadhyamam and Brindavani
11. Entamatramuna - Brindavani, Mayamalavagowla - Misra Chapu - Annamacharya
12. Jo Achyutananda - Kapi - Khanda Chapu - Annamacharya
13. Brief Virutham in Hamsanandi
14. Srininvasa - Hamsanandi - Adi - Papanasam Sivan
15. Bho Shambho - Revathi - Adi - Dayananda Saraswathi
16. Garuda Gamana - Kurinji - Adi - Bharati Teertha Swami
17. Thillana - Dhanasri - Adi - Swathi Thirunal
18. Kurai Onrum Illai - Ragamalika - Adi - Rajaji
19. Maitrim - Ragamalika - Adi - Chandrasekhara Saraswati

arasi
Posts: 16774
Joined: 22 Jun 2006, 09:30

Re: Aishwarya and Soundarya in Hyderabad

Post by arasi »

Whrere is Waldo? I mean, Shreyas? Give us a clue as to what color your top is, and we will try to find a young critic in the making :)

cienu
Posts: 2387
Joined: 04 Feb 2010, 11:40

Re: Aishwarya and Saundarya in Hyderabad

Post by cienu »

sranjani wrote: 19 Apr 2019, 10:52
They do sing only kritis from MSS repertoire which has become mundane and boring now .and I suppose they survive on that glory .
At the risk of repeating ad nauseam, I wish to reiterate the message in post # 26 (above).

Quote

"While readers in this forum do know that S Aishwarya has a huge repertoire of “Non MSS songs” and this has been widely reviewed by the likes of Sri C Rama, Sri Sivaramakrishnan, Sri K Srinath & Sri Vignesh, whenever they have an opportunity to showcase the songs of their family legacy, the sisters will do so with a lot of pride & gusto."

Unquote

However as I had mentioned earlier too, each one is free to have his or her own opinion.

To survive on the reflected glory of MS too is no mean achievement. It does not come easy & one has to be worthy of it.

For those people who do not wish to come to the concerts of Aishwarya and Saundarya (or for those sabhas which do not desire to feature them) because of "MS repertoire", that is their decision (perception) and they are fully entitled to the same.

However there are thousands of rasikas who come to their concerts for exactly the same reason, ("MS repertoire") and also for the fact that if any one today can come closest to reproducing the effect of some ot the popular compositions of the MSS legacy, it is without any doubt Aishwarya & Saundarya.

My daughters and indeed our family, value our precious heritage and are proud of the same. For those who may be uncomfortable with this fact, I can do little to assuage their feelings . I visualise my mother Radha who has with a herculean effort passed on the heirlooms one by one to Aishwarya. This has indeed come with a lot of "Shraddha" from both of them.

And for those who may be unaware, both the sisters have a huge fan base & and one of the largest following on social media with millions of views (or hits) for their videos.

For every comment (mostly anonymous) which belittles, there are thousands of public comments by rasikas (many of them extremely knowledgeable) who have a name and face & who are indeed deeply touched by their song.

The life of a musician is a long journey & one which will evolve over a period of time (decades if I may say so). One has to be an erudite Rasika to grasp the subtlety of the change(s)
Last edited by cienu on 20 Apr 2019, 11:55, edited 4 times in total.

arasi
Posts: 16774
Joined: 22 Jun 2006, 09:30

Re: Aishwarya and Soundarya in Hyderabad

Post by arasi »

Let's forget music for a moment (??)--though music is the life force here. I say this merely because I want to highlight other vital ingredients in the MS tradition: rarely, in my donkey's years have I come across such dedication and purposeful pursuit in families. Here, it includes three generations after her! To witness it time after time when I meet them is a delight in itself. May music stay with the family generation after generation, speaking of its legacy to us. After all, continuance of a good thing is precious indeed, especially in modern times...

Sivaramakrishnan
Posts: 1582
Joined: 02 Jan 2010, 08:29

Re: Aishwarya and Soundarya in Hyderabad

Post by Sivaramakrishnan »

shreyas wrote: 15 Apr 2019, 21:21 Garuda Gamana Tava Charana

This song has spread like wildfire - never thought it would make its way into a Carnatic concert.
Let Bhagavannaama-s and sankirtan-s spread the world over intensely because there is no other 'Marga' in Kaliyuga for peace and salvation. Carnatic Music can't exist without Bhakti and Including Stotras and Namavali-s in concerts is a natural, humble way of expressing our obeisance to deities and Guruparampara.

pattamaa
Posts: 749
Joined: 22 Nov 2009, 10:24

Re: Aishwarya and Soundarya in Hyderabad

Post by pattamaa »

what's wrong in singing MS amma repertoire once in a while ? It's more important how they sang ! Had my grand mother a bharath rathna, i would have probably sung her repertoire every concert :) :) the crowd loves it i guess. I know, it could be boring for a manodarma driven rasika.

I have witnessed multiple concerts where new urupadis and alapanas were presented, these were reviewed in this forum also

cienu
Posts: 2387
Joined: 04 Feb 2010, 11:40

Re: S Aishwarya and S Saundarya in Secunderabad (Sri Ramanavami Festival - Keyes High School)

Post by cienu »

Thank you all for your kind comments. 🙏(Arasi, Sivaramakrishnan, Hari et al)
Kindly find below a report on the entire Sri Rama Navami Festival - Secunderabad (inclusive of the concert by S Aishwarya and S Saundarya) reported in today's "The Hindu" (26th April 2019)
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