Amritha Murali@Vanimahal(Mini) on May 21st,2011

[rajeshnat]

i attended this concert , will review bit later . Shri SVK has review the crt.
http://www.hindu.com/fr/2011/05/27/stor ... 110200.htm

[mahavishnu]

Looking forward to your views, Rajesh.

[rajeshnat]

Amritha Murali@Vanimahal(mini) on May 21st,2011
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Vocal : Amritha Murali
Violin : sp ananthapadmanabha
Mrudangam : mannArkoil balaji

Concert duration/Day : 2 hours and 10 mins/ Monday
Theme : sadguru thyagaraja compositions - bahula panchami day

1. jagadAnanda kArakA - nATTai
2. sundaratara dEham(RS,N,S) - paNtuvarAli
4 mins neraval in "rAgAdi samhAram rAghavam udAram"
3 mins swaras

3. raghupatE rAma(R,N) - sahAnA
7 mins alapana and 5 mins violin return
neraval for 4 mins niravadhi sukhadApramEya nirupama nArada sukhEya

4. yuktamu gAdu(R,S) - shree rAgam
5 mins alapana and 3 mins violin return
4 mins swaras
5. nIkE dayarAka - nIlAmbari

6. vAcAmagOcaramE - kaikavashi
7A. karuNa jUDavamma(R N S T) - tODi
11 mins alapana and 7 mins violin return
neraval for 5 mins in "dharanu sariyu dorakani pancanada nagara nAyaki dharmasamvardhani "
swaras for 7 mins
7B. tani for 11 mins

8. shree rAma jayarAma - yadhukula kAmbOdhi
9. haridAsulu veDalu - yamunA kalyAni
10. pavamAna

Vanimahal for quite a lot of years has an exclusive sadguru thyagaraja based concerts started by Late Obul Reddy. They distribute the songlist hardcopy as one enters , one could see there are more printouts in the hands of the distributor's hand , a clear sign that there is a dwindling audience over the years ,incidentally there was another Lakshmi sreeram concert in main hall of vanimahal which Nick attended .

All musicians are mandated to follow the sabhas orders in atleast chennai. The first is the chronic constraint in chennai sabhas ,they ask you to wrap by 2 hours with 15 mins grace time , incidentally in these kind of thematic concerts the emphasis is more on krithi renditions with a fairly clear cut instruction to have restraint of swaras . With Amritha taking 3 neravals was a good plan but certainly with very less of sangathis in neraval which was very short, the concert was kind of chugging along type of concerts , not much of any AhA experience.

I entered late missed the start of jagadAnanda kArakA in nAttai , Amritha sang very well ,one usually hears this krithi with little faster turns , amritha was bit slow nevertheless her rendition was well done . PantuvarAli rendition of krithi was nice , atleast when I hear this krithi I only think of maharajapuram santhanam and GNB ,when amritha moved to neraval and swaras she kind of struggled in general to reach higher notes that easily and with it I would say the usually rolling pantuvarAli had a quite high dose of inertia and she did not hit the sweet spot of a usual anthakAlathu famous pantuvarAli submain status (atleast during neraval and swaras).

sahAnA alApana was certainly very good , I certainly did not find that much of muse as what SVK described .I do know this particular raghupathE rAmA in sahana was popularized mainly by DKJ , and I liked for its rarity but certainly the neraval could have been much better , she kind of built well to lose the steam in neraval.The days second best to me was certainly her shreerAgam . Liked every sangathi that sang ,Amritha brings very lovely aesthetics in the madhyamkAla zone,shree rAga swaras were measured and it was really great aesthetic rendition.

NeekE dayakarA in neelAmbari just did not come out that well, infact I heard this krithi just a week back for the first time from Trichur
brothers , but certainly this did not hit the sweet intrinsic sowkhyam of neelAmbari.kaikAvAshi was a fast filler and I could see she struggling little more than the earlier pantuvarAli , especially in reaching the upper octaves.

ToDi alApana was done very well , she was measured but went with lovely patterns and there was a bit of controlled aggression in todi , I certainly liked her rendition, the neraval line was good with a fairly good patterns in swaras , certainly the restraint of swaras was evident

In the tukkadas the yadhukula kAmbOdhi was brilliant , she sang with so much bhAvam and I enjoyed every sangathi of hers. In the printout I did see a nAdanAmakriya I was thinking let me hear that of hers and see how she sings in the upper octave , but I did not get the printed song but instead I got the hariDAsalu and it was ok.

BalAji did not rob any sowkhyam of her singing and his play had nice nAdham . The violinist SP ananthapadmanAbha was just good , not much melody in play perhaps there was bit of excessive press of bow over the strings.

Amritha could have given a better concert had it not been for the constraints like restraint of swaras and timing of 2 hours+ . Her voice has nice sowkhyam , but would love to hear where she reaches comfortably higher octaves.The crowd was pathetic just about 25 to 30.
Overall a good to very good concert.