Amrutha Venkatesh on Sri Shankara at 9 PM - 25/7

[sappri]

As part of the celebrations of the 100th episode of 'Maithreem Bhajatha' a beautiful series on Carnatic Music hosted by Kalaimamani Dr. S Sunder, there was a pallavi based concert of well-known young artists in Chennai.

Tonight we understand is the first of the series featuring AMRUTHA VENKATESH - the program is on Sri Sankara TV at 9 PM tonight - 25/7/11.

[ganeshkant]

Thanks for the info.I was eagerly awaiting this.I attended this concert.She sang a splendid RTP in VaraALi in SangeerNa Tripudai-Tisra Nadai.I also bagged 3 prizes in the quiz competition at the end of this session.

All the 4 concerts that I attended had beautiful RTPs.

Rithvik Raja sang a Todi RTP in Adi - Misra nadai in 4 kalai.

Prasanna Venkatraman - KeeravAni - Adi ?

AmruthA Murali - Todi - Adi - 4 kalai

All the artists performed to their best capacity and were evaluated and advised by senior musicians.
A laudable attempt by the organizers.It is sad that I could not attend the evening sessions due to work load.

[kssr]

Amrutha did not disappoint. Three songs were telecast.
1. Srichakraraja in Sivasakthi
2. Muddumomu in Suryakanthi -Thyagaraja- Brief Swaram
3. A brilliant chinnanchiru kiliye. I have heard this from all senior artists. This is definitely one of the (if not THE) best.

Speeds were appropriate to the compositions. (Very slow speeds for all songs were becoming a problem for AV). Good accompaniments.

Lalgudi Vijayalakshmi found the right word to express the satisfaction of the audience. "Amaidhi"- Peace- yes such a peaceful programme both for the performer and the listener alike, which is becoming a rarity in many instances.

Once again thank Amritha for a thoroughly enjoyable programme albeit its brevity (on TV). Wishing her and the young team the very best of luck and bright musical future.

Also thank sappri for informing us of the programme.

[sappri]

It was indeed disappointing that they did not telecast the pallavi - which I understand that Amrutha had made it herself - I understand from those who attended the nuances of the ragamalika were very intelligent and intellectual.
I understand today is Rithvik Raja

[kssr]

I also bagged 3 prizes in the quiz competition at the end of this session.

Congratulations on the prizes won. Tell us more about the quiz. What questions were asked?

[sitaky]

Could anyone post the other concerts in Sankara TV? Thanks in advance

[Nick H]

I don't usually watch TV at all, but when I saw the announcement, I asked my wife if we have this channel. Sadly, we don't.

[nivedita]

Hi Nick, you can watch Sankara TV online here: http://srisankaratv.net/web_tv.html

[Nick H]

Thank you nivedita

[kssr]

Ritvik Raja, sorry to say, was a disappointment. He is quite young and has a lot to learn, if he has to compete with other young artists in the field today. IMO, he is not yet concert ready. The routine Sabhapathikku was not impressive, to say the least. I think it was a bad idea to load the responsibility of an RTP on the tender shoulders of this youngster and that too Todi. I hope that he and his guru (who's disciple?) would sit and achieve perfection on a song to song basis before exposing to the stage. I sincerely wish him good luck as an artist and hope he avoids the mistake of hurrying to perform.

Akkarai was excellent.

[ganeshkant]

KSSR,thanks.Those were simple qns.and most of you would have answered.

1.The name of ShanmukhapriyA in Dikshitar parlance ?
2.Other name for Adi tAlam ?
3.What rAgam U get when U sing MMG sans P ?

Answers:

1.ChAmaram
2.Chatusra triputai
3.Lalita

Regarding AV's concert I am equally disappointed about non-telecast of that amazing RTP in varALi.
The name of the rAgam for mudhhumOmu is SuryakAntham and not ...kAnti.What I like was the beautiful chiittaswaram in that song.

[ganeshkant]

KSSR,
Regarding ur comments on RR,he is a disciple of TMK.I think his singing has improved in the past years.I too felt that he is not concert ready when I heard him 2 years before.But now I think is O.K.His hard work can give tangible results if he sings in a slightly increased sruti;he sings now in a sruti I think is lesser than the normal C ( 1 kattai ). But his RTP was really good that too he sang in a bit unusual tAlam.Hope he will improve in the coming days.

[kssr]

RR is really good music material. My only anguish is that, if only he withdraws for some time, perfects the items and then start performing, we may have one more good vocalist. But then we can only wish......!

[carnatricks]

hello all. i just recently heard about this website from one of my friends. found most of the discussions here interesting. this is my also my first post in a thread. i heard amrutha venkatesh and rithvik raja. in fact, i had been to both their programmes live. the tv relay is not great and especially for rr's programme, the audio quality was very ordinary. amrutha sang a very sedate and leisurely varali. rithvik sang a wonderful thodi and the thanam was my favorite. it had been quite sometime since i had heard a thanam that was not a ragam with thanam vowels. quite a good effort by the youngster. the current went off for rithvik and amritha's (murali) programme the next day as that was the power cut timings for the sastri hall section. both amrutha and rr used a paper for their viruthams. i was not too happy about this until the emcee announced that they were given the viruthams to sing just before they got on stage. it was from adi shankara's works since it was a sankara tv programme. lalgudi vijayalakshmi was all praise for the two youngsters for their commendable effort. chengalpet ranganthan sir was in fact thrilled by rithvik's attempt (since the complicated pallavi was his own) and commended him on a wonderful performance. the highlight as said by chengalpet sir and a few other senior musicians was that rr had in fact sung the entire misra nada pallavi without showing the misram in it and sang it just with the ease of a chatusra nada pallavi which i hear takes a lot of practise and hard work. the accompanists for both the concert were fabulous and were very supportive. i hear today is sriranjani santhanagopalan. there were also awards for this series of the ten youngsters of carnatic music. the awards are being given away by sri tn seshagopalan on august 6th. i hear the awards went to nisha rajagopal, amritha murali, prasanna venkatraman, rithvik raja, sandeep narayan and amrutha venkatesh for the categoris of best pallavi, best thanam, best ragam, best vocalist and best concert. not sure who's got which though. anyone else has any updates on the list of awardees?

[kssr]

Sriranjani Santhanagopalan's concert was very good. Demonstrated her technical prowess. The multi speed including high speed pallavi and swaram sequences becomes a bit unpleasant to listen to, after a point. But that is probably true when you go too deeply technical- even in music. But the young lady is extremely talented.

Raghavendra was one of the best. Especially the virutham ( I think they were made to sing that without preparation, on the spot) was superb. I heard him in a concert in Bangalore recently. But the madras performance although only a brief piece was telecast was much more impressive. Great talent.

Best wishes to both. The crowd appeared very thin. What is the name of the hall where it was conducted. Resembles a small place on first floor in Luz church road (?) where I had been to listen to TVS and his daughter's concerts last year.

[srikant1987]

Resembles a small place on first floor in Luz church road (?) where I had been to listen to TVS and his daughter's concerts last year.

You probably mean Shastri Hall. The ground floor has a library, the first is used as a sabha.

[kssr]

Yes. It must be Shastri Hall. One interesting thing that happened was that the organisers of the December series there, have a Rs.30 (!!) ticket for the two concerts of the evening. A person sitting there right thro' the programme, issuing and checking the tickets.... I think there are also some members who are allowed free with "passes". Collection on the day I went, could not have been more than 500-600 Rs. Difficult to understand the logistics and economics of these sabhas during the "season".