Amrutha Venkatesh @ Ranjani Fine Arts on 14th April, 2012

[arvind.brahmakal]

Ranjani Fine Arts is happy to announce a grand Carnatic Music Concert :

Vocal : Vidushi Amrutha Venkatesh
Violin : Vidwan Anand Vishwanathan
Mridangam : Vidwan Tumkur B Ravishankar

Venue : Sobha Lakeview Clubhouse, 1st Floor, Off Sarjapur Outer Ring Road, Bellandur, Bangalore
Time : 5 pm to 7 pm
All are welcome !

For more details, pls contact 9945276121 / 9663395162. You may subscribe to [email protected] for regular updates.
http://www.ranjanifinearts.org

[Nick H]

It's a long time since I saw her here in Chennai. Too long!

[srikant1987]

?
nAda lOluDai - kalyANavasantam - rUpaka - T (S)
shAntamu lEka - sAma - Adi-2 - T (small R)
sabhApatiku - AbhOgi - rUpaka - GKB
sArasAkSha - kAmavardhani - Adi - ST (sketch, S)
sarOjadaLanEtri - shankarAbharaNam - Adi - SS (R, NS @ sAmagAna)
?

THANK YOU, Arvind, for requesting such a nice, heavy composition (shAntamu lEka).

[kssr]

Amrutha started with a straight forward Kalyani Adi tala varnam Vanajakshi. She did sing in three speeds- not 1-2-4 - but I guess it was 1 -1.5 -3. After a brief alapana of Kalyana vasantham she presented Nadaloludai with quite a detailed swara prastharam. After a grand round up of the swaram, it is questionable if the violinist is to be asked to redo the same. There may be the justification of giving equal importance to the accompaniments, but it definitely sags the proceedings. The next item was a good sama alapana followed by Thyagaraja's Santamulekha soukyamu ledhu. Amrutha took pains to explain the meaning of the text. A sketch of Pantuvarali and the grand Saarasaksha with brisk swaras on the pallavi line was impressive. The popular Abhogi kriti Sabhapathikku was run through before launching the main number of the day in Sankarabharanam. After an elaborate alapana, Saroja daLa nethri was rendered. Most important feature was the brilliant neraval at Saama gaana vinodhini, Amrutha's voice covering effortlessly all the three staayis without for a moment losing the ragabhava. The swaras that followed were also excellent. It is told that this ragam gives lot of scope for the singer likened to Uppuma where it is easy to produce but difficult to consume (I believe in this wisdom) . But this rendition was comparable to some of the best that I have heard.

Tani by Tumkur Ravishankar as also his understanding support to the main artist throughout the concert was commendable. Post main it was first a Sindhubhairavi hindi song "Visweswar darushan kar". Amrutha again gave the meaning of the sahitya. It is a good idea. Sometimes, of course, we feel that the mystery of the song had better been left unopened. The experience of listening may be getting flattened by the unglamorous "ash all over the body and snake garland" things. Explanations of "rider of the rat and lover of kozhakkattai" had blunt the divine ecstasy of Mooshika vaahana- Modaka priya that I used to feel in my younger days. The good thing to note is that the importance of sahitya as insisted upon by Dr.BMK / Rama Varma has percolated down to Amrutha as well. Sometimes we can see that it is difficult to adjust the taalam if you cut short at "Himagiri puthri" instead of the traditional drag of "pooothreee". Well! Coming back to the concert, the closing songs were a Behag piece Hari Hari Rama naama, Thilang purandara dasa piece Ramakrishnanu manege Bandanu (brilliant piece being, I guess, popularised by Amrutha), a kathanakuthoohalam Dr.BMK thillana which is as usual in a class of its own. Anand Viswanathan gave good support on the violin but not a match to Amrutha.

Over all a very good concert. The ease with which AV can handle complex sangathis with no lapse in sruti is mind boggling. We wish her a great future in CM.

[arvind.brahmakal]

Amrutha's concert planning was pretty nice. A good mix of shuddha and prati madhyama raagas, panchama and panchama varja raagas....fair representation of different composers with the exception of Deekshitar. She was able to fit all of this with no fuss in a 2 hour concert that made it quite bite sized for the rasikas.

The high point of the concert was the detailed delineation of Shankarabharanam raaga, devotionally delivered Saroja Dala Netri, evocatively presented nereval at Saama Gaana and leisurely paced swara vinyasa.

The explanation of the meaning is a good concept...just that, this need not be a literal translation of the saahitya. This can be a value add if the overall theme of the song can be blended with the context in which the song was composed. This would be like wearing the composer's hat !

Anand played good second fiddle to Amrutha. Tumkur Ravishankar helped elevate the mood of the concert with smooth and suave percussion play. Tani was beautifully thought through and executed.

Personal thanks to Amrutha for singing the Sama raaga request song "Shantamu Leka". Ranjani Fine Arts thanks Amrutha, Anand and Ravishankar for a pleasant saturday evening in divine music and wishes them the best in the decades to come !

[annamalai]

I thought this was an average concert. I also attended her December Music Academy concert - Saveri main. In my view, Amrutha needs to sing more punch and vigour (not sugam sangeeth type of approach). Her singing in upper octaves needs improvement. Sankarabaranam alapana was average; neraval was ok; especially one immediately thinks about sama gana vinodhini of MSS and accompaniment of TKM. I found the violinist played some nice passages of Sankarabaranam (to move some heads/nods). BMK thillanas are good when BMK sings, not suitable for others who do not have such a BMK voice.

Several eyebrows were raised, when she was chosen as the second lady artist after Parasala Ponnammal (great musician) to sing at Navarathri Mandapam; instead of other seasoned veterans like R. Vedavalli or Suguna Varadachari, or Vainikas like Kalpagam swaminathan (who was alive then) and many other talented youngster lady musicians who are not in the limelight.

[Ramam]

The fact that she plans her concerts well is may due her data base being large. I have heard her sing certain rare dikshitar on bangalore radio. Her voice is the give away. Higher octave it lacks strength. However she does not have any problem with a long piece like Bhavayami raghu ramam.., she once sang chittaswaras in 3 speeds. The strength of the voice at higher octave needs good modulation effects which BMK and MS amma managed very well. Not just the thillanas but most of the compositions and style of BMK applies to himself. She may need some senior artist intervention to correct this voice problem Another artist having similar problem earlier and some what improved is sikkil gurucharan

[srikant1987]

annamalai,

Happy to know you are a resident of Bangalore too! Would like to see you some time.

I think I have seen better performances by Amrutha earlier too. In particular, I found some krtis (sabhApatiku, sarOjadaLanEtri) a little too "notated" -- my fondness is for exact renditions, but I mean something different, something along the lines of introducing or over-emphasizing swarAkSharams.

Also, she should have sung some madhyamakAlam passages in shankarAbharaNam AlApanai. I missed an immersing tArasthAyi -- even more so with Anand's AlApanai (no tAra-ga exploration at all!). The conclusion of the AlApanai was weird too. Such an ending might have been chosen since the krti begins at the tAra sa, but I think this idea works better with shorter sketches directly leading to the first phrase in the krti. It's important that there be no "rest" between the AlApanai and the krti -- this is likelier to happen in instrumental solos (or solo-ishs).

I like Sri Anand Vishwanathan's technique, it is very clean and precise. However, he could bring more "flair", and he need not play "second fiddle" to this extent, I felt.

Sri Tumkur Ravishankar's accompaniment was superb. Embellished energetic moments, and filled in the occasional sagging moments aptly too.

[annamalai]

Another artist having similar problem earlier and some what improved is sikkil gurucharan

Yep, you were able to read my mind. Gurucharan seems to have the same problem; but much better voice than Amrutha.
However, in the case of Gurucharan, solid musical training, but his silken approach seems to be at variance with the nadaswara based raga phrasings of Semmangudi. Abhishek Raghuram is an intelligent singer, and my guess is that he trying to explore an identity for his music.

My only wish or hope is this new catchy trend is only transient. I am sure all of these youngsters and their music shall evolve over time.

[kssr]

Several eyebrows were raised, when she was chosen as the second lady artist after Parasala Ponnammal (great musician) to sing at Navarathri Mandapam; instead of other seasoned veterans like R. Vedavalli or Suguna Varadachari, or Vainikas like Kalpagam swaminathan (who was alive then) and many other talented youngster lady musicians who are not in the limelight.

But are they Rama Varma's students? You should give some leverage to this gentleman regarding choice of artists. After all, it is his show, right?

[tiruppugazh]

I like Amrutha Venkatesh's singing so much. I am happy that she did not venture too much into the tara stayi. If I wanted an MSS tara stayi Sankarabharanam version I will be happy sitting at home and listening to a tape.