Online concert at 7pm on 6th May by Amrutha Venkatesh

[Rasikapriya2013]

Concert featuring only compositions of the legendary Sri M.D.Ramanathan will be aired online at

http://www.carnatic.listen2myradio.com

Listen2myradio.com

The relay will start between 7 and 7:15 pm.

This was recorded at the annual MDR day celebrations at Thirupunithura ,Kerala held on April , 2013.

[kssr]

Thanks for the info. I listened.

1. Gajavadana- Hamsadwani- Swaram
2. Short story about Meenakshi temple in Madurai and MDR
2a. MangaLa charane - Hindolam- swaram
3. Bhavayami Raghuramam- Ragamalika - MDR style
4. Hariyum Haranum ondre - Atana
5. Saaketha naatham bhaje - Kamavardhini
6. Sankarabharanam ragam- Janani natajana paalini - swaram - no identifiable neraval
7. Thani
8. Maname ramanai maravaade ( sahityam incorrect as I failed to write down)- sindhubhairavi
9. Popular : ................... rama raghava in Neelambari
10 Thillana
Mangalam.

Comments:
As usual an excellent rendition by Amrutha.
Bhavayami had swarakshara usages introduced in mohanam- typically Swati type- also seems to be MDR style. The radio reception was a bit disturbed during this song. Thaalam did not match ( I initially thought that it was also a tricky MDR usage!!) But mainly, I guess, due to the internet speed problem. Other transmission problems also resulted in "stomach trouble" sounds, probably only in my place. Others might have got it right. It once again settled OK after bhavayami.
Sankarabharanam generally is not my ragam of choice. Still ragam was pleasing. The highlight, IMO is the second kaalam swarams. It was velvety smooth gliding gently through the scale , still without leaving the raga bhaavam for a moment. Superb presentation.
I could not catch the accompanying artists names. All three were very good.

Thanks Amrutha and her team. Thanks for the info once again.

[Rasikapriya2013]

You are welcome KSSR ji.

She was accompanied by Idappalli Ajith on the violin, Palakkad Maheshkumar on the mridangam and Perukavu P.L.Sudheer on the ghatam.

You tube link of some of the songs from the concert.

http://youtu.be/1tV0mZc0cfY

http://youtu.be/mlAtzPucHjY

http://youtu.be/LrlJkHyW3Yw

[pperumal]

Such wonderful talent diluted
Too "synthetic" and too "washed down" for my liking.
I wish her all the best anyway - my choice is to skip this artist going forward

[kssr]

Such wonderful talent diluted
Too "synthetic" and too "washed down" for my liking.
I wish her all the best anyway - my choice is to skip this artist going forward

Is your discontent only for this concert?. If so it is understandable because a full MDR concert is a tough job to handle anyway.

If it is a general comment about all of the artist's performances, it is a bit strange. My experience is that she is quite natural and non-synthetic and her handling of difficult ragams incl kalpana swarams and pallavis are quite impressive and cannot be called washed down.

But of course there are as many tastes as there are rasikas. That is why all of them survive and shine.

[Rsachi]

Hindolam song in praise of Meenakshi:
Amrutha Venkatesh - MDR Day, 2013. Mangala Charan…: http://youtu.be/mlAtzPucHjY

My observations are confined to this song:
This is a wordy song, more like a light devotional filler type of song (nowadays a lot of lady stars fill the concerts with such)

Amrutha comes across as a CM Lite musician. What they call Azhuttam is absent.
I feel AV's flights of imagination and creative musicality happen only in her raga alapana and niraval for major Carnatic compositions. Whereas I have heard such pieces of hers, this piece is not relevant in that context.

I would place a bet that AV herself will not contest the CM Lite label and she seems possessed by the Rama Varma and BMK effect nowadays. But as Kssr said, that genre has its own following.


The actual event took place >1 year ago.

[sweetsong]

Not from this concert, but a beautiful MDR song on Shyama Sastri

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRmgWyzcJmc

[saverilover]

Amrutha's music is CM Lite? :O So can anybody please provide me a link to a CM heavy piece of music? I am trying to improve my repertoire and this makes me highly curious! I usually don't post much unless I have something "weighty" in general to share or say as I am not that knowledgeable about these things. I love AV's music and think she is on her way to becoming a great representative of CM in general. And can it also be that just like we all have different preferences in music, what someone may call CM Lite be considered CM Heavy and vice versa? Again, very curious!

[Rsachi]

Saverilover,
To my ears this Hindolam song itself and her rendering was definitely lite. Lite comes from the way the words are uttered, the voice is modulated, the swaras are intoned, the grammar is emphasised, the mood is presented, etc. My comment on this piece stands.
If you would like to present an MDR-sung Hindolam which sounds like this, please share a link. To me MDR' singing of Samaja vara gamana, for example, wasn't lite. For the same parameters. Can give you a link if you like.

[vasanthakokilam]

As someone trying to lose some weight, I can not stand idly by when liteness is looked down upon.. Just kidding.

Though there is no pressing need to calibrate the azhuththams, we can still try it on a relative basis.

Here is a different song, different raga and a different artist but with a similar flow. Is it lighter or heavier or about the same?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBVPTcNhLIA

[arasi]

KOkilam,
This is about BJ's clip: the rAgA is light, the rendering is light, and there is no room for azhutham. Has MLV sung this one? How would she have sung it? I'm just wondering. I have heard her sEvE Sri kAntham. Breezy as the rAgA is, there is azhutham in it...

[Rsachi]

So that's it! Being built more for stability than speed, my aversion to liteness is in my body fat perhaps

Seriously, Saverilover should check out this MDR kriti on Shyama Shastri sung by AV in Saveri.
Amrutha Venkatesh - Shyama Sastri - M.D.Ramanatha…: http://youtu.be/LRmgWyzcJmc

I think this is clinching evidence. Wordiness, lack of meditative pauses or long karvais dripping in the melodic richness of Saveri, the scope or lack of it for niraval, the fact that at the end of the song nothing stays in the mind in terms of memorable music or words...
What a far cry from the MDR of Thyagaraja gurum Ashraye, Sagarashayana vibho...

Would some kindly soul share a track-either of these sung by AV, pleaseeee?

[sweetsong]

Dear Saverilover,
Just like everything might seem to be yellow to the eyes of a person with jaundice,
even an all MDR concert would sound Lite to some. The best thing would be to
go by your own instincts and enjoy what you find enjoyable, without bothering
about labels.
Speaking of labels, as RSachi ji rightly says, these classifications are based on
the way the words are uttered, the swaras are intoned and so on. A normal
listener might use different labels though, than lite and heavy.
Much of what some of these people call Lite would simply sound aesthetic,
refined or pleasing to you and me and much of what they call Heavy would
sound muffled or vulgar to normal people whose ears aren't conditioned to
Carnatic listening, applying these lite/heavy parameters.
Nowadays, every possible variety of music is available at our fingertips,
thanks to the internet; be it lite or heavy or whatever. Just enjoy what
you enjoy and don't bother much about labels or big words like Azhuttham
that you will see, being bandied about quite frequently in here

[sweetsong]

Rsachi ji, here is Neelambari by Amrutha Venkatesh.
I couldn't find the other two.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMRSAcVgzgw

[Rsachi]

Wonderful. I loved the rendition by AV.
Thanks, Sweetsong!

A few minutes of lovely, delicate, music that invokes a rich silence of musical ecstasy in us, is better than many miles of wordy debate!

[Rasikapriya2013]

Dear Saverilover,
Just like everything might seem to be yellow to the eyes of a person with jaundice,
even an all MDR concert would sound Lite to some. The best thing would be to
go by your own instincts and enjoy what you find enjoyable, without bothering
about labels.

Nowadays, every possible variety of music is available at our fingertips,
thanks to the internet; be it lite or heavy or whatever. Just enjoy what
you enjoy and don't bother much about labels or big words like Azhuttham
that you will see, being bandied about quite frequently in here

Exactly my thought. As beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder so does the taste of what sounds good. I would any day prefer a kutchery which has all these basic, necessary qualities.

Shruthi Shudham.
Thala shudham
Sensitivity to render a krithi by not killing the lyrical beauty of the song
Sowkyam.

Have listened to kutcheries, where artists sing not knowing that they are singing off shruthi, struggling to sing alapanai of a new song as the ragam of the previous song keeps intervening,and completely forgetting the lyrics too.

Her Neelambari sounded divine, like RSachi has rightfully said. Thanks for sharing!!!

[pperumal]

To me the contradiction is simple.
To me, AV of the mid/late 2000s (heard her in Chennai, Bangalore) is what I prefer.
The AV of post 2012+ time to me is "CM Lite"/"synthetic".
In fact, I did not even know that she was learning from Rama Verma ji but had started to wonder why AV's music was becoming low on delivery until someone told me.

[saverilover]

I can't remember all of what everyone has said, but thanks Rsachi, I get the point. However, what we call lite or heavy may differ. I agree with Sweetsong - many times, Carnatic music that sounds aesthetic where the lyrics are pronounced properly and not like an old person shivering in the cold even if it is 16 year old singing is termed Lite! Whereas I have been to really big concerts where you wonder why you are wasting precious weekend time listening to somebody crying or wailing.

I find it really strange, but over the years I have begun to feel that Amrutha's music has been getting better and better. I like the way her lyrics sounds perfect as opposed to that "wailing" feeling you get with some musicians. She smiles a little more, is more confident with her body language and interacts suitably with her accompanists. In my observation, these attributes make the music sung look very easy to sing. But in NO way, is the music itself light. That is my take on these things. On a tangential note, if we look at Hindustani musicians, the reason they are more popular among Western audiences is because they give a lot of importance to the aesthetic value of their presentation. Easy to brush it aside, but quite difficult to inculcate.

Coming to what Pperumal's take on AV's music now, I can't stop smiling in wonder. Because I think it is exactly the opposite. I only began to enjoy Amrutha's music in the recent past because now her music is more confident, her personality shows through and in my opinion, any music that has an individualistic streak is enjoyable. It is like by learning from her current guru Rama Varma, she has found herself. In general, I am not a fan of young people sitting frozen with basic lip movement anyway. And you don't have to sound like you have a certain stomach problem to come across as a weighty musician!

[Rasikapriya2013]

In fact, I did not even know that she was learning from Rama Verma ji but had started to wonder why AV's music was becoming low on delivery until someone told me.

While I can relate to PPerumal's taste being different in the kind of Muisc he listens, I choose to differ at the point where he has taken her delivery being low in quality. I also think this discussion is no more about music and more of a personal discontent and bias. While criticisms and favouritism is inevitable in a musician's life, I believe words are more powerful than a blade and should be used for constructive discussion alone . We should remember that the person whom we are talking about is a living individual as well.

Since PPerumal has chosen to sensibly stay away from her concerts (this comment I saw yesterday), perhaps it will be a better use of his time to apply the same sensible policy and stay away from Amrutha's music review thread too.

[pperumal]

Since PPerumal has chosen to sensibly stay away from her concerts (this comment I saw yesterday), perhaps it will be a better use of his time to apply the same sensible policy and stay away from Amrutha's music review thread too.

Fair point - I shall
In closing I must state one thing on the record though - I thoroughly enjoy Rama Verma ji's music - it sounds natural to me.
I just wish AV does not emulate him and retains her identity - but that is her decision entirely.