Aishwarya Vidya Raghunath @ Ragasudha Hall

[Purist]

Live telecast of AVR's concert is on by Parivadini. Accompanied by RKSK and KAP.
After Thyagarajaya Namaste in Begada, Karu Baru is on.. classy alapana of Mukhari.
Paravdini have done great job in terms of quality of telecast.

[Purist]

A Thodi soaked in classicism followed by Kaddanuvariki. Bhava laden nereval and crisp swaras.

[kalyanipriyan]

No doubt she has some vidwath and good azhuthham. but she should try and make it more pleasing to the ears. she has a tendency to give over azhuthham. makes me feel she is 60 years old or something. She should concentrate on bringing the melody. the melody factor in her music is pretty low. she may be technically right but she will have no audience if she does not incorporate melody into her singing. i understand that she hails from Brinda school and so on but brindamma had a lot of melody quotient in her music. it was not just about the azhuthhams and gamakas. Nevertheless, she is a good talent.

[kvchellappa]

Maybe if she had sung kalyani instead of Thodi, it would have been more melodious!

[Purist]

'Melody Vs Azhutham", an interesting preposition. Can they co-exist ? For example, MLV(fem) and DKJ (men) had a lot of azhutham in their singing, were they melodious ? Maharajapuram Santhanam in his intial years had a lot azhutham and later moved on to sound melodic (janaranjakam) which relegated azhutham to second place . Melody gives a sense of floating which perhaps displaces azhutham. Can azhutham and melody be found in equal measure , not too sure.
While azhutham can be achieved by practice(sadhakam), not all voice can rein melody. In this context I think our concert format (Ariyakudi or otherwise) itself provides the demarcation -azhutham till pre Thani and melody post Thani (tukkadas if you call so). Comments fom forumites welcome.

[mahesh_narayan]

The kharaharapriya in the following clip should do the trick:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5DMJVQwgX4

I haven't heard a better Kharaharapriya than this in recent days. It was brilliant, and listening to it live just made it that much more enjoyable.

[Purist]

I remember mentioning about this outstanding kharaharapriya in some earlier thread.

[kalyanipriyan]

Who said that they cannot Co exist ? The greatest example of that is DK Pattammal. What a melody in her singing ! At the same time lot of azhuthham.... they are not two mutually exclusive traits..... Brindamma had melody..... melody is not to be pushed only to the Tukkada section.... by the way the kharaharapriya that someone sent , again melody is a casualty there.... I'm not arguing if the kharaharapriya was good or bad technically. ... there is a lot of difference between the two

[kalyanipriyan]

Regarding kalyani instead of thodi to make it melodious, are you saying that thodi is not melodious? I disagree. I'm a thodipriyan as much as I'm kalyani Priyan it's constructive criticism on Aishwarya ' s music.... hope she will take it in a positive way if she is reading this..... she should should should work on her melody aspect..... she should avoid making certain sounds while she is singing..... does not suit a twenty something year old to sing like that... this is just my opinion

[tiruppugazh]

If she sings with shruthi sense there will be azhutham and melody

[Purist]

Moderator .. Pl move ,Azhuttham vs melody to separate thread. Discussion seems to going wrongly into AVR's way of singing , which was not the intention of my topic.

[violinlover]

As a rasika, I always find aishwarya's music very uplifting.. Very satisfying both to the brain and heart.. I enjoyed the concert on March 1st.. It was very heartening to see her blend very well with senior accompanists.. The good thing about her music is that she enjoys singing and knows the intricacies of each sangati very well.. Very nuanced music.. Appeals both to the connossier and the layman.. Looking forward to a bright musical career for her

MC mama devotee
Violinlover

[kalyanipriyan]

Why should the moderator have anything to do with this thread ? Just because some people cannot accept constructive criticism on Aishwarya's music ? An artist can grow only by accepting constructive criticism. I like many many aspects of Aishwarya's music. But its also important for all of us to give an artist constructive criticism.

Pros : Azhuthham, vidwat, great gurus, confidence, very classical fare

Cons : Over azhuthham, can avoid making some sounds while singing that do not suit her age, decreased melody quotient, why thodi after suddha seemanthini ? Also, suddha seemanthini does not have a nishaadham... the second sangathi that she sang for "gaana lola" in anupallavi of janaki ramana in suddha seemanthini translates to the swaras "pndp,p" .... when suddha seemanthini does not have a nishaadham.... Also, there were a couple of phrases in mukhari aalaapana that were not very 'mukhaari'sh

Thanks,
Kalyanipriyan

[violinlover]

While I cannot comment on the seemingly less melody quotient according to kalyanipriyan sir,( to each his own), I would say that singing thodi as main after suddhaseemantini as a starter is not wrong.. They are different ragas with totally different contours and they were spaced apart.. The great kvn mama sang a concert with harikambhoji, yadukulakambhoji, kedaragowla, kambhoji main followed by khamas in the same concert.. I am sure kalyanipriyan sir would agree that kvn mama had very high aesthetics and melody too..
Coming to the sangati in gana Lola, it doesn't translate to pndp but psdp only.. I can only request to give it a second patient hearing.. The anuswaras are the life of our music.. Mostly, there is more in a particular phrase than meets the ear:-) that explains the 'peculiar sounds'.. Since I learn violin, I can say that.. Nevertheless kalyanipriyan sir's intention needs to be appreciated.. He has gone out of way to help.. Surely Aishwarya must take note although I didn't notice any unmukhari ish phrases in her alapana

MC mama devotee
Violinlover

[kalyanipriyan]

There is distinct difference between a 'pndp' and 'psdp'..... if u can play it in your violin, you will probably understand the distinct difference. I am a veena player myself... I have heard it several times and it still sounds like 'pndp'... Just because KVN maamaa did it, should another artist do it ? vera raagame, vera paatte kidaikkalayaa ? paattukkum raagathhikkumaa panjam namma karnataka sangeethathla..... ?!

Those peculiar sounds need to be avoided.... If you think that you can give azhuthham only by giving those peculiar sounds, then you are mistaken... those sounds alienate the inherent melody in the keerthana....

I am very happy that a youngster like Aishwarya sings with so much classicsm but at the same time i want these youngsters to grow. They can grow only by listening to constructive criticism and by working on those lines. At the end of the day, no matter how technically sound you are, no matter what vidwath you have, if the melody factor is absent, there is no point..

The very fact that I listen to Aishwarya's concerts is because i think that she is a great talent. I hope that she will work on the aspects that I pointed out and scale greater heights in the world of music

Kalyanipriyan