Amrutha Murali - Vocal
R.K Sriram Kumar Violin
Arun Prakash - Mridangam and special effects
I was about 45 min late into the concert – so not a complete list. I will try to update earlier items after consulting some early birds.
I entered when Sahana Reply began by RKSK.
raghupatE rAmA rAkshasha bhImA – sahana – rUpakam – RNS – Neraval @ niravadhi sukhadApramEya
pankaja lOcana – Swati – kalyANi – miSra cApu – RS svarams @ brindAvanAnta
SrI viSvanAtham – caturdaSa rAgamAlika – Diskhitar - Adi
svAmi mukhya prANA – kAmbodhi – purandaradAsa – Adi
cakkani rAja - karaharapriya – Adi – RNST – neraval @ kanTiki sundara
pArvati ninunE – kalagaDa – Adi (tiSra naDai) – SyAma SAStri
kamas – RTP | (3/4) pradhAna mAnatu manita nEyam | (7) vAzhvinil anaivarukkum ||
transiting in the middle of svara round using ma-ga-sa-ga-ma into hindOlam , violin from hinDOlam to ranjani , vocal from ranjani to hamsanandi , violin from hamsAnandi to behag – Amruta then singing all of them in reverse to conclude.
sundaratE dhyAna – abhang
karacaraNa kRtam – viruttam sindu bhairavi
apAra karuNA sindum – composition by RKSK – sindhu bhairavi
mangaLam.
A great concert – a modest sized crowd for a graduation week. Whoever gets to perform this close to Memorial day usually gets a lower than usual turn out. But for a sub-senior artiste this is the norm!
I missed the sahana – but reply by RKSK was his usual unhurried best. He manages to make it with a shrill tone violin – but he may need to see how he can make it more appealing. raghupatE was well rendered. Arun’s toppi and his left side tone were well set and audible. He does his special effects whenever he feels – but today also dished out lot of cross flows – with the traditional ta-tAkku-dhin phrase.
kalyANi Alapana was somewhat on a racy phrasing on ascent – she seem to want to cover most of the important phrases in her staple – but then fails to uncover something! And our traditional rasikas ( of the GNB great new bANi variety) want idea density and will not take anything less. She failed to use pause and silence – something that will enhance for a musician with good voice – with a mind on time management and impending list of items.
Every phrase began as soon as an impressive one was doled out. Our musicians should learn a thing or two from retailers who reduce the quantity, keep the package looking like same size to keep the price the same as before and keep some for uniqueness in a later concert.
She did show some poise in the descent. Phrases starting with mgm executed effectively.
RKSK in his reply was slower to begin basking in his role of an accompanist with the reduced responsibility of coverage!
Arun set the tone for the pallavi of pankaja lOcana with his effective sollus and emphasis, and she sang it once more after she seemed like having sung the last round.Even in a ST kriti Arun included his special toppi effects during caraNam , During svarams ta-tAkku tom cross beats again.
SrI viSvanAtham was the concert lifter and the grandeur is something I have not experienced live many times. Last time was a Sudha concert. I think the SSI school does a better job than the original trade mark bearer of this - MLV. For an young artiste with an expressive voice to have mastered this early in her career is a boon! Spell bound by its beauty and the audience also received it well going by the applause.
Lot of kriti hugging by Arun - it seems he wants to drum for the note based composer. But the kriti has many majestic flows which were not subtled by playing around the syllables!
svami mukhya prANa was an odd interlude – and Arun turned a Dance Mridangist – I could not avoid imagining dancer suddenly appearing with steps on stage!
Karaharapriya was again a full coverage effort on ascent and some subtleties were shown after descending. RKSK reply was a sharp contrast with poise and pauses – of course he does not have the coverage pressure!
Arun’s take off on the kriti was effective on pallavi – heard the classic khanDam to arudhi + (3/4) for the peaking sangati of rAja | mArgamu.
But anupallavi was too much kriti hugging – thank you Sir we know you know the kriti! With that his sowkya naDai flows without a thirst established – as no tension or majesty was expressed at the start.
Neraval was well executed. Arun subtle on first round of nerval Toppi special effects the second round. Svarams had good tumble down in 3s with Arun matching effectively. She could include more kArvai based svarams – most of them were syllabic – sarva laghu of SSI school.
Round off of second charanNam was very effective by both vocal and mridangam.
Tani was a short crisp one – Arun started with few rounds of miSra korappu and did a miSra naDai transition , including some splits like 7 & 4*5 for the 28 – with an extra kArvai(1) in between? – had to have recorded it to be sure.
Final kOrvai was a simple but interesting one useful to all learners who want to reach ¾ from samam. ta,dhi,takiTatom,(9) tatikiNatom tam,,,(9) dhi,takiTatom,(7) tadhikiNatom tam,,,(9) takiTatom,(5) tadhikiNatom,(6) takiTatom,(5) tadhikiNatom,(6) takiTatom,(5) tadhikiNatom(5)
- Total of 66 ( 64+2) -> 3 times will get you the 6 mAtra offset from samam.
With a quick kalgaDa interlude ( with many ta-tA-kku dhins again) the kamas ragam was the best of the day – full of substance and expression with a exemplary response from RKSK. tAnam was good – rAgam overshadowed it.
Pallavi highlight itself was the rAga-malika section noted in the list – nice enjoyable concept.
She consulted RKSK before singing Abhang. His kriti Apara karuNa sindhum bharavIsam with atIta eduppu was good.
This is my first live concert of Amruta - one of the few artistes with great talent on the feminine horizon.
RKSK was his usual best. And Arun – the off spinner who will not flinch from his line and length irrespective of boundaries or sixers – was a relish despite my gripes!