Aishwarya Vidya Raghunath @ MMA on 24 Dec 2017

[shriram.krishnan72]

Aishwarya Vidya Raghunath - Vocal
HM Smita - Violin
Saighiridhar - Mridangam
Manigandan - Morsing

01 Shankaram - Manohari - Rupakam
02 Cheraravade - Reethigowla - Adi
03 Thalli Ninnu- Kalyani - Mishra Chapu
04 Guruguhaya - Saama - Adi
05 Koluvamaragadha - Thodi - Adi
06 Ragam Thanam Pallavi - Sahana
Neerajakshi Kamakshi Nee Samanam Evaramma
07 Yarukkagilum - Begada -Mishra Chapu
08 Pathiki - Surutti - Adi

Observations:
A lovely concert with beautiful presentation of songs and Manodharma. Singing to a packed audience the concert was successful and well received.

Highlights:
Kalyani, Thodi and Begada

Positives:
She has a strong voice that has a nice uniform tone in all octaves and is pitch perfect. She uses it well to convey her ideas. Intelligent musician.

It was one of the best planned and executed concerts in this slot so far. Time management was great which left her with time for 2 solid tail pieces and not just a fast filler.

Kalyani was built up with classic Sangathis and Thodi was majestic. Sahana was like a calm after a storm after presenting 2 heavy weight Ragams. Entire concert was steeped in classisicm.

Nice selection of songs and good spread of composers. Her pronunciation was also good. Kharaharapriya and Hindolam as Ragamalika Kalpanaswarams were good choices to highlight Nee Samanamam Evaru and Neerajakshi Kamakshi.

My personal highlight was Yarukkagilum Tamizh Padam in Begada which showed her maturity and confidence. It was presented beautifully in a chaste manner.

Smita was good and had a sweet tone throughout. She followed Aishwarya well and scored in her solo sections. Saighiridhar was a tad loud at times but helped in lifting the concert. He has a nice stage presence. Manigandan was subdued and played his part well by complimenting the Mridangist.

Negatives:

I can nitpick with things like sound balance but the only negative I saw was a lack of a speed song in between for contrast. I would have personally preferred a faster song in place of Guruguha in Sama.

Thoughts:
She is a great singer and has all the right ingredients to hit it out of the park very soon. With the right guidance and moulding she can reach great heights.

I feel we are very soon approaching the next golden era of CM. We have musicians who are turning into unique musicians with original style. And so many are well poised to take the next decade by storm and make it big. Great quality we have at our disposal. I feel lucky as a Rasika to be present now.

Ramakrishnan Murthy, Sandeep Narayanan, Rithvik Raja, K. Bharath Sundar, Prasanna Venkatraman, G. Ravikiram among the men and Amirtha Murali, Nisha Rajagopalan, K. Gayathri, Aishwarya Vidya Raghunath, Sriranjani Santhanagopalan, Vidya Kalyanaraman among the women.

And then we have a younger crop with musicians Aswat Narayanan, Vignesh Easwar, Adithyanarayanan, Sunil Gargeyan, Archana Arati, Anahitha Apoorva, Vani Ramamurthy, Ananya Ashok who are coming up well and keeping their seniors on their toes. Joyous and interesting listening times ahead!

- SK72

[sureshvv]

Negatives:

the only negative I saw was a lack of a speed song in between for contrast.

Deliberate & stylistic.

[sankark]

Y'day it was a let down for me.

[pperumal]

Lovely concert.
After an early meal at the Academy canteen (more on that in some other forum ), settled down to listen to it in the ground floor.
I felt that she has evolved from her last year at the Academy itself - kudos to her.
Sai Giridhar was a treat to the ears- with his stylistic strokes and stage presence.
Aishwarya's concert was soothing on the soul - something which I felt missing in a few other artists I heard.
The violinist (Smita?) was very good too - a talent to watch out for definitely.

- PP.

[Madras-Talkies]

Aishwarya Vidya Raghunath (AVR) is a classy performer. I have loved her previous concerts at music academy. Somehow couldn’t enjoy the concert thoroughly this year at MA. I felt Aishwarya was very fast and the mridangist did not catch up with the style/ pace. He was going on.. in his own pace.

Few phrases of kalyani Ragam and swarams sounded soothing. My Guru used to say even a average concert really shapes up when thodi raga is taken up for elaboration. In AVR’s Concert, excessive brigas, racy alapana and repetition of sangatis did not enrich the concert experience.