Amrutha Venkatesh @Madrasana

[musi]

Violin : Rajeev Mukundan
Mrudangam : Arjun Ganesh
Ghatam : S Karthik

I have been attending many concerts this season and am writing reviews for only truly superlative concerts.
When I attended BGS concert of Ranjani Gayatri, I thought I had attended the best concert of the season.
I was not completely correct. This one was simply terrific and just as brilliant. Something that I will remember and cherish for a long time.


List

a) Behag Varnam Vanajaksha (3 min alapana, 1 min violin return)

b) Deva Deva - Mayamalavagowlai (Excellent brilliant swara prastharas)

c) Manaviyala - Nalinakanthi (7 min alapana, 4 min violin return, Lots of swaras))

d) Mamava Meenakshi (Varali)

e) Paratpara - Vachapati (Extensive Mel kaala Neraval , and a few rounds of 1 avarthhana swaras)

f) Mokshamu - Saramathi ( 13 min alapana, 6 min violin return, Keezh kalam and Madhyama kala Neraval, Swaras, Korappu , Thani)

g) English note

h) A sindhu bhairavi song

i) Dwijavanthi Thillana


Every peice was brilliant and every phrase was carefully chiseled out. I have never heard better alapanas for nalinakanthi and saramathi. The sruthi shudhham was immaculate. Unbeleivable creativity in nalinakanthi and saramathi alapanas where she had perfectly controlled phrases hugging the sruthi, applying sudden breaks, changing modulation, combining fast and slow phrases, singing many unconventional phrases. In Saramathi, she even touched the mel Shadja once.

She also explained the meaning of some songs before singing them which made us appreciate the lyric even more.
The other thing that I loved about the concert is the patantatra. She splits the words correctly and has so many sangathis that just like we identify patantaras to Semmangudi / S Ramanathan etc based on the sangathis , it wouldnt be surprising if the next generation identify patantaras as Amrutha.

Her gurus would have been very proud and I am just disappointed that she is not singing that many concerts this season. I am looking for her music academy concert though.

My only dissapoinment is that there was no RTP

[musi]

Special shout out to the accompanists. Rajeev is always so sweet with his bow. The thani of Arjun Ganesh and Karthik was kickass. They played a major part in elevating the concert experience.

Kudos to MadRasana for organizing this in Sathyam theatre. The ambience was so good and so comfortable. I could get passes only for Amrutha and RaGa . Looking forward to the RaGa concert.

[SrinathK]

How do you get to attend?

[sureshvv]

Ridiculous! Why not Sastry Hall?

[SrinathK]

Ok, after everything I've heard, I will definitely go to Amrutha's concert at MA this Saturday.