AMRITA VENKATESH for Srirama Lalitha Kala mandira at Bangalore Gayana Samaja

[hnbhagavan]

Amrita Venkatesh Vocal,L Ramakrishnan Violin,B S Prashanth mridangam,Bhagyalaxmi Morsing

date: Jan 11,2020 Organiser : Srirama Lalitha Kala Mandir Venue: Bangalore Gayana Samaja

65th year Celebrations and 31 st year Spring Festival
The organisers Srirama Lalitha Kala Mandir now headed by Sri Krishna Prasad has organised a grand music Festival during Jan - Feb 2020.
Amrita Venkatesh performed a grand Vocal recital with the team mentioned:
LIst
Matemalayadwaja - Kamas
Mooladharakshetra -Mayamalavagowla
Lalisidalu magana Yeshode - Aarabi
Kudarvellam -Andal Thiruppavai - Poorvikalyani
Niravadhi Sukhada - Ravichandrika
Deva deva Mam palaya -Todi
Behag - RTP
I left after RTP
She has really a matured Voice which can traverse all Octaves easily and having adopted in good measure the style of Sanjay Subramanyam especially during Alapana.Great command over Lyrics and she presented a few rarely heard
Kritis.
I met R Sachi who can provide further expert comments and make corrections in my report.

[Sachi_R]

Sir,
She sang a beautiful Ugabhoga of Kanakadasa and a song of Purandaradasa in Durga. Then she sang Muddugare Yashoda in Kurunji. And then the beautiful tillana on Raghavendra Swami composed by Vid. Srimushnam Rajarao in Hamsanandi and mangalam. She thanked Sri. Arul for having travelled from Trivandrum at the last minute to substitute for the artiste who couldn't play due to a bereavement.

I find Amrutha has raised the bar as far as complexity of sangatis is concerned and with more instrumental-like movements a la nagaswaram. I think there is no other woman musician who can sing like her.

Only time will tell if the audiences will embrace such an energetic and versatile style she has now developed. For talent, attitude, energy, and variety, she has no match.

[arasi]

Sachi,
Will catch up with you soon, missed you yesterday...
Continuing your last line "For talent, energy, attitude and variety, she has no match", I would like to add one more--her joyful zeal which is reflected in her smile and it's endearing. It speaks of her boundless enthusiasm for her art.
The AlApane-s and swarAs spoke of it. The Sri AlApana started with such teasing playfulness that KrishNA appeared before us even before YaSode showed up and showered her love on her precious son.

The opener, mAtE was an energetic exercise brimming with liveliness. From the start, what an ensemble! My first chance listening to Ramakrishnan live, and his talent came alive to me (after hearing him play in concerts on the web). In one of his returns (wonder which one), it seemed for a moment to me as if it was Mysuru Chowdiah I was listening to in person! For lAlisidaLu? Again, Nanjil AruL too, I am hearing for the first time, up close. such a pukkA vAdyam, no hoopla but 'izhaindu vAsikkum (playing in a blending way) gift which speaks of his individuality at the same time. Bhagyalakshmi is a treasure in her field. She is one of the few that show such variety in a limited instrument like the mukha Sanka. The varied sounds that we hear on the little instrument gain certain subtlety in her playing.
Even the tiruppAvai was presented grandly, with rAgA and svarAs. Came with an intro from Amrutha about the hymn celebrating every dairy product possible, including ghee pouring down the elbow! Actually, ANDAL's exquisite gift for presenting the most divine in human terms excels in this hymn.The lines about the culinary delights are framed by the starting and ending lines:
kUDArai vellum Sir gOvindA! Epitome of the perfect, the best, gOvindA, who wins over enemies (evil)
and the last line, kUDiyirundu kuLirndElOembAvAi!: let's rejoice in coming together, friends!
tODi was delicious too. The nerevals by the way were full of feeling, relished by her and by us. RTP was excellent. The playfulness of Krishna continued in muddugAre, and all accompanists joined hands in making it jive.
Sri Mushnam's tillAnA emphasized the liveliness of the whole concert.
My very first concert of the season, since I missed out on the Chennai one.
Thanks to RLKM and the Gayana Samaja, I ain't poor no more in my happy state of listening to live music...

[Sachi_R]

Hello Arasi, for sure we meet here and in musical space. I saw you being ushered into the second row. I chose to sit a little at the back for some reasons.

This is no complaint but I feel the amp was a tad loud and marred the softer moments of the concert. But then this is God's way perhaps of making us settle for less than perfect.

Amrutha's usual Tambura vidushi Sowmya, her student, was missing. If she had been on the tambura, somehow I feel the concert would have been more sonorous

[gardabha_gana]

Enjoyed the concert very much... attending one after a while. The Thodi and the ST composition was really nice (new to me)! This was a varija nabha in the ankita RTP was enjoyable. I am biased when it comes to Tiruppavai to one of her Parama Gurus (no points in guessing who it is) I have become a huge fan of Ramakrishnan (Recommend the YK Lec-Dem this year w/ the other Amritha). Nanjil Arul - whom I have seen play for Sanjay at the same venue along with Bhagyalakshmi made a terrific team - When the artists enjoy, it is infectious

[rajeevsid]

Does anyone have a recording of this concert? Please do share . I would love to listen to this concert

[hnbhagavan]

U must ask SRLKM as i saw recording was going on.

[hnbhagavan]

Song list copied from KP Jayan.Thank you,KP
01 mAtE malayadhwaja ( varNam) – khamAs – Adi – Muthaiah Bhagavathar

02 mUlAdhAra kSEtra stHita – mAyAmALavagauLA – rUpakam – E S Sankaranarayana Iyer ( O,N,S )

neraval & swaras @ ‘vimala kamala mrdula caraNa vighna haraNA suguNAbharaNA’

03 lALisidaLu maganA – Arabhi – Adi – Purandara Dasa ( A,S )

04 kUDArai vellum (tiruppAvai) – pUrvikalyANi – mishrachAp – Andal ( O )

05 niravadhi sukhadA – ravicandrika – Adi – Thyagaraja ( S )

06 dEva dEva mAm pAlaya – thODi – mishrachAp – Swathi Thirunal ( A,N,S,T )

neraval & swaras @ ‘vAraNa bhayahara vanajanAbha mAdhava’

07 RTP – bihAg – chaturashra tripuTa x 2 kaLai , 1 beat / 4 aksharam eDuppu

pallavi line ‘ navanIta cOra pAhimAm, nanda gOpAla’

rAgamAlika in valaji/ malayamArutam, nATakurinji , navanItam, shivaranjani

08 ugabhOga ( dIna nAnu samasta lOkake dAni nInu ) – durga

manda matiyu nAnu madana janakanu nInu – durga – khaNDachAp – Purandara Dasa

09 muddugArE yashOda – kurinji – Adi – Annamacharya

10 thillAna ( tOm tanana dhiraNa dhiraNa dhiraNA) – hamsAnandi – Sreemushnam Rajarao

11 nI nAma rUpamulaku – saurAStram / suruTTi – Adi – Thyagaraja

[HarishankarK]

Any chance of upload in UTube??

[HarishankarK]

AmrUtha Venkatesh

[arasi]

Harishankar,
I have an ally in you in my carp
A rose is not a rose when it's called by any othet name!
Parents give names to their children and the spelling too. The little ones write them down as soon as they start school on all that they write and draw. Then, why do we spell their names in any fashion we choose to? By not paying attention to it? Agreed, many Sanskrit names can be written in different ways. Yet, the owner of the name might not find it pleasing when we spell it in any which way we like except in the way they do. Agreed, it's difficult for us to remember how a particular person spells his/her name. Yet, when we take so much care about what we write about their music, why not pay attention to this too? The authentic source for this would be their own blog. Let's not go by the way others like us spell it!
Am I nitpicky? I own up. I like my name to be written as I write it. An 'i' won't do, when two 'ee's are needed

[HarishankarK]

Ha ha
Arasi ji

I won't tolerate mis-pronounciation or mis-spelling- especially for Amrutha Venkatesh. She is so particular about aspects like lyrics, correct pronounciation and meaning, isn't it?

And another reason - don't want her confused with Amritha Murali (AM)- there is one utube video of AMV named as AM and after many months I bumped into it by chance and was so angry

[HarishankarK]

I am a victim of the same issue - people generally assume my name is Harikrishnan because it is a more common name than Harishankar.

[HarishankarK]

Namma Tyagarajar aye vittu vikkalaye

[hnbhagavan]

Sorry for the Misspelling.
You are right.No one likes misspelling of one's name.
My apologies.

[HarishankarK]

Thanks
But still
AmrutHa
Amrut?a

[Pratyaksham Bala]

But still
AmrutHa
Amrut?a

https://www.facebook.com/AmruthaVenkatesh/

[Sachi_R]

अमृता
ಅಮೃತಾ
amṛtā

[HarishankarK]

अमृता
ಅಮೃತಾ
amṛtā

That may be correct acc/to Sanskrit
But if my name is Hari and I decide to keep it as Harreeee for numerology - then all shd follow Harreeee beacuse its my name

So its Amrutha and not amṛtā

[Pratyaksham Bala]

... if my name is Hari and I decide to keep it as Harreeee for numerology - then all shd follow Harreeee beacuse its my name ...

Instead of 'Madurai Mani Iyer' let us start referring to him as 'Madurai Mani Ayyar' -- that was how he preferred to write his name !

[Sachi_R]

I have come across all these variants of the name शिव:
1. Shiva
2. Siva
3. Shivan
4. Sivan
5. Shiv
6.Siv
7. Shivam
8.Sivam
9. Shivu
10. Seev

[Pratyaksham Bala]

Tilak's name (originally) in Marathi was टिळक (TiLak / டிளக்).
In Hindi it is written as तिलक (tilak /திலக்) !
In Tamil it is written as 'tilakar' திலகர் !!

[arasi]

PB,
As usual, you are swift in bringing all references possible--and there is also a more tolerant tone in what you say!
Your tamizh Tilagar reminds me of the way adoring villagers in tamizh nADu named their offspring not Mohandas but kAndi (for Gandhi)! Perhaps, I should be graceful in not minding too much how folks spell names. my own slip (s?)come to mind. I used to write Khanjira player Venkataramanan's name as Venkataraman, overlooking the spelling Did Rajesh correct me?).
Numerology-motivated spelling, Harishankar? Too much of a burden to remember...

[arasi]

By the way, thanks Bhagawan, for bringing KPJayan's song list...

[Pratyaksham Bala]

The earlier name 'bhArati gOpAlakrishNaiyar'
(பாரதி கோபாலகிருஷ்ணையர்) has been dropped.
He is now called gOpAlakrishNa bhArati !