Amrutha Venkatesh@Pallavi Darbar(Sastri hall) On June 14th,2026

[rajeshnat]

Amrutha Venkatesh@Pallavi Darbar(Sastri hall) On June 14th,2026
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Vocal: Amrutha Venkatesh
Violin : Bombay Madhavan, student of M S Govindaswamy (who is his MS Govindawamy guru, I dont know can some one help)
Mrudangam: Arjun Ganesh, student of Late Poongulam Sabesa Iyer
GotHim : Ghatam Karthik
Tambura : ??

Concert Type : Nirvana - Non Ticketed concert
Day : Saturday
Duration - 1 hour and 30 mins with nearly 70 mins Pallavi without tani
Sabha/Hall : Carnatica and Parthasarathy sabha jointly conducting /Sastri Hall
Occasion : Pallai Darbar - Exclusive RTP concerts

RTP was in Kalyani for 70 mins with swara ragamaliga and then 20 mins tani

After Day 1- back to back RTP concerts by Vishnudev and Suryaprakash , Day 2 Sunday i decided to attend Amrutha Venkatesh and the next RTP concert . I was 5 mins late but there was this young Spoorthi Rao (I am hearing her for the first time) was singing with a high passion (I think Rageshri). Her passion overshooted and this half sari girl also sang a thillana .

The slotted time of 05 :15 pm was pushed to 05:45 for Amrutha and her extraordinary accompaniments .Personally over the last 2 decades started liking say a lot Raji Gopalakrishnan , then almost all of the vidushis whom i preferred the most to hear are say the pantula rama, Amrutha Venkatesh and if i am lucky a braindrain vidushi Sangeetha Swaminathan. I have seen Amrutha as early as may be 2005 or may be even before she was the disciple of Charumathi Ramachandran before she went with Rama verma and also possibly had significant training with Parasala Ponnammal .

01A. Alapana of Kalyani for 16 mins with 7 mins violin return

Amrutha Venkatesh shines with consistency , her voice is bit thin yes but overall ideas are very mature with nice sparkling prepared manodharmam. Of late always she picks up highest of highest quality accompaniments , Arjun Ganesh for mrudangam , at times for violin it is Rajeev Mukundan and of late one dark horse this Bombay Madhavan who was not seen in Chennai circuit till he has possibly decided to settle in Chennai. Also always very accomplished upapakkavadhyams , certainly Ghatam Karthik has a great arsenal of strokes with his ghatam.

The alapana when started was Kalyani . I am not a big fan of Kalyani in general - i recollect writing here where once Lalgudi Jayaraman said that for Kalyani to shine you have to pick right spots like eating mango. Amrutha has internalized a very steady voice where it never shows roughness , Kalyani alapana start without any appetizer krithi was bit unfair , but she did well. ALapana had a nice methodical approach and Bombay Madhavan returned with his possibly consistent theme Give the essence of every raga devathai and get out of the way . Get out of the way happens with near zero latency. He is the disciple of MS GOvindaswamy of Bangalore . Briefly i heard that he is from Lalgudi patantara , i thought he was bit more like MS Gopalakrishnan, i have no clue on how MS Govindaswamy plays, it appears like Madhavan learnt from his guru in bangalore and settled for many years in Bombay, and with he moving to madras , his consistent Carnatic Agmark quality is more noticeable.

01B. taanam for 18 mins where it was 4 rounds of rotation. Taanam was not metered with mrudangam

Taanam was not metered with mrudangam . That is not that great for me . Despite no mrudangam she did exceptionally well . Rendering of taanam was a very seasoned approach , in alapana konjam circular ideas but in taanam she opened methodically the structured Kalyani approach of singing taanam . I liked the equally brilliant approach of Bombay Madhavan as he never intruded and kept it so concise without revealing any preview of the forthcoming taanam of Amrutha Venkatesh

[rajeshnat]

01C. Pallavi line was significantly adapted from Avaiyar lines
ata Taalam with tisra and chatusra nadai

Harimau from our forum once said that Amrutha Venkatesh has only thamizh roots , though she learnt from Bangalore .SHe indeed spoke so well thamizh, she said she had taken Pallavi few lines from avaiyaar aathichuvadi and also explained the two nadais . Explanation was terse in lovely thamizh

The Pallavi line is
Yennum ezhuthum kannAgum isaiyE eN uyirAgum
intha narpazhanathil
Pallavi neraval 14 mins

01D. Swara ragamaliga in Kalyani + BhAgeshri + Chandrajyothi
Amrutha Venkatesh forte is unquestionably swaras . After Kalyani , bhageshri came out very well and Chandrajothi was exceptionally (I was a bit of a tube light in my note book i wrote ganamurthi and then struck chandrajothi). The final sprint in Kalyani was nice

01E. Tani for 20 mins

Unwanted Flamboyance or Right Needed Flamboyance are the usual two states of Ghatham Karthik. For sure it was right needed flamboyance . He did a konnakkol connecting to 100 double that of Amrutha 50. When he was started with a konnakkol the ace mrudangist played with precision . Post that most of the tani was brilliant fireworks of mrudu angam and ghatam and they were brilliant. Thank God konnakol was short and quickly done.

I can write pages about this Arjun Ganesh , in the next 2 concerts and 2 before unquestionably i will only give Arjun Ganesh the best mrudangist of my 5 RTP . He has extraordinary flair and he does not mind if there is more claps or adulation to say Amrutha or Karthik.He balances melody and rhythm he lets only his mrudangam talk . RTP usually needs longer cycles of signal and he came in as exceptionally handy supporting artist. Karthik during the course of the song is so intelligent , his ghatam just comes in suddenly ,exits suddenly and in that time he will be striking with kalapramanam tightness , thank god his volume was under check.

For sure Amrutha Venkatesh is adored by Chennai crowd and there is joy for many , i think it boils down to her sensitive and yet expanded demonstration of Carnatic classicism .

Overall an excellent concert for 90 plus minutes

[rajeshnat]

Amrutha Venkatesh@Pallavi Darbar(Sastri hall) On June 14th,2026
-----------------------------------------------------------
Vocal: Amrutha Venkatesh
Violin : Bombay Madhavan, student of M S Govindaswamy (who is his MS Govindawamy guru, I dont know can some one help)
Mrudangam: Arjun Ganesh, student of Late Poongulam Sabesa Iyer
GotHim : Ghatam Karthik
Tambura : ??

Duration - 1 hour and 30 mins with nearly 70 mins Pallavi without tani
Sabha/Hall : Carnatica and Parthasarathy sabha jointly conducting /Sastri Hall
Occasion : Pallavi Darbar - Exclusive RTP concerts


GLICSPAWES 2026 "Goto LIve Concert Show PAtronage Without Excuses Series" concert #J of Z(hopefully Z(26) is goal) . K stands for Kalyani (indeed that was also sung as main)
www.rasikas.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=385969#p385969