Aishwarya Venkataraman - KGS - 25th Dec 2010

[bilahari]

Aishu Venkataraman – Violin
Vellore Ramabadran – Mrudangam
Vinod Venkataraman – Khanjira

Duration: 1h 30min

Approximate Songlist:

01. sarasijanAbha (varNam) – kAmbOji – khaNDa aTa
02. mEru samAna (S @ pallavi) – mAyAmALavagowLa – Adi (2)
03. orajUpucUcEDi nyAyamA (S @ pallavi) – kannaDagowLa – Adi
04. kAmAkSi anudinamu (swarajati) (R) – bhairavi – miSra cApu
05. tolinEnu – kOkiladwani – Adi
06. evarUra (R, S @ pallavi) – mOhanam – miSra cApu
07. sarasa sAmadAna (T) – kApi nArAyaNi – Adi
08. ? (S @ pallavi) – gurjAri (?) – Adi
09. English Note – HMB
10. bAgyada lakSmi – madhyamAvati

Aishu and her father were at TNK’s concert and dashed over after the thani for her program. I made my rapid commute after the concert and thankfully her recital started ten minutes late so I was punctual. There was a sparse audience of about ten who grew to about twenty by the end of the concert.

Aishu began with the beautiful aTa tALa varNam in kAmbOji, and she played the pUrvAngam immaculately in two speeds. A personal favourite, mEru samAna, was played next and I was hoping for a neraval, but she only played kalpanaswaras. There were several TNK-esque patterns in her swaras, and she has a good sense of kAlapramANam in delivering kalpanaswaras. After a pleasant kannaDagowLa, Aishu played an elaborate bhairavi ragam. Her bhairavi was very good – I particularly enjoyed her panchama-oriented phrases with DP,, DPMPDP,,. Aishu then satisfied my craving for mandra stAyi by playing for a while in the lower octave. There were several beautiful phrases in her mandra stAyi exploration of the ragam, with some nice patterns like RGM, - RGMP, - RGMPD, - etc. I was impressed, especially, by how Aishu wove the different TNK sangathis together to make an elegant and coherent alapanai. As she said later, that is a very challenging task! Her bhairavi had lovely flow and the fast phrases to the mandra shadjam were unique and very well handled. Aishu then announced that she had planned an RTP in bhairavi, but since TNK had just played it that morning, she spared us a repetition and played the swarajathi instead. Aishu’s rendition of the swarajathi was very good – it is another one of those compositions that never fails to move. A mAmi sitting two rows in front of me was so taken that she started singing the entire swarajathi (she then proceeded to sing throughout the rest of the concert) along with Aishu. I wanted to ask the mAmi to be silent but thought it might be disrespectful. Indeed, the mAmi was singing the composition impeccably.

After a melodious kokiladwani, Aishu took up mOhanam. Her mOhanam was really quite imaginative and filled with several rare, folkish phrases. It was excellent, and Vijay Siva, who attended the concert for a while (must’ve been impressed by her accompaniment for SRJ’s lecdem the day before) was very appreciative of her mOhanam. Aishu began evarUra with the anupallavi (apparently TNK does this frequently) and played it nicely, decorating the composition with good kalpanaswaras. I particularly loved the patterns ending consecutively in the tara S, R, and G. The final kOrvai was beautiful, too.

VR and VRV played a brief thani after sarasa sAmadAna. Both of them accompanied very well throughout the concert and VR’s playing was sowkhyam all the way. A true legend.

The tukkaDa in the rare raga gurjAri (?) was a pleasant surprise and played beautifully.

One and a half hours was not really enough for Aishu to deliver a full fledged concert, but I enjoyed her playing a lot. Her technique is really astounding – her bowing is very supple and her fingering is accurate. She has great shruti shuddam. Additionally, she uses the technique of playing across two strings simultaneously (E and A usually) very well, and her mandra stAyi playing is also impressive. Her playing has remarkable sowkhyam for someone so young, and her music has very good flow as well.

To expand her music and take it still further, my advice is the same: accompany. She should also make an attempt to present at least one neraval in each concert.

A great concert (with a memorable mOhanam and bhairavi) from an outstanding talent.

[rajeshnat]

bilahari
That is indeed nice to hear , especially the bhairavi swarajathi. I do remember she told me a year back that when her guru Shri TNK says that she is ready for accompaniment , she will start doing it.

VRV
Are there any more concerts lined up till jan 1st week

Aishu
Keep it going with your sowkhyam and shruthi shuddam.

[Sreeni Rajarao]

Thanks for the reports - good to know that it is going well!
Vinod,
you know my next request - some clippings, please!

Sreeni

[rshankar]

Aishu - wonderful to hear! Best wishes!!

[arasi]

Aishu,
But for the fact that the youngest member of our family came to see us with her parents during their brief visit from Australia, I would have been there too. I am glad that I could meet the three of you at Ragasudha after V.V.Subramanian's concert.
Happy to hear about your impressive performance.

[Nick H]

Aishu, sorry to have missed your playing, and to have missed talking with you all. At least I got to say hello this evening. See you in the summer!

[VRV]

Vinod,
you know my next request - some clippings, please!

Sreeni

Sreeni,

Most definitely. What an educative and wonderful season it has been. We reach Long Beach on Jan 2nd. I will upload some U Tube clips sometime next week.

Wishing all rasikas, and friends a very happy, healthy and prosperous 2011.

Vinod Venkataraman

[VRV]

Sreeni,


Per your request, here is a clip of Bhairavi ragam. Enjoy

Vinod

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bn5xK2s0Jgs

[Sreeni Rajarao]

Vinod,

Thanks for the clip! It is very nice (as expected!)
Sreeni

[rajeshnat]

Aishu
Very nice ,there is so much sowkhyam in your bhairavi. Keep it up

[bilahari]

A correction:
The gurjari krithi was rendered with chittaiswarams and not kalpanaswaras.

VRV, will the mOhanam alapanai and gurjari be forthcoming? The swarajathi itself was beautifully played as well. Thank you for the video clip of the bhairavi ragam.

[appu]

Aishu,

Beautiful exploration of the ragam. Keep it up

VRV, will the mOhanam alapanai and gurjari be forthcoming? The swarajathi itself was beautifully played as well. Thank you for the video clip of the bhairavi ragam.

VRV

Any chance of fulfilling Bilahari's request. Looking forward to hearing the Gurjari piece.