Aishwarya Vidya Raghunath @ Nadaloka, Heritage Academy Hall 02 Jun 2019

Vocal : Aishwarya Vidya Raghunath

Violin : Vaibhav Ramani

Mrudangam : Guru Raghavendra

List

01  nera nammiti (varNAm) – kAnaDa – aTa – Poochi Srinivasa Iyengar

02  shrI mahAgaNapatim bhajEham – aThANa – Adi – Jayachamarajendra Wodeyar ( O,S )

03  shankari shankuru – sAvEri – Adi tisra gati – Shyama Shasthry (A,N,S )

neraval & swara @ ‘jambUpati vilAsini jagada manOllAsini’

04  rAnidi rAdu – maNirang – Adi – Thyagaraja ( A,S )

05  ghananaya dEshikha gAna rasikA – riSabhapriya – Adi – Koteeswara Iyer

06 mariyEmi kAvalenu – kannaDa – Adi – Ambujam Krishna

07 evari mATa – kAmbOji – Adi x 2 – Thyagaraja (A,N,S,T )

neraval & swara @ ‘ bhakta parAdhInudanucu parama-‘

08 dEvakI nandana nanda mukundana – mAND – Adi – Purandara Dasa

09 sindhu taraN siya sOch haraN – sindhu bhairavi – Adi – Tulsidas

10 nI nAma rUpamulaku – saurAStram – Adi – Thyagaraja

shLOkam ( mangaLam kOsalEndrAya) – saurAStram

She sang a very good concert yesterday. Both sAvEri and kAmbOji are top class.

A tribute concert , remembering four titans whose birth centenary is celebrated this year – Jayachamarajendra Wodeyar, Ambujam Krishna, D K Pattammal and S Rajam. This year is also the death centenary year of Ramanathapuram ( poochi) Srinivasa Iyengar.

The selection of kritis, thus, are carefully chosen with the theme in mind. Nice job done.

Saveri was grand. Super start of the alapana. Fabulous neraval. Especially the place she chose to do the neraval. Shyamakrishna sOdari would have bored me to death.

The manirang after that sAveri was , if I may borrow the expression from my boss, …  ‘nO mmAA’. She should have sung the alapana for the next, rishabhapriya. Again, liked the way she sang ‘ghananaya dEshikha’ , properly.

Good kAmbOji alapana. Again, a grand neraval, nicely done. Good rounds of swaras too.

Accompaniment was of good through out. Energetic Guru Raghavendra and an ever evolving Vaibhav Ramani.  Guru Raghavendra showed a lot of anticipation and barring a few occasional exuberance ( or lack of restraint) he was commendable yesterday.

 

 

 

Aishwarya Vidya Raghunath, MS Centenary Concert, Nadasurabhi 18th Sep 2015

Vocal : Aishwarya Vidya Raghunath

Violin : Nalina Mohan

Mrudangam : Anoor Ananthakrishna Sharma

Ghatam : S N Narayana Murthy

List :

01. viribOni (varNam) – bhairavi – Pachimiriyam Adiappa

02.  tera tIyaga rAdA – gauLipant – Thyagaraja ( A,S )

03.  vaNDADum shOlaitanilE – harikAmbOji – Kalki Krishnamurthy ( A,N,S )

neraval & swara @ mAdavan matHurai maindan maRaigaL paravum mAyan avanO

04.  dEvi brOva samayamidE – chintAmaNi – Shyama Shasthri ( A,S )

05.  bhOgindra shAyinam – kuntaLavarALi – Swathi Thirunal

06.  RTP – bhairavi –  khaNDa tripuTa , 1/2 eDuppu

pallavi line ‘ lakSmIm shubhasangItapriyAm smarAmi, shubhapradAm, shubha-‘

rAgamAlika tAnam and swaras in Anandabhairavi,naTabhairavi & sALagabhairavi

07. bhAvayAmi raghurAmam – rAgamAlika – Swathi Thirunal

08.  jagadhOdhAraNa – kApi – Purandara Dasa

09. maithrIm bhajata – rAgamAlika – Chandrashekhara Saraswathi

On the occasion of the 100th birth anniversary of the legend, Nadasurabhi appropriately named this months concert as a tribute to the everlasting voice and the universal face of carnatic music. Aishwarya Vidya Raghunath, whose childhood photo on the lap of the the musical icon is going round in the social media, lived up to the theme with a clever selection and specially constructed pallavi for the occasion.

The concert itself had its ups and downs. The good things first. She sang an outstanding harikamboji. Wonderful , very well conceived and presented alapana. A rare kriti, from the MSS staple , brilliant neraval at the last line of the charanam – the full line to my pleasure- and a befitting kalpana swaras. To me that harikamboji is the highlight of the concert, barring a short slip towards the end of the swaras.

Secondly, the gauipant too was of superbly done. A very short and crisp alapana. Fabulous rounds of swaras. One seldom see artist taking up gaulipant and try to do some justice to the raga. That rounds of swaras, were top class.

Her post main was again pretty good. Submitting to a listeners request to sing bhavayami ( I guess he was by then was submerged in the spirit of the theme) she did a commendable job. So was the request for maithreem bhajata.

She sang the bhairavi varnam at the beginning and as in the old times, decided to sing a specially composed pallavi in the same raga (it was a bhairavi-chintAmaNi-bhairavi affair, though). Pallavi line isn’t great, but she did try something for the occasion which is admirable. Long bhairavi alapana was decent, nothing spectacular to talk about. Tanam was better, but the attempt with bhairavi-mala tanam was not appealing at all, was it the speed that was spoiling the fun for me, not sure. She did trikalam, but again the execution wasn’t smooth and flawless. No impact with the kalpanaswaras too. I cant pin-point the trouble areas. It could be the issues with holding breath, as she had many breaks of sequences, or the tempo which was a notch high through out the concert, or the pitch itself. Pallavi was a bit of letdown.

Anoor Ananthakrishna Sharma was very pleasing. Some of his left side play was awesome. He was rock solid, even when the other two artists were slipping at times. He and Narayana Murthy played a beautiful tani avartanam.

I would rather cherish those gaulipant and harikamboji moments from this concert. They were worth the time and effort.

 

Aishwarya Vidya Raghunath @ Rasanveshanam Concert, 13 July 2014

Vocal : Aishwarya Vidya Raghunath

Violin : Nalina Mohan

Mrudangam : Anoor Ananthakrishna Sharma

List:

01. sarasUDa ( varNam ) – sAvEri – Kottavasal Vnkataramana Iyer  ( O )

02. nijamarmulanu – umAbharaNam – Thyagaraja ( S )

03.  dEvi brOva samayamidE – chintAmaNi – Shyama Sasthri ( O,S )

04.  rAma ika nannu brOva – sahAna – Thyagaraja ( A,S )

05.  vara nArada nArAyaNa – vijayaSrI – Thyagaraja

06.  SrI venkaTa girISam – surutti – Dikshitar ( A, N )

neraval @ ‘alamElumangA samEtam anantha padmanAbham atItam’

07.  entha nErchina – udaya ravichandrika – Thyagaraja ( A )

08.  kaddanu vAriki – thODi – Thyagaraja ( A,N,S,T )

neraval & swara @’ addampu chEkillache muddugAru mOmu chUDa’

09.  ninnu jUci (padam) – punnAga varALi – Kshetragna

10.  krishNA nI bEganE bArO – yamunA kalyANi – Vyasaraya

11. mangaLam – saurAshtran – Thyagaraja

SLOkam ( mangaLam kOsalEndrAya) – madhyamAvathi

One couldn’t ask for anything better on a Sunday evening. Well, except for the extension of the time. However, all that is good has to come to an end, for us to reminiscent and relish those memories. Aishwarya, last evening, provided one such images of lasting impressions. The spirit of ‘rasAnvEshanam’ is this. There is no musical, physical, spiritual boundaries between the artists and the listener. Yesterday’s concert was in one such settings. The music poured from the artists where straight transcended to the heart of the listener, sitting in close proximity, proving instant feedback of appreciations almost verbally.

Aishwarya sang brilliantly. Every thing was presented with utmost precision and care, as one could see in her untiring attempt to reach perfection of each sangatis, each notes, each phrases of her alapana. Very pleasing to see in a youngster, these qualities of perfection, sense of proportion and professionalism.

On such a day when everything fallen in place perfectly well, there is no need to specifically look at each of the kritis presented. Her alapanas of sahana, surutti, sudha dhanyasi ( short) and the grand thODi were immensely rich and meticulously progressed. Thodi alapana had a special mention – what a stupendous alapana that was – winning wholehearted appreciation from everyone in the audience. Kaddanu variki was grand to its stature, with some rollicking neraval and a thrilling kalpana swaras.

Her voice was in top form, which was evident from the first varnam. Short , unusual swaras for umabharanam was a novelty. Her mettle of tradition and knowledge was showcased in a brilliant chintamani with some outstanding swara prasthana. She sang sahana with a good alapana and few rounds of swaras, surutti had an classy neraval, sandwiching a fast paced ‘vara narada’ between two pleasing ragas.

Kaddanu variki will be the talking point for a while. One of the outstanding rendition I’ve heard in the recent times. This young lady, with this capabilities and calibre will be a force to reckon with in the coming years. Nalina Mohan complimented the creative abundance of the young artist tremendously through out. Her surutti and sahana alapana were very good. Anoor Ananthakrishna Sharma was in his usual sublime touch. It was a pleasure listening to him yesterday as he s to me everytime I attend his concerts. He played an intricate tani avartanam post the thodi kriti.

Already exceeded over three hours, the post main was rather quickly wound up with a kshetragna padam in punnagavarali and a devarnama. Thre request, as expected, was to continue for another 30 mins, from the audience. However, the ‘prasadam’ to the body was equally important. The host of the evening Karthik and Mangala, provided a sumptuous treat at the end of the concert.

Fabulous concert by the young vidushi. Wishing her all the success in her musical career.