2013 December Music Academy – Young Artists

 

While my Paris sojourn has given me an opportunity to attend western classical concerts and Operas, but that hasn't taken my ears away from Carnatic Music and specially the December Music Season and the gossip that comes along with it.

I reached out to people asking for season updates from the ground apart from reading blogs, newspaper reviews and watching clips on YouTube. Here is an interesting update shared by a friend in Chennai who attended performances of young artists at the Music Academy, the Salle Pleyel of Chennai.

The December festival was ok... Mostly I was at Music Academy listening to the upcoming artists which I prefer to.

Dec 16, opening day was Vishnu Dev Namboodari (2013 Carnatic Music Idol Contestant) - Good singing.. started with Devamanohari (Kanna thandri na pai), a brisk alapana on Vasantha (Brihadambikayi - dik comp), followed by Todi of Thyagaraja comp.

Amrutha Venkatesh: Was ok, it was more of a nasal singing. Kalyani was good, (Bhaja re chitta balambika).

Vignesh Eshwar: Good singing... Started with Sriranjani (Marubalka), and main was Shankarabharanam - manasu swadheenamu.

DB Ashwin concert was good. He is a disciple of Seshachary (one of the Hyd bros).

Bharat Sundar : nothing great..... Sri ragam - varnam, Vachaspathi – Parathpara – Papanasam Sivam.

Prasanna Venkatraman: Sanjay Subramanyam’s disciple. He struggled to reach higher scales.

Akkarai Sisters: Was a mind blowing concert.... started with ragamalika varnam (Intha kopa melara - Veena kuppaiyer), Srinathadi (Mayamalgowla), brisk alapana on Lathangi (Mare vera dikkevvaru), and Sahana (Emaya - Thiyagaraja)..

RTP in Todi was too good.......

Sriranjani Santhanagopalan: I moved out of the hall since she was shouting.

Trichur brothers: Somehow I felt they should slow down their pace with every song on the run way mode.... nothing new ones repeating the old ones like Natya narayani (maha ganapathe). Valaji RTP, and others. Todi (Thaye yasodha) tamil pronunciation should improve and it became more evident when they sang Enneramum undhan in Devagandhari.

Btw, Amritha Murali was given the prime slot (6.30 pm).

Swarna Rethas (disciple of sanjay) was very avg. diction problem.

Sandeep Narayanan: was ok.

Ramakrishna Murthy - jam packed and was more devotional singing.

Rithvik Raja: Matured singing. His Poorvikalyani was good rendering the composition of Shyama Sastry.

K.Gayathri, Ranganatha Sharma, Kunnakudi Balamurali, Surya prakash were given prime slot sat 4.15 pm at the Music Academy.

(NOT BEEN TO ANY CONCERTS OF R&G, SANJAY, TMK, GAYATRI.VENK, MALLADI, SUDHA)

Come back for more season vambu next week!