GAYATHRI GIRISH IN SWAMY’S HALL- 2/6/18

[CRama]

There was the above concert of Gayathri Girish in connection with the Birth day of Sunadavinodan Tanjore S.Kalyanaraman. I could not attend as I had just returned from a hectic tour of Kerala. I got the song list from a whatsapp group. The list appears to be impressive- with lot of SKR favourites and an RTP in Chatusra Ata talam. And a fairly long concert- of three hours and twenty minutes. I hope some of our forumites would have attended and I am waiting for a review of the concert.

1.Sri Raja Mathangi - Shudhdhadhanyasi Varnam
2. Sugunamule
3. Sivananda Kamavardhani
4. Parvatharaja kumari
5. Innudhaya Baradhe
6. Samagana Lola- Chitrambari (main) – Koteeswara Iyer composition.
7. Sarasa Sama Dana
8. RTP - Keeravani - Chatusra Ata
9. Lalitha Lavanga - Suryashree –Dwimadhyama ragam created by SKR.
10. Unmai Arindhavar - Madhukauns
11. Mangalam.

This was the list for 3 hours and 20 minutes concert.

[Lakshman]

Was # 10 uNmai arindavar unnai kaLippArO?

[rajeshnat]

Gayathri Girish@Swamys Hall(SKR brithday anniversary) on June 02nd,2018
--------------------------------------------------------
Vocal : Gayathri Girish
Violin : V Sanjeev
Mrudangam : Neyveli Narayanan
Ghatam : Trichy Murali

Concert Type : Nirvana - no concert to follow
Day/Duration : Satuday/ 3 hours and 20 mins with just 5 mins speech break
Concert Type : Free concert
Sabha/Hall : Shanmughapriya Sabha/Swamys Hall, mandaveli
Occasion : 88th Birthday of sunaada vinodhan Tanjore S kalyanaraman

1.shree rAja mAthangi -suddhadhanyasi - hmb
2. sugnamulE cheppukOnti (S) - chakravakham - T
swaras for 5 mins

3.sivAnanda kAmavardhini (N,S) - kAmavardhini - GNB
neraval in bhavAni vinuta kalyani for 5 mins
5 mins swaras
4. parvatha rAja kumAri (R,S) - shree ranjani - MD
8 mins alapana and 6 mins violin return
5 mins swaras

5. innudaya bhArathE - kalyanavasantham - PD
6A. sAma gAna lOla (R,S,T) - citrAmbari - Koteeswara Iyer
13 mins alapana and 8 mins violin return
12 mins swaras
6B. tani for 12 mins

7. sarasa sAma dhAna - kapinarayani - T
8. RTP in keeravani for 39 mins
19 mins alapana and 8 mins taanam
pallavi line ---> sArasa dala nayanA , sankata haranA harE mAm pAhi in chatushra ata talam
swaras in amrithavarshini + kAnada+ ?? + mohanam + hindOlam?? + shuruTTi

9. ashtapadi - lalitha lavanga - suryashri - jayadeva
10. unmai arindavar - sumanesaranjani (madhukowns) - mahakavi bharathiyAr
11. pavamAna

[rajeshnat]

The day was saturday , usually one has 3 to 4 concerts to choose. There are quite a few dramas taking up the cultural space in chennai.There was one visaka hari at besant nagar .Any way all that did not matter as I looked at the paper to see SKR birthday celebrations and vidushi gayathri girish was singing at mandaveli . The start time was mentioned as 6pm so i atleast had an appA feeling that i will get something with sunaada vinOdhan day. It is almost 4 years back since I heard GG . The sabha shanmughapriya chief patron is Smt Brinda venkatraman who is mother in law of vidushi GG .Brinda V did not take up too much of performance music is my best guess ,her love for music is very profound ,this sabha is very special in nurturing great music . Also Brinda's younger son V Sanjeev the violinist must be one of the foremost fan of SKR. I do recollect many years ago the sunaada vinodhan dvd release of SKR that the family of Brinda did along with kalakendra . That was one of the finest experience for me than to know about the greatness of s kalyanaraman

The start was almost exact 6pm ,brinda just introduced the names of the artist and said today is 88th birthday anniversary of her Guru Tanjore S kalyanaraman . GG started with suddha dhanyasi , the contours of suddha dhanyasi atleast fits so much into my head , this sri mathangi adds so much gusto to the concert like a typical abhogi varnam. GG did sing well i felt just may be the pace and the leash of rhythm with percussion could have been better . sugunamule in chakravakham came next , standard two that was sung by many from GNB with a dash of swaras .S kalyanaraman just began to show his early GNB head with chakravakham. GNB as a vaggeyakkara came next with the kamavardhini shivananda krithi of GNB .It was a bit of dampener , the reason not being the artist fault but the power was fluctuating like a typical T 20 match . It was more like someone doing a mute and unmute in the sabha , the artist just went along that showed their professionalism but this number did not show the musical professionalism. Apart from one dampener in sound setting where power went on and off , overall i felt the percussion balance of the mrudangam(especially right) was not adjusted right for atleast half point of the concert.

Sriranjani alapana came next and the rare parvatha rajakumara was a lovely drop.I adore the raga sriranjani raga charm as it gets in intrinsically with a little faster pace and I liked vidushi GG rendition.swaras were bit measured . Innudaya bharathE kind of bit sagged I felt GG lost a bit of vilamaba kala punch and did not hold the percussion team well tailored to its right rhtymn.

THe main was announced at the beginning as citrAmbari. It is rare for sure to hear a citrAmbari raga alapana , what a texture change from melakartha 65 kalyani to a melakartha 66 citrambari . GG sang really well the alapana , her voice texture shaped up well and citrambari was not a small tick.The koteeswara iyer krithi was quite well done with great dash of swaras - certainly a well thought out main choice . I adore these kind of attempts to showcase art in a different angle which gives atleast that day a different facet.

The sarasa sama dhana was a bit of letdown no swaras and also the gait of fast filler was only attempted as a fast filler .There was a loss somewhere and i could not get any fast feeler in fast filler .Vidushi Bhushany kalyanaraman(wife of SKR) spoke briefly and she appreciated the sincerity of citrambari and also praised Sanjeev .She said Sanjeev was hearing music when s kalyanaraman was teaching Brinda as she was carrying sanjeev then. I have noticed over a period of few years - Sanjeev is a great encyclopedic source of S kalyanaraman music , no one told me anything about sanjeev just my own observations over a period of time .I am just recollecting few concerts where musicians like sikkil gurucharan have sung some rare numbers of skr where only sanjeev was the violinist on that day . Interestingly vidushi Bhushany did not drag and just spoke for 5 mins and said may be GG is planning to sing RTP as she got the microphone at the end of kapinarayani filler past main.

The RTP came up next and it was the grand keeravani .For few in the audience their heads were going to simmhendramadhyamam. I had to assure few in the audience that GG sang only keeravani . The alapana was done clinically and the taanam was very methodical and well prepared . The pallavi showcased her as a student of TN Seshagopalan, the day being sankata hara chaturthi(atleast post concert dinner my family told me that) . GG sang the pallavi with that additional sankata hara chaturthi theme, the uttarangam and purvangam had nice spaced words no sudden balti of words that comes at times with many TNS concerts . TNS short burst of swaras came up in forms of raga devatas like amrithavarshini ,??, kAnada ,mohanam, hindOlam and ending with shurutti was apt. The ragamaliga swaras was intense in parts .

The SKR trademark closure were all great . The dwimadhyama ashtapadi in suryashri was sung exactly in line with s kalyanaraman signature .The taan like approach towards the end could have been bit better . The mahakavi bharatiyar sumanesaranjani (few say it is madhukowns i say it as sumanesaranjani) was sung with nearly same gusto for most part .This s kalyanaraman number unmai arindavar has made me listen ,listen and relisten 100 times this great rendition which i think was tuned by KS Raghunathan .

V Sanjeev is a bundle of talent , he certainly has his guru vidushi kanyakumari azhuttam .His internalization of s kalyanaraman came handy at every point from gnbish early chakrvakham symmetry to zig zag ashtapadi. I wish he learns the act of little censoring and rationing during returns at times the plot of vocalist is lost with little longer returns from sanjeev. Narayanan from neyveli forgot to bring the power from his lignite town for the first few numbers , it was not his fault when power played traunt , his right microphone was not having right balance like what GG and Sanjeev had . Trichy murali is a star with lot of aggression in ghatam and he gave a real good company to narayanan. Their accompaniment from 4th or 5th number onwards was top class, tani was just standard stuff and I am not complaining as they gave more limelight to sunaada vinOdhan .

GG since last time that i heard has developed a shade of more vocal muscle for sure . She is always sincere in picking right numbers and her concert was surely a great tribute to sunaada vinodhan that i enjoyed . I wish her the best to get little more pitch perfection when she moves from madhyama to dhurita kAlam, and brings more share of mel kala nervals and swaras , they are just suggestive and not long enough.

All said kudos to the four artists and also Smt brinda venkataraman(the prime sabha patron who shows max patronage to skr ) and smt bhushany kalyanaraman (the prime varisu of skr ). Brinda just introduced and bhushany just praised the artists all within 5 minutes plus and kept up the limelight on sunaada vinodhan birth day *musical* celebrations. The team especially GG was very sincere and showed right musical shraddhai to mahavidwan S kalyanaraman .

Overall an excellent concert for 3 hours and 20 minutes inclusive of 5 mins speech

[CRama]

Thanks for your erudite review, Rajesh. A sad miss for me.

Good selection of songs that brings to our mind nostalgic memories of the great Kalyanaraman. I have heard a few concerts of the Doyen. The music of SKR had a great influence on GG which is revealed in the song selection. Recently the song Parvatarajakumari sung by SKR had been viral and it once again revealed his mastery over the manodharmam and layam quotient. My mother used to say that Parvatarajakumari was popularised by GNB, but I have not heard the song by GNB. Gayathri would have done full justice to the song. I will wait for another opportunity to hear that song from Gayathri Girish.

Chitrambari as the main ragam- I have never heard the alapana of this ragam nor the Koteeswara Iyer kriti. Good selection for the main ragam as Kalyanaraman used to render many such rare ragams very elaborately.

Keeravani RTP in Ata talam must have been a real treat.

The Ashtapadi in Suryashree- A snippet has come through whatsapp. Very nice. Gayathri’s voice is in very fine texture and the song itself is very appealing. I don’t remember hearing this from SKR. The ragam is Suryakantham with panchamavarjyam and additional prati madhyamam. The ragam has a distinct identity and reveals the greatness of SKR and his music.

UNmai arindavar unnai kaNipparo- Bharatiyar song tuned by SKR in Sumanesaranjini. Till now I am not familiar with the contours of this ragam.

Thanks to Mrs. Brinda Venkatraman for giving three hours plus for the artistes to express their manodharmam unrestricted. Such long concerts have become too scarce in Chennai.

[Sivaramakrishnan]

Thanks rajeshnat for the live coverage and CRama for the supplementary notes. Happy to note that there's revival of interest in SKR music. congrats to Gayatri.

I must share an interesting incident :
I remember a 'great train journey' to Bombay during the early eighties wherein Sri SKR with Sri M Chandra- sekharan and Tiruvarur Bhaktavatsalam were traveling in the same coach in which we were. It was music all the way. Me and Bhaktavatsalam, then in our early twenties, enjoyed the trip to the hilt.
We couldn't however attend their concert at Bombay as we were attending a wedding.

[arasi]

All admiration to the family for sharing memories and the precious music of SKR.
Rajesh, thanks for your review. Your wanting to listen to Chitrambari sung in detail a few years ago got granted it seems, that too sung by someone of the cadre of GG!
Ramakrishnan, your recollections of the train trip with SKR and party added more musical notes to the thread. Thanks!

[kvchellappa]

Siva, Siva.. Why did you drop 'Siva' from the name?

[arasi]

A miss on my part. Sorry, Sivaramakrishnan...

[Sivaramakrishnan]

Oh! that's alright Arasi Ji.
See, nothing escapes kvc's watchful eyes!

[kvchellappa]

It was for some fun. I knew it was a slip. You were really fortunate to travel with the musicians.