Jayanti Kumaresh- Brahma Gana Saba- Inaugural concert, Dec 02,2018

[grsastrigal]

Brahma Gana Sabha- Pethaachi Auditoriium-Alwarpet
Date 2-12-2018

Jayanti Kumaresh-Veena
Neyveli Narayanan-Mridhangam
Trichy Krishna-Ghatam

Going to a concert on an inauguration day and that to if the programme had many VIPs/Ministers, is the worst thing happens to a rasigA like me/us.
First Sri.Venkaiah Naidu was the chief guest , Sri.K.J.Yesudos, Drama Artist Varadarajan and few others were felicitated. I could see them going out when I entered the hall. So many cameras, Selfies..what not.

Entered the hall at 7.10
7.10 PM- Jana Gana Man
7.30 PM- the programme started.

With the hall half-full JK started with

Gajananayutam- Chakravaham-MD
Urmika-ragam- Entani vina-Pallavi Sesha Iyer
Begada-Ragam followed by “KadaikkaN vaithanai” – Papanasan Sivan
RTP- Keeravani
Tani

I left after Tani. It was 8.45 PM

Though She was humble beginning her conert thanking the BGS inaugural speakers. But for me, it was atrocious of BGS to give 1 hours 30 minutes to this great artist. (assuming she finished at 9PM)

JK came in white saree with red border reminding me “yA kundendu tushAra hAra dhavalA” (a Sanskrit slokam on saraswathi)

She needs no review. Beautiful begada and soulful RTP. A real rasika can feel “adhvaitham” in her concert. You can submerge to the wonderful waves that come from her VeenA.

Though I heard that Rajesh Vaidhya who was just playing veenA, at 4 PM slot, in BVB, had a “stampeding” crowd, here there are hardly 50-60 People. I don’t know whether fusion overtakes pure CM.

But that is life.

Tani was crisp and full of enthu by these two great artists. I have not seen Trichy Krishna in concerts and nor ;know his Guru. But good combo.

[rajeshnat]

Jayanthi Kumaresh@BGS on Dec 02nd,2018
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Veena : Jayanthi Kumaresh
Mrudangam : Neyveli Narayanan
ghatam : Trichy Krishnaswami
Stage Support : Uttara , i have seen her in few concerts only in the stage . She was assisting Jayanthi in Flask . May I know if Uttara is a budding vainika, violinist or vocalist. i am not aware

Concert Type : Nirvana - no concert to follow
Day/Duration : Sunday/ 1 hour and 30 mins
Hall : Brahma gana sabha

01. gajAnanaayutham(S) - chakravakham - MD
swaras for 4 mins
02. enta ninnu (R,S) - urmika - pallavi sesha iyer
4 mins alapana and 7 mins swaras

03. kadaikann vaithennai aalammA (R,CS,S??) - beGaDa - ramaswamay Sivan
8 mins alapana

04A. RTP in keeravani with neraval and swaras seguing into the land of Pantuvarali and Shankarabharanam
11 mins alapana and 6 mins taanam .Pallavi neraval and swaras in 3 ragas for the rest of 30 mins
04B. tani for 7 mins

05. karunai deivamE karpagamE (R) - sindhubhairavi - madurai srinivasan
06. ???kAmAkshi lOka sakshi - shree ragam - SS

As GRS says more time should have been given , I still dont know why vidushi did not play till 9 15 she even winded up 5 mins before 9 pm. Hearing her for the past few years I have noticed she is just not inclined to cut loose a bit of time , possibly there are unexplainable reasons .

I was initially planning to attend another 6 30 pm start concert but had to spend time with kid and hence could only reach around 7 pm. I was shown yellow card near alwarpet signal as the convoy of venkiah naidu cars had to get out of BGS. As i entered quite a lot of crowd were all exiting out . 4 awards were given KJyesudas -gAna padmam, Drama TV Varadarajan - nataka padmam, malavika sarukkai -natya padmam .The icing on the cake was Vaadhya padmam to Jayanthi's primary guru Padmavathi ananthagopalan. Padmavathi mAmi who got vaadhya padmam award . THe vaadhya padmam awardee is a phenomenal organizer from a distant annanagar and i have no clue how she plays veena but she was there till the end of the concert encouraging her student playing till the shree ragam mangalam.

If Chennai is the epicentre of CM during December , this sabha is the focus of the epicentre strategically situated in the midpoint of alwarpet and mylapore this sabha is a very very important sabha .Footfall is always heavy and Most Importantly concerts starts at 6pm and Chief patron nalli shri kuppuswamy has a great nurturing role. This sabha BGS is growing and spreading wings from its petachi auditorium to ARkay hall and I am told even satelliate halls like nadasudha velachery the patronage is heavily influenced by this team. God bless the sabha team and from this year i see they are paying more attention to online with their websites with schedules is lovely, they are doing a great job . Quite frankly they do every thing right , if there is a blemish only one vidwan sanjay subrahmanyan is given 2 slots in BGS one in mid december and one in Jan 01st , i personally feel there has to be only one vidwan/vidushi- one slot policy .

Moving ON these concerts that start at 07:25 pm have very limited listeners .I still feel jayanthi is doing exceptionally well in drawing crowds for an instrument like veena. There is intensity in her play - CM is strictly gamaka suddham in her hands and possibly with the vaadhya awardee, she kept the intensity bit more . It was perhaps also a guru vandanam concert .gajAnanayutham started with gajAnana Ayuththam , lovely gamaka spread there was evenness of volume and really great sangathis .She came with lovely swaras , she usually keeps trichy krishnaswamy as her upapakkavadhyam(Attn GRS) and Neyveli Narayanan -Jayanthi combo is not that common, all three of them got into the groove and were well set.

She announced #2 krithi in urmika with the composer name.Sometime there she jokingly told it is quite cold in BGS and she joked kai vechallE kulurula taanam vasicharum pOla irukku (Oh i forgot whether she said it in tamil or english right now). She introduced the artist and used Hindi phrases and introduced neyveli narayan Ji . Using Thiru is too much Fort St George and Ji is too much LokSabha , let us just have shri/smt please . Moving on Urmika raga has quite an overlap with simmhendramadhyamam this urmika is also simmhendramadhyamam janya . Among the vocalist I have heard OST and sangeetha swaminathan singing this rare urmika . In few recordings I have heard mandolin srinivas playing this rare urmika .Urmika was quite good .

BeGada her other guru Veenai Balachandar stength was there with us . Alapana was quite slow showing the distinct M1 of begada at regular intervals , her mastery of gamaka suddham bit floored me that too considering i got bit lost with urmika as personally I have not developed that much stickiness to urmika yet. Ramaswamy sivan and not papanasam sivan came in with his kadaikann vaithennai aalammA sangathis(Attn GRS) . In the consumer world of cm , there is rajappane Raju who comes with his long shot cameras he is such a sweet person never disturbs anyone but takes visual cues.The begada had quite a bit of his kadaikann vaithennai camera shots. Begada heaviness had a nice cittaswaras or swaras or did it have both - I am kind of foggy right now . Begada was really well played.

The joy of the concert was indeed there for the next 30 mins pallavi . The visual rajappane Raju also winded up with his camera lens and the next 30 mins was absolute pindrop silence ,so rare no one spoke .We all behaved like 2nd standard stand up on the bench . Vidushi played keeravani , what an emote she gave in alapana and taanam - not very expansive but certainly more time does not mean more quality , she gave all juicy sangathis of keeravani with quite a bit of keezh kalam. At few discreet points her veena gives a tone like some heavy bass guitar drops and they are aesthetically very creative. Taanam was non metered and well done , i wish she had used narayanan there for taanam but that did not happen. The vaadya pallavi line was quick , i am not sure it had all the trikalam typecast but it was well done . In the RTP neraval and swaras the pantuvarali and shankarabharanam came out in succession . Pantuvarali was not that impressive she did not give me that great flavour with all rounded gamaka suddham - i did not register pantuvarali's true anti inflammatory essence . Shankarabharanam segments were wonderful had superb gamaka suddham . The transition from sankarabharnam to keeravani and few repeated loops was great mastery . I was very satisfied with jayanthis RTP.

Mylapore obesiance arrived with karunai deivamE karpagamE , nice catchy number for the concert .It was a good contrast to close after RTP, I am not very convinced if this thukkada is such a great number to showcase the true potential of Jayanthi. THe last shree raga krithi kamakshi lOka sakshi was played very well , nice number for her to showcase Guru bhakthi .I do know that her guru padmavathy ananthagopalan is a big devotee of Shyama sastri . I wish she announces shree ragam krithi , just like last concert that i heard her she did not announce . She announces chakravakham gajanaayutham which all know and the last shreeraga krithi not many know but she does not announce . I am assuming i am right in telling the last krithi was a shyama sastri krithi.

Neyveli narayanan is a great mrudangam artist . He has lovely fast rolls of his right and the toppi is not too loud . He created bountiful strokes and yet did not bang.Trichy Krishnaswamy has been jayanthi's stock ghatam artist and he really lifted the concert . As GRS said the disappointment of a curtailed concert was there but with no violin returns and few personal errands that I had to do, I was quite satisfied with Jayanthi. She showcases always gamaka suddham and azhuttam , her music had an aura of equal doze of showcasing krithi beauty and she also has quite a lot of onspot manodharmam.

Overall very good to excellent concert for 90 mins.

[gardabha_gana]

It's always so nice to hear Jayanthi, makes every concert interesting.

[thenpaanan]

Stage Support : Uttara , i have seen her in few concerts only in the stage . She was assisting Jayanthi in Flask .

"Assisting in flask" - a very vivid word picture.

Thanks for the detailed review.

-T

[rajeshnat]

How did a one and half hours concert become 2 hours? Review in The Hindu dated Dec 07,2018.
https://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/ ... 679947.ece

[Sivaramakrishnan]

Rajesh,
A detailed review, as usual. Thanks.

You have said:

"gajAnanayutham started with gajAnana Ayuththam".....

Could you please explain a bit on this?

[rajeshnat]

"gajAnanayutham started with gajAnana Ayuththam".....

Could you please explain a bit on this?

srk
i meant ayuththam as in thamizh phrase. In jayanthi case her strength of her gamakas

[Sivaramakrishnan]

Oh! Got it.

Incidentally for the word 'Ganeswaram' in the Pallavi of Gajaananayutam, JK played an altogether different phrase notation 'GMPDND' Instead of the commonly used/heard 'P MN DP'.