Concert of Gayathri Venkatraghavan on 4.11.09

erode14 · Post by **erode14** » 06 Nov 2009, 02:28

(Central Lecture Theatre, IIT Chennai at 7pm)

Vocal: Gayathri Venkataraghavan
Violin: Mysore Shrikanth
Mrudangam: Erode Nagaraj
Ghatam: Chandhrasekara Sharma.

Part - 1

Concerts on rainy days turn awesome and become memorable most of the times; ringing in the mind just like when you think of jasmine you feel the fragrance somewhere. The dark clouds between the people and the sky, chill atmosphere and flooded roads gain significance naturally as the weather brings an impact on voice, instruments and on audience attendance. However, we were able to see the stars of tomorrow as the concert happened in the IIT Campus. Looking at the roads coated with thin layer of water, surrounded by trees, deers and dears (beloved forumites), one would easily wish to start a concert with a poetic viruththam like sAyankAle... vanAnthE... kuSumitha samayE...

When Gayathri started with vignarAja krupA sindhO and added warmth to the AC auditorium with kAmbOji varNam, the majesty and slower tempo of it, conveyed in a corner of my mind, that this is going to be a real classic evening and she did ishta poorthi too. I liked her singing "ma,, nidhama, padha nidhama..."

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 06 Nov 2009, 06:15

erode14 wrote: Looking at the roads coated with thin layer of water, surrounded by trees, deers and dears (beloved forumites), one would easily wish to start a concert with a poetic viruththam like sAyankAle... vanAnthE... kuSumitha samayE...

.....
......
That was followed by dhanyudevadO in malayamArutham with madhyama kAla niraval and swaram at vara madhdhaLA. Now, I would like to say, she was set all right for a concert packed with soul filling renditions.

Erode
Driving thru IIT is always a dear experience, atleast at times I always spot deers. For many many years , I did not know how to pronounce malayamArutham , incidentally I used to start with mAlayamarutham , I think if I go in rshankar's transliteration and meaning mode for a second , in thamizh, mAlay means evening marutham means agriculture land and greenery , so in a way mAlayamarutham for IIT campus is wrong but still apt

.

rshankar,
Sorry bhai ravi ,me trying to fit myself like you is just not working out :rolleyes: .

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 06 Nov 2009, 06:43

rAjES avargaLE - no worries - Very amusing!!

Considering that I grew up on that very campus, I am very of course, extremely biased!!

Always_Evolving · Post by **Always_Evolving** » 06 Nov 2009, 07:32

Very nice writing Nagarajan sir. Liked this one:

Listening to good sketches of known ragas is a feeling that someone describes how great your kid is and sometimes tells certain fascinating things about them which you are not aware.

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 06 Nov 2009, 09:30

A poet is a poet, and could not help it when the concert was poetic too!
I think many on the forum know that the mrudangist/reviewer is also a poet...

rbharath · Post by **rbharath** » 06 Nov 2009, 10:21

rshankar wrote:rAjES avargaLE - no worries - Very amusing!! Considering that I grew up on that very campus, I am very of course, extremely biased!!

i m sure i can add that anybody who has lived on this campus even for an iota of their life time would surely get biased..

and about the concert, m choosing the not make noise about it untill the great pravAham that Sri Nagaraj has started, reaches the ocean

(as an aside, i have lots of back logs with stuff to post here, and hence would take time

)

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 06 Nov 2009, 10:39

Both are good reasons, Bharath!

erode14 · Post by **erode14** » 06 Nov 2009, 14:42

@rajesh: may be mAlai-amrutham too and by the way, if itwould have happened a month ago (before navarAthri), it would have been mALaya marutham too..

@always: thank you...

@bharath: logs are good when set fire in chill weather... don't save too much, spend soon.. in fact, you can continue, as i have been trying from the morning to log in, but now only the site had some pity to let me in (mods, look at odds...)..

@arasi: i don't write often and go vanavAsam many times, hence, can't be considered as poet and all that

PUNARVASU · Post by **PUNARVASU** » 06 Nov 2009, 14:59

Poet Absent (like Port Laureate)?

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 06 Nov 2009, 21:03

A poet may be absent at a first glance, but he takes his kavitvam with him--vanavAsam or nagara vAsam. ErODu can't shed it. It resides in him. SOlai vanamum pAlai vanamum namakkuLLE...

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 06 Nov 2009, 21:09

malaiyamArutam - always reminds of a phrase from one of Smt. MSS' movie songs - 'malargaLai konji varum manda mArutam pOlE' - and to me the name evokes the gentle and fragrance-laden breeze (mArutam) from a hill (malai)

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 07 Nov 2009, 00:14

Ravi,
How about the following line? maduvuNDa vaDinangaL vaLarkkum rIngAram pOlum--jankAra sruti SeiguvAi jIva vINaiyil sangItAmrutam pEiguvAi jagadISanE!-- Suddhananda Bharathi, is it not?

erode14 · Post by **erode14** » 07 Nov 2009, 18:45

part -2

Niraval is a place where one line is repeated often. When I was in Erode, might have been in sixth or seventh standard, I heard BMKÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢s pancharathna krithis cassette and was surprised to hear him singing two types of jagathAnandha kArakA. One sangathi (goes up) for swaram and one sangathi (comes down) for sAhithyam. Then, in rAmanavami concerts, LGJ and N.Ramani surprised with varities of endharo in every charaNam. Then I heard TNSÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢s unpredictable variations for 'mathurA puri nilaiyE' (heard a replay of that after a long time, TNS-MC-UKS at Nungambakkam Cultural Academy). Gayathri displayed many varieties that gel with the improvisations of niraval in varALi.

shrI rAma nAmam bhajanai sei manamE, in atANA came next. I have played for 'nee irangAyenil' many times, but, now only playing for this krithi of sivan. A nice one and it contributed a contrast in terms of tempo, which some would like to call as an energy piece. Actually, to sing and emote in lower tempos, one needs enormous energy and power as they need to take care of both bhAva-laden sangathis along with singing in the slower kAlapramANam and it is a bit difficult only, even when someone is providing the rhythmic support.

Though the mrudangam artiste takes care of the pace, there are many places in such viLamba kAla krithis, where the pause ornaments the krithi (taking care of the ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã‹Å“restÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢). Just like, you look more beautiful, if you take off the raincoat, when you are decently dressed up and especially when it is not raining. Also, it should not be a role of a pillion rider who always screams, "hey... look a water tanker... aahaa... now a pallavan... see the guy on the bike... take left and donÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢t turn right!!"

rbharath · Post by **rbharath** » 09 Nov 2009, 16:19

After such a wonderful writeup, i dont know what to add..

still... here is mine..

rbharath · Post by **rbharath** » 09 Nov 2009, 16:19

Gayathri Venkataraghavan - Mysore Srikanth - Erode K S Nagaraj - Chandrasekhara Sarma

Music Club IIT Madras
Central Lecture Theatre
4 Nov 09. 7 pm

vignarAja krupAsindhO & yAkundEndu dushAra hAra davaLA - slOkams
sarasijanAbhA - kAmbhOji - aTa - Vadivelu
danyuDevvaDo - malayamArutam - Adi - PSI (NS)
karuNajUDavammA - varALi - misra cApu - SS (RNS)
srI rAma nAmam - aTANA - Adi - PS
tyAgarAja mahA dvajArOha - srI - Adi - MD (R)
parAku jEsina - jujAhuLi - Adi - T
srI lalitE kanci nagaranivAsini - bhairavi - Adi - AS (RNS)
tani
P - nATTaikuranji - sukumAranai kumAranai mAranai manamE nI ninai dinamE
pAl ninaindUTTum - viruTTam in danyAsi, hamsAnandi
sankara srI giri - hamsAnandi - Adi - ST
nI nAma rUpamulaku - saurAshTram - Adi - T

It was a nice concert. The choice of pieces was very interesting and refreshing to listen. The list seemed very very carefully chosen and was rendered well.

The kriti renditions were very good. The Alapanais were good. Especially the srI rAgam was elaborated very nicely and pretty emotive. The other rAgA elaborations were nice as well and pretty expressive too. The neraval and svarams were all measured and matched for the kritis presented.

The accompanists were good and did an apt job with accompanying the main artist the right way.

Overall, a good concert