B.Govind at Shanmukhananda, Mumbai-26/12/2010

[tyagarajadasa]

Govind's voice has an amazing tonal quality that made the kEdAragowLai AlApanai a treat. Govind's pAThAntaram of kritis was impeccable, diction was superb. Although there was a small sag during the rendition of tuLasi bilva, which was still beautiful and bhAva-laden in that pace, Govind's concert was traditional and evoked deep bhakti rasam.

The list was as follows:

varnam- kAmavardhini- Pallavur Mani Iyer
rAma nI pai - kEdAram - Adi- T- S@pallavi
shanmuka guhanE - chakravAkam-rUpakam- composed by R Shrinivasan of Trivandrum (?)
tuLasi bilva - kEdAragoWLai- Adi- T- R
gaTTigAnu - bEgaDa - Adi, tisra naDai- T
nI cittamu - vijayavasanta-Adi - T
narasimhAgaccha - mOhanam- misra chApu-MD- RNST @ dhIratara
toli nE jEsina - shuddha bangALa - Adi-T
RTP - kharaharapriya - khanDa tripuTa with trikAlam
nenjanil- dwAdasha ranjanimAlikA -Adi- N.S.Chidambaram -set to tune by T M Thyagarajan
darikkum - tiruppugazh in Arabhi
maNgaLam


The chakravAkam song was beautiful. The pAThAntaram of tuLasi bilva was a bit new to me, with the pallavi starting at the samam (anupallavi and charanam lines were at the usual arai iDam). The detailed mohanam compensated for the lack of neraval and swarams till the main item. trikAlam for the pallavi was done well, barring a small slip, may be because of distraction due to a sudden soreness in the throat. The neraval in the main piece deserves special mention. It was sung without deviation from the actual placement of the syllables. This requires a great amount of control and Govind did a good job

Smriti's kharaharapriya was brilliant . Karthik Srinivasan on Mridangam supported Govind well with really cool sollus . He was even gracious to share one sollu that he played in the short and sweet tani with me after the concert .

All in all, a wonderful,weighty concert that everyone enjoyed.

[rajeshnat]

nenjanil- dwAdasha ranjanimAlikA -Adi- N.S.Chidambaram -set to tune by T M Thyagarajan

gokul
Are you sure it was tuned by TMT, I think may be you are referring SKR. There are three ragamaligas of ranjani , one by SKR (I hope I am not mistaken that SKR rendition is his own tune and not TMT's tune), one by Tjr sankara Iyer and the other by Smt suguna purushOtamman

Tx for the review , there is no necessity of any rush at bombay for sure, the song list speaks for itself.

May I also know the guru of Govind?

[Smrithi]

Rajeshnat Sir,

Govind has learnt from various Gurus in Mumbai including ones at Chembur Fine Arts,Chandrashekar Bhagavathar, Late P N Krishnamoorthy & Thirupugazh G Balasubramaniam.
He is currently undergoing advance training from Sri V Vamanan.

[tyagarajadasa]

Dear Rajesh,

Govind has learnt from eminent scholars and vidvans of Mumbai such as Sri Vamanan, who is a disciple of Pallavur Mani Iyer and Tanjavur Sankara Iyer.
I believe Govind has also learnt from the late Sri P.N.Krishnamurthy, a great musician who has done a lot for the status of CM in Mumbai. He performed for a concert in his memory along with Prashant Prasad recently.

About the dwAdasha ranjanimAlikA - I haven't heard this before, its not the one by Shankara Iyer Mama. It has 12 ranjanis (as the name suggests). Govind announced during the concert that it has been tuned by TMT.