Smt. Gayathri Girish Music Academy 7pm 23 December

[kamalamba]

Gayathri Girish Music Academy 7 pm 23 December 2011

Smt. Gayathri Girish- Vocal
Sri. Sanjeev- Violin
Sri. Rajakesari- Mridangam
Sri. Chandramouli-Kanjira

This was a brilliant concert by Smt. Gayathri Girish. One of the specialties of GG is her great skill in time management. This concert had everything and yet nothing felt hurried. She packs just-about-enough in every item, thereby leading to a fulfilling effect. This concert had an elaborate sAveri, a sub-main in a relatively uncommon rAgam vijayasaraswati and a very traditional RTP in KalyAni. Another feature of GGs music I really like is her diction and pronunciation.

The accompanying artists supported the main artiste with great finesse. Sanjeev is one of my favorite violinists of the Kanyakumari school.

Song list and some notes
1. a beautiful bhairavi viruttam followed by thiruppAvai- kIsu kIsu endrEngum
2. mAkelarA-the beautiful kriti in Ravichandrika was presented in a brisk fashion.
3. MDs magnum opus Sri Viswanatham was outstandingly rendered with slow tempo.
4. Then came the first surprise package of a sub-main in Vijaya Saraswati. A nice raga elaboration was followed by a HMB kriti “charanam vijayEsaraswati mAye”. This ragam is a janya of Simhendramadhyamam and had some features of Madhuvanti.
5. Then came another of my favorite “breezy” ThyagarAja kritis, ChalamElarA in mArgahindOlam
6. This was followed by the main in sAveri with an elaborate exploration of sAveri with some delightful violin returns. KAmAkshi Gowri, not so commonly heard, of PApanAsam sivan was sung in slow tempo followed by neraval and swarams. An exceptional Thani followed.
7. Right after this, the artistes settled for an RTP in KalyAni, this time GG exposed an unusual talam (I hope I am saying this right). This is an Adi talam where positions 1,5, and 7 are done as kandacApu thalam. The effect is a 5,1,1,1,5,1,5,1 pattern. The tAlam is called "kantamukhi" The swarams in Kalyani were followed by swarams in a number of ragas that went too fast. I can recollect NAttai, mOhanam, kAnadA, ShanmukhapriyA, madyamAvati
8. Then came the common “Chinanchiru kiliyE” in an uncommon format. First, the full song of Bharathiyar was sung. i.e. 4 verses that are usually omitted by nearly all were rendered. This part has great emotion to it, I recommend anyone who has not heard or even aware of this part of the song to read a BhArathiyAr kavithaigal. This song was preceded by a beautiful virutham by KAnthimathi pillai in rAgamAlika in reverse order of the rAgams in Chinanchiru kiliyE.
9. The touching eppadi pAdinaro followed; there is something about this song, despite the extremely simple lyrics comprising names of number of poets, that evokes immense emotion. GGs handling of "karuNaikkaDal perugi kAdalinAl urugi kanittamizh sollinAl inidunai anudinam" lent this unquantifiable emotional dimension to this song in my opinion.
9. thillAnA
10. kAdhi mOdhi in Chandrakauns and
11. MangaLam

In all, a very enjoyable concert that had a great deal of creativity and originality.

[kamalamba]

forgot to mention;
thillAnA in Khamas

[jaysriks]

Nice concert by Smt. Gayathri Girish. She presented a neat concert inspite having a strain in her voice.

[grsastrigal]

chaturdasa ragamAlika - How did she sing ? How much time she took as we were blasting TMK in the other thread for taking 1 hour for the same kriti ?

Wondering how she managed to sing so many kritis with the above rAgamalika.. Good time management =,may be.

[Jigyaasa]

Some observations:
1) She sang the chaturdasha rAgamAlikA with Arabhi in the pallavi and so on which is apparently the way it is recorded in the SSP. It somehow seemed more intuitive than the MLV version which I've heard before. Kudos to her for pronunciation as well. It was very clear!

2) The HMB composition - It's sharaNam vijayasaraswati (as in (tava) sharaNam (vrajAmi)) and NOT charaNam as she sang it. She also made a mistake in the charaNam where she sang navashakti lakshmi or something instead of varalakshmi shakti vAgIshvari.

3) I felt like she kept singing many phrases again and again, be it in her sAvEri exposition or in vijayasaraswati. Granted the latter doesn't have much scope but she could have shortened the AlApana rather than sounding repetitive...

4) The lyric for the pallavi was sangItalayagnyAnamu sakalasaubhAgyamu. It matched the gait of the beat beautifully.

5) I agree that her treatment of the post-main items in general was very good. She imparted dignity to the concept of tukkadas as against the morass that has come to characterize them in some other artistes' concerts (fat ghost et al.) The viruttam was so appropriate given how its meaning resonated with that of Bharatiyar's lyric. I think her emotional fervor also shone while rendering the viruttam.

6) The tiruppugazh was in kalyANa vasantam, not chandrakauns.

7) I'd like to know who's tillAna in khamAs it was. I've never heard it before.

8 ) The violinist definitely deserves a special mention. His AlApanas sounded even better than GG's in certain parts. His perspectives were refreshing and complemented hers.

9) I'm hearing GG live for the first time in a couple of years. Her tendency to croon in the higher octave has been replaced by a stronger shArIram. However, her diction sounds a little garbled when she sings in the mandara sthAyi.

[rshankar]

Thank you, Kamalamba and Jigyaasa, for that review! Smt. Gayathri has been one of my favorites, and I am glad to hear that her MA concert went off so well. I would like to think that exposure to hindi and sanskRt during her schooling at Kendriya Vidyalaya has given her a great way with languages.
Kamlamba - the 'extra' verses from cinnanciru kiLiyE hat you mention are also some of the most potent ones, IMO ('anbu taruvadilE unai nEr Agum Or deivam uNDO?' etc) - Both Smt. Gayathri and Sri Rajkumar Bharati sing those.

[CRama]

Very Glad to hear about GG concert in the academy. She never disappoints serious listeners. I missed her concert in Academy. I will catch her concert in some other venue. Her concert in Mudhra a fortnight back was also of a high order.

[vasanthakokilam]

As FYI about the tala for the RTP...A long time back, Balaji explained that the Mukhi variations on standard Adi thala is something Dr. BMK devised. ( http://rasikas.org/forum_flux/post29020.html#p29020 ). I guess it should be called Khanda Mukhi variety of Adi thala.