Smt. Gayathri Girish Bramha Gana Sabha December 26 2011

[kamalamba]

Smt. Gayathri Girish Bramha Gana Sabha December 26 2011

Smt. Gayathri Girish- Vocal
Sri. Sanjeev- Violin
Sri. B. Sivaraman- Mridangam
Sri. Sundar Kumar- Kanjira

This was another excellent concert by GG on the back of an equally good concert on December 23 at Music Academy. Great team work by the artistes! The violinist has played a lot with the artiste and his accompaniment in this concert was very nice. The Mridangam and Kanjira artistes also performed very well. I had posted earlier about GGs time management and diction / pronunciation and will not dwell on them. A facet, that I failed to mention in my previous post, that came through in both concerts is the ease with which she does viruttams, which nearly always have a great deal of bhAvam and bhakti. I recollect GG has even done a concert together with the master of viruttam singing Sri. Sethalapatti Balu. This might explain part of her skill in viruttam singing!!

Song list and some notes.

1. The concert started with the not-too-frequently heard “SarasIjanAba” the ata tAla varnam in kAmbhoji. This was nicely rendered in 2 speeds.
2. The varnam was followed by the famous ThyAgarAja kriti “sugunamulE” with a short round of swarams
3. GG then launched into the sub-main, which was in “Anandha Bhairavi”. A very soothing and BhAvam laden Alapanai was followed by an equally good vinyAsam by Sanjeev. The kriti that followed was one I had not heard before and was a composition of HMB “mahA Vishnu sOdhari”. There was a beautiful chittaswaram that was embedded in the kriti.
4. GG then did 2 kritis, which were less elaborate than the sub-main, but which had a good deal of manOdharma, nevertheless.
5. The first of these was in the 41st mElakarthA “pAvani”. There was a beautiful viruttam followed by a kriti by Kavi Kunjara Bharathi- “anjAdhiru nenjamE” which had rAgamudhirai embedded in it.
6. The second of these was “kadaikkaN vaithennai ALamma” in begadA which was preceded by a short AlApanai.
7. Then came a short kriti “Emani pogadura Srirama” in Veeravasantham.
8. Subsequently GG sang the main for the concert, which was a grand Kharaharapriya. There was a beautiful long Alapanai of nearly 15 minutes and an approximately 10 minute reply from Sanjeev. ThyAgarAjA’s classic “ChakkanirAja” followed. There was a wonderful neraval at “kaNtiki sundara” which was followed by swarams, in which I particularly liked the “kuraippu” with a series of alternating tisram and chatusram patterns (experts on the web may correct me) and finally a powerful thani.
9. Following the main was a beautiful viruttam (namAmi nArAyaNA) in rAgamAlikA; charukEsi, kAnadA and behAg. The behAg part of the viruttam led into a kannada kriti (purandaradAsA??)- “sadAyenna hridayadalli”. Both viruttams were rendered exceedingly well.
10. The catchy “jagajanani” in rathipathipriya followed with some really new and attractive sangathis in the anupallavi.
11. The concert ended with a fast paced thillAnA in sindhu bhairavi

In all another excellent concert by GG, again with a great deal of originality woven within a traditional framework.

[rshankar]

Thank you for the review. The HKMB kRti is new to me.

[kamalamba]

some corrections
1. anjAdhiru nenjamE is a composition of Koteeswara Iyer.
2. sadAyenna is a composition of Vijayavittala