K.Gayathri Prasanna @Toronto

[Lakshman]

with Amritha Murali on the violin, B.Gowrisankar on the mrdanga and Karthik Venkataraman on the kanjira. 3:15 hrs.

Song list. Corrections/additions welcome
shlOka: 2 lines on ganesha.
calamEla jEsEvayya - nATakuranji varNa - M.Rangasami PIllai
sharaNam sharaNam raghu - saurASTra - Arunachalakavi - S
shyAma sundarAnga - dhanyAsi - Tyagaraja - A, N @ iSTa daivamu, S
ranganAyakam - nAyaki - Dikshitar
kaNDEn kaNDEn kaNDEn - aThANA - Suguna Purushothaman
manasu svAdhInamaina - shankarAbharaNa - A, N @ rAja rAjEsha , S, tani
RTP rAmaprya - k/jhampa, khaNDa naDai - dasharatha nandana raghuvIra shrI rAmapriya rakSitOham
svarAs: nIlAmbari, nAdanAmakriya
ArAr AsaipaDAr - nAdanAmakriyA - Muttu Tandavar
sonnadai kEL kaNNA - kAmavardhini - Uttukadu Venkatakavi
bhAvayAmi gOpAlabAlam - yamunAkalyANi - Annamacharya
shrI rAma bhaktan hanumAn - jOnpuri - Suguna Purushothaman
marukkulAviya - pUrvikalyANi - Arunagirinathar
dhiranA tanadhImta (t) - cenjuruTi - Vina Seshanna
nI nAma rUpamulaku - saurASTra - Tyagaraja

[mahavishnu]

Lakshman-ji. Thanks for your list.
She sang a viruttam: peTRa thAi thanai in- mukhAri, bEgadA, AbhEri, nilAmbari, then switched to madhyamasruti for nAdanAmakriyA after which she sang ArAr AsaipadAr.

This was my first time listening to the young singer Smt K Gayatri, although I have heard a lot about her from my extended family in India. Her voice has an excellent reach in the upper octave without any compromise in the lower reaches. She uses her voice well for good open-throated singing. I appreciated her choice of compositions in a wide-variety of rakti rAgams from a large selection of composers. There is evidence of excellent training and a fairly intellectual disposition that defies her age.

The RTP in rAmapriyA was case in point. Her raga alApana was very precise with no ambiguity from the very start, with just the perfect highlights of R1, the anchoring prati-madhyama and a very well crafted raga swaroopam that showed no regress towards the more common nearest neighbours like pantuvarALi/vacaspati. The khanda nadai pallavi was executed very well with all the landings in the right spots of the khanda jhampai. Amritha Murali's response was excellent, although she seemed a bit restrained for most of the concert.

The part of the concert that I enjoyed the most was the thiruppugazh, which was performed with dwitAla avadhAna (keeping two different tAlas in two hands). She did this with Tisra Jampai Tisra nadai in one hand and Kanda Triputa chatusra nadai in the other (the total count of the ragas is the same = 36). There are few exponents of this technique in the world anymore; Gayatri's guru Suguna Purushottaman being one. I believe she, in turn, learned the technique from Thinniyam Venkatarama Iyer. It was both visually and technically quite amazing. Bravo!

If you want to read more about this, check out Ram's (our forumite) blog, where he describes an excellent lec-dem by Smt Suguna on this topic at the MMA (http://ramsabode.wordpress.com/2010/06/ ... avadhanam/).

A good part of my own academic research is about how the brain learns to achieve bimanual coordination stability and polyrhythm maintenance, so I found this little demonstration absolutely fascinating!

Sri Gowrishankar played very competently, his kOrvais and tirmAnams were succinct and accurate. He adapted a very classic Bhaktavatsalam tirmAnam from khanda chapu to great effect when ending the khanda nadai pallavi, which I found to be especially clever.

Overall, it was a surprisingly intellectual fare from a young upcoming artiste. I wish her and her accompanists the very best for a glorious career in music.

[P.S: small nitpick and gentle word of caution, Gayatri announced that the ramanAtakam kriti was composed by Bhadrachalam Ramadas. I'm sure it was unintentional. She should very careful to avoid such errors, so people don't get the wrong idea about her knowledge of music and its rich history].

[Pasupathy]

Thanks, Lakshman and mahavishnu.
Excellent concert indeed!
A fast-paced kriti between SankarabaraNam and RTP would have been good.

[Lakshman]

Thanks mahavishnu for filling in the missing items in the song list. Yes, she did announce that sharaNam sharaNam was by Bhadrachalam Ramdas.

[rajeshnat]

sharaNam sharaNam raghu - saurASTra - Arunachalakavi - S

Lji
I just googled to find out sharaNam sharaNam enrANE is in sowrAshtram which is different from sharaNam sharaNam raghurrAmam in asAveri , both by ArunAchala kavi.

[Lakshman]

Thanks rajeshnat for pointing out my error. What she sang was for sure in asAvEri.

[mahavishnu]

Actually, L-ji she sang Sharanam sharanam enrane in Sowrashtram.
The one listed here:
http://www.karnatik.com/c1187.shtml

[Lakshman]

Sorry. Must be my senior moment!

[Jigyaasa]

RTP rAmaprya - k/jhampa, khaNDa naDai - dasharatha nandana raghuvIra shrI rAmapriya rakSitOham

This doesn't sound correct from a grammatical perspective. It could have been dasharathanandanaraghuvIrashrIrAmapriyENa rakSitOham or dasharatha nandana raghuvIra shrI rAmapriya rakSa mAm or something like that

[mahavishnu]

I can confirm that this is what she sang.
But there was a kArvai after rAma; I parsed it as: dasaratha nandana raghuvira sri Rama | priya rakshitoham. Not sure if that makes better grammatical sense...

[Govindaswamy]

Is the text like this?
daSarata nandanaa! raghuvIra! SrIramApriya! rakshitOham.

RamApriya means beloved of Lakshmi.

However the term RamApriya does not match with the name of the rAgA rAmapriya

Govindaswamy

[Jigyaasa]

I guess you could treat it as daSarathAnandana! raghuvira! Sri rAma! priya! rakshitOham as in "Son of daSaratha! Hero of the Raghus! Sri rAma! (my) favorite! I am protected". Although it can be inferred that the protection is by rAma, it sounds incomplete without that explicitly being stated.

[PUNARVASU]

May be it is Sri rAmapriyO rakshitOham , when it will mean 'I, who is dear to rAmA, is protected by Him'. A little far fetched imagination, still my two cents worth explanation.