1. paramEsvara jagaDEEsa (R,S) - gambeeranAttai
2. sEnApathE pAlayamAm (R N S) - kAsirAmakriyA
neraval in "kanakakundala sobhita sundara"
3. KAyarOHaNesham(R) - karnAtaka devagAndhAri
4. pAarvati kumAram(s) - NaTTaikurinji
5. gOvinda rAjAya NamastE(R) - shuruTTi
6. shree kamalAMbhAyah (R) - bhairavi
7. gOvardhaNa girisham (S) - hindOlam
8A. bhajare re citta(R N S T) - kalyAni
neraval in "devIm saktibIjodbhavam atrakAarna sarEErinIm"
8B. tani
9. chetAshree bAlakrishNam - dwijAvanti
10. mAmava paTTAbhirAmA - maNIraNgu
The occassion was Muttuswami Dikshitar Day in Indian Fine Arts and hence all compositions were from MD.Muttuswami Dikshitar has given a rich history of musical precision and lyrical excellence which makes him stand so tall as a vaggeyakkara in CM. Smt gAyatri Venkat delivered with passion keeping up with the tradition of MD's excellence intact.
The start was paramEsvara jagaDeesa was excellent with a lovely alApana. gambheera nAttai vs nAttai generally strikes my neurons quite well , but to me that sounded more as nAttai possibly I was not paying much attention to her gambheera voice then, just felt she could have sung more swaras there.
I love PantuvarALi or kAshirAmakriya typically when it picks lot of tarA sthAyi wind. Here to gAyathris luck, there was more wind blowing inside as it was just beginning to rain with few doors banging once or more to add more pakkAvadyam to mridhangam. Her neraval and swara prasthAnam was excellent through out , almost equalling 2 of the best pantuvarALi(Smt premA rangarAjan and SuryaprakAsh) that I have heard in recent years . Nice to note that semmangudi's pantuvarALi is constantly challenged by few great musicians of today. She cooled well with a nice vilambakAla rendition of karnatakA devagAndhAri , I did pay lot of attention to kayArohaNesam, at few places may be(not very sure) I just did hear as kAyArOgaNesham . parvati kumAram in nAttaikurinji with a round of swaras was very good , may be more alankAram in the rAga could have added more delight.
Two long alApanais with two long krithis followed , one an unfamiliar gOvindA rAjayA in shurutti which was very good and the other more familiar bhairavi krithi which was excellent. A fast hindOlam with swaras was the low key rendition in the concert certainly the whole team did not gel well there.
Every musician's concert that is high on exertion at the top , ends with a kalyANi as a main . gAyathri sang an outstanding kalyAni alApanai avoiding all the so called droswy hotspots of kalyAni cruising beautifully with longer breath cycles and an excellent shruthi sense. Her rendition of bhajarE was brilliant ,liked her neraval that was bit less manOdharmam, but well compensated copiously in swaras .Certainly kalyANi is a tough nut to crack and gAyathri did it well in style.
Usually one hears chetAshree bAlakrishnam more in the first half with the second half belonging to his sister akhilAndeshwari . But GAyatri singing chEtashri in second half was beautifully done and was a really moving rendition. The last was fitting number , with me getting so acclimitized to the excellence of Vijayashiva in mamava pattabhi ramA , almost all renditions just do not get there .
padmA shankar was elegant throughout , taking her time in kalyANi ,beautiful nAdham in all her returns, perhaps I missed little more azhuttam in her bowing during the whirl wind tour of pantuvarAli . OUr mrudangam usually not that aggressive ,was today showing quite a lot of aggression in his play , certainly was nice .GuruprasAd's ghatam had lot of knotty variations and his tani half was more enjoyable.
On a flip side , just perhaps Smt gAyathri could have included a rare rAgam of MD like a ardraDesi or balahamsA , to that extent the thematic concert lacked few rare rAgas of MD.Also just may be instead of singing two long rAga alApanas in shuruTTI and bhairavi she could have cut atleast one in shurutti(her bhairavi rAga bhAvam is always great, not interested in trading that), may be one slOkha like some "guruguhO jayati"
before shurutti krithi would have made it more perfect . Overall because of this , the concert was excellent and not outstanding.