gAyathri VenkatarAghavan@SKGS on Sept 26th,2010

[rajeshnat]

gAyathri VenkatarAghavan@SKGS on Sept 26th,2010
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Vocal : gAyathri VenkatarAghavan
Violin : V Sanjeev
Mrudangam : UmayAlapuram mAli
ghatam : madipAkkam murali
Concert duration : 2 hours and 45 minutes

1A. slOkham "ni vignam gurudEvA" - kAmbOdhi
1B. lamBOdara mavalambE (N,S) - kAmbOdhi - MV
neraval in "surabhUsura samsEvita ???" for 6 mins
3 mins swaras
2. mAkElarA vicAramu (S)- ravichandrikA - T
2 mins swaras

3. entani nE varNintunu (R N S) - mukhAri - T
8 mins alApana and 8 mins violin return
neraval in "kanulAra sEvinci kammani phalamula nosagi " for 7 mins
4 mins swaras
4. yAre rangana yAre krishnana - hindOlam - PD
5. nArAyaNa divya nAmam (R)- mohanam - Psivan
5 mins alApanai and 4 mins violin return

SMt GV started with a brief slokham in kAmbOdhi keeping in line with the krithi of MV. This krithi in general has a swaroopam which is not the usual stereotype of most kAmbOdhi krithis . Her neraval had more emotive touch and was quite good , the swaras were bit low key as she cut short . The next mAkelara was also an OK rendition with she in general not appearing not very comfortable in cruising more higher notes.

MukhAri as an alApana generally suits her as her voice always goes well with emote , the alApana was really well done , the neraval was more madhyamkAla affair and suited well with the krithis mood , the mukhAri swaras appeared bit cliched. The rare PD krithi in HindOlam was just good . The mOhanam alApanai was fairly elaborate and her krithi rendition had right stress and the krithi was quite good . But overall in general atleast from kAmbODhi to mOhanam ,the concert could have been better.

[rajeshnat]

6A. RTP in shanmughapriyA
rAgaAlapanai in two stages(7 mins alApanai and 4 mins alApanai2 ) with intermediate violin return for 7 mins
tAnam for 10 mins with mridangam return
pallavi in kanda jAthi triputa tala , pallavi lines were "EEshwari jagadEEShwari chAmunDEshwari paramEshwari pAvini"
pallavi was for 9 mins and swaras in shanmughapriyA + valaci + hamsanAdham for 8 mins
6B. tani for 10 mins

7. enna thavam seidhanE - kApi - psivan
8. bhajan "gAve guNa gaNi" - ?? - ??? with a brief explanation
9A . brief slokham "mAtha maragatha shyamA" - nalinakAnthi
9B. natajana pAlini - nalinakAnthi - tjr shankara iyer

10. bhajan "pag ghungroo???" - KAfi??? - meera bhajan
11. thillana - behAg - pApanAsam sivan
12A. karpagamE - madhyamAvati - psivan
12B. mangalam kOselendrAya - madhyamAvati

The pallavi in shanmughapriyA was her main. The first half of her alApana had a nice emotive madhyamakAla spread ,at times in the second half she reached few higher notes in the alApana but overall to an extent her voice did not match her creativity. TAnam was well done , metered with mridhangam and she covered well with aesthetics .The pallavi was good most of the time with a trikAlam , swaras in shanmughapriyA were good , the hamsanAdam was well done , the intermediate valaci had a touch of good aesthetics . Overall when compared to what followed before and what followed after ,the pallavi was the most noteworthy

The tukkadas started with a bit of ultra slow enna thavam seidhanE and to an extent I liked it . She explained the few words of the next bhajan"gAve guNa gaNi" ,she said twice it was composed by a musalmAn , without mentioning the name of the composer, the composition was nothing that great.

I wish she had sung little more the slOkham in nalinakanthi but it was just too short But I certainly liked that and the subsequent tsi composition . The meera bhajan was quite good could not connect to that rAga may be it was kAfi??.The last two behag tillana and karpagamE with slip was bit low key.

The violinist Sanjeev had good sowkhyam and had a consistently disproportionate return , all his alApana returns were almost equal and few could have been more than the vocalist. In the swara rAgamAliga he played well and earned at times more applause than GV.

The star in this concert was definitely umayAlapuram mAli , he had a very good balance and played very well . his tani also started with the same rendition of pallavi and he teamed very well with the ghatam artist murali who was very good.

Few Feedbacks about this concert:
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Overall despite my general liking of SMt GV I found atleast two things that did not go well in this concert:

1. Smt GV has a very solid emote base , but with emote there can also been a little more spontaneity which I did not find it that much in this concert. She appeared to be bit hyper cautious and did not cut loose and sounded bit rehearsed .

2. The proportion sense of Sanjeev was consistently longish which did not bring that needed finish to the concert.

3. In general Smt GV was stereotyping MS ammA little excessively atleast in this concert. Not that I dont like that , but certainly it did not turn out too well in this concert (I like both MS and GV in general). Atleast in tukkadas possibly restricting to one bhajan alone would suffice.

Overall a good to very good concert.

[mankuthimma]

So that is where you have been.
When we were all waiting for you at Sastri Hall :$

[perarulalan]

pallavi in kanda jAthi triputa tala , pallavi lines were "EEshwari jagadEEShwari chAmunDEshwari paramEshwari pAvini"

Rajesh .. did she sing it as pAvini?? it should be pAvani
pAvani as in madhyamAvathi krithi pAlinchu kAmAkshi

[sureshvv]

I thought it was a great concert, probably the best solo vocal performance in the 2010 Gokulashtami series. The concert moved briskly right from the start with a slokam in Kambodhi followed by the Mysore Vasudevachar kriti, the very first item which included both neraval and swaras. Mukhari was sublime and presented with great repose. In contrast, Shanmugapriya was energetic and full of brigha phrases. In the middle of all this, she squeezed in a tribute to Papanasam Sivan on his 120th b'day (unfortunately sounded more like 160 in the announcement), a short commentary anticipating the Allahabad Court verdict (as rAjEs'h noted, she could have just mentioned the poet's name and left the rest to the imagination of the rasikas) and two requests from the rasikas present.

The accompanists were great. Sanjeev gave one of his best performances and the soft touch of Umayalpuram Mali in combination with the vibrant Madipakkam Murali kept the concert in flow.

Overall an excellent concert on par with any December performance.

[rajeshnat]

pallavi in kanda jAthi triputa tala , pallavi lines were "EEshwari jagadEEShwari chAmunDEshwari paramEshwari pAvini"

Rajesh .. did she sing it as pAvini?? it should be pAvani
pAvani as in madhyamAvathi krithi pAlinchu kAmAkshi

perarulalan
I am not sure, may be you are right.