Gayathri Venkataraghavan - Austin 10/29/2011

[Enna_Solven]

Smt. Gayathri Venkataraghavan - Vocal
Mysore Srikanth - Violin
Neyveli Skanda Subramanian - Mridangam
Saturday, October 29th, 2011 Round Rock (Austin) TX

Duration : close to 4 hours

A very classical, frill-free, bhAvam laden concert by Smt. Gayathri. She and here team put in sincere efforts to deliver a sound performance in spite of of poor audience turnout due to Deepavali parties. Excellent kEdara gowla and kalyAni. RTP was a short one. Full rendering of ninyAkO on someone's request.

1. thanjam enRalE - varnam - abhOgi - pApanAsam Sivan (S)
2. vandE vAsudEvam - Sri - annamachAryA (NS)
3. saraguna pAlimpA - kEdAra gowla -RS Iyengar (RNS)
4. jAlandhara -valaji - HMB
5. bhajarE rE citta - kalyAni -MD - RNS (@ dEvIm shakti bheejotbhava) - main
6. thani
7. parAku jEsina - jujAhuli - T (other than mangalam, only T and a short one!)
8. RTP hindOLam - khanda jathi triputa tisra gathi
sAma gAna lOlanE sadASivanE - swarams in dhanyAsi, hamsAnandhi
9. brUhi mukundEti - kurinji - sadaSiva brahmendra (her voice is oh so sweet)
10. ninyAko ninna - rAgamAlikA (senchurutti, nAdanAmakriya, sindhu bhairavi,...)
11. varuvArO varam - sAmA
12. Ni Ri Ni Ri ga ma ga ri sa - pUrvi - Thirukokarnam Vaidhyanatha Bhagavathar
13 mangalam - pavamAna - T - sarAshtram/madhyamAvathi

I adore her voice. It is so majestic in the middle octave and still sweet in the higher reaches.

We should invite younger artists like her and Sikkil Gurucharan (He was touched by the full auditorium and said he dedicated the first song, endarO, to us.) more often to Austin. (Edited out comment on a different artist based on feedback.)

nInyAkO ninna. rAgA: kAnaDa /rAgamAlikA. Adi tALA.

P: nInyAko ninna hangyAkO ninna nAmada balavondididdare sAkO
C1: kari makarige sikki moreyiDutiruvAga Adi mUlanemba nAmave kAitO
2: prahlAdana pita bAdhisutiruvAga narahariyemba nAmave kAitO
3: bAleya sabheyali sIreya seLevAga krSNa krSNa emba nAmave kAitO
4: yamana dUtaru bandu ajAmiLaneLevAga nArAyaNanemba nAmave kAitO
5: A mara I mara dhyAnsutiruvAga rAma nAma emba nAmave kAitO
6: hasuLe A dhruvarAya aDavige pOvAga vAsudEvanembo nAmave kAitO
7: ninna nAmake sari kANenu jagadoLu ghanna mahima siri purandara viTTala

[idno9999]

I loved this concert too. Hope someone captured the priceless expression on her face when Mr. Nagarajan said her singing reminded him of MSS.
The folks who left early or didn't show up due to some mundane Deepavali party missed a very good concert ....

[Enna_Solven]

idno9999, my frankness is short lived; after all this is not my place to say freely what I want even if it is true. You may want to remove what I said.

I thought her expression was one of discomfort/roll-eyes on being compared to the incomparable one. One thing that I find similar to MSS is when Gayathri invests a particular nelivu/sulivu (curls/flexibility) in a phrase. It makes the phrase very very attractive. Listened to MSS' ikanaina in pushpalatikA?

Her manOdharmA was in full flow during kEdAra gowla and kalyAni. She was pushing herself and grimaced at two places when she did not get what she wanted. There were several places where her phrases were simply beautiful.

[sureshvv]

Enna Solven... Congratulations on the prevailing of better sense

[rajeshnat]

Enna Solven
Tx for your review, I was thinking since the time when Mahavishnu put her toronto review it is quite a long time till this austin. On a side note it is wonderful to see all these performing musicians who are time boxed in their home town but typically cut loose for 3 to 4 hours in international cities , see as of now this weekend Abhishek in Chicago, Smt GV in Austin , Sangeetha Sivakumar in NY/NJ and suryaprakash in Singapore. It just easily brings more carnatic excellence that gets dwarfed in their home town.

[idno9999]

Enna Solven - "my frankness is short lived; after all this is not my place to say freely what I want even if it is true"
Sureshvv - "Congratulations on the prevailing of better sense "

This makes me very sad. Why can't we express ourselves in this forum freely ? especially when it was truly a forgettable concert
I do respect your wishes to remove the comments but wondering what makes you not want to share it in a wider forum.

[sureshvv]

I found the comments somewhat offensive. I am sure the same sentiments could have been expressed without being so insulting. Not to mention the pointlessness of dragging a concert you didn't enjoy while reviewing a different one.

[mahavishnu]

I adore her voice. It is so majestic in the middle octave and still sweet in the higher reaches.

I fully concur. Shruti suddham, bhavam and fidelity make Smt GV's music.
As Rajesh observes, we are quite lucky to get 3-4hr concerts in this part of the world, while they are becoming rare in Chennai.

[arasi]

Listening to Gayatri V for much longer than four hours at Cleveland (via streaming), with all the episodes of the musical rAmAyanA as well, I realized how good she is. I have also heard her a few times in the past seasons and have like her.

Rajesh,
Your complaint about good performers being given short concert time makes a lot of sense. While singing during the season and in back to back concerts with a tiring travel schedule in the US, they need a bit of time to warm up. A three hour concert is ideal.