Gayathri Venkatraghavan & Party at Cary, NC

[hamirkalyani123]

Mysore Srikanth - Violin
Skanda Subramanian - Mridangam

1. Kalyani Varnam (Adi)
2. Sri Mahaganapti (Gowla, MD)
3. Sivaloka Nadha (Mayamalavagowla, Gopalakrishna Bharathi)
4. Marajani Ashraye (Natakapriya, N.Ch. Krishnamacharyulu)
5. Rama Rama (Vasantha, Purandaradas)
6. Swararaga Sudha (Shankarabharanam, Tyagaraja)
7. Bhogindra Sayinam (Kuntalavarali, Swati Tirunal)
8. RTP (Amrithavarshini, Anandabhairavi)
Pallavi: Paramananda Amritavarshini Parameswari Anandabhairavi
followed by ragamalika Sama, Saraswati and Bhageswari?
9. Aliveni (Kuranji, ?)
10. Ragamalika (Jhinjhoti, Punnagavarali, Kapi and Sindhubhairavi)
11. Composition in Gujrati (Tilang, composer - She mentioned some Mehta?, could not catch it)
12. Mangalam

A truly memorable concert with her vibrant voice. I have listened to her before, but nothing like this. Her Shankarabharanm alapana is simply amazing and so is her Natakapriya. She did excellent neraval for Shankarabharanm with some of the bhrigas resembling me of Sulamangalam Sisters which is the first time I listened to Swararaga SUdha composition before. She seems to be quite at ease navigating the higher and lower octaves in her alapana, and her voice reminded me of the great MS especially so while rendering the bhagajan such as the one in no. 9) the Aliveni piece. This is the first time I am listening to her LIve even though I watched her via Webcast, thanks to icarnatic before but this is a truly a memorable live concert.

The RTP piece was truly majestic with going back and between the two ragas Amritavarshini and Anandabhairavi during alapana and Tanam. And, after she rendered the ragamalika in the other ragas, she went back in the same order before concluding in a grand fashion. The Tani Avartanam by Skanda during the Tanam and during the conclusion was simply superb. Mysore Srikanth was equally good and gave admirable support.

I personally thanked her for the RTP since it was my request for her to do RTP w/Ragamalika . Infact, she went a step ahead in doing it in two ragas.

She made announcement about the Natakapriya compostion and it was very nice to hear this first time around.

I stand corrected if I made any mistakes in raga/composer mapping and feel free to fill-up where I left ? especially the Aliveni piece.

[mahavishnu]

Thanks for your review.
alivEni enthu chaivu in Kurinji is by Maharaja Swati Tirunal; Sri KVN used to sing this often.

[mahesh3]

Very nice. RTP must have been a treat. Co-incidentally, Abhi sang Natakapriya last week, with superb nadai variations in the swarams.

[VK RAMAN]

"Composition in Gujrati (Tilang, composer - She mentioned some Mehta?, could not catch it)" - Narsinh Mehta- He is very popular in Gujarat. Vaishnava Janatho also was written by Narsinh Mehta.

[rajeshnat]

6. Swararaga Sudha (Shankarabharanam, Tyagaraja)
She did excellent neraval for Shankarabharanm with some of the bhrigas resembling me of Sulamangalam Sisters which is the first time I listened to Swararaga SUdha composition before.

Hamirkalyani

RTP in RTP land ,tx for your review .

Curious about soolamangalam sisters here , when you compare GV's brighas with soolamangalam sister . By any chance did you slip with some other sister name here.I do know that soolamangalam is known for their rendition of Sasthi kavacham . Not that I am saying soolamangalam would have not rendered lovely brighas in shankarabharanam .

[hamirkalyani123]

rajeshnat,

No, I did mean Sulamangalam sisters. I didn't mean to compare GV's voice with theirs, but the style of rendering, especially the "Swargapavaraga" in pallavi. I listened to the sisters LP record long back, but happy to find it on youtube, BTW. If you are interested, here is the link, beautifully rendering. I am happy that vintageaudio54 posted it on youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoJBasGZzCM

[arasi]

I liked listening to it. There is something about their singing which sets them apart as duo singers.

Am I right in thinking that they are P.A. Perianayaki's nieces? If they are, they are the appalam Chappalam sisters, as they were popularly known in films, so called because they danced to the song 'appalam, chappalam--and I'm not making it up --in a dubbing of a tamizh movie into hindi. If there names are Sayi and Subbalakshmi, my guess is a good one.
Does anyone know?

The song goes something like this: appalam, chappalam, chaplAyerE ki duniyA ko chOD tEri gali AyirE AyirE AyirE!

[mahavishnu]

Arasi... you are a treasure trove of trivia.

While I enjoyed the sisters' rendition of swara rAga sudhA (quite different from the devotional songs that they have become known for since Appalam/chappalam), I don't notice much similarity to the music of Smt GV. Associative memory can be very subjective, so I'm sure there is some deeper experience that hamirkalyani is tapping into

[srikant1987]

-

[Enna_Solven]

From LP back:

SULAMANGALAM SISTERS
STEREO S/33ESX. 6031
Jayalakshmi and Rajalakshmi hail from the Tanjore Village, SULAMANGALAM. Their love for their native village with its high musical traditions is so great that they prefer to be known as "SULAMANGALAM SISTERS".
Settling down in Madras at their very early ages, they learnt classical music under Pathamadai Krishna lyer.

[arasi]

Mahavishnu,
Thanks, but memories become fogged at times with having to look so far into bygone times.

Enna Solven,
Thanks for the sleeve notes. Sorry, I wondered if they were another pair of sisters. P.A. Perianayaki was a very good singer. She was a playback singer of merit for some time.

As for Gayatri Venkataraghavan, I'm looking forward to the chance of listening to her this season. I can understand folks being reminded of MS in her singing. So much kuzhaivu in her singing...

[ganeshkant]

The SUlamangalam sisters were famous for their brigha laden sruti sudhdha sangeetham.One of the sisters told in a T.V interview once that while they sang this kriti in late 40's in a Saidapet Temple ,TNR who was passing by stopped,listened and showered encomiums on them.