gAyathri venkatarAghavan@music academy (mini) on Jan 17th,20

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 18 Jan 2009, 21:44

gAyathri venkatarAghavan@music academy (mini) on Jan 17th,2009
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Accompanied by charumathi raghurAman - violin, J.VaidyanAthan - mrudangam and sv ramani - ghatam

This concert was conducted by sarvani sangeetha sabha ,this is part of 5 day thyagarAja festival and expectedly all numbers were rendered as homage to sadguru thyagarAja.

1.jagadAnanda kArakA(RS) - naaTTai
2.teradiyaka - gowlipantu
3. paripUrNa kAma(R N S) - pUrvi kalyANi
neraval in sAkEtAdhipa nI mukha sarasIruhamunu jUpi

4.nAmakusuma (R S)- shree rAgam
5.pArAku jEsinA - jujahuli

6A.dAcukO valenO dAsharathi(R N S T) - tOdi
neraval in saumitri tyAgarAjuni
AlApanai in todi for 10 mins, violin for 7 mins,neraval and swaras for 7 mins each
6b. tani for 13 mins

7.Shree Raama Jaya Raama - Yadhukula KambhOdi
8.karunA jaladhE - nAdanAmakriya
9.eTula kApADuduvO - Ahiri
10.jO jO rAmA - reetigowlai

For the 5 day festival,it was announced that one pancharatna krithi will be taken by each artist .Smt gAyathri venkat started with nAttai , it was a very good 12 minute rendition of the pancharatna , missed quick turns from sAhityam to swaras in this master piece .Her voice was getting better and she rendered a good to very good gowlipantu.

Excellance was spotted first from the 6 minute poorvikalyAni alAPana. Her rendition in this rare krithi was very good , this particular poorvikalyANi was not as fast as say jNamO mosaga rAdA. Her neraval was quite detailed though her swaras were little too short.

The day's best was her shree rAgam , her voice always has a melody and it was perfect ,the krithi and swaras were consistently excellent . A fast jujahuli just passed fast and was just good. TOdi as a main was very detailed without she getting into a sag she sang beautifully. Perhaps a very tough thyagarAja krithi in tOdi to impress , she rendered quite well the krithi , the neraval was very good,her swaras were built up quite well and I would have preferred little more expansive treatment there.

There were few (may be all 4) utsava sampradAya tukkadas , the best pick was the first two the contrast of slow moving yadhukula and a very fast and super expressive nAdanAmakriya was perfect and excellent .Her Ahiri is usually more emotive but felt it was not the case yesterday but still very good. The last number jO jO rAmA had a reetigowla to start with but at quite few places felt it had shades of the neighbour Ananda bhairavi (felt not just by me but also by another elderly rasika who sat next to me). Just heard a maharAjapuram santhanam utsava thyagarAja krithi rendition of the same jO jO jO rAmA in my personal cd collection to know if by any chance since singing in a slow pace would reetigowlai get into Ananda bhairavi , he sang this same reetigowlai in a slow moving pace and I did not spot Ananda bhairavi

The violinist was excellent all her returns were excellent and was in right proportion , particularly liked her nAma kusuma mula as she was going neck and neck in melody and shruti sudham with GV. Her nAdham in poorvikalyAni was slightly squeaky. Both the percussionist gave a very good to excellent support , their tani chemistry was just good, felt they could have played with more strokes.

Overall 2 hours and 15 minute concert preceding with a 30 minute opening speech was a bit dampener(felt IOB's manager Prakash had minimal content in his speech, unlike Mrs Rangaswamy of Music academy who spoke appropriately).

If there was one weakness in the concert , I felt her swaras could have been more excellent and expansive , the ease in which GV brings excellence in AlApana and krithi renditon was not that much matched in swara prasthAnam.

Overall a very good concert.

ragapriya82 · Post by **ragapriya82** » 19 Jan 2009, 12:13

It was an outstanding concert by GV. Sri Ragam Alapana was terrific and the Utsava Kritis were amazing. The excellence is in her Bhavam. She is definitely up there with the best artists today and deserves a better due.

sureshvv · Post by **sureshvv** » 19 Jan 2009, 16:16

I found that the vocalist and the violin (and may be the sound system) did not jell well together until the Sree ragam aalaapanai began. This is usually not the case either in a GV concert (where she is impressive from the very g3-r2-sa

) or at the Kasthuri Srinivasan hall (where the sound system is well balanced between the main and accompanying artistes). Of course JV on the mridangam was in great form from the beginning.

It all changed from the Sree ragam aalaapanai. It was most exquisite and the violin fused with the vocalist with brilliant emphasis and adornments. This carried on for the rest of the concert.