Sweet with some rough edges
GARIMELLA SUBRAMANIAM
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Endowed with an appealing voice Gayathri should concentrate on delivery.
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Photo: R. Shivaji Rao.
Gayathri Venkatesan.
Gayathri Venkatesan, the young vocalist, shows enormous promise, although her performance on Monday evoked opposite reactions. Her naturally sweet voice and a loud clear tone carries an inherent appeal. This was however coupled with a palpable lack of control in the delivery of major compositions.
The other notable feature of her kutcheri for Ganamukundapriya was her selection of kritis which many would safely avoid in favour of more popular ones.
The songs `Palimparaavadelaraa,' of Pallavi Gopala Iyar, `Ragasudharasa' of Tyagaraja and `Aparna Parvati,' of Kalyani Varadarajan were superb examples of Gayathri's ability to draw out the melody from Arabhi, Andolika and Nalinakanti. As she sang the chittasvaram in the arabhi kriti, Gayathri was remarkably unfazed despite poor coordination from her accompanist on the mridangam.
Rush of phrases
The Pantuvarali alapana began on a rather tentative note and concluded with a rush of phrases. This was followed by `Sundaratara deham ramam vandeham,' of Tyagaraja. Gayathri's imaginative improvisation in the neraval `agamasancharam akhilalokadaram,' which she expanded as `nigamaagama' using the seventh, third and fourth notes was particularly noteworthy. The alapana of Hanumatodi, with easy flowing passages was by far the most eloquent statement from the youngster. But then, the Papanasam Sivan song `Tamadam En Swami,' was sung so slowly that the tempo simply did not tally with the mood of the lyrics.
Gayathri was accompanied on the violin by H.V.Raghuram, Tiruvidaimarudur A.Shankaran on the mridangam and J.Ramdas on the ghatam.
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