MUSIC ACADEMY
Embellished with kalpanaswaras
V. SUBRAHMANIAM
|
Gayatri Girish tends to croon in the upper octave despite the fact that she has a powerful voice.
|
Photo: S. S. Kumar.
GOOD ATTEMPT: Gayatri Girish.
Gayatri Girish opened her concert with the navaragamalika varnam of Patnam Subramania Iyer. She gave kalpanaswara embellishments in all the nine ragas — Kedaram, Sankarabharanam, Kalyani, Begada, Khambodi, Yadukulakhambodi, Bilahari, Mohanam and Sri for the charanam line.
As varnams themselves have enough chittaswara passages, any swara supplementations are normally avoided. With a viruttam prelude in Gowla, Gayatri rendered a Tiruppavai pasuram in that raga in Adi talam.
The first raga alapana in this concert was Saranga. Gayatri ventured into certain phrasings in the alapana suggesting Hameer Kalyani. Perhaps this happened as the alapana was a little lengthy though, of course, it is possible to keep the phrasings of these two allied ragas distinctively clear. She is sure to gain this through experience. The song rendered was `Entha Bhagyamu' of Tyagaraja in Adi talam. Syama Sastri's `Marivere Gati' in Ananda Bhairavi, misra chapu tala, was the next kirtana.
Gayatri could have reduced the kalpanaswara renditions for the Saranga piece and attempted a few vilamba kala and madhyama kala swaras for the Ananda Bhairavi kriti. Sankarabharanam was the next raga taken up as a fairly lengthy alapana for the kriti, `Ethudanilachite' of Tyagaraja in Adi tala.
The attempt was generally good though some of the sangatis were repetitive. Sankarabharanam is a grand raga which could be built up as a great edifice. But this effect was lacking. In the upper octave, Gayatri tends to croon in spite of the fact that she has a powerful voice. This tendency leads to avoidable slips when attempting fast adventurous sangatis.
For Carnatic music open-throated singing with uniform tonal quality is the best-suited way to eschew slips when executing complicated sangatis even across two octaves. The version of violinist V. Sanjeev had a better build-up and finish. Niraval and kalpanaswaras were well handled in the anupallavi of the song, which was followed by tani avartanam by Tiruvarur Vaidyanathan on the mridangam and N. Guruprasad on the ghatam.
After a brisk `Saravana Bhava' in Pasupathipriya, Adi tala, of Muthiah Bhagavatar, Gayatri moved on to the main raga, Hemavathi, for Ragam Tanam and Pallavi. The pallavi, "Ninne Nammithi Neevegathi Neerajadala Nayana Rama, Sri Rama, Seetha Rama" set in tisra triputa (eight kalai eduppu, four mathras after second veechu) was well handled with niraval anuloma and prathiloma with kalpanaswaras. Such tough pallavis when handled would lead to reduction of raga bhava. Gayatri could surmount this through experience and maturity of gnana.
Followed by a Surdas bhajan, a tillana in Chandrakauns of Madurai T.N.Seshagopalan, the artiste's mentor, and with `Irakkam Varaamal' in Behag, the concert concluded.
The accompanying violin artiste, Sanjeev with perfect following, boosted the concert.
On the mridangam, Tiruvarur Vaidyanathan embellished the concert along with N. Gurumoorthy on the ghatam.
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Music Season
