Concert of Gayathri Venkataraghavan on mahA periyavA’s 116th jayanthi.

(shrI chandhrasEkarEndhra sarasvthy baktha jana sabha trust, ayOdhyA maNdapam on 7-6-09 at 7pm).

Vocal: Gayathri Venkataraghavan
Violin: Mysore Shrikanth
Mrudangam: Erode Nagaraj
Ghatam: H. Sivaramakrishnan.

Ayodhya Mandapam is a place where rasikas still have a well balanced resistance to fight against TV serials and a passion towards nama sankeerthanam, concerts and upanyasams. Nevertheless the chronic quotes of the noises owing to terrific traffic do disturb the tonic notes of the performers, the artistes and rasikas are least bothered as they have been immunized to such things for decades.

It is high time that proper measures are to be taken to convert the auditorium to a closed and air conditioned one, but the funds needed to build one such and the hOmams that occur there continually may be a reason for the trustee’s taking required time to decide on this.

Gayathri was in a divine mood throughout the concert as she herself is a devotee of periyava and made everyone sail in her boat. She began the concert with gopala Krishna bharathy’s siva lOka nAthanaik kaNdu in mAyAmALavagowLa (rUpaka chApu) with some interesting swaras like ma pa ma gA, dhA pa ma gA, nI dha pa ma gA….

She rendered a beautiful sketch of keervANi and sang Periyasamy Thooran’s puNNiyam oru kOti (Adhi). Shrikanth played well too. An unhurried rendition of the krithi with niraval and swaram in “annai kAmAkshi pOlE anbE vadivAi vandhAr” it was. The sancharas based on mEl sthAyi rishabam both in lower speed and middle speed were note worthy.

I always feel that “chathusruthi rishabam” conveys one’s intensity in doing something, following or in expressing your thoughts or your consenting to what is said in a particular line of the krithi. Doing upAsanA of nandhi may be a reason for loving rishabam!

Whenever gayathri was giving a sustain in thAra shadjam, all pallavans passed by, proved their honking are perfectly tuned to two points lower to kAkali nishAdham!

That reminded me of the joke, “If a pallavan bus is on road, where would you find yourself safer?
a)Inside your car?
b)On the platform?
c)Roof top of shops nearby?

Ans: None of the above… only if I am inside pallavan” (We were not inside )

shrI shankara guruvaram(nAgaswarAvaLi – rUpaka chApu – maha vaidhyanatha sivan), a must in all celebrations related to adhi shankara and periyava took its share before the main. It added flavour too, as all the songs were sung with graceful nidhAnam.

“enna perunthavam yAn seidhadhaRiyEnE (sahAnA - Adhi)” followed keervANi. The viruththam in sahAnA contained simple but effective words that speak about the quality of periyava. My memories travelled to my days at Erode during 1985, when there was a special announcement in AIR, "Listeners can hear periyasamy thooran’s song on kAnchi periyavA, sung by Smt. M.S.Subbulakshmi today after the news at 12-40pm and this will be relayed in all stations".

I got too excited and been ready with my little Philips and recorded the song with usual karakarA sounds offered freely by Coimbatore station!
Playing for it after 24 years was really great for me.

In the viruththam line “arumaRai thEn pozhi mukilE,” she sang mukilE.. mukilE… twice and prevented dhwithIya vignam for the mon,soon. (Concert was on Sunday and it started pouring on Monday!)

dhIkshithar’s kAmAkshi kAmakOti pIta vAsini in sumadhyuthi-rUpaka chApu came next.

She took N.S.Ramachandran’s “shrI chandhrasEkara yatheendhram (shankarAbharaNam-kaNda jAthi thruputai) for main. That was a suswaram embedded traditional shankarAbharaNam. Niraval and swaram were in adhvaithAm (arai edam). Shrikanth reminded MSG in certain sangathis.

We played chathusra and thisra gathis with kuRaippu for 18, 9, 4.5 beats and switched to varieties of 3 instead of doing sankeerNam phrases for 9 aksharAs heading towards a rare mOrA of sAkkOttai shrI rangu iyengAr followed by a kOrvai of UKS sir.

UKS sir plays this mOrA in kaNda thruputai and also performs this in higher speed with his razor sharp clarity and precision in thisra gathi of rUpaka chApu too. Thinking of this, I, before playing it in ordinary chathusra gathi madhyama kAlam, did a mAnaseeka namskAram to my revered guru, as I usually do.

Thanks to GV for giving me three cheers… a song on periyava, a thani in kaNda thruputa and for making me remember my guru and parama guru!

The post main songs were:

kAnchi nagar vAzhum karuNAlayamE – kAnadA – Adhi – Aravarasan

brUhi mukundhEthi – kurinji – Adhi – Sadhasiva Brahmendrar

kAmakOti aruLirundhAl – kApi – Adhi – Rukmani Ramni

pAl ninaindhoottum – viruththam – mANikka vAsagar – mOhanam and shanmukha priyA followed by thEnena inikkum thiruvarut kadalE – Vallalar ArutpA.

By the time she finished viruththam, periyavA’s idol was taken in a well decorated chariot for procession. The story of the vigraham appeared in shakthi vikatan recently.

maithreem bajatha – yaman kalyANi – Adhi – Maha Periyava

mangaLam – sowrAshtram – Adhi – Thyagaraja.

There were banners in the maNdapam sounding like some punch dialogues of recent trend in films! That would have been avoided and quotes form periyavA’s dheivaththin kural in words of His holiness might have been appropriate. But this is my personal view only.

We were given hOma rakshai too along with other prasAdhams. Especially, my sishya Krishna Prasadh and Jophan, a student of Thanjavur Shri Vaidhyanatha Iyer School For Percussion, The Music Academy, enjoyed the suNdal, kEsari and hot pongal a lot.

The efforts of mEchEri shrI pattu sAsthrigaL and mambalamites are great that the celebrations were well organized with hitham, santhOsham and bakthi.

[actually i noticed later only, that i have talked about pongal and all that and, the review ends with Hitham,Santhosham & Bakthi - HSB!

i think this review has one more place, "hilarity in concert reviews"

I shall upload the song and lyrics as soon as I get a clear recording.]