Govind's voice has an amazing tonal quality that made the kEdAragowLai AlApanai a treat. Govind's pAThAntaram of kritis was impeccable, diction was superb. Although there was a small sag during the rendition of tuLasi bilva, which was still beautiful and bhAva-laden in that pace, Govind's concert was traditional and evoked deep bhakti rasam.
The list was as follows:
varnam- kAmavardhini- Pallavur Mani Iyer
rAma nI pai - kEdAram - Adi- T- S@pallavi
shanmuka guhanE - chakravAkam-rUpakam- composed by R Shrinivasan of Trivandrum (?)
tuLasi bilva - kEdAragoWLai- Adi- T- R
gaTTigAnu - bEgaDa - Adi, tisra naDai- T
nI cittamu - vijayavasanta-Adi - T
narasimhAgaccha - mOhanam- misra chApu-MD- RNST @ dhIratara
toli nE jEsina - shuddha bangALa - Adi-T
RTP - kharaharapriya - khanDa tripuTa with trikAlam
nenjanil- dwAdasha ranjanimAlikA -Adi- N.S.Chidambaram -set to tune by T M Thyagarajan
darikkum - tiruppugazh in Arabhi
maNgaLam
The chakravAkam song was beautiful. The pAThAntaram of tuLasi bilva was a bit new to me, with the pallavi starting at the samam (anupallavi and charanam lines were at the usual arai iDam). The detailed mohanam compensated for the lack of neraval and swarams till the main item. trikAlam for the pallavi was done well, barring a small slip, may be because of distraction due to a sudden soreness in the throat. The neraval in the main piece deserves special mention. It was sung without deviation from the actual placement of the syllables. This requires a great amount of control and Govind did a good job
Smriti's kharaharapriya was brilliant . Karthik Srinivasan on Mridangam supported Govind well with really cool sollus . He was even gracious to share one sollu that he played in the short and sweet tani with me after the concert .
All in all, a wonderful,weighty concert that everyone enjoyed.
