Malladi Brothers @ Indiranagar Sangeetha Sabha , 24 Mar 2012

Vocal : Malladi Brothers

Violin: B U Ganesh Prasad

Mrudangam : Patri Satishkumar

Ghatam : Giridhar Udupa

List:

01  taruNi ninnu (varNam)  - kAmbOji – Fiddle Ponnuswami Pillai  (  O )

02  srI mUlAdhAra chakra – SrI – Dikshitar ( S )

03  evvarE rAmayya – gAngEyabhUshaNi – Thyagaraja ( A,S )

04  paripAlayamAm – rItigauLa – Swati Thirunal ( A,S,S )

        neravla & swara @ ‘ tAmarasAyata lOcana cArutanO dharaNIdhara dharavana’

05  Siva Siva Siva enarAdA – pantuvarALi – Thyagaraga

06  RTP – kIravANi – miSra jAti tripuTa , 2 kaLai , starts at 1 beat afer samam

       pallavbi line ‘ Ananda pUrNAmOdam shivOham satchid-ananda…’

       ragamalika swaras in kIravAni, kEdAram, amrutavarshiNi, shivaranjani, hamsAnandi

       tani Avartanam

07  nAnoru viLayAttu – navarasa kannaDa – Papanasam Sivan

08  dEvaki nandana nanda mukundana – bhAgEshrI – Purandara Dasa ( O )

09   charaNamuLe nammiti – kApi – Bhadrachala Ramadas

10  intha kaNTE ganamikalEtu – surutti – Annamacharya

11  viSwEswar darshan kar – sindhu bhairavi – Swathi Thirunal ( O )

12  SLOkam ( anjanA nandanam vIram jAnakI shOkanAsanam) – dEsh

       srI hanumAn jai hanumAn – dEsh -  ??

13  mangaLa SLOkam  ( mangaLam kOsalEndAya) – madyamAvati

What was in my mind at the end of the concert was one question. All the artists were good and they presented a good concert. The selection of kritis were good and the way it was presented was also good. However, there was some thing that was missing in the session. There seems to be a lack of energy in the whole evening. Partly due to the continuous experimentation the ‘mike man’ was trying through out the concert. That little element of energy could have lifeted this concert to a very different level.

It took more than 10 mins , after the curtains were up, to start the concert. They were trying various combinations of settings and none of the artists seems to be happy.  The majority of the time, they were glancing at the ‘mike-man’ on the first floor, instead of having the eye contact with the audience.  Once you set the levels of Ravikumar’s mike to an acceptance level, you see the violin volume dropping considerably. Giridhar Udupa was lifting his hands to heaven in desparation. The PA speakers were followed a sinusoidal pattern often loud and suddenly dropping.

Having said that , the actual kritis that followed were good. A not often heard varnam in kamboji, a brilliant set of swaras for Sri, good gangeyabhushani alapana by Ravikumar with a superb reply by Ganesh Prasad. Gangeyabhushani continued with some short rounds of swaras. Ritigaula alapana was short and did not have a violin return. Paripalayamam wasw good, with the faster paced neraval at ‘tAmara sAyaka’ , the swaras were interesting too.

After a quick filler of Pantuvarali,  Sriram Prasad started the keeravani alapana. The initial 5-6 minutes, I thought, were bliss. Beautifully, built up and progressed , but did not extend the same till the end. Ganesh Prasad was good in his return. Both tanam and pallavi were very good with trikalam and ragamalika swaras. Kedaram and Shivaranjani swaras especialy were very good, with some beautiful return by Ganesh Prasad.

This was the third consecutive concert with BU Ganesh Prasad being the accomanying artist. I was not very happy with the previous two concerts. However, I found him very good last evening. His gangeya bhushani, the way he followed the main artists, his replies to the neraval and swaras were all very nice.  Patri Satishkumar was very good as always. He was especially brilliant during pallavi. The two established percussionist gave a good tani avartanam at the end of the pallavi.

Post main were the typical fair, with Annamacharya, bhadrachala Ramadas and Purandara Dasa kritis. Surutti and Sindhubhairavi pieces stood out, before the mangala slokam. A decent concert, but lacked the energy to make it memorable concert.

 

Malladi Brothers , Kalotsav @ Odukathur Mutt 19th Feb 2012

Vocal: Malladi Brothers

Violin : M A Sundareswaran

Mrudangam : Kamalakar Rao

Ghatam: Dr.S.Karthik

List:

01  vanajAkshirO ( varNam) – kalyANi – Ramanathapuram Srinivasa Iyengar ( O )

02  tyAgarAja pAlayASumam – gauLa – Dikshitar ( A-short, S )

03  dinamaNi vamSa- harikAmbOji – Thyagaraja ( A,S )

04  SambhO mahAdEva – pantuvarALi – Thyagaraja ( A,N,S )

       neraval & swara @ ‘ SambhO mahAdEva SaraNAgata jana rakshaka’

05  sadAmatin – gambhIravANi – Thyagaraja  ( O )

06  Emani nE – mukhAri – Subbaraya Shastry ( A,N,S,,T )

        neraval & swara @ ‘ sAmaja gAmini sArasa lOchani -amba’

07  smarisO sarvadA hariya – hamIr kalyANi – Purandara Dasa ( O )

08  jaya jaya durgE – durga – Narayana Thirthar

09  itaDE nA ee lOkamulOgala – sALaga bhairavi – Bhadrachala Ramadas

10  kASi kASi gangA sankaTa vAraNAsi – nAthanAmakriya – Ganapati Satchidananda

11  SaraNu SaraNu surEndra sannuta – chenchurutti – Annamacharya

12 mangaLam – saurAshtram – Thyagaraja

The concert season at the Shivarathri Kalotsav held at Odukathur Mutt concluded with a bang ! A phenomenal concert to finsh the series, which started off with a beautiful concert. Except for a slightly high amplification ( for the vocals), every thing else fell in place, to provide an outstanding concert.

It did take a while to settle things. Sri Kamalakar Rao had his issues with the tuning of mrudangam, so much so that the desciple sitting next to him had to carry the instrument back tothe green room during the pantuvarali alapana to set this back to perfection ( well to an extend). From there on, the concert was at a different level. Every piece renderd yesterday was measured to the optimum.  The initial varnam and gaula kriti came and went as the things were taking shape. Short harikamboji alapana and the dinamani vamsa set the tempo. However, it was from the pantuvarali alapana ,things elevated to different level. Shambho mahadeva came with all its majestic form. Beautiful neraval at the pallavi line, some brilliant kalpanaswaras added to the overal effect.

After a short filler of gambhiravani, Ravikumar started the alapana of mukhari. What a treat. It was splendid and beautifully ‘choreographed’ if I may use the term. Progressed meticulously, with some innovative display of skills at the higher octaves, the smooth descent … it was fabulous. So, was the violin play be M A Sundareswaran. Being the Shivrathri eve, I was expecting ‘Inraikku Shivakripai’ to follow, but the choice was ‘Emani nE’ , a grand piece by Subbaraya Shastry. The good work with alapana continued through out the main , with some great neraval and swara singing, with the rest of the accompaniments chipping in.

After the re-tuning of mrudangam, veteran Kamalakar Rao was a different persona. He , aptly supported and ‘nudged’ by Kartick, was producing some brilliant percussion support. He seems to be never satisfied with the perfection of his intrument, often making minor adjustment. This, however, never dithered him from producing an outstanding tani avartanam with enthusiastic Karthick. This alone, was worth my time at the concert.

Post main saw a string of kritis , typical of them, from Purandara Dasa to Annamacharya. Durga and salagabhairavi kritis were especially beautiful. Whole lot of happy faces at the end of one fabulous concert. 

 

Malladi Brothers , Sri Rama Lalitha Kala Mandira, 05 Feb 2012 at Gayana Samaja

Vocal : Malladi Brothers

Violin : Embar Kannan

Mrudangam : Neyveli Narayanan

Ghatam : G Omkar

List :

01 cheluvuDE ninnE kOri (varNam) – Anandabhairavi – Ammachatram Kannuswami Pillai

02 bhavanuta – mOhanam – Thyagaraja (O,S )

03  ardhanArISwaram – kumudakriya – Dikshitar ( S )

04  rA rA raghuvIra – aThANa – Thyagaraja ( A )

05  swAminAthEna samrakshitOham – brindAvana sArang – Dikshitar ( A,S )

06  ninnE nammi nAnu – thODi – Shyama Shastry

07  swara rAga sudhA – SankarAbharaNam – Thyagaraja ( A,N,S,T )

neraval & swara @ ‘ rajata girisuDu nAgarAjaku telpu swarNArNava marmamulu’

08  RTP – Ranjani – tisra jhumpa, khanDa naDai

pallavi line ‘ mAmava mAhadEva ranjani pankaja lOchani’

rAgamAlika swarams in janaranjani, srIranjani , mEgharanjani, manOranjani’

09 SLOkam ( sayamkAlE vanAntE) – bhAgEshrI

antakaNa dUtarigE – bhAgEshri – Purandara Dasa

10  balida vairAgyavendu ?? – kalAvati – Bhadrachala Ramadas

11 mAdhava mAmava dEva -nIlAmbari – Narayana Thirthar

12 mangaLam – saurAshtram – Thyagaraja

Malladi Brothers gave a good concert at the Gayana Samaja to a packed audience. It started off very well with the Anandabhairavi varnam ( how intersting this can be, a rre varnam heard in wo back to back concerts) and a swift mohanam with some faster kalpana swaras, Then came couple of not so impressive ardhanArIswaram ( it was very slow and the kalpana swaras that followed were also just ok). Atana alapana was the first of the day by Sriram, which was good and so was the kriti.

I personally liked the Brindavana Saranga alapana, so was the violin return play. While Soundararajam was looming in the air ( as I was by then preparing for a main), I was pleasantly surprices with ‘swAminAthEna’. It was rendered very well, and I liked the kalpana swaras that followed. A filler came in the form of thodi, a Shyama Shastry master piece.

Sankarabharanam main started beautifully ( well after a momentary scare of Kalyani to me !) with some brilliant phrases. May be the the disturbances with the mike and the near the exit ‘skirmishes’ , the rest of the alapana werent registering with me as anything grand. Even the violin return was short and ‘uneventful’.  Swara raga sudha was grand and the neraval at ‘rajata giri’ was fantastic. They seems to have rushed through the swaras before handing over to tani avartanam. Neyveli Narayanan and Omkar gave a decent support through out the evening, however the response to their tani avartanam was lukewarm.

To fulfill a promise of a 3 hr concert ( apparently they promised last time when they were here), they announced a pallavi. This lifted the overall concert to a much satisfying level. Ranjani alapana was very good , for which Ravikumar received a “Single-man standing ovation” from an enthusiastic rasika ( not me!) . Thanam was also fabulous. The pallavi set to tisra jhumpa in khanda nadai, gave some vaiety to the whole piece. There was trikalam and ragamalika swarams in the typical ranjani-mala format.

Post main had a bhageshri and a bhadrachala Ramadas piece set to tune by their father in kalavati. Overall a good concert with the brindavana Sarang and ranjani pallavi being the highlights.

 

Malladi Brothers, Gokulashtami Series, Unnati Centre 15th Aug 2011

Vocal : Malladi Brothers ( Sriram Prasad & Ravikumar)

Violin : V V Ravi

Mrudangam : Lakshminarayana Raju

Ganjira : A S N swamy

Songlist:

01  ninnE kOri Unnada ( varNam) – kAnaDa – Thiruvottiyur Thyagayya  ( O )

02  srI nAthAdi guruguhO – mAyAmALavagauLa – Dikshitar ( A , S )

03  nAda sudhA rasambilanu – Arabhi – Thyagaraja  ( S )

04  pAlintuvO pAlimpavO – kAnthAmaNi – Thyagaraja ( A, N, S )

       neraval & swara @ ‘ paripUrNamaku bhaktimArgamE yani bhAvinchina thyAgarAjanuta’

05  slOkam ( sAndrAnandAvabOdha..) – dwijAvanti – Melpathur Narayana Bhatathiri ( from Narayaneeyam)

        chEtAshrI bAlakrishNam – dwijAvanti – Dikshitar

06  shivAya namamendru – kuntaLa varALi - Papanasam Shivan?  ( O )

07   ninnE nammi nAnu – thODi – Shyama Shastri ( A, N, S, T )

         neraval & swara @ ‘ kAmAkshi kanjadalAyadAkshi’

08  antharangamellA  srI hariki – husEni – Annamacharya  ( O )

09  bhaja bhaja mAnasa rAghavEndram – tilang – Kamalesha Vittala

10  dharma shravaAa – durga – Purandara Dasa

11  Ee vELa nannu brOvarA – khamas – Bhadrachala Ramadas

12  lAli yugavayyA – kEdAra gauLa – Thyagaraja

13 iyam swathanthra bhArati – rAgamAlika – ??

14 mAdhava mAmava – nIlAmbari – Narayana Theerthar

15  sLOkam ( mangaLam kOsalEndra & guruvAyupurAdhIsham) – madhyamAvati 

A satisfying concert after a long time. Every thing was falling in place. The selection of kritis to the participation of accompanying artists and the crowd. Cant pick one or two highlights of the evening.  Was it the Varnam, the outstanding Arabhi swaras , mesmerising alapana by Ravikumar for kAnthamani, the grand Thodi , the tani avartanam or those post main pieces.

It was set to be a grand concert from the varnam itself. Longish and detailed varnam set the stage for the rest to come. The choice of Mayamalavagaula krithi was interesting and appealing. The real effect started with the Arabhi kriti and what a piece it was. The duo, enthralled with some outstanding swara singing, with some brilliant support from violin and mrudangam vidwans.

Kanthamani was a surprice. Ravikumar presented a brilliant alapana, with equally brilliant support from V V Ravi. The kriti pAlintuvo ( I heard this before by the same team, few years back at Odukathur Mutt – I guess during Gokulashtami series in 2007 or so) was very good with detailed neraval and swara. 61st Melakarta raga, Kanthamani, is very appealing. After a melodious dwijavanti and a fast paced Kuntalavarali, Sriram Prasad started thOdi alapana. I was prepared to listen to ‘Srikrishnam bhaja manasa’, but the choice was Shyama Shastri’s Ninne nammi nAnu. The alapana and violin return were very good through the predictable lines. The neraval and swara were also good. Tani Avartnam by the ‘first time in Bangalore’ Vidwan Lakshminarayana Raju was a continuation of the great work he had been doing through out the concert, with ASN Swamy chipping in with his credentials.

Post main had a stream of kritis, typical of their style. Annamacharya, Purandara Dasa and bhadrachala Ramadasa kritis followed apart from a requested nilAmbari. In all, a fabulous concert by the team.

 

Malladi Brothers @ Gayana Samaja , Spring Festival 06 Feb 2011

Vocal :  Malladi Brothers ( Sriam Prasad & Ravikumar)

Violin : M A Sundareswaran

Mrudangam : Neyveli Narayanan

Ghatam : B S  Ramanujam

Organised by : Sri Rama Lalita Kala Mandira

Songlist :

01   sarasijanAbha ( varNam ) – kAmbOji – Swathi Thirunal

02   SlOkam ( gajAnanam bhUtagaNAdi ) – kalyANi

gaNapatE mahAmatE – kalyANi – Dikshitar

03   nI chittamu -  dhanyAsi – Thyagaraja ( A )

04   kalAvati kamalAsana yuvati  – yAgapriya ( kalAvati )  – Dikshitar ( A, S )

05   lakshaNamulu gaLa srIrAmuniki – sudha sAvEri – Thyagaraja

06   naDachi naDachi – kharaharapriya – Thyagaraja  ( A, N, S, T)

neraval & swara @ ‘ puDamisuta sahAyuDai chelangE‘

07   kanDEnA gOvindana – mAND – Purandara Dasa ( O )

08   kamala nayana jagadIshwara – vAgadISwari – Swathi Thirunal

09   brahma kaDigina pAdamu – mukhAri – Annamacharya

10   viruttam ( rAmuDu ghOra pAtaka virAmuDu) – khamAs

ninnuko vichEtana ?? – khamAs – bhadrachala Ramadas

11   mAdhava mAmava – nIlAmbari – Narayana Theerthar

12  SlOkam ( sarvamangaLa mAngalyE ) – madhyamAvati

Malladi brothers concert yesterday at Gayana Samaja will be remembered for the outstanding alapana for yAgapriya. The duo started brilliantly with the kAmbOji varnam, there was no settling in time required as the voice ( of both) were very good from the beginning. Quickly moving on to kalyani ( I liked the slokam before the kriti)  with a Dikshitar kriti, adding some good rounds of swara singing. Badari’s request for dhanyAsi came next with a rather short, but effective alapana. The kriti, I am familiar with their guru’s version, came in as a surprise instead of sangIta gnAnamu or nIna lOchana ( on a second thought, I should have guessed).

The  real beauty came next in the form of yAgapriya alapana. Will the crowd scratching their head trying to identify the raga ( we failed and gave up), Ravikumar explored the depth of the raga fantastically. So was the violin  by Sundareswaran, in his time for returning the favour.  Dikshitar krithi ( raga called kalavathi in Dikshitar nomenclature) ‘kalAvati kamalasana’ was done very well, with some god kalpana swaras.

Main kharaharapriya alapana was long and very detailed, meticulously build up by Sriram. Ravikumar joined towards the end ( I am not a great fan of this method) alternating the phrases. Sundareswaran was apt in his turn , however his playing for the kriti Nadachi Nadachi, wasn’t all that impressive. He made amends during neraval and swara singing, which I thought was shorter by the usual standard.

Neyveli Narayanan and B S Ramanujam were superb through out the evening and they also did a good tani avartanam. There was no Pallavi as they had to travel to Bhadrachalam, for the birth anniversary celebrations of Bhadrachala Ramadas ( as announced – and Sriram promised a 4 hr concert in his next program here). Post main had a chain of kritihs, including that of Annamacharya dna bhadrachala Ramadas. Fantastic yAgapriya and very good kharaharapriya made it a god concert to conclude the week long festivities.