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.
