Vocal : Bangalore Brothers ( M B Hariharan & S Ashok )
Violin : C N Chandrsekharan
Mrudangam : H L Sivashankara Swamy
Morsing : Bhagyalakshmi Krishna
Song list :
01. intha chowka sEya ( varNam) – pantuvarALi – Mysore Sadashiva Rao
02. lambOdara raktAmbaradhara – nAta – Jagannatha Dasa ( O,S )
03. bAlakrishNan pAdamalar – dhanyAsi – Papanasam Sivan
04. aparAjitE amarESanutE – kannaDa – Muthaiah Bhagavathar ( A,S )
05. tuLasammA – dEvagAndhAri – Thyagaraja ( O )
06. rAvE himagirikumAri – thODi – Shyama Shasthri ( A,N,S,T )
neraval & swara @ ‘kalyANi, kAnchikAmAkshi nI pAdamE dikku’
07. muNDu konaya mElE ( muNDige) – Anandabhairavi – Purandara Dasa
08. AnjanEyam sadA bhajAmi (nottuswaram) – Western styled notes- Dikshitar
09. bhajan vinA jIvan paSu samAn (bhajan) – dEsh – Kabir ?
10. kaDi mOdi (tirupugazh) – SankarAbharaNam – Arunagirinathar?
11. thillAna ( dhim dhim dhim dhimta dhiraNA)- kApi – M D Ramanathan
12. SLOkam ( paramAnandavu vittalige) – surutti
indina dinavE Subha dinavu – surutti –
13. srIrAma jayamangaLam – surutti – Bhadrachala Ramadas ?
A fantastic concert yesterday at Nadasurabhi by Bangalore Brothers. I haven’t listened to them live before and had no prior experience to go with. My initial plan was to go to Unnati to listen to Trichur Brothers, but changed my plan in favour of the nearby venue. Probably a wise decision at the end. The duo gave a fabulous concert with some brilliant percussion from Sivashankar Swamy.
Apart from a cracker of a thodi – it is rare to hear the swarajati these days- I was super impressed with the way the pair handled the kalpana swaras for each kritis, building up the tempo and culminating with an outstanding long stretch to the crescendo, for an instance applause from the listeners. They employed this technique to some great effect for Nata, kannaDa and the main thOdi.
Unlike the previous day, where Vid. Shankar sang in the spirit of the ‘karNataka vaibhava’ by choosing only the composers from Karnataka, Hariharan and Ashok drifted from the initial promises of Mysore Sadashiva Rao’s varnam and Jagannatha Dasa ganesha kriti, to composers from out side the state. Papanasam Sivan’s dhanyasi did not appeal too good to me, inspite of dhanyasi being a favourite of mine. First alapana of the day by Hariharan in kannaDa was very nice. So was the violin return from Sri C N Chandrasekharan. Muthaiah Bhagavathar’s 76th ‘chAmuNDAmbA ashTOthara’ kriti was new to me in a concert. Another splendid kalpana swara added to the fair at the end. A moving devagandhari came in as a filler before the main.
Thodi alapana by Ashok was splendid. With some delicate slow take to some breath taking (no pun intended) long fast sancharas , traversing all three octaves effectively, Ashok did a commendable job with the alapana. Albeit short almost passing , he also made a clever grahabhedam to mOhanam. Shyama Shasthri’s swarajati , starting at ‘kAmAkshi .. kAnchi kAmAkshi’ almost like a viruttam, before launching ‘rAvE himagiri kumAri’ gave a nice twist in the beginning. The neraval ( only one in the concert to my dismay) was awesome. This part to me is the high point of the concert. All the constituents excelled one another presenting a wholesome entertainment to the audience. The two speed kalpana swaras matched up to the expectation set by the outstanding neraval earlier.
Sri Shivshankara Swamy was marvelous through out. I haven’t seen him playing before, but was later given to understand that he is a disciple of Palghat Raghu, which was evident in his touches. Not only he added effect to the overall concert, but played a nice tani avartanam with Bhagyalakshmi, who seems to produce some newer sounds from the tiny instrument.
Post main started with a ‘muNDige’ of Purandara Dasa, in anandabhairavi. A beautiful piece of writing. Dikshitar’s nottuswaram a Kabir bhajan and a tirupugazh were sung in sequence. Concert concluded with MDRs thillana in kApi and a chain of surutti mangalam.
Fabulous concert by the duo with a cracker of a thodi swarajati.
Brain Drain 