Vocal : Carnatica Brothers ( Shashikiran & Ganesh )
Violin : H K Venkatram
Mrudangam : Anoor Ananthakrishna Sharma
Ganjira : N Amrut
Ghatam : Giridhar Udupa
Songlist:
01 rAvE himagiri ( swarajati) – thODi – Shyama Sasthry
02 ninnu vinA gamari – pUrvi kalyANi – Shyama Sasthry ( O )
03 sarOja dalanEtri – SankarAbharaNam – Shyama Sasthry ( N,S )
neraval & swara @ ‘ sAma gAna vinOdini guNa dhAma shyAmakrishNanutE’
04 nanu brOva laLitA – laLita – Shyama Sasthri ( A , S )
05 O jagadambA – Ananda bhairavi – Shyama Sasthry
06 pArvati ninnu nE – kalgaDa – ShyAma Sasthry
07 RTP – chintAmaNi – chaturasra triputa , 2 kaLai
pallavi line ‘ dEvi brOva samayamidE ati vEgamE vAchi’
swara in chintAmaNi , no rAgamAlika swaram
07b tani Avartanam
07c dEvi brOva samayamidE ( kriti ) – chintAmani – Shyama Sasthry
08 tAraka bindigE – tilang – Purandara Dasa
09 karuNa jUDu – SrI – Shyama Shastry
10 mangaLam ( daSAvatAra mangaLam ) – madhyamAvati – Purandara Dasa
The last day of the week long aradhana mahotsav at BTM Cultural Academy concluded with the concert of Carnatica Brothers, yesterday evening at Ramana Maharshi school for the blind. Being composer special concert, one was hoping for some interesting selection and the duo did not disappoint.
Concert started with thOdi swarajati amids overall percussion noise and some improper audio / mic settings. The vocal and violin was barely audible among the general high decibel level. To add to the melee, the vocalists tried singing in different levels, one in the lower octave and the other at the higher octave. It sould have been nice, after the sound levels are settled, but at that juncture, it did not sound good. Ninnu vina gamari, also suffered the same fate. It was only after this, the audio was corrected to an extend and the mic levels were restored to a more appropriate levels. The concert from this point, from the neraval of sankarabharanam to be precise, was a different experience. As I said, Sankarabharanam neraval and swara were fabulous.
First Alapana came from Shashikiranan in Lalita, done beautifully; so was the violin return. The kriti and the swara was again brilliant. Anandabhairavi and kalgada fillers came in before the main. During anandabhairavi, one of them sang the swara while the other sang sahitya simultaneously, at a couple of places, which wasn’t all that good to listen.
Chintamani was the main piece of the day. They announced singing a pallavi ( in tribute to Shyamashasthry) with the pallavi line of devi brova, completing the pallavi by singing the kriti. Chintamani , Shashikiran announced , is prati madhyama raga of bhairavi, with its on distinguished feel and style. Ganesh did the alapana, and I did find a lot of bhairavi-ish phrases in his alapana, may be because of the earlier explanation. However, I thought Venkatram did a fantastic job in his return, staying on the chintamani feel through out his playing. Tanam was much better , so was the pallavi. There was trikalam and swaras ( no ragamalika swaram) before tani avartanam.
The crowded percussion scene , despite the overall noise ( believe me, it is more to do with the overall mic setting and not to do with the artists banging the instrument ) did a good job. Tani avartanam was very good and was hugely appreciated by the audience. I still think, that 2 on the stage , instead of 3 , would have made the concert experience better.
Post tani, the duo continued with the kriti dEvi brOva, as he annouced earlier. Requested devarnama and karuna jUDu completed the post main before the dasavatara mangalam of Purandara Dasa.
Overall a very good concert by Carnatic Brothers, with frequent interruptions from the mic. H K Venkatram was brilliant through out, and his lalita and chintamani alapana were top class. Very good concert to conclude the week long festival.
Brain Drain 