Malladi brothers @cleveland, 28th March 2013

[hamirkalyani123]

Violin: RK Shriramkumar
Mridangam: Tumkur Shri Ravikumar

1. Sriraghukulamandu, Hamsadwani
2. Rajuvedale, Thodi
3. Palintuvo Palimpavo, Kanthamani
4. Ika kavalasinademi manasa, Balahamsa
5. Ramaneeyeda, Kharaharapriya w/Tani Avartanam
6. Annamayya composition in Navarasa Kannada?
7. Ninnujhoochi, Punnagavarali
8. Bhalira Vairagyamentho Baagai unnadhi, Kalavati (Ramadasu composition set to tune by Malladi Suri babu)
9. Sindhu bhairavi, Paramacharya Sri Sri Chandrasekhara Saraswati gari composition

All in all, a very satisfying concert. If one is a die hard Saint Tyagaraja fan, he would cherish this as much as I do. Listening to those rare compositions in Kanthamani and Balahamsa which I have never heard before made my day. Their father Suri babu garu, who was given Sripada Pinakapani Award the next day was sitting in the front row as well. Excellent accompaniments by RKS and Tumkur Sri Ravikumar. The tani avartanam was memotable.

[hamirkalyani123]

THe 9th piece in sindhu bhairavi goes like this. "Chandrasekhara Eesha Surasekhara Goureesha". Very nice composition and excellently rendered with a brief alapana.

[arasi]

hamirkalyani,
Thanks for the review and song list.
Yes, take your time but do post reviews here because more people would read them in this section.
Malladi's father is singing tomorrow. Hope you can listen to him.

[rshankar]

THe 9th piece in sindhu bhairavi goes like this. "Chandrasekhara Eesha Surasekhara Goureesha". Very nice composition and excellently rendered with a brief alapana.

Shouldn't the bolded word be sundarESvarA?

[vanamali]

Violin: RK Shriramkumar
Mridangam: Tumkur Shri Ravikumar

is it Tumkur Ravishankar?

[arasi]

Vanamali,
Yes, the program says so.

[hamirkalyani123]

yes, that's correct vanamali. Sorry for my typo. Also, I am not sure about the sahityam part for the sindhu bhairavi. That's how I heard. I may have misheard. I looked around to see if I can get the correct sahityam. If anyone has it, please provide the same as I am interested to know it as well. Thanks.

[annamalai]

I think Chandrasekara Esa Gowreesa (Sindhubhairavi) is a composition of Anai Vaidhyanatha Iyer. Mandolin Sreenivas plays this song often and also announces the composer.

This song was a classic of Alathur Brothers.

Sanjay Subramanian renders some of other Alathur classic thukkadas - Malasai Kopam (Jonpuri) ; Theruvinil Nadava (Surati), Mukthi Alikkum (Navaroj) ...

[hamirkalyani123]

This one (Sindhu bhairavi one) I did not misheard. Malladi brothers clearly announced it is a composition of Paramacharya. I will ask them again however.

[CRama]

Their announcement was wrong.

[Pasupathy]

The song 'Chandrasekara IsA ' ( that Alathur Bros made famous) in Sindhubhairavi is by Papanasam Sivan.

You can hear it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGnY4OzeODQ

[cmlover]

Yes of course. It is also a movie song sung by PUC in one of the movies (Sr VaLLi ?)

[Pasupathy]

I don't think it ever appeared in a movie. See
http://www.indian-heritage.org/flmmusic/puchinapa.html

I may be wrong.

We used to have in our home the 78 rpm record of Alathur with this on one side and 'sivanai ninainthavar '(Hindolam ) of Sivan on the other side.

[cmlover]

You are right.
I got confused with
"shambhO mahAdEvA.." which PUC sings adressing Siva....

Nityasree has done it in a very graceful sindhubhairavi...

[arasi]

Pasupathy,
Somehow, I had a feeling that it was a film song too--perhaps because Sivan wrote a lot of film songs and the rAgam too is movie-friendly.The eDuppu also.

Yes, I too like this version of Nityashri a lot.

A song like this, with plenty of sanskrit based tamizh makes it easier for a non-tamizh speaker to sing. Another example--parAtparA paramESvarA of Sivan's. Vedanayakam Pillai's songs may be easy to sing too.

[Pasupathy]

A song like this, with plenty of sanskrit based tamizh makes it easier for a non-tamizh speaker to sing. Another example--parAtparA paramESvarA of Sivan's.

Arasi,
Those non-Thamizh singers can easily pay tributes to P Sivan the composer by singing his (completely) Sanskrit compositions.... But I have not witnessed this .

[arasi]

For the count of a tamizh song, especially in a tamizh nADu concert, such krutis with plenty of sanskrit words in them are easier to sing than say, a tiruppAvai or tiruppugazh!

[cmlover]

For that matter if he had composed in Telugu he would have had an early recognition! Having lived at Chennai for a long time he must have been fluent in Telugu. By the by has he composed any songs in languages other than Tamil or sanskrit ?

[Pasupathy]

For that matter if he had composed in Telugu he would have had an early recognition! Having lived at Chennai for a long time he must have been fluent in Telugu. By the by has he composed any songs in languages other than Tamil or sanskrit ?

As far as I know, no.

[vasanthakokilam]

For that matter if he had composed in Telugu he would have had an early recognition! Having lived at Chennai for a long time he must have been fluent in Telugu.

My hypothesis is the prominence of Telugu in CM is due to some all-time great compositions by all-time great composers being in Telugu. On the other hand, people are used to hearing songs in a language they do not understand and would find it odd hearing songs they actually understand. In that sense, I can see why the Telugu compositions would have been better received

A little bit off topic but related nonetheless.
Some of you may remember the trick Tuglak Cho pulled on the unsuspecting Sanskrit biased audience by publishing some great sounding verses in Sanskrit and people thought it was from many centuries back uttered by some great saints and rishis. But it was composed by a modern day Sanskrit pundit. Question was, would people have received those Sanskrit verses with such reverence and without critical analysis had they known it was composed by a mere current day Sanskrit pundit.

In both cases, one thing is clear. You can get away with casting something as old and ancient. The culture is attuned to thinking anything old is not to be criticized/analyzed/found fault with because they were all great people, possibly divine, what do we know about their greatness etc. We see that today in this forum expressed by many people. Current day composers do not have that luxury and also have to fight the negative stereotype of people that anything current does not have that authenticity and greatness.

But then as Arasi says, many popular Tamil songs are very Sanskrit based, there are barely a few Tamil words in them. PS especially knew his audience very much and it suited his personal style as well. That is why he is popular to the extent he is.

[cmlover]

But then as Arasi says, many popular Tamil songs are very Sanskrit based, there are barely a few Tamil words in them. PS especially knew his audience very much and it suited his personal style as well. That is why he is popular to the extent he is.

That is the unkindest cut of all!
Pure Tamil songs never got a chance in CM. They found their way into the Movies,thanks to MSV, Subbaraman and of late ILayaraja et al. and were dubbed as light music in spite of being very classical ! That has degenerated to the meaningless jazz that now dominates the Tamil movie songs. It is unlikely that Tamil songs will ever get a pride of place in CM other than some of PS's surviving sanskritized ones!
CM Tamil ini thuDittU chAKum (CM Tamil will now die a horrible death) !

[vasanthakokilam]

But then I just read in the thread http://www.rasikas.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=21152
that Sanjay sang kAkka unakkiRakkam illayA in Karaharapriya. So there is some hope. ( there is always viruththam and the RTP pallavi line )

[arasi]

CML,
VK is right. Sanjay sings many tamizh-tamizh songs. virutham and pallavi lines in thUya tamizh (not sanskrit words-strewn ones). kAkka unakkirakkam illaiyA? is a typical example of a beautiful tamizh song sans many sanskrit words. The pallavi itself is very emotive to start with: kAkka--unakkirakkam with emphasis and illaiyA? sung pleadingly makes it a winner.

thUkkathilum unadu kAlinai maRavAda thozhumban tuDipadoru vEDikkaiyA? sets the mood perfectly before the composer goes on to describe his state of mind in the charaNam to kapAli thAi (kaRpagAmbikai).

Most of the tamizh songs that Sanjay chooses have scope for tapping the bhAvA in them. That's one of the reasons why I like to listen to him. His intelligence to choose the right vehicle (reminds me of thEril ERinAn!)--to explore the bhAvA in a song is one of his assets. His kharaharapriyA-s are great to listen to--every time, every song sounds different from his previous version--with sendil ANDavan, kOri sEvimpa, jAnaki pathE, or whichever song he chooses to sing in a concert.

Malladi Bros have their own merits. Some of the telugu songs they sing sound so good, sung by them in their charming diction.

[rshankar]

sung by them in their charming diction.

Not just charming, but correct as well! Or maybe, it's charming because it's correct?

[cmlover]

I concede
But I still wish VVS were alive!

[arasi]

Rather, he were around all the past so many years to sing in every language correctly and charmingly This year, he would have been ninety eight!

Ravi,
Correct! Singing the words correctly is an important thing for us all.Yet, other factors count too. I would rather listen to a bit of faulty sAhityam than absolutely correctly sung words which are without any bhAvam.

[sridhar]

Along the lines of Sanjay popularizing tamil based krithis, does anyone know who tuned the song "ozhukkam uyirunum ombapadum" in kuntalavarali which he sings with so much bavam? Also we need to mention another one of his pallavi lines from Thirukural - kuzhlinidu yazhnidu enbar makkal tham mazhalai chol keladavar

[Pasupathy]

Along the lines of Sanjay popularizing tamil based krithis, does anyone know who tuned the song "ozhukkam uyirunum ombapadum" in kuntalavarali which he sings with so much bavam? Also we need to mention another one of his pallavi lines from Thirukural - kuzhlinidu yazhnidu enbar makkal tham mazhalai chol keladavar

Probably Dandapani Desikar. who tuned many ThirukkuraL-s as songs.