Trichur Brothers @ Toronto

[Lakshman]

with Jaishankar Balan on violin, Trichur Mohan on the mrdanga and Karthik Venkataraman on the kanjira. 3.75 hr concert

song list:
calamEla jEsEvurA (v) - shankarAbharaNa -Svati Tirunal
siddhi vinAyakam - SaNmyukhapriyA - Dikshitar - S
rAgamAlikA shlOka (vAmE bhUmi) in rAgamAlika in sAvEri, nATakuranji, dhanyAsi, mOhana, mukhAri pUrvikalyANi and madhyamAvati
followed by bhAvayAmi raghurAmam - rAgamAlika - Svati Tirunal
dinamaNi vamsha - harikAmbhOji - Tyagaraja - S
shrI krSNa gOvinda harE murArE (bhajan)- ?
tyAgarAja yOga vaibhavam - Anandabhairavi - Dikshitar - A
marakata maNimaya - Arabhi - Uttukadu Venkatakavi
akhilANDEshvari - dvijAvanti - Dikshitar
rAma nI samAnamevaru - kharaharapriya - Tyagaraja - A, N @ paluku palukulaku, S, tani
ADum mayilai koNDa azhagan avan - ? -?
eppO varuvArO - jOnpuri - Gopalakrishna Bharati
jamunA kinArE - pIlu - Svati Tirunal
tunbam nErkaiyil - dEsh - Bharatidasan
tillAnA - behAg - Lalgudi Jayaraman
shrI cakrarAja - rAgamAlikA - Agastyar
rAmacandrAya - kurinji - Bhadrachalam Ramdas
shriya kAntAya kalyANa (shlOka) - madhyamAvati

[arasi]

Lakshman,
Thanks for the song list. A long one and since it's from you, no one needs to know more details--blanks to be filled in their entry
A new song perhaps, that ADum mayilaik koNDa azhagan--or an old not heard in a concert, perhaps.

The concert went on for nearly four hours, and no RTP??
A wide variety of songs and many of them well-liked ones.

[mahavishnu]

Thanks, Lakshman-ji. I missed seeing you yesterday!

A couple of quick points. The short slokam shrI krSNa gOvinda harE murArE preceded the bhajan Govinda damOdara mAdhaveti, which I believe is in Hindustani nat bhairav. It was popularised by Pt Jasraj (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r89hqw1Humc) in this raga. I inferred that it is Maharaja Swati Tirunal's composition, given the context.

And this song came after Adum mayilai konda azhagan, which sounded like janasammOdhini to me. I think you have it listed as being earlier in the concert.
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And now my two cents/paise about the concert.

I really liked the Trichur brothers. They have an excellent stage presence, confident demeanor, solid manOdharmam, excellent pAtandaram and they complement each other very well. Even though their music is perfectly harmonized, they have very different voice characteristics (and personality). The older one is clearly the leader of the outfit, he calls the shots and the younger one harmonizes, embellishes, substitutes and highlights the music, all in equal measure. The elder one (Sreekrishna) looks like a matinee hero while the younger one (Ramkumar) has the diabolical good looks, almost like a ruggedly handsome version of Sanjay Subrahmanyan.

I was very impressed with their handling of TyagarAja yOga vaibhavam (ananda bhairavi) and Dinamani vamsa (harikambhoji), both solid Semmangudi school items. As I was listening to these pieces and the kharaharapriya, I was thinking of how much of SSI's music is alive in the contemporary scene. The SSI shishya parampara, or should I say dynasty, that comprises the many students from the Trivandrum satellite, PSN disciples (like the Trichur brothers), the third generation followers and even those that have just learned from his recorded music, is indubitably the most dominant school in Carnatic music today. And for good reason.

What Ariyakkudi did the the concert format, Semmangudi did to the established system of pedagogy and systemic training. All of these scions of the SSI school sing the same kriti foundation and the same sangatis, leaving room for structured improvisation in the neraval and swarams. Even in these manodharmic aspects the SSI template is incredibly well organized. An example of this in yesterday's concert is the swarams for dinamani vamsa which were also done in classic Semmangudi style. Sadly, the only neraval yesterday was in "paluku paluku". But fortunately it was beautiful.

The brothers are excellent musicians; they still need to watch out for the occasional slip when trying bolder phrases during the raga alapanais. But they get full points for song selection and their brisk and energetic rendition. There was no dull moment in the concert yesterday. The tukda pieces were sung with a lot of bhavam. I especially liked their version of the the Lalgudi behag tillana, which I would consider to be one of the greatest tillanas ever composed.

Jaishankar Balan followed the artistes very well. His violin sounded a bit scratchy in the lower strings earlier, but this resolved itself and by the time his turn came for the main alapanai, his music flowed to match the vocalists. Trichur Mohan played well, but sounded very reluctant at times. In the neraval, there were occasions when I felt like there were gaps where he needed to snatch the opportunity (pidingu vasikkaradhu in tamizh). The tani was short and crisp with a lot of arai-avartanam exchanges between the percussionists. Karthik's kanjira had an excellent nadham. There were many pieces in rupaka talam overall, which I found very interesting. There was also no RTP in an almost 4 hour concert, but I did not miss it at all given the extensive treatments of Bhavayami and Ramanee samanamevaru.

Trichy Sankaran was in attendance yesterday, which is a great honour for the brothers. As they sang Dinamani vamsa, I couldn't help thinking of the number of times he has played that song for SSI. And Tyagaraja yoga vaibhavam always reminds me of Jon Higgins! And then I was thinking of how fortunate Toronto is, despite the miserable weather we have been having lately.

[Pasupathy]

I think that the Bhajan 'Govind Damodhar...' is by Bilavamangala Thakura?
See
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2St5_AMls4

[Lakshman]

Thanks mahavishnu for correcting my list order. Thanks Pasupathy for the info on the bhajan.

[rajeshnat]

I have heard last year when this brothers sang , aaDum mayilai koNda ayagan avan. The raagam is thilang(Kind of almost 100% sure) it was a lovely tukkada , i dont know the composer.

Mahavishnu
With semmangudi living for 95 years,Few years back I did a mental calculation , almost 60% of musicians come under his gharana. While presently the brothers are under shri psn , their main guru is Neyyattinkara Mohanachandran who is also ssi's disciple. Toronto could have been luckier if they had sung a pallavi too.

[mahavishnu]

Rajesh, If it is tilang then it must be a very misra-tilang.
It has a lot of extraneous notes and phrases.

[Sreeni Rajarao]

Mahavishnu,

I had written in the other thread "Trichur Brother's High Energy/Fast paced concert. ....... The brothers have a certain charisma and they deliver their concert with great impact. I predict a very successful career for the brothers."

And you have written : "They get full points for song selection and their brisk and energetic rendition. There was no dull moment in the concert yesterday"

Looks like we are both impressed!

[mahavishnu]

Sreeni, glad to hear that we are on the same page!

[Lakshman]

I have confirmed that the rAgA for gOvindA dAmOdarA iss mishra tilang and for the song ADum mayilai sarasAngi.

[rajeshnat]

I have confirmed that the rAgA for gOvindA dAmOdarA iss mishra tilang and for the song ADum mayilai sarasAngi.

Did you by any chance juxtapose when you wrote:
I think ADum mayilai is in mishra tilang and gOvindA damOdarA is sarasAngi , also who is the composer of ADum mayilai?

[Pasupathy]

Lakshman,were you able to find out , the composer of ADum ...?

[mahavishnu]

I checked with the Trichur Brothers and they confirmed that the rAgam for "Adum mayilai koNDa azhagan" is misra-tilang. However, they were unsure about the composer themselves.

[Lakshman]

They are going to let me know when they get back home after their tour.

[VRV]

Thanks, Lakshman-ji.Karthik's kanjira had an excellent nadham.

Ramesh,

What do you mean by the above. Were you referring to an awesome base or did he have some additional bells on his kanjira.

Vinod Venkataraman

[mahavishnu]

Vinod, The bass is what I was referring to. Especially when he played an open "thOm".

[Lakshman]

rajeshnat: Sorry I mixed up the rAgAs for the two songs.