carnatica bros @ Sri partha sarathy Swamy Sabha @18/12/2013

[Rasigapriya]

Vocal :- carnatica brothers
Violin :- Nagai Muralidharan
Mirdhangam:- tanjore murugaboopathy
Kanjira:-

The concert commenced with a beautiful swaying kunthala varali - Sri Ranga Pura Vasa on Lord Ranganatha, and the Carnatica Brothers aptly chose to render a navagraha krithi of muthuswami dhikshithar in Naatakurinji to honour the planet of Wednesday, "Bhudam Ashrayami" where Ganesh did a skilful raga outline and neraval. Then the duo moved on to a emoting Lalitha where they sang in praise of the presiding deity of Chennai - "Sri ParthaSarathy", starting with the verse Van Thamizh Nagaril composed by Sri Muralidharan Pn and tuned by him. This was followed by a rakthi Yadukula kambhoji (Hechari gaga).

The Next part of the concert was quite interesting. The date of the concert was taken as a base for rendering the pallavi. It was 18/12/2013. Sum of all digits of the date is 63. So, the 63rd Melam Lathangi was chosen as a raga for delivering the pallavi. Sum of digits of 63 is 9 so, 9 beat thalam was chosen. Reverse of 63 is 36 which was the number of aksharas in the thalam. It was none other than the kanda Jathi Triputa Thalam. Other, to be noted points were, the half of 36 is 18 which is the date. and karvai was 6 followed by remaining 12, which is the month - December. "padamalarai anudinamum panindidave parthasaarathi sada un" was the pallavi Sahityam. Tanam was rendered in Raga Malika and Sri Ganesh handled the ragas, lathangi, nayaki, begada and mukhari. It was really feeling like I was sitting inside naadhabrahmam itself. Angi Suffix ragas were chosen for Ragamalika Swarams, Sri Shashikiran handled Suvarnangi, Sri Nagai Muralidharan Handled Kanakangi, and Sri Ganesh diligently handled lavangi and ended the effort with a multi nadai korvai. Thani Avarthanam was enjoyable and the concert travelled towards conclusion with mooruthiyanu nilisu by purandara dasa in salaga bhairavi and sindubhairavi tillana of oothukkadhu Venkata Subbaiyer.

It was an awesome experience to sit in that atmosphere. Beautifully packaged concert by the Brothers

[nivedita]

They also did a lovely 4-3-2-1-1-2-3-4 multi-speed rendition with the pallavi--both in this concert and the one at Brahma Gana Sabha. In fact, Shashikiran sir has formulated a stunning variety of these multi-speed patterns for pallavis--this was one of them.

I have had the opportunity to listen to them from close quarters (and have the invaluable blessing of learning from Shri Shashikiran) for several years, so this is not meant to be a review. I enjoyed this concert as well as the next at Brahma Gana Sabha immensely, so I'm simply listing the songs here for the benefit of those that were not there.

At Brahma Gana Sabha, they started with the Kambhoji Ata tala varnam sarasijanAbha and followed it up with rAmabhakti sAmrAjya (kalpanaswaras in the pallavi). Next up was Kumudakriya alapana, replete with the most beautiful jArus in true Shashikiran style, and ardanArIswaram with swarams at AgamAdi sannutam. This was followed by an emotive Sahana alapana by Ganesh sir and the OVK kriti vAsudEvAya namO namastE with kalpanaswaras at parimaLa ulapa lavanga sadanAya. Thiruvarur Bhaktavatsalam sir and Chandrasekhara Sharma played a very engaging tani for this kriti. The pre-pallavi piece was manamOhanA mayilvAhana in Kuntalavarali. The pallavi for the day ('dhwani madhuradhwani jhankaradhwani brahma gyana paripUrNa' in Khanda Triputa) was in Jhankaradhwani, the 19th melakartha as the concert was on the 19th. Ragamalika swarams were in Garudadhwani, Hamsadhwani and Kolikadhwani. The post-tani pieces were sarvam brahma mayam, rAmam bhajE shyAmam manasA and guruvara bantamma, all rendered very classically.

[nivedita]

The highlights of the Carnatica Brothers' Narada Gana Sabha concert were the sowkhyam in their singing and the unparalleled beauty of Shri Trichy Sankaran's playing. The concert started with the Kalyani varnam vanajAkshi, followed by pAhimAm shri rAjarAjEshwari (kalpanaswarams in the pallavi) and gyAnamosagarAda (niraval and swarams at paramAtmuDu jIvAtmuDu). A very tasteful mukhAri alapana preceded the kriti EmaninnE. Trichy Sankaran sir's tani with Ghatam Karthick was a class apart; at no point in the concert did he overshadow the other performers, yet his playing shone brilliantly throughout. The post-thani pieces were the beautiful Begada javali idinIku, Ravikiran sir's ragamalika ashTalakshmi namOstutE, the ragamalika devarnama pavaDisu paramAtmanE and a tillana in hamsanAdam. Nagai Muralidharan sir was, as usual, outstanding on the violin.