Trichur Brothers@Aastika samAjam on Jan 10th,2015
-----------------------------------------------
Vocal : Trichur Brothers
Violin : V Sanjeev
Mrudangam : Trichur Mohan
Kanjira : S venkataramanan
Concert Type : Nirvana - No concert to follow
Day/Duration : Saturday/ 2 hours and 20 mins concert
Concert Type/Crowd : Free concert - ~300 peak - atleast 40% to 50% full house
Sabha / Hall : Aastika samAjam , venus colony,alwarpet
01.varnam(raga sketch)-mAtE malayadhwaja-kamas-HMB
02.shree ganapathini(S)-sowrashtram-T
7 mins swaras
03.hechariga rArA-yadukuakAmbOdhi-T
04.seetamma mAyamma(N S)-vasantA-T
6 mins neraval in dhararija bhAgavatA
6 mins swaras
05A.raagam Arabi
9 mins alapana and 6 mins violin return
05B.taanam Arabiand gana pancharatna ragas of RTP
taanam with ragamaliga taanam for 18 mins
05C.sAdinchane-Arabi-T
05D.tani for 12 mins
06.rAmanaibhajitAl(R)-mAnd-psivan
2 minute ragamALiga
07.mOkshamu-saramathi-T
08.ennapAlisO- sarasangi??natabhairav- PurandaradAsA ???
09.mamavapattabhi-manirangu-MD
10. brief slokham in madhyamavati
Trichur Brothers@Aastika samAjam on Jan 10th,2015
-
rajeshnat
- Posts: 10123
- Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 08:04
-
rajeshnat
- Posts: 10123
- Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 08:04
Re: Trichur Brothers@Aastika samAjam on Jan 10th,2015
Trichur Brothers Srikrishna mohan and ramkumar mohan accompanied by elder brotherly looking father Trichur Mohan is always a constant. The variables were V Sanjeev and S venkatarmanan . They presented a lovely concert in their flamboyant style with no sag which was a plus, but I felt their tendency to take an intense carnatic concert in the zone of say a fusion typecast was very much there.
As I entered i saw visual exuberance from the brothers just few minutes prior to the start of the concert and I liked it. Srikrishna mohan was standing before the dias and took few steps to ensure the sound is adjusted right , he checked the accompanist volume as they tuned and also made his younger brother to sing few rounds.Ramkumar mohan obliged with snatches of kalyani and i thought that kind of volume and tuning - leading from the front leadership is great . But as they sang the first song the kamas was not heard that well , i sat more in the last to middle , i was thinking only i had a problem . But the crowd post hearing kamas got up and asked asked the singers to jack up the volume . So moral of the story whoever adjusts the volume despite intense leadership by the artist , the first varnam is still only varanam .
I heard a fairly good kamas , it is one of those varnams which appears to have a lot of steroid sangathis and kamas mathE came quite good . Ater the encore volume up being fulfilled ,sowrashtram came up not pavamana , but sree ganapathini . The brothers have a racy style with adequate throw in their voice and I felt they started exceptionally well in sowrashtram . The swaras were rotated in an overlapping fashion and i liked it . The third drop was well done , a yadukulakAmbOdhi hechariga rA rA was sung in not its usual pace , but slightly racy speed.
The submain vasanta was sung in a racy pace , it was wonderful . seethamma mayammma rocked in the hands of their father , i think i heard few sangathis in neraval where vasanta went to hamsanandi land - i was thinking of anthi mazhai pozhigirathu of illayaraja , the swaras in vasantha kept up in the tagline swara mazhai pozhigarathu. I am swara phile and i loved it.
The elder brother drove arabi with a lovely alapana . i was thinking may be that was the sub main or possibly they are singing an early main to accommodate possibly a pallavi later . Arabi muse was intact and the brothers sang very well. Then they surprised with a taanam . I am of the humble view that taanam singing is more profound and deep nowadays with today's musicians . Taanam itself went for 18 minutes . One brother sang Arabi in full and i think the other brother went to nattai and gowlai . Then violin return by sanjeev in three ragas was more raga revealing than the vocalist . Then they decided to traverse it back in these three ragas then suddenly when i thought it was a three raga taanamaliga they went to varALi and shree ragam - intensity was indeed there but I felt the arresting nyasa rasam of varali was not there . But overall we all enjoyed taanam as their usp is to pound with sangathis with no spacing - I just love that , i am fed up when any vocalist hide under the canopy of violin return.
I was not expecting a pallavi but i was expecting a krithi and out popped the bright sAdinchanE , the aradhana was on in tiruvayaru that day ,the samajam had arabi atleast in alwarpet . They came out well with a nice semmangudi mama racy style of pancharathna , their guru is mohana charan ??who was the disciple of semmangudi. Post tani the tukkadas had a share of wow and also a share of fusion.
ramanai bhajithal of papanasam sivan is a nice number and they sang well , i some how donot like the last ending half of the greatest thamizh composer sivan when he ends ramanai bhajithal in a bhajana sampradaya fashion seetha ram ram ram .The saramati mokshamu is a defining krithi of T. they started with anupallavi and few months back i heard their another guru the greatest TRS mama singing and i felt the muse and throw was comparable .
One of the brothers kept on swirling one word karunakara as a slokham in the next number .Towards the end the two brothers took turn to simultaneously overlap with one word narayana and alapana singing . While karunakara was definitely ok the last narayana and alapana was something like listening to a colonial cousin CD. The intermediate krithi was enna pAliso karunAkara , i just googled to find that this number is bhimsen joshi uruppidi. Strong voice , strong diction but not that strong impression of enna pALisO. They announced they will end with dikshitar krithi , they hummed well the manirangu and they started well the master piece mamava pattabhi rama . Towards the end they lost a bit of breath and also the muse in mani did not ring - perhaps the previous colonial cousin fusion stretched from enna paliso to even mamava pattabhi rama.
V sanjeev was not heard that well .Infact there was another round of correction from some one in the crowd who rightly said the violin should be heard .Overall the audience played a big role in getting the sound knobs right . S Venkataramanan played the best in tani and he gave lovely support.
On mridangist ,just based on years of hearing many concerts . I would like to categorize the mrudangam playing of say Trichur Mohan , Neyveli venkatesh ,Anantha krishnan etal in a bracket of extraordinary intensity and near duracell long play during krithis with no over banging effect .They add so much of charm especially in swarakalpanas and neraval where they play with so much intensity all alone by themself without hiding under the canopy of upapakkavadyam . What can i say these mrudangam artist add so much aesthetics to the vocal artists. I only wish Trichur Mohan plays more to other artists , his hands have a sunaada touch and arresting speed and his body language is so calm outside.
All said the brothers indeed have a lot of passion to sing with no sag. Perhaps they are bit overselling them in tukkadas where they make sure to get a dose of covering up other genres other than carnatic - a bit of bhajana sampradayam and a lot of colonial cousin fusion. I certainly did not like that extenstion but their music is always pleasing to the ears which is what counts. The crowd is pretty good but could have been better as it is a free saturday concert.
Overall a very good to excellent concert for 2 hours and 20 minutes.
As I entered i saw visual exuberance from the brothers just few minutes prior to the start of the concert and I liked it. Srikrishna mohan was standing before the dias and took few steps to ensure the sound is adjusted right , he checked the accompanist volume as they tuned and also made his younger brother to sing few rounds.Ramkumar mohan obliged with snatches of kalyani and i thought that kind of volume and tuning - leading from the front leadership is great . But as they sang the first song the kamas was not heard that well , i sat more in the last to middle , i was thinking only i had a problem . But the crowd post hearing kamas got up and asked asked the singers to jack up the volume . So moral of the story whoever adjusts the volume despite intense leadership by the artist , the first varnam is still only varanam .
I heard a fairly good kamas , it is one of those varnams which appears to have a lot of steroid sangathis and kamas mathE came quite good . Ater the encore volume up being fulfilled ,sowrashtram came up not pavamana , but sree ganapathini . The brothers have a racy style with adequate throw in their voice and I felt they started exceptionally well in sowrashtram . The swaras were rotated in an overlapping fashion and i liked it . The third drop was well done , a yadukulakAmbOdhi hechariga rA rA was sung in not its usual pace , but slightly racy speed.
The submain vasanta was sung in a racy pace , it was wonderful . seethamma mayammma rocked in the hands of their father , i think i heard few sangathis in neraval where vasanta went to hamsanandi land - i was thinking of anthi mazhai pozhigirathu of illayaraja , the swaras in vasantha kept up in the tagline swara mazhai pozhigarathu. I am swara phile and i loved it.
The elder brother drove arabi with a lovely alapana . i was thinking may be that was the sub main or possibly they are singing an early main to accommodate possibly a pallavi later . Arabi muse was intact and the brothers sang very well. Then they surprised with a taanam . I am of the humble view that taanam singing is more profound and deep nowadays with today's musicians . Taanam itself went for 18 minutes . One brother sang Arabi in full and i think the other brother went to nattai and gowlai . Then violin return by sanjeev in three ragas was more raga revealing than the vocalist . Then they decided to traverse it back in these three ragas then suddenly when i thought it was a three raga taanamaliga they went to varALi and shree ragam - intensity was indeed there but I felt the arresting nyasa rasam of varali was not there . But overall we all enjoyed taanam as their usp is to pound with sangathis with no spacing - I just love that , i am fed up when any vocalist hide under the canopy of violin return.
I was not expecting a pallavi but i was expecting a krithi and out popped the bright sAdinchanE , the aradhana was on in tiruvayaru that day ,the samajam had arabi atleast in alwarpet . They came out well with a nice semmangudi mama racy style of pancharathna , their guru is mohana charan ??who was the disciple of semmangudi. Post tani the tukkadas had a share of wow and also a share of fusion.
ramanai bhajithal of papanasam sivan is a nice number and they sang well , i some how donot like the last ending half of the greatest thamizh composer sivan when he ends ramanai bhajithal in a bhajana sampradaya fashion seetha ram ram ram .The saramati mokshamu is a defining krithi of T. they started with anupallavi and few months back i heard their another guru the greatest TRS mama singing and i felt the muse and throw was comparable .
One of the brothers kept on swirling one word karunakara as a slokham in the next number .Towards the end the two brothers took turn to simultaneously overlap with one word narayana and alapana singing . While karunakara was definitely ok the last narayana and alapana was something like listening to a colonial cousin CD. The intermediate krithi was enna pAliso karunAkara , i just googled to find that this number is bhimsen joshi uruppidi. Strong voice , strong diction but not that strong impression of enna pALisO. They announced they will end with dikshitar krithi , they hummed well the manirangu and they started well the master piece mamava pattabhi rama . Towards the end they lost a bit of breath and also the muse in mani did not ring - perhaps the previous colonial cousin fusion stretched from enna paliso to even mamava pattabhi rama.
V sanjeev was not heard that well .Infact there was another round of correction from some one in the crowd who rightly said the violin should be heard .Overall the audience played a big role in getting the sound knobs right . S Venkataramanan played the best in tani and he gave lovely support.
On mridangist ,just based on years of hearing many concerts . I would like to categorize the mrudangam playing of say Trichur Mohan , Neyveli venkatesh ,Anantha krishnan etal in a bracket of extraordinary intensity and near duracell long play during krithis with no over banging effect .They add so much of charm especially in swarakalpanas and neraval where they play with so much intensity all alone by themself without hiding under the canopy of upapakkavadyam . What can i say these mrudangam artist add so much aesthetics to the vocal artists. I only wish Trichur Mohan plays more to other artists , his hands have a sunaada touch and arresting speed and his body language is so calm outside.
All said the brothers indeed have a lot of passion to sing with no sag. Perhaps they are bit overselling them in tukkadas where they make sure to get a dose of covering up other genres other than carnatic - a bit of bhajana sampradayam and a lot of colonial cousin fusion. I certainly did not like that extenstion but their music is always pleasing to the ears which is what counts. The crowd is pretty good but could have been better as it is a free saturday concert.
Overall a very good to excellent concert for 2 hours and 20 minutes.
-
mahavishnu
- Posts: 3341
- Joined: 02 Feb 2010, 21:56
Re: Trichur Brothers@Aastika samAjam on Jan 10th,2015
Rajesh, Thanks for your review.
Interesting observation re: Trichur Mohan. Some of his best work was in this album where he accompanied Sri Ravikiran. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LpRDD9p_PA Absolutely stellar nadham and style.
Likewise, I wish the Trichur Brothers would also play with other mridangam vidwans.
Interesting observation re: Trichur Mohan. Some of his best work was in this album where he accompanied Sri Ravikiran. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LpRDD9p_PA Absolutely stellar nadham and style.
Likewise, I wish the Trichur Brothers would also play with other mridangam vidwans.