Carnatica Brothers' MS tribute concert @ London, 16/09/2016

[nivedita]

On Friday, the 16th of September -- the 100th birth anniversary of Smt. M.S. Subbulakshmi -- the Carnatica Brothers presented a tribute concert at the Highgate Hill Murugan Temple in London. The concert had a generous proportion of well-known Tamil krithis that MS popularized, which were all received enthusiastically by the largely Tamil audience.

They started with Vathapi Ganapathim (with a few rounds of brisk swarams), and then sang Sabhapathikku Veru Deivam (neraval, kalpana swarams), Kaa Vaa Vaa (kalpana swarams), Srinivasa Thiruvenkatamudayai (kalpana swarams) and Kapali (alapana, kalpana swarams). Post-tani items included a rare Yazhpanam Veeramani Iyer composition Muruga Muruga (Misra tilang) on Lord Balamurugan of Kathirkamam, Maharajapuram Santhanam's Revati tillana and Maithreem Bhajatha.

The highlight of the concert was a lilting composition 'sonnAl pOdAdO' that the Brothers composed in praise of Smt. M.S. Subbulakshmi in Karnaranjani just before the concert. Here's a recording of the song, sung by the Brothers during practice: https://soundcloud.com/shashikiran-kn/m ... odhadu-m4a

[arasi]

Thank you, Nivedita!

Please let us have the lyrics, so that we get to know every word of the song clearly. Thanks.

[Vocalist]

Thanks for sharing this review and audio Nivedita.

I will leave it to the experts here to type out the lyrics properly, but I cannot help but compare some features I observed between the "Sonnal Podhadho" composition of Brazil Subramaniam and this "Sonnal Podhadho" composition:
* Both compositions are in Karnaranjani raga
* Both compositions have been rendered by the brother-duo set to Khandachapu tala in a very similar manner (though I have heard a younger Nithyashree Mahadevan sing Brazil Subramaniam's composition set to Adi tala)
* K N Sashikiran tuned both of the compositions as I understand it
* The first line of the pallavi in both compositions is "Sonnal Podhadho Yen Navil Uraiyum"
* The second line of the pallavi differs as "Un Thiru Namam Yennalum Nan" are the words in Brazil Subramaniam's composition, while the words in this composition are "Yennalum Un Namam"
* The first line of the anupallavi: "Punniyam Veredhum Undo Annale, Panniya Pavam Mannil Maraiyave" versus "Punniyam Verundrum Undo Subbalakshmi, Padiya Geetham Manadhinil Niraiyave"

Whichever of the two I refer to, I reach the same conclusion: what a beautiful tune and composition!

[thanjavooran]

Nivedita,
Thanx for sharing.
Thanjavooran
20 09 2016

[nivedita]

Indeed, the brothers have made significant contributions to Shri Brazil Subramaniam's lyrics. To give you an idea of the context in which this krithi was composed -- this concert was at a Murugan temple, so the brothers were practising the original song (which is on Lord Muruga), when inspiration struck. They realised that the raga, compositional metre, etc were all perfect for a song on MS...and thus the new krithi was born.