Trichur Brothers@NGS on Dec 21st,2017

[rajeshnat]

Trichur Brothers@NGS on Dec 21st,2017
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Vocal : Srikrishna Mohan and Ramkumar Mohan
Violin : MA Sundareswaran
Mrudangam : Trichur Mohan
Kanjira : Nerkunam Shankar

Concert Type : Non Nirvana - concert to follow
Day/Duration : Thursday/ 2 hours and 30 minutes(4 pm to 6:30 pm)
Concert Type: Ticketed Concert
Hall : NGS Main Hall

1.deva deva kalayamithE (?,N,S)- mAyamAlavagowlai - ST
6 mins neraval in jAtarUpa nibhacEla janmArcitam mamAkhila
swaras for 5 mins

2.ambaramE thaneerE (Raga sketch) - kalyani - Andal tiruppavai
3.manavyalakincharA (S)- nalinakAnthi -T
8 mins swaras

4A. upachAramoolanu (R N S T) - bhairavi - T
13 mins alapana and 6 mins violin return
neraval kapata nAtaka sutra for 11 mins
8 mins swaras
4B. tani for 16 mins

5. raghuvamsa sudha - kAtanakuthoohalam - patnam
6. RTP sindhubhairavi in mishra jampa
pallavi line was - chidambaraNE natarAjanE unai kAna vaNdhomE kanakasabayil
swaras in sindhubhairavi + hamsAnandi + revati
24 mins alapana , 7 mins taanam and RTP was close to 40 mins

7. rAmanai bhajitthAL - mAnd - papanAsam sivan
8. slokham in sAyeeshwara - madhyamAvati

This is just my 6th concert this season(after OST,Swathi Srikrishna, tNS krishna ,Gurucharan and Lalgudi Siblings). Incidentally I had taken few hours off from work and took a NGS double header.

Every carnatic music concert will be different in some form . Quite a few artists are indeed creating a deeper impact in me and slowly these brothers are pushing a greater impact in me certainly not the greatest impact yet , but looks they will get there. Dual artists usually have not interested me that much , either there is a competency gap between two siblings and very likely a law of average sets in as on spot kalpana cannot come that easily. As a rule the priority of syncing takes a precedence than on spot kalpana and with that I lose a bit of interest . Certainly these brothers practice very well and I would not state everything is on spot kalpana and for them the greatest asset is they may even participate with the mrudangam track getting always tested and done a trail run very well at home with their "just beat it" dad. I guess all vocal-mrudangam combos say well set top A grade artist like sanjay-venkatesh,Vijay-JV, abhishek-anantha , trichur brothers- mohan need not anticipate that much in a live concert ,eventhough the rasikas may feel they are really ideating on spot in stage. Trial run helps for sure for a vocal-mrudangam team.

The brothers started with a sparkling deva deva kalayamithE , the source was semmangudi and the source continued with a drive by second generation brothers thru their mAyamAlavagowlai downpour which must have come thru their guru mohanacharan who learnt from devadeva kalayamithe muse creator. Nice neraval and sparkling swaras gave a great start . They continued with kalyani tiruppavai , alapana had a shade of yamunA but they did not take it too long as namami ganga . Raga kalyani was just a sketch and they came quickly to tiruppavai .

The star trek ride was studded with nalinakanthi with a bounty of swaras with mohan chiselling the path was superb , what can you say with manavyAlakinchara . The violinist school is also known for nalinakanthi and MAS did bring few frontiers of his illustrious chitappa MSG.

Bhairavi is a very very dear big 5 , alapana was well done with packed sangathis. They sang well and moved to upacharamoolanu . Swaras of 8 mins and the preceding neraval was well done - what a placing of keywords kapata nataka sutra to bring bhairavi in its truest glory.

The RTP was in sindhubhairavi . For the first time i heard an RTP in sindhubhairavi when I heard abhishek in annanagar. The brothers alapana in sindhubhairavi was great in ideas so many patterns and repetition which is always there with sindhubhairavi .The alapana had a lot of ghazalish experience that i had before with abhishek. The sindhubhairavi alapana was intense and definitely not a touch and go affair .The sudden magic muse during alapana return by MSG-MSA varisu MAS did bring joy to me . Srikrishna Mohan announced that the pallavi was crafted by his brothers wife Mrs Ramkumar Mohan . Nice pallavi with mishra jampai talam , The brothers bit ran out of time in neraval of pallavi . Their forte is swaras and all the 3 ragas (sindhubhairavi,hamsAnandi and revati) were propelled by mohan mrudu angam and most of the time it was captivating .

If MMG,Kalyani, Nalinakanthi and Bhairavi had a carnatic muse , the RTP had a hindustani muse , the intermediate katanakuthoohalam raghuvamsa with its cittaswaras had a western muse . Blame it on patnam subramania iyer the western damage was his design. The maand closure was lovely, a racy ramanai bhajithal with an end of sivan phrase sitaram sitaram . Mahavishnu once told in the forum that their family is from sitaram group of companies and I am pretty sure the number selection ramanai bhajithAl and ending of sitaram had nothing to do with that.

MA Sundaresan strength in few ragas like sindhubhairavi and nalinakanthi is quite known to every one . His usual weakness of intrusion was not noticed and I think he really showed some great aesthetics demonstrating Violin Vadya supremacy. Bhairavi alapana return he started with yaaro ivar yaaro , a year back he did the same with suryaprakash concert for bhairavi main ,I think he can drop this MC'ish style of playing lines from popular krithis during alapana return - it just does not bring that aesthetic attention within me when you play popular krithi phrases instead of alapana in its distilled essence that too for main alapana. All said MAS showed his class most of the time and I wish he continues with less of intrusion as he did yesterday . He is just top class in speed and his use of parur cut bowing came very handy in sindhubhairavi.

Mohan was sunaadam and speed and both was copious. I have noticed around the midpoint of every krithi especially when there is neraval and swaras , he intensely focusses on his mrudangam and plays only by closing his eyes .I am conjecturing with that posture of doing intense laya dhyanam leads to no unwanted ear piercing theermAnam and showmanship. Sarvalaghu champs are dear to me and sangeetha lokathil dhuruvan was indeed top draw of the concert . He could have possibly cut down say 5 or even 10 mins during tani so so that his daughter in law had a bigger share to demonstrate the pallavi mishra jampai line that she penned(chidambaraNE natarAjanE unai kAna vaNdhomE kanakasabayil).

Nerkunam shankar was not heard well and I am unable to pass any subjectivity during songs , his tani was just in line with Mohan.

On a not so good note
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It would be nice if brothers donot have this many iterations to adjust the sound system . Also some time in swara kalpana their populist route of singing swaras where it was so difficult to map to a raga was also there , I am concisely telling at the point where they ended revati and again started sindhubhairavi , both me and our forumite vasanthakokilam did not know if it was sindhubhairavi , may be they had invented a new raga mishra sindhubhairavi

All said voice quality and shruthi suddham is the core of our music . With both in plenty and with one brother srikrishan leading and with other brother ramkumar having bit more masculine bass voice God has created a near equal musical showmanship with both . The concert was a dot 2 hours and 30 mins closure concert as they had to give the stage with a 30 mins break to the next team.

Overall an excellent concert for 2 hours and 30 minutes

[grsastrigal]

Iam also disconnecting myself from attending their concerts because they sing like "double-Abhishek Raguraam. I may be wrong.

[rajeshnat]

I forgot to mention few lines about Nerkunam shankar. I just added that now.

[kvchellappa]

Do they sing in unison throughout?

[rajeshnat]

Do they sing in unison throughout?

Most of the time they kind of rotate and some times the closing sangathi of the first duo will be taken by the second to continue on own . For most of the krithis they sing together . Their USP is to showcase with more dense quantum , at times bit fushionish not to my liking but day before yesterday it was not that much fusionish.

[pperumal]

I am yet to listen to a concert of depth from them - somehow I have never been fond of their concerts.
Sounds too packaged and showy...not my cuppa tea I guess.

- PP.

[sangeethadasan]

Heard their concert at Academy yesterday.. Left even before they could complete anupallavi in Kumudakriya (Pantuvarali?)

[shriram.krishnan72]

@grsastrigal - Agree with you. I am also disconnecting myself.

Tried listening to their MMA concert. Walked away respectfully after the first song. They have great voices but nothing else. Pronunciation is all over the place and it is just plain loud and brash.

[sankark]

@grsastrigal - Agree with you. I am also disconnecting myself.

They have great voices but nothing else. Pronunciation is all over the place and it is just plain loud and brash.

In other words, all set for gate crashing mobs, frenzy and mob feeding frenzy!

[harimau]

In other words, all set for gate crashing mobs, frenzy and mob feeding frenzy!

Mob in feeding frenzy with no mini-meals available was described in General Discussions.

[sureshvv]

Carnatic rasikas have their priorities!

[pperumal]

@grsastrigal - Agree with you. I am also disconnecting myself.

They have great voices but nothing else. Pronunciation is all over the place and it is just plain loud and brash.

In other words, all set for gate crashing mobs, frenzy and mob feeding frenzy!

Sad but true [sigh!!!!]

- PP.

[iamnothurt]

no depth or soul in their music!

[shriram.krishnan72]

@sankark - Sadly you are right.

@sureshvv - I heard murmurs that people are disappointed by the MMA canteen shutting down between 2:30 and 3:30 everyday. CM Rasikas do seem to have their priorities!!!

[ram1999]

Trichur Brothers@NGS on Dec 21st,2017
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Bhairavi is a very very dear big 5 , alapana was well done with packed sangathis. They sang well and moved to upacharamoolanu . Swaras of 8 mins and the preceding neraval was well done - what a placing of keywords kapata nataka sutra to bring bhairavi in its truest glory.

When did big 6 become big 5. Any ragas went thru M&A ?????

[ram1999]

Trichur Brothers music is of high energy, rigmarole of going up and down the scales of the ragas butchering it out of proportion, high decibels and lacks beauty/bliss or pristine form of the CM. For a person who likes the pops and the blues and the rocks - it is perfect

[gardabha_gana]

I like blues and am not fond of Truchur brothers music. Went with great expectations to their concert in Blr and found it predictable and repetitive. Of course they have their fans who love the kind of music they sing. To each their own...