Malladi Brothers@Papanasam Sivan music festival, Madipakkam,

Ananth · Post by **Ananth** » 14 Jan 2007, 22:01

This suburban festival is in its 16th year, and features all top artistes.

Malladi brothers Sriram and Ravikumar- vocal
Sriram Parasuram - violin
Tiruvarur Bhaktavatsalam - mridangam
E M Subramaniam ? - ghatam

Muddumomu - Suryakantam? (longish raga sketch) - Adi - Tyagaraja
Gopikamanoharam - Mohanam - Adi - Muthuswami Dikshithar (S)
Kanukonu - Nayaki - Roopakam - Thyagaraja (R,N,S)
Sarasijanabha sodhari - Nagagandhari - Roopakam - Muthuswami Dikshithar
Chakkanirajamargamu - Kharaharapriya - Adi - Thyagaraja (RNST)
+ Couple of tukkadas

Brilliant Gopikamanoharam and swaras in mohanam, beautiful Nayaki alapana and an out of the world Karahapriya alapana (by the one who sits on our right - the shorter one - is he Ravikumar?) were the highlights. He just let loose on Karahapriya for 15 minutes, leaving the audience breathless. Bhaktha's mridangam support is so much more softer and melodious these days (compared to the high decibel days), and he and the ghatam vidwan presented innumerable lively korvais throughout the concert - there was not a dull moment from the percussion side. Tani avartanam was pretty short, but neat. Sriram on violin played nice alapanas of Nayaki and K.priya, but was generally subdued. I have heard him play far better.

Only negative point was the very high volume level for such a small auditorium - even though the brothers kept signalling for the volume to be reduced, it never was.

prashant · Post by **prashant** » 15 Jan 2007, 21:27

Ravikumar is quite the kharaharapriyA specialist. I have heard him sing 4/5 AlApanAs and they have all been nothing short of spectacular...

mahesh_narayan · Post by **mahesh_narayan** » 15 Jan 2007, 21:49

Prashant, I was thinking the same thing when I saw this review. My dad said he thought Sriramprasad often presents ragas like Saveri, Mohanam, Bilahari, while Ravikumar is more Kharaharapriya, Kambhoji, Kalyani etc. For some reason, to me, Sriram sounds more like Nedunuri Garu (even his mannerisms, like hand gestures) than Ravi.

One thing I always wanted to find out was whether their Dikshitar kriti stock is courtesy Nedunuri Garu. Nedunuri Sir has not handled some of the Dikshitar kritis that the brothers sing, as far as I have heard (like Gopika Manoharam, Brhadambikayai, some of the Kamalamba Navavarnams, Sri Balasubrahmanya, Arunachalanatham). It would be a pleasure to learn from that patantaram (just as it is to learn a new kriti from the DKP/DKJ patantaram).

Did they sing any PS kritis? This was a PS festival, wasn't it?

Ananth · Post by **Ananth** » 16 Jan 2007, 11:09

Just one Papanasam Sivan song - Om Saravanabhava - Shanmukhapriya, immediately after the tani.

prashant · Post by **prashant** » 16 Jan 2007, 11:26

mahesh_narayan wrote:One thing I always wanted to find out was whether their Dikshitar kriti stock is courtesy Nedunuri Garu. Nedunuri Sir has not handled some of the Dikshitar kritis that the brothers sing, as far as I have heard (like Gopika Manoharam, Brhadambikayai, some of the Kamalamba Navavarnams, Sri Balasubrahmanya, Arunachalanatham). It would be a pleasure to learn from that patantaram (just as it is to learn a new kriti from the DKP/DKJ patantaram).

Did they sing any PS kritis? This was a PS festival, wasn't it?

I think a fair amount of their Dikshitar stock is from their father Sri Suri Babu who must have learnt the krithis from either Sri Voleti or Sri Pinakapani. I will ask them and post the answer here.

Correct as regards the split-up of rAgAs: perhpas they divvy up the 'majors' equally [bhairavi, kalyANi and tODi to Sreeramaprasad and sankarAbharaNam, kAmbhOji and kharaharapriyA to Ravikumar]. The more scalar rAgAs seem to be tackled by Ravi while the phrase-oriented rAgAs are with Sreeram. Of course, this is all conjecture since there are enough instances proving the hollowness of my theory - just a general observation. I am pretty sure they decide on the fly who is to sing what at that day's concert.

Sreeramaprasad, though sings sAvEri fantastically well. I've heard him sing sAvEri for 45 minutes at a stretch during a chamber session and in the next day's concert, the AlApanA had some very unique and different ideas... it's definitely one of his favorites, just like Ravikumar enjoys kharaharapriyA.

Ananth · Post by **Ananth** » 16 Jan 2007, 14:35

prashant wrote:I think a fair amount of their Dikshitar stock is from their father Sri Suri Babu who must have learnt the krithis from either Sri Voleti or Sri Pinakapani. I will ask them and post the answer here.

Sri Suri Babu - is he not part of Malladi Brothers Senior? Only once I heard him sing - at the Carnatica Ethnic Eve - all three of them sang a couple of songs - he has a stronger, more majestic voice compared to the sons. Is the other senior Malladi younger or elder? And are both the younger Malladis own brothers or cousins? (Ravi kumar does not much resemble Sriram or the senior)

Any reviews of the Senior brothers's recent concerts?