Malladi Brothers (Shriram Prasad & Ravi Kumar) ...

srikant1987 · Post by **srikant1987** » 11 Aug 2008, 16:40

Clasfest 2008. Music Club IIT Madras. Central Lecture Theatre.
9th August 2008. 5 pm.

1. calamEla - darbAr - Adi - TT
2. parvatarAja kumAri - srI ranjani - Adi - MD (RS)
3. AragimpavE - tODi - rUpakam - T (NS)
4. adi kAdu bhajana - yadukula kAmbhOji - Adi - T (RST)
5. paNipati sAyI - jhankAradvani - Adi - T (S)
6. RTP - shanmukhapriyA - tisra tripuTa (2 kaLai) 1/2 eDuppu. 3 aksharam aridi.
nIrajAkshi kAmAkshi nikhilalOka janani niranjani
rAgamAlika svarams in balahamsa, danyAsi, yAgapriyA, suddha sArangA, suruTTi
tani
7. rAmachandru vituDu - dvijAvanti - Adi - A
8. yatuTanunnADu vIDE - bhujangiNi - Adi - A
9. tillAnA - khamAs - Adi
10. patiki hAratI - suruTTi - Adi - T
11. Walajapet Venkataramana Bhagavathar's Guru Sthuthi verses sung in madhyamAvati.

It was a very nice and enjoyable concert. The crisp darbAr varNam gave a brisk start to it, and Dikshitar's madhyamakAla kriti kept the tempo. The svarams were at the pallavi which commences at tAra sa; it was approached in different manners, with ni as well as ri. AragimpavE was sung with very good neraval and nice svarams.

The yadukula kAmbhOji piece was the main kriti for the day, and it had a nicely structured AlApanai; neither too orthodoxly shaped nor too loose. It was sung by Vidwan Shriram Prasad. The violinist gave a short and very beautiful AlApanai in reply to it.

The RTP's rAgam section was sung by Sri Ravi Kumar. The pallavi was sung in slower and faster tempos also. The nI it commences with was a svarAkSharam. kAmA-kShi also was ga-mA-pa. Here, Vidwan Shriram Prasad sang bAlahamsA, commencing the rAgamAlika svarams. So dhanyAsi and shuddha sAranga were from Vidwan Ravi Kumar and yAgapriya and suruTTi were from Sri Shriram Prasad.

Vidwan Ravi Kumar's svarams would sometimes melt into AlApanais (within the tALam). In the RTP, this meant that the svaram-only rAgams' AlApanais weren't missed either. Vidwan Shriram Prasad also introduced unorthodox gamakams in some svarams. He also asked the percussionists to join the tAnam. This was the first time I got to hear a tAnam like this.

In the svarams, the violinist handled the rather rare rAgams offered here effortlessly. The tani was good.

Annamacharya's songs were sung on request by a member of audience. I also like Annamacharya's songs!

The tillAnA was in Tamil and employs some svarAkSharams at ma.

It was a very nice concert, and I have a feeling I should have drawn more from it! I hope to hear the Brothers again soon!

prashant · Post by **prashant** » 11 Aug 2008, 16:46

Very nice review and interesting choice of main piece. adi kAdu bhajana is a very rare krithi and nice to see the brothers take it up for main. Who were the accompanying artistes?

rbharath · Post by **rbharath** » 11 Aug 2008, 16:46

It was a very nice concert. From the word go, the concert was full of classical pieces rendered with a traditional gait. The choice of kritis and rAgams was refreshingly different. It was quite an amazing thing to hear yadukula kAmbhOji taken up for the main kriti of the evening. The kritis were all rendered very well. The manOdarmam parts were quite good. Sri Sriram's srIranjani and yadukulakAmbhOji elaborations were very classical. Sri Ravikumar's shanmukhapriyA was very good as well. The brothers shared the other manOdarma parts. In the pallavi, Sri Shriram sang balahamsa, yAgapriyA and suruTTi while Sri Ravikumar sang danyAsi and suddha sArangA. It was over all a very fulfilling concert.

Sri Ganesh Prasad gave able support and played his part perfectly to match the music of the main artist. Sri Raju played very interesting patterns on his mridangam. His accompanying for kritis and the manOdarmam was very nice. He also played along for the tAnam which was quite interesting to hear. Sri Gopalakrishnan very wisely supported him. Both that tanis were very good.

srikant1987 · Post by **srikant1987** » 11 Aug 2008, 16:49

Oh, sorry, the accompanists were Sri B U Ganesh Prasad on the violin, Sri MLN Raju on the Mridangam and Sri Vaikom Gopalakrishnan on the ghaTam.

rbharath · Post by **rbharath** » 11 Aug 2008, 16:49

prashant wrote:adi kAdu bhajana is a very rare krithi and nice to see the brothers take it up for main.

indeed.

prashant wrote:Who were the accompanying artistes?

Malladi Brothers - B U Ganesh Prasad - MLN Raju - Vaikom Gopalakrishnan was the set.

mohan · Post by **mohan** » 11 Aug 2008, 17:08

The pallavi seems to be the same one that their father's guru, Sri Voleti Venkateswaralu, used to sing.

srikant1987 · Post by **srikant1987** » 11 Aug 2008, 18:04

Oh, and Vidwan Shriram Prasad hit the mantra sa in Sri Ranjani.

mahesh_narayan · Post by **mahesh_narayan** » 11 Aug 2008, 18:28

The songlist is very reminiscent of their guru Nedunuri Sir's list. The bhujangini piece has been superbly tuned by Nedunuri Sir.

BTW, does anyone have a recording of the Annamacharya piece 'itara devata' tuned by Nedunuri Sir in Saramati? Another really great piece of work by him.

rasaali · Post by **rasaali** » 11 Aug 2008, 22:08

mohan wrote:The pallavi seems to be the same one that their father's guru, Sri Voleti Venkateswaralu, used to sing.

Yes, Sri Voleti did sing it but it probably predates him. I have heard from multiple people about this being one of the "traditional" pallavis. I have heard in Bhairavi. Experts will be able to shed more light on this.

vsarmaiitm · Post by **vsarmaiitm** » 12 Aug 2008, 09:09

slight correction for 7 and 8 pieces:
7. rAmachandrudithadu (i.e., rAmachandrudu + ithadu)
8. yedutanunnAdu vIde

srikant1987 · Post by **srikant1987** » 12 Aug 2008, 11:35

^^^

I didn't note down the list myself, so borrowed it from a friend in typing. I made some corrections ... Even rAmacandru vituDu didn't make sense to me, but I find Telugu pretty unpredictable and it always turns out to have words I couldn't have guessed.

So I retained it like that. Thanks for the corrections, in future I'll write reviews only when I'm totally sure.

rbharath · Post by **rbharath** » 12 Aug 2008, 16:32

It was me who supplied the list to srikant. hence, all corrections in the list lead to me

I do not know telugu, so, it is only what i decifer from the pronounciations when somebody renders. to an extent i do make a conscious effort to not get the wrong lyrics.

the pallavi, i have also heard it in bhairavi.