Malladi Brothers in San Diego- Oct 30 2010

[Sindhuja]

Mridangam: Patri Satish Kumar
Violin: B. U. Ganesh Prasad

Song list:

1. Varnam- chalamela- Darbar, Adi
2. Lambodhara (Mysore Vasudevachar)- Kambodhi, Rupakam
3. Balakanakamaya (Thyagaraja)- Athana, Adi
4. Ninnuvina (Shyama Shastri)- Purvikalyani, Mishra chapu
5. Nagumomu (Thyagaraja) - Abheri, Adi
6. Kumaran tAl (Papanasham Sivan)- Yadukulakambodhi, Adi
7. Sri krishnam (Dikshitar) - Thodi, Adi
8. RTP- Kalyanavasantham - Khanda Triputa; swarams in Sama, Shankarabharanam, Amritavarshni, Hameer Kalyani, Vaasanthi,....?

(I assume the elder one is Sreeramprasad (sits to the left) and the younger is Ravikumar (sits to the right)- so my references to them will be according to this understanding. Pl correct me if I'm wrong)

**Disclaimer: Being a newbie "reviewer" (if I may even legitimately call myself one is a big question) I don't claim to provide very valuable insights/ inputs. Almost all impressions are entirely personal and to be treated as coming from a rasika rather than a reviewer**

Ravikumar began with a brief alapanai of Darbar- may be because it was the very beginning, it sounded kinda "gappy" and patchy- I think it was also because it took them a while to get the sound set to the parameters they wanted. They then started the varnam in style- resonant and bright. Sreeramprasad's voice in mandram is a pleasure to hear. The pace was comfortable, not too rushed. I usually don't like it when a varnam is started very fast and the 2nd kaalam goes at an indiscernable speed. The brothers started at an optimum pace and the swaras felt "snug" and unhurried. As a result the 2nd kaalam also had the appropriate pace. Overall a very satisfying and enjoyable performance. Next, they sang the shloka gajananam bhoothaganarthi as a viruththam in Kambodhi, followed by Lambodhara. What struck me as slightly odd was the way they sustained the Ni3 in SNP- sounded a bit uncharacteristic of Kambodhi to me. When SNP with the Ni3 is sung, I felt its usually done faster without sustaining the Ni3. Barring that, it was enjoyable. They sang kalpana swaram at "surabhusura" in the charanam. I thought their prayogam of "p n2 d g m" and "n d g m" were very beautiful- the d-g sliding transition sounded lovely. I didn't entirely follow their poruththam followed by kuraippu. They were returning to Da at the end of every 2, 1, 1/2 and 1/4 avarthanam and the eduppu was I think after 3 aksharams (rather than at samam like usual)- and I didn't exactly follow why they did that- may be it was just to make it more interesting. Nevertheless, it was very well done and very enjoyable. Sreeramprasad then did a sketch of Athana. A raga that primarily resides in its higher notes, has limited scope for elaboration. Sreeramprasad brought out all the lakshanas and did a nice job. The song was rendered nicely too and they did neraval at rara devadi deva followed by swarams. It was interesting how both of them sang S-D a couple of times with emphasis on the intermediate Ni3. Overall, neat performance.

Ravikumar then did an alapanai in Purvikalyani. He had some interesting patterns like pausing in turn at D (mandra), R (madhyama), D (madhyama), R(tara).. . Again, all the characteristic prayogams were well brought out and it was an immensely satisfying alapanai. What was striking to me when they started the krithi though, was that the pace of the alapanai didn't go with the pace of the krithi- it had been a quite elaborate and slow alapanai with many karvais, after which you'd expect something like Meenakshi...whereas this krithi was rendered at a relatively much faster pace. But independent of that, the krithi by itself was rendered very well. (I'm not too familiar with this song- would this count as an eg. for atita vishama graham (the pallavi)- as in song starting before the start of the thala cycle?) Kalpana swarams were done at "kamithartha" and the brothers intelligently used the "ka" of "kamithartha" as swaraksharam and came back to it as "ga" in many interesting ways. In between, very briefly though, the use of sndmgrs in the avarohanam gave a Hamsanandi feel, but as I said, was very, very brief. Duritha brigas on single notes (ga, ma) added momentum. The kanakku in the end was interesting, where they sang dsrg mdsr kaamithartha (the swaras of kaamitha being gmds). This was followed by a krithi rendition of Nagumomu, which they did well. And (unsurprisingly) the audience was all charged up for this song and one could tell how happy they were on this song selection. Barring a few high notes at which I felt they were a little extra loud; it was a classy rendition. The next was kumaran tAl in yadukulakambodhi- my very first reaction was that of disapproval, simply for the reason that the idea of singing kambodhi and yadukulakambodhi in the same concert (however spaced apart they are) didn't appeal to me. Needless to say though, the krithi was rendered well and was enjoyable.

Just when i was thinking that they were not choosing songs that varied greatly in pace (so far they were all madhyama kala); they started a thOdi alapanai and it was evident that it would be the main piece- meaning, a vilamaba kalam. (Nevertheless, I'd have preferred at least one more vilamba kalam in between somewhere- the way Ranjani Gayathri chose kaalai thookki in the purvangam of their concert). At this point, I just stopped taking notes and kinda lost interest. This is entirely a personal thing, but I don't get too enthused by thodi, bhairavi, kambodhi, kalyani, shankarabharanam etc for the main piece for the simple reason that we'ver heard a hell lot of them. Rarer ragas get my attention more easily- but that's just me... the alapanai, krithi, neraval (at shankha chakra) and swaram were all impeccably done. No prayogams were missed out and thodi was presented in its entirety. As expected, they (Ravikumar) did a brief graha bhedam: to Mohanam (R to R; sa varjyam) and it was done tastefully. After this came the huge surprise package, (at least for me)- RTP in Kalyanavasantham! The raga is dear as life to me and I was overjoyed when they started the alapanai. For this piece again, I didn't write down anything, but for different reasons- I just wanted to listen and enjoy. Fantastic ragam and thanam equally done by both. Unfortunately I don't remember the pallavi fully but it went like samagana lole I think (I remember the samagana part since it was again a swaraksharam as the word is customarily used). It had all the usual angams including trikalam. And the more they sang, the more I felt that this one piece was enough reason for attending the concert (not that the others were any less satisfying, but as I said, KV is one of my most favorite ragams). In the swarams they took turns and did Sama, Shankarabharanam, Amritavarshini, Hameer Kalyani, Vaasanthi- at which point unfortunately I had to leave. (So someone who was there could fill me in if you happen to see this). Loved all the raga choices and the way they handled the swarams.
Curious to know what thukkadas they sang...

Patri shone throughout- I don't know a lot about layam and nuances of mridangam, but I can say that he was not too loud and jarring; and was particularly great during kalpana swarmas- he seemed to have a perfect understanding of the korvais etc and supported ably. Ganesh Prasad was very good as well- particularly noteworthy was his purvikalyani ragam response. I really liked the tonality of the violin- unlike many, it wasn't too shrill and screechy. Although I should have, I didn't take copious notes on his playing, so not able to say too much in detail.

Overall the concert was immensely satisfying and I wish I'd stayed till the end. But for some minor turn offs like expressly vocally appreciating the violinist while he was playing (which seemed kinda distracting to me); the brothers were very good with great coordination. Most usually when sisters/ brothers sing, one always dominates and the other underplays. This was totally not the case with these brothers- all components were shared equally and I'd say that's a big plus.

[srikant1987]

So all along there was another rasikas.org member in San Diego along with bilahari! Another one who writes detailed reviews!

[Sindhuja]

haha yes. I just didn't think I could do justice to reviews (and didn't have to anyway, as long as bilahari was here)... but a couple of people pushed me, so thought of giving it a shot.

[rajeshnat]

Sindhuja
Keep it going , I asked you some time back to write and you indeed right well. Certainly when there is already a kAmbOdhi why another yadukulakAmbOdhi, BTW the krithi is kumaran tAl , not kumaran aRuL.

BTW when the brothers sang a big 5 main tOdi , you were still in the hall despite your dislike. But when they sang one of your favourite kalyAna vasantham , at the end of it you immediately left. Nice to have bilahari -substitute in sandiego.

[Sindhuja]

Rajesh, yes I remember you asking me to write- thanks!
Thanks for the clarification on the yadukulakambodhi song- that's correct; I'll change that above right away.
And I didn't willingly walk out when RTP was going on- had some constraints due to which I had to leave. I do wish I could've stayed on..

[bilahari]

Hi Sindhuja! For a philosophy grad student, your writing is very clear

I thoroughly enjoyed reading your review and do continue reviewing! Malladi Brothers have always used the N3 (and even N2) in interesting ways in kAmbOji. Their kAmbOji is very unique and I love it. Can't believe I wasn't there to listen to one of my favourite krithis - nagumOmu ganalEni. I also love the "duritha brighas" as you call it that they employ; it shows up in tAnam frequently too. As for kalyANa vasantam RTP...I live vicariously through you. I love KV/kIravANi/any raga in that family.

Now can you please not switch off for parts of the concert and write notes throughout
But it's OK to switch off for tODi. I'm not a great fan either.

[Sindhuja]

Hi Sindhuja! For a philosophy grad student, your writing is very clear

I think you actually meant, "Being a Philosophy grad student, your writing is very clear"

Glad you liked my post. And thanks for the inputs. I haven't heard them a lot, but in the one other live concert I heard in India about 3-4 years ago, the pattern was similar: they were giving fine performances but chose standard ragas, so I found that surprise element missing- and lo and behold, they stun with an RTP in Gamanashrama

Will try to cover future concerts to the extent I can. Thanks for reading!

[srikant1987]

San Diego must be really good, if kambhOji, aThANa, pUrvikalyANi, yadukula kAmbhOji, sAma, shankarAbharaNa, etc. are the "standard" there!

[Sindhuja]

San Diego must be really good, if kambhOji, aThANa, pUrvikalyANi, yadukula kAmbhOji, sAma, shankarAbharaNa, etc. are the "standard" there!

Well, my bad- I should have been clearer:
1. The reference to "standard" was not in any way intended to apply to SD- I just meant CM, in general (and in the couple of years that I've been here, I haven't really noticed any kind of trend here)
2. I was only talking about the pre- RTP songs. As I mentioned, I was very happy with everything about the RTP.
3. And in comparison to Gamanashrama and Kalyanavasantham, I'd indeed say kambodhi, thodi, purvikalyani, abheri are "standard" (although I love purvikalyani). Yadukulakambodhi and Athana are probably not, but I had other reasons why I would've preferred something else in place of the former, as I mentioned in the review; and I did really enjoy the latter.

It was probably in fact not very accurate to characterize their raga choices as "standard", but (its clearly my bias speaking here), KV for RTP just made everything else look "standard"! especially coz it was preceded by an elaborate thodi!

[vasanthakokilam]

Excellent review, Sindhuja.

[ragam-talam]

But it's OK to switch off for tODi. I'm not a great fan either

Such sacrilege! And sindhuja saying he/she is not enthused by the big 5! Both of you are forgiven; we are sure the prodigal sons will return home soon...


sindhuja - enjoyed your review very much. I am sure we enjoy reading such reviews with their personal touches much more than the 'the violinist acquitted himself' type of reviews that regularly appear in the Hindu.

[Sindhuja]

Thanks very much vasanthakokilam and ragam-talam!
And yeah... sacrilege/ blasphemy, it is, not being enthused by the big 5- I've got that quite a lot!

[akn1]

Unfortunately I don't remember the pallavi fully but it went like samagana lole I think (I remember the samagana part since it was again a swaraksharam as the word is customarily used)..

I think it went like "samagana malinchu brovave kanchi kamakshi madhura meenakshi"

Nice review Sindhuja!

[arasi]

Sindhuja,
Enjoyed reading your review. You ''acquitted yourself " well as a keen rasikA!

[rshankar]

I think it went like "samagana malinchu brovave..."

"sAmagAnamulicci brOvavE..." perhaps?

[PUNARVASU]

[quote="akn1"]

I think it went like "samagana malinchu brovave kanchi kamakshi madhura meenakshi"

There is a kriti of Shri Balamuralikrishna in the rAgam kalyANavasantham which goes like
gAnamAlinchi kAvavE kanchi kAmAkshi madura mInakshi'. Probably the singer prefixed it with 'sAma' and sang the pallavi line as 'PALLAVI'.

[Sindhuja]

Thank you, akn1 and arasi!

I now really wish I'd taken down the pallavi line properly!
rshankar/ Punarvasu: thanks- its possible that that's what they did! The line you've given does sound like what they sang!