Malladi Brothers - SouthBay (Palo Alto, CA) - Oct 31, 2010

[barrakooka]

I wanted to post earlier but laziness and work stopped me from doing so.

Violin: Ganesh Prasad
Mridangam: Parti Satish Kumar

1. Slokam in Nattai followed by Jaya Jaya Swamin - Narayana Theertha
2. Intha Paraka - Mayamalagowlai - swarams at santhathami siva
3. Endhuku nirdaya - HarikamBhoji - Thayagaraja - short raga alapanai, swarams at pallavi
4. Pankaja Lochana - Kalyani - Swathi Thirunal - submain piece, nice alapanai, neraval and swaramas at brindavana
5. Amba Neelambari - Neelambari - Ponniah Pillai
6. Saravana Bhava enum - Shamugapriya - Papanasam Sivan
7. Chetasri Balakrishnam - Dwijavanthi - Dikshitar
8. Chakkani Raja Margame - Karaharapriya - Thyagaraja - Main piece with thani, very good alapanai, swaramas at Kantiki, very very short neraval
9. Theliyaleru rama - Dhenuka - Thyagaraja
10. RTP - Begada - Ragamalika swaramas, several ragams for me to keep track
Pallavi - Dikshita vara shyama thyagarajam bhaje, sangeetha sathgurum sadha
11. Annamacharya song that I cant recall
12. Emithi dayaradhu sri ramudu
13. Rama Rama Rama Eniro - Tilang - Purandaradasa
14. Charanam bhava karuna - Arabhi - Narayana Theertha
15. A kind of folk song in Pahadi - they announced it was written by a famous telugu poet and set to tune by Voleti Venkateswarulu
16. Manadhukkugandhadhu murugan namam - Sindhu Bhairavi
17. Mangalam (not Bhavamana)

Overall, the concert was very good. The audience was all charged up, applauding at the slightest opportunity. The concert began about 15/20 minutes late and it was announced that was dedicated to the memory of SSI (Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer). They had garlanded a framed photograph of SSI right next to the Vinayakar statue (my preference would be not to place any vidwan's photos next to God's photos). The brothers also announced that they will be signing SSI favorites and also other songs. The concert began with a slokam praising different vaggeyakaras (which I did not infer at that time but later got that from the final speech). They sang Jaya Jaya Swamin in a different way (though in Nattai) compared to what I heard from UK (Unnikrishnan) sing Jaya Jaya Swamin in an old album, both were good but just a point to note.

From my limited listening experience, I found they picked several SSI favorites. Almost all pre-RTP songs seem to be SSI's favorites. I felt that they kind of rushed with the rendition of Pankaja lochana in the "Brindavana' part where a slow tempo with extended neraval would have been very great. However, Chetasri was rendered at the right tempo and was excellent to listen to. As for karaharapriya, its definitely a favorite ragam of SSI but then after listening to the electrifying version of MMI (Madurai Mani Iyer) sing Chakkani Raja, I thought Samanamevaru was more associated with SSI and that they would sing it. The karaharapriya alapana was very nice with very good violin response. They sang "Chakkani Raja Margame" but I'm used to hearing it as "Margamu", dont know which one is correct but the latter seems to be the popular one. The elder brother's alapani was very good in the higher octaves (I'm not knowledgeable enough to comment on what usages were new etc.). Ganesh Prasad's response was equally good. I wished they did some more neraval for this piece (being the main one). Infact, the concert lacked long neravals but I think its a matter of preference. They sang a lot more pieces instead. One small thing to nitpick is that during their short dwelling on 'kantiki', they elongated 'Sundara' to 'Soondara' some times.

The thani was very good, I know nothing about thanis to comment more. Ofcourse, throughout the concert the mridangam artist kept up the tempo. I would say he played a solid role in making the concert good. When they rendered sarva laghus in some places, he exactly kept up with them. The audience gave thundering applause for the main piece, and several people were stood up and clapped. Some people even made "oooooh" sounds (I've heard them only in some Hindusthani concerts earlier made by some Americans). They announced a 10-minute break, and requested everyone to stay for rest of the concert as they 're about to sing RTP and Annamacharya, Purandaradasa songs etc. When the concert resumed after break, several seats were empty, and people sitting on stage occupied the empty seats and quite an amount of seats were empty. After that the "ooooh" was reduced but I still heard one or two finally.

Theliyaleru Rama was not hurried but they did not repeat the lines, so it appeared to be hurried. Begada RTP was excellent. Before the RTP they announced that pallavi is going to be on the trinitiy and they're going to sing several ragamalika swarams and music students who identify the scheme behind the ragas choice will receive a gift. All I was able to identify was 5 ragams from Thyagaraj's Pancharatna krithis. Ofcourse, someone answered everything and got complimentary CDs. One note about the thukkada session was that "Rama Rama Rama Sitha" song had very very different lyrics from what I've heard in Bhajans, other singers. Since I dont know kannada, maybe they preserved the meaning. The mic of the taller brother (I assume the younger one) went on and off for a few times during the thukkadas which kind of disturbed him. Also, the taller brother showed diificult expressions in face sometimes when trying to sing swarams or alapanais. The other brother remained cool throughout the concert. There was another concert by Sri Panthula Rama at San Jose at the same date, time. Had both concerts happened at different time, I would've attended both as getting to listen to live concerts by professionals is not as frequent. Anway, I'm happy that I atleast got to attend one.