Malladi Brothers-SCSES-19th Feb,11-Hyderabad

[revanthv552]

On the fourth day of the Annual festival of Sri Chandrasekharendra Sangeetha Educational Society, there was an award conferment on Sri Malladi Suribabu garu and the program was followed by a vocal concert by Malladi Brothers. The Award ceremony was going on when I entered the venue. After which, Sri Suribabu garu gave a speech which covered various things about his father, his guru and also about how the scenario of Carnatic music in Andhra Pradesh. The hall was once again jam packed. The Chief guest commented humorously saying that, despite the World Cup going on, many youngsters are in the auditorium which shows their interest for Carnatic music.

After 45 mins of speeches and felicitations, the concert commenced. The duo was accompanied by Sri Rajeev on the violin, Sri Arjun Kumar on the Mridangam and sri Hari Babu on the ghatam. The song list,

1. Anandha bhairavi Varnam-Cheluvuda ninne-Ammasatram Kanduswami
2.Ganapathey Mahamathey-Kalyani-Dikshitar[S]
3.Vidulaku Mrokkedha-Mayamalavagowla-Thyagaraja[R,S]
4.Narasimha Aagachcha-Mohana-Dikshitar[S]
5.Kaamadhenukaam Asraye-Dhenuka-Sri Anandha natha Sathguru[R]
6.Padavi Nee-Salaga bhairavi-Thyagaraj
7.RTP-Khamboji
"Dikshitha vara Syama thyaga raajam bhaje sangeetha sathgurum sadhaa"
Ragamalika swarams: Nata,Saveri,Hamir Kalyani,Lalitha,Sriranjani,Vaasanthi
Thaniavarthanam
8.Sivaya nama-Kunthalavarali-Papanasam Sivan
9.Thelisithe Mokshamu-Hamsanaadham-Annamacharya
10.Sri nilayam-Des-Narayana Theerthar
11.Kamalanayana-Vagadeeswari-Swati Tirunal
12.Govindha Sundhara-Dwijavanthi-Bhadrachalam Ramadasa
13.Mangalam-Pavamana-Sowarastram-thyagaraja

The concert began with a beautiful varnam in Anandabhairavi which was rendered at two speeds. It was really a wonderful composition and I heard this varnam for the first time. They announced the name of the Composer. The next item was an invocation on Ganesha and there was a good round of swarakalpana at the pallavi. The alapana of Mayamalavagowla was by Sriram and the famous "Vidulaku Mrokkedha" came next. There was swarakalpana at "Kamala Gowri" There were many uncommon prayogams and it was well received. The next song was Narasimha Agachcha in Mohanam. It was rendered very well, the rendition was very clear. Each word of the song could be clearly understood. The music did not eclipse the lyrics. Everything was perfectly in place. A very brisk round of swaras was done at the line "Purahara"

The surprise was the alapana in the raga Dhenuka. It was wonderful to see artistes taking up ragas like this for the sabhas in Hyderabad. Generally common ragas and common krithis are sung here. But these days I notice that the trend is changing ( for the better!). The concerts are no more boring now. They have become more educative apart from being entertainers. Its not every day does one get to listen to an alapana of Raga like Dhenuka. I really loved this. While everyone was expecting "Theliyaleru Rama" the only popular krithi in this raga, the brothers surprised us all again choosing a rare composition set to tune by their father. Before singing the song, Sriram spoke about how cows are being slaughtered ruthlessly and also explained the significance of cow in our culture. Then he announced the composer's name and said that this was a prayer to the sacred cow, Kamadhenu. There was no swarakalpana for this song. The alapana was done by Ravi.

The filler was Salagabhairavi. The main was Khamboji. While everyone expected a krithi, they started with the thanam in the raga. The mridangam was played for the thanam. It was an A-class Khamboji rendered with ultimate feel. It was wonderful to listen to them sing this raga. They really did excellent job handling the raga. And choosing an RTP for main piece is something which made me immensely happy. As I mentioned in my previous posts, RTPs in Hyderabad are very rare. And I got to listen to two concerts in the same week where the main pieces were RTPs. A treat for an RTP-lover like me. The pallavi was set to Khanda triputa. A good round of neraval and swarakalpana was done. Then there was this ragamalika swarakalpana which was splendid. The last round, Sri Ravikumar sang all the ragams at a stretch without a pause shifting from raga to raga and finally landing in Khamboji. The thaniavarthanam followed after that.

The post main piece session of the concert was equally interesting. The choice of songs rendered after the main piece was really wonderful. Every piece was well chosen. I specially loved the Hamsanaadham and Dwijavanthi pieces.

It was really a satisfactory concert. I heard the brothers sing in live after a long time and they did amazing justice to every piece they handled.

[rshankar]

Revanth - thank you for the detailed reviews you've been writing! The brothers are truly blessed - they are the confluence of so many musical influences, and they do full justice to the weighty traditions they are heir to.

[Sabaash]

Thank You Revanth.

Looks to be a fabulous list.
I am happy that top artists like Malladi Bros are treating audience outside Chennai as 'rasikas'.

One interesting fact which i have noticed is that, whenever Malladi Bros take up a rare raga for elaborate presentation, invariably Ravikumar does the alapana. Please correct me if i am wrong. I would certainly love to hear from Sriramprasad.

[arasi]

Revanth,
Just as you look forward to concerts in your city which has sparse musical rains and a drought of RTPs, we look forward to your reviews! You didn't have any exams this time around the season, I guess.
Is the varNam composer's name Ammasattiram Kandasami? A naTTuvanAr perhaps?

[keerthi]

Ammasattiram Kandasami? A naTTuvanAr perhaps?

Ammachatram Kannuswami Pillai was the nAgaswaram vidwan from whom T.N.Rajaratnam Pillai learnt his craft.

[weird.world]

Kamalanayana-Vagadeeswari-Swati Tirunal .... I have heard few artist rendering this song in suruti ...

did they render Kamalanayana vasudeva karivarada maam pahi ....?

[Sabaash]

@ weird world

I think this is a different kriti, the saahithya goes like this -

" Kamalanayana Jagadeeshwara Kamala Kaamukamaam Paripahi Vibho"

At the first instance this kriti appeared to a folk-abhang type.
i have not heard any other artist rendering this one.
Maladi Bros sing it with a different flavour.
Until the 4th or 5th line we will not know that it is Vagadheeswari
nevertheless a very enjoyable piece...

[weird.world]

Thanks for the clarification .. Let me see if I can find that track..

[sivakami]

Ya, this vagadeewshwari kriti , I have heard the MBros render a couple of times, here at Hyd. A good choice for a thukkada. this time also it was a rasika's request perhaps
..
given below is BMK garu's rendition...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyumNV9OAD8

[revanthv552]

@arasi thank you so much arasi! Nope, I did not have exams during this session. My exams happened in first week of February, and thanks to that I missed Vijay Siva and TNS. Managed to attend R & G though!

[vidya]

"Dikshitha vara Syama thyaga raajam bhaje sangeetha sathgurum sadhaa"

Now what are "Dikshita vara Syama" doing before the ekavacana accusative case of Tyagarajam and sadgurum? (While the Pallavi is a sangita-pradhana element and pallavi line does not "necessarily" have to be semantically complete and all that, the syntactic construct of this line seems very odd, almost analogous to an English songwriter writing, "I are going" ). Of course one can always resort to "stretching beyond the obvious" and take the first three words as qualifiers and so on..