Trichur Brothers@nAyaki(Kotturpuram)on Oct 26th,2012

[rajeshnat]

Trichur Brothers@nAyaki(Kotturpuram)on Oct 26th,2012
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Vocal : Trichur Brothers
Violin : V Sanjeev
Mrudangam : Trichur Mohan
Kanjira : Nerkunam Shankar

Concert duration/Day : 2 hrs and 20 mins /Friday
Concert Type : Nirvana (no concert to follow)

1."varnam" chalamEla - nAttaikurinji - Rangaswamy Nattuvanar
2. ganarAjEna rakshitOham (RS , S) - Arabi - MD
5 mins swaras

3. anandanatamAduvAr thillai (S) - poorvikalyAni - Neelakanta Sivan
6 mins swaras
4. nAdalOludai (R) - kalyAnavasantham - T
11 mins alapanai and 6 mins violin return

5. nenaruncinaanu anniTiki - mAlavi - T
6. santAna rAmaswaminam - hindOlavasantham - MD

Trichur Brothers have an extraordinary charm that is more focussed on presentation that certainly appeals to both the initiated and uninitiated . They sing with real passion , and at times there is a feeling of perhaps they are overloading without spacing and pause , but that is what they are , that is what I as a rasika like . I prefer musicians to err on overload than rather concealing by slowing down putting the reason as following the paddanthara which at times is always untruthful justification.

The bang of their music started with a gentle descent in nattaikurinji , that descent of chalamEla , making me think it could be reworded chalakeezha than chalamEla. The varnam gathers speed and emebellishments and as they moved in 2nd speed with the line nannu brOva it was a lovely start of kalaikattufied varnam.

Arabi opener usually brings a charm to the concert and it indeed was nice for both sons exchanging a fist of fury ArAbi fight with their "calm demanour but a fist of fury fingers" of Trichur Mohan. The roll continued with #3 ,Their paramaguru Semmangudish phaLir phaLIr enna pAda krithi in the neelakanta sivan masterpiece krithi of anandanadamAduvAr thillai.

They are bit unconventional in the sense they dont fragment raga alapana in multiple krithis , they generally take for few . It is bit unconventional to skip alapana for poorvikalyani a standard submain and pass the baton to KalyAnavasantham. Kalyanvavasantham is an emotive raga in general, but they took this with a degree of slightly excess aggression , but to me that is OK and great , they kept excitement in kalyanavasantham alapana where janaranjakam quotient remained high. NadalOludai was very good , to an extent a degree of rush created a little less serenity effect in krithi (blame it on Maharajapuram santhanam and ramachandran who have sung so beautifully nAdalOludai)

mAlavi filler was so fast and I think it has come that way all the way from GNB etal to modern singers it just went and stopped , I got bit tired there.The next MD krithi santana rAmaswaminam was a rare , I totally forgot the raga hindOlavasantham till I wrote this review while I referred the raga. Certainly it was a good filler.

[rajeshnat]

7A. dakshinAmoorthE (R N T) - shankarAbharanam - MD
17 mins alapana in shankarAbharanam
5 mins violin return
neraval for 11 mins in "akshaya suvarNa vaDavruksha moola sthitE"
7B. tani for 14 mins

8. gOvardhana giridhAri - darbArikAnadA - NT
9A.sloKham "shantAkaram bhujagasayanam" - behAg + kApi + revati +hamsAnandi
9B. sreenivasa tiruvenkata - hamsAnandi - PSivan
10 . mangalam slokham

When there are unconventional ragas taken before elaboration for raga alapana like kalyanavasantham with poorvikalyani also getting over , I knew for sure it is a sudda madhyama ghana raga main. It was indeed one of the ghana raga shankarabharanam which sequed as main

Shankarabharanam rAgam is quite tricky to impress , there is always a little too excessive slumbering bumps and then a very arresting high reach brigas that come usually in second half .The key was the slumbering bumps should not be too long , but it was bit too long I could spot few patterns in shankarabharanam where both brothers did repeat few sangathis. With the AC being too cold , I was suddenly woken up with a jolt when they came up quite a few aggressive piDis like semmangudi mama in shankarabharanam.

I would not say I enjoyed the krithi dakshinAmoorthE and neraval that much . To an extent when you dont generally start slowly shankarabharanam that too a monumental krithi like dakshinamoorthE becomes bit tiring towards the end , and that is what I felt when they went bit overboard in their neraval in shankarabharanam.There was only neraval for the main and tani followed without swaras.

All the tukkadas were wonderful , the choices of ragas in ragamaliga were lovely taking a very clever line of vishnusahasranamam "shantAkaram bhujagasayanam" only adds more janaranjagam , I particularly liked the coherance of voices where one sings the phrase and the other hums the raga, it adds bit more zing effect in ragas like revati and hamsAnandi. The preceding govardana in darbAri was lovely.

sanjeev played very well, particularly for duos the violin quotient of reply comes down as two brothers alternate and only give the third round of play to violin. Sanjeev was not happy that he did not get feedback from the monitor , but I was happy with what I heard from sanjeev.

Trichur Mohan aka Vellore Ramabadharan Jr
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The real star for the concert was unassuming Trichur Mohan. He was given the title "sangeetha logathil dhruvan" by chembai when he accompanied chembai in his first concert . HIs biodata says he has had advanced training from PMI,UKS and KM . Perhaps to suit his sons he has moulded as a real sarvalaghu champion, not an iota of over drumming , there is nAdham in his hand just like nAdabhadran. Having said that this Vellore Ramabadran Jr has to "PLAY MORE FOR OTHER ARTISTS", than rather exclusively playing for his sons. It was brilliant support .

Nerkunam shankar gave brilliant support , there was a booming sound with long swara patterns by brothers there was more rotational quotient given to upa pakkavadhyam. Certainly Trichur Mohan was the main karanakartha for the success of this concert

Trichur Brothers to me are one of the best duos in the concert . There are others where the skillgap between duos will be evidently noticable which creates not the best of experience , but these brothers do get the knack of presenting a well packaged concert with near equal musical skill. Also most importantly they blend well which few duos dont get it right. They have excellent shruthi suddham and strong voice.Overall an excellent concert.

[nadhasudha]

Rajeshnat - Nice Review as usual! I had an opportunity to listen to the Trichur Brothers as part of the Charsur Mid year Festival. I found their music very likable. They do blend very well. However, IMHO I would not rate them as one of the best duos yet.