Grand 45th Annual Cultural Festival
25th Nov 2012; Venue ; Keyes High School, Secunderabad.
Trichur Brothers Srikrishna Mohan & Sriram Mohan
Sri. Peri Sriramamurthy – violin
Sri. Trichur Mohan – mridangam
Sri. Nemani Somayajulu – ghatam
Song list:
1. Varnam –Kaanada
2. Sri vigna rajam bhaje – gambeera nattai – Othukkadu Venkata kavi
3. Slokam :
4. “Vaame bhumi sutha..” in saveri, nattaikurinji, dhanyasi, mohanam, mukhari, poorvi kalyani, madhyamavati, followed by “Bhavayaami raghuramam” –swati tirunaal
5. manavi naalagincha raadatte – nalinakanthi ( S @ manavi..)
6. Ragasudha rasa – Andholika ( R: 10. min alternating, S @ ragasudha rasa)
7. Annapoorne Visalakshi – Sama -D
8. Naan oru vilayattu bommaiya – navarasa kannada
9. Seshachala nayakam – varali ( R: 9 min, vio: 6 min, N @ aravinda patra nayanam; no swarams)
10. RTP – brindvana Saranaga – R: 12 min alternating, vio: 5 min, T, kanda jathi triputa thalam, 2 kalai); pallavi: “ Brindavana saranga, bhooloka vaikunta, sriranga..”; after 2 times of pallavi, swarams were interspersed; raga malika in ananda bhairavi, malayamarutham &kapi ?)
11. Tani : 12 min.
12. Irakkam varaamal –Behag –
13. Naanati brathukku – Revathi (ending with humming “ Hari Govinda..”)
14. Yogeendranam .. (we left when this started..)
15. ?
After listening to the power-packed performance of the Trichur bros in Feb. this year, the twin-cities-rasikas were very eager to listen to them again. This Nov concert was the on the 2nd day of the annual cultural festival of the local sabha Kalasagaram. On the 1st day was the inauguration, felicitations to Sri. Neyveli Santhanagopalan garu, violin vidwan Sri. Peri Sriramamurthy garu & the mridangam vidwan Sri. K. V. Prasad garu with the title of “Sangeetha Kalasagara” to each of them. After the felicitation function there was a concert by the three-Kalasagaras. I was away and could not attend on the 1st day. When we entered the venue on 25th Nov, the 2nd day, the T. Bros attired in jet black (ayyappa season, somebody was saying) were found to be standing in the audience side, chatting & greeting some known people in the crowd.
When it was time for the concert, they began the kutcheri with the Kaanada varnam, rendered in two speeds, during which the acoustic arrangements kept troubling the artistes constantly. They were quite dissatisfied, even after the many adjustments that were made. Normally this problem persists on the 1st day, which gets set right by the 2nd day, which was not the case here. This trend continued right through the Gambeera nattai piece, 3rd item and the next slokam-session till almost the 5th item, which resulted in the audience also losing the interest and continuity in the concert. Once they started the slokam-rendition, after the 1st ragam (saveri) followed by nattai kurinji, we immediately could guess, the remaining ragams that would follow, as well as the song, ‘Bhavayami Raghuramam’ of swathi tirunal. Although the Bros tried their level best to keep cool with the poor mike settings, the mood was missing (it appeared). They somehow tried and managed to complete the sapta-raga-malika in the style set by mahasri. Semmangudi avl . Then came the sub-main, Andholika, with a longish raga alapana, wherein both tried to display their prowess equally, followed by the Thyagaraja kriti ‘ Ragasudha rasa” with an extra-extra round of swarams. Someone was saying the next day that, “this item was over-stretched both during the alapana as well as the kriti, because of which we also lost time (in addition to the time spent for mike adjustments during that 1 hour or so). Instead they could have kept it shorter and could have given us another interesting filler piece” to which many others concurred. Next, there was the artiste-honouring-session break, by which time, many rasikas had become restless and had started to leave.
During the garlanding/announcement time, the mike settings were re-formatted, checked afterwards and was found to be OK for the artistes. They even said, “it feels like as if we are starting our concert now”. After this there was no looking back, with both the Bros in their true form, full of energy and enthusiasm. They had ensured not to repeat any item that was rendered in Feb. The soft and melodiously rendered Annapoorne & the next tamil kriti were well received, which was followed by the main item in Varali. Again the guesswork of which song will be their choice ended, when they began ‘Seshachala nayakam’. Having gotten used to listen to this kriti very-very frequently on the SVBC channel-nadaneerajanam concerts, atleast we were not very much for it. Also many times, rasikas prefer to have Kambhoji, Bilahari, Shankarabharanam, thodi etc., as one of the main items. So, some were disappointed. Then, for the RTP, when Brindavana Saranga was taken-up, I enjoyed thoroughly due to the nice brigas that were sung providing the effect of attending a two-in-one-Carnatic-Hindustani concert. The alternating style of both them singing throughout is what I always appreciated. The Tanam-rendition was with full percussion accompaniment, which added further zeal. Then they announced that they will be rendering the Pallavi composed by the great Shri. T. N. Seshagopalan Sir, which had the raga mudra incorporated in it. It was fantastic to listen, with the special effects of the mridangam and Nemani’s ghatam support; this percussion pleasure continued even during the Tani avartanam. As the crowd had already stabilized to a somewhat thin population of rasikas who had decided to stay till the end, the usual exodus during the Tani was absent. The post-tani thukkadas were very impressive, but it was almost 10’O clock, when someone from the crowd asked for “Yogeendranam” etc., when we decided to leave half-heartedly..
Other interesting features, were the Bros appreciating each other, and constantly lauding the pakka-vadhya vidwans, particularly the local senior artistes violinist Peri garu and Nemani garu on ghatam throughout the concert. It is always pleasing to listen to Nemani’s extra-special effects, synchronizing with the main artistes. Another scene that I enjoy very much, is to watch the young man who has been playing the tambura recently for the past 2-3 years for this annual festival, one Mr. Sheikh Khaja Imdaar, who enjoys the concerts thoroughly, and also tries to grasp many finer points from every main artiste, while sitting behind. When we watch keenly, we get to see that he just does not stop at providing tambura support on the stage, but he gets involved in the kriti rendition himself trying to hum the song; sometimes raises/moves his left hand or sways his head in conjunction with main artistes alapana, neraval and other presentations. Sometimes, he even tries to pull himself very close to the vidwan, perhaps to observe the expressions on their face. I sometimes even used to feel, perhaps he should be made to sit in front of the artistes on the stage, instead of that electronic sruthi box, so that he can provide tambura support, while listening to the concert like the other rasikas, from the front side.
Overall it was an excellent kutcheri, like a jugal bandhi, but the choice of some other ragas and proper mike settings (on time) would have left both the rasikas as well as the vidwans ‘Very Happy(ier)’ respectively, at the end of that evening.…
I also came across this blog piece, written in a very different style, “http://tsr.net.co/2012/11/sublime-trichur-brothers” about the above-kutcheri.. Read and Enjoy!!!