Carnatica Brothers Concert in Frisco, TX on September 2,2013

[shruthicarnatic]

Vocal: Carnatica Brothers, K.N. Shashikiran and P. Ganesh
Violin: Shri. Narasimha Kikkeri
Mridangam: Poovalur Sriji

It was a wonderful way to end a long weekend with a high quality concert by the Carnatica Brothers in the Frisco Hanuman Temple in Dallas-Fortworth Metroplex in Texas on September 2nd 2013. The brothers performed this concert for a fund raising event in the temple.

The brothers started the concert with Sri Gananatham bajamyaham in Kanakaangi. Shashikiran started this with a short alapana and the brothers rendered multiple rounds of fast paced kalpana swarams marking a wonderful start. This was followed by Vande vasudevam in Sri ragam wonderfully rendered. They rendered marivere gathi in anandha bairavi ragam next followed by Bogendra shayinam in kuntala varaali.

The brothers then rendered a wonderful RTP in Saramathi. KNS announced that Saramathi was the favourite raga of Ganapathi Sachidanandha swami a(who was instrumental in the construction of the hanuman temple) and rendered the pallavi – “Marutheyai Mana Saaramathi Avan Paadame gathee Shakthi". They covered ragams like nattai, sahana, charukesi, simmendra madyamam, bahudari and behag. Shashikiran’s swarams in the lower octave was awesome and his behag and Saramathi rendition was superb. Ganesh was in a great form too on the Sahana and his voice in the higher octaves was very pleasing to hear. They rendered ragamalaika outline in the pallavi and the swarams were fast paced.

Ramarin Paramabaktharaam in Chandrajothi was good followed by Taraka Bindike in Tilang. Their voices blended very well. Upon request from the audience, they rendered Bho Shambo in revathi. This was very soulfully rendered and aptly supported by the accompanying artists. This was my personal favourite after the RTP.

They concluded the concert with Kurai ondrum illa and dashavatharam mangalam. The concert was very well received and the entire hall was charged up after their concert. The brothers have been performing consistently well and they seem to have better synchronization with Shashikiran and Ganesh complementing each other on the lower and higher octaves.

The accompanists were local to DFW area and aptly supported the vocalists. Shri Narasimhan Kikkeriji’s Saramathi alapana on the violin was excellent. Shri. Poovalur Sriji on the mridangam did a fantastic job and his tani at the end of the RTP was very good. His beats on Bho shambo, Dashavathara mangalam and Taraka Bindike was also very good.

It was a wonderful evening filled with good musical vibes.

[arasi]

Good to hear about this fund-riser concert. The brothers, coming from an illustrious musical family, are innovative, on top of being so well-trained by their father/uncle.

Nice pallavi line. Wondering. Was it: mAruthiyai manasAra mathi, avan pAdamE gathi??

[shruthicarnatic]

I apologize for not catching the essence of the pallavi line. I was focussing more on the raga name, but what you wrote seems to be more accurate.