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| Doodle drawn on location....! |
Trichur Brothers have a wonderful voice and excellent coordination. There are places where one of them sings in the lower octave, while the other traverses the upper....which makes it extremely pleasing. Both are equally skilled; we don't find the one-upmanship sometimes seen in other duo concerts.
They moved onto "Rakshamaam sharanaagatam" in Naattai. We find the words..."gurupavana puraa vaasa" indicating that it is based on Guruvayur. There is a nice alliteration in the lyrics: "pannaga shayana....padmajaa ramana".
Next, a soulful rendition of the Dwijavanti kriti by Dikshitar- "cheta sri baalakrishnam bhajarey". Dwijavanti is elegance incarnate! We've all heard "Akhilandeshwari" many times. It was nice to hear a different kriti. And Dikshitar is Dikshitar! He simply owns this raga....as seen through these compostions!
It was followed by Papanasam Sivan's kaa-va va set to the raga Varali. The swara sequence sung by the Brothers was notable.
They moved onto a Jayadeva ashtapadi "priye charushiley" in the raga Mukhari. The listener has to be careful to differentiate Mukhari from Huseni. To set the doubt aside, the Brothers announced the raga and set us at ease!
The tempo of the concert was maintained through out. There was never a moment when the concert sagged or our mind drifted away. Tyagaraja's popular "Thelisi Rama" in purnachandrika was presented with the usual gusto associated with this piece.
The main item was the ragam-thanam-pallavi in Kalyani. It was grand! That's the beauty of these time-tested traditional ragas. We've heard Kalyani infinite number of times, but it is still thrilling. Like watching the waves in the ocean, there's never a dull moment....never a time when "we are done-with it" so to say!
There were elements of "yaman" woven into the Kalyani...and portions where they dwelt in the lower octave....like a diver...picking up the choicest pearls from the depth of the sea! The thanam in particular, was impressive. With the two singing in unison in parts, it created the element of "harmony". The pallavi refrain was "hare raama govinda murare....mukunda shaurey....mura hara" and back to "hare raama". The ragamalika swaras were in Saveri, Naatakurinji and the ever-fresh Sindhu Bhairavi.
Thani Avartanam was followed by thukdas- "baaro krishnaiyya" (maand with ragamalika), "naanaati" (Revati), "Hariharaatmajam" in Brindavana Saranga. Needless to say, they have made "Hariharaatmajam" their own! For sure, they will be hounded to sing it in every concert!
The concert was brought to a close with the effervescent "English Note" popularized by the maestro Madurai Mani.
The father of the Bros played the mridangam delectably, young Vittal Rangan was wonderful on the violin and Kovai Suresh ably assisted on the ghatam.
It was over 10 o'clock by the time the concert ended. It was a Friday evening to remember. Sometimes, we feel lazy and don't make that extra effort to attend concerts. We feel we can catch up on youtube. A terrible choice! How much we miss!
Concert music is like taking spoonful after spoonful of condensed milk right out of the tin..... and have it drip from the sides of the mouth!!! So delightfully sweet! Go for it!!
Make that extra effort. Land up at the concert...the next time Trichur Brothers are in town!!!
While I would seem to agree with your blog regarding the caliber of the artists, I was disappointed with a few aspects of the concert
ReplyDelete1. There was no raga alapana in the entire concert other than the RTP
2. There was no nereval either even though the brothers sang Kalpana swarams for most of the songs
3. Was disappointed that the pallavi was very straight forward and could have been in a more complex talam
4. Was a bit disappointed when the raga alapana on the violin and thani was curtailed due to time constraints
Over all a good concert, but could have been even better.
Dear anonymous!
DeleteI have found that listening to multiple concerts by the same person/duo helps. On a particular day, one aspect gets emphasized a lot more. The kritis are highlighted in one concert and manodharma/imagination gets prominence on a different day. By following a particular artist through multiple concerts, we get to hear their whole repertoire. And in the process, a particular concert may get lodged in our mind as ideal (as per our calibration scale!). This would be one way to go about it.
I normally follow an alternate approach. I have no demand on a particular menu to be served at a concert! I eat...what is served on that day! Though we "feel" like sending chits to the artist to sing something we like, I refrain from that too. May be, the artist has a different mind-set on that day....and may not want to sing the piece of our choice!
With this "no expectation" approach, I've found that the "enjoyment quotient" is a lot lot more! I simply focus on just that moment....one phrase at a time....as it is being unfolded! I've enjoyed this approach....and have come out of the hall...totally refreshed!
cheers
Shankar