Trichur Brothers@Music Academy on Dec 19th,2019

[rajeshnat]

Trichur Brothers@Music Academy on Dec 19th,2019
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Vocal : Trichur Brothers - Srikrishna Mohan and Ramkumar Mohan
Violin : Nishanth Chandran , disciple of A kanyakumari
Mrudangam : Guru Raghavendra , disciploe of Thinniam krishnan, an artist from AIR pondichery
Kanjira : Nerkunam Shankar
Tambura :

Concert Type : Ticketed and Nirvana for exact 150 mins
Time/Day : 6:45pm to 09:15 pm
Sabha : Music Academy

01. shree vignarAjam bhajE - gambeeranAttai - OVK
5 mins swaras

02. soundararAjam AshrayE (RS,S) - brindavanasArangA - MD
few mins ragasketch
03. kAvAvA (RS, S) - varAli - PSivan
few mins ragasketch and 16 mins swaras

04. bhOgeendara SAyeenam - kuntalavarAli - ST

05A. ramanee samAnAmevaru (R,N,S,T) - kharaharapriya - T
16 mins alapana and 7 mins violin return
15 mins neraval in paluku paluku lakhu thEnE
6 mins swaras
05B. tani for 11 mins

After a round of viral bout that affected me due to airconditioning in MFAC when I heard sanjay, i was in double mind to go to trichur brothers or not . The double mind was only to avoid the AC but not to avoid trichur brothers music. I went at roughly 06 20 pm to find the lowest denomination sold out , i was lucky to get dias and i had a coffee to clear the working day stress .I heard few strains of petra thai thanai with thanthai thAi irundaal krithi closure from Nisha rajagopal . Nisha was singing the previous evening slot and i heard the feed to the canteen outlet . At that moment i was wondering and thinking Nisha is doing a great job to bring in a popular aruna sayeeram number .

Around 06:45 pm ,As i entered and sat in the flood light dias , aruna sayeeram popularized sree vigna rajam bhaJE popped out from trichur brothers . Trichur brothers were assisted by Guru Raghavendra , who is promoted to evening slot . THe brothers were promoted last year to evening slot . IN this concert they were assisted in violin by Nishanth chandran who is perhaps returning to serious violin playing after his computer science related pursuit in UCLA.

I was seated next to a 10 or 11 year old girl who is taking songlist . A 9 year old boy in front of me was vaaaya pulathufying along with me for most times when this brothers are on their sincere pursuit of excellence in presentation music. While the concert is academy , all musicians generally try to sing a rare number taken up from the cobwebs of their almirah to say i am performing in Sangeetha vidwat sabhai , these brothers are just a matter of fact janaranjakam singers. They were singing as thought it is a hall no extra preperation to present any unheard song .

Sree vignarajam bhajE and gambheera nattai is a fanta faboulous opener , the rhythm and cascade of patterns comes inbuilt with the song . It is a juicy full toss for both the practitioners and the consumers to keep attention and not scratch our heads to wait for song #2. The gambeera nattai swaras were well done and O gosh i should say the sound setup was great despite Trichur brothers not given any time to adjust the sound.

What a joy it was to hear one of my favorite raga as #2. I went near my home town . It was nagapattinam with its brindavana saranga glory , a sketch of alapana was lovely . I thought that it would be kamalapta kula but instead it was a vilamba kalam soundararajam . As they started the song i was thinking brothers please dont rush and bring any unwanted flamboyance and they obeyed my telepathic order . Soundararajam ashraye was chaste and well done , the sanskrit words of dikshitar did get so much of raga bhavam and it was near perfect #2.

With a very short varali alapana janaranjakam is their motto .They went to ka va va . HEre their slight atiga prasangi thanmum of excess flamboyance that too in swaraprastharam did rob the concert excellence . I was in the dias with their little excess convoluted varali swaras i felt trichur brothers should learn bit more vishranti . But it was fortunately the only dent in the concert

They moved next to Tiruvananthapuram after a tour of nagaipattinam splendour and palani partial mottai detour. They are known and i know for sure there is a bunch of their fans who love their bhogeendra sayeenam .This bhogeendra sayinam is a spectacular krithi that never lets any one down. The brothers one prominent guru is some mohanacharan who learnt from some what popular sreenivasan who served as principal in a college in tiruvanantha puram when many in the audience were not even born. THere was Some distinct special effect in aural mode where for few sangathis in bhogeendra sayinam all the accompanist were in dharna mode indeed gave a double joy to kuntala varali

No alapana yet almost 1 hour gone . I knew some thing big is coming and what came in . It was their paramaguru srinivasan in full fist of fury semmangudi mode . What a joy to hear SSI typecast sangathis from both brothers when they sang kharaharapriya . They were Very engaging and well received . The main song was samAnamevaru and what a joy it was the brothers did exceptionally well with a lovely long neraval . Swaras was just 6 mins is what you would think but it had atleast 12 mins of content . The brothers sang a superb Kharaharapriya with a clear obeisance to their paramaguru semmangudi srinivasa iyer

[rajeshnat]

06. RTP in vasantha for 31 mins
alapana for 6 mins with additional 3 mins violin return
7 mins taanam
Pallavi composed by mahavidwan TN seshagopalan is
vikhasita mukham subha bhala pratham hariharasudham , sadA bhajEham
swaras in vasantha + abhEri + kApi + mAnd

07. shree chakra raja - shenjurutti + punnagavarAli +nadanAmakriya + sindhubhairavi - Agasthyar
08. slokham sayEEShwaraya + Shree venkata

The tani was brief and just as neyveli venkatesh said in a lovely interview roughtly a week back, both guru raghavendra and shankar just did what is needed for tani without cannibalizing the actual time that is needed for RTP. The mrudangam skin in tani was affected and I did not hear that distinctly the mrudu patterns . What a joy it was to hear vasantha as RTP . Superb alapanai in blistering style with an extraordinary taanam. Vasantha was well done in taanam brimming with few excellent taanam singers of today.

I am told post concert that the RTP is mahavidwan TNS sir creation . It is well done for a lord ayyapa based pallavi line , the guruvayoor blessed brothers are a terrfic choice .Swaras were superb in abheri with extra BHEEMPLUS sangathis , the kapi was done by ramkumar with the aroma being great and the last in maaand was catchy. They did not have 2 upapakkavadhyams they had roughky 5 mins . They finished with a lovely tamizhum nangaulum janaranjakam song shree chakra raja in 4 cute ragas ,the nadanamakriya was bit shaky i guess finishing in time at 09:15 pm just hit them .

The song list girl wrote every raga in her notebook and I was in joy when she wrote even brindavana saranga . i had to help her on the gambheera nattai , the 9 year old boy in front of me was looking at brothers as though he was seated in chepauk stadium to trace the ms dhoni sixer .

Violinist Nishant chandran like his lovely guru a kanyakumari had nice azhuttam , he only had to play in khp and vasanta and he did well . Guru raghavendra is a sarvalaghu champ and he did great support ,in tani the skin of mrudangam got affected by the Air conditioner is my best guess . Shankar with his intelligent taps and pauses did well, bit more aggression in kharaharapriya returns in neraval could have been slightly better.

There was great planning and coordination to exactly give maximum content in this "No nonsense 150 exact mins no extra time sabha". Trichur brothers could have done a better varali swaras and if they had apportioned that time to say a little more alanakaram for shree chakra raja or a small viruththam / slokham could have been better. Also i missed a short alapana prior to main.

Overall an excellent concert for 2 and half hours.

[Sachi_R]

Rajesh,
You seem to have travelled on a magic carpet on the dais to Nagapattinam, Thiruvananthapuram, Sabarimala, Guruvayoor and Semmangudi and enjoyed it so much! Wow

[CRama]

It was a fabulous concert. This year, I think they have followed the pattern of one big raga alapana only in a concert from what I heard from others. In Mudhra, there was only one- Bhairavi. In Meenakshi College- there was only one- Panthuvarali. IN some other place also. BUt Academy, they cannot do like that. Rightfully two great alapanas. But little more planning could have made it shine through. The varali swaras, KHP alapana, neraval were over done. They could have pruned here and set the time for the neraval in the RTP. . It was pallavi and stright into swaras.

The pallavi Vikasita mukham- it is TNS masterpiece. He sang it in Thodi, Hamsanandi etc,.

Sree Vighnarajam bhaje- OK you can attribute to Aruna Sairam. But thanthai thai irundal is a NC Vasanthakokilam number. But TNS has also sung that song.