Trichur Brothers@NGS on Dec 21st,2024

[rajeshnat]

Trichur Brothers@NGS on Dec 21st,2024
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Vocal : Trichur Brothers - Srikrishna and Ramkumar Mohan
Violin : Idapally Ajith Kumar
Mrudangam :Trichur Mohan
Kanjira : Nerkunam Shankar
Tambura : 2 Tambura , both students of Trichur Brothers

Concert Type : Nirvana - concert to follow , Ticketed concert
Day : Saturday
Duration - 2 hours and 35 mins
Sabha/Hall : NGS Main Hall

01A. Slokham - EkadantAya vidmahE- Shri ragam - ?who wrote this famous slokham?
01B. EntarO mahAnubhavulu - shree ragam - T

02. vAnchasi yadi kushalam (Raga Sketch, CS1, CS2, S)- Kalyani - OVK
Swaras for 6 mins
03.Shree bhargavi -mangaLakaishiki - MD

04.ragasudha rasA(S) - AndOlika - T
Swaras for 09 Mins
05. Swarajathi(R) -Kamakshi - Bhairavi - SS
10 mins alapana and 4 mins violin return
06. pahimAm shree rAjarajeshwari - janaranjani - maha vaidyanatha Iyer

From the beginning of say year 2002/2003 when Sangeetham started with all reviews if i can enumerate musicians who are popular across in two parameters in the last 20 plus years, 4 come to my mind . The two parameters are 1. acceptance by more count of rasikas and 2. janaranjakam (though within the four there is not the same musical excellence feeling ) . I would name four and then a fifth in the list .Each of the five are half a generation apart . Say it was aruna sairam- Sanjay subrahmanyan - Ranjani Gayatri -Abhishek Raghuram and now the 5th is Trichur Brothers. Aruna may be partly retired so kind of Trichur brothers is going to neck and neck with other 3.

NGS Main sabha is big one with a big hall , infact the second biggest in seating capacity after academy, the concert start time was advertised as 4pm with a dance follows at 7pm. Difficult to know when the music concert has to stop for dance arrangement . I was happy the concert time given was for 2 hours 35 mins , the brothers went for 2 hours and 35 mins with a lot of microphone adjustment in earliest 10 mins . They always adjust their sound with the song kamalApta kula in brindavani as their mic adjustment special

The start with a nice slokham in shree ragam and ending with endaro is lovely. what a song is endarO and with longer lines and swara pattterns the shri ragam renditon kalai kattufied the concert. After a brief alapana in kalyani they sang a bit of racy song , i knew it was a thamizh composer but forgot about OVK during concert . All said the OVK renditon with lovely racy kalyani swarars was really well done. TO the best of my knowledge this is the first time i am hearing this OVK Kalyani song.

Ragam Lalita has probably a close cousin who is younger and the rare mangala kaishiki in the krithi shree bhargavi was rendered very well by both brothers. THen the brothers took another racy andolika song with lot of focus on swara kalpana which is always their forte. The contrast of MD rare item to racy ANdolika was well received by audience

Bhairavi main alapana was little too fast but when they went to swarajathi they sang very well . Swarajathis are the most precious treasures of Carnatic music . This Shyama Sastri swarajati is so special in many ways carnatic stays very very intense and refuses to get diluted as bhajanai. I thought in my mind go for neraval and swaras like their paramaguru SSI , but brothers did not catch my telepathy and ended with just the rendition of swarajathi.The premain filler was pahimam shree with a noticeable janaranjani they maintained their janaranjakam

[rajeshnat]

07A. RTP in RAKeshri for 40 mins
15 mins alapana and 4 mins violin return
9 mins taanam
Pallavi and swararagamaliga for 14 mins
Pallavi line is Saravana bhavA kumarabharA guruguha muruga , eNNai neeye aRul purivaay
Swara ragamaliga in rAkeshri + Ranjani + Revati
07B. tani for 9 mins

08. viruththam - kAdalAgi kasindhu -shenjuruTTi - Tevaram
08B. pitham theliya marundhu - shenjuruTTi - GKB
09. slokham and Mangalam with their chandrasekara sai slokham - madhyamavati

Rakeshri did come to Carnatic world possibly with Madurai somu ninaikadha neramillai and Lalgudi famous thillana . I am assuming before them Rakeshri was unknown and only bhAgeshri was known. Sanjay has sung a RTP in rAkeshri all said this ragam is a lovely drop for sure. For many rAkeshi - bhAgeshri difference is mostly unknown , but the brothers really sang a beautiful alapana and taanam. Konjam repletion in raga alapana but i am not complaining . Taanam was shared by brothers so well . THe Pallavi amaippu was nice and the words were clear and no extra pyrotechnic used , it was sarvalaghu Pallavi with nice spread of impactful rAkeshri. singing swaras is brothers forte and with the more maneuvering sri krishna mohan singing ranjani and the more bass voice singing Revathi , almost all of us enjoyed thoroughly.

Viruththam in tevaram was clean and the rendition of pittham theliya in shenjurutti suited very well the voices of overlapping intense brothers . Trichur Mohan usually plays like the elder brother of the vocalist but for a change he played like a father . Bit age has caught up , sarvalaghu was indeed there , in one of my review i call him as trichur nadabhadran, but the strength of beat was bit missing at few places . May be the two brothers botched up in the first 10 mins by giving instruction give master here and not there , i dont know . Nerkunam shankar teamed up well and he was intense for the whole concert.

To the best of my knowledge i have not heard Idapally Ajith Kumar from Gods own country in a live concert. HE was brilliant in my opinion. I could spot a bit of VVS like azhuttam and his raga bhavam was very concise and he did not intrude at all. Hope more vocalist give him chances in December season.Both the tani and main alapana violin was more a sacrifice to give more air time to vocalist which is always a good thing in an exact 2 hours and 30 mins concert

All said Trichur Brothers janaranjakam is enjoyed by all and i am also there in that crowd . When mohan played say during ranjani ragamaliga my mind flashed to a famous TRS Pallavi in ranjani and i also recollected many years before i wrote a review where i and TRS mama walked post this brothers concert. I told TRS mama then , mama unga kaathu brothers kitta veesudhu , TRS mama just brushed it .

If I could add one point that i could add for their improvement is they can bring little more gamakam consciously as compared to excessive flat note . Almost all compositions even ragas like bhairavi / Kalyani are ending with little higher share of flat note singing , if they add gamakams bit more there will be more classical. This concert had a right spread of compositions , rarity in a number and a detailed RTP with dove tailing well to two lovely thamizh numbers. Also let them not take more than 5 mins to adjust microphone, would be nice next time where they sing this lovely kamalApta kula ,brindvana saranga or brindavani as a real number and not as a microphone test number. They said two sishya names and introduced them durga and ananya and they said all of you know ananya , it is indeed a good gesture to introduce sishya names which increases my non musical respect

Overall an excellent to outstanding concert for 2 hours and 35 mins

[rajeshnat]

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Trichur Brothers@NGS on Dec 21st,2024
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Vocal : Trichur Brothers - Srikrishna and Ramkumar Mohan
Violin : Idapally Ajith Kumar
Mrudangam :Trichur Mohan
Kanjira : Nerkunam Shankar

GLICSPAWES 2024 "Goto LIve Concert Show PAtronage Without Excuses Series" concert #24 of xy is done.

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