Another Wonderful Concert by Rudrapatnam Brothers

I attended a concert by Rudrapatnam Brothers at Devagiri Sangita Sabha over the weekend. It was organized by the Suswaralaya School of Music. They were accompanied by Mridangam Maestro Umayalpuram K Shivaraman , Mysore Nagaraj on the violin and Sundaraman on the Khanjira. They commenced their concert with the Kalyani varnam Vanajakshi in Ata Talam. UKS's mridangam playing added to the beauty of this Varnam. The brothers moved on to Mayamalavagowlai and sang Meru Samana (wonderful neraval and swarams as Kanakabhushana Mula Sobillu). They then sang a rare Dikshithar kirtanam Rudra Kopa Jata in Rudrapriya. (Haven't heard this raga much and could just gauge that it was a Janyam of Karaharapriya. Confirmed the raga after getting home and referring to TKG's book on Dikshithar). The next item was Raga Bilahari. The younger of them, RK.Taranathan rendered a detailed alapanai and Mysore Nagaraj followed suit. They sang St. Thyagaraja's Toli Janmamu. The icing on the cake was their Thodi .It was elder brother RK Thyagarajan's turn to sing the alapana. Mysore Nagaraj's playing was exquisite. (He did full justice to the grandeur of Thodi). The brothers sang a rarely heard Thyagaraja kirtanam Dachu Kovalena in Jhampa talam. (I was reminded of Alathur Brothers as "Dachu Kovalena" was a favorite of theirs. Umayalpuram Sir reminisced about them in his speech too.) Listened to a wonderful Tani by UKS and Sundar. He plays so effortlessly and seems to just tap the Mridangam lightly. The brothers then sang the Shyama Shastri masterpiece Parvati Ninnu Nera in Kalgada. Mridangam Vidwan Srimushnam Raja Rao gave a speech praising the concert and also mentioned about an old tradition of singing Ragam Tanam Pallavi in the same raga as the Varnam. Umayalpuram gave a short and witty speech in English and Tamil (was impressed by his vocabulary and style of narrating.). Hence we got to hear Kalyani yet again after the speeches ended. UKS then requested them to sing a javali in KedaraGowlai and they complied. They concluded with a Purandara Dasa Kirtanam in Ananda Bhairavi and Mangalam. This was a truly wonderful concert as I mentioned in the title of this post and we left with our hearts contented at listening to such sweet and soothing music.

Comments

Unknown said…
I too was there !
You are right. This was indeed an unforgettable concert. The THANI is still ringing in my ears.
November 8, 2007 at 9:03 PM
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