AndyMusicBlog-thodi

The Annual composers festival at BTM cultural Academy normally has packed audiences. This concert by Malladi brothers on Saint Thyagaraja's was no exception. Having listened to Malladi brothers some days back at Bangalaore Gayana Samaj, I knew this is not a concert to be missed. After a long time, my entire gang of music friends from office (Vinu, Kavi, Sharan, Rekha and I) attended a concert together. They are wonderful Jodi singers and have learnt music from their father Malladi Suri Babu, Voleti Venkateshwarulu and Nedunuri Krishnamurthy. They are currently receiving advanced training from Dr. Sripada Pinakapani, the famous surgeon musician and guru of stalwarts like Voleti and Nedunuri. R.K.Sreeram Kumar was to accompany them on the violin but couldn't make it at the last moment and was replaced hurriedly by Mysore Shrikanth. The percussion accompanists were Anoor Ananthakrishna Sharma on the Mridangam, Giridhar Uduppa on the Ghatam and N.Amruth on Khanjira 01.) Muddu Momu

TMKrishna at Bangalore Gayana Samaja - Aanandaa Music festival. H.K.Venkatram - Violin, Trichy Sankaran - Mridangam, B.Purushottam - Kanjira Theme - Muthuswamy Dikshithar kritis 01.) dakSiNAmUrttE vidaLita dAsArttE - shankarAbharaNaM/mishra jhampa 02.) paHncabhUta kiraNAvaLiM candra mauLiM - kiraNAvaLi/khaNDa EkaM 03.) kamalAmbAM bhajarE rE mAnasa - kalyANi/Adi (2 kaLai) 04.) vINApustaka dhAriNIMAshrayE - vEgavAhini/mishra jhampa 05.) vAtApi gaNapatiM bhajEhaM - hamsadhvani/Adi 06.) vINAbhEri vENuvAdyAdi - AbhEri/Adi 07.) rAmacandrabhaktaM bhaja mAnasa - gEya hEjjajji/Adi 08.) shrI subrahmaNyAya namastE namastE - *kAmbhOji/tishra EkaM I have been panning TMKrishna's performances of late on my blog. But he was in excellent form and sang all compositions of Dikshithar beautifully. I specially need to mention his Sri Subramanyaya Namaste in Kamboji. HKV was not at his performing best while playing Shankarabharanam but his Kamboji Alapana was good. Trichy Shankaran was brillian

Malladi Brothers sang at Bangalore Gayana Samaja as part of Aanandaa Music festival. The theme of the festival was on Composers of Carnatic Music and the composer of the day was Maharaja Swathi Tirunal. They were accompanied by Embar Kannan on the violin, Mridangam maestro Trichy Shankaran and Vaikom S. Gopalakrishnan on the Ghatam (each of them being excellent artistes on their respective instruments) Song List : 1.) Kamboji - Sarasijanabha 2.) Gowlai - KAmajanaka - Adi talam 3.) Arabhi - Narasimha MAmava 4.) Useni - PAhimam brihan nAyike .Though they sang it very well, KVN's version is still the best :-) 5.) Begada - - kalayAmi Raghu RAmam 6.) Pantuvarali - Sarasaksha - Embar's style of playing is so close to that of his guru A. Kanyakumari. One of the best kritis in this concert.Tani was brilliant. The Palani Subramaniam Pillai style of playing on the Toppi was wonderfully executed by his prime disciple Trichy Shankaran. 7.) KaraharapriyA - Satatam pAvaka PAda Sevanam Left

Though I have listened to recordings of plenty of stalwarts since childhood, I never listened to much of Brinda and Mukta. My grandma used to tell me their Vilamba / Chowka KAlam renditions would bore me. I did listen to a few of their recordings off and on but found them drab and could never appreciate their music. I read many articles on them and their music in the recent issues of Sruti which I bought in Chennai recently. People have talked about the greatness of their music and henced I decided to check out for myself again. Guess their music is like Scotch - one needs to acquire a taste for it. I had a set of some of their famous Padams on my IPod. I decided to listen to these first. Kuvalakshiro in GauliPantu was the first song I listened to. I have listened to MS sing this song in one of her AIR recitals. She was a very good friend of both Muktha and Brinda and has learnt from Brindamma. I realized that MS's rendition is exactly similar to that by Brinda-Mukta. Only that 2

Since I had the brochure in Kannada and can't read the same, I got Vivek, my friend and colleague to read out only the names of main artistes yesterday as we were busy at work. Vinod (who loves listening to the percussionists) wanted details of accompanists too. Hence updating the earlier list courtesy Vivek (again). 21-01-2008 PurandaraDasa - Saralaya Sisters AnantaPadmanabha-Violin, C.Cheluvaraju - Mridangam, Sukanya Ramgopal - Ghatam, Bhagyalakshmi K - Morsing 22-01-2008 St. Thyagaraja - Malladi Brothers R.K.Shriram Kumar - Violin, Anoor Ananthakrishna Sharma - Mridangam, Giridhar Uduppa - Ghatam, N.Amruth - Khanjira 23-01-2008 Muthuswamy Dikshithar- Ragam Sisters (Chennai) Nalina Mohan - Violin, Vasudev - Mridangam, Dayanand Mohite - Ghatam, S.V.Sridahr - Morsing 24-01-2008 Mysore Vasudevachar - Rudrapatnam Brothers Mysore M.Manjunath - Violin, H.S Sudhindra - Mridangam, GS Ramanujam - Ghatam, M. Gururaj - Morsing 25-01-2008 Harikesanallur Muthiah Bhagavathar - Hyderabad Sist

Hi all, The Composers festival at BTM Cultural Academy, (Ramana Maharshi Institute for the Blind, near Ragi Gudda Temple) , Bangalore is commencing on 21st Jan, 2008. All concerts begin at 5.30 PM. 21-01-2008 PurandaraDasa - Saralaya Sisters and Party 22-01-2008 St. Thyagaraja - Malladi Brothers and Party 23-01-2008 Muthuswamy Dikshithar- Ragam Sisters (Chennai) and Party 24-01-2008 Mysore Vasudevachar - Rudrapatnam Brothers and Party 25-01-2008 Harikesanallur Muthiah Bhagavathar - Hyderabad Sisters and Party 26-01-2008 Shyama Shastri - O.S.Thyagarajan and Party 27-01-2008 - Thyagaraja Aradhana from 9.30 AM onwards Requesting one and all to attend the same.