Six decades on stage, more than 2,500 concerts and more than 100 students, vocalists, the Rudrapatnam Brothers, Thyagarajan and Tharanathan, are excited to have been chosen for the Padmashri this year.
“This is a jewel in the crown of our lifelong association with music,” says Thyagarajan.
The brothers are eager to dedicate the Padmashri to Karnataka. “It represents our leaning towards principled traditional ideologies, from packaging to our presentation. Given the proliferation of ‘contemporary styles’ today, it is gratifying to see our approach being recognised,” said Tharanathan.
The Rudrapatnam Brothers are the senior-most musicians representing Karnataka today. They are happy that in their six decades of being together on stage, their penchant for sticking to a purist format, while rendering rare ragas has paid off.
“Some memories cannot be erased,” recollects Tharanathan. “Renowned musicologist TR Subramaniam had once heard our raga Phalamanjari at the Music Academy. The next day when we had a recording at AIR, he called up the programme executive and asked him to include Phalamanjari on the list. Our passion for handling new ragas started quite early,” he adds.
Chennai, 29/12/2008: (9.15 am) :: Rudrapatnam Brothers R.N.Thiyagarajan and R.N.Tharanathan (Vocal) , C.N.Chandrasekaran (Violin) at Music Academy on Monday. Photo: V. Ganesan.
The Rudrapatnam Brothers are the grandsons of Harikatha vidwan Rudrapatnam Krishna Sastry; sons and disciples of RK Narayanaswamy and nephews of the doyen RK Srikantan. They were professionally trained under their uncle, violinist RK Venkatrama Shastry (Krishna Sastry’s son) a scholar who as an Akashavani Madras employee had regularly accompanied the cream of yesteryear vidwans, including MS Subbulakshmi for more than three decades.
While Thyagarajan, masters in Mathematics, worked as a Maths lecturer before joining the All India Radio in 1976, where he retired as Deputy Director, Doordarshan Kendra Bengaluru in 2003.
Tharanathan, who holds a PhD in chemistry, retired as Additional Director from CFTRI in Mysore in 2006 and was a visiting professor and Fellow at Germany. He has presented 180 research papers in international journals.
The brothers, who have performed globally with all major accompanists, started performing in 1956. They not only seem content with their stylistic principles intact, but their amalgam of time-honoured styles taken from Musiri, Semmangudi, Lalgudi, GNB, Alathur Brothers and Ramnad Krishnan have also been passed on to their students who are carrying forth the Rudrapatnam schooling.
How did the brothers bring in a subdued flavour to their music that has emerged from various styles? With the air fogged with musicality of every kind, hearing a variety formed their strongest foundation, according to the brothers.
“We were witnessing an unabashed influence from all the styles we were exposed to and we conscientiously authored a syllabus of our own, incorporating potent ingredients from each. The majestic tempo of Musiri that taught breath control, Semmangudi’s kriti pathantara with crisp sangatis, Lalgudi’s intense musicality with his varnas and tillanas robed in classical scales, GNB’s full-throated evergreen brigas, and the voice synchrony of Alathur Brothers...one can go on and on.” explains Tharanathan.
