The myth that ‘gamakam' from a western instrument such as the Mandolin was impossible had been dispelled by Shrinivas long back. But, in this concert he went a step further and proved that even pregnant pauses with extended karvais can also be played on the instrument. In his detailing of the main raga Khambhodi, Shrinivas in the initial stages, structured the raga with many solid phrases leading to the reposeful lengthy ones touching the tara and even athi tara sthayi excursions drawing thunderous ovation.
Tyagaraja's ‘Evarimata' was presented at a fairly brisk pace settling into the niraval and swaras at the customary ‘Bhakta Para Deenuda' with enough frills and swara fare shared by the brothers that included a superfluous ragamalika tag. The kutcheri assumed special nature in the sense that it had a couple of other melodious compositons: Syama Sastri's swarajati ‘Kamakshi Amba' in Bhairavi and Muthuswami Dikshitar's Lalitha kriti ‘Hiranmayeem Lakshmi.' Bhairavi swarajati was loaded with piety. Rajesh played a brief alapana for Lalitha making entries in the mandra region effectively. The middle and upper sections were offered by Shrinivas.
The choice of two other compositions of Tyagaraja in rare ragas were beautiful: ‘Emani Pogaduthura' in Veera Vasantham and ‘Sri Rama Padama' in Amritavahini. The salient feature in the rendition of these kritis was the delicately ornamental touches added to the sangatis. Darbar Adi tala varnam and ‘Siddhi Vinayakam' in Mohana Kalyani by Muthiah Bhagavatar were served as appetisers at the outset. Peri Sriramamurthy's response on the violin were rather lifeless except on a few occasions.
Uprisings and instrumentalists are inseparable. So there were parts of explosive exposition of musical wizardry raising their head here and there more especially on swara passages. Even if the instrument players were sober, the pakkavadyam group constantly prodding them to go on high voltage excursions. Bangalore V. Praveen on the mridangam tried every item (except swarajati) with excessive padding in the company of V. Selvaganesh on ganjira and Srirangam R. Kannan on morsing. Since this concert attached more focus on moderation, their thani avartanam turned out to be sparkling.
