That the celebrated legendary saint composer Tyagaraja has captured a special place in the hearts of Delhiites once again came to the fore when yet another ‘big ticket’ music organisation of the capital, the Karnataka Sangeetha Sabha recently arranged a two-day music and dance festival in Delhi in association with the government of Andhra Pradesh and the Tirumalai Tirupathi Devasthanams. The festival was titled “Dilliyil Thiruvaiyar” and was held at the Dhyanamandir auditorium of Tirupati Balaji Temple, Gole Market.
On the second day of the festival, Malladi Sreeramprasad and Malladi Ravikumar, popularly known as the “Malladi Brothers”, delighted the music lovers for close to two-and-half hours. The Vijayawada-based Malladi brothers are known for possessing a vast repertoire of Tyagaraja kritis. The choice of the artistes for the festival seemed to be a well thought out one and the vibrant manner in which the brothers sang did add glitter to the festivity in the capital.
The brothers opened their concert with the Saint’s composition “Janaki Ramana” in the raga Suddhaseemantini in a delightful manner. The information that the elder sibling, Sreeramprasad gave about this raga soon after presenting the song was informative. In particular, the information that the only song available in this raga has been composed by Tyagaraja was music to ears.
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Tyagaraja’s “Raghu vara nannu” in Pantuvarali not only came in for a detailed rendition in the concert, but the brothers handled the song in a delightful manner and brought out the lyrical values of the composition to the fore. Earlier, the younger sibling Ravikumar sang a scintillating alpana of the raga. The siblings’ musical depth also came to fore when they presented the neraval (the pallavi portion itself was taken up for this purpose) and subsequent swaraprastharas.
Tyagaraja’s fast-paced “Sarasa sama dana” in Kapi narayani was lively and gave a fillip to the concert. The central item of the brothers’ concert was a Ragam-Taanam-Pallavi. The verses of Tyagaraja itself “Rama Ni Samanamevaru Raghu Vamsoddharaka” in Kharaharapriya was taken up as the pallavi which was set to Tisra jati triputa tala. The siblings sang the tanam in turns in a delightful manner and executed the technicalities in singing pallavi brilliantly. However, the break-neck speed with which the elder sibling Sreeramprasad sang the raga alpana was disappointing, though even in this brief alpana the vocalist brought out the nuances of the raga in a fitting manner. One also did not understand the need for the percussion accompaniment for the tanam which was more of a hindrance rather than embellishment. Nevertheless, the ragamallika kalpanaswaras towards the end was enjoyable.
Nishant Chandran on the violin played extremely well. So did Tumkur B. Ravishankar on the mridangam. Chandran’s take on ragas Pantuvarali and Kharaharapriya and the ragamallika swaras were delightful. The tani avartanam that Ravishankar played with Elathur N. Harinarayanan (ghatam), was enjoyable, though Harinarayanan was found wanting at times. On the whole, a concert that pepped up the ongoing festivity in the capital.
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