In a way, the indefatigable energy of Hyderabad Brothers is awesome but their output is too robust sans aesthetics. To be exact, that of Seshachari’s, because the whole concert was hinged on his loud vocal prowess and musical acumen. Raghavachari most of the time was either a mute or a meek supporter of the proceedings. Their recital had a good start with ‘Ganasudha Rasamana’ in Nattai, a composition of Dr. M. Balamuralikrishna on Tyagaraja, with several special sangatis. A rough sketch of Sriranjani was backed by Tyagaraja’s ‘Marubalga’ with a lengthy and hard-line swara trail. An outline of Dhanyasi was followed by ‘Dyanamae Varamaina’ by Tyagaraja.
Seshachari opened Kalyani exposition touching some prime phrases of the raga. Ultimately, what followed was a raucous vocal drama with wild gesticulations to emphasise the raga image. Quite surprisingly, the supple and soft interlude of Raghavachari provided a bit of relief. Here too, Seshachari chose
Tyagaraja’s ‘Sundari Nee Divya’ with a riotous niraval at ‘Nannu Kanna Talli’ and swara assault with ‘Da Ni Sa’ as recurring motifs.
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One may find these comments offensive but the fact remains that classical Carnatic music may not demand an extremely sweet voice or range but definitely a concert is valued to a great extent on the aesthetics of the presentation. Assuming an aggressive and highly domineering posture always by Seshachari hardly add any value to their music.
Saveri was taken up for Ragam, Tanam, Pallavi that ended abruptly towards the end. There was no place for the violinist Delhi P. Sunderrajan here. Even otherwise, Sunderrajan had very little to offer in this programme except in swara sallies. When the vocalists prefer to go for wild chases the percussionists invariably take part in adding to the melee. That is what happened with V.V. Ramanamurthy and S.V. Ramani on the mridangam and the ghatam.
Their major contribution to the concert was in adding more noise in the form of percussion and also a roaring ‘tani avartanam’ which as expected drew huge appreciation from the audience.
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