Tuned to each other
G.S. PAUL
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The Thrissur Brothers' recital highlighted their wide repertoire and command over sruti and tala.
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IN A MUSICAL VEIN: The Thrissur Brothers Srikrishna Mohan and Ramkumar Mohan. PHOTO: K.K.NAJEEB
Ever since the emergence of Sangeetha Sabhas during the beginning of the last century, `musician-brothers' have been a phenomenon in concert music.
Kerala had the inimitable Alathur Brothers to its credit. Now the Thrissur Brothers Srikrishna Mohan and Ramkumar Mohan, Chennai-based chartered accountants in their twenties, sons of mridangam maestro Thrissur R. Mohan, are all set to emulate the Alathur Brothers. The Thrissur Brothers enthralled music fans in Thrissur with their performance.
Encores galore
Owing to their clear diction and aesthetic modulations, the highlight of the two-and-a-half hour concert, the audience paid their compliments to the duo by requesting encores. The selection of compositions was impressive too.
The opening number `Chalamela' a famous Adi tala varnam in Nattakurinji, served to build a rapport with the audience.
The strict disciplining they had undergone under the late Neyyattinkara Mohanachandran in the Nadalayapravah School of Music, Thrissur, was evident.
`Siddhivinayakam,' a Dikshitar composition set to Rupaka tala, was noteworthy for the swaras rendered.
After the Hindolam number, `Chandrasekhara' in khanda chappu, they broke into a Tyagaraja composition in the not-so-familiar raga Malawi, `Nenarunchinaanu anitiki' in Adi. The duo exhibited maturity in rendering the swaras in fast tempo, which the composition demanded.
The purity of sruti and the keen sense of tala were remarkable. Moreover, the composition marked a change from the previous ones in relatively slow tempos.
A similar change was again effected after the Dikshitar composition in Mohanam and misra chappu, `Narasimha agascha parabrahma' and the ever-fresh Dwijavanti number of Dikshitar, `Akhilanteswari' in Adi.
`Rama nee samana' received an eloquent portrayal. Perhaps, what endeared this number most to the audience was the effortless detour the brothers took to Valachi, Revathy and Kapi. The avartanam by Thrissur R. Mohan (mridangam), Trikkakkara Y.N. Santharam (ganjira), Udupi Sreedhar (fhatam) and Neyyattinkara Krishnan (mukharsing) contributed in making the concert a memorable one. M. Ratheesh, on the violin, provided excellent support.
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