The Malladi Brothers’ concert was shaped by thoughtful raga exposition and classic kritis

On respective instances, a performance turns retired to beryllium not conscionable entertaining but besides enlightening due to the fact that of the performer’s prime of ragas and kritis, and their presumption technique. Malladi Brothers Sreeram Prasad and Ravikumar’s recital for Kartik Fine Arts was 1 such. The duo’s presentations are ever traditional.

The brothers were supported by H.N. Bhaskar connected the violin, Neyveli Narayanan connected the mridangam and T.V. Gopalakrishnan connected the kanjira.

The brothers began with the lesser-heard Tyagaraja kriti ‘Evvare ramayya’ successful raga Gangeyabhooshani, the 33rd melakarta raga. The kriti featured an absorbing swara exchange. It was followed by a raga exposition of Darbar. The prime present went erstwhile again successful favour of Tyagaraja, and the kriti was ‘Narada guruswami’. It was adorned with respective matrices of swarakalpana, deploying the signature swaras of ‘ggars’ ‘nndp’ some successful the archetypal and the 2nd kalam strings. The kriti highlighted Tyagaraja’s devotion to sage Narada.

Then came an absorbing raga alapana of Kumudakriya by Ravikumar, with Ramprasad adding immoderate extended phrases and fascinatingly-placed brigas — the brothers’ voices effortlessly traversed successful each octaves. Violinist H.N. Bhaskar’s effect was precocious successful melody. Muthuswami Dikshitar’s ‘Ardhanareeswaram’ was rendered with poise and grace, with a swarakalpana segment. It besides demonstrated however effortlessly the brothers could scope tara sthayi.

The uncommon ‘Mrudubhashana’ by Tyagaraja successful raga Maruvadhanyasi came up next.

Ramprasad past started with an exposition of Kedaragowla with dilatory and dependable phrases. The raga’s scope and versatility provided ample scope for the vocalist to improvise soulful karvais; Ravikumar took up the enchanting briga segments.

‘Mangalalaya mamavadeva’, a alternatively lesser-heard creation of Narayana Tirtha was their prime for this raga. The niraval and swara exchanges focussed connected rishabam were fixed to the pallavi line. The responses from Bhaskar connected the violin and by Narayanan and Gopalakrishnan connected the percussion enhanced the entreaty of the kriti.

The tani avartanam by Narayanan and Gopalakrishnan resembled a pleasant drizzle, with brushed rhythmic exchanges.

The closing pieces were Muthu Tandavar’s ‘Chithambarame janmam niraivera’ successful Nadanamakriya, and Annamacharya’s ‘Avadharu raghupathi’ successful Khamas, arsenic a tribute to their guru, Nedunuri Krishnamurthy.