Iyer Brothers, Music Club IIT Madras

Iyer Brothers (Ramnath and Gopinath Iyer) - vINai
Thanjavur Kumar - mrUdangam
N Rajaraman - Ghatam

Music Club IIT Madras 30th March 2005

sarasijanAbha - kAmbhOji - aTa tALam
dEva dEva - mAyAmALavagauLa - rUpakam - ST (RNS)
narasimma mAmava - Arabhi - kaNDa cApu - ST (R)
bhajarE rE citta - kalyANi - misra cApu - MD (RS)
giripai - sahAnA - Adi - T (R)
sItamma mAyamma - vasantA - rUpakam - T
rAmA nIyEDa - kharaharapriyA - Adi - T (RTNS)
taniyAvardanam
smara janaka - bEhAg - cApu - ST (R)
visvEsvara - sindhubhairavi - rUpakam - ST (R)
sakhi prANa - cenchuruTTi - Adi - Dharmapuram SubbarAyar
nI nama rUpamulaku - saurAshTram

The opening varNam (announced clearly as a composition of the Tanjore quartet) was stunningly aesthetic and a high point of the concert. dEva dEva in mAyAmALavagauLa kriti was nicely rendered, devoid of a srgp phrase in the final sangathi of the pallavi, a trade-mark of one of the 'traditional' schools of veeNa playing. The Arabhi kriti and its sparkling ciTTai swaram were refreshing.

As Ramnath started kalyANi it was indicative of bhajarE rE or nidhi cAla (two kritis which the late Dr S Ramanathan used as illustration to show similarity of ideas between T and MD) and it turned out to be the former. The Alapanai was elaborate and replete with raga bhavam. Gopinath's sahAnA AlApanai was very traditional, while the kriti showed the stamp of Trivandrum R Venkataraman. This was followed by sItamma mAyamma in vasantA.

The main AlApanai and tAnam in kharaharapriyA were shared by the twins who displayed a good grasp of the rAgA and rendered the kriti at a sedate pace. The phrases of dilIpakam, were quiet evident in their version of the kriti. Niraval and svarams were embarked at 'tana sowkya'.

The tukkadas that followed the tani were good and the cenchuruTTi jAvaLi, which was rendered in madhyama sruthi warrants a special mention. The taniyavartanam was good. Both the mrudangist and ghatam artist stuck to rules to be followed for playing in a vINa concert. They were never too loud to supress the sound of the vINai. On the whole, the AlApanai openings and the way they were developed were nicely structured in such a way to fit the proceeding kritis. All the kriti renditions and manOdharamam were good. Considering that the brothers had not carried their own vINAs from Austalia but had borrowed one each from their two gurus, they managed admirably well with the instruments. They used simple contact mikes that did not distort the tonal quality of the instrument for the sake of high volume!