New
Zealand Carnatic Music Society
Review
on the concert by Malladi Brothers
(Held
on 12 June 2005)
.
. . . “The concert Jazzier than Jazz
and Rockier than Rock was a magnificent marathon effort of over three
and a half hours' duration that held the audience captive, breathless and
spellbound. Both the artists and the audience were eager and ready for the
concert to go even longer, but other time constraints required conclusion just
after 9 pm. The artists' repertoire of superb presentations included immortal
devotional composition gems of great saint-composers and masters: St.
Annamacharya, St. Thyagaraja, St. Purandaradasa, St. Kabir Das, St. Narayana
Teertha, Sri. Shyama Sastri, Sri.
Muthuswami Dixitar, Sri. Papanasam Sivan and Maharaja Swati Tirunal, in
Sanskrit, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Hindi, thus quenching the appetites of the
diverse music lovers.
In
summary, it was " Bhakti, Bhaava, Jnaana, Maadhurya Poorita, Nava Rasa
Bharita, Ram-Ravi-Raju-Srikanth Sangeetaamritam Idam ".
Heartiest Congratulations and Best Wishes to
the artists, the organisers, NZ Carnatic Music Society, Sangeeta Bharati and
thanks all the patrons, sponsors and supporters and promoters of this great
Indian cultural heritage in this lovely Kiwiland.”
- M K Vamanamurthy, Auckland
.
. . “The musical intellect of Shri Ram Prasad and the melody & aesthetics
of Shri Ravi Kumar combined as Malladi Brothers to offer a most scintillating
concert. The choice of Ragas and Kritis from traditional Kambhoji to rare
Deshakshi was clever and both were handled competently. Raga Alapana and song
in Lalita was very pleasing to the ear. All improvisations-ragam, niraval and
kalpana swaram were professionally executed. The only misgiving, if any, is that
they got so carried away with Kambhoji and the accompanying song 'Sri
Ramachandra' that they left themselves little time to explore the Ragamaligais
in the RTP or sing a few more 'thukdas'. They were ably accompanied by Mysore
Shrikanth and Shri MLN Raju. All in all, from the Ada Thala Varnam in
Sankarabaranam to the unusual Mangalam 'Ramachandraya’ as opposed to the popular ‘Bhavamana’, it
was a soul-satisfying concert. It is also always a great pleasure to hear Shri
Vamanamurthy's Vote of Thanks which is typically as musical as the music
itself!”
- Malathy Vasudevan, Hamilton
Please send your
reviews to haripriya@xtra.co.nz