An outstanding violin duet by the Mysore Brothers

When you play a violin piece, you are a storyteller, and you’re telling a story, renowned violinist Joshua Bell once said. When Mysore Nagaraj and Dr Manjunath performed recently in Hyderabad, the audience were left spellbound like a class of eager kids listening to thrilling stories.
The Mysore Brother’s dazzled the audience with their mastery over the violin as they performed Tyagaraja kritanalu.Jayachandran on mridangam and Amrith on kanjira ably accompanied the euphonious violin duet which was staged at Ravindra Bharathi on the seventh day of South Indian Cultural Association, Hyderabad’s 58th Annual Art Festival — 2016.
Audience were treated to different versions of Tyagaraja kritanalu for three hours, beginning with slow tempo compositions, the musicians gradually upped the cadence as they passed through various ragas and ended with notes in higher octave. They started the performance with Mokshamugalatha in Saramathi, followed by Theratheyaga Radha in the raga Sreeranjini and ended their performance with Vandanamu in the raga Sahana.
With their unique style the violin maestros succeeded in transporting the audience into a magical world of music. The exceptionally gifted musicians received a huge round of applause from the audience after each performance. As Ankitha Rao, one of the members of the audience, puts it, “They performed extremely well. It was just out of the world.”
After the performance, a visibly pleased Mysore Nagaraj said, “Our audience were great. They had great knowledge of Carnatic music. Hyderabadi audience enjoy all varieties like Hindustani, Carnatic and even western. They don’t stick on to a particular system, they encourage everything.”
It was a fitting finale for the week long celebration of classical music and dance indeed.