Customer Reviews

Rama Sreerama

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I first heard of Upalappu Srinivas from an on-line interview with George Harrison in Feb, 2001. Someone asked George what he had been listening to lately. He said about Mr. Srinivas, "Eddie Van Halen eat your heart out". He meant it too. The mandolin playing is very very fast. At times serene and dream like. The title track is 30 minutes of pure bliss. I might add that the drums and violin are absolutely amazing also. If your even remotely interested in Indian music (This is from South India) I would highly suggest picking this one up. Also check out "Dawn Raga".

It seems to me that this genius was born with a Mandolin in his hand. His elegance and simplicity yet emotive and ecstatic mettle in handling complicated Carnatic Ragas clearly identifies the prodigy in him. Consider the 4th piece which is a RTP Ragamalika composed by the musician himself. The Mandolin master starts off with Kiravani, a Melakartha and is an ever-touching raga, slowly he slides into a less popular yet complicated raga and a derivative of the 27th Melakartha (Sarasaangi) called NalinaKaanthi. Having touched the soft scales of this raga, he then decides to dwell deep into the complicated well and plays a very unpopular yet profound raga by name Sucharithra (a mela again), followed by the scintillating dusk raga, Revathi and finally gets back to Kiravani. The next piece is also fantastic and a complex Thyagaraja keerthana in the raga Gaanamurthee (3rd mela).

The mandolin, when he plays it, seems so suited to Carnatic music, with its inflections and voice, and though I'm no classical music scholar, and only enjoy it in the mood it evokes, it's absouloutely lovely, very stirring, very beautiful. Another artist who plays carnatic music on a "untraditional" instrument, is Kadri Gopalnath, whose saxaphone is amazing.

Srinivas's name has become so synonymous with the mandolin that he has been nicknamed "Mandolin Srinivas" in his native India.

Excellent liner notes give a biography of the musician (a child prodigy) and a brief history of his incredible career.

This album captures Srinivas's precision and passion with superb clarity; an hour of complex, intricate beauty. If you're new to carnatic music, this is a great place to start.