I am shocked to hear that Vidwan Daroor Seshachari (b. 1956), the younger of the twosome Hyderabad Brothers, passed away on 24th February 2024. He is survived by his wife Sharada, son Srinivas Chari, daughter Archana and elder brother and musical partner D. Raghavachari.
I want to share with all music lovers about this superb, classical Carnatic musician of Andhra and Telangana.
Hyderabad Brothers’ first visit to Chicago Tyagaraja Utsavam was in 1993. They were accompanied on violin by Delhi Sunder Rajan and on Mridangam by Srimushnam Raja Rao. I vividly remember the team staying with us at Villa Park. The video 40 Years of CTU shows their performance with the kriti Nada Sudha Rasam Pilanu (Arabhi). The concert started with the composition of Saint Tyagaraja’s Ninne Bhajana Seya (Chala Nattai), which would tickle anyone with a feel for Bhakti Sangeetam. I had never heard this Kriti till then and was keen on learning it from Sri Seshachari. Srimushnam Raja Rao commented that I deserved to learn from him. This Kriti has a Chittaswaram which requires some expertise to execute, and I sang it at the next year’s ChicagoTyagaraja Utsavam. Manjula Rao, who accompanied me on the violin, could quickly discover that I could only have sung at that level with someone formally coaching me.
Even though Sri. Seshachari was the younger of the brothers, it would sound like he was dominating his brother, Raghavachari. However, the elder never minded such juxtaposition, because that alone would create the characteristic music of the pair. We often find that one partner of a duo performs at a relatively subdued level. You can see this between the duo singers such as Ranjani and Gayatri, the Trichur brothers, and violinists Ganesh and Kumaresh.
They stayed with us for nearly a week, and we used to have all kinds of musical chats. In those days, the electric Sruti box had to be manually tuned first. Sri Seshachari explained to me the voice should join from below and never from above the tuned level for one’s Sruti. If we did that, we would hear our voice not synchronizing with the actual Sruti. I would play video clips of Pakistani singer Abida Parveen in soul-searching Malkauns. I would lament that such rich voices were sparse in Carnatic music. During their second visit in probably 2004, I remember taking them to Nadhan’s house to listen to Arthi Nadhan’s Veena. Mr. Nag Rao did all the video recordings for that concert.
A sad situation with twosome artists is when one passes away, leaving the other isolated, how would the survivor pursue concerts without the missing partner? I think of recent pairs Rajan and Sajan Misra, Gundecha Brothers, etc. The great Pakistani singer Bade Fate Ali Khan, who used to sing with his brother Amarnath Ali, went into oblivion for a few years when his brother passed away. Somehow, he came out of his depression, keeping his son as his brother’s substitute.
Unlike many top-level classical musicians who created distinct personal styles, Hyderabad Brothers maintained traditional classicism reminiscent of D.K. Pattammal and Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer.
TES Raghavan