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Concert Reviews by Balaveenai |
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[Editor's Note: The concert reviews appearing on this page are contributed by a musician-rasika, "Balaveenai" Sri. T. R. Balakrishnan. Any views and opinions expressed here are entirely his own] Master M. Balamuralikrishna, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan Mini Hall, Friday May 21st, 2004 It is a delight that at the heart of the Mylapore, Chennai for a music concert the greyhaired rasikas were unusually a minority, indeed a good sign. The credit goes to the Youth Association of Carnatic Music. Meenakshisundaram Balamuralikrishna, in his early twenties presented a enchanting vocal concert accompanied on the violin by Shimoga Ananthapadmanabhan, and the young left hander Sankaranarayanan on mridangam. Meenakshisundaram, the proud father of Balamurali, is himself a vainika and his first guru. Balamurali had the privilege of his guru P. S. Narayanaswamy sitting in front throughout the concert. Balamurali commenced his concert with Dikshitar's 'Siddhi Vinayakam' in Chamaram. Dikshitar krithis are notable for information authenticity. For instance, when is Vinayaka Chathurthi celebrated every year? "bhAdrapadamAsa catuRthyAm brAhmaNAdi pUjitAm...", says Dikshitar. bhAdrapadam is the Vedic month following shRAvaNam, overlapping the Tamil month AvaNi. After a brief Vasantha raga alapana, Balamurali sang Dikshitar's "Harihara putram" neatly. Then "aparAdhamula" in darbAr, not commonly sung, was well done. He elaborated the kAmavaRdhani (kAshirAmakRiya in the Dikshitar school) in a pretty format and rendered "rAmanAtham bhajEham" very well with a permutated swara prastAra. Balamurali did not attempt a niraval. (Incidentally, Tanjavur Ponniah, one of the Tanjore Quartette, a direct disciple of Dikshitar, called this raga pantuvarALi, the present day name, in his krithi "nIdupadame". Three names for the same raga in the same era!) "nannu brOva rAda", of shyAma shAstri in janaranjani was pretty well rendered. shAstri in this song addresses Goddess Kamakshi as nAdarUpiNi naLinAkshi. "O jagadamba...", just these two words carved in sixteen akSaras beautifully in Anandabhairavi by shyAma shAstri is one of his best. Raga alapana or swara prastara will only mar the sprit of this kriti, and Balamurali did well in singing just the kriti with ciTTa svaram. "shRI kAnta nI" in bhavapriya (the 44th Mela of tyAgarAja was rendered in a fast tempo. The main raga was bEgaDa. Balamurali built up the raga over octaves and carved good sancArams. "nAdOpAsana" of tyAgarAja was the kriti sung equally well. The niraval at 'tantRi laya..." was well done with striking swara prastAra. The tani Avartanam by Sankaranarayanan was neatly executed. This teenager is an All India Radio award winner. Shimoga Ananthapadmanabhan on violin , disciple of Kanyakumari was remarkable. Trivandrum Sri. R.Venkataraman (Veena),
Vellore Sri. G. Ramabhadran (Mridangam) vINa is the queen of all musical instruments
since the vEdic period and is best suited for Carnatic music. On this there is
no second opinion. But does the vINa get its due? Present day organizers do
not encourage vINa concerts. Nada Inbam is a glorious exception. I have
heard Karaikudi Sambasiva Iyer, M. A. Kalyanakrishna Bhagavatar, K. S.
Narayanaswamy, K. P. Sivanandam, Doreswamy Iyengar and Emani Sankara Sastri,
besides Budalur Krishnamoorthy and Mannargudi Savithri Ammal on the
gOTTuvAdyam in a single season at Chennai. After dEva dEva kalayAmitE in mAyAmALavagauLa with a good niraval at jAta rUpa nibhacEla, RV played a brief darbAr AlApana, in majestic fashion followed by munduvENuka. The jujAvanti rAga Alapana that followed was one of the best and cEta shRi bAlak.RSNam bhajarE of muttusvAmi dIkSitar was rendered with dignity. vINAgAna dashagamakap.RiyE is how Dikshitar addresses the Goddess mInAkSi in his mInakSi mEmudamdEhi (gamakak.Riya). Why the ten gamakas alone? RV played all the 23 spelt in the sangIta sampRadAya pradaRshini! The niraval and swaraprastAra at madhurApuri nilayE were indeed fine. RV is one among the few who can play pUrvikalyANi without an iota of pantuvarALi as many do. bhairavi was the main rAga. He traversed in detail over all the sthAyis and the tAnam was remarkable. tanayuni brOva of tyAgarAja was well rendered. The mridangam of Vellore Ramabhadran, a veteran, was pleasing, as if it was a vINa duet. At every point it echoed the vINa. The tani Avartanam was orthodox with no acrobatics. Venkataraman also played hamIr kalyANi, gAnamUrti, Ahiri and the khamAs jAvali marubAri, all in a lively manner. The pin drop silence throughout reflected the rasikas’ appreciation and the sukha bhAvam of the vINa concert. |
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