Kunnakudi Balamuralikrishna@BVB Main Hall on May 25th,2016

[rajeshnat]

Kunnakudi Balamuralikrishna@BVB Main Hall on May 25th,2016
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Vocal : Kunnakudi Balamuralikrishna
Violin : Anayampatti Venkatasubramanian
Mrudangam : Neyveli Narayanan
Ghatam : S Karthick

Concert Type : Nirvana - No concert to follow
Day/Duration : Wednesday /roughly 2 hours
sabha/Hall : Parthasarathy Swami Sabha / Bharatiya vidya bhavan - Main , Mylapore
Occassion : Muthuswami Dikshitar exclusive krithis


01....
02.....
03.mAmava meenakshi (? N S) - varAli
5 mins neraval and 4 mins swaras
04. Brihadeeshwaro rakshatumam(S)- Ganasamavarali
2 min swaras

05. srEE dakshinAmoorthE (R S T)- shankarabharanam
13 mins alapana and 7 mins violin return
8 mins swaras

5B. tani for 10 mins

06. maayE -tarangini
07.sree kamalambikE (RS)- shree ragam
08. mangalam kosalendrAya - madhyamavati

personally it is almost 6 weeks since i heard a concert live . Had some free time and looked at the paper .I was planning to reach atleast 10 mins late for the advertised 7pm start .The century + old parthasarathy swami sabha is conducting thirumoorthy series and different artists were presenting each of the trinities . Prior to this concert there was also a vignesh ishwar presentation which i had no chance to make it.

Crossing teynampet with the dug out was hell with the traffic . ANy way i reached alteast 35 mins late with varali krithi , kbmk just looping in the neraval line in shyamE shankari. KBMK presented with his weighty sangathis but missed a certain more grind as the raga is varali. Neraval segued into measured swaras , I was expecting bit more mel kala swaras , but it was more of a complete madhyama kAla delicacy.

The next was the best of the concert . Dwijavanthi krithi chetashri is one of a kind and with that right pace , he certainly brought in a lot of his paramaguru semmangudi touches- particularly with a brilliant support from narayanan .The asampoorna mEla Ganasamavarali (ganamoorthy) came next the oomph was there but very short lived . I am not sure if at the end he sang was just a cittaswaram or was it a short burst of swaras- any way job well done.

If dwijavanti krithi was the top pick possibly shankarabharanam alapana was nearly as close to that . I enjoyed his alapana , he did not search too much for expansiveness, but KBMK distilled with an aura of right abharana intelligence in a traditional route of alapana singing pattern - few meditative hues and then a touch of controlled brigas and then a steady calmness towards the end . Certainly I was expecting dakshinamoorthE but during alapana could hear few sangathis that were pointing towards few popular T krithis. Anyway with alapana excellence , i wish he went on to sing the classic dakhshinamoorthE with the same excellence , but I felt it just did not happen.The neraval was unfortunately not there which was a big expectation , in swaras he certainly constrained in cutting across , he could have gone much more .

In the last few tukkadas he showed bit more of his class , the maayE was a SSI school showcase and the shree ragam mangalam was handled very well - may be a little more shine on asserting shree ragam would have been welcome

With my limited hearing of anayampatti , i felt he stayed in the zone of his own comfort than rather stepping more towards with the flow of the singer. He could have especially used more of the flair of karthick in ghatam but it did not happen. Many sangathis in madhyama kala did zone around excellence but when there was a little more speed due ,he did not change the speed that well.

The two percussionist were really good . Narayanan brings a sheer lignite neyveli power - lignite power is not very over powering the vocalist but really bringing in a right quantum of layam to the concert. He was trying so many patterns in chetashri and I enjoyed it the most . His patterns in shankarabharanam would have been more had KBMK not decided to short his main krithi. Karthick has a steady roll and gives clear centimetre markings to narayanan's millimeter markings in mrudangam. They both indeed lifted the concert where the percussion added continuous quality to the concert. May be there could have a bit more sharpness to mrudangam microphone but it was not that big loss.


All said , KBMK is zoning back to his say days prior to 2011 levels of excellence . I wish there is more natural syle in signing sangathis as and when it comes with no conspicuous brakes .At times he keeps his mouth in different positions to give a bit of antakalathu himalaya stature vidwans typecast sangathis , i feel that approach is good but also has a problem . The problem is in that process he loses possibly a little more expansion on what he could offer on his own which is just there in his head but not gone out of his mouth for that krithi-rAgA combo .

KN sashikiran was the MC. Parthasarathy and Carnatica have tied up a lot in the recent past . Sashikiran thanked at 9pm and did a good job.I wish he came to the stage atleast at 09:30 pm to do that.

Muttuswamy Dikshitar could have been more expanded but 9pm perennial chennai yamakandam killed it. ALso my bad luck, i lost atleast 2 and 1/2 numbers (the mami next to me told prior to varali he sang a shanmughapriya and devagandhari -not sure if she is right).

Overall a very good concert for nearly 2 hours .

[sureshvv]

Siddhi Vinayakam in Shanmugapriya was at #1
Shali vateeswaram in Devagandhari was at #2

Lots of dramatics and testosterone ("Pourusham" as the late Venkateswaran used to say with reference to Semmangudi)
on stage. Very enjoyable.

They really should take 5 minutes for mike testing artiste by artiste before they start. Ghatam felt muted until the end.

[varsha]

Lots of dramatics and testosterone ("Pourusham" as the late Venkateswaran used to say with reference to Semmangudi)
on stage. Very enjoyable.

testosterone????/ nooooo Sir
http://www.artofmanliness.com/2010/05/1 ... manliness/
this is paurusam in singing
https://archive.org/details/SAmajaVarag ... TyAgarAja1

[Purist]

#varsha avare, who are the singers of this Samajavaragamana ? (Brinda & Mukhta my guess ). Is that Shudda Hindolam(Varamu), I haven't heard this version. I have know only Manasuloni being in two versions -Varamu & Hindola

[sureshvv]

WTF?

[varsha]

Brinda & Mukhta my guess

Right
As to the versions , over to experts . I never tire of listening to this. The swaras stop at a time when I start craving for it to go on forever . majestic. Simply majestic

[KSJaishankar]

Ravikiran had played this version of Samaja Vara Gamana in Bangalore a few years back, and had announced at that time that the Dhanammal school renders this composition also in Varamu.