B.Balasubramaniam @ Musiri Chamber Concerts, Chennai (13 Jan

ram · Post by **ram** » 16 Jan 2007, 13:28

Venue: Musiri Chamber Concerts, 28/2, Musiri Subramaniam Road, Mylapore

Date: 13 Jan 2007

Vocal: Sri B. Balasubramaniam

Violin: Sri R.K. Sriramkumar

Mridangam: Sri Srimushnam Raja Rao

List of songs:

1) sArasAlanu (varnam) - karnATaka kApi - tisra Eka - tAnjOre quarTeTTe

2) hastivadanAya - navarOj - misra chApu - muthuswAmi dIkshitar

3) avatAram enduku - harikAmbOji - kanDa chApu - thyAgarAja (AS)

4) saraswati manOhari - saraswati manOhari - Adi - muthuswAmi dIkshitar

5) saTrE vilagi - pUrvikalyANi - rUpakam - gOpAlakrishna bhArati (ANS)

6) vINA pustaka - vEgavAhini - misra jampa - muthuswAmi dIkshitar

7) ninnADa nEla - kannaDa - Adi - thyAgarAja

8 ) vidhi illArkku - kharaharapriyA - tisra Eka - Anai ayyA

9) gajavadanA - tODi - Adi - kumAra rAja eTTEndrA (AST)

10) venkaTashaila - hamIrkalyANi - Adi - subbarAya sAstri

11) valapudAsa (padam) - varALi - misra chApu - kshEtragna

12) OsOsi (padam) - mukhAri - misra chApu - muddu naTEsA

13) jAnarO I mOgamu (jAvaLi) - khamAs - tisra Eka - rAmanAtapuram srInivAsa iyengAr

14) maharAju (jAvaLi) - behAg - misra chApu - ??

15) kandugamada kariyai (viruttam) - rAgamAlikA (sindhubhairavi, chakravAham, hansAnandi, nATTakurinji, suruTTi & hindOLam)

dIm tAna nana nAdru (tillAnA) - hindOLam - kanDa Eka - ??

16) nI nAma rUpa mulaku (mangaLam) - sowrAshTram - Adi - thyAgarAja

(Key: O=raga outline, A=raga alapana, N=neraval, S=kalpana swaram, T=taniavartanam)

Mylapore has many busy roads and one of them is Musiri Subramaniam road. As you travel on this road from Alwarpet signal towards Mylapore Fine Arts Club, you will see a small yellow signboard (put up by Mudhra?) that proudly says "28/2, Musiri Subramaniam Road" and beckons you into a silent bylane in the otherwise crowded and noisy Mylapore. A few steps in the lane and you are outside one of the best places to enjoy a carnatic music concert in Chennai!!!!

Sri Musiri Subramania Iyer's family does this wonderful job of organizing chamber concerts here. There are many good things about a chamber concert as such. Apart from the apparent realities like ability to observe the artists at close quarters, better communication between the artists and the rasikas and better concentration on the music being presented with minimal distractions, the one good thing that must be very encouraging to artists themselves is the fact that even a small, nice sanchara is lapped up by the audience and evokes a lot of appreciation. When a lot of such good sancharas/prayogas are packed in a concert, its just a heavenly experience for the rasikas.

I have been witness to two good concerts at this venue in the last two weeks. Last week it was Smt. Suguna Purushothaman rendering her own compositions and this week it was Sri B. Balasubramaniam giving a vocal recital accompanied by accomplished artists Sri R.K. Sriramkumar and Sri Srimushnam Raja Rao on the violin and mridangam respectively.

What appealed to me the most in Sri Balasubramaniam's concert was the rendition of the songs. Some sangathis used in the songs were just brilliant which speaks a lot about his gurus and his school (I incidentally learnt from a friend of mine that he belongs to the Brinda-Muktha school). The compositions chosen in the initial half of the concert were ones that aren't heard much in the concert circuit these days. Sri Sriramkumar played along almost like Sri Balasubramaniam's shadow and showed his individual brilliance during the raga alapanas. Sri Raja Rao played well for the songs, with a lot of sowkhyam.

Almost all the post-tODi compositions were rasika requests. Sri Balasubramaniam ended his concert with a melodious thillana in hindOLam in which he rendered the pallavi in normal speed, tisram and double speed.

Source: http://ramsabode.wordpress.com/2007/01/ ... s-chennai/

prashant · Post by **prashant** » 16 Jan 2007, 22:34

Such a beautiful selection of pieces!!! 2 padams, 2 jAvaLis, a viruttam, a tillAnA - great illustration of how the post-main items can bring a concert to a soothing yet weighty closure...

mahesh_narayan · Post by **mahesh_narayan** » 16 Jan 2007, 23:09

I have never heard the harikambhoji kriti. Lakshman Sir, do you have the lyrics/recording of this kriti?

Thanks.
Mahesh.

Lakshman · Post by **Lakshman** » 17 Jan 2007, 00:42

avatAram enduku. rAgA: harikAmbhOji. jhampa tALA.

P: avatAram enduku AyAsam enduku shivakAmasundari jIvAtmuDavu nIku
A: shiva yOga dAsulaku Isahana trayamu lEka bhuvi dharma puruSArtha ravikOTi tEjOmaya
C: dharaNilO sukha karmamu sthApinci sukha mosaga sara kOdaNDamutO shAstra samudAyamutO
karatalamuna udbhavincu shiva gaNa paripAlakuDai vara pancanadamuna tyAgarAja vinuta

Item #1 should be "sArasa ninu ipuDu marimAnarA"
The tillAnA is by Mysore Vasudevachar.
The starting words of the padam are: valapudAca nEranE yO bhAma

Couldn't find anything on
the jAvaLi maharAju.

meena · Post by **meena** » 17 Jan 2007, 02:21

Couldn't find anything on
the jAvaLi maharAju.

Lji
acc. to this article its Kshetragna.
DELETED

Lakshman · Post by **Lakshman** » 17 Jan 2007, 03:27

I didn't think that Kshetragna composed any jAvaLis.

coolkarni · Post by **coolkarni** » 17 Jan 2007, 06:59

I have never heard the harikambhoji kriti

Mahesh.
I have only an instrumental version.
From the same school.T Viswanathan at Academy

http://download.yousendit.com/9CE555EF1E102E2A

mohan · Post by **mohan** » 17 Jan 2007, 07:34

Is the main artiste the same one from Wesleyn University as shown in the link?

http://www.wesleyan.edu/templates/dept/ ... culty=balu

mahavishnu · Post by **mahavishnu** » 17 Jan 2007, 09:21

Yes, he took over Viswa's chair at Wesleyan.

There was an earlier thread about him:
http://www.rasikas.org/forums/viewtopic.php?id=1783

mahesh_narayan · Post by **mahesh_narayan** » 17 Jan 2007, 09:50

Thanks Coolkarni Sir. Is this a spurious Tyagaraja kriti?

prashant · Post by **prashant** » 17 Jan 2007, 10:20

IIRC [don't recall the source where I read this] this krithi is of doubtful authenticity.

rbharath · Post by **rbharath** » 17 Jan 2007, 11:16

It was indeed an awesome concert to listen to. I was fortunate enough to be sitting there.

The rendition of the karnATaka kApi varNam with a short sketch was very nice. The hastivadanAya was good and very moving. The pUrvikalyANi AlApanai was crisp and very nicely structured. 'vINApUstakadhAriNim' was also rendered in a very moving fashion.

The kharaharapriyA piece was very movingly rendered. The tODi AlApanai was very good. The kriti was rendered beautifully. The ciTTai svaram with 14 different gAndhAram was rendered in a very nice fashion.

The bEhAg jAvaLi is 'maharAjukarammanE' by dharamapuri subbarayar.

rbharath · Post by **rbharath** » 17 Jan 2007, 23:28

i wish to also add that If there are no requests for singing the same padams and javalis one gets to hear at concerts and tapes, it is but obvious to expect the artist of this kind to sing unheard (off) padams and javalis in their concerts.

Will The Mylapore Mafia ever listen to this plea from a humble rasika???

mahesh_narayan · Post by **mahesh_narayan** » 18 Jan 2007, 00:14

If post-tyagaraja musicians had shown some catholicity in rendering compositions of other composers in addition to those of Tyagaraja, I feel perhaps people would not have slipped a Tyagaraja mudra in to their own compositions. For someone like me who is not good at discerning between genuine and doubtful kritis, it is difficult to ever make out the difference. What a bummer !!!. Thankfully Dikshitar's mudra didn't get vandalized as much (maybe thanks to musicians who didn't give his kritis much coverage in earlier days). Otherwise we would have had a deluge of 'guruguha janani mam pAhi' songs.

Sorry, this topic has been discussed many times and at great length, and I don't intend to spark off a discussion. I just got a little irritated because with each new Tyagaraja kriti I hear, my list of known doubtful kritis seems to be grow by one.

manoranjitham · Post by **manoranjitham** » 18 Jan 2007, 13:59

The Harikambodhi krithi is said to be a composition of Tiger Krishnamachari (Tiger Varadachari,s brother).. It is said that his compositions bear the mudra Tyagaraja only out of Gurubhakthi.

Odd that B.B. should have taken the word 'Asurakula' in Gajavadana for Neraval and Swaras.

rbharath · Post by **rbharath** » 18 Jan 2007, 14:54

manoranjitham wrote:Odd that B.B. should have taken the word 'Asurakula' in Gajavadana for Neraval and Swaras.

BB did not sing neraval in that kriti that day. He did sing svarams at the caraNam line which went 'asura kula'

meena · Post by **meena** » 18 Jan 2007, 23:37

manoranjitham wrote:The Harikambodhi krithi is said to be a composition of Tiger Krishnamachari (Tiger Varadachari,s brother).. It is said that his compositions bear the mudra Tyagaraja only out of Gurubhakthi.

manoranjitham

thanks for the info. If u happen to have Vinai Krishnamachari comp. list, can u post it pl.?

drshrikaanth · Post by **drshrikaanth** » 18 Jan 2007, 23:52

manoranjitham wrote:The Harikambodhi krithi is said to be a composition of Tiger Krishnamachari (Tiger Varadachari,s brother).. It is said that his compositions bear the mudra Tyagaraja only out of Gurubhakthi..

vINe kRShNamAcAri's mudre is padmapurivAsa/padmapuri-varada and some minor alterations of the suffix. He alternately also has used vEmanna as his mudre.

The tyAgrAja mudre was used by another borther of theirs- K.V.Srinivasa Iyengar (in natajanaparipAlaghana and nIdu caraNamulE in simhEndramadhyama and vinatAsutavAhanuDai in harikAmbOdhi.

manoranjitham · Post by **manoranjitham** » 22 Jan 2007, 14:58

Thank you Shrikaanth. I stand corrected.