Venue: Satguru Gnanananda Hall, Narada Gana Sabha, TTK Road, Chennai
Date: 1st Oct 2006
Vocal: Dr. M. Balamuralikrishna
Violin: Sri Embar S. Kannan
Mridangam: Sri Umayalpuram K. Sivaraman
Ghatam: Sri E.M. Subramaniam
List of songs:
1) OmkAra ganapati charaNam - hamsadwani - Adi - ? (S)
2) saraswati manOhari - saraswati manOhari - Adi - muthuswAmi dIkshitar
3) akhilAndEswari durusuga - karnAtaka kApi - Adi - syAma sAstri
4) varuga varuga - pantuvarALi - Adi - m. bAlamuraLikrishnA (AS)
5) vAnil parakkinra - tOdi - misra chApu - subramanya bhArati
6) Ayar kalaikkellAm arasiyE - mOhanam - Adi - m. bAlamuraLikrishnA
7) parAsakti manuparAdha -sAvEri - Adi - thyAgarAja (aS - main)
8) antharanga (? - thEvAram) - hemavati - Adi- sambandar (?)
9) appA nAn vEndudhal - vAgadIshwari - Adi- rAmalinga adigaL (?)
10) giridhara gOpAlan ennuyir kAdhalan - sindhubhairavi - misra chApu- ?
11) thillAna - dwijAvanti - Adi - m. bAlamuraLkrishnA
12) mangaLam girithanayE - srI - misra chApu - m. bAlamuraLikrishnA
Age doesn’t seem to have any effect on a few great singers and one such singer is Dr. M. Balamuralikrishna. Even at 76+, his melodious voice hasn’t lost a bit of its shine. The only thing that gave an indication of his being old enough was the persistent cough that he had during the first few minutes of the concert. Such was the range of his voice that he was able to reach the lower ’sa’ of the lower octave and the upper ’sa’ of the upper octave without much effort showing through and was able to sing lower octave notes at the same volume as the normal octave ones.
Sri Embar Kannan on the violin was a shadow of Sri Balamuralikrishna (BMK), faithfully reproducing whatever he sang. The rAga AlApanAs played on the violin were excellent and I would rate the pantuvarALi rAga AlApanA on the violin higher than the one done by BMK himself because of the primary reason that BMK traversed the rAgA note by note in his AlApanA while in carnatic music, it is customary to do so phrase by phrase, highlighting a few important patterns that characterize a rAgA. This is one aspect of BMK’s rAga AlapanAs I don’t like much.
Sri Umayalpuram Sivaraman on the mridangam was simply awesome. I don’t think there is any other mridangist who can match/surpass the clarity with which Sri Sivaraman plays the sollus that come at very very high speed. Sri E.M. Subramaniam, as usual, supported Sri Sivaraman very well.
http://ramsabode.wordpress.com/2006/10/ ... l-chennai/
Dr.M. Balamuralikrishna @ Narada Gana Sabha Hall, Chennai (0
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ignoramus
- Posts: 197
- Joined: 21 Aug 2006, 21:25
there was quite a lot of bonhomie on stage with BMK and UKS. The ghatam player E M Subramaniam's name was not announced during introduction and glances and wry grins were exchanged btwn EMS and UKS . For me , it was a concert where UKS was more restrained in his playing, nomally he does let rip. this time did not see that. BMK was on a roll, except the first few minutes as mentioned in the review. That man is one of a kind. God bless him!!
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rajeshnat
- Posts: 10121
- Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 08:04
I was also there for the concert . His voice control and the sahityam delivery was perfect. The best was his pantuvarAli rAga alApanai where in he sang in one breadth hari for close to 1/2 a minute.
But always my desire to map every krithi to a rAga was some what made very difficult by Shri BMK . Was the rAga alApanai of pantuvarAli perfect . Nope it had shades of SunnOdha vinOdhini and PoorvikalyAni . The usual symmetry of swara patterns of pantuvarAli was missing,Posssibly my ears are acclimitized with ARI/SSI and others in pantuvarAli , that I am unable to appreciate a different pantuvarAli.
Was hemavati perfect , I heard shades of Vachaspathi. Why is his dwijAvanthi tillana so different from the usual contours of what we usually hear. Why was there an excess of sommersault when he was singing sAveri swarams between him and UKS which I thought he could have avoided . To me only his mOhanam and SAveri stayed perfect in the rAga boundries to my conditioned ears.
You like BMK's music and take it as it is presented. But unfortunately, for me it is a prerequisite to map krithis to a rAga , that I am so conditioned. I am only able to appreciate his magic voice and sahithyam delivery
Shri UKS's best was his singing with his miridangam taking a turn after embar kannan returned in pantuvarAli . EM Subramaniam was significantly shadowed by UKS that too when he was given his first round of tani after 7 minutes of play . Embar Kannan was very good. Shri BMK was assisted by veerarAghavan who sang very well.
Total duration - 2 hours and 5 minutes; tani -22 minutes.
But always my desire to map every krithi to a rAga was some what made very difficult by Shri BMK . Was the rAga alApanai of pantuvarAli perfect . Nope it had shades of SunnOdha vinOdhini and PoorvikalyAni . The usual symmetry of swara patterns of pantuvarAli was missing,Posssibly my ears are acclimitized with ARI/SSI and others in pantuvarAli , that I am unable to appreciate a different pantuvarAli.
Was hemavati perfect , I heard shades of Vachaspathi. Why is his dwijAvanthi tillana so different from the usual contours of what we usually hear. Why was there an excess of sommersault when he was singing sAveri swarams between him and UKS which I thought he could have avoided . To me only his mOhanam and SAveri stayed perfect in the rAga boundries to my conditioned ears.
You like BMK's music and take it as it is presented. But unfortunately, for me it is a prerequisite to map krithis to a rAga , that I am so conditioned. I am only able to appreciate his magic voice and sahithyam delivery
Shri UKS's best was his singing with his miridangam taking a turn after embar kannan returned in pantuvarAli . EM Subramaniam was significantly shadowed by UKS that too when he was given his first round of tani after 7 minutes of play . Embar Kannan was very good. Shri BMK was assisted by veerarAghavan who sang very well.
Total duration - 2 hours and 5 minutes; tani -22 minutes.
Last edited by rajeshnat on 02 Oct 2006, 15:18, edited 1 time in total.
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mahesh3
- Posts: 584
- Joined: 06 Feb 2010, 21:32
perhaps we should stop with the sneers about the great BMK, though i can't imagine why he doesn't wince when one of his students sits behind him and sings his glories. BMK indulges, instead....It is rather vain and silly.
rajeshnat, u're points are valid and told without propaganda. if others can comment on bmk's raga singing without snickering and useless banter, it would be useful. vindictive remarks serve no purpose.
to me, there is no one to match his akAra sAdhaka. The great KVN himself used to be BMK's unabashed fan, and would often it in the front seat marveling at his akAra abilities and golden voice. Enough said...
rajeshnat, u're points are valid and told without propaganda. if others can comment on bmk's raga singing without snickering and useless banter, it would be useful. vindictive remarks serve no purpose.
to me, there is no one to match his akAra sAdhaka. The great KVN himself used to be BMK's unabashed fan, and would often it in the front seat marveling at his akAra abilities and golden voice. Enough said...
Last edited by mahesh3 on 02 Oct 2006, 19:42, edited 1 time in total.
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ramakriya
- Posts: 1877
- Joined: 04 Feb 2010, 02:05
It is said Tyagaraja incorporated the characteristic phrase of a rAga right at the first sangati - more so for those ragas where his Kritis stand as prime examples ; Kritis in rAgas like kalAnidhi, mAruva dhanyAsi, bindumAlini or shrutiranjani come to my mind.venkatpv wrote:BMK is ambiguous in his raga singing... "exploring" the raga is the euphemism, i am told
As much as I regard BMK an expert in Tyagaraja kritis (His rendition of kritis in the rAgas I just mentioned are not to be missed
at all! ), I think he does not follow this scheme of Tyagarajas 
when he does AlApane! But I should say I enjoy those AlApanes very much - It could just be me. -Ramakriya
Last edited by ramakriya on 03 Oct 2006, 00:11, edited 1 time in total.
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ram
- Posts: 705
- Joined: 02 Feb 2010, 22:48
I agree with you ... the main reason for this in my opinion is that BMK doesn't usually sing ragas highlighting the important patterns that characterize them. He sings them note by note which of course means that he takes a lot of time to develop a raga and it also takes a lot of time usually for a rasika to figure out what raga he is trying to sing. Sometimes he sings like hindustani musicians, taking a lot of time to go from say just sa to pa and not singing the other notes at all till then. Many of the old masters sing raga alapanas phrase by phrase showing the patterns that characterize a raga making it easy for one to identify a raga and also enjoy the beauty of the alapana.rajeshnat wrote:But always my desire to map every krithi to a rAga was some what made very difficult by Shri BMK . Was the rAga alApanai of pantuvarAli perfect . Nope it had shades of SunnOdha vinOdhini and PoorvikalyAni . The usual symmetry of swara patterns of pantuvarAli was missing,Posssibly my ears are acclimitized with ARI/SSI and others in pantuvarAli , that I am unable to appreciate a different pantuvarAli.
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Vocalist
- Posts: 1030
- Joined: 19 Feb 2006, 18:53
[quote=""ram""]"taking a lot of time to go from say just sa to pa and not singing the other notes at all till then. Many of the old masters sing raga alapanas phrase by phrase showing the patterns that characterize a raga making it easy for one to identify a raga and also enjoy the beauty of the alapana."[/quote]
I'm not sure I agree on this. Again, referring to a Nithyashree kutcheri (I can almost feel the intense "eye-rolling" by a bunch of people lol), she sang quite a spectacular Shubhapanthuvarali RTP in one concert a few years back. I think it was a morning kutcheri, maybe couple of days after 9/11. Anyway, for the AlApana, she took quite a long time to get from sa to pa, (not singing from pa to any of the upper notes for the first part). Up until that point, I'd probably have agreed with you, but this concert gave me a different view - partially because the audience recognised the rAgA within the first 30 seconds (though, I must confess that you could hear the DKP style as she was singing - and DKP's Shubhapanthuvarali is famous enough) and partially because I enjoyed this complex start (it was different to a usual concert of Nithyashree, or concert of many other artists for that matter). Obviously, there were a few phrases, but it wasn't a conventional execution (as was BMK's, I'm sure). As well as myself, I think the audience fully appreciated both the quality & difficulty only after seeing the first few minutes or so of the violinist's alapana. The violinist struggled for this bit of time - staying in these parameters is obviously not as easy as it seems. Towards the end, again she struggled, having played effortlessly for the items pre-RTP. Naturally, there was an extended applause after the violinist's attempt, for both musicians. Then she continued the alapana into a wow tanam...but that's another story.
Of course, I'm not a fan of BMK's music as I've indicated in another thread. His voice and open-throated style impress me - but I wouldn't recommend many items of his. My point concerns alapana execution in this manner. The beauty of a rAgA can be enjoyed, and recognised, even with the "note-to-note" approach dominating the alapana, I think.
I'm not sure I agree on this. Again, referring to a Nithyashree kutcheri (I can almost feel the intense "eye-rolling" by a bunch of people lol), she sang quite a spectacular Shubhapanthuvarali RTP in one concert a few years back. I think it was a morning kutcheri, maybe couple of days after 9/11. Anyway, for the AlApana, she took quite a long time to get from sa to pa, (not singing from pa to any of the upper notes for the first part). Up until that point, I'd probably have agreed with you, but this concert gave me a different view - partially because the audience recognised the rAgA within the first 30 seconds (though, I must confess that you could hear the DKP style as she was singing - and DKP's Shubhapanthuvarali is famous enough) and partially because I enjoyed this complex start (it was different to a usual concert of Nithyashree, or concert of many other artists for that matter). Obviously, there were a few phrases, but it wasn't a conventional execution (as was BMK's, I'm sure). As well as myself, I think the audience fully appreciated both the quality & difficulty only after seeing the first few minutes or so of the violinist's alapana. The violinist struggled for this bit of time - staying in these parameters is obviously not as easy as it seems. Towards the end, again she struggled, having played effortlessly for the items pre-RTP. Naturally, there was an extended applause after the violinist's attempt, for both musicians. Then she continued the alapana into a wow tanam...but that's another story.
Of course, I'm not a fan of BMK's music as I've indicated in another thread. His voice and open-throated style impress me - but I wouldn't recommend many items of his. My point concerns alapana execution in this manner. The beauty of a rAgA can be enjoyed, and recognised, even with the "note-to-note" approach dominating the alapana, I think.
Last edited by Vocalist on 03 Oct 2006, 16:05, edited 1 time in total.