Kunnakudi Balamuralikrishna@Mudhra On Jan 07th,2018
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Vocal : Kunnakudi Balamuralikrishna
Violin : Akkarai Subhalakshmi
Mrudangam : B Sivaraman
Kanjira : B S Sundarkumar
Concert Type : Nirvana - No concert to follow
Day/Duration : Sunday/ 4 Hrs concert
Concert Type: Ticketed Concert
Hall : Mudhra, RKM School, T Nagar
01. viribOni (S)- bhairavi - pachimariyam Adiappah
swaras for 5 mins
02. ini oru kanam(RS,S) - shreeranjani - Psivan
swaras for 5 mins
03. pannagendra sayana - pharas - ST
04. pariyAchakamA(R N S) - vanaspathi - T
12 mins alapana and 6 mins violin return
9 mins neraval in sharanAgatha rakshaka
11 mins swaras
05. teliyaleru rAmA - dhenuka -T
6A. kamalAmbAm bhajarE (R S T)- kalyani - MD
20 mins alapana and 15 mins violin return
swaras for 18 mins
6B. tani for 23 mins
I personally like to give a bit of benefit of doubt for any musician/kutcheri when concerts get caged with limited absolute time as they cannot really sing in a relaxed fashion . I have personally attended 8 to 10 four hour concerts more with the sarvani sangeetha sabha which they have it on in non kutcheri season .
Mudhra as a sabha is a great one , it perhaps swims in the cluster of bombalam (if some one call mamapore why cannot i call it as bombalam). Bombalam cluster is quite cohesive in location the vanimahal , the skgs ,the bharath kalachar, the CCA(NCA) , the mudhra and the indian fine arts which I am assuming it will come back from the capital of mamapore to bombalam soon. In this season for some reason I did not even attend even one concert in bombalam . A day back on Sat I went to bharat kalachar to attend abhishek raghuram's concert being postponed to Jan 11th (looks like it is going to be a working day) and I settled for another PSN student KBMK on a sunday .
Violinist akkarai is a seasoned accompanist who excels , i had my eyebrows thinking will B sivaraman show bit more muscle for a 4 hour concert and I do know the kanjira superstar B S sundarkumar has far more muscle but all things went okay with the team with an early segment mike asura playing traunt.
The first 30 minute was bit of audio sabotaged concert . The volume of violin and mrudangam right was pounding high, with a bit of high powered sangathis by KBMK it turned out as a hyper amplified concert . Mudhra bhaskar or one of their sound engineers would usually go around and come to back seat specifically to the last 5 rows as that is where most rasikas are there this being a ticketed concert . Such a thing did not happen many of us in the back row felt an assault in volume.
Bhairavi as a varnam particularly viribONi is an extremely healthy checkup for the vocalist throat and also it gives an unexplainable intense carnatic oomph . KBMK did well but the volume being high bit robbed , thank god he sang cycles of swaras in a slightly slower mode . The shree ranjani alapana was a quick sketch and the lovely ini oru kanam was sung well . KBMK sang with lovely azhuttam but still the volume was very high. The next ST krithi was it pharas was sung well , with mrudangam right also getting quite heavy . Few of us got up and one particular rasika went all the way to the front and requested reduced volume .I thank him a lot without his proactive suggestion the concert would have been quite a tear in our ears .
THe next alapana was tricky to me , i was not sure between vanaspathi or ganamurthi .Any way i enjoyed his alapana not too sure if he sang everything perfectly as it had a bit of crossover to few allied ragas but when akkarai played the vanaspathi turned out as unadulterated ghee. Personally i have never heard a neraval in vanaspathi but I liked KBMK taking a neraval , he stereotypes a lot like TNS and Abhishek and i liked it a lot . Swaras were well done and I loved his expanded interpretation one has to give it to his vidwat and presentation and also the volume that was adjusted well. Pariyachakama has only stayed with the gandharava ganam of santhanam and his son ramachandran and I think I heard once sung by Carnatica brothers.Very nice for kbmk to take up the forgotten krithi and also to give a more paripoorna submain status .
Perhaps the sequence of dhenuka and vanaspathi could have been avoided , the contrast was not that well registered and he taking just the krithi teliyaleru was just okay . Kalyani alapana was sung very well , he avoided all the drowsy sangathis perhaps he only sang all the drowsy overtones in his home and he came with a really lovely brighas with not much sag in alapana . Loved the kamalambam bhajare for the selection , i have a hate-love relationship for many krithis in kalyani . KamalAmbam bhajare is a love relationship of kalyani . As the krithi progressed i did not get that much of clean rendition a bit of blur set in for me as there is way too much of brigas and he tired me out in rendition of krithi. Swaras were well done and the percussion team really guided well with some brilliant support from akkarai
There was a speech break where mudhra bhaskar talked about 4 hour concerts that he is conducting since early 90s . HE enlisted almost many of the artists who sang this 4 hr concert with OST taking the first strike and TNS taking most strikes in past years. I was very surprised during that time when 2 artists(KBMK and one more percussionist) get out of the dias and took a break and came back. KBMK then took a long time in resetting the tampura and I just lost a bit of muse becauser of break.
Kunnakudi Balamuralikrishna@Mudhra On Jan 07th,2018
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rajeshnat
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rajeshnat
- Posts: 10144
- Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 08:04
Re: Kunnakudi Balamuralikrishna@Mudhra On Jan 07th,2018
7.RTP kedAragowla for 45 mins
15 mins alapana with violin return
taanam for 12 mins
Pallavi line - kannA vA maninvannA vA kamala padam vaithu
swaras in kedaragowlai + atanA + kannada + asaveri??+ sindhubhairavi
8A. viruththam - pachai mA malai pOl meni - nAdanamakriya + Ayartam kozhundE - punnagavarali + pachai mA malai pOl meni - shenjurutti - divyaprabhandam
8B. kaNNaniDam eDutthuchollaDi - shenjurutti + punnagavarali+ nAdanamakriya
09. thillana tom takita ... venmathiyum - suddasArang - chitraveena ravikiran
10. yEru mayil - thirruppugazh - AGN
11. praklada + nee nama roopamulaku
The attention that I lost i quickly gained all courtesy to the kedaragowlai . I love this raga and KBMK sang very well with akkarai giving great cues. Taanam was non metered and KBMK showed sufficient mastery. THe pallavi line I think was taken by TNS in the past , but he really sang with great passion . His passion continued with nice swaras and here at times the ragabhava clarity and accuracy of akkarai clearly outshined KBMK as she had lovely shruthi fidelity. All the ragamaliga swaras had enough followups - the joy of 4 hour concert was right there in RTP.
The viruththam was superb , over the years i have seen this divine triangle of 3 ragas(shenjurutii, nadanamakirya and punngavarali) make way in many combinations and is very appealing . The lift of nadanamakriya , the shakes of punnagavarAli and the curves of shenjurutti did register well with details of all 3 ragas captured well , again a joy of 4 hour concert and it was a fitting followup with ambujam krithi composition kaNNaniDam eDutthuchollaDi(I am assuming this was tuned by TNS).The thillana slightly bombed as he was referring the A4 paper and the last thirruppugazh and praklada was an assertive closure and not an emotive closure
Akkarai had minor volume issues for a brief 30 mins , but as the concert moved her clarity and accuracy did pep up the concert . She was excessively long in kalyani alapana return ,i think KBMK need not have this long cycle of violin crutches and have this long voice rest . I wish she shortened alapana return in kalyani.
B Sivaraman in the last few years that i heard only had nice patterns or formation and was bit wanting in muscle power . The good news is he has added bit more muscle , his stature looks no more thin and i liked it . I would not be wrong to assume that his body buildup has given more finger power , nice formations and for few long keezh kala swaras he played very well . I think with the other overpowering kanjira artist considering 4 hours he was perhaps a right choice . The kanjira star b shree sundarkumar has extraordinary control , i was bit worried if he will overplay but that surely did not happen , in kanjira he was clearly outshining for most of the time. He just cames so fast like a lightning with so much patterns , he is a joy to watch and hear .
KBMK has had two phases in early days which i have observed he has been a very clean sangathi typecast singer but after his few years of voice problems in the last few years he is adding a lot of Abhishekish typecast with a manaseega influence of TNS. Ideas are indeed there but at times a certain degree of harsh notes are coming as a bit of abrasion. I particularly loved his RTP, ragamaliga viruththam and followup , parts of vanaspati especially with akkarai who plays with such pointed precision .
2 years back i attended RK Murthy in mudhra which was 4 hours concert .Last year I did not attend shankaran namboothiri which crama reviewed (Mudhra missed mentioning sankaran namboothiri in his speech).One has to thank mudhra and radha bhaskar for their onus in giving more time , the artists grabbing time , I only wish no break is given .
The crowd was less but I love these kind of concerts as I am left with more continuity and elaboration. Looks Parivadhini 4 hours in the head of season and Mudhra 4 hours in the tail of the season is a nice way to start and end season.Mudhra bhaskar just made a passing mention that he is considering to give a break for the past few years in his speech .I do know he will read this i would humbly say strictly No No to it, bombalam rasikas will think the break is end of concert and would go back.There is also a chance that some vidwan/vidushi will think of starting the second half with nattai/hamsadhwani with the payakka dosham of excess 2 hour concerts completely forgetting they sang 2 hours before. With your break it also means we need to spend another half an hour at sabha which is a big big NO at home.
Overall an excellent concert for 4 hours.
15 mins alapana with violin return
taanam for 12 mins
Pallavi line - kannA vA maninvannA vA kamala padam vaithu
swaras in kedaragowlai + atanA + kannada + asaveri??+ sindhubhairavi
8A. viruththam - pachai mA malai pOl meni - nAdanamakriya + Ayartam kozhundE - punnagavarali + pachai mA malai pOl meni - shenjurutti - divyaprabhandam
8B. kaNNaniDam eDutthuchollaDi - shenjurutti + punnagavarali+ nAdanamakriya
09. thillana tom takita ... venmathiyum - suddasArang - chitraveena ravikiran
10. yEru mayil - thirruppugazh - AGN
11. praklada + nee nama roopamulaku
The attention that I lost i quickly gained all courtesy to the kedaragowlai . I love this raga and KBMK sang very well with akkarai giving great cues. Taanam was non metered and KBMK showed sufficient mastery. THe pallavi line I think was taken by TNS in the past , but he really sang with great passion . His passion continued with nice swaras and here at times the ragabhava clarity and accuracy of akkarai clearly outshined KBMK as she had lovely shruthi fidelity. All the ragamaliga swaras had enough followups - the joy of 4 hour concert was right there in RTP.
The viruththam was superb , over the years i have seen this divine triangle of 3 ragas(shenjurutii, nadanamakirya and punngavarali) make way in many combinations and is very appealing . The lift of nadanamakriya , the shakes of punnagavarAli and the curves of shenjurutti did register well with details of all 3 ragas captured well , again a joy of 4 hour concert and it was a fitting followup with ambujam krithi composition kaNNaniDam eDutthuchollaDi(I am assuming this was tuned by TNS).The thillana slightly bombed as he was referring the A4 paper and the last thirruppugazh and praklada was an assertive closure and not an emotive closure
Akkarai had minor volume issues for a brief 30 mins , but as the concert moved her clarity and accuracy did pep up the concert . She was excessively long in kalyani alapana return ,i think KBMK need not have this long cycle of violin crutches and have this long voice rest . I wish she shortened alapana return in kalyani.
B Sivaraman in the last few years that i heard only had nice patterns or formation and was bit wanting in muscle power . The good news is he has added bit more muscle , his stature looks no more thin and i liked it . I would not be wrong to assume that his body buildup has given more finger power , nice formations and for few long keezh kala swaras he played very well . I think with the other overpowering kanjira artist considering 4 hours he was perhaps a right choice . The kanjira star b shree sundarkumar has extraordinary control , i was bit worried if he will overplay but that surely did not happen , in kanjira he was clearly outshining for most of the time. He just cames so fast like a lightning with so much patterns , he is a joy to watch and hear .
KBMK has had two phases in early days which i have observed he has been a very clean sangathi typecast singer but after his few years of voice problems in the last few years he is adding a lot of Abhishekish typecast with a manaseega influence of TNS. Ideas are indeed there but at times a certain degree of harsh notes are coming as a bit of abrasion. I particularly loved his RTP, ragamaliga viruththam and followup , parts of vanaspati especially with akkarai who plays with such pointed precision .
2 years back i attended RK Murthy in mudhra which was 4 hours concert .Last year I did not attend shankaran namboothiri which crama reviewed (Mudhra missed mentioning sankaran namboothiri in his speech).One has to thank mudhra and radha bhaskar for their onus in giving more time , the artists grabbing time , I only wish no break is given .
The crowd was less but I love these kind of concerts as I am left with more continuity and elaboration. Looks Parivadhini 4 hours in the head of season and Mudhra 4 hours in the tail of the season is a nice way to start and end season.Mudhra bhaskar just made a passing mention that he is considering to give a break for the past few years in his speech .I do know he will read this i would humbly say strictly No No to it, bombalam rasikas will think the break is end of concert and would go back.There is also a chance that some vidwan/vidushi will think of starting the second half with nattai/hamsadhwani with the payakka dosham of excess 2 hour concerts completely forgetting they sang 2 hours before. With your break it also means we need to spend another half an hour at sabha which is a big big NO at home.
Overall an excellent concert for 4 hours.