Kunnakudi Balamuralikrishna @ Nadasurabhi Annual Festival, 02 Nov 2017

Vocal : Kunnakudi Balamuralikrishna

Violin : H M Smitha

Mrudangam : Arjun Kumar

Ghatam : Ranganatha Chakravarthy

List:

01 Era nApai ( varNam) – thODI – Adi – Patnam Subramanya Iyer

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02 iLalO praNatArthi – aThANa – Adi – Thyagaraja ( S )

03 mAyammA yani nE – Ahiri – Adi – Shyama Shasthry

04 paridAnamichitE – bilahari – khaNDa chApu – PAtnam Subramanya Iyer ( A,N,S )

neraval & swara @ ‘rokkamicchuTakunE mukkaNTi celukAnu’

05 teliyalEru rAmA – dhEnuka – Adi – Thyagaraja

06 shrI kAntimatim – hEmavati – Adi x 2  – Dikshitar ( A,S,T )

07 RTP – laLita – tisra tripuTa x 2 , 1/2 beat eDuppu

pallavi line ‘ trilOka mAtA nannu brOvu laLitAmbA’

rAgamalika swaras in kAnaDa,hamIrkalyANi,nIlAmbari, Ahiri, sahAna, kadanakutUhalam?’

08 thillAna – dhanAshrI – Swathi Thirunal

09 tirupugazh ( Erumayil) – suruTTi

10 mangaLam – saurAStram – Thyagaraja

A loud, forceful, energetic concert by Kunnakudi Balamuralikrishna. Should I say breath taking. It took a while after the concert for me to breath normal. It was like putting the neck out from a running train, the music was hitting you with enormous force.

I reached while he started the atana swaras in full speed. When he started mAyamma at the anupallavi , I expected it to be a sober affair, but it wasn’t. It was a very forceful, powerful ahiri to me. While he was good, the sedate ahiri feel wasn’t there for me. Bilahari was the first detailed alapana, decently executed. Paridanamichite was sung well with neraval and swaras, again on a faster tempo followed by dhenuka kriti.

Now he started a fabulous hEmavati alapana. To me, the concert changed from this point. Hemavathi alapana was top class, very impressive through out, with an equally excellent return from Smitha ( she played  hemavati a week ago for Ranjani & Gayathri at Gayana Samaja). shrI kAntimatim, it had to be, and even the kriti was excellent from Balamuralikrishna. There was no neraval but was compensated with a super duper kalpana swara. Excellent percussion support from Arjun Kumar and Ranganatha Chakravarthy. The duo continued with a good tani avartanam.

There was more to come. Lalita alapana was again very very good, so was the tAnam. Some of the tAnam returns from Smitha stood out. A pallavi line , combination of paras+lalita kritis was set to tisra triputa. There was trikalam and a chain of super fast ragamalika swaras. All the ragas chosen for ragamalika swaras are something  usually sung in slow speed ( or in two speeds starting at slow tempo). But he sang all of them in ultra fast. An super speed hamir kalyani, neelambari or ahiri do not invoke the same feel as it is sung more slower and sober manner. But it was interesting to see them fly in front of you.

Post main was limited to a thillana and thirupugazh. Balamuralikrishna shown a lot of capabilities and his knowledge and I loved the hEmavati and most part of the pallavi. His energy and enthusiasm are very evident.

 

Kunnakkudi Balamuralikrishna @ Nadasurabhi, 19th June 2016

Vocal : Kunnakkudi M Balamuralikrishna

Violin : Vittala Rangan

Mrudangam : B C Manjunath

Ganjira : G Guruprasanna

List:

01.  chalamEla jEsE ( varNam) – nAtakurinji – Rangaswamy Nattuvanar ( O,S )

02.  shrI pArvati paramEshwarau – bhauLi – Dikshitar

03.  birAna brOva idi – kalyANi – Tarangampadi Panchanada Iyer ( A,N,S )

neraval & swara @ ‘ nI pada pankajamu neranamminavAda’

04.  marivErE gati – Anandabhairavi – Shyama Shasthri ( O )

05.  ninnADa nEla – kannaDa –  Thyagaraja ( S )

06.  rAma bAna trANa shaurya – AvEri – Thyagaraja (A,S,T )

07.  RTP – brinAvana sAranga – trishra jhampa , khaNDa gati , samam eduppu

tAnam  in brindAvana sArang, varALi, chandrajyOti?, madhuvanti?

pallavi line ” manam koLLai koNDa kaNNA, maNivaNNA en- ”

No rAgamAlika swaras

08.  narajanma bandAga – madhuvanti – Purandara Dasa

09.  tirupugazh ( Erumayil) – rAgamAlika-

10.   mangaLam – saurAStram , madhyamAvati – Thyagaraja

Brilliant concert with rich, energetic and engaging musical fare by the young vidvan at Nadasurabhi yesterday. I haven’t heard him for a long long time and how strongly has he reemerged to the scene. Very strong SSI school effect in the way he presented the kritis and in the swara prasthana. Only the other hand very distracting and overtly expressive hand and facial gestures and the tendency ( we see in most of the young artists) to rely on speed and verve to add exhilaration.

Two distinct features of this concert which attracted me. One the way he approached alapanas. While Kalyani was just good, both sAveri and brindavana sarang were out standing. Saveri was started at very slow lower octave phrases and superbly build to some awe inspiring higher octave ‘sancharas’, getting into the ati tArasthayi range. He probably would have covered all three octaves from lower sA to the upper sA with ease ( a bit falsetto at the very very high range though). The dwell at the ati tArasthayi range for a considerable amount of time. And it was not just the skill that he exhibited, but the wy he went about the whole alapana phase for saverri was excellent. Similarly, in brindavana sarang alapana, the focus was on parleying some delectable hindustani-ish passages, which he did with some incredible effect.

The other one was the way the kalpana swaras were sung. Both for kalyani and saveri he made it interesting by deploying some impressive variations in the nadai in the initial phase or the two speed kalpana swara. The others too were noticeably had the stamp of SSI-PSN stamp all over. Great stuff.

Speed was the essence in general, but he can switch back to the slow kritis.  Marivere was sung with such effortless, unhurried way as one would love to hear that song. A tempo that can be compared to the way TMK sing this kriti. Some impressive selection of other pieces in bhauli and kannada. Pallavi had tanam in ragamalika, decently coined pallavi line and tala structure. Well executed trikalam as well.The supporting crew were equally good, measuring up to the main artists. Vittala Rangan was once again very very  impressive.  The percussion duo too added their flavour to the concert, apart from playing a commendable tani avartanam.

Absolutely dull and not innovative post main kritis. One can give the benefit of doubt to the time, but I am a strong supporter of planning the post main/pallavi pieces in a concert. Most often, we see this section is taken for granted and artist decides to get it over with a customary devarnama and quickly winding up.

Not taking any credit away from the young vidvan for presenting a brilliant concert yesterday.