The Capital’s big ticket organisation, the Karnataka Sangeetha Sabha, recently held Carnatic music concert to commemorate its 80th year of existence. On the first day of the two-day celebrations titled “Sarath Utsav” held at the Triveni Kala Sangam Auditorium, the Chennai-based youngster Kunnakkudi M. Balamuralikrishna was featured. In a concert of about two hours, the vocalist gave a fine concert, enthralling the music lovers of the Capital.
Balamuralikrishnawas initially trained in music by his father Meenakshi Sundaram. Later on, he came under the tutelages of renowned gurus Neyveli Santhanagopalan, V. Sundaresan and P. S. Narayanaswami. He is also an accomplished mridangam player.
Balamuralikrishna began his concert in a delightful manner by singing “Inta Chalamu”, a varnam of Veena Kuppayyar set to Adi taal. His invocation song to Lord Ganesha was “Siddhi Vinayakam”, a composition of Muthuswami Dikshitar in raga Shanmukhapriya. The kalpanaswaras that he introduced here were detailed and brought to fore his skills in the sphere of creative music. While singing Meesu Krishna Iyer’s composition “Parama Pavana” in raga Ranjani (a song not heard frequently in concerts), Balamuralikrishna brought out the bhava of the raga to the fore in a fine manner. Taking up Tyagaraja’s “Seethamma Mayamma” in raga Vasantha at this stage of the concert, provided the necessary liveliness to the recital. The add-on delight here was a scintillating neraval of the phrase ‘Vatatmaja soumitri vainateya ripu mardana’ from the anupallavi portion of the composition.
Balamuralikrishna embarked on to take up a detailed rendition, which was again a Tyagaraja’s composition “Emi Jesitenemi’ in the raga Todi. He handled this composition in a matured manner and intertwined swara formats that flowed with rich creativity during the kalpanaswaras. This was once again indicative of the depth of the vocalist’s creative skills.
Balamuralikrishna’s central item was a ragam taanam pallavi. He executed the pallavi “Garuda Gamana Rara Kamala Manohara” in the raga Brindavana Saranga set to Tisra jathi jhampa taal in khanta nada, in a delightful manner. His command on laya aspects too came to fore. Earlier, he sang a scintillating alapana of the raga, particularly while delineating at higher octave, melodies taanam and the kalpanaswaras in the ragamallika formats in Suruti, Hamsanandhi and Subhapantuvarali, besides in Brindavana Saranga.
Balamuralikrishna concluded his concert in a befitting manner with a thillana. He was assisted ably on the violin by B.U. Ganesh Prasad and Kumbakonam Swaminathan on the mridangam, both from Chennai. Apart from closely following the vocalist in his instrument, Ganesh Prasad played a matured and captivating alapanas of the ragas Todi and Brindavana Saranga. Young Swaminathan rose to the occasion in this concert. His enthusiastic and energetic percussion support was noteworthy. Besides, his tani avartanam in Misra Chappu taal was enjoyable. On the whole, an evening of enchanting Carnatic music. However, if the concert, which got delayed by almost an hour, had started on time, music lovers could have savoured some more captivating music.
