Eminent musicians and music lovers from different walks of life assembled at Saptaparni last Sunday and paid tributes to Mangalampalli Balamuralikishna. The musicians recalled Balamurali’s style of presentation and his immense knowledge, his creativity, above all his love for other musicians and his accompanists wherever he gave concerts.
In addition they arranged the concert of noted vocalist Sathiraju Venumadhav to sing some of the compositions that Balamurali penned, tuned and sang. Oruganti Rajasekhar on violin,Ch. Ramakrishna on mridangam and T.P. Balasubrahmaniyan on ghatam, lent him support.
Venumadhav did justice by rendering them in right spirit and mode. He also rendered other songs Balamurali used to render in his concerts and also those Balamurali rendered as playback for films. The programme went on with rendition of songs written and composed by Balamurali in different genres and sung. The compositions of Balamurali, Venu Madhav rendered in the same tenor, were Pari Pari Nee Padame Bhavana in Hamsadhwani, Bhavame Maha Bhagyamura in Kaapi, and a masterpiece Saamagana Sarvabhouma Swamy Thyagaraja Naamaha composed in Amrithavarshini. Understanding the satirical inputs into sahitya, Venumadhav rendered it aptly with the same spirit.
Venumadhav also rendered compositions of other vaggeyakaras like Marugelara O Raghava of Thyagaraja in Jayanthasree, Annamacharya kirtanas Ekkadi Manusha Janmambethina Phalamemunnadi tuned by Balamurali in Revagupti raga and a tatvam Yemi Sethura Linga , popularised by Balamurali.
He also rendered Brathukantha Chinthe Jeeviki Manasa that Balamurali’s adaptation of Purandaradasu kirtana, tuned in Abhogi. He sang a couple of film songs that Balamurali sang in those films only to reflect how good he was in getting adapted to other genres of music.
The concert concluded with a tillana of Balamurali set in rare Vitapi ragam, Aadi talam. Venumadhav’s rendition style with apt diction and musical excellence brought back memories of Balamurali. Accompanist too excelled. Mahidhara Sitarama Sarma who runs Sujanaranjani sabha, conducted the show with apt commentary. Anandamohan of ‘Sangeetha Ksheerasagaram’ organised this most memorable event.
Solo dances
Praveena Vadapalli, a renowned Bharatanatyam dancer from the city has been organising concerts with more focus on the young, under the banner of Bharateeya Kala Samskriti and the one she presented last week at Saptaparni under the title ‘Nrityam Samarpayami’ put to view the artistic talent of three dancers Kamala Manohari, Chetluri Avani and Katuri Nritya Priya.
Kamala
The main objective of the event was to present them as solo artistes. Kamala Manohari, disciple of Bala Tripura Sundari in her repertiore presented ‘Ganapathi Koutuvam’ and followed it with ‘Narayaneeyam’, a set of slokas that test any dancer to interpret its gist.
The girl did it well and concluded her part with ‘Ramayana Shabdam’ that narrates story of Ramyana in brief. This gave importance to both nritya and abhinaya. All the three numbers were the choreographic works of Vempati Chinna Satyam.
Avani
The next recital was by Chetuluri Avani, disciple of Marellapudi Madhavi. The recital started with a graceful ‘Pranavakaram’, a composition of Othukadu Venkata Kavi.
This was followed by Jatiswaram in raga Kalyani which was a pure nritta piece that ended with depiction in abhinaya Krishna’s ‘ Kalinga Nartanam’ followed by a tillana.
Her guru Madhavi conducted these dances with apt nattuvangam to the vocal support of Chandra Rao. Karra Srinivas on mridangam and again Sai Kolanka on violin lent instrumental supoport.
Nritya Priya’s repertoire was comprised of Jatiswaram in Kalyani, a Shabdam and a composition in ragamalika of Tanjore quartet.
The sabdam depicted lovelorn heroine extolling the cosmic dance of Lord Shiva and longs for his union. Nritya Priya concluded her show with a Tillana in Hindolam, a neat footwork.
These three artistes were felicitated by Bala Tripura Sundari.
