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Young and confident
Master Balamuralikrishna... competent presentation. — Pic. by K. Gajendran.
THE NOON concert of young artiste Balamuralikrishna on Christmas Day was quite commendable; he exudes confidence, the very posture and gestures appearing like a seasoned artiste, Nevertheless either due to too many concerts in the season or due to his age when the male voice tends to alter, there were some rough edges. His alapana of Ramamanohari raga was quite good followed by Muthuswamy Dikshitar's Sri Rajarajeswari. The Kannada raga kriti of Dikshitar "Sri Mathrubhootham" needs to be sung in a slower tempo and it would be more appealing if kalpanaswaras are avoided.
Balamuralikrishna's presentation of Tyagaraja's `Ganamurthe' in the Raga of the same name was indeed very good; he needs to take care of the pronunciation of the words though. A fine rendering of Mohanam followed by "Nannupalimpa" was the main item, with neraval and Kalpanaswaram. Understanding support was provided by Ambika Prasad on the violin and Sundar Kumar on the mridangam.
Vibrancy was missing from the concert of Sankari Krishnan although no mistakes could be found in the rendering of ragas or krithis. While the raga delineation of Saveri by Sankari and the violinist Padma Shankar was decent, the elaboration of Dharmavati was better. The Bhairavi raga alapana was the best of the lot by both the artistes. It was nice to hear "Koluvaiyunnade" of Tyagaraja in Bhairavi after a long time; it was followed by neraval and swarams. B. Sivaraman on the mridangam was supportive throughout the concert and played a competent Tani Avartanam.
Teenager K. Gayatri, who presented the noon concert on December 28 is perhaps one of the finds of this season. She presented a very good alapana of Keeranavali (Keeravani) preceding Dikshitar's ``Panchabootha Kiranavali'', followed by Swaras for the Madyamakala phrase.
She came up with some rarely heard kritis such as `Edayya Gati' in Chala Natta, a Melakartha Kriti by Kooteswara Iyer, `Karunasamudra' in Devagandhari and `Sri Swaminathaya' in Kamas. She handled the Kalyani raga elaboration like a veteran; Satishkumar, accompanying on the violin was no match to her, though his effort was not bad. She sang "Pankajalochana" of Swati Tirunal in an unhurried manner. In fact this was the attractive quality of the entire concert _ she did not get into the fast mode as is the wont of most musicians these days. The Kapi raga Javali `Parulannamata' too was good. K. Parthasarathy provided competent accompaniment on the mridangam.
Aruna Ranganathan did not seem to be in her elements. After "Vinayaka" in Chakravakam and "Evasudha" in Sahana, she sang a lengthy alapana of Manirangu, a raga seldom taken up for elaboration. There were neraval and Swaras for the song `Ranithiradu'. A rare Husaini Raga kriti `Enna Punniyam' was rendered well. Accompaniment was provided by Neela on the violin and Jayakumar on the mridangam.
The concert by Dr. Ganesh accompanied by Madurai Balasubramaniam on the violin, Kudanthai Saravanan on the mridangam and Adambakkam Shankar on the ghatam was quite a noisy affair on the whole.
If the kalpanaswaras segment in Hamsadhwani for "Gajavadana Veduve" was a little too long, that which followed `Ninnenamminanu' in Todi was frenzied. The Todi Raga Alapana by Ganesh was good. But is grahabedam necessary in a concert? Balasubramaniam just did not seem to get anything quite right, whether in Todi or later in Kalyani. The main item was Ragam, Tanam, Pallavi in Kalyani. The nuances of the raga were brought out well by Ganesh, but perhaps he could have made it a little slower.
Janani Ganesh from Singapore was the vocalist at noon on December 29. One couldn't help wondering why she/her parents were in such a hurry for her to get on to the concert platform. She has talent, no doubt; but she is just not ready. She was accompanied on the violin by Ananthapadmanabhan and on the mridangam by Jayamangala Krishnamurthi.
LAKSHMI VENKATARAMAN
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