Скачать или смотреть The Krishna-Traya🔸A Vintage Concert🔹M Balamuralikrishna🔹M S Gopalakrishnan🔹T V Gopalakrishnan (1965)

Namaskaram!
Wishing you all a very happy new year 2026.

🔸I had the great opportunity of listening back to this concert “The Krishna-Traya in a Vintage Concert of 1965” and my joy of listening has inspired me to revisit the audio restoration aspect. The three masters (Sarvasri. M Balamuralikrishna, M S Gopalakrishnan, and T V Gopalakrishnan) offer everything – polish, scholarship, creativity, emotion, virtuosity, and the sheer joy of listening.

🔹This vintage concert was curated by Sri. Ram Mynampati to whom, I am grateful for his spirit of sharing. In 2013, I had the privilege of working on its restoration and re-mastering of the audio. Listening to that version now, I gather, had some more opportunities for improving the audio quality, and accordingly, I started working on the entire concert again using my latest tool-box and my acquired skills in restoration process.

🔸This concert is quite special in many ways and one of the specialities is the use of mridangam by TVG. In the main part the instrument sounds like mridangam, and in the second half, a contrivance adopted to the mridangam makes it sound like a tabla. Many a times, I was puzzled about “the tabla player” here, but TVG himself clarified this point during one of the conversations we had.

🔹The rendition of Shankarabharanam needs a special mention here. Both BMK and MSG start their exposition of the raga by dwelling on certain notes together, like writing down some individual letters of alphabet, in a logic that reveals itself gradually to weave these notes into words of subtle delicacy, and then build some long sentences with the beauty of grammar, and finally compose to write some breathtaking paragraphs of great literary value.

🔸I suppose, this could be one of the best renditions in terms of ‘evenness of pace in which it has been sung.’ The composition has been very aptly handled for ‘the beat and speed’ and some delightful variations of the line ‘dina-bandhuvani’. The elaboration spans all the three octaves and the ‘svara vinyasam’ is intelligently made with a deliberate omission of ‘da’ (daivata) and ‘ni’ (nishAda) and BMK occasionally touches these two notes to bring out a great effect in the intricate patterns presented. MSG’s support is superb and the anticipated response by mridangam maestro TVG is just perfect.

🔹The RTP in Abheri is rendered in Trishra jāti triputa tālam. It is sung in Khanda-gati (nadai). The off-set (Ettugada / Edupu) for the take-off of the pallavi is after 4 akshrās of the last phase of tāla cycle (after 4 akshrās in the last kriya -7). And the pada-garbam / arudhi (end of the pūrvāngam, the first half of the pallavi ending at the strike of the beginning of the second half of the tālam cycle) is 5 counts.

🔸The Abheri RTP is special too with a Graha-bheda and rāgamālika svarams. BMK starts with “Rasali” and moves to “Abhogi”. By taking ‘ma’ (madhyamam) as reference, he goes on to bring out “Valaji” from “Abhogi”. And then the rāgamālika svarams in “Behag” and “Sindhu-bhairavi” follows. Each of these creative expressions is reflected effectively by MSG and the listeners are left in a state of joy enveloped in peace.

🔹I really liked the bhajans sung in this concert, accompanied by tabla-sounding mridangam. The Ashtapadi in Hindustani Janjhuti is terrific. Surdas bhajan tuned in the raga ‘Manorama’ is quite a rare piece. BMK’s handling of M1 and M2 in this rendition is a treat to listen.

💐My sincere thanks to Smt. Manda Sudharani and Sri. Mohana Krishna for their support in capturing some of the technical aspects described above. Also, my grateful thanks to my distinguished friend Sri. T K Ramkumar for his support in this project.

00:00💠Here are the details of the concert
00:00:10 1️⃣ Varnam – Kalyanii – Adi – Ramnad Srinivasa Iyengar
00:06:02 2️⃣ Mahadeva Sutamaham - Arabhi - Adi - BMK
00:22:09 3️⃣ Hari Nee Smarane – Begada – Adi - BMK
00:27:46 4️⃣ E Dari Sancharintura Shrutiranjani – Adi - Tyagaraja
00:33:41 5️⃣ Emi Neramo – Shankarabharanam – Adi - Tyagaraja
01:46:49 6️⃣ RTP in Abheri – Trishra Triputa - BMK
02:29:15 7️⃣ Akhiyan Hari Darshanki Manorama – Adi - Surdas
02:36:56 8️⃣ Kapi Madhuripu – Hin. Janjhuti – Adi – Jayadeva (Asthapadi)
02:43:31 9️⃣ Tillana – Brindavani – Adi - BMK
02:47:38 🔟 Mangalam – Saurashtra – Adi - Tyagaraja