1983 Sri Ramanavami Concert, Bangalore - M Balamuralikrishna - M Nagaraj - V Praveen

After the Bangalore music lovers in general and the aficionados of Muraligānam in particular were swept off by a colossal concert of Dr. Mangalampalli Balamuralikrishna (BMK) in April 1980 at Sheshadripuram Sri Ramanavami music festival, they seldom realised what they missed in the next couple of years to enhance their listening experience.

The afterglow of that 1980 concert was so intense like a spell of illusion, that many were not ready to listen to another concert of BMK with the same fervour.

It was probably for the fear of losing the ‘closely guarded joy of the 1980’ concert that still lingered bright in their minds. Without exaggeration just the mention of the words “Balamurali” and “Sheshadripuram” then were enough, for the lovers of music to endlessly discuss that 1980 concert.

Perhaps this overindulgence made many to downplay and miss newer novelties in the subsequent concerts of BMK in Bangalore for the next few years. Essentially a sense of casualness.

That such a casualness had enveloped me too dawned upon me as I first listened to the tapes of the concert of this upload. Once the tapes were digitised and the audio cleaned, restored and remastered, the beauty, merit and the wholesomeness of one more great concert of BMK stood out – April 1983 concert at Sri Rama Seva Mandali, Bangalore.

BMK’s accompaniments are the then young talents, violinist Sri. Mysore M Nagaraj and mridangist Sri. Bangalore V Praveen.

A few notes and observations will help, we believe.

The Varnam presented here is a beautiful and energising tāna Varnam, anchoring to the natural musical notes (prakriti swaras) sa – pa – Sa in its construction and rendered unsullied by BMK. Mere listening to it several times, will reveal the greatness of BMK as a great composer behind a great performer.

The rāga of this Varnam has the fragrance of Chakravāka (16), Sūryakāntam (17) and Saurāshtram.

There is a nice story behind the Varnam and it was narrated by Prince Rama Varma in one of his programmes dedicated to BMK. BMK had rendered this Varnam in a concert in 1972 as a part of the silver jubilee celebration of Indian Independence Day. An indulgent connoisseur, having discerned the rāga sounding like Saurāshtram but with the fragrance of the notes of other rāgams, quizzed BMK right there. “Sir, this Varnam in Saurāshtram has some unusual phrases of other rāgas. How come?” BMK replied to him smilingly, “I have never announced the rāgam as Saurāshtram. It is SWARĀSHTRAM to commemorate the occasion.” This element of spontaneity, the hallmark of Muraligānam, runs deep in this much overlooked concert.

Chārukéshi, in this rendition, is special and noteworthy for the majestic manner of unfolding the rāgam.

The rest of the keertanas and compositions presented here have an element of some novelty in each of them. BMK sings a Kannada Bhāvageete (Nityavu hāduve) in the rāga Chandrika. It is an instructive piece in this genre.

A keener listening to this composition reveals a facet of BMK – any composition in any genre, if it is to his total liking, the uniqueness of it true to its genre is highlighted thoroughly. He pours his entire self to bring out every aspect of that composition – genre, related feeling and melody. Here by the subtle exploration of the rāga to blend it with the spirit of the song.

Due to severe paucity of space for a written text, a number of absolutely interesting and noteworthy aspects of music in this concert have had to be omitted. We urge the listeners to listen to this indulgently like you always do and discern those aspects and share it to the other listener rasikas.

His contextual comments about a desire to sing new songs instead of old songs as requested by his audience are relevant. Especially the humorous suggestion to arrange two concerts, one to sing what he desires and another for the audience choice. It speaks of his unquenchable thirst bring out something new every time.

00:00 🌹Welcome to the Album
00:00:06 ✴️ Varnam - Swarāshtra - BMK
00:08:00 ✴️ Chintayāmi - Sucharitra - BMK
00:15:04 ✴️ Muddumómu - Sūryakāntham - Tyagaraja
00:22:20 ✴️ Ādamódigalada - Chārukéshi - Tyagaraja
01:19:00 ✴️ Nannubróva - Kalyāñi - Bh.Ramadas
01:24:55 ✴️ É tīrugananu - Māyamālavagowla - Bh.Ramadas
01:30:17 ✴️ Simhachalamuna - Déshākshi - BMK
01:33:58 ✴️ Nityavu hāduve - Chandrika - R N Jayagopal
01:50:50 ✴️ Satyavantarigidu - Bhairavi - Puranadaradasa
01:57:25 ✴️ Brahmakadiginapādamu - Mukhāri - Annamacharya
02:03:00 ✴️ Kashtapattaruilla - Kharaharapriya - Kanakadasa
02:08:15 ✴️ Tungatarange - Surati–S.Brhmendra
02:11:55 ✴️ Sita kalyāna - Kurinji - Tyagaraja
02:15:20 ✴️ Tillāna - Brindāvani
02:18:45 ✴️ Nagumomu - Madhyamavati -Tyagaraja
02:20:58 ✴️ Mangalam - Navaroj

My sincere thanks and appreciation to Dr. Jayaprasad for his spirit of sharing this recording and facilitate our constructive disillusionment. My sincere thanks are also due to Sri. T K Ramkumar for his support in bringing out this album.