CAMAGA hosts Master Balamurali Krishna

By Ram S. Sriram

Master Balamurali Krishna’s vocal music concert was held on October 15, 2005 and was organized by the Carnatic Music Association of Georgia (CAMAGA), Atlanta. I am not referring to the concert of the doyen of Carnatic music, the illustrious M. Balamuralikrishna but the upcoming young artist from Chennai, who is touring the United States for the first time. Master Balamurali was accompanied by two other young artists – Nagai Sriram on the violin and Trivandrum Balaji on the mridangam.

As has become routine during the last couple of years, the artists arrived in the country after much hassles and after traveling through several airports, missing some of the flights and being tossed from one airport to another. After being stranded in Charlotte overnight, they arrived on Saturday morning, in time for the concert. The reason I am writing this is to express my appreciation to these young artists. In spite of spending three days traveling in cramped aircrafts and hardly having even unpacked, they were rushed to the auditorium to perform and indeed they did perform. Four hours of splendid concert that kept the admiring audience spell bound and never was a dull moment or compromises on the quality of rendering.

Balamurali (born in 1985), started his concert with the traditional Bhairavi varnam, Viribhoni. The Varnam set the tone for the rest of the concert. The varnam was followed by the equally traditional Nattai kriti, Mahaganapathim. The third kriti was the gem from among the Pancharathna gems of Sri Thyagaraja, Endaro Mahanubhavulu in Sri Ragam. It almost sounded like the young Balamurali was seeking the blessings of the audience, ninety percent of whom were above his age by saying, “anthariki vandanamulu (my namaskarams to all of you).

He followed the Sri Ragam Pancharathnam with a Sahana raga alapana. The Sahana alapana reminded me of an incidence that happened over 40 years ago, when I myself was a young person. It was around 1 A.M. in the night and I was sitting next to my father listening to Sahana being sung by an 18-year old young man during the annual Thyagaraja Aradhana (akanta ganam) celebrations in Purasawakam, Madras. There were hardly 10 people in the hall at that time of the night and the thin audience did not deter the dedicated young man from rendering a Sahana that was soul-filling. The young man was very sincere and dedicated to the music and the Sahana came from his Mooladhara or inner soul. Listening to the Sahana, tears started rolling from my father’s eyes. I did not imagine at that time that after four decades, I will go through a similar experience listening to Master Balamurali’s Sahana. It was nadopasana for both the artists and the audience. Balamurali followed the Sahana raga alapana with Eva Sudha Neevanti Deivamu, the Kovur Sthala kriti of Sri Thyagaraja.

The Ritigowla, Janani Ninnuvina, that followed was equally competently rendered. These days it has become common for younger musicians (both professionals and amateurs) to resort to choosing and elaborating on ragas and compositions set in ragas that give very limited scope for elaborations. Balamurali did not resort to such unnecessary and painful exercises; instead, he chose ragas that allowed him to bring out their greatness: Panthuvarali, Karaharapriya and Kalyani.

The main raga for the day was Karaharapriya and he handled the raga very deftly brining out the richness and nuances of this melakarta raga. He followed the raga alapana with the well-known Chakkani Raja composition of Sri Thyagaraja swami. Because of paucity of time (the concert has already crossed its traditional 3-hour mark by this time), he had to start on the Kalyani RTP alapana right away. Sri Raghavendram Bhajeham in Kanta Jadi Triputa was simple but went through all the requirements of an RTP – trikalam and thisram, not to speak of the raga malikas.

Nagai Sriram is visiting Atlanta for his third concert in that many years. Each time, this youngster fulfilled the expectations of the audience. He always provided excellent support to the main artists and did not try to overwhelm the artists with his own playing during the raga elaboration. However, when the time comes to his solo raga rendering, Sriram has always shown his excellent training and kalpana. Sriram showed that he can match with Balamurali both during the neravals and during the computational swara renderings.

Trivandrum Balaji hails from the famous Palghat Mani Iyer School – himself, a disciple of Sri Palghat Raghu. A hall mark of the Mani Iyer School is their ability to embellish the mood and tempo of a song and in choosing sollus and nadais that are appropriate for each grace produced by the main artist. Balaji aptly maintained this tradition and the nadham and sollu suddham are evidences of his training and knowledge. The thani was excellent and was rendered with precision and complexity.

These three young artists have a very good future ahead of them and if they continue to maintain their sincerity and devotion to their chosen profession, all three of them will do excellently. On behalf of Atlanta audience, I wish them well.