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Blend of class and
melody
WHILE SOME music concerts stand out for their
class touch, melody holds the upper hand in some others. It is rarely
that the two streams are blended perfectly. Among the stalwarts, Dr.
Balamuralikrishna does it with comfortable ease. His disciple,
Thiruvananthapuram Krishnakumar, who has been sharpening his concert
skills under his guidance for the last few years in Chennai, infused a
Balamurali touch to his concert held at the S.N.D.P. Hall, Mamangalam,
recently by successfully blending the two streams. The concert was
organised in connection with the third anniversary of the Bharatheeya
Sangeetha Sabha, a dream project of Sangeetha Vidwan M. R. Madhusoodana
Menon, who has trained generations of budding musicians for nearly half
a century. Inaugurating the function, Mr Menon reminded
music students of the fact that only 10 per cent of skills are achieved
through formal training. Echoing the views of Ariyakudi Ramanuja
Iyengar, he stressed the need for imbibing lessons by listening to the
concerts of accomplished artistes.
Young Krishnakumar, who had established a name
in Thiruvananthapuram before migrating to Chennai, has matured fast
into one of the most promising vocalists of his generation. His is a
family of musicians. His wife Binni Krishnakumar is an equally
accomplished vocalist who has learnt music under the guidance of Dr.
Omanakutty, B. Sasikumar, Neyyattinkara Mohanachandran etc. A couple of
years ago, the couple created history by becoming the first
husband-wife duo to render concerts together. Her elder brother
Thodupuzha Manojkumar, a disciple of B.Sasikumar, is an accomplished
violinist, now working as a lecturer at the Swati Tirunal College of
Music, Thiruvananthapuram. A few years ago, the brother-sister
combination attracted public attention through their association with
Nadamadhuri, an Asianet programme presented by Kaithapram Damodaran
Namboodiri.
At the concert, Krishnakumar was accompanied
by Manojkumar on the violin, Dr.Babu, a disciple of Karaikudi Mani, on
the mridangam and Thiruvananthapuram Karthikeyan on the ghatam.
Before the concert, Krishnakumar referred to
the fact that Bharatheeya Sangeetha Sabha is probably the only one of
its kind promoted by a music teacher and his disciples. He said this
has prompted him to choose raga `Gurupriya' for his ragam, thanam,
pallavi, composed by him, invoking the blessings of Gurus. He began the
concert with the varnam `Balagopala... ' in Amrithavarshini composed by
Balamuralikrishna. The central piece was Tyagaraja's `Dasarathe... ' in
Thodi. But what endeared him to the listeners was Tyagaraja's
`Abhimanmule... ' in Hamir Kalyani, the Carnatic counterpart of
Hindustani raga Kedar. Manodharma element blossomed in both the
`krithis' through patient raga elaboration and `swaravinyasa.' The
Hamir Kalyani piece naturally imparted a Hindustani touch to the
concert. It was noteworthy that even the varnam was preceded by a brief
alapana of Amrithavarshini. There were also a few bits including
Deekshitar's `Panchamatangamukha... ' in Malahari and Swati Tirunal's
`Bhogindrasayinam... ' in Kundalavarali.
M. K. BALAGOPAL
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