We are delighted to present a restored and remastered live concert of Dr. M Balamuralikrishna (BMK) held at Madras Music Academy on 16th December 1983.

BMK begins the concert with a Varnam in Amritavarshini and then briefly renders two compositions of Saint Tyāgarāja – “Raghu Veera” in rāga Huséni and “Édāri sancharinturā” in rāga Shrutiranjani.

Then, he takes up the rāga Kalyānavasanta for elaboration and renders his own composition – Gānamalinchi, with a brilliant svara-vinyāsam.

Then the main item (if we haven’t lost anything else in the portion of the tape that was damaged) of the concert arrives. Here, BMK renders Saint Tyāgarāja’s “Mariyāda gādura” in the raga Shankarābharanam with all its glory and beautiful sangatīs.

What comes next in the concert?

“Rāsé harim iha vihita vilāsam”, a Jayadéva Asthapadi. This may appear as a tail-end item, but the afterglow of it reflects the rest of the concert.

I happened to see a photograph of a sculpture from a temple ceiling, when this rendition was lingering in my mind for a couple of days. The circular sculpture looked like our little Krishna (Please see the thumbnail for details). Here, the sculptor has cleverly connected all the five body postures of Krishna(?) with a single head. Each body posture with the head, when seen together gives an impression of beholding five independent sculptures of different body movements, although there is only one! Like the sculptor of the temple ceiling, BMK with free and soaring mind, not confining to a compelling format of presentation brings out an awe-inspiring Asthapadi in this concert.

The rendition begins the piece with a stanza (charanam) in the rāga Móhana. He then renders the stanza like a verse (as in the original format of Gīta Góvinda) in a slow tempo, then ascends into a rapid oscillation-mode before he sings the same to the rhythm of the song and then seamlessly blends with the pallavi “rāse harim iha vihita-vilāsam smarati mano mama krita-parihāsam” in the rāga Rītigaula.

From the pallavi, he again moves on to sing another stanza in the rāga Sarasvati and sings that stanza like a verse (sans rhythm) and glides to the rapid oscillation phase to render the same lines of the charanam to the rhythm of the song before he again blends in to the pallavi in the rāga Rītigaula.

The cycle of slow tempo, rapid oscillation, rendering with rhythm and then blending with the pallavi is continued for the other two stanzas in the rāgas Bhāgéshrī and Béhāg.

The transition that he so effortlessly makes and the aesthetics that ooze from the combination of change of the tempo and rāgas delightfully captivate the listeners.

Most importantly, the aesthetic appeal that has been brought out here appears to have transcended the boundaries of classification, and one can just listen to this piece to simply enjoy top-of-the-line innovation in the spur of the moment.

Continuing the concert, BMK presents a Tévāram in the rāga Móhana, followed by two of his compositions in the rāga Sindhubhairavi and Kédāra. He concludes with a Mangalam in Surati.

I continue to wonder why the Astapadi rendered in this concert lingers so long in the mind despite he has masterly presented all other items?

The audio has been restored from tapes that had been damaged (most probably by rain water). There are few truncations in the recording but does not affect the joy of listening to a great extent. A recording of about 2h 15m could only be salvaged from a damaged tape and we have no documented details about the accompanying artistes.

Here is a time-stamp to all the tracks.

1️⃣ 00:00 - Varnam - Amrithavarshini - BMK
2️⃣ 00:08:50 - Raghu Veera - rāga Huséni - Tyāgarāja
3️⃣ 00:16:40 - Édāri sancharinturā - Shrutiranjani - Tyāgarāja
4️⃣ 00:20:40 - Gānamalinchi - Kalyānavasanta - BMK
5️⃣ 01:07:55 - Mariyāda gādura - Shankarābharanam - Tyāgarāja
6️⃣ 01:45:42 - Rāsé harim iha - Rāgamālika - Jayadeva
7️⃣ 01:57:12 - Uttrumai servadu - Mohana - Thevaram
8️⃣ 02:01:15 - Bhajarē Gurudaivam - Sindhubhairavi - BMK
9️⃣ 02:06:45 - Graha veekshanamu - Kēdara - BMK
🔟 02:11:52 - Mangalam - Suraṭi - BMK

We sincerely hope you would enjoy listening to the concert and help sharing this recording for the purpose of posterity.

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