Brihadhishwara Mahadeva - Kanada - Rupakam - Dr. M Balamuralikrishna

Balamuralikrishna presents kAnaDa rAgam in all its glory accentuated by a freewheeling exploration to bring out all the key melodic aspects of the rAgam. It is characterised by energy and efficiency combined with elegance.

The presentation of the composition, his own, is slow and steady to emphasise the lyrics. Sangatis, canned ones and crafted ones, flow to reveal kANaDa's intrinsic beauty. The melodious wholesomeness, a characteristic of his own compositions, is brought out.

In the svara prastAram, his territory, he comes to be his own self. As a result, the delight of well articulated base notes is abundant. In the rAga- AlApana too, the same has been done--the delight of staying in the lower octave.

The accompaniments are complementary and let the beauty of the composition flow unimpeded.

The overall rendition is gigantic, like the prime deity of the composition--bruhadIshvara.

The audio is an excerpt from a National Programme of Music of AIR. I vaguely remember it to be from the year 1988 or 1989, but might be earlier too. Dr. Balamuralikrishna is accompanied on the violin by Sri. Mysore M Nagaraj and on the mrudangam by Sri. Srimushanam Raja Rao.

This was recorded on a MW band transmission and in those days, the relay quality was very average with occasional transmission disturbance. I have collected various radio recordings of the same rendition and have made a collage, taking the best available audio segment from each and restored the audio together. Hope you would enjoy listening to this remastered version as you celebrate the Maha Shivaratri festival.

Perhaps, this is the only recording available with elaboration of raga, kriti and kalpana svarams.

There is an interesting anecdote about this composition in the book "Splendour of Swaras by Sri. B M Sundaram" and would like to quote the following passage for your appreciation.

"We had to go to Shrirangam, after a concert by Balamuralikrishna at Kumbakonam. In between, there was a day's rest and so we went to Tanjavur, my native place. Two of his other disciples - the late M V Ramana murthi and M Chittaranjan of Hyderabad, were also there. We visited Bruhadeeshwara temple, where the priest requested our guruji to sing a song. Balamuralikrishna instead asked us to sing. Ramana murthi and Chittaranjan rendered "Shiva Shiva enarada", at the shrine of the presiding deity. In front of the goddess, Bruhannayaki, Ramana murthi sang "Nee dayaraada" in the raga, Poorvikalyani, a composition of our guruji.

Then, we circumambulated (pradakshina) the praakara of the temple. Within that time, Balamuralikrishna mentally composed a song. He took us again to the main shrine and delivered his new composition "Bruhadeeshawa mahaa deva" in the raga Kanada".

Gratefully acknowledge the contribution of Shri. T K Ramkumar in writing and for sharing his reflections for these Shivaratri offering.

|| Om Namah Shivaya ||