I had the privilege of accompanying him in the biggest Ganesha festival of Bangalore, Vidyaranya Yuvaka Sangha at APS grounds. My co-artists were, HKV and Arjun Kumar. There were around 10k people witnessing the program and eagerly waiting for Balamurali sir to sing.
He started off with his composition "gam ganapathe" in the raga "ganapathi" which has only 3 swaras, sa, ga & pa. He sang a composition which he told sounds similar to a varnam in the raga karaharapriya and he told that he was singing it for the first time.
It was totally a different experience accompanying him as you need to be constantly listening to what he is singing as there will be lots of nuances in it and most of the time as an artist, you would not know the composition.
It was more of listening and soft accompanyment for the whole concert. Kumar sir showed all his experience in accompanying to such music and compositions. I was just following him as a shadow through out.
The main composition of the day was in the raga Arabhi - "Mahadeva suta", which Balamurali sir sang elaborately and the swara prasthara was in thisthayi, typical of Balamurali sir. HKV sir matched him on all occassions.
The tani rounds was the time I had to make sure I matched Kumar sir stroke to stroke. There were 2 brisk rounds in chaturasra nadai and followed by crisp koraippu. Balamurali sir was very supportive and appreciative on stage.
After the concert, which lasted for more than 2hrs, he came to me and told "You play very well" with his deep voice which is still reverberating in my ears. He blessed me after that and we all started to move away from the huge crowd.
One dissapointing thing happend though after the concert was, the organizers forgot to get the names of the accompanying artists and did not even mention our names. And above all, he expected us to give the names when announcing !!!
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