T R Balasubramaniam

[SrinathK]

The prime disciple of GNB, snatched away far too soon when he suffered a heart attack on stage. But fortunately, a single concert recording survives :

https://soundcloud.com/mahesh-bhuvanesw ... am/s-uphL4?

The concert is superb, with Lalgudi on the violin and Vellore Ramabhadran on the mridangam (a very different, more PMI-like VR for those who know him for his sarvalaghu). He had a strong timbred voice with a massive range, which sounds strikingly similar to John Higgins.

The song list also features brindAvana nilayE, the OVK composition tuned by GNB himself (GNB was in fact one of the first to bring out the compositions of OVK into the open - more info in his thread).

[tmmurali]

Thanks, Srinath, for starting this thread and posting a link to the concert.

I have a very vivid memory of my grandfather relating the following anecdote to me about 25 years ago in the context of Carnatic musicians who had passed away in their prime, e.g., T. R. Balasubramaniam and Savitri Ganesan.

My grandfather was a friend of GNB's from their college days. He said that he visited GNB's house one day and GNB introduced T. R. Balasubramaniam as a student and asked him to sing. My grandfather's response when he finished was "Onna sappituduvan pola irukke!" ("Looks like he will eat you up!") In case you are wondering, neither did I ask nor did he venture to share with me GNB's reaction to this critique.

Ever since that day, I desired to listen to T. R. Balasubramanian's voice. I jumped for joy when I saw this concert posted on Sangeethapriya in 2011. I have enjoyed the Panthuvarali, Bilahari, and Kalyani several times since then.

Incidentally, one version of this concert on Sangeethapriya has the tag "TRB_LJ_VR_SRK" (http://www.sangeethamshare.org/sk/001-TRB_LJ_VR_SRK/) suggesting there may have been another accompanist.

[Purist]

Mridangist sounds more like UKS than VR

[maheshram]

@Ramasubramanian M.K Appa, please weigh in here with your recollections of TRB.