Jugalbandhi at Hamsadhwani - 27/8/10

Lakshmi Sreeram and I consider it a great privilege to have performed during the 20th Anniversary celebrations of the renowned Sabha Hamsadhwani, in Chennai.

Sri.Y.Prabhu, Secretary of Sri Krishna Gana Sabha was felicitated on this occasion.

















Accompanists for the concert:

Sri.V.Sanjeev - Violin
Sri.B.Ganapathiraman - Mridangam
Sri.Viresh Madri - Harmonium
Sri.Suresh - Tabla


Lakshmi and I have always wanted our Jugalbandi concerts to be interesting and innovative.

RAgAs presented in the concert:

In this concert,we took up raga combinations which sound very similar and allied,but at the same time, which have very distinct features in the two respective traditions.

mAyAmALagowlA-bhairav:

I began with the kriti mErusamAna, a composition of Saint tyAgarAja. Lakshmi then sang the composition bhor bhayilawa in bhairav set to teentaal. While she sang swarAs, I joined and sang swarAs for mErusamAna. We did a few rounds of this, taking turns.















Next we took up the rAga pair
naLinakAnti-tilak kAmOd:

I sang nee pAdamE gati in naLinakAnti, a composition of Sri.GNB.
Lakshmi sang the composition bamana re, eka saguna vicharoon in tilak kAmOd, set to teentaal.

bhAgEsree :

While bhAgEsree is a major rAgA in the hindustAni tradition,it is a minor rAga in the carnatic style.
This was the major raga that Lakshmi took up in the concert. During her elaboration I joined in a few places with a few phrases of bhAgEsree. After her detailed exposition of two compositions(first one was sakhi mana laage naa in vilambit teentaal and the second one was na dAro rangA in drut ektaal), I sang nArAyaNa theerthar's tarangam gOvindamiha in bhAgEsree.

kalyANi- yaman:

This was the major rAga that I took up.I sang a detailed AlApanA of kalyANi wherein again she came in with a few phrases of yaman. After this,Lakshmi sang a composition(eri aali piya bina set to teentaal) in yaman. Subsequently I sang tyAgarAjA's masterpiece EthAvunarA with detailed neraval. During kalpanAswarAs she again joined and we finished this combination with a tani by Ganapathiraman and Suresh.















Four contrasting ragAs chandrakouns-kAmbhOji-bhatiyAr-Ahirbhairav:

We took up verses from krishnAshtakam and presented them alternatively.She first sang Chandrakouns,I then sang the next couple of lines in kAmbhOji. She followed with the next 2 lines in bhatiyAr and I finished with Ahirbhairav.

वसुदेवसुतम् देवम् कम्सचाणूर मर्दनम् |
देवकी परमानन्दम् कृष्णम् वन्दे जगद्गुरुम् ||

अतसी पुष्पसंकाशं हार नूपुर शोभितम् |
रत्नकंकण केयू्रं कृष्णम् वन्दे जगद्गुरुम् ||

कुटिलालक संयुक्तम् पूर्णचंद्रं निभाननम् |
विलसत् कुण्डलधरम् देवम् कृष्णम् वन्दे जगद्गुरुम् ||

श्रीवत्सांकं महोरस्कं वनमाला विराजितम् |
शंखचक्रधरं देवम् कृष्णम् वन्दे जगद्गुरुम् ||

I sang jayadevar's ashtapadi nAtha harE in Ahirbhairav. She followed with a kabIr bhajan suntA hai guru gyaani.

We ended with behAg-bihAg:

I sang a tillAnA of pApanAsam sivan in bEhAg.
She sang a tarana set to teentaal.