Violin - R Kumaresh
Veena - Jayanti Kumaresh
Mridangam - Arjun Kumar
Ghatam - Giridhar Udupa
1. Strings Attached - Nattaikurinji followed by short speech
2. Ananda Natanam Aadum Thillai - Poorvi Kalyani - Neelakantan Sivan
3. Abheri
4. Seetha Pathe - Khamas
5. RTP - Kaapi ragam followed by Thani Avarthanam. Thalam given by percussionists
Swaras of Kapi, Sahana, Nalinakanthi, Revathi and many other ragas
6. Special Mangalam with Suruti Harivarasanam, Madhyamavati, Bhagyada Laksmi etc
Swara Raga Sudha is an annual event organised by Pradosham/Ragamalika of Abu Dhabi. It is a musical festival organised over a period of two days. The first concert of this year's program was an instrumental rendition by the husband-wife duo of Sri Kumaresh on the violin and Smt Jayanti Kumaresh on the Veena. As mentioned by Sri Kumaresh in the concert, this was the first time the duo were performing together in this region of the world. They were accompanied by Arjun Kumar on the Mridangam and Giridhar Udupa on the Ghatam.The concert start was delayed due to extensive sound checks done by the artists. This reduced the duration of the concert, but the concert was an excellent one in spite of this. Generally as a tradition, Veena performances are not accompanied by Violin. In fact violin made its entry to Carnatic music only in the last 200/300 years. However in recent years I have seen and heard some Veena concerts with violin accompaniment. The sounds produced by Kumaresh and Jayanthi Kumaresh were very good since they came with their own sound box connected to the instruments directly. The overall effect of this was quite pleasant to the ears and the sounds of both the Veena and the violin were heard quite sharply and distinctly. They had titled the concert as "Strings Attached".
The list of the krithis/compositions rendered are listed above.
The concert commenced with a special composition in Nattaikurinji which was titled as "Strings Attached" which was a pleasant beginning. Nattaikurinji as a ragam calms down the mind and brings some serenity and this krithi also had the same effect.
Next, was a rendition of the krithi - Ananda Natanam Aduvar Thillai in Poorvi Kalyani of Neelakantan Sivan. Since the concert was being rendered under the banner of Pradosham Ragamalika, Smt Jayanti Kumaresh explained that this was an apt choice for rendition. Both the Nattaikurinji as well as the Poorvi Kalyani were rendered quite elaborately.
This was followed by a short rendition of Abheri. I could not recognise the krithi being played. This was again followed by a Khamas krithi - Seethapathe of Thyagaraja. Next came the main piece of the evening. Raga Kapi was rendered quite elaborately and was a classical rendition of this raga. The raga was followed by a Thanam. Generally, in such instrumental combinations, the tendency is to explore different avenues and this sometimes nudges the artists to go out of the carnatic boundaries and include other forms of music to appeal to the audience. However, this was a pure classical rendition of the Kapi raga, even though Kumaresh jocularly made a pun on the name of the raga. The Thalam as well as the Pallavi was decided by the percussionists who played a small Thani Avarthanam with the Thalam. After this the Pallavi was rendered . As a part of the pallavi, swaras of Kapi, Sahana, Nalinakanthi, Revathi and many other ragas were rendered. (I could recongise these ragas and at the end there were many quick changes in the ragas). The overall RTP itself lasted more than an hour.
The percussionists Arjun Kumar and Giridhar Udupa gave energetic support to the artists and there was a very excellent co-ordination among all the artists. Since all the artists were from Bangalore (as mentioned during the felicitation speech), I think they have performed together many times before. One noticeable factor in the concert was that Jayanti would end her playing with a sharp stop. After a brief pause, Kumaresh would take up the next round of playing which provided a great effect.
The concert concluded with a special mangalam which started off with Harivarasanam and had a Madhyamavati piece and concluded with Bhagyada Laksmi Baramma.
