Mandolin U Srinivas - Electric Mandolin
Bangalore Praveen - Mridangam
Trichy Murali - Ghatam
Bhargavi Balasubramaniam - Tambura
The Hindu Jugalbandi Festival 2013
Venue: Vekatasubbarao School Aduitorium, Chetpet, Chennai
Date/Time: 7:30 PM, Sunday July 14th 2013
List:
Varnam - Reetigowla - Adi - Ravikiran
Raghunayaka - Hamsadhwani - Adi - Tyagaraja
Jagadanandakaraka - Nattai - Adi - Tyagaraja
Mamava Meenakshi - Varali - Mishra Chapu - Muttuswami Dikshitar
Garudagamana - Nagaswaravali - Roopakam - Patnam Subramaniayer
RTP - Kalyani-Kapi - Adi
Teerada vilaiyattu pillai - Ragamalika - Khanda gati - Subrahmanya Bharati
Javali - Mishra Manji
Narayanate - Behag - Adi - Annamacharya; Tillana - Dhanashri - Adi - Swati Tirunal
Mangalam
Jugalbandis between senior Hindustani musicians are often marked by mutual respect and an easy rapport between the artistes. Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan come to mind. Or say, Hariprasad Chaurasia and Shivkumar Sharma. They are often supported by top notch tabla players who understand their anchoring but otherwise subordinate or supporting role in the proceedings. This all round rectitude makes for an aesthetic treat. When one or more of the artistes involved in the jugalbandi is a Carnatic musician, things sometimes get less comfortable. This is where the historic Ravikiran-Srinivas jugalbandi was a one of a kind in so,so many good ways. It was a fantastic experience, better than any jugalbandi I've been to, Hindustani or Carnatic. The artists showed an amazing empathy.
Ravikiran summed it up at the end with the poignant words "two bodies, one soul". Nothing more needs to be said really. But, for the sake of those not fortunate enough to be there, perhaps a small narrative can be cautiously added...
The two artists admitted they are are old friends, right from their early years, but this was their first time together on stage. As Ravikiran said during one of his introductions (the two artists took turns to introduce the next piece), there's a time and a place for everything...the suggestion that they play together has been made often over the last 30 years, but it has finally materialized only now thanks to the initiative of The Hindu. A visibly moved and emotional Srinivas made it a point to repeatedly thank The Hindu for making this concert happen. He also praised Ravikiran and recalled how he used to seek out his concerts when growing up. Ravikiran returned the compiment, recalling their long association.
Srinivas' amazing creative genius was certainly awakened last night ! However instead of egging him on to heights of mind-boggling virtuosity, of which there were certainly some glimpses, last night's inspiration in the form of Chitravina Ravikiran by his side drew him towards the deep end of classicism, in which waters he can be just as adept swimming. Although he plays a fretboard of equal temperament, his immaculate attention to shruti shuddham in tuning mitigates any intonational compromises of equal temperament. Srinivas is simply such a good mix of sheer musical genius, humility and innate goodness of character. He acknowledged the important people in the audience - Chitravina Narasimhan, Ravikiran's father, his own father and brother, the great Ghatam virtuoso Vikku Vinayakram and a couple others.
Chitravina Ravikiran is a musical colossus whose accomplishments and genius do not submit to circumscription. I have been fortunate in life to have been blessed with a personal association but that certainly adds to the difficulty of writing objectively! With Ravikiran's unfathomable depth, breadth and uncompromising search for lasting musical values stemming from the de facto vocal tradition of Carnatic music, one has to be reminded - incidentally - of his unparalleled mastery over and virtuosity on the chitravina, arguably one of the most difficult instruments to master in world music (for example, given the linear distances to be traversed on about 28 inches of string with a single slide whereas a flutist can use 7 fingers over 8 holes over about 10 inches, pound for pound a chitravina player has to play about 20 times "faster" than a flutist!). Still, last night's concert was unusual in terms of the speeds at which he played certain sangatis (replete with gamakams!) with Srinivas to inspire and challenge him by his side.
The concert started with the difficult Reetigowla varnam composed by Ravikiran, which Srinivas announced he learned for this occassion. And boy, had he mastered it, as Ravikiran acknowledged after the piece ! The charanam is one of those rare ones with an atheetha eduppu, starting a quarter beat before samam.
The artists took turns to play alapanas for different pieces. Srinivas played a beautiful alapana of hamsadhwani. The musical depth and classicism he can bring out on the electric mandolin is astonishing. The swara exchanges in Raghunayaka were scintillating. Later it was Ravikiran's turn to present the alapana of varali, which he did with the characterteristic classicism and freshness.
The "Kapi-Kalyani suite" RTP was the thrilling "piece de resistance" of the evening. Expansive alapanas, dazzling virtuosity, scintillating taanams, startling juxtaposition of Kalyani-Kapi sangatis in rapidfire succession alternately by the two artists, sneaky shruti bhedams, polyphonic effects, mathematics of rhythm...it had it all. Srinivas' alapana of kapi was such a gem. Ravikiran's tribhinnams and other instrumental devices exploting the acoustic tone of the chitravina were extremely fulfilling. The taanams ended in a delightful alternation between the two ragas on the two instruments. When geniuses have fun on stage, it is a delight for lesser mortals to watch in awe. The extempore improvisation of kanakkus during the swaraprastharas fell in place so elegantly, with the two artists challenging each other to greater heights.
Bangalore Praveen, a disciple of Palghat Mani Iyer, and Trichy Murali were ideal accompanists for this event. They did not jostle for volume or limelight, understood their anchoring role (Ravikiran thanked them for providing the "groove" in which the two main artistes could improvise) and executed it superbly. Perhaps there wasn't enough time to play a long thani, so after a couple avarthanams each of introductory chaturashram they went on to the kuraippu and then to the korvai.
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Corrected the word "alternatively" to "alternately"...
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