The recent ˜Sound Space and Silence at the MLR Convention Centre demonstrated what happens when two great musical minds converge on stage, closely juxtaposing elements of vocalism and instrumental music at their best. Vidushi Bombay Jayashree and Veena maestro Jayanthi Kumaresh, highly accomplished star performers on the Carnatic music scene showcased the joys and nuances of such an endeavour.
The event invariably brought to mind the grand vocal-rudraveena duet that Bangalore witnessed at Dhwani-2014 by the dhrupad masters Pandit Uday Bhawalkar and Ustad Bahauddin Dagar, more so because the vital operations of layashuddhi, swarashuddhi and gamkashuddhi in dhrupad and Carnatic music involve comparable negotiations. Profound depths and aesthetic heights were explored with a greater rigour by them perhaps because the performers are faithful inheritors and preservers of a well-guarded intellectual tradition.
The opening was dramatic. Silence on stage. The progression from silence to sound occurred with the reverberation of the mridangam followed by the tabla, as if to invite the elements of nature. As the lilting veena naada made a soft entry in tiptoe and settled in the form of a prayersome Poorvikalyani, a feeling of surrender so vital to music itself engulfed the hall. Vocal experience slowly sprung to life with the composition Achyutam Keshavam Rama Narayanam.
Tunga Tarange Gange , a Kuntalavarali composition of Sadashiva Brahmendra acquired an exciting aura in their fresh rendering in raga Hamsadhwani. While the vocal lead was truly inspiring, Jayanthi’s veena employed every technique to capture the nuances of the powerfully flowing Gange in all her glory, mobile and still. The tabla accompaniment captured the dynamics of this composition with great energy. Samagana vinoda sannidhya dhama,Kodandarama in the vibrant raga Vasanta, raga-tana- pallavi in Kapi, the meandering vakra raga associated with devotion and pathos and the concluding tillana carried their exploration ahead. Jayanthi’s masterly playing makes one feel that she can stretch the frontiers of veena-playing to suit every musical need.
Her mesmerising glides, the timing and purity of her notes and gamakas, the meends and the gayaki anga that crowns her manodharma , all constitute the sound and space of her soulful playing.
In certain sections where the vocalist and instrumentalist juxtaposed the purest of notes and phrases, especially in the kapi tanam, one could realise how close their journeys could get, while simultaneously retaining the distinct nature of their aesthetic components. The continual alternations between the well-voiced renderings of Jayashri and the outpourings from Jayanthi’s veena revealed how the two media enabled a common musical content to take wings and transform itself into myriad shades of abstract experience.
Anantha G. Krishnan on mridangam and Ojas Arya on tabla played with all the gusto that the Sound Space and Silence exploration demanded. Their constant support heightened the individual raga journeys throughout. Their tani rendering in the Kapi section won great appreciation from the audience.
