Recorded at Darbar Festival 2009

Musicians
Ganesh Rajagopalan (violin)
Kumaresh Rajagopalan (violin)
Patri Satish Kumar (mridangam)
RN Prakash (ghatam)

Ragas performed :
Ragam Tanam Pallavi in Raga Abheri

Raga Abheri - Ragam Tanam Pallavi, Ganesh & Kumaresh Rajagopalan

Hailed as Carnatic music’s superlative talents, violin brothers Ganesh and Kumaresh Rajagopalan had performed more than 100 concerts even before Kumaresh (the younger) had turned ten. By their early teens they received acclaim as prodigies and were playing at major festivals. Citing their maturity of style that belied their years, the AIR (All India Radio), India’s national radio channel bent its rules, lowering the minimum age of an A-grade performer to accommodate and feature both of them in the category of senior-most musicians.

In this video from 2009, they are joined by the supremely accomplished mridangam player Patri Satish Kumar and on the ghatam by the widely respected performer and educator, RN Prakash. The ensemble performs ragam tanam pallavi in Raga Abheri.

Launching with a detailed alap, they tiptoe into the tanam. As the stillness graduates into animated movements with undertones of a pulse, they display the transcendence they have achieved through exposure to various forms like jazz and electronic music et al. Instead of bowing, they pluck the strings of the violin, producing staccato movements in an oaky sound in neatly articulated phrases. This unexpected surprise steals the show and merges into the fluid bowing with cohesiveness. Another highlight of the concert surfaces with Ganesh’s brief vocal demonstration of rapid notes in a silken, seasoned voice.

They sustain the pallavi with a tapestry of different ragas towards the end, stitching each melody flawlessly and effortlessly without a suture.

This section ends with a blaze of swirling rapid notes executed in blistering speed and accuracy. After an exhilarating to-and-fro between the violins, they engage the percussionists in a question-and-answer with the melody. Kumar and Prakash seal this part with an animated duet played with delicacy and magnificent fury doled out in intricate calculations.

Abheri is an upanga janya raga of the 22nd Melakarta Kharaharapriya. It is an audav-sampurna raga, which means it uses 5 notes in its ascending movement and all 7 notes in its descending movement. The notes present in this raga are sadja, sadharana, gandhara, shudh madhyama, panchama and kaisiki nisada. Chatusruti dhaivata and chatusruti rishabha occur in the descending movement. Its ascending and descending movements are as follows:

S G2 M1 P N2 Ṡ - Ṡ N2 D2 P M1 G2 R2 S

In Western music notation, if C is taken as the base or tonic note, then the scale is

C D# F G A# C – C A# A G F D# D C

The dominant note is Ga (3rd) and the sub-dominant is Ni (7th).

It can portray rasas like karuṇa (compassion) very effectively, just as it can convey the feeling of devotion or bhakti bhava.