Young musicians enthral with superb jugalbandi

Nagpur: Adding a musical flavour to festival fervour was a Hindustani classical Jugalbandi presented by Mehfil in association with Chitnavis Centre on Sunday. Taking the stage were two young musicians, both tutored in the style of Jaipur Atrauli gharana.
Saurabh Kadgaonkar, a senior disciple of Pt Raghunandan Phanshikar and Nishad Matange a disciple of Manik Bhide and Pt Rajshekhar Mansure, began the evening with Raag Bhoop. Picking up three bandish from the rich repertoire of Vidushi Kishori Amonkar, the outstanding musician from the Jaipur Gharana, the duo began a leisurely expansion of the raag.

With an elongated alaap they began with the bandish ‘Pratham sur saadh’. Punctuating the presentations with a taraana, they ended with another drut lay bandish, ‘Mil gaye re sahela re’. The two vocalists kept the audience engaged for more than an hour as they meandered through the bhakti ras raag, bringing out its nuances with their raagdaari.

What followed were two bandish in raag Malkauns. Starting with ‘Man sumiran kar tu Ram naam’ the duo followed it with ‘Balma mora aajao ji maharaj’ which they presented as a duet with much better synchronization. The last two presentation were a natya geet from Sangeet Saubhadra, ‘Nabha Meghani Aakramile’ and a Bhairvi ‘Áwagha rang ek zala’. The young vocalists showed shades of brilliance in their renditions. Matange, who is a micro-biologist warmed up to the performance as the evening progressed while Kadgaonkar was brilliant with his range and skill in both high and low notes.

Terming the performances by both the vocalists as brilliant. Dinkar Kukde, a member of Mehfil said, “Considering the age of these two singers their presentations were very skilful and robust and the overall impact was very powerful. It was Jaipur gayaaki and they did full justice to it.” Speaking about the not very high turnout, Kukde added, “Though the audience was there in good numbers but it could have been better. Considering that it was Nariyal poornima today, we were not expecting a very high turnout.”