Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma / Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia - Rasdhara FLAC

The flute maestro Hariprasad Chaurasia and the santoor champion Shivkumar Sharma first collaborated on record with the epochal--no idle exaggeration--Call Of The Valley in 1967. Spurning decades of entreaties, they first duetted live in 1996. Recorded in London in 1997, Rasdhara preserves their foreign jugalbandi debut. It consists of two performances lasting around an hour each. The dynamics and dynamic range of the soft-voiced santoor and the breathiness of flute work gloriously well. Developing themes, passing phrases back and forward, adding new melodic twists or variations, they egg each other on. Their instrumental reading is based on a text on separation from a woman's perspective in the romantic thumri style. The choice of pakhawaj (a barrel drum played with the hands)--played here by Bhawani Shankar--for rhythmic accompaniment is inspired for it conjures a bygone age of royal courts and the courtesans who would sing such thumri lyrics. The second raga, "Kirwani", with Shafaat Ahmed Khan's tabla, is a borrowing from the South (purloined in Northern repertoires since the 1960s). Given the astounding chemistry it may sound churlish yet brilliant though their "Kirwani" is, "Jhinjhoti" is the one likely to be superglued in the CD player. --Ken Hunt (sleevenote)