Open air baithaki of Kirwani

Kirwani hasn't traditionally been in the standard repertoire of Hindustani Classical music performers.

As a matter of fact, in our Gharana I can't remember hearing any maestro except my Ustadji performing Kirwani in public concerts as a Khayal Raga.

For me, Kirwani is about the pain arising out of separation and the longing to get united with the loved one for one more time. 

The following recording is from a recent open-air Baithaki style concert of mine.

Open-air concerts are always tricky to handle when it's Hindustani Classical instrumental music. The sustain of meend often gets overshadowed by unavoidable outside noise. Also the lack of feedback makes it very important to get monitor speakers (which in most cases can't give an exact idea of sound in the listening area). So one has to alter the method of execution of meend and has to depend to a large extent on the sound engineer's idea of Sitar's sound (which in many cases differ from one's own idea of one's own instrument). I prefer to have my students listening to the output to give me feedback during sound-check, as they are more familiar with my Sitar's voice. 

Enjoy!

[Please take a look at the file description for complete artist info]

While writing this post, a memory of an evening came to my mind.
It was about my Ustadji performing Kirwani in an open-air setup.

Fortunately, it was uploaded on YouTube by Simon Gill who had recorded the whole concert.

I was on stage with Ustadji on the tanpura. And, I remember everything vividly even now.

You will find the odd intervention of car and rickshaw horns if you listen to the whole recording.
But if you can overlook that, it was a great rendition of Kirwani.

The great tabla maestro Pandit Anindo Chatterjee was on tabla.