Sangeet Sangam - Raga Kirwani

This recording brings together two highly-skilled musicians. The violin virtuose L.Subramaniam, who also plays with many western classical musicians as well as jazz musicians, and the excellent sitarist Rais Khan, who is in a musical tradition that goes back to the 19th century and is a nephew of the sitar-legend Vilayat Khan.

Lakshminarayana Subramaniam (* 1947) is an acclaimed violinist, composer and conductor, trained in the classical Carnatic music tradition and Western classical music. He is renowned for his virtuoso playing techniques and compositions in orchestral fusion.

Rais Khan (* 1939) is a descendant of great sitarists of Etawah Gharana. His mother was the elder sister of Vilayat Khan, who had a major influence on his style. Rais Khan is the torchbearer of the Mewati Gharana, which is connected to Indore and the "beenkar baj gayaki ang" (singing style combined with rudra veena approaches) carried out by Rais Khan's father Mohammed Khan, a rudra veena player and sitarist.

As Rais Khan's mother was a singer and his father was a beenkar, a unique combination of Khayal, Dhrupad and thumri approaches developed in his playing. Despite his extensive meend work and the gandhar pancham sitar style he uses, Rais Khan's alap, gatkari and gamak work is different in approach, pacing, and even technique, from the Etawah style. Rais Khan himself has never claimed that he is from anything but the Mewati Gharana.