L Subramaniam may be one of India’s best-known Carnatic classical violinists, but his concert at the Tata Theatre this weekend is likely to be a treat that music lovers across all genres would not want to miss.
In the city’s first such multi-disciplinary concert, the maestro will bring together on one stage ten renowned violinists representing different traditions around the world. These include Western and South Indian classical, Russian gypsy, American jazz and country, Norwegian folk as well as the Algerian violin traditions.
The concert, Violins for Peace, is part of the 20-year-old Lakshminarayana Global Music Festival founded by Subramaniam in memory of his father and guru.
“My father was a torchbearer in making the Indian violin globally recognised. Bringing together other violin genres from around the globe would be an apt tribute to mark his birth centenary year,” said Subramaniam, who will play the Carnatic violin along with his son Ambi at the Saturday recital.
The concert has been arranged to give the audience a taste of each distinct style of violin playing, but Subramaniam has also composed a special fusion piece involving all the forms.
“Russian gypsy has a very strong style and the tradition has its beginnings in India, whereas the Algerian violin is played by placing the instrument on the knee, like a cello,” said Subramaniam. “To compose a combined piece, I had to first trace the similarities between each tradition and then bring out their individual colours.”
{{/usCountry}}“Russian gypsy has a very strong style and the tradition has its beginnings in India, whereas the Algerian violin is played by placing the instrument on the knee, like a cello,” said Subramaniam. “To compose a combined piece, I had to first trace the similarities between each tradition and then bring out their individual colours.”
{{/usCountry}}For those who might be struggling with the technical differences between the traditions, Subramaniam has planned a pre-concert interactive session to introduce audiences to the different violin styles.
The session will be held at Experimental Theatre of the National Centre for Performing Arts at 5.30 pm on Friday.
“The idea is to give interested audiences an idea of the effort and structure behind the music,” said the maestro.
The concert brings together ten violinists from different classical traditions from around the world.
(Violins for Peace will be held at NCPA’s Tata Theatre at 7.30 pm on Saturday, January 8)
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