Worth getting my feet wet: Kavita at the Barbican
On Sunday to the Barbican for a concert by Dr L Subramaniam and Kavita Krishnamurthy - but mainly to see Kavita, whose voice I have adored since I first began listening to Hindi film songs in 1995. Our interview for my erstwhile magazine veena had been the highlight of my journalism career to date but I had never had the pleasure of seeing this outstanding singer in concert.
It is an unfortunate feature of too many Indian concerts that the organisers feel it necessary to major on formality and speechifying. This event plumbed new and excrutiatng depths. Not only did Vibhaker Baxi, Director of promoters Navras Records, take the stage to deliver a long, unnecessary and, frankly, inept introduction to artists we had already paid handsomely to see, he then invited the concert's sponsors (a banker and a brewer) to the stage to further prolong the agony. We then had to sit through a five-minute spoken advertisement for the bank.
Whilst it is recognised that these concerts cannot be promoted in present circumstances without some form of corporate sponsorship they are in no sense a platform for blatant advertising. The companies concerned have the honour of association with great artists. Surely that is enough?
Thankfully this outbreak of bad taste was soon forgotten as Dr L Subramaniam took the stage with his 14 year-old son and student, Lakshminarayana (affectionately known as "Ambi"). After careful but largely unnecessary tuning, the pair set to, Ambi accompanying in lower fifths. Dr played what was effectively a rapid warm-up routine, the fluidity and range of which was impressive but containing little if any material of thematic substance. Dr then took the upper range, continuing to impress with his decorative work, while Ambi provided some support in his occasional reiteration of a simple motif.
K Sekar's Thavil was poorly amplified in comparison to the transducer-fitted violins, but his energetic performance helped to compensate, echoing around the woodwork of this excellent hall. Sukhvinder Singh's Tabla sounded much tighter. Alternately and then together, the percussionists blended well beneath the strong sound of the two vioins, now in unison.
Ambi was a confident performer in short solos. He has still to develop a feel for rhythm though, at one point having to be cued by Sukhvinder. His father, of course, was much more adventurous and sure-footed in his work with K Sekar. Their syncopated playing was a joy. Ambi improved, though, and shows great promise.
"A fantastic experience," was how Kavita Krishnamurthy described the opportunity to work with members of the London Symphony Orchestra. I imagine that the feeling must have been mutual. Kavita's voice took a couple of minutes to settle into Om Namah Shivay, an old Laxmikant-Pyarelal track, but she was soon scaling her usual heights, without apparent effort.
Perhaps the highlight of the evening came in a new arrangement of the RD Burman classic, Dil Ne Kaha Chupke Se (1942 A Love Story). Lightly rhythmic and chordal work from the strings created a completely different setting for this romantic number, expressing more the joy of young love than the worthy neo-classicism of the original sitar, tabla and santoor jugalbandi. This bouncy and breezy setting worked very well for both audience and performers, as was evident in the grins exchanged between Kavita and LSO conductor Mark Lockett.
It was notable in a further arrangement that the strings did not attempt to imitate a film orchestra but maintained this spikey, chordal style, with occasional bursts of romantic melody, richly harmonised. This approach is interesting and worthy of further exploration.
Dr L Subramaniam returned to conduct a performance of his A Global Symphony, written a decade ago for the 50th anniversary of the United Nations. Kavita singing a Hindu prayer to the accompaniment of western strings is hardly "global" but the piece is still impressive. The LSO players sounded very warm and rich here, despite the forces being half the size of a full symphony orchestra string section. Dr's conducting appeared basic at first, but his cues were well telegraphed.
There was another commercial break, this time for Navras Records' forthcoming concerts, at the start of the second half. I am delighted that the company have entered the concert promotion business but they do need to realise that there is a point where commerce must give way to art, and not to see everything simply as a marketing exercise.
There was no doubting Dr Subramaniam's conducting skills in a performance of his Spring Rhapsody. The piece also draws on a wide range of Indian and western compositional techniques, echoing (consciously or unconsciously) the unlikely bedfellows Nyman, Purcell and Tchaikovsky, together with prominent flute and extensive use of imitation across the strings. The latter started to become predictable and tedious in the third, Allegro, movement, which felt overlong.
Kavita returned with a 20-minute medley of hits. "After Spring Rhapsody, this is quite aggressively Bollywood," she joked. The LSO strings sat back and grinned as bursts of spontaneous applause greeted Mera Piya Ghar Aaya, O Rama Ji and Dola Re. Kavita was on excellent form and it was a shame that the performance had a slightly shambolic, karaoke feel to it, Kavita frequently turning to cue her musicians and experiencing some problems with the monitors. She was fascinating to watch, though, swaying slightly to the beat and listening intently throughout. 30 years in the studios of Bombay have conditioned her to putting every ounce of expression into her voice. It was rare to see even her left hand raised in the kind of mudra that would be mandatory in a performance by a classical artist.
Dr and son took the stage for the World Premiere of Nada Priya, with the LSO strings conducted by Mark Lockett. This was essentially a Carnatic raag with orchestral accompaniment. The tenderness of Dr's slow movement solo was a highlight, as was the cohesion of the ensemble at the start of the suitably celebratory final movement.
Overall, this was a very special concert indeed. And despite the greed.
It is an unfortunate feature of too many Indian concerts that the organisers feel it necessary to major on formality and speechifying. This event plumbed new and excrutiatng depths. Not only did Vibhaker Baxi, Director of promoters Navras Records, take the stage to deliver a long, unnecessary and, frankly, inept introduction to artists we had already paid handsomely to see, he then invited the concert's sponsors (a banker and a brewer) to the stage to further prolong the agony. We then had to sit through a five-minute spoken advertisement for the bank.
Whilst it is recognised that these concerts cannot be promoted in present circumstances without some form of corporate sponsorship they are in no sense a platform for blatant advertising. The companies concerned have the honour of association with great artists. Surely that is enough?
Thankfully this outbreak of bad taste was soon forgotten as Dr L Subramaniam took the stage with his 14 year-old son and student, Lakshminarayana (affectionately known as "Ambi"). After careful but largely unnecessary tuning, the pair set to, Ambi accompanying in lower fifths. Dr played what was effectively a rapid warm-up routine, the fluidity and range of which was impressive but containing little if any material of thematic substance. Dr then took the upper range, continuing to impress with his decorative work, while Ambi provided some support in his occasional reiteration of a simple motif.
K Sekar's Thavil was poorly amplified in comparison to the transducer-fitted violins, but his energetic performance helped to compensate, echoing around the woodwork of this excellent hall. Sukhvinder Singh's Tabla sounded much tighter. Alternately and then together, the percussionists blended well beneath the strong sound of the two vioins, now in unison.
Ambi was a confident performer in short solos. He has still to develop a feel for rhythm though, at one point having to be cued by Sukhvinder. His father, of course, was much more adventurous and sure-footed in his work with K Sekar. Their syncopated playing was a joy. Ambi improved, though, and shows great promise.
"A fantastic experience," was how Kavita Krishnamurthy described the opportunity to work with members of the London Symphony Orchestra. I imagine that the feeling must have been mutual. Kavita's voice took a couple of minutes to settle into Om Namah Shivay, an old Laxmikant-Pyarelal track, but she was soon scaling her usual heights, without apparent effort.
Perhaps the highlight of the evening came in a new arrangement of the RD Burman classic, Dil Ne Kaha Chupke Se (1942 A Love Story). Lightly rhythmic and chordal work from the strings created a completely different setting for this romantic number, expressing more the joy of young love than the worthy neo-classicism of the original sitar, tabla and santoor jugalbandi. This bouncy and breezy setting worked very well for both audience and performers, as was evident in the grins exchanged between Kavita and LSO conductor Mark Lockett.
It was notable in a further arrangement that the strings did not attempt to imitate a film orchestra but maintained this spikey, chordal style, with occasional bursts of romantic melody, richly harmonised. This approach is interesting and worthy of further exploration.
Dr L Subramaniam returned to conduct a performance of his A Global Symphony, written a decade ago for the 50th anniversary of the United Nations. Kavita singing a Hindu prayer to the accompaniment of western strings is hardly "global" but the piece is still impressive. The LSO players sounded very warm and rich here, despite the forces being half the size of a full symphony orchestra string section. Dr's conducting appeared basic at first, but his cues were well telegraphed.
There was another commercial break, this time for Navras Records' forthcoming concerts, at the start of the second half. I am delighted that the company have entered the concert promotion business but they do need to realise that there is a point where commerce must give way to art, and not to see everything simply as a marketing exercise.
There was no doubting Dr Subramaniam's conducting skills in a performance of his Spring Rhapsody. The piece also draws on a wide range of Indian and western compositional techniques, echoing (consciously or unconsciously) the unlikely bedfellows Nyman, Purcell and Tchaikovsky, together with prominent flute and extensive use of imitation across the strings. The latter started to become predictable and tedious in the third, Allegro, movement, which felt overlong.
Kavita returned with a 20-minute medley of hits. "After Spring Rhapsody, this is quite aggressively Bollywood," she joked. The LSO strings sat back and grinned as bursts of spontaneous applause greeted Mera Piya Ghar Aaya, O Rama Ji and Dola Re. Kavita was on excellent form and it was a shame that the performance had a slightly shambolic, karaoke feel to it, Kavita frequently turning to cue her musicians and experiencing some problems with the monitors. She was fascinating to watch, though, swaying slightly to the beat and listening intently throughout. 30 years in the studios of Bombay have conditioned her to putting every ounce of expression into her voice. It was rare to see even her left hand raised in the kind of mudra that would be mandatory in a performance by a classical artist.
Dr and son took the stage for the World Premiere of Nada Priya, with the LSO strings conducted by Mark Lockett. This was essentially a Carnatic raag with orchestral accompaniment. The tenderness of Dr's slow movement solo was a highlight, as was the cohesion of the ensemble at the start of the suitably celebratory final movement.
Overall, this was a very special concert indeed. And despite the greed.
posted by inglian | 5:08 AM
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