Yesterday evening me and Premila attended a concert which will remain etched in our memory as one of the best .
we were fortunate to listen to the legendary Violinist music maestro ,Physician , and Music Phd Dr and reciever of laurels from around the world for decades ,an Ambassador of Indian classical music and a pioneer in fusion music having collabrated with the greats like Yehudi Menuhin ,Ravi shankar ,George Harrison and many more ,the reciever of Padma Bhusan and padma shree .
He was actually there to recieve the felicitation and Sangeetha Sampoorna award by Sree Poornathrayeesa Sangeetha Sabha celebrating thier 50 anniversary celebrations Swarna Poornatha .
The great artist came with his wife the most well known Kavitha Krishnamoorthy madam who had entertained all of us for years in Hindi playback singing and in other languages .
It was thier 26 th Wedding anniversary too and an auspicious day for them to visit the very precints of Sree Poornathrayeesa himself and pray to him in his temple before the programme .
Though Dr Subramaniam was born in Madras he had his maternal family hail from Tripunithura and he recounted his childhood stay near temple and his granny and cousins etc and how they would steal the excellent sweets she made before she gave it to them in time .
The award itself was presented by an equally erudite and eminient personality Dr Venu Rajamony IFS Retd who had officiated as Indias Ambassador to many countries and taken other responsibilities .
There could have been no better choice than him to felicitate a genius like
Dr Subramaniam .
Thier friendship last 25 years more and Venu sir in his brilliant eloquence told us of how he had arranged an Yoga festival day instead of a programme of calisthenics when he was Ambassador to Netherlands in Amsterdam and Subramaniam sir with Kavita madam were requested and agreed to perform in the famous museum diatrict with 99 % audience of foriegners who were enthralled .
In another instance he as Ambassador to China had arranged Dr Subramanioms Violin to be part of Beijing philharmonic orchestra an event attended by Indian and Chinese presidents .
Dr Subramaniam in his oration talked of his childhood his father a famous violinist and pioneer who wanted to take Indian classical violin to the world and he was happy he could do it with his equally adept brothers .
He recounted an anecdote in his young days when playing for the great musician Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagvathar in Madras during the seventies .
At that time he was studying in Madras Medical College ..
Once in a concert with Chembai swami he did not want to attend as the next day was his MBBS final exams and he had to prepare ,
He requested Chembai to spare him that day but the great maestro told him I will make it short dont worry you can go earlier and will have time to prepare ,but in his own style went on in detail and poor Subramaniam had no options but to continue to play violin to him .
At end he took leave of Chembai who laughingly told the worried young violinist
" Dont worry young man
you will pass but remember MBBS will not give you a penny in your life !"
The great man had seen ahead of what
Dr Subramaniom would become .
Humility comes with true greatness and one could feel it in the music that followed and his words .
There was a touch of mischief too in his humour ..
Though he was there to be felicitated he was kind enough to give us a feast of his music .
With able musicians of great experience accompanying him the three or more long pieces he played were marked by greatness and a complexity and sweetness that transferred each one of us to realms of happiness and peace we cannot describe as Indian classical music does even for novices like me with no knowledge of it ..
His tuning the violin to perfection during the perfomance showed his need for nothing short of the best wherever and whenever he plays be it in the United nations or in Thripunithura .
As we were requested not to record the programme using mobiles I could not take videos of his playing ,but I have tried my best in telling about it in words not assisted by AI which I never use or need for writing with passion.
#drlsubramaniam ,#Kavitakrishnamurthy,
#violinist ,#carnaticmusic,
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