Venkat Raman –
If the great Yehudi Menuhin were alive today, he would have repeated what he said more than 25 years ago: “Every time I listen to him, I am carried away in wonderment.”
Menuhin cannot make it but if Stevie Wonder gets to know that L Subramaniam (LS) would be performing from 6 pm at the Mt Roskill Intermediate School Hall, Denbigh Avenue, Mt Roskill, Auckland on Saturday, March 28, he would at least call to say, “I love you.”
The world cannot forget the two masters performing on two separate occasions with the greatest living violinist. Wonder gave a memorable concert with LS at the 67th anniversary of United Nations on October 24, 2012.
Inspiring artiste
Those attending the Auckland concert organised by the New Zealand Carnatic Music Society would agree with Menuhin, who said, “I find nothing more inspiring than the music making of my very great colleague Subramaniam.”
This reporter has known LS since long and has had the pleasure of his company with such stalwarts as Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, M S Subbulakshmi, Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavathar and K V Narayanaswamy. He plays violin with such devotion that the emanating music instantly becomes divine.
Unbeaten distinction
Such is his repertoire that he is the single most extensive source of Carnatic Classical and Western Classical Violin. Every concert in which he plays the instrument becomes a memorable occasion, wanting music lovers to want more. Hundreds of music lovers in Canada, USA and Europe would follow him as if they are on a spell.
Like all his fans, LS finds solace and comfort in music even in testing times, such as the one that he experienced about 28 years ago when his house in America was blown away in a terrible storm.
The forthcoming Concert will also see his son Ambi and Rajagopal Doraiswamy respectively on the Violin and Mridangam.
The New Zealand Carnatic Music Society is organising the Concert in collaboration with Lakshminarayana Global Music Festivals that LS conducts in memory of his father and Guru, Professor V Lakshminarayana Iyer.
For more details, please call Sreeranganath Koilkandadai on 021-682957 or Mani Narayanaswami on 021-623249. Email: secretarynzcms@gmail.com
