Emperor of violin holds impressive court

Dr L Subramaniam is no stranger to Adelaide music aficionados, having performed previously at the prestigious Adelaide Festival and the popular outdoor Womadelaide event.

His performance at the Adelaide University’s Elder Hall on July 27 drew a capacity crowd, even though it was mid-week in mid-winter. The century-old hall of the University’s conservatorium, with its impressive interior modelled after the Middle Temple in London, provided a rarefied ambience. And the three-manual organ stretching from floor to ceiling surrounded by polished timber panels formed a magnificent backdrop to the softly-lit dais from where the violinist virtuoso and his handsome son performed a two-hour concert with consummate skill.

Reviewing the concert, Sharada Murali adds: It was an awesome display of technique, when the “violin chakravarty”, as Dr L Subramaniam is fondly called, held durbar with his prince. The concert was a capricious blend of south Indian carnatic music and masterful technique. He accepts neither grammar nor boundaries and treats the rules of the raga with unfettered freedom or some disdain – depending on one’s view - as he plays with the notes and takes the listener on a skyrocketing adventure.

Ably supporting his father, Ambi Subramaniam matched the maestro’s music, note for note and stroke for stroke. A word of advice – even if uncalled for – to the youngster: he will be well served if he invents his own style and rhythm, so as not to be seen as his father’s replica.

The duo was well supported by Satya Sai on the morsing and moderately by Trichi Mohan on the mridingam.

The concert started with an exploration and elaboration of the pentatonic scale, abogi. Pentatonic scales have a mysterious pleasant effect on the listener. They followed the alapana with a composition of the maestro himself, a prayer to Lord Ganesha. The song included neraval and a swara kalpana, where they explored every possible interpretation and expression of the five notes in the scale.

The due later moved on to a very elaborate ragam, tanam, pallavi. Dr Subramaniam did a brief foray in the Gowri Manohari scale, and then moved to the slightly more rhythmic tanam. Ambi stepped in to change the scale.

There was a divided opinion about this second raga. Could it be vachaspati or latangi? There was no announcement at the end of the song, so this will remain a mystery unless someone steps in to dispel the doubts.

The last part of the ragam tanam pallavi was the mellifluous jog. Here they retained the textbook phrases of jog while flooding the audience with various expressions of the ragam. It was a fitting finale to the two hour concert.

However, a few small things reduced the enjoyment of the concert. The main percussion, mridangam was not very audible. The main mike of the evening seemed to be switched off for a short while. In spite of these hitches, the audience were totally mesmerised by the music, and the artistes received a heartfelt standing ovation.