For a city that witnesses a plethora of cultural activities and nurtures talents across genres, the audience has always been discerning and supportive. One would imagine a venue like the NCPA, the torchbearers of culture and art in the city, to be the frontrunners in nurturing a tolerant crowd as well.

Sadly, at a one-of-a-kind concert that was held over the weekend, featuring the legendary Dr L. Subramaniam and seven other violinists from across the world, Mumbai was insensitive and smacked of gross lack of etiquette. Not only were people allowed to walk into the prestigious Jamshed Bhabha auditorium over an hour after the performance started, several audience members seemed rather unapologetic about their cellphones ringing through the show.
I am a bit curious to know why the organisers didn’t have the doors locked like they have done for various live performances in the past, respecting the sentiments of the performer. Truth be told, had this been a Western Classical performance, the audience would have surely been a lot more responsible. At least the loud chattering would’ve been far lesser, if not for non-existent.
Having said that, the Violins for Peace: Global Music Fusion was a splendid musical soirée, expectedly so as it had the backing of Subramaniam’s Lakshminarayana Global Music Festival. Algerian Kheir Eddine M’Kachiche opened the show with soulful tunes played on the traditional Algerian violin — the instrument is placed like the cello.
He was followed by Norwegian Benedicte Maurseth, whose foot-tapping set the Nordic tunes to engaging rhythm. Grammy Award-winning Mark O’ Connor, a pioneer of the new American Classical music, had the crowd moving to some country melodies. The real crowd-puller was Loyko, a gypsy band from Russia whose mastery was occasionally masked by the need to play to the gallery.
After a short break, Dr Subramaniam surprised the crowd by introducing Bollywood’s veteran violinist Pyarelal (of the Laxmikant-Pyarelal duo). The deftness with which the 70-year-old musician played a medley of film songs including Ek Pyaar Ka Naghma Hai from Shor and the title track of Khuda Gawah, was truly noteworthy.
Next up was Catherina Chen who rendered Dr Subramaniam’s composition Tribute to Bach alongwith a pianist. And then it was the performance that everyone was waiting for. Dr Subramaniam and his son Ambi took to the stage for a South Indian classical song.
The duo, ably supported by the mridangam, thavil and morsing, went on to mesmerise the audience with a Thyagaraja keertanai in Gowrimanohari raag set to Adi taal. While Ambi appeared reluctant to contribute to his father’s stringed genius initially, the young Subramaniam made his presence felt with a stunning violin solo.
Whatever I write about Dr Subramaniam will not do justice to his remarkable talent. He proved why he is such a name to reckon with as he delicately emoted through the strings as swiftly as he changed the tempo and mood. His performance had gentleness and aggression in equal measure and the rapt audience found itself giving multiple standing ovations.
The finalé was a befitting tribute to the artistes across genres — who were on stage earlier in the evening — with each holding their own convincingly as they communicated in the most effective language they knew: music.
In all, it was a night to remember.