World's 'fastest violinist' will be in 'conversation' with L Subramaniam in Bengaluru on January 4

Bengaluru: For playback singer Kavita Krishnamurthy, her Bollywood songs might have etched her in the minds of people, but she said it is singing for Lakshminarayana Global Music Festival that expanded her mind and kept her on her toes.

"Bollywood is absolutely great. It has given me everything -- people know me through my Bollywood, and I adore being a Bollywood playback singer. But at the same time, I welcome the fact that I might have to do -- maybe, a tilana -- things which I have not learnt in my Bollywood training. I think those things helped me remain a student in music," said Krishnamurthy to PTI.

These, said Krishnamurthy, might not have been possible if not for her husband, violin virtuoso L Subramaniam, and the Lakshminarayana Global Music Festival.

As part of the 33rd edition of the Festival, a free concert is being organised in Bengaluru's Chowdiah Hall on January 4. This year's festival's highlight, said the couple, is world's fastest violinist, Muhammad Yildirir from Turkey.

Technically, Guinness Book of World record’s ‘world’s fastest violinist’ is held by Britain's Ben Lee, who played a famous interlude from Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov ‘Flight of the Bumblebee' in 58.515 seconds on November 14, 2010. Guinness Records dropped that category post that due to technical difficulties in judging. But about nine years ago, Yildirir in a live concert, which is also available on YouTube played the same interlude in 37.84 seconds.

This year's festival is special, said Subramaniam, because it is the 40th year of his seminal music album, 'Conversation', for which he collaborated with French jazz violinist Stéphane Grappelli, acknowledged as 'the grandfather of jazz violinists'.

"In fact, we are calling the concert 'Conversation'," added Krishnamurthy, the singer behind several Bollywood box-office hits from films like Mr India and Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam.

"Grappelli was one of the patrons when we started the festival all those years ago. Our album 'Conversation', got a lot of attention when it was released, it became the number one in the 100 top jazz CDs," said Subramaniam to PTI. The violinist said he is also excited because things have changed a lot for fusion music in India.

"The audiences are so open, because in Bengaluru and some of the other major cities, they have had the opportunities to listen to different kinds of artists. Now, you can see whatever is happening in any part of the world instantly. We are very happy that whatever we present there is an audience," said Subramaniam.

Subramaniam recalled the time he did a concert in Hyderabad on December 31, 1999, at the request of then Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, to ring in the 21st century.

"We had close to two lakh people at that time. Initially, we were worried whether they would sit through, listen through the whole thing. We had a fantastic response. Sometimes we wonder when we bring artists who people have never seen or certain instruments, if that will work," said Subramaniam.

But everytime, people have proved him wrong, because music has no borders and can communicate effortlessly. The festival started as a series of tribute concerts in 1992 by violin maestro Dr L Subramaniam, to honour the memory of his father and guru, violinist V Lakshminarayana.

"Even during the Covid, we didn't stop the festival. We did a lot of projects through the internet, and we were streaming. We put out a lot of important projects on YouTube, that includes conversation or interviews with Illayaraja or A R Rahman or with John McLaughlin playing guitar," said Subramaniam.

When he started playing fusion music all those years ago, Subramaniam said he was a bit apprehensive of how people in India would perceive him, as he also wanted to keep playing Carnatic music.

"The problem was the certain mindset among certain people, even the media, saying that if you're a classical musician -- I'm talking about 1965 or even the 1970s -- you didn't do anything else," said Subramaniam.

"I would say he is a pioneer," chipped in Krishnamurthy.

"He started his fusion in the mid 1970s when nobody even had thought about it. Even his orchestral writings were as early as the early 1980s. So, he was literally a pioneer. And then somehow these things did so well for him, nobody questioned his capacity as a classical musician. All his albums did well, so he got accepted," she added.

Krishnamurthy admitted that she started listening to fusion only after she met him.

"Before that I heard a lot of Hindustani classical music, a little bit of Carnatic and mostly Bollywood. And today I enjoy music in so many different ways, I listen to everything," said Krishnamurthy. She credits Subramaniam for this.

"After marrying him, I met a lot of jazz musicians, met musicians from around the world, got to work with symphony orchestras... I never thought in my life I would have those opportunities," said Krishnamurthy.

"This is all due to my father's vision. By making me do different things, he opened up a lot of doors. In many way we go back to him. The torchbearer was my father," added Subramaniam.