India’s most famous musical couple, Kavita Krishnamurthy and Dr.L. Subramanyam visit Sydney and perform at Science Theatre, University of New South Wales

By: Raj Natarajan

It is very rare that you meet the two of the living legends at the same time in one place. If that happened twice in two years, it is something you remember for the rest of your life. That happened to me when I met Kavita Krishnamurthy , famous Bollywood playback singer and her illustrious husband Dr. L. Subramanyam, the violin maestro at the Science Theatre, University of New South Wales who were here in Sydney at the invitation of Consul General of India. I had the privilege of meeting this very famous musical couple from India two years back when they were in Sydney to participate in the Indian Cultural Festival, The Confluence. There isn’t a single Bollywood music lover who has not fallen in love with Kavita’s songs and there isn’t a single classical music lover who has not enjoyed blissful violin recital of Dr. L. Subramanyam. Indeed it is the music which brought them together and made them life partners.

Kavita has sung songs in Hindi, Telugu, Marathi, English, Urdu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Gujarati, Nepali, Bengali, Assamese, Konkani and Odiya. Trained in classical music, Kavita Krishnamurti has recorded more than 25,000 songs in 16 languages in a career span of 30 years. She is the recipient of four Filmfare Best Female Playback Singer Awards, including three consecutive awards in the period 1994–1996, and she was honoured with Padmashri award by the Government of India in 2005.

Lakshminarayana Subramaniam is a doctor by profession but his love of music made him a violinist, composer and conductor, trained in the classical Carnatic music tradition and Western classical music, and renowned for his virtuoso playing techniques and compositions in orchestral fusion. L. Subramaniam developed a passion for music as well as science from a young age, studied Medicine and acquired his M.B.B.S. degree from Madras Medical College. He registered as a General Practitioner, before deciding to pursue music full-time. He has a Master’s degree in Western classical music, which he acquired at the California Institute of the Arts. He started the Lakshminarayana Global Music Festival in 1992, to honour the memory of his father Professor V. Lakshminarayana, who died in 1990. The festival has centred around special concepts such as Violins for Peace, Visions of India and Sounds of India. He received Padma Shri award by the Government of India in 1988.

Following comments in the leading news papers of the World about Dr. L. Subramanyam gives us an idea of his greatness:

Wall Street Journal: Uniting nations with just violin.

New York Times: L. Subramanyam is the best this listener has ever heard.

Times of India: GOD of Indian Violin.

Los Angeles Times: Violinist L. Subramanyam proved to be a peerless virtuoso and L.

                        Subramanyam’s poetic imagination formed inexhaustible permutations.

The News Minute: L. Subramanyam, the doctor who became the international face of

                                    Carnatic Music.

Some of the Sydneysiders who were invited to witness the performance of Dr L. Subramanyam should consider themselves to be the lucky ones to get this unique opportunity to see and listen to this great violinist.  L. Subramanyam played some of the popular ragas and also his own composition. The violin looked as if it is an extension of his arm and I never believed that violin can sing until I heard L. Subramanyam’s performance that evening.

Constantly propelled from Singapore to Paris, from Delhi to Los Angeles, he has conquered every audience with the elegance and virtuosity of his style. His career as a childhood prodigy brought him into contact with the greatest musicians and he soon was considered as a master of the violin. At a very young age, he was honoured with the title “Violin Chakravarthy”. No other musician can boast of such diverse repertoire and collaborations, or even such mind-boggling techniques. Till date, Dr. Subramaniam has produced, performed, collaborated and conducted close to two hundred recordings.

Dr. L. Subramaniam is the only musician who has performed/recorded Carnatic Classical Music, Western Classical Music, both Orchestral and non-Orchestral, and composed for and conducted major Orchestras, scored for films, collaborated with a wide range of some of the greatest musicians, from different genres of music including jazz, occidental, jugalbandis with North Indian musicians, world music and global fusion. He has established himself as a force that is strongly Indian, but universal in nature and approach.

Dr. L. Subramaniam says: “Music is a vast ocean and no one can claim to know it all. The more you know, the more you realize how little you know. It is an eternal quest.”

Dr. L. Subramaniam has also composed music for a select few films, including “Salaam Bombay” and “Mississippi Masala” and was the featured soloist for Bernardo Bertolucci’s “Little Buddha” and “Cotton Mary” of Merchant – Ivory Productions.

On that unforgettable evening, the audience were treated to L. Subramanyam’s amazing musical performance which drew a standing ovation at the end. Dr. L. Subramaniam not only bowed to the audience every time he was applauded but also asked the audience to appreciate the artistry of accompanying artists, Malakaveri K Balaji on mridangam, Jeiram Jagathesan on ghatam and Janakan Suthanthiraraj on kanjira.

As the audience were reminiscing the divine sound of Dr. L . Subramanyam’s violin, beautiful artists dressed in colourful costumes appeared on the stage and entertained the audience with two immaculate bharatanatyam dance recitals. “Natya Ganapathige Pushpaanjali”, in praise of Lord Ganesh was presented by Sydney Based Rasika Dance Academy followed by “Bho Shiva Shambo Swayambho”, another colourful and vibrant dance by Newcastle based Nartana Dance Academy.  Swamy Dayananda Saraswathi who wrote the lyrics for this song would have felt proud seeing his works being brought to life on the stage by these young local artists.

Kavita Krishnamurthy, his wife who is one of the greatest playback singers of Bollywood sat amongst the audience admiring the musical performance of her husband. Many of the people, I had a chance to talk to at the end of the show, told me that they were a bit disappointed that Kavita did not come on the stage to sing one or two of her famous movie songs. However one cannot but notice the down-to-earth and humble nature of both Dr. L. Subramaniam, the violinist extraordinaire and his famous wife Kavita Krishnamurthy which, I think, further elevates their greatness.