Features: Magazine | Literary Review | Life | Metro Plus | Open Page | Education Plus | Book Review | Business | SciTech | Friday Review | Young World | Property Plus | Quest | Folio |

The French connection

The Neemrana String Quartet brought Beethoven, Bach, Schubert and Mozart to town for a soiree with a difference, writes Pankaja Srinivasan

PHOTO: S. SIVA SARAVANAN

AMBASSADORS OF MUSIC Neemrana Quartet.

Pourquois Neemrana?

With a delightfully Gallic accent, four young musicians tell you that it was a name they heard out of the blue and thought `Neemrana' sounded beautiful. So they decided to call themselves that. "And we are the only string quartet in our country to have an Indian name," they say.

The GKNM auditorium in the city provided an intimate setting for the Neemrana String Quartet comprising Guillaume Molko (violin), Suleimann Altmayer (violin), Gauthier Hermann (cello) and Julien Dabonneville (viola) who treated the audience to compositions of Western classical masters. Organised by Alliance Française of Madras, Coimbatore branch, it was another first for music lovers in Coimbatore.

Charming the audience

Anticipation gave way to enjoyment as the four came on to the stage, took their positions and, without a fuss, launched into one of Beethoven's compositions. Their bows moved over their respective instruments in perfect harmony and it had everyone in the auditorium tapping their feet and moving their heads to music that was largely unfamiliar.

"It does not matter that the audience may not know western classical music," says Suleimann, adding that "there is in fact more challenge in holding their attention".

The kind of music they play, string quartet music, is often seen as very exclusive and a preserve of the elite. While it began as music played for royal enjoyment, even today it does not enjoy the kind of popularity other kinds of music do. "Even if there is string quartet music on television it is at three in the morning," says Julienne wryly.

But all are quick to add that it need not be that way. "On our part we make sure that we play to diverse audiences. We have played on the beach, in schools, in slums, orphanages, everywhere," they say. One of their aims is to bring string quartet music to the common listener, especially the young.

The four trained at the Superior Conservatory of Music in Paris before they formed their quartet and it is evident that theirs is much more than a musical bond. The banter, passion and rapport the four display on stage are very evident off stage as well. Three of them rib Guillaume Molko about his passion for football while Suleimann and Gauthier are teased mercilessly for their fondness for pop star James Blunt, whom the other two obviously disapprove of heartily.

A harmonious ensemble

On stage, the camaraderie continues but in an entirely professional way as they dip and sway and lead and follow one another in perfect unison.

There is not a single discordant note. Asked if they had ever goofed up or stumbled during a performance, each one points to the other saying, "he always makes the mistakes, not I!" But in a more serious note they say, "There is nothing called a perfect concert. We may stumble sometimes, but we are so much in tune with one another that we can cover up one another's mistakes; usually no one can tell".

There were certainly no false notes that evening as Beethoven, Mozart and Schubert made their presence felt in Coimbatore through this young foursome. And just to prove that music knew no boundaries, they launched into a lively and enthusiastic rendition of the Bollywood chartbuster, Kaho Na Kaho from the film Murder that they had recently watched.

Boys will be boys. On one hand they tell you how they aim to bring western classical music to people the world over, on the other they gleefully reveal that they can reproduce the tunes used as `reverse music' in the vehicles here!

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail