KOCHI: Winter arrived early, and in the most glorious of ways. The icy cold snow, the ghastly winds, it was all there, serenading and at the same time strangle holding the assembled in its wintry grip. The vigour of the high notes of the first movement of Winter from ‘Four Seasons’ charged the crisp air as violinist Kamila Karasheva played the iconic piece from the violin concerto series ‘Four Seasons’ composed by 17th century baroque legend Antonio Vivaldi.
The timeless masterpieces by the greats such as Johann Sebastian Bach, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Mozart, Robert Schumann were played by Kamila Karasheva, a violinist from Kazakhstan, and a group of international musicians to a packed crowd. The chamber music concert was organised by Trivandrum Centre for Performing Arts (TCPA) in association with the Trivandrum Academy of Western Music (TAWM).
The concert began after observing a one-minute silence to remember late Satish Kamath, who helped set up TCPA and organised every concert except this one.The concert opened with a quintet. The soul-rendering music of Mozart’s Concerto No. 3 in E-flat Major was played by Kamila (violin), Gleb Nechaev (violin), Kenzhegul Akshekina (cello), Alexandr Klimov (flute) and Dana Bekpossynova (piano).
Kamila gave three solo performances- the first movement of Winter; Rachmaninoff’s ‘Romance’ and Yevgeny Brusilovsky’s ‘Boz Aigyr, the Final of the Suite’. The sprightly music of Bach’s- ‘The Badinerie, from the French Suite No.2’ enlivened the audience as Alexandr (flute) performed a solo piece. The lively piece enthralled the music and was received well.
Cellist Kenzhegul Akshekina rendered a solo performance of French composer Camille Saint-Saens ‘s ‘The Swan, from the Carnival of the Animals’. Dana Bekpossynova was the concertmaster.Schumann’s ‘E Flat Major Opus 47’ was performed in the Quartet. American composer George Gershwin’s lively composition ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ was also performed in the quintet.The international musicians wrapped up the concert with a quintet, which had them playing ‘Jai Ho’, from the movie Slumdog Millionaire.