Venue: India Habitat Centre
Date: 3 November 2015

Anil Srinivasan, the Chennai based pianist rendered a solo concert at Habitat last evening.

The pieces that he played were a combination of Western Classical to Carnatic to popular Bollywood numbers. The artist explained that he had named the series “Touch” to reflect the various experiences that touch people day in and day out. During the first part of the concert, he had audio visuals on a screen accompanying the renditions that reflected some instances that had touched him. In the second phase, he played requests from the audience. The concluding phase of the concert was Western Classical music, including Bach, with a “Carnatic twist”.

The pre Diwali Delhi traffic has been crazy and the area surrounding Lodhi Road is a test on one’s nerves. Perhaps this may be the reason why the auditorium was just about half filled. However, we got the peace and quiet that was necessary to stabilize before the concert. Piano renditions are not very common in Delhi. Hence once the concert started, the audience listened attentively to the artist (we did not hear a single mobile ring). The music was most enjoyable and we spotted the audience humming with the popular pieces (“My favourite things” / “Vaishnava Janato” / “Raghupati Raghav” / “Ekla chalo re”/”Twinkle Twinkle”/”Tu hi re”). However, we did think that the blind-fold-playing-the-piano act was unduly gimmicky. But so much for artistic freedom we guess. The melodious evening concluded at a perfect duration of an hour and fifteen minutes, Srinivasan left the audience craving for more.