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The Ranganathan Trio Give Calcutta A Classical Flavor Of French Romantic Music
Western classical music lovers in the city got a beautifully calibrated taste of three great twentieth century composers from the Ranganathan Trio. The three brothers are based in Europe, born in France of Polish and Indian parents. They all live now in different cities in France, Belgium and Poland, but come together to perform superior music, as they did at the Calcutta School of Music, along with Alliance Française du Bengale on Tuesday 18th July.
Introductions to each set of pieces, done in a historical context, were done by Ajay Ranganathan, the violinist of the trio. Thus we could better comprehend the Piano Trio pieces of Gabriel Fauré, Ernest Chausson and Murice Ravel, the first two known as the French “romantic” composers, while Ravel is more associated with impressionism. They took the audience through the backgrounds of all three composers, Faure’s musical style is said to have influenced many 20th century composers, (best known work: Pavane), and the piece played by them had an elegant lyricism, supported by a delicate harmony. Chausson’s work (he died in his forties,) was stylistically dominated by Massenet and later technical influences of Cesar Franck, as also Wagner. And they lastly played Ravel, (best known work Bolero), who straddled both nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and was known as France’s greatest living composer. We were told about the inspiration for the piece played from Basque dance to Malaysian poetry and the rich texture of sounds.
All three brothers started their education in the Conservatory of Tours, France, and in 2009, in the class of Xavier Richard, the trio (Ravi as cellist and Theo the pianist) graduated with the first prize of chamber music with the jury’s unanimity. More recently, they worked, in Paris, with Vincent Coq, pianist of the famous Wanderer Trio.
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