A Tale of Two Countries

“The Year of Germany in India” celebrates 60 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries and the line-up comprising musical evenings and art installations among others will be spread over eight cities in India. Coming up this month is a tour by Deutsche Philharmonie Merck,a lavish 80-member act,that performs from a repertoire of baroque to modern music.

Electronica buffs can celebrate in November,when German and Indian electronic musicians get together to present their high-tech compositions. Banks of the Yamuna,on the other hand,is an art initiative,in which German and Indian artists will create works by the sides of the two rivers,Yamuna in India and the Elbe in Germany. This will be curated by environmental activist Ravi Agarwal and artist Till Krause,from November 9 to 23.

“It was great playing with Christoph Haberer,an acclaimed German artiste. Through this concert,I learned something from him and Christoph learnt something from me. This is a good way to bring together Germany and India. I am looking forward to playing more for this festival,” said Sivamani. His performance,complete with ritualistic and raga-based compositions,had the audience applauding loudly,whistling and cheering. With props like ghungroo,damru and even a conch shell,Sivamani thrashed the cymbals and hit all the toms and snares at the right spots. Haberer got into the groove with original compositions like Metric Loop,comprising the beats of tin drums with computerised space sounds.