Classical quartet comes to town

Anna-Lena Zenner has a mosquito bat in her hands. She seems to have learnt the ways of Kochi in a couple of days. This is her first time in India — in Asia itself, she says. It is also Daniel Hoffman’s first time in India. He sits next to her on the couch, watching their host Anna Amy Philips talk of western classical music. That’s what brought them here, to play as an Indo-German string quartet called Resonanz in Kochi this Saturday, and a week later in Thiruvananthapuram. Which means there is one more in the team — Carol George.

Carol and Anna have known each other a long time, growing up in Kochi, working together  as violinists at the Symphony Orchestra of India. Anna or Amy as she is known as among friends, left for higher studies to England for her degree in violin performance and composition. She came back to work in India for a while, working once with A.R. Rahman to teach at his KM Conservatory of Music in Chennai. But finding few opportunities for western classical music in India, she moved to Germany to do a Masters in Musicology. She met Daniel in Germany and when she spoke about the idea to do a concert in India, he roped in Anna-Lena. Daniel plays the cello, and Anna-Lena the viola.

“I had started playing the violin when I was seven years old but three years later discovered the viola, and fell in love with it. I find it has a deeper sound and more resonance,” Anna-Lena says. Daniel would however vouch for his cello and call it the most beautiful of all string instruments. “We pretend to agree with him,” laughs Amy. Together they will be playing western classical pieces as well as a couple of Bollywood songs for the concert in Kochi. “Old songs like Aaj Kal Tere Mere Pyar and Baar Baar Dekho,” adds Amy. The western pieces would be lighter ones. “The whole idea is to promote western classical music here, conduct some workshops.” When they approached the Goethe Zentrum, they were asked to play two concerts to club it with the Day of German Unity, which fell on October 3.

The concert on Saturday will be held at Hotel Avenue Regent. The Thiruvananthapuram concert will be held on October 14.