Premiere: Composer Visita, Pianist Nadine Jo Crasto and Violinist Nourhe Khate’s New Classical Piece ‘Whimsical Randomness & Existential Absurdity’

In the world of composing with classical musicians, being in the same room as them is ever important for an artist like Hyderabad-based Visita aka Vivek Venugopal. That’s why it’s taken him a while to figure out his next record, Moods for Violin & Piano, Op.15.

Although releasing just a year after his previous work, Reveries, Op.7, Venugopal worked with Mumbai-based Nadine Jo Crasto on piano and Nagaland-origin Nourhe Khate on violin and wrote seven pieces in the span of two months in mid-2021. Earlier this year, they headed in to record at Mumbai’s Island City Studios. The composer and producer connected with Crasto and Khate through common acquaintances, one that’s not too difficult to come by given the small, tight-knit community of western classical artists in India.

Both feted instrumentalists and composers in their own right, Venugopal says it was “very fulfilling” to work with Khate and Crasto, becoming instant friends after meetings. “We only had two rehearsals before the recording, and they really poured their hearts into the music, and performed the piece beautifully,” he adds. The first glimpse of Moods for Violin & Piano, Op.15 arrives with the piece titled “Whimsical Randomness & Existential Absurdity.”

Described by the artist as “emotionally straining and also cathartic” to write during the pandemic, Venugopal also mentions he scaled down in a sense for Moods for Violin & Piano, Op.15 in terms of working with only two instruments. “In between my last release (Reveries, Op. 7) and this one, I wrote several pieces for quartets, quintets. I even wrote one for 10 instruments, and one for 15 strings, piano, and tabla. During the pandemic, it was becoming impossible to put together these larger ensembles in India, and international travel was also not an option. So I had to move back to this ensemble,” he adds.

In particular, the piece gets its long winding name “Whimsical Randomness & Existential Absurdity” from Venugopal’s recent “minor illness” which led to being hospitalized. He says, “The doctors used words such as ‘idiopathic’ to describe the unknown and random cause of the illness. Although there were a few diagnoses floating about, it was all inconclusive.” After taking a month to recover, Venugopal says he did what he knows best – to attempt to find an “answer” through music. “It had to all mean something, even if the answer was in the form of an abstract invention of frequencies that spoke to me. And maybe, in these times of global warming, covid and war, this music may speak to others as well,” he says.

Listen to “Whimsical Randomness & Existential Absurdity” below. Pre-save the album here.