Birds, Winds and Strings Inspire Composer Visita’s New Album with Bolshoi Theater Musicians

Hyderabad composer Vivek Venugopal aka Visita invokes fleeting moments of serenity, whimsy and nature on his latest work Opp. 9 & 13, which is created with musicians from Russia’s storied Bolshoi Theater.

While his previous work String Quartets, Opp. 10, 12 (out in February this year) addressed topics such as global warming and humanity’s exploitation of our natural surroundings, Opp. 9 & 13 too seems to play on the environment in some regard. Recorded in October last year in Moscow, the album comprises two pieces – “A Soirée for the Migratory Birds, Op. 9” in three movements and “A Suite for Strings & Winds, Op. 13” in five movements.

Across the two pieces presented, Visita’s composition is brought to life by Russian artists. On “A Soirée for the Migratory Birds, Op. 9,” he wrote for recording artists and performers such as flautist Stanislav Yaroshevskiy, French horn artist Alexei Pochtarenko, bassoonist Alexei Marutaev, clarinetist Sergei Petrov and oboe artist Evgeny Roschin-Ivanov. Those artists then joined Anastasia Kuskasheva and Anna Ansolis on violin, viola artist Alexandra Marutaeva, cellist Maria Ryzhkova and Sergey Panov on contrabass on “A Suite for Strings & Winds, Op. 13.”

Venugopal said about the album on Instagram, “If someone had told me 10 years ago that I’d work with musicians from across the world and release 10 albums for various combinations of instruments, by 2023, I’d not believe them. It has been a hard, yet fulfilling journey. Here’s to 90 more, as I move towards a new phase of artistic maturity and clarity.”

Listen to the album below.