The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Treat for Western classical music buffs

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Friday, Aug 31, 2007
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Karnataka - Bangalore

Treat for Western classical music buffs

Staff Reporter

BANGALORE: Here’s a treat for Bangalore’s Western classical music buffs. Perhaps for the first time, the city will host a full orchestra by the Symphony Orchestra of India (SOI).

The SOI will move out of its home, Mumbai’s famed National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA), also for the first time, to perform at the city’s J.N. Tata Auditorium on September 9.

Programme

The programme will start with two short pieces: Sarasate’s Navarra (Spanish Dance) and Massenet’s Meditation. This will be followed by Prokofiev’s “Classical Symphony” and Weber’s “Clarinet Concerto No. 2.” Post interval, the orchestra will move on to Mozart’s “Symphony No. 41 (Jupiter).”

This last piece will be performed as a tribute to the late Dr. Jamshed Bhabha, creator of the National Centre for the Performing Arts and benefactor of the SOI.

Michael Collins, a renowned clarinettist, will play the instrument for the Weber Concerto. He had recently won the prestigious Royal Philharmonic Society’s Instrumentalist of Year Award. Donor passes for the orchestra can be bought at the Taj Residency. The concert will begin at 7 p.m. sharp. There will be no admission while a performance is in progress.

The orchestra is to be conducted by Marat Bisengaliev, known for his mastery over the violin and art as a conductor.

For the record, he is the creator of the Kazakh Chamber Orchestra, the West Kazakhstan Philharmonic and the Turan Alem Kazakhstan Philharmonic.

So, what makes Western classical music so great. K.N. Suntook from NCPA had a lot to talk about the genre, perfected by composers of yore such as Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert, Wagner, Verdi and many more. He said: “Which other art form embraces performances of its works from its roots in Europe to its similar cultural brethren in the Americas, and then finds huge support in the entire continent of Asia, particularly China, Japan and Australasia.”

Mr. Suntook believes “there must be something incredibly immortal and attractive about this brand of music which has this universal appeal.” Sarasate’s “Navarra” is inspired by the Spanish gaitas, melodies played on the flageolet, a small instrument with a high, penetrating sound. Sarasate imitates the flageolet in the whistling harmonics, tremolos, and high passagework of the two violins, which play together most of the time to amplify their virtuous and demanding passages.

Massenet’s “Meditation” is based on an opera in three acts to a French libretto. It was first performed at the opera in Paris on March 16, 1894. Set in Roman Egypt, the story concerns a Cenobite monk, Athanael, who attempts to convert Thais, a courtesan of Alexandria and devotee of Venus, to Christianity but discovers too late that his obsession with her is rooted in lust.

Donor passes for the orchestra can be bought at the Taj Residency.

The concert will begin at 7 p.m. sharp. There will be no admission while a performance is in progress.

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