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Music, timely and timeless

Delhi had a rare taste of Mozart's magic the other day

It was time to remember Mozart all over again. Time for Delhiites to remember an Austrian genius born more than 250 years ago. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is perhaps music's greatest figure known to people across generations. A child genius, Mozart started composing at the age of five and was playing before the Bavarian elector and the Austrian empress by the age of six. The Austrian ambassador commemorated his 250th birth anniversary at a concert by the Swarovski Musik Wattens, an 80-member symphonic wind orchestra.

Her excellency Jutta Stephan Basl described the occasion as a triple celebration - of Austria taking over the presidency of the European Union, of the launch of the Dr. Salim Ali Visitor Interpretation Centre at Keolado National Park in Bharatpur that is the result of a seven-year collaboration between WWF, the government of Rajasthan and Swarovski, and of course the 250th birth anniversary of Mozart. "I also hope that the event will promote cultural ties between India and Austria," she added.

Delhi was treated to a rare live orchestra performance with a recreation of a typical Bavarian opera house setting the stage for the Swarovski Musik Wattens concert. The orchestra itself was founded in 1900 and started off as an amateur wind band of employees of the Swarovski Company. Today it is an 80-member orchestra of whom many are professional musicians and is one of Austria's leading orchestras.

Dressed in traditional Tyrolean attire and led by Franz Schieferer, the orchestra began with the Indian National Anthem and followed it up with the last movement of Beethoven's 9th Symphony, which has been adopted as the European Hymn by the European Union. Tribute then was paid to Mozart as the orchestra played a wind adaptation of the overture to the opera The Magic Flute. Taken from the last opera ever written and conducted by Mozart before his death in 1791, the overture is an inspiring melody that held the audience in a magical spell.

The orchestra also played compositions by other Austrian greats such as Franz von Suppe and Johann Strauss Jr. Joy to the occasion was brought by the rendition of Peter Moser's From the Alpine Country, a lively folk composition that had many of the guests dancing to its foot tapping rhythms. The concert culminated with the Military Marches and the presentation of a Concert Harp by Swarovski to the music community of India. The Harp was received by the Delhi symphony Association.

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