Classical Music, Here I Come!

Last Saturday I went to a concert put up by the Bombay Philharmonic Orchestra. They had a guest music conductor, Christopher O’Reilly and pianist Danny Driver. I love Western classical music, though I honestly cannot make out the difference between Beethoven, Mozart or Chopin! I hope to change that someday.
Anyway, I had to convince my brother, D, to go along, and surprisingly he agreed at once! So off we went to the Tata theatre to enjoy an evening of Western classical music. We were actually late, courtesy me. And D was so mad! He was going on and on lecturing me on how I should have started getting dressed earlier when I knew that I always take so long to get ready. Grans of course had to chime in with her two cents and urge me on to get dressed quicker! It was about 6 o’clock, and we were still at home, when the concert started at 6:30 pm. It takes about 45 minutes to get to the auditorium from our home. Anyway I was really flying when D announced that it was 6:15 already. When I was ready, I turned around and saw that it was actually 6:00 pm, so I went back to the mirror to check my eyeliner, when D walked in and saw me glued to the mirror once more, announced, “that is it! I’m not going! I don’t want to grope my way in the dark to our seats!” Hearing this I quickly turned around and both of us raced off to get a cab.
We arrived exactly at 6:30 pm. And D was still grumbling about being late. When we entered the foyer, the attendant there actually commanded us to run up the stairs! We ran up and were shown to our seats. The auditorium was full, and I was a bit embarrassed to step over people trying to get to our seats.
The orchestra had already arranged itself on the stage and was warming up for the performance. A kindly old Parsi lady offered me the program, which we didn’t get as we were late. The piece selected was from Mendelssohn’s works.
Then O’Reilly walked onto the stage amidst thunderous applause, he introduced the piece and gave a short history of how Mendelssohn created it.
And then the orchestra began its enthralling performance. I was surprised to recognize the first two pieces, which I’d actually heard playing in the background of a Warner Bros. cartoon that I had seen long, long back! I’ve come to realize that most of the cartoons have Western classical music as their background score, especially the “Swan Lake” or something, by Chekovsky (am not sure of the spelling or even if it is by Chekovsky!).
The fourth set also sounded very familiar, and then I realized that it was used in the Tata Indigo advertisement!
I sat spell bound throughout the entire evening, just letting the wonderful sounds of the violins, cellos, trumpets and an assortment of other instruments, wash over all my senses. In fact after a while, I suddenly realized that I had a smile plastered to my face all the while! I was in heaven for sure!
O’Reilly was a true showman! He was highly dramatic and very charismatic too. It didn’t hurt that he was good-looking too! Hehe! J He had dark brown hair and eyes and a ready smile.
After the intermission Danny Driver joined the orchestra. He was dressed in a white tuxedo, as compared to the rest of the orchestra members who were dressed in black. He was balding, and wasn’t as affable as O’Reilly, he looked a bit reserved. He played marvelously! His fingers just flew over the piano keys. He turned out to be quite dramatic himself.
A funny incident occurred during the first half. In a Western classical music performance, there is a certain protocol to be followed while applauding. One should never applaud when there are pauses between pieces. But not many people in the audience knew about it, and so many of them applauded each time there was a pause. After this happened a few times, an irate lady from behind, who sounded very Parsiish, snapped, “Don’t you people know when to clap?!” I just felt like chuckling when she said it! She sounded so annoyed!
But you really can’t blame some of the people for not knowing this rule; they just wanted to show their appreciation for a good performance. I myself hadn’t known about this rule. My aunt, who had given me the tickets to this show, had told me about this; or else even I would have been clapping along with all the ignoramuses, including D! But, even though I knew about this rule, it was not easy making out when exactly to applaud and when not to. So I clapped only when the Parsi lady beside would clap, and I told D to take my lead.
Apart from this little hiccup, the rest of the concert went on smoothly.
And I was just over the moon to be attending a Western classical music concert at last! I’ve always dreamed of living this way, working hard on weekdays, and going to watch plays and concerts on weekends. Ah! This is the life!

Wah Zakir Hussain!

Last Thursday I got the opportunity to got to a Zakir Hussain concert, and I turned it down. Later that evening, I was talking to a friend of mine and she was flabbergasted that I didn’t want to see Zakir Hussain perform live! She convinced me that I should go, so I called up my aunt, H, who’d asked me, and asked her if I could still come. Luckily she still had some extra passes, and I got dressed in record time, fifteen minutes or so! I really surprised myself!
So H, her son A and I went to the concert, which was actually held in the memory of Ustad Amir Khan by his son Shahbaz Khan, who had personally signed the thousand or so passes himself! The show started half an hour late, which didn’t surprise me all that much, used to Idian Standard Time, as I’m. First Shahbaz Khan said a few words about his father, and then he introduced Zakir Hussain, and the other guests of honour, including, Pandit Jasraj and Kishori somebody (I totally forgot her surname, but it starts with “A”). Then a short film compiled on the late Ustad Amir Khan was shown. I was surprised that I’d actually heard a couple of the songs that he had sang for in old Hindi movies.
At this point I was quite bored, and was thoroughly regretting my decision for going, and cursing my friend for encouraging me to go, because it sure didn’t look like Zakir Hussain was ever going to play, as Ustad Sultan Khan, who was to accompany him on the sarangi couldn’t make it as his wife had just passed away.
After an hour or so, the intermission was announced and we trooped out to get some cold coffee and sandwiches.
Anyway, after the intermission we trooped back in to find out that Zakir Hussain was indeed going to play, and that Ustad Sultan Khan’s disciple, Dilshad Khan was going to join him.
Dilshad Khan started off on his sarangi. The sounds made by the sarangi were pristine, but very mournful. In fact, they sounded like the background music in a saas-bahu soap opera! Or maybe I’m just ignorant!
After 15-20 minutes of Dilshad Khan’s solo performance, Hussain joined in at last. And I must say, it was all worth it in the end! He was fabulous! Even though I’m no great Hindustani music aficionado, let alone being able to understand the nuances, I really enjoyed his performance. At some points, he played so fast that his fingers were a blur! As he would end in a crescendo, he would look at the audience with a big grin on his face, as if to say, “wasn’t that brilliant? Now clap for me!” Well, the audience needed no persuasion, all of us burst into spontaneous applause after each crescendo (for lack of a more appropriate word). He is a real showman! He knows exactly how to read his audience. I actually found myself tapping my fingers and feet in rhythm! My cousin, A was actually shaking with enjoyment in his seat, and that’s definitely an odd site, as he is all of 6 feet tall!This was the first Indian classical music concert I’d been to, and little did I know that day later I would be attending my first Western classical music concert!