“Playing along…’’

A Dutch conductor, a Hungarian pianist and an Indian soprano regaled Bombay’s music lovers with The Bombay Chamber Orchestra’s (BCO) third concert in its golden anniversary year at the Sophia Bhabha Hall in Bombay on September 1, 2012. BCO director and founder Jini Dinshaw was present when Josef Suilen wielded his precise baton. Suilen had left his native Amsterdam to learn conducting at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London. The musicians regaled the audience with the Leonore overture of Ludwig van Beethoven, followed by Franz Liszt’s piano concerto No. 2 in A major. Pianist Balazs Fülei brought down the house with his brilliance.

The audience was fortunate to hear Delhi based soprano Sunanda Rao-Erdem who divides her time between Delhi and Cologne, where her husband is based. Rao-Erdem aired arias of Handel, Mozart, Saint Saëns and Puccini. She also lent her clear soprano as soloist for Mozart’s Laudate Dominum with the choirs — the Cathedral Choir and the Songsters. The conductors of both choirs — Mario Nazareth and Patricia D’Cunha respectively — were enthused enough to join their choristers for the Anvil Chorus from Il Travatore, Mozart’s Ave Verum Corpus and the finale from Handel’s Coronation Mass — Zadok the Priest.

Dinshaw had just returned from the World Amateur Orchestra Festival (WAOF) in Shizuoka, Japan. She had been invited as an Indian participant at the festival where North and South Korea, the Philippines, Taiwan, China and Malaysia shared details of their functioning, infrastructure and support systems. Each of these countries enjoys government collaboration which is sorely non-existent in India. Dinshaw found Iraq to be the only other country with dismal government support; musicians there practice in great secrecy due to the Islamic ban on music.

The Bombay Chamber Orchestra’s concert conducted by Josef Suilen

WAOF showcases four orchestras of about 100 members each with musicians between eight and 12, juniors up to 16 years and two senior orchestras. Shalom Palkhivala represented India for the junior orchestra playing the violin at WAOF, though he plays viola in the BCO. Zubin Behram-Kamdin, the BCO’s first violinist, played in Mahler’s third symphony in the senior orchestra. Both the string players gave an excellent account of themselves, Dinshaw reveals.

BCO will bid adieu to their golden celebrations in December 2012 when Dinshaw hopes to invite the musicians she met during her visit to Japan. The language of music is international, after all.

Mehroo Kotval