The Bombay Chamber Orchestra, I was there, what, you were not? huuun losers!

Some days back Catherine Morris Fernandes a very good friend of mine had on FB asked about wanting tkts to the Bombay Chamber Orchestra and I promptly asked for 2!

2 tkts in hand, I did not know who it would be who would accompany me to the performance, so I put up on my gtalk ‘Hve Got 2 tkts for THE BOMBAY CHAMBER ORCHESTRA - Sophia Bhabha Auditorium - 1st September, 2012 at 7:00p.m’  either none of those perpetually appearing online at gtalk saw it or were not interested, either way, as my ex-colleague Ramesh Keshavan just said ‘seat seat pe likha hota hai baithnewale ka naam! So there I was with my aunt (Sr. Supreetha) who is a Nun posted in Orissa she had come down for a day from Mangalore enroute to Orissa. Both of us reached the place late by about 10 mins (Blame it on Bombay Traffic or IST) a few people were moving about in the foyer and behind the closed doors there were more of them seated and there on stage was a black tails (a white man wearing black tail coat) waving and gesticulating with all the energy he could muster (later came to know he was Josef Suilen the Dutch Guest Conductor) it immediately reminded me of Tom & Jerry, where Tom is the music/orchestra conductor :-))))

As I said it was a first time experience for both of us. Which began with a bang with a difference, somebody really needs to do something about the seats at the Sophia Bhabha Auditorium which keep looking up and the moment you touch them to get them in the level where you can occupy them ‘Dhaap’ is what you hear and you can imagine the embarrassment when this happens when the Orchestra is playing and the Conductor is all into his music. Makes one wish the earth would open up and one could hide in it. Dunno if I should call it some solace or height of bad timing and placing, that more ‘Dhaaps’ were heard at regular intervals.

So finally there I was seated in Seat 017 of Sophia Bhabha Auditorium looking at a live Orchestra (oh phuleez, not the kind people commonly understand and know to be an Orchestra with musicians and singers dishing/doling out bollywood, tollywood or kollywood hits) The Bombay Chamber Orchestra is the only Indian Symphony orchestra that functions and performs on a regular basis with a concert standard of performance, incidentally it celebrates its Golden Jubilee 50 yrs this year (1962 – 2012).

So there was Josef Suilen! well to begin with, as I said black tails waving and gesticulating with all the energy he could muster and as a first timer I did not know whether to wonder where he gets that sort of energy for the fully body work out he kept on doing standing on a square black block which also caught my attention and or to think that it was just a matter of minutes before Josef Suilen fell off it (the square black block) if he was not careful enough. Next my eyes moved on to the musicians, what they wore, what age group they belonged to, what instrument they were playing? I could recognize violins, cellos, some wind instrument and a set of drums (not the rock band drum set but different decent kind) and in between I also looked at the ceiling to notice that one of the bulbs was not working, felt the AC was working and that people around me included locals, foreigners (one Asian lady looked like a younger version of Mary Kom) and then there were Nuns (my aunt included) and children!!!! Yes! Children I wonder what on earth were they brought by the parents/guardians to such a performance for, unless of course they had the urge to add to the cacophony of instruments.

What was played and heard that evening was Franz Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in Amajor, Beethoven’s Leonore Overture and choral works by Mozart, Puccini, Verdi and Saint Saëns. Don’t ask me which was good as I can’t make out one from the other. When all the playing, the bowing, applauding was on I could not make up my mind what should I be paying attention to? Couldn’t show false appreciation as even a blind man would have made out that it was a hopeless attempt on my part to show that I understood music.

What caught my eyes was, once when Josef Suilen raised his left hand and bang on! his wedding band caught the light and this was just when the thought - what would his wife think of him when she saw him conducting like this, was crossing my mind. I can still picture that soft porcelain hand and that glint caught by the wedding band which seemed to have caught my eye just to allay my doubts about Josef Suilen and his family (read spouse) getting along and how. I am sure they must be saying hearing their names called out by each other is Music to their ears ;-) 

Then on came BALÁZS FÜLEI – the pianist. Who for the better part of the beginning of his performance was adjusting his base, the stool on which he was to sit and then again there was the display of soft porcelain hands, Aaah! What a sight, and when they danced on the Piano one wanted to dance too, all through the performances I tried and visualized the rains, the fields, the swaying trees the flowers in the gardens and water fountains.

Then came the bombshell, Lyric Soprano, Sunanda Rao-Erdem – A big girl I must say! (But then what’s with the Opera singers and their size? Are they storehouses of air which they don’t seem to inhale at all when they crooooooooooooooon and how!) Sunanda Rao – Erdem sang/crooned and took me to the courts of kings, the war ravaged cities and battle fields (that’s what I think of when I hear Opera, it is more of a Soldiers marching or a melancholy love song) The lady packed some power in her lungs which was heard and how! You can take a bow once again Sunanda Rao-Erdem.

But, kintu, chintu, parantu here’s what’s more interesting, singing in the choir The  Songsters – (Director  Patricia  D’Cunha) was my ex-colleague and good friend  Catherine Morris Fernandes (her 3^rd performance) and her son Craig Fernandes (his 2^nd performance) quiet enviable  but a very happy fact! Thank you Catherine for arranging the tickets and Craig for waiting with them for me outside the auditorium, even as the entire troupe was inside/backstage.

This post Too Verbose for your liking??? Well! Been to an Orchestra so have to have it properly Orchestrated in it now ;-)