My first classical music concert
Spring time in Delhi is so shortlived that if you are the kind of person who stays indoors for days on end, it might just pass you by! With the dreaded Delhi summer soon to make a reappearance, I, for one, have been trying to make the most of the last signs of winter.. there still is a nip in the air during the nights!
Last tuesday, my feeling of well being and enjoying spring time was heightened by me attending my first classical music concert. The Hungarian Virtuosi Orchestra played at the Kamani auditorium New Delhi. I had never been to any orchestra concert before this one :) my knowledge of classical music is pretty much non existent. But all that wasn't going to get in the way, especially when i had the perfect partner in Thejavinuo.. herself a violist and an awesome friend of mine :)
She amazingly tried her best to educate me with as much basics as she could in the short ride to the venue and before the show began. That way i was a little more prepared to be carried through the different movements in a piece...the changes in mood.. what allegro means or what tempo changes happen when it shifts to andante.. and how the musicians in the orchestra are seated...who the concertmaster/mistress is (mistress in this case), where she is seated and how the conductor walks up and shakes only her hand after every piece is played...but most importantly how you are NOT supposed to clap in between movements of a piece...applause should be saved until the entire piece is played. However, during the concert quite a few in the crowd clapped at almost every pause which i am told sometimes irritates some conductors to the point where they turn around and go on to "educate" the audience.
Since i still have the concert programme with me, the pieces played were in order,
Vivaldi - Concerto in B flat major for violin and Cello
1. Allegro moderato
2. Andante
3. Allegro molto
Handel - Passacaglia
Antal Csermak - A haza veszedelme (Peril of the Homeland)
Tchaikovsky - Serenade for Strings in C Major Op.48
1. Pezzo in forma di Sonatina
2. Walzer
3. Elegie
4. Finale
Ferenc Liszt - Hungarian Rhapsody No.2
I think my graph of attentiveness had its lowest point somewhere during Tchaikovsky...because try as i might, the large dose of new music was taking its toll! :D But I was obviously at my attentive peak during the first few pieces and regained it right at the end.
Overall it was an amazing experience. Unfamiliar territory... as opposed to a rock concert where i might have settled myself to trying to sum up the guitarist's or somebody else's stage performance... here i was just left to try and make sense of whatever i could.
Since i have nothing else to compare them to, I don't really know how good/bad they played..but then Theja says that its a rather high note to start on...if i was to keep this one as a yardstick, many would fall short :)