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At the end of the third movement of Tchaikovsky’s sixth symphony, a portion of the Jamshed Bhabha audience burst into loud applause. Then noticing the bewildered look on conductor Johannes Wildner’s face, they stopped in sudden embarrassed silence. You couldn’t really blame the audience: the third movement of the Pathetique marked Allegro Molto Vivace, does move swiftly from point to point in the orchestra like a gathering storm to end in a thunderous climax. Unless you are familiar with the work or keeping count, how could you know possibly that there was another movement to follow, one which is completely uncharacteristic of a symphony’s finale, dark, brooding and elegiac, a movement aptly marked Adagio Lamentoso?

It may be a small sign but it was there for all to see: in this eighth Celebrity Concert season of the Symphony Orchestra of India by the National Centre for the Performing Arts, in four concerts featuring a dozen works, this was the only time the audience clapped between movements. For NCPA/SOI Chairman Khushroo Suntook this must have been as satisfying as the near sell-out concerts: the process of educating the audience obviously has reached a successful conclusion.

It’s difficult to believe that the Symphony Orchestra of India was founded only recently, so assured has its playing become. Yet the SOI is only three and a half years old, early infancy in the life of any orchestra, but the more you hear it the more you know that the SOI has gone way beyond a toddler’s infirm steps. Its woodwind and brass sections have always been its strengths, but the cellos and the double-basses now have a distinct mellow sound. The violins and violas — that massed string section which generally defines the sound of an orchestra — are beginning to come on well too, their development now only limited by the quality of the instruments they use. In spite of that limitation, Johannes Wildner, the well-known Austrian conductor feels that the SOI is already developing a distinctive sound, a style somewhere between Russian and European traditions.

You could hear that most distinctively in the most popular concert of the series, conducted by Evgeny Bushkov. Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade can be guaranteed to bring applause: when marshalled with the vigour and energy that Bushkov brought to it, it brought the audience to its feet for a deserved standing ovation. Similarly assured was the rendition of Dvorak’s Symphony No 8, conducted with flair by the SOI’s Conductor in Residence, Zane Dalal. The sound was vivid, dramatic and full of Slavic flair.
Yet a conductor, however flamboyant he may be, can only do so much. In the final analysis, it is the musicians who have to follow the conductor’s baton and bring out the sound and the feelings that he wants to evoke. In short, it’s they who have to produce the music. That the SOI is now doing this so consistently is something a Mumbaikar should be proud of.

But are we? Yes, the auditorium was nearly full for every concert. Yes, the audience, most of it anyway, is now aware of the etiquette of listening to orchestral music. But, it’s an uphill struggle to keep the SOI going. Since most of the orchestra’s members are still from abroad, their travel and stayadd up to quite a tidy sum. This will reduce as local musicians reach the level of professionalism which the NCPA has insisted upon. But that will take a while.
Is our government, which wastes so much money on cultural activities of dubious quality, helping towards SOI’s upkeep? No. Do our corporates which sponsor vapid events completely lacking in substance, help towards the upkeep of the SOI? No. Until one of these Nos’ becomes a Yes, Suntook and his team are in for a tough time. The city owes them a debt of gratitude. Not a mountain of debt.

(The writer is a commentator on social affairs. Email:a_dharker@dnaindia.net)