India seems to be everywhere in the news these days. Whether it's chairing the G20, putting spacecraft on the moon or climbing the World Economic League Table, the subcontinent is fast on its way to becoming a global superpower. This newfound confidence is also being reflected in the world of arts and culture: the latest Cultural Infrastructure Index points to a tripling of India's investment in venues, museums and galleries since the pandemic. In March this year, Mumbai welcomed a new arts centre with a 2,000-seat theatre that has already played host to a Broadway tour of The Sound of Music.
History was made again in August when Bombay-born conductor Zubin Mehta returned to his hometown to conduct two concerts by the Symphony Orchestra of India (SOI). Local media outlets and audiences went wild over these landmark events, widely seen as a coming of age for the orchestra founded just 17 years ago. Both concerts took place at the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA), the orchestra's palm-fringed home at the heart of Mumbai's downtown financial district overlooking the Arabian Sea.
Mehta waxed lyrical about the experience: 'Having conducted orchestras around the world with centuries-old legacies, I did not imagine I would be able to conduct an Indian orchestra. But the SOI compares with any world-class ensemble and is turning out to be India's global ambassador with its tours of the UK, Switzerland, Russia, Oman and Abu Dhabi, which have all been well received.'
Reviewing the SOI's first UK tour in 2019, the Daily Telegraph described it as a 'persuasive UK debut' while the Guardian praised the ensemble's 'startling virtuosity and improv'. Four years on, the SOI will be visiting these shores again for nine concerts between 29 November and 9 December, featuring three wide-ranging programmes under a trio of maestros: Brits Alpesh Chauhan and Richard Farnes, plus the SOI's associate music director Zane Dalal.
Denne historien er fra December 2023-utgaven av BBC Music Magazine.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent ? Logg på
Denne historien er fra December 2023-utgaven av BBC Music Magazine.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Discovering Donizetti - Thanks to a two-year lockdown project, nearly 200 previously lost Donizetti songs will now see the light of day
Thanks to a two-year lockdown project, nearly 200 previously lost Donizetti songs will now see the light of day. For most people, undertaking a lockdown project meant learning to bake sourdough bread, getting fit with Joe Wicks, or taking up a language. But Professor Roger Parker, the eminent historian of Italian opera and emeritus professor at King's College London, had something far more ambitious in mind. He set about unearthing songs by Gaetano Donizetti - many of which had been lost since the composer's lifetime - and the enterprise turned into a two-year labour of love.
Composer of the month - Bohuslav Martinů - Though the Czech absorbed many influences from his exile abroad, his colourful music was always distinctively his own
The youngest of six, Bohuslav was a sickly child, and his father or older sister often had to carry him the 193 steps up to the tower. He was shy at school, too, though showed an early talent for the violin and gave his first concert at 14. By the following year, the future composer was off to the Prague Conservatoire to take the first, if faltering, steps towards a career in music.
Symphonies Beside the Sea- Before cinema, the wireless and coach trips cast them adrift, seaside orchestras were once a major holiday attraction
Before cinema, the wireless and coach trips cast them adrift, seaside orchestras were once a major holiday attraction. It's a dimension of music-making that once was integral to many a British holiday experience, yet now has all but vanished. The tide went out, you might say, on the professional seaside (or pier, or spa) orchestra many decades ago. In their glory days, though - perhaps a quarter-century on either side of 1900-these ensembles were everywhere, from Bridlington to Eastbourne, New Brighton to Worthing, Blackpool to Bexhill-on-Sea, Cleethorpes to Brighton... the list is astonishing.
Richard Morrison- Do Classical Works About Mortality Reveal More To Us As We Get Older? Is it inevitably true that, as we journey through the decades, we are better able to interpret or empathise with a profoundly death-obsessed masterpiece such as Schubert's Winterreise?
As we get older do we respond differently to that vast canon of music dealing with mortality? Is it inevitably true that, as we journey through the decades, we are better able to interpret or empathise with a profoundly death-obsessed masterpiece such as Schubert's Winterreise? Or do human beings possess such a flexible sense of empathy that we can relate to virtually any state of mind if it is evoked convincingly enough by a composer?
Do Notes Win Votes? - There are multi-dimensional ways that music is used by political campaigners and their supporters today.
It was a little bit of history repeating when Rishi Sunak announced the UK General Election to the heckling of his political opponents blasting out D:Ream's 'Things Can Only Get Better'.
Västra Karup Sweden
The spirit of soprano Birgit Nilsson is alive and well in the town of her birth, home to a festival dedicated to her memory
Federico Colli
\"At this moment in time we don't need more virtuosi. We need musicians to engage with the philosophy of music
Harmonic Progression
What happens when classical music-style levels of ambition, invention and sheer length are brought to pop? The answer, as Meurig Bowen explains, is Prog Rock
Golden years
Young musicians may be physically fit, but with age come the advantages of wisdom and experience
Sweet Sixteen
As The Sixteen celebrates its 45th birthday, founder Harry Christophers speaks to Andrew Stewart about directing a choral powerhouse
