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"The storyline is something like
Bollywood." The virtuoso Kazakh violinist is the founding
music director of the Symphony Orchestra of India (SOI), the
first professional orchestra in India. He has been assigned
the mammoth task of building a symphony orchestra from the
ground up, in a city where Western classical music is confined
to a tiny section of the elite who frequent the National
Centre for Performing Arts (NCPA) at Nariman Point, the uptown
part of Mumbai. It is, seemingly, quite a formidable task for
anyone to pull off, but Bisengaliev brims with optimism. This
is not the first orchestra he's put together — he is the
founder of the Kazakh Chamber Orchestra and the West
Kazakhstan Philharmonic Orchestra (WKPO). Besides, judging
from the sold-out performances of the Puccini opera "Madama
Butterfly", Mumbai's audience certainly looks hungry for more
song and dance.
There is no escaping from music at the NCPA. The rooms at the
guest house are all occupied by the SOI's musicians, deep into
their daily riyaaz. As we sit in a dark, empty corridor of one
the NCPA theatres, low notes from a tuba reverberate in the
distance, creating an evocative backdrop for the interview.
So how did the SOI come together? Bisengaliev points out that
the orchestra is still in the process of coming together. The
SOI was born in 2006, the result of a collaboration between
the NCPA and Marat Bisengaliev, and now in its fourth season,
is in a dynamic phase of growth. Bisengaliev's job is by no
means easy, with sections of the orchestra to be perfected,
new players to be auditioned and groomed, and the orchestral
repertoire to be worked on. "We are discussing which direction
to go. Should we go with operas which people love or should we
have more symphony or chamber music or should we have the
ballet? I think we should be diverse and do it all," says
Bisengaliev.
Talent the sole criterion
The SOI has only 10 Indian musicians out of a total of 85.
Musicians from Bisengaliev's WKPO form an integral part of the
orchestra, while also playing an important role in the SOI's
education programme. The only criterion for the selection of
new players is pure talent. Bisengaliev, who personally
conducts the auditions along with a panel of his musicians,
has set the bar very high; with an objective to create an
orchestra that will have an international presence. Decisions
are sometimes quite ruthless. The few players who do get
selected go through months of an intensive education programme
to give them a more definitive understanding of classical
music.
Bisengaliev says he was surprised at the time he was asked to
form the SOI, that India already didn't have an orchestra. He
points out how during the Second World War, Kazakhstan
benefited greatly from the USSR's State patronage of culture
and the arts. An influx of Soviet players, mainly specialists
in piano, strings, and voice, established a strong educational
base in Kazakhstan, igniting the tradition for musicians like
Bisengaliev. In a contrasting parallel, the British Raj, which
gave India the railways, did not leave behind a philharmonic
or even a school of Western music. There isn't a single music
conservatory in India that teaches Western classical music in
an organised method that incorporates the various aspects of
music training: music theory, composition, analysis, music
history, and performance techniques. "One of my goals for the
future is to establish a Russian system of teaching Western
classical music in India. This will form the base of the
pyramid, on which, ultimately, the foundations of the SOI will
rest," says Bisengaliev.
For now, an increasing number of Indian musicians who have had
a formal Western training abroad, and who now want to return
to India have been showing up for audition. It's better for
the orchestra, as less time has to be spent to bring the
players up to speed.
As the SOI matures as an ensemble, Bisengaliev is confident
that his direction coupled with the influence of the Indian
players will give the orchestra its own unique style.
"Recordings make or break an orchestra. My main objective is
to make the orchestra recordable. It's what defines the
orchestra's quality. This season we started recording with
SONY BMG, and I hope there will be many more recording
contracts," he says.
Spreading out
The next season, beginning in September 2008, will see the SOI
performing at venues outside Mumbai. Bangalore, Calcutta, Goa,
and Delhi are all on the director's map. Bisengaliev was quite
astonished when he came across some very knowledgeable music
lovers in Bangalore who got into a detailed discussion on
valuable instruments and their luthiers, after inspecting his
violin. Some music fans even had a more extensive knowledge
about general classical music repertoire than himself!
Besides creating a new orchestra from scratch, Bisengaliev's
biggest challenge is to create an audience for Western
classical music. He notes, "First impressions are very
important. The major problem is that there are too many
unexciting, average performances, or some that are simply bad.
When children attend a bad [classical music] concert, it
leaves them indifferent [to that form of music]."
Suitable tradition
The ambitious music director reveals that he would like to
establish a tradition of music playing in India. He feels the
Suzuki method of teaching is the ideal tool for the
dissemination of music. This Japanese method trains children
in music at a very early age. It combines a music teaching
method with a philosophy, which aims for the total development
of the child with the involvement of parents. The instruments
are also smaller in size to make it easier on the tiny hands
of two and three year olds. One of the SOI violinists, Yuka
Honda, who has been trained under the method, will be
spearheading the job. "One day, I hope to see 200 five to
six-year-old children playing their tiny violins…a spectacle
which I'm sure, will move everyone", declares Bisengaliev.
Unlike many people who see Western classical music as a dying
form of music in the 21st century, Bisengaliev remains
optimistic for the future, though he concedes that there are
limitations posed by India's geo-cultural vastness. He jokes,
"Sting suddenly turns from rock music to baroque
music…madrigals. He doesn't see any future left in what he's
been doing all these years: rock n' roll. Perhaps he's right…I
don't know."
Bisengaliev laughs.
Source: http://www.hindu.com |
