Microsoft word - 5th season - ncpa_soi fifth concert season press release

NCPA announces details of the SOI Fifth Celebrity
Concert Season
September 13 to 25, 2008 at NCPA, Mumbai
Mumbai, September 8, 2008: The Symphony Orchestra of India, which in February 2008 gave the widely praised
Indian premiere of Puccini’s opera, Madama Butterfly, will again challenge and delight Mumbai audiences with its Fifth Celebrity Concert Season at the NCPA this month, featuring three eminent guest artists in its most
ambitious series of symphonic concerts to date.

Mr. Khushroo N. Suntook, NCPA Vice Chairman and Chairman, Symphony Orchestra of India: “There are
more than 1,200 full-time professional symphony orchestras in the world today, not only in Europe and the U.S., but increasingly in countries across the Asia-Pacific region such as China, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Korea, Thailand and Australia. Yet, until we established The Symphony Orchestra of India in Mumbai in 2006, there were no resident professional symphony orchestras giving regular seasons of concerts in any Indian cities. I am therefore delighted to be unveiling our Fifth Celebrity Concert Season at the NCPA, for which we will be welcoming legendary Russian pianist, Andrei Gavrilov, eminent British conductor, Adrian Leaper, and renowned oboe
soloist, Malcolm Messiter.”

The Season will also feature SOI Music Director, Marat Bisengaliev, as the violin soloist in two concerts (on
September 16 and 25, 2008), plus will see the conducting debut at NCPA of SOI Assistant Conductor, Zane Dalal,
in the Season’s opening concert on September 13, 2008.
Dalal, who grew up in the U.K. and studied in the U.S., has his roots in the Indian subcontinent and strong family connections with the city of Mumbai. Since 2007, he has been the Assistant Conductor of the SOI, building skills of the orchestra’s resident Indian players through the NCPA’s education and training programme and undertaking the musical preparations for each SOI concert season. He is already a familiar figure to Mumbai audiences, having lectured widely and taken music into the community through outreach work in schools, including the NCPA’s ground-breaking new Suzuki Method teaching programme. His debut concert at Jamshed Bhabha Theatre on
September 13, 2008, will include Mendelssohn’s evocative Overture ‘The Hebrides’, which describes in music the
stunning beauty of Fingal’s Cave in Scotland, and captures the image of sea waves breaking over rocks. This programme will also include Brahms’ masterful Symphony No. 1 in C minor and Mozart’s Oboe Concerto. For British oboist, Malcolm Messiter, the soloist in Mozart’s Oboe Concerto on September 13 as well as for this
Season’s chamber music concert at the Tata Theatre on September 16, 2008, his visit will be a welcome return to
India. Praised for “his flawless timing, the eloquent beauty of his phrasing and scintillating agility” by The Daily Telegraph (U.K.), Messiter toured India and Sri Lanka more than 20 years ago – and loved it. “My experiences of India and Sri Lanka were wonderful. I remain more or less addicted to curry. In Sri Lanka I bought a batik which represents a large peacock and hangs on my wall in London to this very day - a treasured souvenir of that tour.” His programme on September 16 will include works by Mozart and Benjamin Britten, plus famous arias by J.S. Bach, Bellini, Mozart, Donizetti and Verdi arranged for oboe and strings by Messiter himself. An important highlight of the Season will be two performances by legendary Russian pianist, Andrei Gavrilov, on
September 20 and 24, 2008. Gavrilov won the Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow in 1974, when he was
just 19 years old. In the same year he successfully stood in for the great piano master Sviatoslav Richter at the Salzburg Festival. Since then, he has performed in most of the world’s great concert halls and has gained a reputation as a leading interpreter of virtuosic French and Russian repertoire.
SOI Fifth Season Media Release, p2
Gavrilov will join the SOI for Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor at Jamshed Bhabha Theatre on
September 20, 2008, arguably one of the most technically demanding pieces for piano ever written. In addition, he
will give a celebrity recital at the Tata Theatre on September 24, 2008, with a programme of works by Chopin,
Scriabin and Prokofiev – including Prokofiev’s Piano Sonata No. 8 in B flat major, another towering masterpiece
that places extreme challenges on the performer and which Gavrilov has recorded to great critical acclaim for both This will be Gavrilov’s first visit to India, and he is looking forward to the experience: “Since my early childhood I have been fascinated with India. First it was Indian fairy tales, then, like all kids in Russia at that time, I was in love with Raj Kapoor - he was our hero! Later I developed a serious interest to Indian history, philosophy and the enigmatic mystery which has always surrounded India and makes it so attractive for everybody. If I was visiting as a tourist I would travel all over the country visiting many sites. Since this visit is strictly musical, I’m looking forward to communicating with Indian musicians and audiences.” Andrei Gavrilov will celebrate his birthday in Mumbai on Also this Season, acclaimed British conductor, Adrian Leaper, will be making his début with the SOI in two
concerts at Jamshed Bhabha Theatre on September 20 and 25, 2008. As well as accompanying Andrei Gavrilov
and Marat Bisengaliev in their concerto repertoire, Maestro Leaper will take up the baton for two important 20th century symphonies: Sibelius’s Symphony No. 2 in D major (September 20, 2008) and Shostakovich’s
Symphony No. 5 in D minor (September 25, 2008).
Shostakovich wrote his Symphony No. 5 during a period in Russian history known as ‘The Great Terror’, a time of political persecution that triggered a war of propaganda between Stalin’s political regime and artists dedicated to freedom. The symphony, which received its premiere in 1937, charts a journey from a bleak tortuous landscape to glorious accomplishment and is a supreme expression of its era. Adrian Leaper: “I find the symphony an
overpowering work of genius. Its ability to maintain an underlying sense of sadness in the knowledge of what signified reality in the society in which he lived - all hidden under a thin gloss of optimism - is nothing short of The Season’s closing concert at Jamshed Bhabha Theatre on September 25, 2008 will include a performance of
Sibelius’s Violin Concerto by SOI Music Director, Marat Bisengaliev. A favourite with Mumbai audiences,
Bisengaliev will also conduct and play as soloist in the chamber music concert at Tata Theatre on September 16,
2008. “In two years the orchestra has already come a long way. Our core of Indian players is increasing season by
season, and our programmes are becoming more ambitious. We are already planning our Sixth Celebrity Concert Season for February 2009, which will include a special performance of popular Hollywood film music by composer, John Williams. These are exciting times for music lovers in India.” BOX OFFICE NOW OPEN
Call 22824567 / 66548135 / 66223742 (9 AM to 7 PM daily)
www.ncpamumbai.com
For media enquiries, please contact:
Hanmer MS&L Communications
Yasmin Ranijiwala - 9820036680 / Shruti Deora - 9820070718
www.soimumbai.in

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