Symphomania

For classical music fans like me, this past week has been heaven. Reason? The Symphony Orchestra of India's rehearsing every single day at the NCPA, for the concerts they're putting up this week.

And being the unemployed-hence-broke-music-loving-cheapskates that we are, Kavs and I have made regular appearances at most of the rehearsals upto now. Aided by the enthusiasm of one very helpful Mr. Jimmy Bilimoria, we've become these almost permanent fixtures in the audi. Considering there are just two of us filling up an audi of 800 seats, its pretty hard not to notice us. Queries as to why we aren't attending the actual "concert" in the evening reveal vague answers about coming up exams, journals, "prior commitments", etc. which are all technically true, but, you know....

Ah, well. If being a liar and a cheapskate gets me all that music, it's quite worth it. Listening to a piece on your comp/music player, however sophisticated, is NOTHING compared to hearing it live, with a seventy musician strong orchestra straining their violin -and heart- strings to recreate an exquisite work of art, in that moment. And it helps when the conductor is a scraggly-haired French speaking Russian or better still, an English speaking German with the countenance of a cheerful burghermeister.

The strange thing is, as elitist and 'pretentious' (ask rohbit @ www.rohbit.tk) as this activity might sound, I'm convinced that most people, even those whose classical music vocab doesn't extend beyond 'oh, you mean Mozart and Beethoven' would really enjoy listening to this stuff once in a while. Hell, you have it as elevator music and as your ringtone, listening to the real thing wouldn't hurt. People might even start to (gasp!) ask for more.

Which would be a welcome change from all the unjustified airspace given to Britney-i-forgot-my-underwear-Spears and the likes. I could go on about this gross miscarriage of justice till I turn purple in the face, but that's a not pretty sight, so i won't. Now if someone would only strangle Ms.Spears with their violin strings, this world would be a much better place...