Conferenza Internazionale di Musica

Today was the opening day of the three day musical festival being organised by CMS.  Nothing directly to do with me, and in fact clashing with the final preparations for Aesop.  But it took place in the evening, after my rehearsal was done (a fairly disastrous rehearsal, but that’s another story.)  The one impact my rehearsal made was that we were late arriving.  Noticeably late too; we were rung by Saba to ask if we were coming – we were, but my rehearsal had over-run, and the traffic was bad.  And we were greeted by Geeta at the door, to check that we had known about it.

Not that being late in itself was an issue.  These events always start late, and are the sort of thing that it is easy to dip in and out of as necessary.  But we were found places on the comfy sofas at the front (taking the place of two people who had foolishly vacated their place temporarily) and plied with food and drink.  The only irritating aspect was that we arrived towards the end of the parade of the different participating schools – normally fairly tedious, but enlivened by the colourful spectacle, and mini performances.  In particular, I was annoyed to have missed SPA from Dhangadhi, who were one of the schools there. I did manage briefly to connect with Dhir, who was leading the group; he found me when I was looking for him – not easy in a crowded hall – and again later n when it was all over and we were being fed.

As for the content of the concert, it was much as expected.  There were the usual hyperbolic introductions and calls for thunderous applause (met by general apathy); there were a couple of huge set-piece dance extravaganzas, performed with military precision, but also including some form of lip-sync; there were various speeches, of varying levels of dullness; and there were two performances of undoubted quality.  One was from a special guest, a famous (I believe) Indian singer.  He sang a solo set, accompanying himself on some form of accordion – his performance went down the best with the crowd, because he was, I suppose, populist, leading the audience in a community singalong.

But our absolute favourite was a duet of a tabla and Indian flute player – Kartikeya Vishist and Neeraj Kumar.  They played three songs/numbers/pieces (what is the right word?)  Each one was completely different, each one was magnificent.  My own favourite was their final piece, because it included an element of humour, with a Jews harp and various percussive elements included, with outstanding musicianship(though it did take some time to get the sound right; the technicians at CMS are, from much evidence of my own ears, fundamentally useless.)

[vimeo 1113284053 w=600 h=370]

Another bonus of the concert was that I was finally able to meet Roger Kingdon, Geeta’s husband, during one of the moments a gang of luminaries was called onto stage.  He seemed to be a thoroughly nice man, and we subsequently chatted a good deal.  There was the usual gathering of the great, the good, and us at the end of the proceedings, and then we processed down to the dining hall.  Val and I managed to separate ourselves from the others, and I went through my usual clowning routine with students, helpers, and anyone we met; eventually we ate in one of the VIP areas with Geeta’s sister and brother-in-law.  And then, by happy chance, we were able to introduce ourselves to the two musicians, having a most enjoyable and friendly chat.

At last, we met up with the eternally patient and reliable Himanshu, who drove us home.  On the whole, a most enjoyable evening.