Pin-drop silence is something every schoolteacher would love in a classroom. But sadly, that is always more of a rarity than reality. Any teacher who peeped into the Sir Mutha Venkatasubba Rao Concert Hall on Saturday evening would have been proud. The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, presented by the Madras Seva Sadan, held the audience to their promised silence as international composer James MacMillan and his violins, cellos, clarinets and flutes worked their magic on Chennai’s western classical music lovers.
The orchestra started off the two-hour concert with Mendelssohn’s piece The Hebrides — a 10-minute section that gave the audience a taste of just what was in store for them. But it wasn’t until internationally renowned violinist Nicola Benedetti took to the stage that the goosebumps erupted. With the music from her violin flowing like silk, her rendition of Mozart’s violin concerto had the audience aching for more.
After a 20-minute break that left the well-dressed glitterati of Chennai nearly hopping to get back into the auditorium for the rest of the concert, the orchestra brought on the biggie, Tchaikovsky. The 45-minute performance of the Russian composer’s Symphony No 5 pretty much made the evening a once-in-a-lifetime experience for most in the audience. When else would you be able to listen to a live performance of western classical music in a city that is the home of Indian classical music?
But Tchaikovsky was not the end. Benedetti obliged the audience with a violin piece that was an accompaniment to Scottish poet Robert Burns’ poem A Red Red Rose. The concert ended on a high note with a very lively Scottish melody that reminded the audience of tartan kilts and bagpipes.
The evening had only one disappointment though. Some in the audience hoped that music maestro Ilaiyaraaja might turn up during the course of the evening. But they did get to do some celeb spotting — playback singers Karthik and Unni Krishnan looked sharp in well-cut suits, while Suchitra and Andrea, in their dresses, looked like they belonged in a western classical orchestra themselves.