New in Town

Kathryn McDowell,the managing director of the LSO,explains that while coming back to India has long been part of the orchestra’s agenda,the process of actually setting the plan in motion turned out to be a difficult task. “Ever since I joined the LSO five years ago,I’ve wanted to come to India. But unfortunately,because of the recession,our main sponsor couldn’t come through and it took us around three years to find new ones and put a plan in place.” The highlight of the concerts is the presence of legendary British conductor,Sir Colin Davis,who will be conducting tonight and Estonian-born conductor Kristjan Jarvi.

McDowell explains that the Orchestra took so long to come back to India because they have a great deal of respect for Indian musical traditions. “We know that India has a long and very rich history of music and we didn’t want to come and impose our music on the country. But we see now that there are a lot of people who are informed and enjoy our music. So when the opportunity to perform here came,we grabbed it.” But,of course,coming back here after the Mumbai concerts,will depend entirely on how the LSO is received by the concert-going public. “We believe in a two-way relationship—while we’re happy to gift our music to people,we also hope to receive their love in return.”