The music begins to play,reaches a crescendo and the audience rewards the string quartet with a thunderous applause. Now,this could be a scene at any classical concert in Europe,except that it might as well be in Mumbai. In this land of Bollywood music,slowly but surely,chamber music is gaining popularity a fact that is established by the response garnered by the Arties Festival,which returns with its eighth edition on Monday. Currently in its fourth year,the Arties Festival is a bi-annual music festival hosted by the National Centre for Performing Arts (NCPA) that caters to western classical music lovers. Like every season,this edition toowith concerts on November 7 and 8 at the Experimental Theatre and on November 10 at the Tata Theatre features six musicians including a string quartet,a double bass player and a pianist. Leading the pack is the festivals artistic director Gauthier Herrmann along with cellist and pianist Samuel Parent,Yann Dubost,who is the co-principal double bassist of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France,Hugues Borsarello,principal violinist and leader of Ensemble La Follia,violinist Laurent Manaud-Pallas,the leader of the second violins of the Orchestre National de France,and Nicolas Bône,who is the principal violist of Orchestre National de France. Herrmann notes that Laurent and Yann are the only two who havent performed in India before. We are playing 10 pieces during these three concerts so its difficult to talk about any one masterpiece. But on the last day,we will have two amazing quintets: the piano quintet opus 57 by Dimitri Schostakovich and Trout quintet by Schubert, he enthuses,adding that the festival has grown tremendously over the last four years. Now,we have people waiting for us; we even receive messages and mails from many Indian music lovers and that too,a good two months before the event. It is good to see an increasing awareness amongst the people about western classical music, Herrmann points out. The musicians also find the Mumbai audience special for several reasons. Personally,I feel that playing at the NCPA is just like playing at home. The music lovers here are a faithful lot. Also,its nice to see that one is judged more on the basis of ones performance rather than a mere name, confesses Herrmann. Khushroo Suntook,Chairman,NCPA,explains how the Arties concerts are creating a new standard of excellence in chamber music thats being played in Mumbai. We are aiming at presenting high quality chamber music on a regular basis. With this edition of the Arties festival,Herrmann has brought some of the finest young players and groups from all over the world to the Indian audiences, he says.
