August 2017

ON Stagevolume 7 • issue 1

RISING OPERA STARS ROSA FEOLA & SERGIO VITALE JACEK DR. KANAK RELE & 50 YEARS OF NALANDA KASPSZYK The Polish conductor PRATIBIMB MARATHI NATYA at the NCPA UTSAV IS BACK NCPA Chairman Khushroo N. Suntook

Executive Director & Council Member Deepak Bajaj

Editorial Director Radhakrishnan Nair Contents Editor-in-Chief Oishani Mitra

Consulting Editor Ekta Mohta 14 Editorial Co-ordinator Hilda Darukhanawalla

Art Director Amit Naik

Deputy Art Directors Hemali Limbachiya Tanvi Shah

Graphic Designer Vidhi Doshi

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Cover Credit Sophie Wright

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Materials in ON Stage cannot be reproduced in part or whole without the written permission 08 14 of the publisher. Views and opinions expressed Reflections New Faces of Opera in this magazine are not necessarily those of On the Cremonese violin. By Anil Dharker Soprano Rosa Feola and baritone Sergio the publisher. All rights reserved. Vitale, both from Italy, are on the brink of international stardom NCPA Booking Office 10 In Pole Position 2282 4567/6654 8135/6622 3724 The award-winning Polish conductor Jacek www.ncpamumbai.com smith Kaspszyk will open the Symphony Orchestra 16 of India’s Autumn 2017 season at the NCPA The Sam of All Things

At the NCPA, renowned tabla virtuoso hubert

with two remarkable performances. Beverly Pereira takes a look at the successful career of Suresh Talwalkar gets set to perform a the celebrated maestro concert highlighting the myriad ways of richard 20

approaching sam, the crucial juncture in Indian classical music 34 that signifies the end of the Indian Dance at the NCPA existing cycle (avartan) as well as In this new series, we go behind- 34 the beginning of a new cycle. the-scenes of the several arts By Meena Banerjee departments at the NCPA. This month, we talk to Swapnokalpa Dasgupta, Head – Programming 28 20 for Indian Dance Ney Rosauro An interview with the Brazilian percussionist 40 The Widening Perspective of Music Education 24 David Tunley writes of the infinite Nalanda and Me possibilities in music education Dr. Kanak Rele has devoted her life to her dance institute and research centre, Nalanda. Here, 46 she talks about her journey of Bird’s-Eye View more than half a century A look at the powerful architectural photography of Prasad Pawaskar 28 Follow us on: Chelsea de Souza facebook.com/NCPAMumbai An interview with the Indian 51 pianist Programme Guide @NCPAMumbai All of August’s events at NCPAMumbai the NCPA 31 youtube.com/user/TheNCPAMumbai1 A Novel Idea pinterest.com/ncpamumbai Two plays in the line-up of this 62 year’s Pratibimb Marathi Natya What’s Next Utsav have taken inspiration What to look forward to in the We look forward to your feedback and suggestions. Please do drop us an from best-sellers. By Reshma O. coming months email at [email protected]. Pathare COVER STORY In Pole

PositionThe award-winning Polish conductor Jacek Kaspszyk will open the Symphony Orchestra of India’s Autumn 2017 season at the NCPA with two remarkable performances. Beverly Pereira takes a look at the successful career of the celebrated maestro

acek Kaspszyk conducting six to eight of the Piano Competition every four comes with long- season’s programmes, attending years. standing experience auditions, dealing with musicians’ But the celebrated maestro of conducting the problems and taking time out for who has worked on some of the Warsaw Philharmonic interviews, Kaspszyk goes on tour most prominent stages of the six Orchestra, an with the orchestra, and conducts continents has taken more than ensemble with whom the final stages of the reputed just one orchestra to exalted he enjoys an excellent International Fryderyk Chopin heights in his long and illustrious rapport. As the artistic career. Within Europe, he has and music director been closely associated with of Poland’s oldest institution, the Berlin Philharmonic, RSO theJ eminent Polish conductor “I was particularly Berlin, Orchestre de Paris, Vienna opened his tenure in 2013 by influenced by Symphony, Chamber Orchestra of conducting the ensemble in the Europe, and the Oslo, Stockholm final concert of the Chopin and Mahler and the and Czech Philharmonics. Outside His Europe festival. The same Second Viennese Europe, he has conducted year, he also conducted the first School to which I renowned orchestras including three concerts in the history of the the Hong Kong Philharmonic, Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra was introduced by China Philharmonic, New wright to be transmitted via the internet. my mother” Zealand Symphony and Tokyo Between season programming, Philharmonic, among a host Jacek Kaspszyk sophie

NCPA August 2017 • 11 Jacek Kaspszyk will conduct the Symphony Orchestra of of others. He is also widely principal guest conductor of was appointed as the artistic and India in September represented on CD, many of which the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in music director of Teatr Wielki in include award-winning recordings Düsseldorf. In the following year, 1998, and its managing director such as that of Rossini’s Il he won the third prize at the two years later. After all, it was at Signor Bruschino with the Polish acclaimed Herbert von Karajan the renowned Polish opera house Chamber Orchestra. He won the Conducting Competition in that he had made his conducting Edison Prize for his recording Berlin. The year 1978 was marked debut and won early success in of Baird’s Concerto Lugubre, with grand accomplishments, 1975. Viewing the coveted position while his recording of Stanislaw including a debut with the Berlin as an opportunity to contribute Moniuszko’s The Haunted Manor Philharmonic Orchestra and New to the culture of modern opera with the Polish National Opera York Philharmonic Orchestra. in Warsaw at the time, he says, was awarded a platinum disc. He was also appointed principal “I considered it important to conductor of the Polish National stage and record Moniuszko’s The Radio Symphony Orchestra, and Haunted Manor and, of course, An early start went on to become the esteemed Karol Szymanowski’s King Roger Kaspszyk first encounteredorchestra’s music director two during my tenure at the Polish Western classical music at the age years later. National Opera. As a Pole I think of five, when his mother had taken it is only natural to promote the him to watch Verdi’s La Traviata. music of my country of birth, and Instead of paying attention to the the best way to achieve this is action onstage, he remembers through performance excellence.” being fascinated by the orchestral “As a Pole I think Throwing light on the musical pit and the music inspired by it is only natural history of his birthplace, he the conductor. It was a defining to promote the describes it as “somewhat moment that led him to embark fragmented, considering that from on a career in conducting several music of my 1795 to 1918, Poland did not exist decades later. He recalls that country of birth, as an independent state”. Hence, music was always present in his and the best he explains, its composers lacked home during his childhood. “I was support and promotion. Had particularly influenced by Mahler way to achieve Chopin not left for France, who and the Second Viennese School this is through knows what would have become to which I was introduced by my performance of his music? Those who stayed, mother, a musicologist, who was like Moniuszko, concentrated on unable to work in her profession in excellence” composing operatic music based communist post-war Poland.” on patriotic folk themes. It was the The early exposure to classical very reason for which Moniuszko greats prompted Kaspszyk to earned the sobriquet ‘the father of study conducting, music theory Kaspszyk might be Polish by Polish national opera’. “In terms of and composition at the Fryderyk birth, but he is also a proud British contemporary music, Poland has Chopin University of Music in citizen. Having moved to London certainly made up for lost time, Warsaw. On graduating in 1975, in 1982, he made his debut with and I have had the privilege of he made his conducting debut the Philharmonia Orchestra at working with such distinguished at Warsaw’s Teatr Wielki – Opera the Royal Festival Hall. Thereon, composers as Witold Lutosławski, Narodowa with a new opera he performed regularly with the Krzysztof Penderecki, Andrzej production of Mozart’s Don London Symphony Orchestra, Panufnik and Henryk Górecki.” Giovanni. Conducting the opera London Philharmonic, Royal In September, when Kaspszyk was certainly a fitting start to Philharmonic and Royal Scottish takes the stage at the NCPA, the his career, the seeds of which National Orchestra. Years later, audience will be privy to the sheer were sown as a five-year-old in 2011, he would earn himself passion, energy and musicality of child captivated by the sweeping the prestigious Elgar Society one of Poland’s finest conductors. movements of a baton at an Medal for his interpretations of “Since I have never been to India, opera. Thereafter, his career’s the composer’s music, instantly I am looking forward to a totally trajectory presented him with a placing him in the distinguished new experience, and I trust my series of prestigious positions, company of notable orchestral contribution will enhance the coveted awards and interesting conductors such as Vladimir upcoming performances with the collaborations that took him Ashkenazy, Andrew Litton and Symphony Orchestra of India,” he places – from London and Lahti to Leonard Slatkin. concludes. China and the Czech Republic. Jacek Kaspszyk will conduct the On Polish music Symphony Orchestra of India on Unprecedented success It can be said that Kaspszyk’s 13th and 17th September at the In 1976, Kaspszyk was appointed career came full circle when he Jamshed Bhabha Theatre.

12 • August 2017 NCPA NCPA August 2017 • 13 ARCHIVES The widening perspective of music education ON Stage brings you excerpts from the NCPA Quarterly Journal, an unsurpassed literary archive that ran from 1972 to 1988 and featured authoritative and wide-ranging articles. David Tunley writes of the infinite possibilities in music education

Two aims of aesthetic restricted to that found in education seem to me to have objects of art – the framed particular relevance to our picture, pieces of sculpture present times. These are: to and so on; we apprehend preserve the natural intensity it in nature itself, and of all modes of perception and were our lives less bent sensation, and to co-ordinate on the tasks of everyday these with one another in living, our eyes might lose relation to the environment. something of that myopia The first of these aims takes that prevents us from as axiomatic fact that the recognising and reacting normal young child seems to the beauty of colour to respond spontaneously to and form that surrounds the world of sensations with us everywhere, even in the a sensitivity envied by adults. Above and below: most unlikely places – the Thus the first task of aesthetic Students of the NCPA graceful curve of a city education should be to find Special Music pavement or the strong Training Programme ways of sustaining this delight lines of a chimney stack. In in colour, sound and touch most cases, visual beauty so that the nerve-ends of the just needs to be pointed child’s perception are not out. But our concepts of blunted by the very process aural beauty have until of growing up. Indeed, this recently been exclusively concept has become the associated with musical starting point of most modern objects of art, these mostly art education. No longer inherited from the last 300 are children introduced to years of baroque, classical drawing by requiring them and romantic repertoire. to reproduce an apple with And it takes more than photographic likeness or to mere ‘pointing out’ to copy laboriously some pattern hallowed WHAT OF MUSIC EDUCATION, remove those prejudices that prevent us by generations of art teachers; rather, THEN? from hearing and recognising the many they are encouraged to explore the In a way, art education has had a head manifestations of aural beauty that world of colour and texture from which start on music education in realising surround us everywhere – and, again, in they can fashion their own shapes and this first aim of preserving the natural unlikely places. It will take a revolution patterns, later learning to discipline intensity of all modes of perception and in music education. their ideas as the need arises. But, the sensation, not because of such obvious first to come has to be the stimulus of differences between the two such as AN INTERNATIONAL sensation through handling the raw tangible materials versus evanescent LANGUAGE materials. And these raw materials sound or the fact that one pursuit tends Of all descriptions of music, none is are gathered from everywhere – from to be a group activity and the other an more misleading than the timeworn squelchy mud to anything you care individual one. The problem goes far and sentimental cliché that talks of it to name. In a very real sense the deeper than that and touches upon being an international language. Visual young child is exploring the world of social and cultural conditioning, and symbols probably come far closer to contemporary art where there are no hence upon our attitudes and prejudices. the idea of an international language, if barriers of medium or manner, and Take for example, the common for no other reason than the visual and where perhaps the only criterion may be attitudes towards concepts of visual and plastic arts depend less upon closed the artist’s sensitivity to the material at aural beauty. I suppose rarely, if ever, systems of communication than music; hand and his imagination in using it. have concepts of visual beauty been their symbols seem to have the power

40 • August 2017 NCPA to transcend time. Thus the uninitiated graphic notation. Such affinity with preserve the natural intensity of this may respond to the graceful beauty of an contemporary music is wholly desirable, mode of perception and sensation, he old Chinese vase while the sounds of an for as the situation stands at present the will come to music with a keen ear and instrument from the same culture may be latter tends to be something of a cult not an open mind. meaningless. permeating musical thinking at large. We, in the late 20th century, are in a Music education has the possibility of THE SECOND AIM unique position to taste something of the taking the cultist element of experimental The second aim of aesthetic education universality of the musical experience music-making by encouraging children is to co-ordinate the various modes even if the art still defies the old definition. to create pieces from the widest of perception and sensation with I believe that the exploration of sound possible range of sound resources. Like one another and in relation to the itself in its many manifestations should youngsters in the enlightened art class, environment. Such a viewpoint is widely be the starting point of modern music they are in a real sense coming to terms supported, perhaps for three reasons. education for young children. To savour with a contemporary situation, and it The first is that the musical experience the delights of the sonorous world is logical to believe that the music of can be enriched by contact with other whether they be birdcalls, the rustle their time will thus speak naturally to arts and callings; the second is that music of the wind, footsteps or sounds from them. Having themselves explored the itself being an interdisciplinary pursuit, familiar or exotic instruments; to produce sonorous materials of music and used we have much to learn from each other; sounds from vocal and other resources; to them creatively, children can later see the third reason is the realisation that capture sounds, mix and manipulate them how some of the same materials have music education has an aim beyond through modern electronic means – all been shaped by different generations that of mere musical training, but the these experiences can only lead to a more of composers and from one culture to development of a personality. Through sensitive perception of the qualities of another. The aim, above all, is that by its interaction with other forms of sound, as rare as it is desirable. And what nurturing and developing the child’s artistic expression and communication, better time than when ears are as keen as spontaneous response to sound, to this noble aim may be achieved minds are receptive? In this way, children more fully. will have a better opportunity of entering I suppose at no other time has our a much wider realm of music with ease. I believe that the profession implied so much as it does Having explored some of the raw exploration of sound at the present, and the task of training materials of music (in its widest its practitioners is an awesome one. But meaning), the child can be encouraged itself in its many who can fail to be excited by the almost to use them creatively. Like the forward- manifestations should infinite possibilities inherent in the ever- looking composer of his own time, he widening perspective of modern music need be bound to no systems but his be the starting point education? own, and if he wishes to preserve the of modern music general outlines of his creation for others This article first appeared in the to perform, like many a contemporary education for young NCPA Quarterly Journal in June 1975 composer, he can devise his own children (Vol. IV, No. 2).

Students from Music for Schools

42 • August 2017 NCPA