Amazing Western Classical concert

It hasn't been even a week, and I was still trying to chew the cud reminiscing the good time I had at the bluegrass concert, when I heard of a western classical concert being held at the same venue. I decided to take the plunge, not because I am a serious fan of western classical instrumental music, but because I have cherished the dream of seeing, or rather listening to a live western classical orchestral concert for a long time.

The concert was on last Tuesday, and was being conducted by the Williamsport Symphony Orchestra. They performed Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 3 and Mahler Symphony 4. The former featured Beethoven's virtuoso piano composition played by Timothy LeVan and the latter had a soprano voice rendition by Kaitlyn Lusk.

The concert was top-notch. I don’t mind using the word ‘impeccable’ here, as me, a person who doesn’t know anything about western classical music, am too far from nit-picking their performance. The only gripe is with the seating position. Not able to spend too much on the ticket, I gave in to the $14 ticket, and was ushered to the balcony, about 500 feet away from the stage. And to my dismay, I realized they do not use any loud speaker system, and we had to depend upon the acoustics of the theatre to hear anything. I could hear most of it, but the volume was a tad too low for my comfort. Because of the low volume, I didn’t have the feeling of being part of the whole ambience. I felt thrown out. But otherwise, the clarity was excellent, and I could hear every little note played by every instrument.

Now I’d like to talk about a few things here. I discovered that arts like classical music get the recognition they deserve here in the US. People here know the importance of taking the culture forward through to the next generation. I saw so many kids and young crowd at the concert. Parents here do a commendable job trying to get their kids interested in classical music. I do not see that happening in India. Back in India, a local orchestra trained in classical music wouldn’t dare to hold a concert in a theatre with a capacity of 3000. You would probably see 300 enthusiasts there, out of which 270 would be aged 60 and above.

The second point is here now. This is, after all, a symphony group of a small town. Williamsport is not a big city like Philadelphia or Boston. It makes sense to understand that big cities have cultural societies that are nurtured by a large community. But I was really taken aback by the professionalism with which the show was run in such a small town. I was truly amazed at the quality of the performance, the costumes, the theatre, the audience, in fact, everything present there was top-notch. Such a measure of quality, that is hard to expect at a concert by a local group supported by a small community, in a small town.

Another very interesting thing that I observed here is the kind of silence people maintain here when the performance is on. The entire theatre, filled with about 2000 people, just goes dead silent, except for the odd cough or sneeze from some corner of the theatre. And when such a sneeze does come in, it reverberates along the entire theatre. I can very clearly hear and distinguish even the sound of a plastic wrapper that rattled far across the theatre. Now, it is time for an astonishing discovery. None, I say again, none of the mobile phones in the theatre ever made a sound for the whole duration of the concert. Will this ever be possible in India?