Western classical music has never enjoyed the same support and patronage as its Indian counterpart, but a new future might be in the making
At the Jamshed Bhabha Theatre at the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA), Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony is holding Mumbai’s posh set in thrall. As the Symphony Orchestra of India (SOI) weaves its way through the second movement and ends it with a flourish, a section of the audience breaks into applause.
If you are a Western classical music purist, you must be frowning; after all, concert etiquette demands that you never clap between movements. Your thoughts would be in line with what British classical music and opera journalist Jonathan Lennie wrote in his open letter to the “loud clapping man who sits behind me at concerts”: “Having sat through a long and profound work, why do you have to start making a racket as soon as you perceive it to be over?”
But Khushroo N Suntook, the NCPA chairman, refuses to turn his nose up at such transgressions: “It’s good in a way that we are moving away from the coughless audience. It indicates that a new generation is coming in. To survive, Western classical music needs this audience first. Etiquette can come later. We can always announce when not to clap.”
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(This story appears in the 03 October, 2014 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)