Orchestrating a Good Time

Thanks to our Executive Director being out of town and therefore unable to attend, the Canadian interns had a chance to live the diplomatic lifestyle, if only for three hours, by being given his tickets to the European Union Chamber Orchestra’s inaugural concert last night in Dhaka.

It was the first time I had the opportunity to wear one of the two dress shirts, tie and single pair of dress pants I had brought with me from home. With Marc in his slick suit and me in my shirt, tie and semi-formal shoes, we certainly looked the part. Well, if you don’t count the fact that instead of being dropped off by our driver in a 4*4 Land Rover or Pajero, we walked from our apartment building situated only four blocks from the concert hall.

Shortly before the concert was to start, we were lead to our seats. For one reason or another - perhaps because our director has considerably more pull in these circles than we had thought – we found ourselves in the second row from the front, directly behind the ‘Chief Guest’ of the occasion, the Hon’ble Minister of State for Culture, and amongst a number of ambassadors and their spouses. In fact, we were so close to stage that I could read the titles of the musicians’ sheet music: Bach’s Brandenburg Concert no. 3 in G major and Mozart’s Violin Concerto no. 2 in D major before the intermission, and Mozart’s Adagio in F major and Haydn’s Symphony no. 9 ‘Fire’ in A major in the latter half of the performance. Needless to say, as lowly interns we were a bit out of our league, but I think we managed to hold our own.

Though I’m nothing close to a connaisseur when it comes to chamber music, their performance was one of the finest I’ve heard either live or on compact disc. Perhaps the environment in which it was being performed added to the impact of the music flowing from the stage, or maybe it was my limited exposure to live classical performances (the last being a Christmas concert by the Canadian Brass at the Chan Centre in Vancouver several years ago), but whatever the explanation, the EUCO was fantastic. The oboe was as clear as a mountain stream, and their encore performance featuring the two French horns was played with such intensity that the German composer of the piece, whose name escapes me, must have rolled over pleasantly in his grave in delight.

The orchestra is currently in the middle of their whirlwind world tour and had played in Bangkok the night before. As a former musician (trombone, and not nearly of the same caliber), I can understand what it takes for a group to come together after many long days on the road as well as they did last night, and that’s what made their performance even more remarkable. As a former brass player, I was also especially proud to see my section finish the evening under the spotlight.

My favourite piece, aside from the encore, was definitely Haydn’s ‘Fire’; like Wagner’s ‘Ride of the Valkyries’, it’s a piece that summons the intensity of its title into your heart when played as it should be, and last night my heart was feeling the heat.

The strangest part of the evening – and both of us could have predicted it if we’d thought about it in the beginning – was leaving the impressive Osmani auditorium and stepping back out onto the streets of Dhaka. But just as the performance of any piece of music is accentuated by dynamics (soft, loud, slow, fast), so was the experience itself.

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Thanks to the Gazetteer, I’ve posted a link on my sidebar under ‘Bangladesh’ to Asia Times Online, an excellent source of news and in depth analyses concerning issues affecting the region.

With respect to a different type of fundamentalism than the one that was the most recently discussed in this space, I recommend reading Ramtanu Maitra’s article, Saudis Stoke South Asian Fears, on the role of madrassas funded by the House of Saud that are allegedly contributing to the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in South and Southeast Asia, and particularly in Bangladesh.