Though I have visited New York City many times, I had not attended a concert at the famous Carnegie Hall. It was always on my list but remained an omission till a few days ago.
I first came to know about this great venue for musical concerts more than 60 years ago when on board Khukri, we had a vinyl long playing disc, "Belafonte at Carnegie Hall", which was a recording of Harry Belafonte's live performance in 1959 at the famous Hall. Belafonte sang many of his hit songs but the one that I shall always remember was "Matilda." A comic number, Belafonte added to the fun by extending it to nearly 13 minutes repeating again and again the catchy and humorous line, "Matilda, she take me money and run Venezuela". He got every section of the audience singing that line exhorting them with calls like "Everybody", "Sing out the chorus", "Once again now," "Women over forty", "Sing a little louder", "Sing a little softer", etc. etc. From then on, I wanted to see the venue where he sang the song.
During my present visit, I looked at the events at Carnegie Hall and was happy to find that the National Youth Orchestra (NYO) of the USA was performing there and the program included two pieces I am familiar with, Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" and Rimsky-Korsakov's "Scheherazade." That set up the much overdue visit to this Mecca of concert halls.
Carnegie Hall has three auditoriums with the main one named Stern Hall after the famous violinist, Isaac Stern. It has a seating capacity of 2804. The moment Akhila and I entered the auditorium, we were charmed by the elegance of its imposing 6-storey design. For the audience, the seating begins on the ground level called 'Parquet' with 1021 seats. Above that, there are four tiers with the top one, Balcony, reachable by 137 steps. Not to worry, there are elevators so you don't have to climb! The first and second tiers consist of sixty-five boxes and the third tier is the Dress Circle. All four tiers are artistically shaped in an arc of around 300 degrees extending from one corner above the stage all the way back to the rear of the auditorium ending above the other end of the stage.
Soon, the members of the Orchestra made their appearance. The NYO consists of young musicians ages 16-19 from across the USA. It was a delight to see the youngsters trooping in with their instruments looking every bit seasoned and confident. There was at least one member of Indian origin, Rishabh Das, a 16-year old violinist, now a resident of Philadelphia.
The conductor was an adult, Marin Alsop, well-known and experienced. The program began with Barber's Symphony No. 1, something I was not familiar but found very listenable. And then Gershwin's Rhapsody In Blue, for which they wheeled in the biggest piano I have ever seen, a Steinway. It was played by another old-hand, Jean-Yves Thibauder, reputed to be one of the world's finest pianists. The Rhapsody, composed exactly 100 years ago, is like a jazz piano concerto and is particularly popular in the USA because of its American background. No wonder the audience lapped up the gusty playing of Thibauder ably accompanied by the enthusiastic young Orchestra.
An interval and then came the piece I was eagerly looking forward to. "Scheherazade" is one of the early compositions I listened to when I first developed an ear for Western classical music. In the early 1960s, the naval authorities allowed us to buy LP discs through our canteen at discounted prices. My first order of three LPs included "Scheherazade. Of course its composer, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, is very famous but maybe what further attracted me to his works like this one, "Capriccio Espagnol' and "Flight of the Bumblebee", was the fact that he had for a while served in the Russian Navy. His older brother by 22 years was a reputed naval officer and explorer and Nikolai admired him. That explains Rimsky-Korsakov's love for the ocean which is reflected in many of his works particularly in "Scheherazade".
This brings me to a humorous, though perhaps unfair, story Vinnie Mama told me. It was said that in the Russian Navy, Rimsky-Korsakov was reputed to be a poor naval officer but a brilliant musician while in the musical circles, he was known as a poor musician but a great naval officer!
Rimsky-Korsakov based his symphonic suite "Scheherazade" on "Tales From The Arabian Nights" the storyteller of which was the legendary queen who married Sultan Shahryar of Persia. Deceived by his first wife, the Sultan used to bed a new virgin every night and in the morning, chop her head off to prevent her from being unfaithful. When the Sultan picked Scheherazade, she decided to engage him with a story but withheld the ending. Upon the Sultan asking her to complete the story, she said it was late and she would complete it the next night. That night she would complete the story and begin a new one, again keeping the end for the next night. 1000 stories later on the 1001st night, Scheherazade told the Sultan she had no more stories to tell. But by then he had fallen in love with her, spared her life and peacefully drifted off to sleep.
The story is told in musical arrangements with the growling trombone and woodwinds portraying the stern Sultan and a solo violin and harp providing a sensual theme for Scheherazade. The Sultan's theme with the addition of percussion is later used near the end to represent the heaving seas and Sinbad the sailor's shipwreck. Similarly, the two recurring themes, deep and ponderous for the Sultan and light and lyrical for Scheherazade, are interwoven throughout the suite to tell the tales.
All that was superbly performed by the competent teenage artistes mature beyond their years. And in conclusion, unlike most classical pieces which end in a frenzied crescendo, here a solo violinist casts a spell with the soft, dreamy and sensuous Scheherazade theme which would haunt one well into the night.
