Western Classical Music

I have forgotten Western Classical Music (WCM). Once it was so dear to me. I used to love, be happy to collect and be happier to learn the nuances….and now! It seems as if it beckons me from my past life…..as if a mist has separated the boat from the shore……Oh! Calcutta……that city gave me so much……For a long time I lost touch. May be for past 7 years….till I left Calcutta for Haldia, then Aurangabad, then Bombay, then Hyderabad. I might have heard occasionally some Dinu Lipatti or Maria Callas or some best of Mozart, Beethoven CD (presented by my friends staying in US)…and some in Youtube (getting irritated when it takes long to buffer while I wait for my Perlman or Horowitz or Oistrakh or Richter……)………and……..and…..that’s all in last 7 years. Nothing more…….

But who but I remember once I used to live and breathe Western Classical Music(WCM), visit concerts in Calcutta School of Music(CSM) and scour the music stores (my favorite was Rhythm in Lindsay street, a friendly avuncular Sardarji owner used to copy CDs into cassette for me those days….God!) in search of cassettes (those days I did not have CD player though I had some CD presented by my friend and presented to my father by his friend……) and Max Mueller Bhavan library…the heaven for Western Classical Music lovers in Cal….so many cassettes I borrowed and copied…so many talks I attended in the music appreciation classes  by my guru Kishore Chatterji ( one on comparison of WCM and Tagore songs on the theme of death….ah ! girls from Santiniketan sung those songs and Mr.Chatterji played his choicest collection…lachrymosa from Mozart, Gluck’s Orpheus and Eurydice…..) and unforgettable talks by Adi Gazdar (he was a doctor, friend of Ray, and played wonderful piano, he played in the class. Helped Jennifer Kapoor in playing piano in Ghare Baire duly acknowledged by Bijoya Ray in ‘Amader Kotha’), Bulbul Sirkar (of Calcutta radio, took memorable interview of Ray on WCM which I have recorded from radio), Proshanto Dutt (conductor of Calcutta School of Music), and then in CSM……pony tailed Neil Mukherji playing Segovia classical guitar (I never knew he played for  Mohiner Ghoraguli, a Bangla band !), my first concert attendance with Mr.Chatterji, then  listening to Robert Vijay Gupta, a 8 year old kid from Julliard, New York playing Vivaldi’s four seasons…I gate crashed into Gyan Manch that day in 1999 ……….I can still hear his pizzicato from Winter……Ah what delight! What a time I had…..and I used to record FM radio talks by Yehudi Menuhin or Gerald Moyer….I left no stones unturned to collect WCM….shops, library, radio…any reference of WCM in movies caught my attention, be it Gregorian chant from Ray’s Shakha Proshakha or Pachelbel Canon from Hollywood movies……and I used to remember WCM tunes from ad jingles and compile cassette out of them from our collection and present it to friends….we had more than 200 cassettes….collection started by my father in 1992……now with dismay I note how time and fungus damage and ruin my beloved collection….my father still lives on the remnant of those…..and I don’t have enough time to collect CDs…..What more disappointment could be that staying in Bombay I missed concerts by Zubin Mehta and Sir Colin Davis and I could only see a single performance by 4 years old National Symphony Orchestra of India ! So much work tied me up.

After so many years of non practice I tend to forget the tunes which I could once recollect instantly…..and which used to give me so much pleasure…I simply wait to regain that exquisite touch of WCM…I simply want to immerse myself into the sea of music which used to make me unbelievably happy….

My association with Kishore Chatterji who single-handedly had been popularizing WCM through his newspaper articles (The Statesman is an institution of Calcutta and only newspaper in the country to carry a weekly authoritative article on WCM by Mr.Chatterji) and his books needs another article. It was because of his book that I started listening to WCM while I was bedridden and recovering from a bike accident …It all started in 1993. My doctors told me I recovered sooner because I was in good mood despite lying on bed for 7 long months…..and what but WCM made me happier those gloomy days! But readers, that’s a different story…..I will write that in a different time. Oh! Calcutta!