Maxime Zecchini will be back in Calcutta next month. This will be the third Calcutta visit for the right-handed pianist, who can play even with just his left hand. While his first visit was in 2016, his third visit comes within just 15 months of his second, in November 2022.
He would be playing on February 12, in the run-up to Valentine’s Day, alongside violinist Isabelle Durin, and the soiree would suitably feature “the music of love on screen”. The programme, according to organisers, will feature scores from Casablanca, The English Patient, Memoirs of a Geisha, Schindler’s List etc.
This would be part of an ongoing series of French classical music concerts at Victoria Memorial, presented by Alliance Française du Bengale, in association with the consulate general of France. The series included a musical double act in which two pianos were played simultaneously on Monday for a piano a deux performance by Indian pianists Justin McCarthy and Nadine Jo Crasto.
“Calcutta is the cultural capital of India and the audience here is exposed to many forms of art. We hosted five concerts last year and the attendance was never under 250, which sometimes also caused us concern. This proves Western classical music continues to have a special space in Calcutta. So we are back with the second series which will continue till the beginning of March,” said Nicolas Facino, director of Alliance Française du Bengale.
The series has already seen a familiar figure in Calcutta’s social circle, French consul general Didier Talpain, present his first performance as a musician, conducting the Kolkata Sinfonietta Choir and Orchestra in December. Wielding the baton, he transported the audience to the heart of the Renaissance in Venice, revisiting the Piazza San Marco on the Grand Canal, by diving into the work of Antonio Vivaldi, “called a red priest because of his red hair”, as Talpain explained. The composer from the first half of the late Baroque period suffered from a kind of breathing trouble, possibly which made him leave the altar, the audience was told. Vivaldi composed operas, concertos and sacred choral works, many of which were performed by children of an orphanage called Ospedale della Pieta in Venice. “The boys were trained in trade and the girls in music. The most gifted of the girls formed an orchestra and a choir and gave astonishing performances that people came from all over Europe to listen to,” said Talpain at the start of the performance.
The audience listens to Talpain's Vivaldi show
He later added that the courtyard of the Victoria Memorial Hall “seems to have been built for hosting the kind of concerts that we have decided to offer to the public of Calcutta. It is a stunning place, a popular destination as well as a beautiful framework that adds a visual emotion to our soirees”.
The last concert of the series will take place right after Women’s Day, on March 11, and will feature Diane Mugot (bassoon), Helene Richard (clarinet) and Wen-Ying Lan (piano). The concerts are open to all and seating is on a pre-registration basis.