Orchestrating Rahmania!

It's an hour-long wait on a windy Sunday evening, but that doesn't seem to matter as we are about to meet Matt Dunkley, the head of German Film Orchestra Babelsberg, here in India to play the music of the celebrated A.R. Rahman.

Dunkley is certainly not new to Indian film music. Besides Hollywood hits such as Inception , Moulin Rouge , Batman: The Dark Knight , Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End , and The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor , this conductor, orchestrator and composer is known in Bollywood for his work in Meenaxi , The Legend of Bhagat Singh and Mangal Pandey: The Rising .

Presented by Lapp India, the five-city tour is part of a collaborative celebration — ‘Germany and India 2011-12: Infinite Opportunities' — commemorating 60 years of India-German diplomatic relations.

On his maiden trip to India, Dunkley is all praise for the vibrancy and energy of Mumbai, and the grace of Delhi.

On the audience response to the performances, he says, “It is fascinating to see the reaction of Indian audiences to our symphony orchestra concerts, playing music they love but in a very different setting.”

Sharing an anecdote after the Mumbai show, he says, “The applauses were so gentle that it left us wondering, are we on the right track…We were later told that when Indian classical singers perform, the applauses are gentle because the audience does not want to disturb the singer.”

Presenting Rahman's music to an audience that is passionate about him is no mean job, Dunkley agrees. What helped was the fact that the two connected as individuals passionate about music and not as two celebrities.

“I've worked with AR since 2002 — when he was in London working on the musical Bombay Dreams , and needed to do some recording sessions for his score to The Legend of Bhagat Singh . I got a call from the orchestral booker and we recorded the orchestra at Abbey Road Studios (studio 2, in fact — where the Beatles recorded all their albums) and immediately I could tell that this was someone rather special,” he recounts.

The mixture of Indian and western classical harmonies, combined with a fabulous gift for melody made the music stand out, Dunkley adds.

Music may have no boundaries, but does he see orchestra as a way to introduce classical music to the new generation?

“For myself and the orchestra, this tour will be a journey in more than one way. So I'm looking forward to experiencing all that India has to offer. It will be fascinating, too, to see the reaction of an Indian audience exposed, some for the first time, to the glorious sound of a full symphony orchestra and classical choir performing some of the maestro's beautiful orchestral film music,” he says.

However, planning a show of this nature for a new audience is not easy. “We chose songs that would best adapt to an orchestral arrangement — that is, the melody line is not too ornamented, and the harmonies are rich enough to support added counterpoint,” he says.

“Much of the programme, however, is derived from instrumental themes that have been re-arranged and re-orchestrated, so this was not such an issue. Much of the repertoire is the same as the London Philharmonic concert, though new pieces were added and revised, as well as we re-edited most of the music.”

Asked how audiences in the West would respond to such a synergy, he says, “We performed this programme at the Hollywood Bowl last summer, with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, so we both (Rahman and I) feel that we have now got the arrangements where we want them.”

The orchestra consists of 65 players, with a choir of 28 singers and a solo soprano, and solo instruments such as flute, sitar and accordion, “as well as me out front conducting" — so that means nearly 100 musicians on stage!

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