With the SOI’s Spring Season already underway, we get a lowdown on the classics from Brahms to Beethoven and Bach
A moment from the opening of the Spring Season
If the closest to Mozart you ever got was to listen to the Titan ad jingle, the upcoming season of the Symphony Orchestra of India (SOI) might be one to start with. Having opened their Spring Season 2026, the calendar is already moving at full speed.
Dame Sarah Connolly and Martyn Brabbins. Pics Courtesy/@Symphony OrchestraofIndia
The finale will conclude in April with the annual concert of the SOI Music Academy. “This year, the performers include 15 talented children from across the country, who auditioned for the concerts, and will perform at Goa, Pune, and Chennai. The concerts are aimed to spread the love and awareness of Western Classical music,” reveals Bianca Mendonca, general manager, SOI.
FROM February 17 to April 16
AT NCPA, Nariman Point.
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For beginners: Bet on Beethoven
This concert will feature the rare combination of Carlo Rizzi conducting tenor Davide Giusti in compositions by Francesco Tosti, Salvatore Cardillo, and Richard Wagner. “Tosti’s compositions, beloved Italian songs, are not performed often. They were created during the time of salon concerts in palaces. Giusti’s tenor voice suits these works,” Mendonca says. But it is the second half of Beethoven’s Symphony No 5 that makes this one perfect for beginners. A powerful, revolutionary work, its famous ‘four-note’ motif has been used from Disney’s Fantasia to Bugs Bunny. “Even if you do not know Beethoven, you know those opening notes,” Mendonca reminds us.
ON February 21; 7 pm
For classical ears: Seasons galore
Dan Zhu (violin). Pic Courtesy/@danzhumusic
While the Spring season concludes in February, the SOI Chamber Orchestra will welcome violinist Dan Zhu in March. “The Eight Seasons concert combines [Antonio] Vivaldi’s Four Seasons with Astor Piazzolla’s Four Seasons de Buenos Aires.
Antonio Vivaldi. Pics Courtesy/Wikimedia Commons
Zhu will intersperse Vivaldi’s works with Piazzolla’s compositions,” Mendonca reveals. The violinist will also team up with pianist Jean-Frédéric Neuberger for a combination of sonatas by Bach, Busoni, and Schubert’s Fantasie in C Major.
ON March 26, 7pm (Zhu); March 24, 7 pm (Zhu, Neuberger)
For nuanced listeners: Dvorak’s melodies
Davide Giusti. Pic Courtesy/@davidegiusti_tenor
Warm, melodious and folk-inspired, Antonin Dvorak’s compositions are more nuanced than you think. “They are beautiful works, but not familiar to the layman listener,” Mendonca admits. Rizzi will follow Dvorak’s Symphony No 8 with Finnish composer Jean Sibelius’s Symphony No 2, his ‘Symphony of Independence’.
Carlo Rizzi. Pics Courtesy/@Carlo Rizzi
ON February 17; 7pm
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