A smashing success of a musical concert!

For the fifth time in four years, another one of Rashna Gazder’s music concerts at the Avari Towers was a smashing success. As earlier, the pivot of the programme was none other than Rashna herself, not only on account of her extremely adroit piano accompaniment but also because of her highly imaginative and innovative steps.

This time too, all the numbers were accompanied by beautiful visuals, which really captured the essence of the lyric or the instrumental piece, for which all the credit goes to her sons Nausherwan and Darius.

One of the numbers, John Denver’s ‘Country Roads’ from 1971, was rendered by Azad Iqbal, grandson of Allama Iqbal. His floating, melodious baritone was matchless, aided by Rashna’s deft piano accompaniment with Terrence Joseph at the keyboard. They made a really formidable trio.

The really unusual things about the item were the visuals portraying the breathtaking scenery of the Appalachian Trail and the verdant valleys of the US state West Virginia. The audience were so enraptured that they clapped rhythmically to the song.

Another talent Iqbal displayed was the fluent ease with which he changed the octave and his easy transition from the lowest to the highest note. He informed the audience that it had been chosen to be the state song of West Virginia.

Another number featuring the trio — this time a quartet, to be more precise — was the 1970s number ‘Summer Wine’. It was sung as a duet by Iqbal and Janelle Dias.

Iqbal’s baritone and Janelle’s hauntingly melodious voice made a perfect combination. And, of course, Rashna’s and Joseph’s adept accompaniment enlivened the piece all the more, evoking nostalgia and flinging many back into the days of their youth, bringing back many fond memories. It must have been a touching time trip for many.

However, surely the best of Iqbal was ‘’O Sole Mio’, an 1898 Neapolitan song that could be considered the trademark of Italy. He sang it both in English and Italian. Of course, what aided in making the number absolutely flawless was Rashna’s adroit piano accompaniment. Other numbers Azad rendered were ‘The Last Waltz’, originally recorded by Engelbert Humperdinck in 1967.

He also rendered another 1960s favourite, which would have brought the aged and the aging among the audience back to the golden years of their lives. It was Elvis Presley’s ‘Are You Lonesome Tonight’. Before Presley, the song was originally recorded in 1927. Iqbal most adroitly replicated Presley’s voice.

This time round the concert was different from the previous ones, as it centred on sentimental light songs. There was only one classical piece. This was Mozart’s ‘Eine Kleine Nachtmusik’, which was rendered by Kaikobad Marker at the piano. He played the opening strains of the first movement. It was a deftly executed piece and Marker certainly has the potential to be a promising concert pianist.

This time most of the performers were children, some of whom had just started taking music lessons just a couple of months ago. It was so nice to see these cute youngsters, some just a little past the tiny toddler stage, most precociously acknowledging the applause of the audience.

This time the focus was on love songs, and the underlying theme was love. It was for this reason that this time the proceeds from the concert will go to the benefit of the elderly at the BMH Parsi General Hospital, people who are left all alone at the tail end of their lives with their children having emigrated overseas.

These elderly who have given the best they could afford to their offspring now feel lonely and forlorn and, as Rashna says, they are all deserving of our love and sympathy. We have to spread the message of love through functions like these.

Most of the other items were performed by the children. Zanita Golwal, who could not have been more than five, just played the first two lines of the nursery rhyme ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb’. Similarly, Smita Sethna played the chimes that we hear when the time is being announced. However, young Shereen Marker played a beautiful toe-tapping melody, ‘The Fairy Waltz’. It was simply beautiful.

The most touching part was the finale, in which Rashna’s sons sprang a surprise on their mother by dedicating to her the piece ‘One Moment in Time’, rendered by Janelle, Iqbal, Joseph and Rashna. This was a reiteration of Rashna’s statement that the underlying theme of the concert was love.

The sons’ touching gesture went to display love and the joy of having loved ones. This was in recognition of her noble venture and her humanitarian outlook. The theme actually allotted to the programme was ‘Down Memory Lane’.