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Al-Ahram Weekly 16 - 22 December 1999 Issue No. 460 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 16 - 22 December 1999 Issue No. 460
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Debate Focus Profile Living Travel Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Blood and sand
By David Blake
Cairo Symphony Orchestra, Wael Farouk (Solo Piano), Patrick Fournillier (Conductor), Cairo Opera House, Main Hall, December 11
Fournillier conducting and bringing lean to his orchestra
This piano piece, long, silky and structured like a Cartier watch, is the musical equivalent of an organically laid egg.
You are expected to hail people who have made a sensation, that is if you can find anyone worth the compliment. This concert, especially Wael Farouk's part in it, was sensational, and must be hailed. Cairene, 18-years-old, and with a quite astonishing inner intensity -- one cannot ask where such qualities come from. One need only accept.
The Saint Saens piece is a victim of the composer's own genius as a melodist. Even the big bosses of the twelve-toned compositional style paid elaborate compliments to him as a master craftsman. They should have included atmospheric tonality as well.
Patrick Fournillier, the other sensation of the evening, has a unique tone that he brings to all music. It is what used to be called lean in days when audiences and orchestras enjoyed a fleshier tone. But those rich, almost unctuous depths of 19th century organ-like reverberation have gone for ever.
Fournillier erases almost everything but spirit and bone structures. The effect is light, airy, lean but not skinny or malnourished. He literally pulled the Danse Macabre out of the air. Its inner rhythm became a true dance of spiky, gleamy, starlit music, macabre but alluring. No skeletons, just lights, human because it was layered with the heavier bass parts. It began from nothing and melted into nowhere.
The next item was the fifth piano concerto of Saint Saens, called L'Egyptien because he wrote it in Luxor. There was an exciting unease about this opening first movement because empire and colonisation were around. It was spacious, grand but in no way dogmatic.
Saint Saens was an interesting man. His fame, power, opulence and class elitism were as one, but still he managed to operate in two directions. His mind went in two directions. Had he lived longer he would have taken a hop into the twentieth century and beyond, like Satie.
The first movement is large and glamorous, like an old-fashioned luxury hotel, before they were standardised by the addition of so much concrete and those dreadful little stars. It is grandiose -- a splendour in full dress by Worth covering a total insecurity -- economic, social, moral.
In the second movement everything still shines -- the reflections of a ballroom dance floor in full swing.
What is it out there? Well, the country, Egypt, for one thing -- glamorous, of course, at least a part of it. There was a sense of propinquity to other things -- the smell of bodies, night air, undefined spaces on far horizons, mirage but no watercolour smudges. Saint Saens was not an impressionist, his feet were firmly placed in the marble halls of the establishment.
It was here that the sensations began. The two minds at work, piano and orchestra, were totally blended. Their timing was perfect.
This was certainly Egypt without a trace of arrière pensée. The weird, beautiful land of the Nile had stolen into the Opera House and was flowing about our feet. Astonishment, and a complete sense of timing and total judgement of the forces at hand.
Wael Farouk began a little tentatively in the first movement. He failed to get into the deeps, there was a suggestion of tinkle-tinkle, but he had never played before with an orchestra and this particular, fastidious conductor is not, necessarily, the easiest place to begin.
Farouk's courage and daring were thrilling as he plunged in and stood firm as a rock. The entire ensemble caught the message and fire broke out. Fournillier let out the full power of his forces and we were projected into the last section.
Saint Saens knew about the piano, he was a great player himself. He knew about Mississippi and Chicago rhythms. So does Fournillier and so, it seems, does Wael Farouk.
The small, compact figure rolled up his sleeves, sat oblique at the keyboard and let fly, stamping out the jazz rhythms of old Mississippi.
Everyone danced, including the audience, and a standing ovation turned into a shout for more. So Wael Farouk gave a Chopin waltz.
He is the second performer to rock the pyramids with the Saint Saens piano concerto. Roberto Cominate, the first, went straight to world fame at Salzburg. Wael Farouk, with proper management, tact and understanding, not the Egyptian wet blanket treatment usually handed out, will go the same way.
