Al-Ahram Weekly | Culture

		19 - 25 September 2002 Issue No. 604 Culture	Current issue Previous issue Site map
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875		Recommend this page

Batons up
Amal Choucri Catta finds conductors galore

Nader Abbassi
Last year Ahmed El-Saedi, principal conductor of the Cairo Symphony Orchestra, opened the First International Workshop for Conductors in the framework of which two concerts were performed in the Main Hall of Cairo's Opera House, introducing young conductors as well as two promising soloists, the pianists Magda Emara and Sofia Selim. A third concert took place in the Opera's Small Hall with Yasser El-Serafi as soloist on the violin. This year, the Second International Workshop is introducing young conductors to the symphonic scene. The first of its three concerts was last Saturday, in the Main Hall, with four different conductors -- Kodo Yamagishi from Japan, Panagiotis Notis Georgiou from Cyprus, Gregory N Leet from the US and Christos Mitsakis from Greece. We have never had as many conductors for one single concert, and there seem to be more to come in the next two workshop concerts. The concert opened with Kodo Yamagishi conducting, without a score, Brahms' Haydn Variations, Opus 56a.
The Haydn Variations date back to 1873, forming eight different pieces of a rather popular trend, and a Finale. Bells seem to be ringing in the first variation, while the second and the third are charming imitations of Haydn's style and the fourth is highlighted by an oboe solo, the fifth by interesting rhythms, the sixth by a moving lyricism, the seventh by a "Sicilienne", and finally, the eighth, of a melancholic vein, seems to be joining the classical and the romantic. On the podium Kodo Yamagishi had no difficulty with the orchestra, though the slow movements were lacking a little in power.
The second conductor, Panagiotis Notis Georgiou conducted the Piano Concerto in A-minor, Opus 54, by Robert Schumann, with Sofia Selim as soloist. In last year's concert she played Beethoven's Fourth Concerto in G-major quite successfully and during the past season performed a couple of recitals in the Small Hall but this time, unfortunately, she did not seem to be quite at home with Schumann. Her performance was, at times, void of passion and of sensitivity. Her fingers did their job, but her heart didn't seem to be dictating the motions. We nevertheless admired her poise, her discipline and her determination. Born in Moscow, Sofia Selim studied at the city's State Conservatory and later at the Cairo Conservatoire. She returned to Moscow in 1998 and this year obtained her recital diploma with distinction from London. She is very young, very promising and has a long way to go. As for Maestro Panagiotis Notis Georgiou, he too seemed to have some difficulty with Schumann, though he was conducting with the score.
We had two conductors for Beethoven's Seventh Symphony in A-major, Opus 92. Both were conducting without the score: for the first two movements the American Gregory Leet did his best, and for the two last movements Christos Mitsakis was cheered by an enthusiastic audience. He is an accomplished conductor who gave us a colourful Beethoven. The symphony was beautifully performed, especially the solemn, nostalgic sequences of the Allegretto, the Presto and the final Allegro. This was the Beethoven who emancipated and democratised the art, composing out of inner, spiritual necessity, rather than as a provider of virtuoso display material. This was music at its best. It had, in fact, reached perfection. At the end of the concert, Ahmed El-Saedi hurried towards the stage to congratulate the conductors.

Highlights from Musicals, Cairo Opera Company and Cairo Opera Orchestra, conductor Nader Abbassi, Main Hall, Cairo Opera House, 12 September, 9pm
A ravishing evening, with all the trimmings, with music and voices that would have been perfectly at home on Broadway. There was a glamorous feel to this exciting event, to the scenography, the dramatic floodlights spreading their multicoloured hues onto the stage of the main hall while different scenes of the programmed musicals were projected onto a huge screen in the background. The audience discovered an excellent young conductor, Nader Abbassi, who has just been appointed head of the Cairo Opera Orchestra after spending 15 years in Switzerland with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and winning several prizes. He studied bassoon and composition at the Cairo Conservatoire before leaving for Geneva to pursue further studies, was first bassoonist of the Geneva Chamber Orchestra and obtained his diploma in conducting in 1999 from the International Music Academy in Lyon, France. His activities as a conductor have covered a wide range of concerts both in Egypt and in Europe. This time, however, the audience was given the chance to appreciate his sensational performance conducting vocal music, as well as two Overtures: Leonard Bernstein's Candida and Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera. The audience was enraptured by majestic sound, stunning rhythms and sparkling melodies beautifully performed by the orchestra. We had songs from The Sound of Music, West Side Story, Kiss me Kate, My Fair Lady, Show Boat, Cats, Man from La Mancha and others, and we likewise had captivating singers -- Raouf Zaidan, Elhamy Amin, Reda El-Wakil, Nevine Allouba, Tamer Tawfik, and most of all the young and beautiful Amira Selim, soprano-coloratura, just back from Europe, who gave us a lovely version of "I could have danced all night" and, together with Elhamy Amin, a most impressive "Phantom of the Opera", reaching the highest pitch with a remarkable ease. For her the house came down twice with thunderous applause. She will be singing the part of Königin der Nacht in Mozart's Magic Flute this season and will be taking part in other operatic performances.
On this night, however, she sang a beautiful duet, "Castle in the Clouds" from Les Misérables with Jacqueline Rafik, without any orchestral participation: it was sweet and very moving, and the soprano, Jacqueline, who had opened the vocal performance with the title song from The Sound of Music, was as pure of timbre as ever.
Another star of the evening was Reda El-Wakil, bass-baritone, who gave us an interesting version of "Ole Man River" from Show Boat, after having sung "Stars" from Les Misérables. Reda had difficulty with the accent, he was more of a professor than a "nigger pullin' those boats from the dawn to sunset, gettin' no rest till the judgment day", but his voice did soar out into the hall, warm, passionate, sparkling, and the audience was thrilled. And while we missed the charming soprano Sarah Enani and her funny, amusing performances, instead we applauded a newcomer, Victoria Reiche, rather loud and somewhat aggressive, though her voice is quite interesting and she has a style of her own.
The concert closed with a fascinating Raouf Zaidan singing "The Impossible Dream" and all performers joining in to sing "One" from Marvin Hamlich's A Chorus Line, while the house resounded with endless cheers. No, this was not "just a concert" : this was an alluring show, introducing onto the musical scene Nader Abbassi, one of the most promising Egyptian conductors.

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