Royal cadenzas
Amal Choucri Catta enjoys a long-awaited event
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conductor Leonard Slatkin, Cairo Opera House Main Hall, 30 and 31 January, and Alexandria Opera House, 1 February, 8pm
Last week, the Cairo Opera House presented two enchanting concerts of Britain's Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, under the eminent baton of Leonard Slatkin, with Ramzi Yassa and Ahmed Abou Zahra as soloists on the piano. This important cultural event took place under the auspices of Egypt's First Lady, Mrs Suzanne Mubarak, in collaboration with the culture and tourism ministries, the British Embassy and the British Council, and it was sponsored by a number of local and international companies and banks.
Founded in 1946 by the renowned conductor and impresario Sir Thomas Beecham, Britain's London- based Royal Philharmonic Orchestra celebrated its 60th anniversary in Egypt with two performances at the Cairo Opera's Main Hall and one at the Sayed Darwish Theatre in Alexandria. The members of the orchestra kindly agreed to waive fees in support of health-care for children at the Abou Reesh Children's Hospital and the new Children's Cancer Hospital.
The first concert on 30 January opened with the Overture to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Nozze di Figaro, a renowned four-act opera after Beaumarchais's comedy La folle journée ou le mariage de Figaro. The prelude is melodious, vivacious, a lovely opening to the first night's performance.
It was followed by Frederic Chopin's first piano Concerto in E-minor, performed by Egypt's Ramzi Yassa. After the imperious first movement came the "Romanza" which Chopin himself said was "intended to convey the impression one receives when gazing on a beautiful landscape". Then followed the Vivaci and a dance-like Finale. Ramzi Yassa has been a romantic Chopin soloist for a number of years: his touch is elegant, tender or passionate, according to the mood required. With the impeccably pure tones of the strings and the sparkling colours of woods and brass, the concerto was of eloquent brilliance.
Antonin Dvorak's Symphony No. 9 Of the New World opened the second part of the concert. With a large family to support, Dvorak had left his post at the Prague Conservatory for a well-paid job at the National conservatory of Music in New York, where he composed his New World Symphony in 1893. Several years before leaving for America, Dvorak had read Longfellow's epic poem Song of Hiawatha which, it seems, had a certain influence on his ninth symphony. The forest funeral of Minnehaha inspired the second movement, while the third is somewhat evocative of an Indian feast dance. A captivating theme recurs in the symphony's four movements: opening with the horns, the theme reappears with the trombones in the second movement, returning with the horns in the third, and coming again in the finale's closing sequence. A colourful, often meditative work, marvellously performed. The audience loved it and begged for more. And the encore Maestro Slatkin gracefully granted was Gabriel Faure's rather brief and melancholic Pavane of 1887.
The second Cairene concert on 31 January opened with Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka's overture to his five- act opera Ruslan and Lyudmila, evocative of Pushkin's fairy-tale: Lyudmila disappears from a feast organised for her three suitors, the knight Ruslan, the poet-prince Ratmis and Fallaf, a cowardly warrior. Her father promises her hand in marriage to the one who will find her. The music evokes the mysterious adventures Ruslan encounters on his mission.
Mozart's piano concerto No. 20 in D-minor, KV 466 followed by soloist Ahmed Abou Zahra, an excellent Egyptian pianist who has toured the world and is often applauded in Cairo, though he lives in Germany with his Hungarian wife, and concert pianist Nora Emoedy. Together both founded the "Horus piano duo", winning many international competitions. Abou Zahra's Mozart Concerto was in perfect harmony with the orchestra, his brilliant performance sincerely admired by the audience.
The concert's second part was dedicated to Johannes Brahms's second symphony in D-major, Opus 73. The Allegro non troppo of the first movement, beautifully performed on cellos and double basses, is followed by a theme of horn and woodwinds, while a graceful theme of violins is followed by violas and cellos. The second Adagio non troppo opens with a meditative melody of the cellos followed by woodwinds and exquisite cello pizzicati. A graceful Allegretto culminates in the final Allegro con spirito, with grandiose Tutti and a triumphant Coda that has the audience cheering long before the last note gives way to silence. This time we were granted an encore by a British composer: a short piece by Sir William Walton from his film Henry V.
Which brings us to the question: why were no English composers planned in the concerts' programme?
Composers such as Dvorak and Brahms had been recently presented by Cairo's Symphony Orchestra: Johannes Brahms's second symphony at the beginning of the season, on 23 September 2006 and Dvorak's New World Symphony on 16 December 2006. And local audiences are unfortunately insufficiently versed in British music which, nevertheless, enjoys a long and rich history, going as far back as the Middle Ages, with John Dunstable, Walter Frye and Robert Morton providing preludes to the nascent musical tradition. They were followed in the Tudor era, by three well-known composers, John Taverner, Christopher Tye and Thomas Tallis, while the Elizabethan era gave us William Byrd and famous John Dowland, among others. Under the reign of Charles II, we discover Henry Cooke and John Blow, who wrote the first English opera Venus and Adonis in 1683. His pupil, Henry Purcell, one of the greatest English composers, was acknowledged in his lifetime, though it was not until the bicentenary of his death that he came to be accepted by later generations.
With the 18th century we discover Thomas Arne, author of the celebrated Rule, Britannia, as well as William Boyce, Benjamin Cooke and Samuel Wesley, while in the 19th century Arthur Sullivan made a name for himself with over 20 operettas and an opera Ivanhoe. With the 20th century renowned names appear, such as Edward Elgar, Frederick Delius and the prolific Ralph Vaughan Williams who gave us nine symphonies, six operas, oratorios, ballets, chamber and incidental music, and who is generally considered one of the leaders of the revival of English music in wake of Edward Elgar. Among the important contemporary British composers Michael Tippett, Alan Bush, Edmund Rubbra, Lennox Berkeley and Benjamin Britten must be mentioned.
As for William Walton, a choirmaster's son and singing teacher, he was born in 1902 and died in 1983. His music is fundamentally lyrical and romantic, with two basic ingredients: a pungent, spiky, rhythmic impetus, with wide intervals and a brooding melancholy. Among his works Facade, whether as an orchestral Suite 1 and 2 or as a ballet, is widely regarded as the masterpiece. Walton likewise wrote two operas, symphonies, chamber and incidental music as well as the scores of several films, among which we find Henry V, Hamlet, Richard III, The Battle of Britain and others.
It would therefore have been much appreciated had English composers found their way into the programme of the renowned British orchestra's concerts. The British Royal Philharmonic Orchestra made full houses in Cairo and Alexandria, remaining a highlight in the current cultural year. Cultural interchange between Egypt and England has always been strong, with the unforgettable performances of the London Festival Ballet presenting La sylphide at Cairo Opera's Main Hall around 1992, under the auspices of Britain's late Princess Margaret, who honoured the opening performance with her presence, and later on with the advent of different musicians and conductors performing at the opera house, as well as the presence of British maestro Steven Lloyd, who is now principal conductor and music director of Cairo's Symphony Orchestra. It goes without saying that the visit of the distinguished Royal Philharmonic Orchestra is a particularly important cultural event.
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