Waltz out of time
Amal Choucri Catta has programme complaints
Cairo Symphony Orchestra, cond. Sergio Cardenas; Yasser El-Serafi, violin. Main Hall, Cairo Opera House, 15 November 9.30pm
They came as an odd surprise during the month of Ramadan, the three Strauss waltzes programmed as the second part of last Saturday's concert. However welcome the inevitable question arose: were they entirely suitable? Strauss waltzes are, after all, celebratory, perfect on New Year's eve, or for springtime concerts, redolent with the heady scents of old- fashioned ball-rooms and crinolines. But during the month of Ramadan at Cairo's Opera House? The programming appeared to perturb many friends of Cairo Symphony Orchestra, and their amazement was at times loudly expressed.
The concert in the Main Hall, under Sergio Cardenas's baton, began with Franz Schubert's Eighth Symphony in B-minor, D 759, popularly called the unfinished because of its two movements and a scherzo of the third, unfinished one. It is perhaps the most popular of Schubert's symphonic compositions despite it being incomplete.
The introduction was breathtaking, with softly murmuring cellos and gently humming basses creating a gloomy, disturbing atmosphere, while oboes and clarinets suddenly cascaded in sparkling melody as the orchestra developed a dramatic background to the theme. Cardenas, conducting without a score, dominated the entire scene from his podium: brilliant, precise and demanding, he extracted a necessary passion from the cellos and fluidity from the violins, demanding always more colour, more feeling. The result was overwhelming. The violins sang imploringly and passion seemed to culminate in tragedy when the first movement, allegro moderato, came to an end.
The second, andante con moto, produced the required tender affection courtesy of the marvellous melody produced by the clarinets, then taken up by the strings before being passed on to the oboes and double basses before finally closing as softly as a whispered goodbye.
The inclusion of the Unfinished Symphony in the evening was in honour of the 175th anniversary of the composer's death. Indeed Cardenas is including the Austrian composer's works in a number of his concerts this year. In September we were given Schubert's Fifth Symphony, followed, in October, by the Third together with Death and the Maiden. On 8 November came Schubert's Ninth, the Great, and now having had the Unfinished there will doubtless be more Schubert before the end of the year.
Second on the evening's programme came Camille Saint-Saens's third concerto for violin and orchestra, in B-minor, Opus 61, with soloist Yasser El-Serafi. Elegance of form and line, beautiful harmonies and chords were always more important to Saint-Saens than emotional or technical adventures. If these are the predilections that have led some to condemn his music as superficial and facile, they are also the qualities that have ensured the survival of a large amount of his work.
Of his three violin concertos only the third is heard regularly to this day. It was composed for the Spanish violinist Pablo de Sarasate in Paris in 1880. The three movements start with an allegro non troppo demanding a virtuoso display from the soloist who needs to move quickly between the lowest and highest pitches, as dreamy flautati and clear fortissimi precede the nostalgic barcarolle of the second movement's andantino and the final, third movement's brisk allegro non troppo. Yasser El-Serafi, co-concertmaster of Cairo Symphony Orchestra, a regular of Cairo's recital and concert circuit, proved an impressive interpreter of the masterpiece. He exploded with a variety of articulation, colour and vibrato. Sensitive, eloquent, the directness of his playing was compelling. As the work closed he was greeted with deserved applause.
Then came the waltzes: Johann Strauss junior's Viennese Blood, Opus 354, followed by Tales from the Vienna Woods, Opus 325 and The Blue Danube, Opus 314. Among the loveliest of Strauss's music, the audience was appreciative, even of the odd tempi of Cardenas's baton, particularly during The Blue Danube which appeared to be flowing at an unusually quick pace between Budapest and Vindobona. It all began to sound a bit North American: Austrian orchestras are never in such a hurry.
As the last fortissimo came to a close amid much applause the maestro was clearly ready. He jumped onto his podium and gave us an overwhelmingly dynamic polka as encore. The house came down. Yet on the way out reservations were repeatedly expressed over the appropriateness of waltzes during Ramadan.
Not that it is the first disconcerting programme to have been presented by Cairo Opera House in its current season. September went well enough with three excellent concerts, he first and the third perhaps the best. The latter included Schubert, Tchaikovsky and Gustav Mahler, with cellist Hassan Moataz and soprano Mona Rafla. In October Cardenas was in Poland and Mexico leaving the orchestra to local and foreign guest conductors. The first October concert, conducted by Taha Nagui, included music by Carl Maria von Weber, Haydn, Schubert and Franz von Suppe, and was the best of the month. The second, performed in the Small Hall, presented music by Schubert, Gamal Abdel- Rehim and Beethoven, while the third, conducted by Steven Lloyd, gave us music by Dukas, Atteya Sharara and Tchaikovsky, with Hassan Sharara as violin soloist. This was hardly an overwhelming event, but then neither was November's opening concert., which concentrated solely on music for the dead. Siegfried's funeral music Gotterdammerung was followed by Mahler's Songs on the Death of Children and Songs of a Wayfarer before we reached Richard Strauss' tone poem Death and Transfiguration, Opus 24, with the German baritone Matthias Vieweg conducted by Giorgio Croci. The Main Hall was unsurprisingly empty, more so during the second part since half of the audience opted to leave during the interval. It was doubtlessly the most morbid concert ever presented in the Main Hall which is perhaps not the best venue to celebrate All Saints' Day, or Halloween.
On 4 and 8 November came two concerts of music by Sergio Cardenas. The first was a poetic and musical evening at the Small Hall, a homage to Mexican poet Octavio Paz, with baritone Matthias Vieweg and three soloists performing Cardenas's I Hear the Light Beating for baritone, viola, clarinet and double bass. The second concert featured Cardenas's Poor Soul, for choir and string orchestra, and God Bless You, likewise for choir and string orchestra, both of which were African premieres. The same evening also included Abdu Dagher's Nedaa, a meditative improvisation on Cardenas's Aleluya, Aleluia, with Abdu Dagher as soloist on the violin and the A Capella Choir directed by Maya Gwinneria. This was the programme that also included Schubert's Ninth Symphony and it was a remarkably unsuccessful mix. Abdu Dagher and his work were mostly disappointing and seemed very out of place in the Main Hall. Topped by last Saturday's three waltzes it seems clear that Cairo Symphony Orchestra programming is in need of an overhaul. Programming can attract or discourage crowds, something the organisers must take into consideration if full houses are the aim.
The next concert, the Goumhoureya Theatre on 22 November, conducted by Gihad Daoud, is themed around birds, including compositions by Respighi, Vivaldi, Haydn and Stravinsky, with Yuri Pryhalkin as soloist on the flute. Hopefully the audience will not take flight.
Al-Ahram Weekly Online : 20 - 26 November 2003 (Issue No. 665)
Located at: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/665/cu2.htm