Amal Choucri Catta finds something for everyone Sixth Arab Perspectives Music Festival, Cairo Symphony Orchestra, conductors: Nader Abbassi, Mohamed Siddiq, Haytham Sukareya, Hassan Sharara and Mounir Nasreddin, with soloists and A Capella Choir, director: Maya Gvineria, Cairo Opera House Main Hall and Small Hall, 3-12 February, 8pm This time round, the opening night was not as lavish, nor was the stage as splendidly decorated as it had been in previous rounds of the yearly Arab Perspectives Festival. When Ahmed El-Saedi, former principal conductor and director of the Cairo Symphony Orchestra, first started the event in 2002, he aimed at promoting symphonic and chamber works by Egyptian and Arab composers, both nationally and internationally. In the years that followed, Inas Abdel-Dayem, who replaced El-Saedi, pursued the same aim. This year, for the Sixth Arab Perspectives Music Festival, she managed to present 34 Arab and Egyptian composers, paying tribute to pioneers and encouraging new young talents. Abdel-Dayem also organised three forums on Music Criticism, Women and Music and the famous Arab composer Halim Abdel-Messih El-Dabh, who opened the symphonic concerts with his gigantic work "The Quest in three movements: The Globe, The Land Beyond and Celebrations", an interesting symphonic poem with metaphysical and futuristic tendencies. A work that takes the breath away. One should be able to hear it more often. Born in Cairo in 1921, Halim El-Dabh is doubtless a unique case in Arab music history. Composer, performer, ethnomusicologist and educator, he is internationally seen as Egypt's foremost living composer of classical music, and one of the major composers of the 20th century. Among his numerous compositions, there are 11 operas, four symphonies, several ballets, concertos and orchestral works, as well as film scores, chamber and incidental music. He also wrote music for Jazz and Rock bands, electronic music and pieces for various combinations of African, Asian and Western instruments. In 1932 El-Dabh met Bela Bartok and Paul Hindemith at the Cairo Music Congress organised by King Fouad. He received a Fulbright Music Grant in 1950, which took him to the Aspen Music Center, Colorado, where he met and assisted Igor Stravinsky, and studied with Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein at the Berkshire Music Center in Massachusetts. At a later date, in New York, El-Dabh entered the musical scene, developing friendships with prominent musicians and becoming one of "Les Six d'Orient", representing the vanguard of contemporary composers inspired by Eastern music. El-Dabh has taught at Kent State University's School for Music and at the Howard University in Washington, among others. In 2001 he celebrated his 80th birthday with a festival of his music, including over 15 concerts and lectures in the United States and around the world. His international awards and grants are numerous and in may 2007 he will be receiving his second honorary doctorate from the New England Conservatory. Unfortunately, only two of his works have, to this day, been performed by Cairo's Symphony Orchestra: in 1959 his third symphony and in 1960 "Tahmeela" His symphonic work "The Quest" was much applauded on the Festival's opening night. Next on the programme we were given "Eskendereya" by Mohamed Saad Basha, who graduated from the Cairo Conservatoire in 1997, having already made a name for himself with a number of compositions. Rageh Daoud's "The Mermaid" closed the first part of opening night's concert. The second part opened with "Orange Mecanique" by Fouad Fakhoury and closed beautifully with Nader Abbassi's "Between Dusk and Dawn ", a symphonic poem on the lives of Raya and Sakina and one of Walid Aouni's best loved ballet productions. Basha, Daoud, Fakhoury and Abbassi have toured in Europe and the Americas, while Fakhoury settled in the United States, teaching at Pennsylvania State University, and Abbassi, who is the artistic director and principal conductor of the Cairo Opera Orchestra, has settled part-time in Geneva and is constantly shuttling between Egypt and Switzerland, composing for the Geneva Ballet company, the Geneva Chamber Orchestra and the Swiss Clarinet Players, among others. In France and elsewhere in Europe he is likewise much in demand. The second concert at the Cairo Opera Main Hall, on 10 February, was more on the military side, with Alaaeddin Mustafa's Misr Symphony, the Iraqi Farid Al-Bably's "Victory March for Orchestra", and Sayed Awad's "The Martyr, Epic of October War", dedicated to the composer's son. In the concert's second part, we had Mohamed Siddiq from Iraq, with his Poem for trumpet and orchestra, while the Kurdish Halkawt Zaher gave us Turkestan and the Jordanian Haytham Sukareya presented his First Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in C- minor; and "I Love You, Amman", in C-major. The Festival closed with the last Main Hall's symphonic concert on 12 April, presenting selections from Kamel El-Remaly's Countryside symphony in three movements: "A village evening, Across the river Nile and A sandstorm", followed by Adel Afifi's "Introduction and Rondo for Cello and String Orchestra, and Atteya Sharara's Egyptian Arabic Suite. That night, the second part of the concert started with Aly Osman's Sufi Prayer, for female voice, choir and orchestra, dedicated to the memory of Samha El-Kholy and sung by soprano Taheya Shamseddin, followed by Ramz Sabri's "The ecstasy of blood" for solo bassoon, strings, brass and percussion, dedicated to the innocent children of the cedar and the olive tree. Bassam Noureddin's symphonic poem "Badr Martyrs" and Refaat Garana's "Port Said" brought the festival to an end on a somewhat nostalgic note. During the five days of the festival, vocal and chamber music concerts were performed at the small hall, with works by Mahmoud Turkmani, Hassan Rasheed, Aziz El-Shawan, Aly Osman, Abu Bakr Khairat, Mona Ghoneim, Khaled Shukry, Gamal Abdel-Rehim and others. Some of the works were quite interesting, while others seemed at times rather artificial and devoid of real musicianship and spontaneous creativity. It must however be said that Egypt and the Arab world are undoubtedly privileged to have promising young symphonic composers actively working on the national and international scene, bringing musicians together and building musical bridges across countries and continents. Though lacking in the usual decor and the festive atmosphere, this Sixth Arab Perspectives gathering was quite promising. We did, nevertheless, miss the presence of names such as Patrick Bishay, Tarek Ali Hassan, Sherif Mohieddin, Ahmed El-Saedi, Bishara El-Khouri and others. Next year, we hope for more concertos and symphonies and maybe even an opera, such as Mohieddin's "Miramar" -- or a ballet, "Isis and Osiris" by Aziz El-Shawan, which was never performed to this day. However, we do appreciate the efforts and the hard work executed by Inas Abdel-Dayem and her staff in organising and promoting this festival.
