Amal Choucri Catta attends to the music of the spheres Cairo Symphony Orchestra, cond Claudio Vandelli with Islam Nour El-Din, violin, and Hassan Moataz, cello, 13 May; Winterthur Orchestra, Switzerland, cond Jac Van Steen, with the Horus Piano Duo, 16 May, Main Hall, Cairo Opera House, 9pm "I have been of late unable to resist the idea of a Concerto for violin and cello, however much I have tried, again and again, to talk myself out of it," Johannes Brahms was reported to have told violinist Joseph Joachim in July 1887. The Double Concerto, his last orchestral work, was designed, at least in part, as a gesture of reconciliation towards the famous violinist. The two musicians had fallen out over Joachim's acrimonious divorce, when Brahms had sided with his wife. He had furthermore promised the celebrated cellist Robert Hausmann a solo concerto he had never written. By composing this double Concerto, the last of his four concertos as well as his last orchestral work, Brahms succeeded in soothing his two friends. On opening night in Cologne, in October 1887, the two played the solo parts while Brahms conducted. The Double Concerto for violin, cello and orchestra in A-minor, Opus 102, was the highlight of Cairo Symphony Orchestra's concert of 13 May, with the remarkable Italian conductor Claudio Vandelli and two excellent Egyptian soloists -- Islam Nour El-Din on the violin and Hassan Moataz on the cello. The allegro and andante elegantly slid into the vivaco non troppo, with a playful rondo theme accompanied by elaborate arpeggios from the soloists leading to the energetic ending. The Main Hall counted an unusually high number of listeners, and their presence buoyed the instrumentalists on stage. The concert opened, as so often before, with Ludwig van Beethoven's overture to Egmont, Opus 84, a lovely piece of nine items of incidental music, composed to Goethe's historical drama about the Flemish aristocrat Egmont, who defied Philip of Spain and was beheaded in 1567. Nothing can ever go wrong with this overture, Cairo's symphonists having played it hundreds of times. And nothing can go wrong with a conductor as dazzling as Claudio Vandelli, who was, from the very first bars, master of the entire evening. This was his first experience with Cairo Symphony and it was an astounding success. Vandelli has conducted many celebrated orchestras in leading concert halls. Born in 1967, his talent as a conductor was soon recognised. Aged 19 he was offered a conducting position with the student's orchestra at the Milan International Music Academy, which led him to important musical performances in Europe and around the world. The concert closed beautifully with Dimitri Shostakovich's symphony No. 5 in D-minor, Opus 47, the great Russian's most popular work, enthusiastically greeted at its premiere by the Russian press and the people in 1937, when Shostakovich was thirty-one. After the devastating criticism of his opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk in 1936, he had withdrawn his fourth symphony, which was only heard in public in the early 1960s. In the meantime, however, his fifth symphony was acknowledged for its wonderful lyrical melody, for its dramatic tension and its splendid finale. It had moments that sounded like music of the spheres, like the sublime encounter of worlds unknown. The audience was spellbound: on Cairo's stage Vandelli had no difficulty leading the symphonists to an exalted conclusion. His triumph was saluted by unending bravi. The second concert took place at Cairo Opera's Main Hall on 16 May, having opened in Alexandria's Sayed Darwish Theatre on 14 May to a full house. People in Alexandria do not seem to have many choices, one reason why opera performances always seem to attract large audiences. The programme included the extraordinary Winterthur Orchestra from Switzerland and the Horus Piano Duo -- Egyptian Ahmed Abu-Zahra and his Hungarian wife Nora Emoedy -- conducted by the eminent Jac van Steen. The Orchester Musikkollegium Winterthur was founded in 1875 by a private group of music lovers committed to maintaining the musical tradition. The orchestra is currently composed of 50 musicians, an ideal size for the performance of classical, early romantic and contemporary works. They give regular concerts with celebrated guest conductors and soloists. The Horus Piano Duo have won many international competitions in Europe and the Americas. The Hungarian pianist Nora Emoedy met the Egyptian pianist Ahmed Abu-Zahra in Freiburg, Germany, where they both studied and decided in 1996 to play together. After their marriage, they appeared as the Horus Piano Duo, giving successful recitals and concerts, and in 2000 they were granted a scholarship from the city of Baden-Baden. They are internationally much in demand, regularly invited to perform at the Banff Summer Piano Festival in Canada, as well as the Heidelberg Spring Music Festival in Germany, the Szeged chamber Music Festival in Hungary and the International Piano Duo Festival in Bad-Heerenalb, Germany, among others. At Cairo Opera's Main Hall the Winterthur concert opened with the famous overture in B-minor, Opus 26, Fingal's Cave or The Hebrides by Mendelssohn, who is said to have invented the principal theme while on a visit to the island of Staffa. Classical wunderkind and romantic master craftsman, Mendelssohn was inspired by landscape, history and literature and possessed a romantic sensibility with a genius for the picturesque and the fanciful. His marvellously evocative overture was superbly performed. The audience loved it. Francis Poulenc's Concerto for two pianos and orchestra in D-minor, came as a surprise: it is not often performed on Cairo's Main Stage. Poulenc's music is strongly personal in style: it has wit, elegance, depth of feeling and a bitter-sweetness which derives from his mixture of gaiety and manic depression. Ahmed Abu-Zahra is one of Egypt's most brilliant pianists: his touch was superb, his musicality stupendous. Maestro and soloists were called several times on stage and the audience was finally granted a four-hand Encore by the pianists. The superb concert closed with Ludwig van Beethoven's second symphony in D-major Opus 36. Everyone agreed: it has been one of the best concerts of the season.
