Amal Choucri Catta jumps all hurdles to get to the Small Hall Violin recital, accompanied by David Hales. Small Hall Cairo Opera House, 28 May, 9pm Friday night was a disturbing night at the Cairo Opera House. No one, it seems, knew what was going on. Some of the audience arriving for 's violin recital at the Small Hall were told at the gate that the performance had been cancelled while others were guided to a side entrance, generally used for emergencies -- the usual access to the Small Hall had been blocked by a giant buffet, with the entire Open Air Theatre converted into an outdoor dining space with white tablecloths, candles, flowers and chefs awaiting the arrival of guests invited to attend a concert of Arabic music in the Main Hall. Security and opera staff were running around, attending to the needs of those attending the Main Hall performance while the paying audience for the Small Hall recital were left to their own devices, or else told to go away. A completely unfair situation, and one that could easily be avoided by not scheduling a Small Hall performance when the Main Hall is being used for an official reception. Such an expedient would also avoid the odd experience -- for those who managed to gain admittance to the Small Hall -- of listening to a recital while being attacked by the odour of meats grilled and fried. It is surprisingly difficult to focus on the soaring melodies of Ysaye's A Child's Dream amid the smothering smells of baked meatballs. possesses both youth and talent. From the violin she teases a wonderful singing line, playing with energy, grace and tonal sensitivity. Sadek started studying the violin at the age of six and later joined the Cairo Conservatoire as a full-time student. She graduated in 1990 and a year later was appointed an assistant teacher in the string department. She left for Germany, in 1992, where she pursued advanced studies. Sadek has performed with a number of German and international orchestras, and is currently first violinist of the German Chamber Orchestra in Neuss am Rhein. On Friday she came on stage determined to ignore the inconveniences she and her listeners had faced. And as the doors of the Small Hall closed the chaos just experienced evaporated in the spaces of Cesar Franck's Prélude, Fugue et Variation, composed between 1860 and 1862, and dedicated to Camille Saint-Söens. Born in Liege, Belgium, in 1822, Franck toured the country as a pianist aged 13, before going to Paris to study. He concentrated on composition and settled in Paris in 1843. Ten years later he became choir master, and in 1858 organist, at the Sainte Clotilde, where his outstanding ability as an improviser drew listeners from far and wide, including Franz Liszt. In later years Franck was professor of organ at the Paris Conservatoire. In his early works he was influenced by opera- comique composers, such as Gretry, while his middle years were dominated by works of a religious character, and in his later years he developed a cyclic form whereby a theme, modified or varied, recurs in each section of the work. He played a large part in restoring French taste for "pure music", opening the way for Debussy, Ravel and others. The theme of Prélude, Fugue et Variation is youthful and spontaneous in spirit: it is Franck in one of his most inspired moments. Originally composed for the organ, the work was arranged for piano and in later years for other orchestrations. Sadek's violin soared through sparkling spaces. had chosen a strangely varied programme, wandering from Franck to Prokofiev and from there to Schubert, to Ysaye, and closing with the Argentinean Astor Piazzola, an ambiguous potpourri of moods and melodies that were at times disconcerting. Sadek chose Prokofiev's Second Sonata for Violin and Piano, Opus 94a -- clear, well defined and filled with immense vitality. Prokofiev's music has personality, Stravinsky remarked, and it is a personality with which Sadek quickly came to terms as she combined fire with delicacy and a transparency of texture that flowed gracefully from the lowest to the highest pitches. Hers was the second Prokofiev local audiences were served in two weeks of piano and violin recitals and a different choice might well have been to Sadek's advantage. The second part of the recital opened with Franz Schubert's Rondo in A-major, performed with elegance, precision and depth of feeling. Born in Vienna in 1797, Schubert was the son of an impoverished schoolmaster who was his first teacher. In 1808 he was admitted as boy soprano to the Imperial Chapel. Living in the Konvikt, he played the violin in the school orchestra, for which he wrote his first symphony in 1813. His voice broke the same year and he had to leave the Konvikt, continuing however to compose prolifically. Ill health began to trouble Schubert as early as 1823 and he died in 1828. He was buried near Beethoven at Wahring Cemetery, though both composers were later exhumed and reburied in Vienna's Central Cemetery. All Schubert's music, even the happiest, has a tinge of sadness; the works of his last years, when illness increasingly afflicted him, are at an extreme of poignancy. Sadek showed an unusual sensitivity to the emotional complexity of the composer: joyous one moment, bleak the next. There were sequences of refined poetry and of innocent charm in the performance. Leaving Schubert, the soloist turned to Eugene Ysaye, the Belgian violinist, conductor and composer. Born in 1858 in Liege, he toured Russia and Scandinavia with Anton Rubinstein in 1882, and died in Brussels in 1931. He lived in Paris, forming close ties with Franck, Chausson, Fauré, Saint-Söens and Debussy. Ysaye is likely to be unfamiliar to local audiences. One of the most celebrated virtuosi of his day he wrote a number of short works, six violin concertos, several solo violin sonatas, Variations on a Theme of Paganini and other pieces. chose A Child's Dream, an emotional and acrobatic piece performed with panache. Finally Sadek had selected Argentina's Astor Piazzola, bringing the recital to a lively close with Le Grand Tango.
