In youth is beauty, finds Amal Choucri Catta Cairo Symphony Orchestra, cond Hassan Sharara; soloists Mona Wassef, harp, Tarek Mahran, oboe, Karim Samir Saleh, violin. Cairo Opera House, Small Hall, 1 May, 9pm It's not every day that you come across 13-year-old prodigies. They are a rarity, encountered infrequently over the decades. One appeared on Saturday, though, at Cairo Opera's Small Hall: a large audience of music lovers and teachers, musicians and others, gathered to applaud Karim Samir Saleh who was playing Felix Mendelssohn's Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in E-minor, Opus 64. But first things first. A somewhat reduced Cairo Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of Hassan Sharara, introduced the audience to three young musicians: harpist Mona Wassef, oboist Tarek Mahran and child violinist Karim Samir Saleh. Hassan Sharara is seldom seen at the head of a symphony orchestra: he is better known as Egypt's first violinist, head of the string department and a former dean of the Cairo Conservatoire. Born in Cairo in 1949 to a musical family, he began studying the violin with his father Atteya Sharara, the violinist and composer. He was admitted to the Cairo Conservatoire aged ten, graduating with excellence in 1971. He received his PhD from the Tchaikovsky Conservatoire in Moscow, travelled and played widely, gleaning a number of prizes along the way. He is a principal member of the Sharara Sextet, which specialises in performing Arabic music in Egypt and Arab countries. Saturday night found him in the Small Hall, leading both soloists and orchestra towards some promising musical horizons. Mona Wassef opened the concert with George Friedrich Handel's Concerto for Harp and Orchestra in B-flat Major. Born in Halle, Germany, in 1695, Handel created his first successful opera, Almira, aged 20 and was immersed in the ups and downs of operatic activity in London for over 30 years. In 1712 he received a pension of 200 pounds a year for life from Queen Anne, a sum that was increased to 600 pounds by King George I, his former ruler in Hanover and the man who commissioned the Water Music Suite in 1717. At 52 Handel's health began to deteriorate under the strain of his operatic labours and numerous travels. Recovering from a stroke, he wrote a series of oratorios, including the Messiah and by the time of his death he was one of the most celebrated composers of his generation. Indeed, he dominated English music for nearly 150 years. During the last seven years of his life Handel was blind, though he continued to conduct oratorio performances and to revise his scores with the assistance of a friend. From 1723 until his death, on 14 April 1759, he lived at 25, Brook Street, London. After a lifetime of travel England claimed him as one of its own and he was buried on 20 April in Westminster Abbey, a mourned Londoner. Lovingly restored and renewed, his Brook Street house is now the first museum in London dedicated to a single composer. Handel embarked on writing the harp concerto in 1735 during a period of convalescence at Tunbridge Wells. It was completed a year later and premiered at Covent Garden, along with his ode Alexander's Feast, on 19 February 1736. The two allegro moderati have the delightful trimmings of sunny summer days. The scene painting is remarkable, and there is an extraordinary illustrative quality to the orchestration. The dialogue between harp and orchestra was charming: Mona Wassef added colour and glitter to the composition in a refined performance. The andante, however, bare and meagre, remained somewhat barren no matter how hard the soloist tried to pour a little warmth into the strings. Wassef graduated from Cairo Conservatoire in 2000, finishing her post-graduate studies in 2002. She is a promising young musician who joined the Cairo Symphony Orchestra since 1998. She has subsequently performed as a soloist and with orchestras in Egypt and abroad. A talented, sensitive performer, she would perhaps have been better served by a more demanding piece of music. Franz Josef Haydn was another German speaker who conquered London, though almost 30 years after Handel's death. Born in Austria in 1732 his father was a master wheelwright and sometime composer who sent his son to live with a local choirmaster. The boy's talent was such that he was snapped up by the principal church of the Hapsburg Empire, the Vienna Stephansdom. Haydn made his way up to Prince Esterhazy, living and working in the fairy-tale environment of the estate in Eisenstadt. He soon became the richest composer of his age, and between 1791 and 1795 he conquered London with a series of concerts that drew wealthy audiences. The Prince of Wales became his patron and his fees were huge. When his vast oratorio The Creation was premiered in Vienna he had the foresight to produce English and German versions of the work, making it the first bilingual composition. There is no lack of emotional depth in his music: there is certainly melody and there is even a period in his life when he gave free reign to dark, expressive forces. In his 102 symphonies there are passages of deeply agitated music with syncopated melodies that often fly in the face of classical demands of balance. He is the author of thousands of wonderful melodies and one of the most prolific composers ever. In 1801 his health started to fail and by 1804 he was house bound, in Gumpendorf, Austria, where numerous musicians, artists and friends visited him. He died on 31 May 1809, a few days after Napoleon's second occupation of Vienna. In 1954 his remains were transferred to a mausoleum in Eisenstadt, where he had spent many of his younger years. Haydn's oboe concerto, a witty and elegant composition, was interpreted by Tarek Mahran. Mahran has already achieved a certain fame, representing Egypt at many international festivals. He has been the recipient of several prizes and certificates of merit. A member of Cairo Symphony Orchestra since 1984, he is also conductor of the Cairo Conservatoire Wind and Percussion Orchestra. Mahran is a master of his instrument, his technique impeccable and general performance thrilling. The surprise of the evening, though, came with the second part of the concert: Mendelssohn's Concerto for Violin in E-minor with Karim Samir Saleh as soloist. It was an extremely demanding piece of music for a 13-year-old wunderkind. Karim started studying the violin at the age of six with his mother Tatiana Saleh. He was admitted to the preparatory cycle at Cairo Conservatoire in 2001, where he studied with Marlies Yuneskhan. He has given recitals at Cairo Opera House, the Russian Cultural Centre, the American University and Cairo Conservatoire. He is the first Egyptian child prodigy to perform a solo concerto at such a young age with the Cairo Symphony Orchestra. Mendelssohn's violin concerto is often said to be the most "violinistic" in the entire repertoire. Its three movements are played without intervals, flowing magnificently from the passionate allegro to the dreamy andante and from there to the sparkling finale. Mendelssohn composed this extraordinary work in 1844 in Leipzig, after making his eighth visit to England, where he returned two years later to conduct the first part of the oratorio Elijah at the Birmingham Festival. His 10th and last visit was in 1847, when he conducted Elijah in London, Manchester and Birmingham and played for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Severe work, combined with the shock of his sister's sudden death in May 1847, led to his own death in November of the same year. Mendelssohn astounded audiences with his precociousness: he was also a wunderkind. At the age of twelve Goethe and his circle in Weimar were astonished by his keyboard prowess. By his 15th birthday his old teacher, Carl Zelter, proclaimed the boy a member of the brotherhood of Bach, Haydn and Mozart. Inspired by landscape, history and literature, Mendelssohn was always attuned to the classical ideals of formal clarity and balance. His concerto is a graceful composition, demanding from the soloist purity of sound, intense sensibility and sparkling virtuosity. It is a composition worthy of the most brilliant interpreters and Karim did not fail. The audience was enraptured: enthusiastic ovations started even before the last note was played and the soloist was the recipient of an avalanche of bouquets. This was indeed a rare event.
