Cairo Opera House's first festival of twentieth century music opened with a bang, writes Amal Choucri Catta Twentieth Century Music Festival, from 8 March to 5 April, Cairo Opera House, Main and Small Halls, 8pm, Cairo Symphony Orchestra with guest soloists During the next few weeks Cairene audiences will hopefully be applauding a series of concerts programmed within the framework of the Twentieth Century Music Festival -- six performances, scheduled between 8 March to 5 April at the Opera House and aiming to introduce not only items unfamiliar in the repertoire but also foreign conductors and soloists. Ahmed El-Saedi, head of Cairo's Symphony Orchestra, seems to be on something of a festival binge at the moment, with the current set of concerts sandwiched between the end of the Arabic Perspectives Festival and the opening of the Ludwig van Beethoven Festival, scheduled from 3 to 31 May. The event opened on Saturday, in the Main Hall, with a remarkable concert commemorating Serguey Prokofiev's death 50 years ago. The entire evening was dedicated to Prokofiev, beginning with the Classical Symphony in D- major, Opus 25, written in Haydn's style and beautifully performed by the orchestra, and continuing with the first Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, in D-major, Opus 19. This latter reintroduced local audiences to the thrilling Russian soloist Anastasia Chebotareva, whose performance verged on the sublime. The concert came to a close with the Seventh Symphony in C- sharp minor, Opus 131, work of a composer who clearly viewed the piano as an instrument to be hit hard rather than caressed, someone who, it has been said, "took orthodox chords, changed them in unorthodox ways and finally used them in unorthodox relations". Born in 1891, Prokofiev died in 1953, aged 62: his gifts, refreshing, original and often quite humorous, were not always appreciated in his day. Prokofiev is one of those anomalies, a composer whose name is well-known but whose music remains relatively unfamiliar beyond Peter and the Wolf, the ballets Romeo and Juliet and Cinderella, and perhaps the march from his opera The Love for Three Oranges. Of his seven symphonies the "Classical" first is best-known, followed by the fifth. He came from a comfortable background. His mother was a talented pianist and his father a businessman: he was a child prodigy, composing his first piece at the age of five and his first opera aged nine. One of his teachers at St Petersburg's Conservatory was Nicolas Rimsky-Korsakov who saw Prokofiev arriving for the entrance examination armed with the manuscripts of four operas, two sonatas, a symphony and a number of piano works. Prokofiev rebelled against the stifling conservatism around him and when he left the Conservatoire, aged 19, he was already famous. He travelled to Paris and London, returning to Russia at the outbreak of World War I. In 1918 he arrived in New York but returned to Paris and then to Russia in 1933. He died on 5 March 1953, the same day as his nemesis, Stalin. Since his death his seven operas, seven ballets, seven symphonies, concertos, sonatas and songs, film and theatre music have been reassessed and today he is viewed as being thoroughly embedded in the Russian tradition, an essential link between the bold and colourful strokes of the 19th century and a 20th century style marked by brittle wit and pungent, dramatic characterisation. Prokofiev's first concerto for violin was magnificently interpreted by Anastasia Chebotareva: her lyricism in the first and third movements was breathtaking while the scherzo vivacissimo of the second movement was performed with eloquent virtuosity. Born in Odessa in 1972, she began playing at the age of six and has already been cheered in many European capitals. She is a soloist with Moscow's Philharmonic Orchestra and on this, her third visit to Cairo, she received the standing ovation she so richly deserved. The concert ended with Prokofiev's seventh and last symphony, written in 1952, a year before his death, a distillation not just of the anger and frustration he felt with the Stalinist regime but also incorporating passages of great melodious beauty, magnificently interpreted by the orchestra. The festival's second concert takes place tonight, 13 March, in the Small Hall. It is a violin and piano recital, with Olga Kouznetova and Roman Svirlov, first violinist with the Cairo Symphony Orchestra. They will be presenting three sonatas for violin and piano: the first, a composition by Maurice Ravel, the second by Eugène Ysaye, a Belgian violinist and conductor relatively unknown to local audiences. The third will be Prokofiev's second Sonata in D-major, Opus 94b, and the programme will close with Stravinsky's lovely "Divertimento" for violin and piano. On Saturday, 15 March, the festival will return to the Main Hall, under El-Saedi's baton, for "Viennese Perspectives". Cairo Symphony Orchestra will be joined by two Austrian soloists, Christian Altenburger on the violin and Harald Ossberger on the piano, for Anton Webern's "Passacaglia Opus 1", followed by Alban Berg's Chamber Concerto for Violin and Piano and 13 wind instruments. The concert will close with Arnold Schönberg's symphonic poem, Opus 5, Pelleas and Melisande. Departing Vienna, the festival will take audiences on a whirlwind tour of France and Italy with the concert "Italian and French Subtleties". The orchestra will this time be under the baton of the Italian Giorgio Croci. On Saturday, 22 March, in the Main Hall, he will conduct Ottorino Respighi's symphonic poem "The Fountains of Rome", followed by Nino Rota's Concerto for Double Bass and Orchestra, Claude Debussy's Rhapsody for Clarinet and Orchestra, and Ravel's "La valse", a choreographic poem for orchestra, with German Gerd Reinike on the double bass and Mohamed Hamdy's brilliant clarinet. Neither Respighi nor Rota are well-known to local audiences though both were prolific, producing operas, symphonies, concertos, chamber music and other musical pieces. Respighi's symphonic poems are notable for their brilliant and luscious scoring, while Rota has worked on much incidental film music for, among others, Fellini, Visconti, and Zeffirelli. On Saturday, 29 March, the festival will invite audiences to remember the Middle Ages with the concert "Mediaeval Reminiscences", presenting Dimitri Shostakovitch's First Concerto for Cello and Orchestra in E-flat major and Carl Orff's Carmina Burana, with Hassan Momtaz on the cello, and soprano Taheya Shamseddin, tenor Juhan Tralla and baritone Markus Werba. Mexican Conductor Sergio Cardenas will lead the orchestra with Maya Gwinneria responsible, as always, for the A Capella Choir. Finally, on Saturday 5 April the festival will move to Scandinavia, with "Nordic Flair", introducing audiences to Hugo Alfven's "Swedish Rhapsody", Carl Nielsen's Concerto for Flute and Orchestra and Sibelius's Second Symphony in D-major, Opus 43, with flautist Mario Carbotta and Espen Selvik conducting. The festival will have introduced some of the more important 20th century musicians to local audiences. There are, inevitably, gaping chasms, with British, German, Swiss, Polish, Czech and Spanish composers being among the most significant omissions. It remains as yet unclear whether the current programming will be a one off, or whether it will become a regular feature of the year's musical calendar, in which case we can no doubt look forward to the inclusion of composers as diverse as Elgar and Britten, Karol Szymanowski, Ignacy Paderewski and Paul Hindemith. And if the event maintains the quality evident in abundance in the Prokofiev first concert, it will be well worth cheering.
