CAIRO: “Normalization in the Middle East is not a good thing. I don’t accept normalization; I’m against normalization because we don’t want to let things stay the same.
With these brief, frank words, prominent Israeli pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim silenced his critics following one of the most astounding classical performances the Cairo Opera House has ever witnessed.
Thursday night’s performance at the Cairo Opera House went without a hitch and the audience was moved to give a long standing ovation. Among them were Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni, and veteran Egyptian actor Omar Sharif, who introduced Barenboim.
At the end of the evening, Barenboim took a final opportunity to address his critics, including those in the Egyptian media who had characterized the appearance of an Israeli musician in Egypt as an act of “normalization with Israel.
“Those who did not want me here tonight didn’t want me because they think that I represent something I do not, he said. “I’m sick to my stomach when I wake up every day to see the Palestinian territories still occupied. And I’m not saying that for some cheap applause.
The arrival in Cairo this week of Barenboim was met by a flurry of excitement among the Egyptian media.
At a press conference on Wednesday, Barenboim, who holds both Israeli and Palestinian passports, had held forth on his hopes for greater understanding between Arabs and Jews, and defended his visit to Egypt as an attempt to build bridges and heal wounds.
The following day, however, the virtuoso musician had shifted his attention to his key musical mission, namely to conduct the Cairo Symphony Orchestra in a concert at the Opera House on April 16.
At the final rehearsal before the performance, the orchestra’s respect for their conductor was palpable. As the musicians finished tuning their instruments, an expectant hush fell over the concert hall. Raising his baton, Barenboim led the orchestra in an apparently faultless opening section, testimony to the quality of the players, who are themselves drawn from many nations.
Earlier in the week, Barenboim said he had been impressed with the results of his first rehearsal on Wednesday morning. “I found the orchestra full of curiosity and goodwill, he said.
Barenboim’s choice of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony had prompted one journalist at the press conference to enquire why he had selected a work from the famous German composer, rather than something from an Austrian. The conductor’s visit had been arranged by the Spanish and Austrian embassies in Cairo, and Barenboim had previously pointed out that 80 percent of classical music played around the world these days came from Austria.
His somewhat mischievous response to the question raised a few giggles. Austria, he said, was guilty of a degree of “musical imperialism, adopting various key composers as products of their own rich culture. Beethoven was himself born in Germany, but later moved to the Austrian capital of Vienna, a hub of musical creativity in Continental Europe of the 18th century.
Perhaps the key reason for selecting Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony is its worldwide fame, even among those unfamiliar with classical music. The opening phrase is a dramatic short-short-long motif, charged with energy, and adapted to use in numerous works in other genres, from disco to rock and roll. The symphony is one of the most often performed in concert halls worldwide, and therefore also something of a safe bet for a conductor paying a flying visit to a lesser-known orchestra.
Rehearsing with one of the world’s leading conductors is not all plain sailing, of course. Shifting from section to section, Barenboim critiqued the phrasing and corrected errors of emphasis. From time to time, an individual was singled out for special attention.
One member of the wind section was pulled up for his tendency to deviate from the group effort. “You play wonderfully, but you play outside of the orchestra, said the conductor.
At one point, it seemed that rehearsals might come to an abrupt end, as Barenboim threatened to down tools in response to some apparently erratic drumming from the Russian tympani player. Barenboim berated him in English for a while, suggesting that he played “brutally and always head, then switched to the drummer’s native language to continue the critique. Finally, he used his baton to demonstrate how a drummer’s stick ought to be wielded.
Ten minutes later, playing had resumed, and the rehabilitated musician was praised for his “excellent work.
Barenboim puts much of his success as a conductor down to the fact that he continues to perform as a musician in his own right, giving frequent solo piano recitals. Indeed, he had agreed to open Thursday’s concert with a solo work to be announced on the night.
Once the orchestral rehearsal was at an end and the hall cleared of stragglers, he settled down to practice on the grand piano, assessing the instrument’s feel and sound. Only once he had done so, he said, would he make his choice of music. In the end, he settled on another famous and much-loved work from Beethoven, the Sonata Pathétique.
