| Culture | ET and the dazzling hills...
16 - 22 September 2004
Issue No. 708
Culture Current issue
ET and the dazzling hills
Amal Choucri Catta rocks to the rhythm of the new season
Opening Concert, Cairo Symphony Orchestra, conductor Christoph Mueller with soprano Iman Mustafa, mezzo-soprano Uta Christina Georg and the A Capella Choir, Cairo Opera House Main Hall, 11 September
New season's real premiere was courtesy of the Cairo symphonists, the brand-new Swiss baton of Christoph Mueller, who started off the occasion with a brief speech, working its way through unfamiliar minds and hearts -- or trying to. Starting with an orchestral suite by Mohamed Abdel-Fattah, an Egyptian pioneer of multimedia music -- somewhat disappointingly performed, it has to be admitted -- this work of seven extremely brief movements, combining Oriental with Occidental sounds, was closely followed by Gustav Mahler's demanding second symphony in C-minor, Resurrection, with soloists Iman Mustafa and Uta Christina Georg, and the A Capella Choir, directed by Maya Gvineria. No newcomer to Cairo, the symphony drew a smaller audience than on previous occasions. It drew a very small audience, in fact, evidencing the tendency to flee long symphonies. The first three movements, a mighty funereal march followed by a congenial vision of tranquillity and, finally, a sense of ghostliness punctuated by moments of sarcasm, were performed powerfully enough.
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