Next week Paphos, Limassol and Nicosia will round the month off with masterpieces by Mozart and Beethoven with three performances by the Cyprus Symphony Orchestra under the name Musical Titans.
The concerts, which will take place in Paphos on Wednesday, in Limassol on Thursday and in Nicosia on Friday, will be under the baton of the Cyprus Symphony Orchestra’s artistic director and chief conductor Jens Georg Bachmann. The programme will include Mozart’s Symphony no. 39 in E flat major, K. 543 and Beethoven’s Symphony no. 5 in C minor, op. 67. The concert in Nicosia will also include a performance of Syrian composer Kareem Roustom’s work Dabke (stamping of the feet), a folk-dance native to the Levant and widely performed at weddings and other happy occasions.
Mozart’s Symphony no. 39 may well be the least popular of the composer’s three last symphonies, but it’s no less a masterwork than the other two. The work was completed in June 1788 and composed in a span of only nine weeks, simultaneously with the other two symphonies, also known as London symphonies, “provoking contradicting speculations on whether all three of them were composed as a unified work,” according to notes about the concert.
This trilogy of symphonies is distinct from Mozart’s previous works with the composer more concerned with profound content, mature orchestrations and compositional complexity. The vitality and freshness of the 39th Symphony is indeed a virtuosity showcase for the orchestra. Its finale consists of a single theme, mostly a scale, presented in the first bars of the movement, and explored rhythmically and contrapuntally throughout the whole movement. This dramatic symphony is a delight for audiences to hear and performers to play.
Beethoven’s Symphony No.5 is probably the best-known piece of western music in the world, those famous four opening notes are ingrained in people’s minds. Less well-known is that it took Beethoven four years to compose this symphony, from 1804 until 1808, when he had not yet acquired his enormous popularity yet was already severely affected by his increasing deafness. The Fifth Symphony finally premiered on December 22, 1808 at the Theater an der Wien, alongside the Sixth Symphony, and other works by Beethoven, in a four-hour long concert.
Speaking about the symphony, conductor Bachmann said “the mastery of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony is revealed through the first four throbbing notes that are spread over the entire work from beginning till end, in a metamorphosis from a threatening and sinister motif in the opening movement to a theme of serenity and consolation in the second movement, coming back with threat and drive in the third movement and, finally, being transformed into a most victorious and glorious motif in the finale that leaves one totally enchanted and re-energised.”
The Nicosia crowd will also be treated to Roustom’s Dabke, which is the third movement of his work A Voice Exclaiming, composed in 2013. In this work, Roustom’s musical bilingualism is highlighted with both his knowledge of the musical traditions of the Near East and academic training in Western concert music clearly present.
Dabke is an Arab and Middle East communal folkloric dance that combines circle and line dancing, commonly performed at happy occasions. Its movement is based on a variation of the six beat dabke rhythm, called sudaasi. Roustom brings in his own music culture, alongside contemporary art music and creates an interesting amalgam of East and West, folk and art music.
According to the composer himself, the inspiration that he sought to bring to this work was ”the rejection of ignorance…and the passionate seeking out of deeper meaning”.
Musical Titans
Live performance by the Cyprus Symphony Orchestra of Kareem Roustom’s work Dabke. May 30. Markideion Theatre, Paphos. 8.30pm. €5/7/12. Tel: 22-463144
May 31. Rialto Theatre, Limassol. 8.30pm. €5/7/12. Tel: 22-463144
June 1. Pallas Theatre, Nicosia. 8.30pm. €5/7/12. Tel: 22-463144
