Thursday, February 23, 2006
13th Al-Bustan Festival brings Mozart to Beit Mery
Classical music event overcomes losses of 2005 to continue in 2006

By Ramsay Short
Daily Star staff

BEIRUT: A year ago in these pages I wrote of the necessity for the Al-Bustan Festival of Music and Arts to go ahead despite the murder of Rafik Hariri and the prospect of massive unrest in Lebanon.

Fortunately the international artists scheduled to arrive did not cancel and neither did Festival President Myrna Bustani.

The premier classical-music event in the Middle East mourned its nation's larger-than-life former premier but chose to continue with its exceptional program even though it was facing a huge loss in revenues as ticket sales stopped almost completely and Lebanon's people hunkered down for the long haul.

Bustani's decision to push forward then was a brave one. And it was the correct one. As I said 12 months ago, music and art are crucially important for a free society and in the last year the numerous concerts and exhibitions that have sprung up inspired by the country's national struggle are proof of that (if proof was needed).

Lebanon's cultural life, so fundamental to the nation's well-being and so important an expression of the passion and vitality of its people, could not be stopped.

And last night to a full house the 13th Al-Bustan Festival began with an exquisite concert from the Vienna Chamber Soloists celebrating Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - the composer who provides the inspiration for the 2006 festival in the 250th year of his birth.

The whole program for the festival, which runs until March 26, can be viewed at www.albustanfestival.com and includes both local and Middle Eastern performers - like Lebanese pianists Linda Bustani and Zad Moultaka - as well as many European maestros including musicians from Austria and the Czech Republic. There is exquisite chamber music, full orchestral productions and, of course, opera from the great master.

Since the Al-Bustan Festival has almost single-handedly (alongside the Lebanese National Conservatory for Music) kept classical music and especially European classical music alive in the postwar years it is no less than appropriate that we Lebanese get to rediscover Mozart afresh for the next month.

It was the composer Rossini who said that in our youth Mozart rouses our admiration, in our maturity despair and that in our dotage he is our consolation.

Though I am uncertain about the latter two I can say with certainty that this wonderful and prolific composer inspires not merely admiration but brings the listener closer to the very essence of music itself.

Born in 1756, in Salzburg, Austria, Mozart was a musical prodigy who dazzled European courts with his brilliance as a child pianist. He began composing at the age of 5 completed his first symphony before the age of 10, wrote his first successful opera at 12 and would go on to write more than 600 musical works before his death in Vienna at 35. In the next 30 days we get to hear a plethora of Mozart's works played by the cream of international musicians. The works include two of his operas "Cosi Fan Tutte" and "The Abduction from the Seraglio" performed by the Warsaw Chamber Opera in full costume as well as perhaps what will be the most moving event: Mozart's incredible "Requiem" performed by the Prague Chamber Choir, the Warsaw Chamber Opera and conducted by Bolivian conductor Ruben Silva in the striking surroundings of the St. Joseph Jesuit Church in Achrafieh, Beirut.

The Al-Bustan Festival may have struggled to survive in 2005 but like Mozart, whose existence in the hearts and minds of humanity is unlikely to diminish after another 250 years, the festival and all the hard work that goes into it will continue to promote cultural life in Lebanon for years to come.

For a full program and ticket prices go to www.albustanfestival.com or call +961 4 972980

Source: The Daily Star