The Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi) has announced the full Abu Dhabi Classics programme for 2020, held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.
Taking place from Tuesday, 28 January to Friday, 7 February 2020, fans of music and the performing arts can look forward to week packed full of classical masterpieces. The 2020 lineup includes world-famous orchestras and soloists, renowned artists from the Arab World, and a vast variety of performing arts, making this season of Abu Dhabi Classics the strongest and most diverse line up to date.
Headlining Abu Dhabi Classics 2020 will be one of the greatest Lebanese female vocalists in the Arab World, Magida El Roumi, along with her 70 member-orchestra. The upcoming season will also celebrate the 250th anniversary of the birth of Ludwig van Beethoven by bringing the German composer’s most celebrated work, the 9th Symphony, played by the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra. In addition to this, other concerts will include; the Bach Concertos for 2, 3 and 4 Pianos, a solo piano performance by Lise de la Salle, and a performance from young Egyptian singer Sanaa Nabil.
“We are thrilled to be marking Beethoven’s 250th anniversary with such an exciting line up of musical genres and performers from across the world,” said Saif Saeed Ghobash, Undersecretary, DCT Abu Dhabi. “Abu Dhabi Classics brings together the greatest musical performers from the Classical and the Arab worlds, and we are delighted that Magida El Roumi will be our star attraction. It will be a truly inspiring concert series with something for everyone in the UAE to enjoy.”
Bach Concertos for 2, 3 and 4 Pianos – Tuesday, 28 January
The highly anticipated Abu Dhabi Classics 2020 will commence with David Fray and Friends with a performance of Bach’s Concertos for 2, 3, and 4 Pianos with Geneva Chamber Orchestra. For this spectacular programme involving up to four pianos being played at the same time, four leading pianists, David Fray, Emmanuel Christien, Audrey Vigoureux and Jacques Rouvier, will take to the stage. Their wonderful Bach interpretation has become one of the most admired classical music concerts of the past few years at venues around the world.
Together with the excellent string players from the prestigious Geneva Chamber Orchestra, the piano soloists will render Bach’s fascinating writing and translate the rhythmical energy of the pieces. Prepare for a wonderful evening of Baroque music and an inspiring insight into the birth of modern classical music.
Lise de la Salle – Saturday 1, February
French pianist Lise de la Salle has established herself as one of today’s most exciting young artists and as a musician of uncommon sensibility and maturity. With her intense style she has enraptured audiences all around the world and has performed with many major orchestras.
De la Salle will be performing the musical programme Dances on Saturday, 1 February, which reflects a new approach to classical music by exploring dance rhythms from various times and places. The programme will include Ravel’s Valses nobles et sentimentales, combining this with Stravinsky’s Tango, Bartok’s Romanian Folk Dances and Debussy’s Mazurka. Latin influences will also be seen in pieces from Ginastera and Piazzolla as well as in pieces inspired by American dance culture.
Hamburg Symphony Orchestra – Tchaikovsky and Brahms – Tuesday, 4 February
The musicians of the renowned Hamburg Symphony Orchestra will join Abu Dhabi Classics for a Chamber Music Programme on Tuesday 4 February at the Cultural Foundation.
The Orchestra has a global reputation for musical excellence due to its commitment to composers such as Ludwig van Beethoven and the Hamburg-born composer Johannes Brahms.
During the second half of the 19th century, Brahms tried to preserve the formalities of European classical music but also create an independent style with a unique sound. Inspired by Beethoven, Brahms’ works also has influences of German Romantic composers such as Robert Schumann, while reaching back to George Frideric Händel, Johann Christian Bach and Giovanni Pierluigi daPalestrina, as well as to music forms from the Middle Ages.
The Clarinet Quintet in B minor perfectly reflects this quality of Brahms’s compositions, as it inserts its melodic material in a classical form but at the same time variates its main motive with a spirit of freedom and playfulness. This quintet combines the impression of fulfilment with rhapsodic and intimate moments and is one of the most acclaimed pieces of chamber music, highly praised since its 1891 premiere onwards. To conclude this evening’s performance, the orchestra will also perform Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s enchanting Variations on a Rococo Theme and, as a tribute to Beethoven, his Variations on La Ci Darem la Mano, derived from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Don Giovanni, and written for flute, clarinet and bassoon.
Hamburg Symphony Orchestra – Beethoven’s 9th Symphony – Wednesday, 5 February
To mark the 250th anniversary of the birth of Beethoven, Abu Dhabi Classics will present probably the most famous piece of classical music ever written, the 9th Symphony. Composed between 1821 and 1824, the year it premiered, the 9th Symphony was Beethoven’s last symphony and marked a turning point in musical history, as the culmination of the Vienna Classical Period and the beginning of the 19th century’s Romantic period.
Richard Wagner considered Beethoven’s symphony, with its transition from instrumental to vocal music in the Fourth Movement, as the “most perfect art form” in which both the music and drama underwent an artistic revolution. The words were taken from Ode to Joy, a poem by Friedrich Schiller at the end of the 18th century, and today, the 9th Symphony still represents the values of humanity, tolerance and camaraderie.
This concert is not only a major musical event but a unique cultural statement for the region. More than 100 musicians and 70 singers in a chorus will premiere the 9th Symphony in the Middle East, as the award-winning Hamburg Symphony Orchestra performs at the du Arena in Abu Dhabi.
Saltana with Sanaa Nabil – Thursday, 6 February
Young Egyptian singer Sanaa Nabil, who rose to fame through the TV programme Arabs Got Talent, grew up in a family where traditional music was of huge importance. As the great-granddaughter of the sister of famous Egyptian singer Oum Koulthoum, her parents introduced her to a universe of musical authenticity. At the age of nine, Nabil developed an interest in Arab “tarab” singing and she soon began performing in school. At 12, she started voice training with the maestro Salim Sahhab at the Cairo Opera House.
Following her stint on Arabs Got Talent, where she was awarded the Golden Falcon, Nabil won the admiration and love of the public and despite her young age, succeeded in interpreting difficult songs in an impressive way. Today, at 17, she is studying in the High Arab Music Institute and is training with the famous composer Abdo Dagher, who is also the last surviving violinist of the Oum Koulthoum Orchestra.
On Thursday, 6 February, Nabil will perform her Abu Dhabi Classics show Laylat Saltana accompanied by the group Cordes Croisées, made up of elite Egyptian musicians. The public will get to enjoy the musicians’ performance along with Sanaa Nabil’s exceptional voice, witnessing the combination of their unique sounds.
Magida El Roumi – Friday, 7 February
The headline act for Abu Dhabi Classics will be the Lebanese exceptional voice, Magida El Roumi, celebrated internationally as one of the Arab world’s greatest singers. Known for her beautiful, crystal-clear voice and extraordinary vocal range, El Roumi has performed at some of the world’s most prestigious concert halls including the Olympia in Paris, Royal Albert Hall in London and Carnegie Hall in New York.
Discovered at a talent show at the age of 16, El Roumi released her first single Am Behlamak (I’m Dreaming of You, Lebanon) a year later. In the ensuing four decades, she has released dozens of hit records covering a variety of musical styles, from classical Arabic to modern Arab pop and has acquired a huge popularity not only in the Arab world but also worldwide.
A graduate in Arabic literature, El Roumi sings romantic and patriotic poetry written by prestigious Arab poets such as the Saudi Al Nasser, Lebanese poet Nizar Francis and the Syrian Nizar Qabbani, who penned the poem Kalimat— one of her timeless songs. Magida is delighted to present a selection of her best songs and performances.
Abu Dhabi Classics is presented by DCT Abu Dhabi and produced by Flash Entertainment, the Middle East’s leading entertainment company.
