Classics Come Back to Life in Malak Gabr Theater

Seasoned musicians David Hales and Victoria Kapralova took to center stage and brought classical music to life at the Malak Gabr Arts Theater last week.

With Hales on piano and Kapralova on cello, the duo created an array of sounds which mesmerized the audience and echoed throughout the theater and onto the neighboring hallways of the arts department.

The two musicians spent an hour revisiting the classical and modern classical compositions of various artists, including  Bach’s Aria and Rachmaninov’s Vocalise Op. 34 No.14, among several other pieces.

Aria is the opening track to the Goldberg Variations, a composition written for the harpsichord by the Baroque period composer Bach in 1741. Rachmaninov’s Vocalise is usually paired with a vocal performance, but Hales and Kapralova chose to perform an instrumental only, keeping the focus on the piano and cello.

The pieces the artists chose to cover were very complex and they spanned through a stretched timeline – Bach’s dating back to the early 1700s and Fredrich Gulda’s to the late 1900s.

Hales is a coach and repetiteur at the Cairo Opera House and a professional accompanist at the Cairo Conservatoire. His immense talent and skill on the piano has him touring throughout Egypt.

Kapralova is the Cello Soloist of the Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra and formerly the Associate Concertmaster of the Cairo Symphony Orchestra.

The performers were very connected with their music throughout the performance, their dancing fingers and closed eyes only breaking free from their trance to flip the pages of their music sheets.

They played one piece after another, only pausing for brief moments for applause and for the cellist to sponge her strings.

The music captivated everyone in the audience. People walked in expecting soft, soothing classical covers but their faces conveyed shock when they were met with the sound of the cello unlike they have ever heard it.

The way Kapralova manipulated the cello, an instrument often associated with a slow sound, to be more modern was the highlight of the concert, especially as the artists were concluding the performance.

The AUC Music Department collaborated with the Egyptian Philharmonic Society to organize classical music concerts, festivals and competitions all over the country, to bring the AUC community this chilling performance.

“The program itself is well thought of. It is a rich musical meal that is made of five courses. The Bach was a delicious appetizer followed by the romantic French flavored Faure,” said Ashraf Fouad, director of the music series.

“Tchaikovsky’s Nocturne Op. 19 No. 4 was a very significant transition to lead to the ever-haunting tuneful piece of Rachmaninoff, Vocalise,” he added.

Composer Tchaikovsky and pianist Rachmaninoff – both Russians – belong to the romantic period. 

A break was needed half-way through the performance, but mindful of the end of the Assembly Hour, “the two masters went ahead with the challenging five-movement concerto of Gulda (a musical composition involving a solo instrument and an orchestra), a fantastic ending,” said Fouad.

AUC has this year aligned the concerts with the curricula of music courses taught during every semester.

“We care to illustrate unique instruments that are not the every-day type, as well as styles such as classical, Arab tradition, avant-garde, etc,” said Audience Services and Educational Outreach Specialist at the Department of Arts and the Event Organizer, Nourhan Haffez.

Haffez explained that the department chose these artists because they have a clear understanding of what the department is trying to share with its students and faculty; they are aware of its mission.

However, a smaller than anticipated number of students attended the concert.