ORCHESTRA CERESIO Victoria Kapralova, cello Ahmed El Saedi, conductor
Maestro Ahmed El Saedi
This evening’s programme moves through three youthful masterpieces by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Joseph Haydn and Franz Schubert, entrusted to the direction of Maestro Ahmed El Saedi, a leading figure of international symphonic life, trained in Vienna with Otmar Suitner and Friedrich Cerha.
Within his interpretative vision coexist two spirits that only appear distant from one another.
On one side stands the Austro-German tradition, with its formal rigour, architectural clarity and transparency of writing; on the other, a warmer, more direct and lyrical sensitivity, linked to an almost Mediterranean breathing of phrasing and rhythm.
It is precisely from this balance that an interpretation emerges capable of restoring to these pages not only elegance and precision, but also immediacy, vitality and theatrical tension.
The Overture from Lucio Silla by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was composed for the Teatro Regio Ducale in Milan when the composer was only sixteen years old.
Without directly anticipating the dramatic developments of the opera — filled with passion, revenge and reconciliation — the music immediately creates an atmosphere of expectation and theatrical grandeur.
It is still deeply linked to the Italian operatic style of its time, influenced by the Neapolitan school, yet already permeated by that melodic naturalness and orchestral luminosity which make Mozart immediately recognisable.
With Joseph Haydn, the discourse gathers into a more intimate and elegant dimension.
The Cello Concerto in C major arises from the meeting between virtuosic brilliance and natural cantabile expression, in a continuous balance between the orchestral body and the solo voice.
Nothing seeks outward effect: everything lives through the quality of dialogue, the lightness of phrasing and the ability to transform classical form into a living and communicative language.
Victoria Kapralova, cello
The protagonist of this page is the cellist Victoria Kapralova, an artist appreciated in important international halls and concert seasons.
Her warm and luminous sound, combined with particular expressive refinement, restores to the concerto that natural and lyrical dimension which represents one of the most fascinating aspects of Haydn’s writing.
The conclusion with the Fifth Symphony by Franz Schubert leads the programme toward a different emotional depth.
Composed when he was only nineteen years old, the symphony still looks toward the Mozartian and Haydnesque model in the clarity of form and transparency of writing, yet already reveals a new sensitivity — more lyrical, introspective and intimately poetic.
The music seems to move with almost chamber-like lightness, but behind this apparent simplicity one constantly perceives something more personal: discreet melancholy, a sense of endless song and that uniquely Schubertian ability to transform Viennese classicism into inner confession.
The evening’s journey thus reveals Viennese classicism not as an immobile tradition to be preserved, but as a living language still capable today of speaking with naturalness, lucidity and energy.
A music which, in the hands of Ahmed El Saedi, rediscovers at once rigour, theatrical momentum and surprising expressive lightness.
BIOGRAPHIES
Ahmed El Saedi Egyptian conductor and composer Ahmed El Saedi is music director and principal conductor of the Cairo Symphony Orchestra. After studying in Egypt, he continued his training in Vienna and Germany, embarking on an international career that has led him to conduct orchestras and opera theatres in Europe, America and the Middle East. Founder of the Egyptian Philharmonic Society, he is regarded as one of the most important figures in the dissemination of symphonic and chamber music in Egypt. Alongside his conducting, he maintains an intense activity as a composer, receiving awards in several countries.
Victoria Kapralova Victoria Kapralova is a cellist active on the international scene as a soloist and chamber musician. She performs regularly with orchestras and at festivals in Europe and the Middle East and is invited by major concert institutions, including the Cairo Symphony Orchestra and the Cairo Opera House. Her repertoire ranges from Classicism to twentieth-century music, with particular attention to the concerto literature for cello.
