A classic orchestra event from world's best

ABU DHABI // An orchestra consisting of 76 musicians - all selected for their exceptional abilities - from 32 countries, makes its Middle East debut at the Emirates Palace hotel tomorrow night.

Many of the musicians of the World Orchestra for Peace (WOP), formed each year from the best musicians from orchestras around the world, have never played together before, and will, after just two days of rehearsals, perform a repertoire of classics to an audience of just more than 1,000 people.

The event hosted by the Abu Dhabi Music and Arts Foundation (ADMAF) is a precursor to the Abu Dhabi Festival, which takes place in March. Hoda Kanoo, the founder of the festival and the foundation, said it was a huge privilege to be able to welcome the company of musicians to the UAE.

"Personally I feel privileged to have had a hand in organising this event, which is unique and will undoubtedly be very special," Mrs Kanoo said. "I have seen part of the rehearsal and the energy and the harmony under the conductor Valery Gergiev is magical."

The orchestra was founded in 1995 by Sir Georg Solti, a Hungarian-British conductor who was the music director at the UK's Royal Opera House for 10 years. His mission in creating the group was to bring musicians of different nationalities and cultures together for the common cause of peace. Mr Solti came up with the idea in 1992 during a concert at Buckingham Palace in London to celebrate his 80th birthday.

The orchestra's first performance was the UN's 50th Anniversary Concert and it has performed no more than 20 times. The Abu Dhabi concert, which includes two musicians from Lebanon and one from Egypt, is a first for the Gulf. The group was invited to perform because it had a similar vision to the foundation's.

"Both the WOP and ADMAF recognise the powerful ability of music to bring people together for better understanding," she said. "Sir Georg Solti recognised the unique strength of music and the message is important to everyone.

"We all need to come closer and to share and to understand each other. I have always believed that the arts, and particularly music, have a magical power to unite."

The ensemble will begin tomorrow night's concert with the William Tell Overture, the instrumental introduction to an opera by Rossini. They will continue with the Symphony No 1 in D by Prokofiev and end the 90-minute concert with Symphony No 5 in E minor by Tchaikovsky.

The concert was sold out just six days after going on sale last month. Barbara Jones, 57, said she bought tickets for her and her husband as soon as she heard about the event. "I bought mine online as soon as I read about the concert in the newspaper," the Briton said. "We are avid classical music fans and the ticket was a Christmas present for my husband."

Others were not so lucky. Remi Raidan, a 25-year-old from Lebanon, wanted to take her mother to the concert but could not get a ticket quickly enough.

"I'd been trying to keep an eye on the tickets but they sold out online so quickly," she said. "I went to the Emirates Palace but I couldn't get one there either. I was disappointed and frustrated because these kind of classical music events are so amazing and always high quality."

Ms Raidan, who considers herself passionate about classical music, said the reasonably priced tickets [at between Dh195 and Dh495] and the unique nature of the event probably contributed to the rapid sell-out. Mrs Kanoo encouraged anyone who did not manage to get a ticket to go to the Emirates Palace tomorrow night as there was a chance that some of the tickets may be returned at the last minute.

aseaman@thenational.ae