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Beirut oscillates between silence and the summons to transcendence. The Beirut Chants festival, launching its sixteenth musical season on November 30, resonates as an answer to the city’s agony. These instances of pure beauty, sublimely carried by two university choirs, herald a long-hoped-for musical renaissance.
Beirut, oh luminous city of the East, are you not fulfilled in your silence? Rise, rise and unveil to us your alleys where the air teems with life. Heed the bells’ call soaring towards the heavens, beseeching a response in the whispering wind. Isn’t it time, in the pale glow of a rebirthing dawn, to shake off the chains of agony strangling your arteries? Oh Beirut, you who have etched narratives of suffering and glory, stoically bearing the scars of a complex past and the fragile hopes of a future, it falls upon you to dictate the prelude to your resurrection. Amidst an atmosphere brimming with aspirations and anticipation, the inaugural melodious notes of the Beirut Chants festival emerged on November 30 from the grandiose St. George Maronite Cathedral in downtown, beckoning the capital to break free from its lethargy and to sing praises to the birth of the Savior.
Monumental Gems
The autumn evening’s musical event was adorned with exceptional splendor, captivating the minds of the audience gathered in the cathedral with unparalleled elegance. Indeed, the festival unveiled two monumental gems of the classical repertoire: the Messa di Gloria by Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924), whose centenary of his passing will be celebrated in 2024 by the classical music world, and Ludwig van Beethoven’s (1770-1827) Choral Fantasy, a masterful prelude to his Ninth Symphony in D minor, whose bicentenary will be celebrated with grandeur in the same year. Organizing such a concert amidst the tumultuous context gripping Lebanon is a bold endeavor. In fact, this recital brings together two Lebanese University choirs, those of Antonine University and Notre-Dame University, along with Lebanese musicians and members of the Armenian Symphony Orchestra. In such circumstances, any critique would be devoid of fairness. Thus, one must resign to commend the efforts and meticulous work orchestrated by Fathers Toufic Maatouk and Khalil Rahmé, to breathe life into these moments of pure beauty.
Carnal Symbiosis
Composed in the late 19th century, Puccini’s Mass reveals a carnal symbiosis between Italian lyricism, the opulent orchestration characteristic of the Romantic era, and dramatic choral sections. This mass, formally linked to the Catholic liturgy, hence including a Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Benedictus, and Agnus Dei, transcends its conventional contours by incorporating melancholic and passionate passages, as well as particularly rich harmonies. This Italian masterpiece blossoms in a spectrum of emotions, from moments of contemplative solemnity to bursts of jubilation, captivating any attentive listener with its spiritual depth and exuberant expressiveness. Throughout the recital, these two choirs unveiled the very essence of what a choir should embody. Their masterful performance thus becomes an archetype, destined to guide any university choir aspiring to transcend stagnation, in pursuit of the peaks of interpretation.
Honeyed Prelude
In his Choral Fantasy op.80, Beethoven explores a mystical universe where the power of human expression harmoniously melds with instrumental virtuosity. This visibly impetuous piece majestically heralds the Ninth Symphony in D minor op.125, thus offering a honeyed foretaste of the grandeur to come. During the inaugural concert of Beirut Chants, the orchestra’s strings dialogued with commendable eloquence, while the piano of Korean virtuoso Kyubin Chung, crowned with the first prize at the Tokyo International Piano Competition, infused passionate fervor with brilliance. The choirs raised their voices like fervent prayers, revealing a universe where the human unites with the divine in a transcendent symbiosis. Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy, with its indomitable grandeur, invites the listener to eternal moments of prayer where the titanic harmonies of the Ode to Joy germinate, this vibrant call to universal brotherhood.
