musicians

Abdel Rahman El Basha

musician

A Giant in the World of Musical Interpretation (Copyright, Lebanese Imprints on the Twentieth Century, Volume I, Asma Freiha and Viviane Ghanem, 2006)

Abdel Rahman El Basha was born on the 23rd October 1958 in Beirut. His parents Toufic and Wadad el Basha are both musicians of repute and his uncle Amin el Basha is one of Lebanon’s foremost painters.

His scholastic career was traditional though somewhat disordered, and he changed schools several times, spending time at the Lycée Pilote, Collège St Joseh, Collège des Carmélites and Collège Mont La Salle.

From his earliest childhood, he was in the thrall of music and instruments. At the age of three, he could be seen at all the rehearsals of the Al Anwar folklore group, of which his father was the musical conductor and Saïd Freiha the producer. Al Anwar was the first such group to tour European cities. Accompanied by the famous singer Sabah, Al Anwar introduced the singer’s repertoire and the “Dabkeh”, Lebanon’s national dance, choreographed by Marwan and Wadia Jarrar, to foreign audiences.

A great admirer of the Lebanese violinist Abboud Abdel Aal, Abdel Rahman decided early on to learn how to play the violin. He was rapidly put off the undertaking at the tender age of four; he had trouble holding his instrument and understandably lacked the patience. In a fit of rage and frustration and unable to make his instrument render the music in his head, he smashed up his violin. His father stopped encouraging his music and even banned him from playing any instrument.

It was only when Abdel Rahman found himself ill at home for a stretch that he sat at the piano, trying to reproduce a tune sung by Oum Koulthoum and written by Abdel Wahab. With practice came an interpretation of the music that awakened Toufic el Basha to his son’s musical genius. He nonetheless insisted that his son give precedence to his schooling, and only agreed to private piano lessons when Abdel Rahman turned nine. So, in 1967, Abdel Rahman began piano lessons with Zvart Sarkissian, a graduate of the Maruerite Long- Jacques Thibaud School.

So passionate was he about the piano that he sped through the stages of learning.
In 1968 he performed with an orchestra for the first time, playing Bach’s Concerto in Re Minor.
Claudio Arrau, the famous Chilean-American pianist who appeared at the Baalbeck Festival in 1973, predicted a great career for him after hearing him play at a private recital. This had been organized at the Hotel Carlton by Antoine Medawar, president of the jeunesses Musicales in Lebanon.

In 1974, aged sixteen, he was granted a scholarship by the French Embassy in Beirut and registered at the Conservatoire de Musique in Paris. He was offered the only place available that year as the student of the famous piano professor Pierre Sancan - an offer made after Sancan was bowled over by hearing Abdel Rahman play. El Basha was to be his student for a full three years. His first year in Paris was a busy one as he had elected to continue with his academic studies as well.

At the end of that first year, he was entered into the Marguerite Long International Competition but only came sixth, to the great dismay of music critics who railed against the injustice of this result. But for Abdel Rahman this was a valuable experience from which he learnt to measure himself and his talent against an international field.

One year later he was the youngest entry in the Van Cliburn Competition in Texas where he was placed amongst the top fifteen and received a scholarship and an encouragement prize.

Throughout those years at the Conservatoire, he studied conducting and music analysis as well as piano as he sought to understand all the components of music.

In 1977 he was awarded his diploma, graduating top of his promotion with first places in Piano, Chamber Music, Harmonics and Counterpoint.

He was married early, at the age of eighteen, to a Frenchwoman named Caroline Kerbellec, and with whom he has had four children: Hélène, Bahia, Camille-Toufic and Kaïs-Amin.

In 1978 he entered the prestigious Reine Elisabeth international competition, a competition held only once every four years in Brussels. He was the jury’s unanimous first choice and won the competition’s Grand prix, or first prize. The audience listening live on radio and television also voted to award him the first place in the parallel Jacques Stehman Price. Additionally, he won a cheque for fifty thousand French Francs, with which he bought himself his first piano.

Following his success at the Reine Elisabeth Competition, he was invited to perform with eminent conductors such as Pierre Dervaux, Serge Baudo, Jean Fournet, Hans Vonk and others in many European capital cities, in Japan and in the United States. Two record labels (including Erato) approached him with offers to record in Belgium, but he was only ready to begin recording in 1981 when he chose Forlane to be his label. His first recording included Prokofiev’s first piano pieces, for which he won the international Record Grand Prix of the Charles Cros Academy, presented to him in person by Mrs. Sergei Prokofiev in 1983.

He recorded Mozart Sonatas and Ravel Concertos with the Orchestra Du Pays de la Loire, conducted by Marc Soustro, two Prokofiev Violin and Piano Sonatas with the violinist, Gaëtane Prouvost and three Bach Concertos with Ensemble Instrumental de Grenoble, conducted by Kurt Redel. He also recorded Beethoven Sonatas that received such acclaim that Forlane offered him a nine-CD series to record the complete 32 Sonatas. He received the Grand Prix from the Nouvelle Academie du Disque Français in 1994 for the second CD in that series, the recording of Sonatas Four, Five, Six and Seven. He won the Diapason D’Or for his recordings of Schumann in 1994 and Schubert in 1996.

In his words, “A pianist is the intermediary between the composer and the listener, and only exists in relation to the two. His role is therefore to be transparent so that the listener is able to approach the composer’s thoughts and his work. Once a certain transparence is achieved, it is also expected of the pianist to recreate or revive a work. When I think of the benefits that music can bring, of the richness and nobility with which it can accent our thoughts, our feelings and emotions...”

A musical critic said of him that he was, “A giant of musical interpretation and a shining star in his world of music, a world that knows no physical boundaries or historical limitations. His language is understood universally, touching hearts and minds through his chosen instrument, the piano, and with the help of nimble fingers and an exceptional talent. These are skills he develops and hones with great precision, knowing that to realize one’s dreams; nothing can be left to chance”.