“In its eight-decade history, the Tehran Symphony Orchestra has ridden out some turbulent events,” writes Saeed Kamali Dehghan in Monday’s (4/6) Guardian (London). Under Iran’s former president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, “This once glamorous music institution experienced one of its darkest periods when it was disbanded…. But now, the culture ministry has hired a world-class conductor and it is rising from the ashes nearly three years after it was shut down. Last month musicians took to the stage as Beethoven’s Symphony No 9 filled Tehran’s Vahdat hall at the opening ceremony. ‘I walked on to the stage and the audience rose to its feet,’ said Alexander Rahbari, the principal conductor…. ‘I was close to tears.’ The front row was filled with dignitaries and senior officials, an indication of the support the new Iranian administration is throwing behind the group…. Rahbari … has spent most of his life in Austria…. He left Iran a few years before the 1979 revolution…. From next week, the orchestra will perform four big concerts a month, including Beethoven’s ninth every other week…. Rahbari said in his 40-year career, his biggest wish is yet to come true … to take ‘my own country’s symphony orchestra to … London or Berlin…. That day is not far off.’ ”
Posted April 7, 2015
