Orchestral music as a plea for peace is not a new idea. The 95-year-old Pablo Casals played his “Song of the Birds” before the United Nations in 1971, and Daniel Barenboim continues to conduct the West-East Divan Orchestra, scheduled for the BBC Proms in London on August 11.
An orchestral work for peace composed and performed by a prominent businessman and politician, though, is something unusual. The Lebanese prime minister candidate and businessman Omar Harfouch debuted his “Concerto for Peace” in a concert for the European Commission late in 2023.
He performed it in Béziers with enthusiastic notices in the major French media and will reprise the work on September 18 at the Champs Elysee Theater in Paris and the United Nations in Geneva on September 20. The work also will be performed for Italy’s parliament.
Known to the French public as a television personality, Harfouch studied piano at Ukraine’s Glinka Conservatory and won a Moscow piano competition in the 1980s. After Israel and Lebanon agreed on maritime borders in 2023, Harfouch told a television interviewer that the deal constituted de facto recognition of the Jewish state and set the stage for a full peace agreement.
In a recent interview, Harfouch said: “My Concerto for Peace was built over the course of an inner journey of several years. I thought of this music as a path to peace, which takes the form of a dialogue between little Omar, who lives in the middle of a civil war without understanding it, and adult Omar, who lives in peace but sees the world sinking into war. And this little boy asks the adult not to let men accept this madness.
“One of the events that pushed me to finalize this work and to consider this European tour was the war in Ukraine. I was deeply affected by this confrontation between two countries that I know, where I have lived and with which I have forged an emotional bond, since both allowed me to escape from the war in Lebanon. When the invasion was announced, I thought I saw myself again, as a child, hiding behind my piano during the bombings. And there is also this absurd war in the Middle East, where the sacred is a pretext for massacres. I put myself in the shoes of all these children who find themselves in the situation that I was in myself,” Harfouch added.
On March 25, Harfouch received the “Universalism for Peace Prize” bestowed by LICRA (The International League Against Racism and Anti-Semitism.)
Video of the Béziers performance of the concerto is available on YouTube. The work is scored for a full symphony orchestra including harp, with piano and violin soloists. The work evinces a distinctly Middle Eastern modality within a post-Romantic tonal style.
A C# minor pedal point predominates with flourishes from the piano and solo elaboration from the violin, ably played by the composer and prize-winning violinist Anne Gravoin. Russian compositional influence is evident in the interludes that punctuate the modal background.
The French daily Le Figaro praised the work’s “whirlwind of emotions and capitating melodies” in a February 21, 2024 review. Conductor Mathieu Bonnin led the work’s premier and will direct the performances of the Concerto for Peace later this year.
“During my childhood and adolescence, I only knew the civil war which devastated my country. The piano was my refuge and saved my life,” Harfouch said in a press release. “It was therefore natural for me to compose for peace and to affirm that only peace can protect our children and our grandchildren, nothing else.”
“Peace is becoming urgent, it is up to all of us and in particular to the artistic and entertainment community to ensure that we eradicate the hatred which leads to escalation and disrupts the balance of international relations,” the composer added.
David P Goldman is Deputy Editor of Asia Times and the classical music critic for Tablet Magazine (tabletmag.com). Follow him on X at @davidpgoldman