Lionel Schmit, Merve Kenet Bulun, Lorena Manescu, Giovanni Pasini, and Sonja Park at Sound of The Books and the Seventh Art concert.
Doha: The Sound of the Books and the Seventh Art concert was intensely theatrical, a gestural music that fiercely expressed the rendering of the most famous movies we all loved – form The Godfather, Harry Potter, Aladdin, Pirates of the Caribbean, Back to the Future to James Bond.
The Qatar National Library was transformed into a theatre house where audience journeyed to the world of books and cinema. CineMoon Ensemble, a member of the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra (QPO) perfected the concert, the performance was a tour de force, a masterpiece.
Crowd went wild, the sleek and stylised production was brilliantly crafted. CineMoon Ensemble’s Founder and Director Merve Kenet Bulun, spent months of research to create an intense show, one that takes you back from childhood – on a magic carpet ride, a whole new world from Aladdin movie, or for some older generation – the pop cultural phenomena, British secret agent James Bond with codename 007.
CineMoon Ensemble musicians are the main characters of all of the soundtracks they presented. Their performance was carried out by affection, a melting beauty of tone, an emotional frenzy. This is not the first time CineMoon created such craftsmanship, Merve said: “Last concert we focused on Broadway Shows and Spaghetti Western Music. The central theme of the narration script was the contrasting interaction between the two main characters. These are perfect foils of each other, in our case the characters used were: The Narrator, Ahmed Elhelou and the Conductor, Giovanni Pasini. Actually, this is very well known in Turkish Culture, because we use the same style in shadow theatre! İt is called Karagöz and Hacivat.”
Merve hails from Türkiye where she and the group recently performed a series of concerts in the said country. This is also the place where they played ‘Broadway and the Film Music concert’ which she is referring to.
You know the music is good when people start singing, foot stomping, head bobbing along, or finger snapping, that was the case during the Sound of the Books and the Seventh Art concert. Merve explained: “I made a modern adaptation for the musical script, it was written like a comedy. And we have had wonderful singer, plus as a surprise to our audience, because they sang as karaoke with the orchestra.”
Part of the audience enjoying music.
Merve revealed as the concert was performed at the library, that she created a playlist from movie soundtracks based on the books. “I found myself in a wonderful world, because choosing a subject was like a treasure. Instead of a big orchestra, we used our traditional setting, which is based on the string sound, and a pop band based on bass guitar, piano, drum set and the percussion.” Soloist performances were made by Lionel Schmit, one QPO concert masters; beautiful solos from Cinema Paradiso and Memoirs of a Geisha were by Lorena Manescu, founding member of CineMoon Ensemble; Hassan Moataz El Molla, co-principal Cello of QPO; and First Steinway artist in the Middle East, Sonja Park also played “Pride and Prejudice.” Moreover, the videos displayed all throughout the concert were created by Suleyman Hakan Bulun.
The prorgramme is an “emotional literature,” stressed Merve. The first part of the concert features the most beloved movies of all times starting with Cinema Paradiso. The middle of the programme was shifted to a type of music with funny movie soundtracks accompanied with theatrical acting. The music are from Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Back to the Future, Pirates of the Caribbean, and James Bond.
Music from John Williams brought people “almost to tears.” “Lionel Schmit played pieces from John Williams, his emotional playing and great musicality brought the audience to tears. I was accompanying him with a duet as well,” Merve who also plays the viola explained.
“The last piece we choose from the legendary book 1001 Arabian Nights, Aladdin and the Magic Lamp. The surprise came in that point because we were hiding the Qatar Concert Choir among the audience, and like a flash mob, they came to the stage and sang the pieces with us.”
Aside from the lively and moving performance, Merve was trying to convey a message: “I strongly believe that all seven type of art is strongly related to each other. It is so important to read books, visiting the library with the children and the concerts. For future of the world, for peace and respect to other cultures, we need to educate our children and support them with art.”
“As parents we have to be role models. We have wonderful options in Qatar. Qatar National Library has such a rich source of books, it is like a magical world, from the door you step in. And with CineMoon Ensemble, a member of Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra’s presence, it was such a beautiful day, for lots of people to remember.”
Conductor Giovanni Pasini shared a heartfelt message on performing such concert: “We hope that both the locals and the expats understand how these initiatives can help large crowds to come closer and discover classical music. Moreover, they can enrich the cultural growth of children, making them curious towards high quality live music and creating the public of tomorrow.”
The production was praised by the audience, the spontaneity of the concert was applauded with standing ovation. Malini who attended the event said this to Merve: “My dearest Merve I cannot describe the joy and happiness I felt listening to your beautiful soul stirring music, thank you so much - you are so amazing. I’m walking with this smile on my face ever since, please let me know dear when you have these shows - OMG this is me and my soul feels so happy. Thank you so much for the amazing music.”
With the World Cup coming inches closer, we can only hope that CineMoon Ensemble will remake this concert – for all the world to see. Fingers crossed.
