Sami-Alexander Habra
Born in 1935 in Haifa, he is a British
subject brought up in a bilingual Anglo-Saxon and French cultural
environment. His passion for music goes back to his earliest youth,
when he heard Beethoven's Fifth for the first time, at the age of 7. Since
then, his interests were focused both on the work and on its interpreter
(in that particular instance it was Felix Weingartner).
Troughout his studies he never ceased to study the interpretatory side of
the great musical works; thus he grew up in the tradition of Weingartner,
Toscanini, Mengelberg and other great conductors.
At the age of 14, he heard Furtwängler for the first time in a radio
broadcasting and this encounter was a true revelation, most decisive for
his musical culture. Aged 17, he started giving conference cycles within
the Lebanese Musical Youth Associations and became one of the organisers
of the first Baalbeck Festivals that was attended by such musicians as
Wilhelm Kempff, the NDR Orchestra of Hamburg conducted by Georg-Ludwig
Jochum, and others.
Philippe Leduc, President, introduces the lecture. Sami Habra analyses the Eroica by Furtwängler, March 2007
Later, while pursuing a career in the financial world, he deepened his
knowledge of the Art of Furtwängler and was one of the co-founders of the
French Furtwängler Society for which he has been lecturing over the past
28 years. He also fathered a series of radio-brodcasts the aim of which
was to get the public better acquainted with the interpreters of the past,
i.e. Abendroth, Mengelberg, Scherchen, Koussevitzky, Toscanini and others.
His relationship with Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt lasted ten years and the
latter's friendship allowed Sami Habra to even better understand the
secrets of a more advanced art of conducting. Their numerous discussions
led them back even as far as Arthur Nikisch who was Schmidt-Isserstedt's
first Master, followed later by Felix Weingartner who was his second
teacher. Sami Habra discussed interpretative aspects with renowned
musicians such as Klemperer, Horenstein, Mitropoulos, Leopold Ludwig, and
others, thus becoming a sort of “involuntary advisor” whose remarks they
took into account when deemed to be apt.
(c) 1998, translation 2003
Picture J-C Le Toquin
The composer | The man | The conductor