At St. Andrew's Scots Memorial Church, Jerusalem, the Israeli Vocal Ensemble (music director: Yuval Benozer) performs works based on biblical texts.

The Israeli Vocal Ensemble, Maestro Yuval Benozer back far right (Doron Oved)

 

The Bible has provided (and continues to provide) an inexhaustible source of inspiration to musicians, especially when it comes to choral repertoire. The Israeli Vocal Ensemble opened its 33rd concert season with "After These Things…Bible Stories in Voices". Taking place at St. Andrew's Scots Memorial Church, Jerusalem, on November 28th 2025, the concert was conducted by IVE founder/ music director Yuval Benozer. Joining the ensemble were  pianist Janna Kopelev and Itamar Leshem (horn). The program included works from the 16th- to the 21st centuries and from several countries.

 

Opening with a solo (Stefan Blochwitz), "Absalom, my son" (2 Samuel 18:33), composed by Michael Barrett (b.1983, South Africa) offered a marvellous mix of textures, modality, autumnal harmonies and pedal points, taking the listener from the narrative to the personal, emotional pain of David (as do all the works using the same text.). And to one of the supreme examples of late Renaissance repertoire, five ensemble members performed Thomas Tomkins' "When David heard". The singers, their rendition unmarred by vibrato, were attentive to each other, as they presented the blend of polyphony, harmonic content and emotion of this small gem. Ensemble member Dor Magen conducted the same text (in Spanish) as composed by Joaquin Rodrigo "Triste estabael Rey David" (1950). Taking it at a relaxed pace, Magen's direction gave expression to the fine details of this sombre work, its contrasting melodies, the convergence of vocal lines and the psalm-tone timbre (with grace notes) creating the lamentation's specific Spanish sound world.

 

For me, one of the highlights of the concert was the performance of "Da Jakob vollendet hatte" (When Jacob had finished the instructions to his children, Genesis 49:33 & 50:1) by Johann Hermann Schein. This piece belongs to the 1623 "Israelis Brünnlein" (Fountains of Israel) collection, composed by Schein in the Italian madrigal style, most of the texts taken from the Old Testament. From the motet’s densely chromatic opening, Benozer and singers gave articulate, meticulously-phrased expression to its remarkable images of grief and to the word painting woven into this piece, indeed, one of the most extraordinary documents of the early German Baroque.

 

The program included a number of Israeli compositions. Tastefully accompanied by Janna Kopelev, tenor Daniel Portnoy performed "In the Beginning" (lyrics: Haim Hefer, melody: Sasha Argov), his rendering clean, genial and communicative, as he presented the narrative with freshness and good humour. In Israeli composer/conductor Tzvi Sherf's splendid arrangement of "In the Beginning (Genesis)" (music/lyrics: Don McClean, 1978), the ensemble gave a coherent, colourful delivery of the song's upbeat, richly-detailed verbal- and musical text. As to "Vayimalet Kayin" (And Cain Fled), the IVE's male singers conveyed the rhythmic, muscular energy of Yehezkel Braun's distinctive setting of Yaakov Shabtai's poem. The text tells of Cain (soloist: Michael Bachner, portraying a self-pitying Cain), having murdered his brother Abel, wandering the earth and finding no respite. Again, on the theme of family tragedy, Canadian-born Israeli composer Aharon Harlap's "Bat Yiftach" (Jeptha's Daughter, Judges 11:29-39) relates the story of Jephtha willing to sacrifice whoever comes forth from the doors of his house on his return from war, if God grants him victory in battle. It is his daughter, who dances out to greet him. Harlap's score calls for SATB choir, French horn solo and two vocal soloists. With the French horn's sound traditionally associated with destiny, Itamar Leshem's playing is majestic, setting the fateful scene, also concluding the work. Harlap's writing, stringent, chromatic and uncompromising, entrusts the choir with the narrative. Baritone Dov Antin made for a gripping Jephtha, with Liron Givoni' giving an emotional portrayal of his daughter. 

 

Born in Estonia in 1935, Arvo Pärt's deep Christian faith has shaped his globally celebrated compositions. "Which Was the Son of" was commissioned by the city of Reykjavík for its European Capital of Culture 2000 program.  Inspired by Iceland’s tradition of reciting family names, the composer sets a passage from the Gospel of Luke that lists the order of Jesus’ descent and his lineage. At the Jerusalem concert, we were presented with a fascinating (indeed, mesmerizing) performance of the work. This was no monotonous listing of names. Indeed, Maestro Benozer led the singers through a high-energy reading of the work, its different sections employing chordal and melodic elements, dynamic variety and fluid interchanges of voices, ultimately arriving at a multi-voiced polyphonic section, in which the names of Adam and God are highlighted. With precision and fine diction, the singers undertook the pronunciation of Scripture proper names as indicated in the score's table of signs.  An outstanding performance of this unique work!

 

The Israeli Vocal Ensemble's repertoire includes a number of Afro-American spirituals. These works constitute splendid concert fare. We heard American composer/arranger Mark Hayes' jazzy, finger-snapping setting of "Go Down Moses" (Solo: Ronen Ravid), a dose of whimsy added by Hayes to the original Gospel song.  "Shadrack" (Robert MacGimsey, arr. Charles R. Casey), brimful of foot-tapping dance rhythms and vocal effects endorsing the song's quirky style of narrative, was followed by Moses Hogan's rich, sophisticated vocal writing in his arrangement of "The Battle of Jericho", and splendidly performed. 

 

Ronen Ravid's eloquent reading of some of the song texts added an extra dimension to this concert of fine programming and consummate performance.  

 

For an encore, the ensemble gave a colourful rendition of Matti Caspi’s “Farewell to Noah’s Ark” (lyrics: Nurit Zarhi, arr. Tzvi Sherf.)

At the Abbey of the Dormition, Jerusalem, pianist Ofra Yitzhaki performs a number of Preludes and Fugues from Book 1 of J.S.Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier

 

Dr. Ofra Yitzhaki (Avi Levine)

On the mild evening of November 20th 2025, a concert took place at the Dormition Abbey, Mt. Zion, Jerusalem. Fr. Simeon Gloger OSB welcomed guests and introduced the artist, pianist Ofra Yitzhaki. The festive event was the first  concert to take place in the Divan (hall) since the Covid-10 pandemic. Israeli-born Ofra Yitzhaki opened her recital by calling attention to the fact that Johann Sebastian Bach believed that the aim of all music should be "the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul". 

 

The program comprised the first twelve Preludes and Fugues of Book One of the Well-Tempered Clavier, performed on the Abbey's Grotrian-Steinweg grand piano. Although Bach did not specify for which keyboard instrument the WTC was written, it is assumed by many that the work was played on the clavichord (an instrument of limited volume but capable of dynamic variety) or on the harpsichord, with some pieces possibly played on the organ. As to the new concept of "well-tempered" tuning, just how equal Bach’s system of tuning was is debatable, but there is no doubt that it made playing in all keys possible (without retuning the instrument) with some keys probably more equal than others. On the ornamental title page of the 1722 copy of WTC 1, Bach inscribed: "For the use and profit of the musical youth desirous of learning, as well as for the pastime of those already skilled in this study". For his own pupils, this collection became the text for advanced study in both keyboard playing and composition. Bach completed WTC 1 at age 37, the work marking a major stage in his development, revealing his large-scale organisational ability and intellectual control. American harpsichordist/musicologist Ralph Kirkpatrick referred to WTC 1 and 2 as an "eternity of experience" representing Baroque keyboard writing at its highest peak and as “one of the most remarkable products of the human mind.”

 

Ofra Yitzhaki invites the listener to join her in her personal decoding of Bach's music. Enlisting the warm, powerful timbre of the Grotrian-Steinweg piano, her playing spells out the result of deep enquiry into the construction, the emotional- and dynamic ranges and the development of each of the pieces, of tempi and of the contrasts both within- and between the pieces, as well as the experience of hearing the pieces in sequence. She commences with a rapid, dramatic, forthright reading of the Prelude in C major, the C-sharp major Prelude, on the other hand, charming in feather-light textures, its Fugue retaining the Prelude's lightweight trait. Following the slow introspective and imaginative C-sharp minor Prelude, richly bathed in the sustaining pedal, the ensuing five-voiced triple fugue, probing and mysterious, grows into an architectonic mammoth work of dense, overlapping stretti. The joyful key of D major takes over with the sunny, buoyant Prelude, the artist reflecting on the extemporaneous disposition of its conclusion. And how uniquely majestic is the D-major Fugue, teeming with Bach's explicit ornaments and noble dotted rhythms, as Yitzhaki signs out with a hearty flourish.

 

The most substantial Prelude in Book One, No. 7 in E-flat Major, is different. (Indeed, the key of E-flat major is rarely heard in Baroque music, but, in view of the structure of Bach’s project, it had, of course, to be included. Johann Mattheson defined the key of  E-flat major as “pathetic, always serious, plaintive, the opposite of lascivious".)  In this piece, one of the more extensive and ambitious components of the collection, Yitzhaki guides the listener through the course and its complexities - the semiquaver preamble, the chorale-like fugato introducing a subject in rising fourths and the double fugue combining both musical ideas, then soaring to a striking pedal point at the end. (I wonder if Bach might have played this Prelude on the organ.) The partner Fugue was playful and nimble, its chromaticism adding a gently teasing touch to the rich 3-voiced weave.

 

As to Yitzhaki's reading of Prelude and Fugue No.8, each takes a fragile, mysterious spiritual aura as its starting point. Strict Baroque performance requirements would proceed in terraced dynamics. Yitzhaki, however, enlists the resources of the modern piano, building inspiring, swelling and recoiling dynamic paths in conjunction with textural density in both pieces. The extravagant use of diminished chords, Neapolitan seconds and tritone leaps endow the stately, richly ornamented Prelude its stressed, dark character, then to proceed to the pairing of emotion with contrapuntal sophistication in the Fugue. With the audience left suspended in a moment of hushed contemplation, the sound of church bells served as a reminder of where we were.

 

400 years on, performing the Well-Tempered Clavier is still fraught with decision-making that ranges from the choice of instrument to how to interpret the notes on the page (Bach left no indications as to speed and expression.) Is it right or wrong to play Bach on the piano, given that, in his time, this instrument hardly existed? Bach actually did play an early piano by Silbermann, offering the builder advice on how it might be improved, but the Silbermann fortepiano is a far cry from the modern piano. Most importantly for performer and listener, however, the fascination of Bach's music resides in the many possible attitudes from which it can be viewed, and in the manifold aspects it can assume. An artist of great versatility and splendid technical skill, Dr. Ofra Yitzhaki reads into the Preludes and Fugues with much fantasy, daring and passion, with articulacy, grace, delicacy and sensitivity, addressing the WTC’s structures, its gamut of moods, emotions and conundrums with personal conviction. It was an evening to remember! The Divan, an exquisite, small hall well suited to chamber music performance, boasts fine acoustics. There was much to enjoy from the  timbre of the Grotrian-Steinweg piano. Behind the piano, the stage wall displays a large painting of The Last Supper by Austrian artist Ernst Fuchs (1930-2015). 

 

Two encores concluded the Bach recital - the meditative chorale prelude "Ich ruf zu Dir, Herr Jesu Christ" (I call to You, Lord Jesus Christ), followed by the rousing "Zion hört die Wächter singen" (Zion hears the watchmen sing).

"Autumn" - Trio Noga performs works of Piazzolla, Mozart, Martinu, Marion Bauer and Yechiam Marx

 

Trio Noga:Shira Shaked,Orit Messer-Jacobi,Idit Shemer (Tammy Bezaleli)

If timing is the essence of music, the appearance of cool, drizzly weather on November 14th 2025 created the perfect background for "Autumn", Trio Noga's opening event of the 2025-2026 concert season. The concert took place at St. Andrew's Scots Memorial Church, Jerusalem. Established in 2015, Trio Noga's members are Idit Shemer-flute, Orit Messer-Jacobi-'cello and Shira Shaked-piano. The ensemble aims to offer its audiences a fresh approach to familiar repertoire, at the same time, introducing them to new- and rarely-performed works. 

 

 The event got off to a brisk start with "Autumn" from "The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires", composed by Ástor Piazzolla in 1970. One of Argentina’s most gifted and prolific composers, Piazzolla wrote the four movements of "Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas" between 1965 and 1970 for his tango instrumental quintet (violin, piano, electric guitar, bass and bandoneon).  Conceived as separate pieces (Piazzolla occasionally performed them together) the composer wished to draw attention to the work’s relevance to the city’s inhabitants and to life in its poor streets where the Argentinean tango was born.  "Autumn", symbolically, appears as the first piece of the set. The Trio Noga players gave polished, spontaneous expression to the fast flow of the piece's high-spirited, compelling immediacy, then to its wistful, often-melancholy flute and 'cello interludes, taking the listener off guard with the rush of unexpected changes in dynamics and tempi. Producing Piazzolla's kaleidoscope of raw, harsh dissonances juxtaposed to sudden consonant passages, their well-chiselled playing displayed unmistakable Argentinean flair. Works of Piazzolla will feature in all Trio Noga's concerts this season. 

 

 In a letter of June 1788 to his friend Michael Puchberg, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote: "When are we to have a little musical party at your house again? I have composed a new trio!".  Mozart was referring to the Piano Trio in E major K. 542 (scored for violin, 'cello and piano). Indeed, the composer, now at the very height of his powers, thought so highly of K.542 that he played it at the Dresden court in 1789 when seeking employment there. The Trio Noga performance was imbued with spontaneity and freshness, lyricism, warmth and refinement. In the trios Mozart composed between 1786 and 1788, the piano dominates: Shira Shaked's clean, lively touch and musicality made for delightful listening, with Idit Shemer's fine tone and melodic shaping exploring the splendid opportunities of Mozart's new-found freedom. Orit Messer-Jacobi offered elegant support to the piano’s left-hand lines, only sometimes emerging from the bass line duties Mozart relegated to the 'cello. The balance between the three instruments was beautifully handled. I enjoyed the opportunity of hearing the K.542 Trio, a work containing some of the composer's sunniest and most relaxed music. Sadly, Mozart’s piano trios are not performed as frequently as Haydn’s, despite them being among his finest chamber works.

Then to a work of Marion Eugénie Bauer. The American-born Jewish composer was an eminent figure on the American musical scene of the first half of the 20th century.  A writer and lecturer on music history in general and on 20th century music in particular, she was respected in her own day for her advocacy for American composers, her musical scholarship reviving interest in often-overlooked female composers. A member of numerous musical societies (often the only woman among men) and music critic for The Musical Leader magazine, she was also the first woman on the faculty of New York University. Experimenting with dissonance, serialism, and complex harmonies, her compositions were both hailed and criticized for their complexity and modernist qualities. Bauer's Trio Sonata, Op. 40, for flute, 'cello, and piano (1944) integrates Parisian Impressionistic influences, blues harmonies and traditional American music. (Messer-Jacobi suggested that the work's title might refer to the interaction between players of the Baroque trio sonata.) Shemer, Messer-Jacobi and Shaked gave articulate, subtle and imaginative expression to this charming, approachable work, highlighting the uplifting majestic qualities of the opening movement (Allegretto commodo) and the lyrical, pensive mood of the   Andante espressivo that followed. As to the final movement, the players presented its colourful line-up of American dances with foot-tapping rhythmic precision and buoyant textures, signing out with the wink of an eye! 

Also written in the USA in 1944 was the Trio for Flute, Violoncello and Piano by Bohemian composer Bohuslav Martinů, albeit under different circumstances. Having escaped to New York from Nazi-occupied Paris in 1941, it was while at a retreat in the Connecticut countryside that Martinů wrote this trio. At the Jerusalem concert, the artists conveyed the music's positive holiday spirit, the work bearing the hallmark of the composer’s distinctive musical language - rich harmonies and tonal colours, as well as touches of jazz- and Czech folk rhythms. Following their reading of the first movement (Poco allegretto), one giving prominence to Martinů's rich palette of ideas, to rhythmic inventiveness and wit, which they performed in scintillating timbres, the Adagio (a favourite among the three artists) was eloquent, introspective, richly melodic in expression, also imbued with the yearning heard in much of Martinů's music. The Adagio seemed to take one back to the autumnal theme of the concert. Introduced by a sombre flute solo, the third movement then bursts into an effervescent scherzando, brimming with good cheer and punctuated with some calmer moments. This is a splendid concert piece, one challenging to performers and delightsome to the listener. 

The final work on the program was "Double Nocturno", a short piece by Israeli educator/ arranger/composer Yechiam Marx. Taking inspiration from the lullaby "Layla, layla" (music: Mordechai Zeira, lyrics: Nathan Altermann), the lyrical tone poem was tranquil, cantabile and richly scored, with phrases and associations of the song subtly woven in and out of the lush instrumental fabric. Marx composed "Double Nocturno" for Trio Noga.

But that wasn't all. To conclude the event, the artists performed Piazzolla's "Autumn" once more, an explicitly bold reminder of life in the streets of Buenos Aires, whose people address the gamut of their emotions as they live the moment. 

The Jerusalem Opera performs an evening of Puccini - "Il tabarro" and Act II of "Tosca". Conductor: Omer Arieli. Stage director: Daniel Lasry.

 

Yasmine Levi-Ellentuck (Snir Katzir)

Florin Estefan (Snir Katzir)

If you find murder, treachery, trickery and lasciviousness too much to take, the Jerusalem Opera's recent production of Giacomo Puccini operas was certainly not for you. But for those of us who relish the musical richness, excitement and intensity of early 20th-century Italian opera, the performance on October 25th 2025 at the Jerusalem Theatre did not disappoint. Indeed, it was a sparkling occasion with which to kick off the new season. As per usual, Omer Arieli, the Jerusalem Opera's house conductor, directed the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, with singers from Israel and abroad. The Jerusalem Opera was established in 2011, with the goal of presenting opera productions of the highest quality in the capital and promoting Israeli arts. 

 

A one-act opera "Il tabarro" (The Cloak), the first of the three operas comprising Puccini’s Il trittico (triptych), was premiered in New York in December 1918. The libretto, by Giuseppe Adami, is based on Didier Gold's 1910 play "Houppelande". Michele is married to young Giorgetta, sharing with her their life of hardships on a barge on the river Seine. Giorgetta is in love with Luigi, a young stevedore hired by her husband. After Michele overhears his wife arranging a night rendezvous with Luigi, he waits for him, attacks him, forces him to admit he is his wife's lover and finally strangles him. He hides the body under his cloak. When the apprehensive Giorgetta comes on deck, asking Michele if he might wish her to come and rest near him under his cloak, lights flash in the fateful night sky and her husband throws the cloak open to reveal the lifeless body of her lover. In the role of Michele, Romanian-born baritone Florin Estefan gave a sensitive presentation of the dejected (and rejected) older husband, as we follow his pain. The sullen vocal colour infused in his singing did not detract from his beautiful tonal quality and phrasing. No new face to Jerusalem Opera performances, Israeli soprano Yasmine Levi-Ellentuck gave an affecting portrayal of Giorgetta, a woman suffering from her unhappy marriage. (She and Michele are both mourning the loss of their young child a year earlier.)  Levi-Ellentuck's vocal coloration, facial gestures and posture demonstrate the coldness she feels towards her husband, this in strong contrast to the feminine energy Luigi sets off in her heart. We see the light-hearted side of Giorgetta when she brings out wine for the stevedores and dances. Careful not to cut too sympathetic a character, the persona of Luigi, Giorgetta's lover, was drawn by Italian tenor Ivan Defabiani. With everything one could wish for in a Puccini tenor, his robust vocal tone might have prejudiced the audience to more sympathy than he deserved, but this conundrum is innate to the role of Luigi. Lighter moments provide a break from the dark drama at hand, to mention one - local mezzo soprano Noa Hope's jaunty characterization of the skittish Frugola.  Maestro Arieli's superb direction of the JSO brought out the lush palette of timbral colour offered by Puccini's orchestral writing, as he built the intensity of the score to fever pitch, its gestures commenting and forewarning, relaxing only briefly for the dance scene. The stage set was pleasing and the lighting effective. In true verismo style, "Il tabarro", a fine exposition of one of Puccini's most unrelentingly dark moments, depicts simple people, those who work hard just to survive, and even harder to find a little joy in their arduous lives. Here are touching portrayals of real men and women: their hopes, their dreams and their bitter disappointments.

 

Premiered in 1900, Puccini's "Tosca" (libretto: Luigi Illica, Giuseppi Giacosa) is based on Victorien Sardou's 1887 French-language dramatic play, "La Tosca". In Act 2, which provided the second half of the evening’s double bill, we leave the drudgery of simple folk to join the powerful upper echelons in Rome of June 1800, where the Kingdom of Naples' control of the city is being threatened by Napoleon's invasion of Italy. Baron Scarpia (Florin Estefan) is in his quarters at the Palazzo Farnese, where Floria Tosca (Yasmine Levi-Ellentuck), a renowned opera singer, will celebrate the victory over Napoleon with a cantata. Scarpia's agent has found the painter Cavaradossi (Ivan Defabiani), Tosca's lover, who is suspected of aiding the fugitive Angelotti's escape. Scarpia orders Cavaradossi to be interrogated under torture, explaining to Tosca that she can shorten her lover's torture by “co-operating”. Though she tries to resist Scarpia's advances, she hears Cavaradossi's cries of pain and reveals Angelotti's hiding place to Scarpia. Scarpia immediately halts the torture. Cavaradossi realises that Tosca has betrayed him. Scarpia then receives news from his valet Sciarrone (Lev Elgardt): this report of victory over Napoleon was false and the royal army has been beaten. Cavaradossi sings a revolutionary song, insulting Scarpia, indeed, sealing his own death sentence. Scarpia orders him to be taken away. Tosca now knows that only she can save her lover’s life. She offers Scarpia a ransom, but Scarpia's price is Tosca herself. She accepts the deal. Scarpia orders Spoletta (Marc Shaimer) to perform a fake execution of Cavaradossi the next morning. Tosca wants to hand the execution order to Cavaradossi herself, explain the situation to him and attend the mock execution. She also forces Scarpia to sign a letter of safe conduct for her and Cavaradossi so they can leave the next day. But, once she is alone with Scarpia, Tosca quietly takes a knife from the supper table and stabs him as he embraces her; she grabs the letter and leaves the room. In the understated but elegant stage set, with the JSO players seated at the back of the stage, the Jerusalem Opera artists bring to life the urgency, suspense and emotion of this well-known masterpiece, with its the combination of Puccini’s glorious music, its story of the struggle between love and art and the outcome of ruthless forces of power, greed, and control. Formidable in her singing, engaging the many colours of her lovely soprano voice, Levi-Ellentuck delivers a vulnerable, loving, impulsive, anguished yet strong-willed Tosca. The distress she expresses throughout the opera is authentic and moving. Estefan's fine deep baritone voice and physical size exude menace, power and malice. He is the dark contrast to Cavaradossi’s lightness. Drawing together all the elements of the opera's complexity, Maestro Arieli skilfully weaves the strands of the plot into Puccini’s music, highlighting the storyline’s different turns, performing the music with prudent timing and sensitivity, always flexible in accompaniment and strong in illustrative effects.

 

This event offered a grand opportunity to mark World Opera Day, celebrated annually on October 25th (the birthday of Georges Bizet and Johann Strauss II,)  

"Sounds of the Future - The Great Artists of Tomorrow" - the Israel Camerata Jerusalem's opening concert of the 2025-2026 concert season features three fine young soloists. Works by Mozart, Glazunov, Webern, Rossini, Milhaud and Caroline Shaw

 

The Israel Camerata Jerusalem opened its 42nd season with "Sounds of the Future - The Great Artists of Tomorrow" at the Jerusalem International YMCA on September 15th 2025. A concert of the InstruVocal series, it was conducted by Camerata founder and music director Avner Biron. The orchestra was joined by three soloists of the younger generation: Lior Yoahimik - clarinet, Doron Chazan - saxophone and Amir Ron - piano. The concert was dedicated to the memory of Prof. Gersh Geller, who taught clarinet and saxophone in Jerusalem, formed a large number of young saxophone ensembles and founded the first Israeli saxophone festival and competition in 2008.

 

A program of "firsts", it opened with Anton Webern's 1905 "Langsamer Satz" (Slow Movement) Op. 1. Originally written for string quartet, it is an outpouring of love of the 21-year-old composer for his cousin and future wife Wilhemine Mortl. At the time he composed it, he was a composition student of Schoenberg, but not yet engaging in the twelve-tone writing and tight, miniaturized forms associated with his (Webern's) later style. The piece is serene and autumnal, its style steeped in the late Romantic musical language of Wagner and Mahler. The Camerata players gave a sincere, transparent, personal and scrupulously-shaped reading of the piece.

 

Although Gioacchino Rossini is mostly known for his operas, he did compose works of other genres -sacred music, instrumental music and art songs. The Introduction, Theme and Variations for clarinet and orchestra, composed when he was only 18 years old, draws on themes from two popular operas from his Neapolitan period - "The Woman by the Lake" and   "Moses in Egypt". Currently studying in Basel, Switzerland, Lior Yoahimik (b.1997) took on board the work's opportunities for virtuosic dazzle - leaps and frequent fast passages climbing into the altissimo register and more - giving expression to the dramatic emotion of the Italian bel canto singing style. Displaying brilliant technique, a rich timbre and flexible dynamic range, Yoahimik's refreshing, musical playing presented the individual character of each variation, with the orchestral passages providing a constant reminder of the fact that Rossini was indeed an opera composer. I enjoyed the soloist's cantabile playing of the introspective minor variation and his strategic and inventive delivery of the cadenza.

 

Darius Milhaud's music for "La création du monde" (Creation of the World), to a scenario by the Swiss poet and novelist Blaise Cendrars on an African creation myth, was written for- and first performed by the Ballet Suédois in 1923 in Paris. The French cubist painter Fernand Léger designed the sets. Milhaud's compositional style represents the first use of jazz in classical music repertoire. His infatuation with jazz began in 1920 in London, continuing two years later in New York, where he frequented the dance halls and theatres of Harlem. He was drawn to the genre's "use of syncopation in the melody…done with such contrapuntal freedom as to create the impression of an almost chaotic improvisation, whereas in fact, it was something remarkably precise”, in the composer's own words. By the time Milhaud composed his music for the ballet in 1923, he was writing for a well-established popular taste. Indeed, the Paris art world of the early 1920s was in the grip of Primitivism; African art and legends provided the perfect medium for the public. The work's vivid score, with its elements of polytonality, its jazz prelude and fugue, moments of mystery, of carefree, foot-tapping, chaotic exhilaration and of touching bittersweet melodies, provided the Camerata with the ideal platform for much fine orchestral playing and some splendid solos - saxophone, flute, oboe, horn, double bass and more.  A lyrical coda brings the prototypical work to a quiet close with softly fluttering flutes, as the saxophone bids a tender farewell.

 

Multi-faceted musician and Grammy Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer Caroline Shaw (b. 1982) is one of today's most sought-after composers and a leading voice on the contemporary musical scene. As well as composing, she is a producer, violinist and vocalist. Featuring Amir Ron as soloist, we heard Shaw's Concerto for Harpsichord (Piano) and Strings, here played on the piano. Written in 2023, the composer took inspiration from Bach’s harpsichord concertos and Baroque music in general. With the movements of a somewhat traditional structure, they are however titled "Warm but Distant", "Morning Bird" and "Gangbusters", offering the listener the opportunity to engage in their extra-musical associations. This music, brimming with 17th-century chord sequences and secondary dominants, with cascading circle-of-fifths progressions, all taking flight into newer harmonic spheres, is catchy, fresh, and user-friendly, yet ravishing and decidedly sophisticated. Pianist Amir Ron is currently studying towards a Master’s degree at The Juilliard School of Music. His agile, light, clean finger work endorsed Shaw's playful, magical and energizing (largely tonal/modal) score. As to "Morning Bird", the movement's pared-down orchestration, with individual instruments evoking filigree-fine bird calls, emerged delicate and appealing. "Gangbusters", of course, brings the scene back to the first movement's high energy and virtuosic keyboard playing. The Camerata instrumentalists handled Ms. Shaw's vivid string writing with finesse. 

 

In this program of firsts, we hear Alexander Glazunov's final work - the Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra in E flat major (1934). The concerto, however, stood out at the time as unique: the saxophone was not yet a regular instrument in orchestral repertoire, thus making for a groundbreaking work. Drawn to the saxophone sound and to jazz, Glazunov combines Romantic musical language with  modern musical idiom. Setting the clarinet against a hearty string score, Glazunov's characteristic orchestral style pervades the concerto with lush textures, attractive melodies and zesty harmonies woven throughout. The recipient of several international prizes, saxophonist Doron Chazan (b.2003) is presently studying at the Amsterdam Conservatorium. Approaching the virtuoso piece with fine musicianship, he addresses each change of temperament and tempo with articulacy, each tonal colour boldly presented. As to the quick pace and intricate writing of the virtuosic cadenza (second section), Chazan realises it with joy and pizzazz. Altogether, the performance called attention to the work's rich textures, its memorable melodies and the vivid harmonies peppered throughout.

 

When the Mozart family arrived in London in April 1764, on its “grand tour of Europe”, Johann Christian Bach took the brilliant Wolfgang Amadeus under his wing, and it was under Johann Christian’s influence that the eight-year-old composed his very first symphony. Written with the elegance, charm and gentle optimism of the galant style, Symphony No.1 in E-flat Major K.16 demonstrates that Wolfgang was already well versed in symphonic forms and orchestration. (The manuscript does, however, contain annotations and corrections by Wolfgang’s father, Leopold.) Maestro Biron and the instrumentalists gave lively expression to the symphony's pure joy and youthful energy, its dynamic contrasts and to its occasional touches of daring chromaticism, the score coloured with fine wind-playing, especially poignant on the part of the horns.  Mozart's Symphony No.1 remains an eminently accomplished and assured début into the world of symphonic music. 

 

Once again, the Camerata's creative programming makes for a quality, experiential listening.

At the 2025 Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival, works of Barber, Schumann, Franck and Armenian folk songs

Astrig Siranossian (Neda Navaee)

 

Thomas Hampson (Kristin Hoebermann)

At a Friday noon concert of the 2025 Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival (artistic director: Elena Bashkirova), taking place on September 12th at the Jerusalem International YMCA, an interesting range of works of composers from the USA, Germany, Armenia and France came together to form a splendid program.

 

The event opened with Samuel Barber's "Dover Beach" for string quartet and baritone Op.3 (text: Matthew Arnold), performed by baritone Thomas Hampson (USA), Nitzan Bartana and Sharon Cohen (violins), Katrin Spiegel (viola) and Haran Meltzer ('cello). An early work, written on the eve of World War II at the Curtis Institute where Barber was a student, it was the young composer himself, already a fine baritone, who made the first recording of his own "Dover Beach". An ambitious undertaking for the 21-year-old Barber, it intertwines Matthew Arnold's darkness and pessimism, as set against the ever-changing sea on the English coast, together with Barber's caressing, congenial music. In this contemplative, brooding piece, with its references to the Greeks and to the loss of religious faith of the time, Hampson and the string players balance the finespun details of Barber and Arnold's writing with masterful timing, meticulous phrasing and eloquence. Hampson's profound reading into the text, his impeccable diction and steady vocal timbre, invite the listener to follow the beauty of the words and the work's emotional course, no less, to observe its message of the indifference of nature in the face of human doubt in a world of "neither joy, nor love, nor light". 

 

Another work seldom heard on these shores is Robert Schumann's Andante & Variations for two pianos, two 'cellos & horn, WoO 10 (1843). Performing the piece at the festival were Bar Zemach (horn), Ivan Karizna and Haran Meltzer ('cellos) and pianists Piamena Mangova and Yulianna Avdeeva. I found this extraordinary instrumental combination (unique even in Schumann's oeuvre), drawing my attention to its unusually dark and warm colour, with only the pianists' right hands venturing into the upper register, these elements, indeed, creating a canvas of beguiling timbres. The artists played out the work's charmingly different variations - from wistful, to galloping, from tranquil to lightly tripping, to feisty, to those bathed in songfulness, to the processional, the final restatement of the theme then inviting a delicate, meandering farewell coda. In several sections, piano statements were answered by the other instruments. The horn (kudos to Bar Zemach!) features largely in the Romantic-era hunting call variation. Displaying sensitive teamwork, the artists brought to light the work's distinctive beauty and Schumann's spontaneous lyricism.

 

First Prize- and Special Prize winner of the Krzysztof Penderecki 'Cello Competition, French-born 'cellist Astrig Siranossian today enjoys a many-faceted professional career of performing, recording, teaching and more. In a unique performance attesting to her Armenian background, Ms. Siranossian presented five Armenian songs of her own arrangement, singing them and accompanying herself on the 'cello. Mostly love songs (not without betrayal!) Siranossian's arrangements are subtle and refined, her rendition of each vignette finely chiselled, personal and engaging, her voice pure, true and free of vibrato. "Shogher jan" (Beloved Shogher), its theme that of longing and love, evokes a scene of gathering clouds, with the snow visible beneath the clouds, and the desire for a loved one to come home from the mountain. Her singing of the strophic song brims with delicacy, its fragile pianissimo moments depicting fondness. Over a drone bass and infused with sadness, "Garouna" (Spring), on the other hand, refers to those who lost their lives in the 1915 Armenian Genocide and also to the Armenian Massacre of 1894. " It is springtime and yet it has snowed Oh le le, Oh le le, Oh le le le le. My sweetheart has turned cold. Oh, how I wish for the evil man’s tongue to dry…"

 

With the theme of this year's JICMF being the quintet repertoire, this concert concluded with César Franck's Piano Quintet in F minor, Op. 14 (1878-1879), performed by Tatiana Samouil and Latica Honda Rosenberg (violins), Noga Shaham (viola), Ivan Karizna ('cello) and Yulianna Avdeeva (piano). A work fitting chronologically between the quintets of Brahms and Dvořák, and stylistically the most Romantic of them, the F minor Quintet has been referred to as "Franck’s chamber symphony”, indeed having shocked its first audiences with its intensity, sweeping melodies and bold harmonic language.  From the haunting, yearning opening to the tender expressiveness of the slow movement, through to the stormy, fervent finale, the instrumentalists met the quintet's demands with technical mastery and dedication, articulately addressing its emotional range and breathtaking range of colours, dynamics, textures, harmonies, its modulations and its never-ending flow of different imagery, keeping in mind that this remains one of Franck’s most personal works.

 

A concert of excellent programming, it was a joy to hear fine artists from all corners of the earth, several of them of the younger up-and-coming generation.

 

A new release: "Bachian Elegies, Musical Meditations for Uncertain Times" - Michael Tsalka performs works of J.S.Bach and C.P.E.Bach on harpsichord and fortepiano

 

Prof. Michael Tsalka (Timothy K. Hamilton)

The circumstances leading to Michael Tsalka's recently issued CD "Bachian Elegies - Musical Meditations for Uncertain Times" take us back to 2022. In the liner notes, Prof. Tsalka writes that the "repertoire for the … album was devised during some of the darkest days of the pandemic…", with J.S.Bach's music serving as "a constant source of solace…"

 

The disc's two opening works are performed on a Johann Zohler fortepiano (Brünn, c.1805). Bach's Chorale Prelude for Organ "Erbarme dich mein, O Herre Gott" (O God, be merciful to me) BWV 721 (c.1704), is unique (perhaps experimental?) in Bach's chorale prelude oeuvre, due to its straightforward arrangement and lack of counterpoint. Tsalka's reading of the prelude preserves its reflective character, the gentle chorale melody sounding articulately above the harmonic dimension of repeated four- and five-voiced chords, the latter's marvellously unexpected turns adding Bach's own layer of liturgical meaning.

 

Then to another work unique in Bach’s output, one from his early youth and student years (c.1700-1710). The "Capriccio sopra la lontananza del suo fratello dilettissimo" (Capriccio on the departure of his most beloved brother) is a secular, programmatic work (Bach's only piece of programme music), a genre popular in the 17th- and 18th centuries. A farewell to Bach's older brother, oboist Johann Jakob, leaving in 1704 to join the band of the Swedish king, Charles XII, or possibly to a friend, it comprises six short, imaginatively-titled movements. Guiding the listener through the extra-musical recountal, from sentiments and warnings on the part of the traveller's friends, to their acceptance of the situation,  their farewell gestures and to the arrival of the postal coach, its horn evoked by downward octave leaps, Tsalka's playing is engaging. It addresses the various different aspects of the piece - the vivid (almost verbal) narrative, its range of emotions, but also the piece's variety of textures and opportunities for ornamentation, the use of different registers (movement 5), with the mournful Adagissimo (passacaglia), endowed with symbolically falling seconds, requiring the keyboard player to fill in its figured bass.

 

A master recycler, Bach rearranged some of his own pieces to use in other works. Made at the request of Prince Johann Ernst von Sachsen-Weimar, as well as supplying good clavier music for Bach's own performances, the transcriptions for organ and harpsichord of Italian and Italianate concertos of other composers (mostly of Antonio Vivaldi) date from the composer's second period at the Weimar court (1708–1717) and represent Bach's introduction to this new idiom. Tsalka's performance of Keyboard Concerto in G major, BWV 973 on harpsichord (after Vivaldi's Violin Concerto in G major, RV 299) sweeps the listener into the spectrum of the diverse, imaginative textures and techniques Bach employs in order to transform Vivaldi’s music into new keyboard works. Splendidly displaying the concerto's dynamic virtuosity, Tsalka's buoyant, well-organized, sparkling playing of the outer movements is exhilarating, his cantabile reading of the slow, reflective E minor movement enriched by ornamental effects afforded by the keyboard's action capacity.

 

Still on the subject of recycling, the Chaconne from J.S.Bach's Partita for Violin No.2 in D minor, BWV 1004, has been a vehicle for a number of keyboard (and other) transcriptions, to mention those of Brahms, Busoni and, more recently, that of French harpsichordist Jean Rondeau. Performing on a Thomas Power double manual harpsichord (Johannes Ruckers 1638), Prof. Tsalka, however, chooses to play Jacques Drillon's 1950s transcription. Prior to hearing the performance of this legendary piece on harpsichord, the challenge for me was to think "keyboard" and not remain locked into the familiar violin sound association. However, from the very first notes of the Chaconne's majestic, momentous opening statement, my dilemma was whisked away. Tsalka's performance gave cognizant and emotionally powerful expression to the piece, here sounding totally natural to the harpsichord. Each variation offered different textures, different features and comprehensive use of the instrument's range. Double- and triple stopping were recast into flamboyant, brilliant keyboard figures, the play of registers highlighted moments of dialogue, there were bold, expansive, exciting surges of arpeggiation, chordal textures and intricate ornamentation, then to give way to some intimate moments and an economic sprinkling of "notes inégales". Referred to by violinist Joshua Bell as “not just one of the greatest pieces of music ever written, but one of the greatest achievements of any man in history", Tsalka's masterful playing of the D minor Chaconne is gripping, giving credit to Drillon's keyboard vision.

 

As to Tsalka's rendition of Prelude and Fugue No.24 in B minor from Book II of J.S.Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, the pieces concluding the WTC I and II collections, the artist invites the musical score itself to explain the enigmatic pair. His playing of the tranquil Prelude is sincere, ordered and unaffected, its notated gruppetto embellishments woven through the fabric of underlying B-minor Baroque-associated melancholy, then to sign out with tension-filled chords. The Fugue's gentle, passepied rhythm, its trills and leaps, take the listener into Bach's mystical non-verbal world of musical perfection.

 

Attesting to this same mystical non-verbal world of musical perfection is Bach's Art of Fugue BWV 1080. Concluding the mammoth work, the Fuga a 3 Soggetti (Fugue in Three Subjects), Contrapunctus 14, also referred to as the "Unfinished Fugue", leaves many presumptions and theories unanswered. Although no specific instrumentation is indicated in the general manuscript, the Fuga a 3 Soggetti is written in keyboard notation, leading one to the conjecture that the Art of Fugue was possibly meant for the harpsichord. This is convincingly demonstrated by Tsalka, whose articulate, ceremonious and carefully detailed enquiry presents the piece's fugal writing, its different themes becoming intertwined as the piece progresses, the third of these representing Bach’s own name, as spelled out in pitches. Tsalka's playing of this final monumental edifice, built of seemingly uncompromising material, directs attention to its writing of unsurpassed beauty and refinement, to the composer's uncannily organized mind and understanding of structure, but also to how unorthodox and mystifying his music must have been in his own time, still remaining so today. With the fugue's score breaking off abruptly in the middle of its third section, at the only-partially written measure 239, Tsalka chooses to allow the work to end at that point, an effect that never ceases to sound jarring and disquieting.

 

Back to the fortepiano, with Michael Tsalka performing Fantasia in F sharp minor, Wq.67, of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. A highly individual and original character, indeed, the quirkiest of Johann Sebastian's composer sons, Carl Philipp’s keyboard music forms a unique body of works, one without any equivalent in his day. He himself was renowned for his extemporizations at the keyboard, claiming that the ability to improvise was the most important indicator of a musician’s potential as a composer. In his 1753 publication "Versuch über die wahre Art das Clavier zu spielen" (Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments), he deals specifically with the fantasy as a compositional form. Composed only a year before the composer's death, the F sharp Fantasia is one of his longest works in this genre. Enlisting a flexible sense of tempo and meter, Tsalka juggles the piece's three main motifs with the skill of a quick-change artist. Despite giving thrilling energy to the work's pizzazzy technical aspects (of which there are several), he nevertheless highlights the emotional impact of C.P.E.'s complex writing and mercurial moods, and not without the wink of an eye. Timing is of the essence, as Tsalka discerningly collates the seemingly incongruous elements into a performance to keep the listener at the edge of his seat.

 

With some of the repertoire here being later or final works of Johann Sebastian or Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Prof. Tsalka concludes the disc's impressive line-up with J.S.Bach's chorale prelude "Vor deinen Thron tret’ ich hiermit" (Before Thy throne I now appear) BWV 668a. During his final illness, Bach is said to have been composing new works and revising earlier ones, with some assistance in the writing down of them, since he had lost his sight. Also known as "Wenn wir in höchsten Nöten sein" (When we are in the greatest need), and referred to as the "deathbed chorale," "Vor deinen Thron tret’ ich hiermit" is the last of the eighteen Leipziger Chorale arrangements (a misleading title. The set originally comprised 17 pieces, with "Vor deinen Thron tret ich" having been added to Bach’s manuscript later on.) It was also published after Bach's death as the final piece of the "Art of the Fugue", providing some closure for that work, whose intended finale had been left incomplete. The harpsichord, by nature, offers fewer timbral contrasts than the pipe organ; Tsalka's articulate playing of the chorale setting, however, throws light on how the lower voices introduce the melody in diminution, in normal form and in inversion, and on Bach's significant use of chromaticism. Once again, his playing underscores Bach's typically tight construction.

 

In his program notes, Michael Tsalka refers to Bach's music as encompassing "the entire gamut of human experience and emotion, from the beautiful, the uplifting and the spiritual transcendent to the difficult, the tragic and the horrific."  "Bachian Elegies" was recorded September 28th-30th 2024 in Bergen (North Holland) for the paladino music label. A very fine, thought-provoking recording, it remains as relevant as ever, as we continue to live in uncertain times