"Bohemian Rhapsody" - the Israeli Vocal Ensemble (director: Yuval Benozer) performs music of Czech composers and Freddie Mercury



Photo: Aharon Shatzkin

The Israeli Vocal Ensemble’s recent concert “Bohemian Rhapsody - from Dvořák to Freddie Mercury” took place on February 21st 2019 at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. Conducted by Yuval Benozer, most of the program focused on works of Antonin Dvořák, with the addition of some other repertoire. Established in 1993 by its conductor and music director Yuval Benozer, the Israeli Vocal Ensemble, comprising 17 professional singers, performs a wide range of repertoire in prestigious halls and festivals in Israel, in its own series, as well as with Israel's leading orchestras.

The concert opened with Dvořák’s Mass in D major for soloists, choir and organ. Commissioned by wealthy architect and benefactor Josef Hlávka for the consecration of a private chapel on his country estate, Lužany Castle in southwest Bohemia, it was first performed there on September 11, 1887.  Dvořák himself conducted and the two female parts were sung by Hlávka’s wife, Zdeňka (soprano), and Dvořák’s wife, Anna (alto). Intended for use in religious services, as opposed to a concert performance, the work is more lyrical and prayerful than dramatic, its pastoral mood perhaps reflecting Dvořák’s love of nature. It also makes references to the folk melodies of Dvořák’s homeland. Dvořák was a deeply devout Roman Catholic and his faith is manifest in this score. The IVE performed it in its original version, with Yuval Rabin-organ and soloists Maria Lyubman-soprano, Nitzan Alon-alto, Tal Koch-tenor and Yoav Weiss-bass-baritone. The performance, employing a large range of contrasting dynamics, highlighted Dvořák’s acute sense of melodic line and contrapuntal writing. Not to be ignored is the composer’s writing for organ, as was heard in Yuval Rabin’s reflective and sensitive playing of the introduction to the Benedictus. There were some fortissimo sections in which the choral sound emerged somewhat forced and not quite “covered”. The vocal quartet has few opportunities in this work but the soloists acquitted themselves splendidly as a quartet or weaving single vocal lines through the choral texture, singing with expression and beauty of timbre. Particularly notable was Nitzan Alon’s singing in the Credo, her voice emerging with natural warmth and richness, the overall effect of this in responsorial exchange with the choir emphasizing both the personal and communal nature of prayer.

From the sacred to the profane, we then heard eight of Dvořák’s Moravian Folk Songs; six of the duets from Op. 29 and Op. 32 were arranged for four-part mixed choir and piano by Czech composer Leoš Janáček. Dvořák’s Moravian Duets, a cycle of 23 Moravian folk poetry settings for two voices with piano accompaniment, were composed between 1875 and 1881. They celebrate the composer's ethnic heritage and illuminate the daily joys and sorrows of small-town life in Czechoslovakia in peaceful times. The duets were an enormous and immediate success, helping to further Dvorák's international career, popularizing him among his countrymen and providing hearty music for domestic use. The central theme of the songs revolves around human relationships, mostly love (and not without heartache), with the composer employing daring harmonies with unresolved chords to denote sorrow or bitterness. Benozer and his singers gave much delicacy, warmth and expression to the nuances of each song - vivid, pensive and colourful, as in “Dyby byla kosa nabróšená” (The Slighted Heart), delicate melancholy in “Velet’, vtáčku” (Fly Sweet Songster), intensity and strong timbres in “Holub na javoře” (Forsaken), infectious dance rhythms in “V dobrým sme se sešli” (Parting Without Sorrow) and a rich selection of moods in the provocative “Zelenaj se, zelenaj” (Omens). Performing the Moravian songs in their original language is no small undertaking. Adding to the IVE’s singing of these appealing miniatures and reflecting the text of each song was pianist Raviv Leibzirer’s wonderfully artistic and intelligent accompaniments.

Josef Löw (1834-1886) was a popular piano teacher, organist and composer. The prolific Jewish composer, a German-Bohemian national from Prague, made his name with character pieces for piano, organ and harmonium; he also wrote a treatise on the playing of keyboard duets. Indeed, presenting an atypical item in today’s public concert halls, Yuval Rabin presented two of Löw’s pieces for harmonium, taking the audience into 19^th century European domestic middle-class music-making, making the audience’s acquaintance with music of a melodious and naive character, its sections gently contrasted by means of registration changes.

Apart from its title, the last item on the program, “Bohemian Rhapsody”, one of the strangest, most inspired and least-understood songs in the history of rock, seemed somewhat incongruous alongside the well-cushioned European Romantic music of Dvorák or Löw. Originally performed by the British rock band Queen, the “Bohemian Rhapsody” was written by Freddie Mercury for the band's 1975 album “A Night at the Opera”. “It's one of those songs which has such a fantasy feel about it. I think people should just listen to it, think about it, and then make up their own minds as to what it says to them…”, in Freddie Mercury’s words. Benozer and the IVE singers gave a highly polished, articulate, whimsical and imaginative performance of Philip Lawson’s clever a cappella 6-voiced arrangement of the song, attesting to the ensemble’s flexibility. The audience liked it, too!

Here was another concert of interesting programming and fine presentation by Yuval Benozer and the Israeli Vocal Ensemble.