An afternoon concert of choral works of J.S.Bach and Fauré at the International YMCA, Jerusalem



The Jerusalem Street Orchestra (courtesy Jerusalem Street Orchestra)

“Golden Bells” - music and tours in Jerusalem, May 16th to 18th 2019 - offered local Jerusalemites and guests from outside the capital city three days packed with guided walking tours through many quarters of Jerusalem as well as a host of varied musical events.

 

The festive closing event, an afternoon concert taking place at the Jerusalem International YMCA on May 8th featured two choral works, the first of which was J.S.Bach’s Cantata No.131. “Aus der Tiefen rufe ich, Herr, zu Dir”, BWV 131 (Out of the depths have I cried unto Thee). The Jerusalem Street Orchestra, the Gary Bertini Israeli Choir and soloists - tenor Eitan Drori and baritone Yair Polishook - were conducted by Ronen Borshevsky, the Bertini Choir’s musical director.  An apotheosis of 17th-century German sacred music, Cantata 131, a very early Bach cantata (composed 1707 or 1708) is scored for strings with oboe and bassoon and consists of an unbroken succession of choruses and arias on texts drawn from biblical passages and hymns. Its text and the large number of slow tempi indicate that it was probably performed for an event of mourning. The Bertini Choir produced’ polished, informed singing as they addressed the text, its mood changes and its potential for dynamic variety. The Jerusalem Street Orchestra, a chamber orchestra of mostly quite young players (musical director: Ido Shpitalnik) shone in its dedicated performance, well-shaped phrasing and timbral warmth, with outstanding solo playing by oboist Lior Michel Virot and Azure Kline’s splendid ‘cello obligato. The second movement, sung by Yair Polishook, with its pleading, anxious agenda, rhythmic variety, wide range and ornaments, emerged richly expressive, as he gave attention to each gesture, with the soprano section’s calm, slow-moving haunting chorale line providing a stark contrast to the solo. In the tenor aria, this also appended with a chorale, Eitan Drori kept the focus on “meine Seele” (my soul) and the theme of yearning, reserving the use of vibrato for ornamentation of its arioso style.

 

For the performance of Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem in D minor Op. 48, the Bertini Choir and the Jerusalem Street Orchestra were joined by the Chamber Choir of the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, soprano Daniela Skorka and baritone Yair Polishook. Conducting the work, Shpitalnik created a fine balance between voices and instruments, allowing for the powerful surges that accurately depict the drama of the text, yet still addressing the work’s remarkable modesty, unusual tenderness (there is no Dies Irae) and  “a very human feeling of faith in eternal rest”, in the composer’s own words. The combined choirs excelled in vocal control, creating the transparent timbre required for its performance. The instrumentalists gave eloquent expression and a sense of illumination to the score; kudos to the three horn players, to harpist Hila Ofek and to organist Tal Igal. With the quality of a performance of the Fauré Requiem hinging on an excellent organist (and organ), Igal managed to create some magical tone colourings on an electronic instrument, a far cry from the Aristide Cavaillé-Coll pipe organ on which Fauré played for funerals at the Église de la Madeleine in Paris. In the “Pie Jesu”, Daniela Skorka’s shimmering, gossamer lightness of voice, free of artifice and affectation, was beautifully stable, indeed, a satisfying substitute for the role often performed by a boy soprano. Yair Polishook’s reading of the “Hostias et preces tibi Domine” (We offer unto Thee this sacrifice of prayer) was focused and spiritual, his upper register ample and bright. Pleading deliverance in the “Libera me” (with the chorus quaking in fear) and supported by strong brass utterance, Polishook endorsed the boldest movement of Fauré’s Requiem with gripping assertion and emotion.

 

The Gary Bertini Israeli Chamber Choir was founded in order to provide a professional ensemble for oratorio- and opera performances with Israel’s leading orchestras. The choir operates a chamber ensemble of 25 professional singers for a-cappella concerts in Israel and abroad. The Jerusalem Academy Chamber Choir (director: Prof. Stanley Sperber) composed of 30 singers, was founded in 1969 by Avner Itai. The choir has achieved a reputation as one of the finest in Israel and has performed with the country’s leading orchestras. Established in 2013 by Ido Shpitalnik, the Jerusalem Street Orchestra is a classic chamber orchestra comprised of graduates of Jerusalem’s Music Academy. What makes it different to other orchestras is that it performs in  open-air public spaces, presenting concerts that combine classical music with orchestral arrangements of popular music, with the objective of .making classical music accessible to new audiences.