Pamela Hickman's Concert Critique Blog

The Jerusalem Oratorio Chamber Choir in "Wake Up Sleeping Hearts"

2012-01-22T01:35:00.000-08:00

Eric Whitacre

The Jerusalem Oratorio Chamber Choir, conducted by Ronen Borshevsky (deputy conductor Ofer Dalal), performed “Wake Up, Sleeping Hearts” a concert of music from the 16th- to the 21st century, most of it sacred music, most of it a cappella. This writer attended a concert on January 14th 2012, at St. Andrews Scots Memorial Church, Jerusalem.

Several of the works sung were to texts from Psalms, the earliest being motet settings of Psalms 96 “Cantate Dominum” (Sing to the Lord a New Song) and 81 “Exultate Deo” (Sing Aloud to God Our Strength) of Hans Leo Hassler (c.1564-1612). The singers gave the highly polyphonic style an articulate, joyful and dynamic reading. Characteristic of Giuseppe Ottavio Pitoni’s (1657-1743) later style, his “Laudate Dominum” (Praise the Lord) Psalm 150 was largely homophonic, its simpler harmonies and clear word rhythms dictating a well-orchestrated sound.

Danish composer Niels La Cour’s (b.1944) oeuvre includes much instrumental music, but he is best known for his choral music. The choir performed two of the three noteworthy Mottetti Latini (1982) based on Gregorian themes. In his arrangement of the 13th century monophonic chant “Hodie Christus Natus Est” (Today Christ is Born), the composer adds meter and harmony to the chant, the changing metrical structure preserving the early character of the melody. La Cour’s music is neo-Classical in approach, with harmonies evocative of those of Maurice Duruflé, evident in his setting of Psalm 117 “Laudate Dominum Omnes Gentes” (Praise the Lord, all ye Nations). György Orbán’s (b. 1947 Rumania) tranquil “Ave Maria”, using a lush, sophisticated and basically tonal harmonic and melodic musical language, was introspective. And back to Psalm texts - we heard the “Hallelujah” (Psalm 150) from Israeli composer Tzvi Avni’s (b.1927, Germany) “Mizmorei T’hilim” (Psalm Songs), a work commissioned for the 1967 Zimriyah International Choral Festival in Israel. The Oratorio Chamber Choir’s performance, bristling with energy, joy, dance-type rhythms and Avni’s uncompromising use of strongly-profiled Mediterranean modes, was carefully shaped and nuanced, the singers’ full sound never falling into the pitfall of roughness.

Gabriel Fauré’s (1845-1924) “Cantique de Jean Racine”, composed at age 19 in his final year at the École Niedermeyer, was the composer’s first significant work. Typical of the small-scale works the composer chose for personal and intimate expression, it was originally scored for 4-voiced choir and piano or organ, its text a devout expression of a large body of Jean Racine’s poetry:
‘Word equal to the most high, our only hope, eternal day of the earth and of the heavens,
We break the silence of the quiet night.
Divine Saviour, cast your glance upon us…’
The Oratorio singers managed well with the French text (often a problem in Israeli choirs); however, the work suffered from the inadequate, somewhat lifeless timbre of the electric piano (pianist: Tania Schupak).

American composer Morten Lauridsen’s (b.1943) “Sure on this Shining Night”, one of three songs making up “Nocturnes” (2005) is slow-moving, contemplative, declamatory, mannered and basic in harmonies, the latter colored with seconds and ninths. The many exposed single melodic lines challenge each voice to give meaning and interest to what may not innately have those qualities, save the fervent treatment of specific words, such as “shining”. Lauridsen’s choice of American author and poet James Agee’s (1909-1955) mystic poem has not produced a piece that is convincing, despite the Oratorio Ensemble’s sincere approach.
‘Sure on this shining night
Of star made shadows round,
Kindness must watch for me
This side the ground.
The late year lies down the north.
All is healed, all is health.
High summer holds the earth.
Hearts all whole.
Sure on this shining night I weep for wonder wand’ring far alone
Of shadows on the stars.’

The opening text of Clément Janequin’s (1485-1558) “Le Chant des Oyseaux” (Song of the Birds) – “Reveillez vous, cueurs endormis” provided the title for this concert. Composed around 1520, this chanson remains one of Janequin’s most popular (also with instrumentalists). This complex 4-voiced piece, in five clear sections, its onomatopoeic bird call effects taking sound-sense correspondence to a programmatic extreme, makes great demands on singers. In the text, the god of love awakens dormant, wintry hearts by using birds as his messengers - the thrush, the robin, the starling, the cuckoo and the nightingale. The JOCC did not disappoint in conveying this, its polished performance entertaining the audience with light textures, well-articulated phrasing, humor and well-tuned twitterings of nature’s menagerie. I was not quite sure why this piece had found its way into a program of sacred- and mystical music, apart from the fact that Janequin himself held several church positions, composing much sacred music.

Of special interest were two works of American composer and conductor Eric Whitacre (b.1970). “Lux Aurumque” (2000) is a setting of a poem by (the enigmatic poet) Edward Esch, translated into Latin by Anthony Silvestri. The work was originally performed by a “virtual choir” – 185 (previously auditioned) singers from 12 different countries videoed themselves singing parts; Whitacre synchronized them all, producing a video film of the “choir”. The work itself is spiritual and introspective, steeped in tranquil, silken loaded chords and clusters to describe the stillness and wonder of the nativity; these are the hues of Whitacre’s palette. The Oratorio Chamber members’ performance of the piece was true to the work’s sense of wonder and humility, their choral timbre clean, silvery and well blended.
‘Light,
Warm and heavy as pure gold,
And the angels softly
To the newborn babe.’

Whitacre joins Weelkes, Tomkins, Robert Ramsey, Gombert and other composers in his choice of the text of David reacting to Absalom’s death – Samuel II, Chapter 18:33.
‘When David heard that Absalom was slain
He went up to his chamber above the gate and wept
My son, my son, O Absalom my son,
Would God I had died for thee.’
Whitacre sets the scene with the dark colors of the opening chords. He then takes his listeners ever deeper into the tragedy of a father’s loss, using sectional utterances, small solos, smooth segments, silences, devastating climaxes and much use of fragments, the latter mostly settings of “my son”. At times, the score calls on the singers to color the canvas with chords of 14-or-so notes. The general effect is that of time standing still, of incomparable tragedy and utter loneliness. The Oratorio members handled the work splendidly: its pitches, texture and togetherness are, indeed, a challenge to every singer. The audience was moved. A fine work with a powerful message, but perhaps overly extended – 15 minutes.

The concert ended with two energetic arrangements of Afro-American spirituals. In “I Been in De Storm” (Jewel Thompson) we heard Naomi Brill Engel singing the solo; she has a pleasant mix of vocal color, the piece, however, sitting a little too high for her natural range. We then heard Undine Smith Moore’s arrangement of “Daniel” (1952) with alto Ella Talbar Reznik as soloist. Moore (1904-1989), referred to as the “dean of black women composers” made transcriptions of songs her mother had sang, this being one of them.

The Jerusalem Oratorio Chamber Choir’s work is detailed and profound, addressing musical form and style. The dedication of its conductors and members is matched with musicality and good taste.

The PHOENIX Ensemble performs Haydn on period instruments

2012-01-14T07:25:00.000-08:00

The setting was Christ Church, close to the Jaffa Gate within Jerusalem’s Old City. The oldest Protestant church in the Middle East, its imposing white structure was built from 1840 to 1849. The pleasing and serene interior of the church was decked with tens of flickering candles for the evening’s event - “Arianna a Naxos” - a concert of music of Joseph Haydn, performed by the PHOENIX Ensemble (director: Myrna Herzog) January 5th 2012. Those performing were Karen Shifrin-mezzo-soprano, Avner Geiger-Baroque flute, Alex Rosenblatt-fortepiano and Dr. Myrna Herzog-Baroque ‘cello.

Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) wrote at least 45 keyboard trios, of which we were to hear two of the three specifically scored for piano, flute and ‘cello (for Hob.XV:17, Haydn suggested either flute or violin, with piano and ‘cello). All the above three trios were composed in 1790 and presented to London publisher John Bland, who had earlier visited the composer at the Esterhazy estate in western Hungary in order to commission him to write three piano trios in which the flute was to replace the violin. Keyboard trios, i.e. works for piano with a treble and bass melody instrument, were in great demand for domestic music-making. The genre had formerly been considered an extension of the keyboard sonata, but with Haydn’s concept of the medium broadening during the 1780s, he began writing works giving what had been the “accompanying” melody parts original material of their own. In the Trio in G major, Hoboken XV:15, we sense a new approach to equality of roles, with the flute free to introduce themes and add constant interest; the ‘cello, however, fairly much follows the keyboard bass line. The PHOENIX players took listeners right into the very essence of these trios, presenting the myriad of details and gestures of the score clothed in intensity, good taste, Haydnesque humor and directness of human emotions. The very distinctive timbre and character of the Baas square fortepiano takes the audience into the sound world and musical climate of London house concerts of the 1790s; under Alex Rosenblatt’s fingers, the fiery instrument was “tamed” into articulate and virtuosic expression and joyousness. Avner Geiger’s performance was well shaped, mellifluous and whole-souled, with Herzog’s playing supportive of the keyboard and flute, finding delicate balance at all times. Repeats held small surprises, enhanced by subtle hesitations issuing them in. Our ears were titillated with the very distinctive sound qualities of each of the three instruments, the players’ sensitive balance and attention to each other luring the listener into a bewitching soundscape.

Information sent by Myrna Herzog prior to the event gave prospective concert-goers some valuable background information regarding Haydn’s “Arianna a Naxos” Cantata a voce sola Hoboken XXVIb:2, composed 1789-1790 to an anonymous Italian text. Herzog explained Haydn’s use of the Italian form of the name – Arianna - as due to the fact that Haydn would have attended operas in Vienna based on the same story by composers such as Carlo Agostino Badia and Nicolo Porpora and, of course, he would have been familiar with Monteverdi’s “L’Arianna” (1608). It turns out that Porpora was a music master at the Imperial Court of Vienna from 1752-1753 where the young Haydn was employed as his valet and accompanist. Haydn’s “Arianna” took London by storm in 1791, the soloist having possibly been the castrato Gasparo Pacchierotti. At a performance of “Arianna a Naxos” for Lord Nelson at the Esterhazy palace, Haydn himself accompanied the cantata on the fortepiano. We know from Haydn’s letters that the composer saw “my favorite Arianna” as one of his finest works.

The cantata is scored for voice and keyboard. (Haydn did not carry out his original intention of orchestrating it later on.) The work consists of two alternating, highly expressive recitatives and two arias, portraying the plight of the Greek heroine who begins by singing of her absent love.
‘Theseus, my love! Where are you?
I thought you were beside me,
But it was a sweet, false dream’
As the work progresses, Arianna gradually realizes the tragic plight of her being deserted and isolated, with her final outburst taking the form of an aria in the dramatic key of F minor.
‘Poor abandoned one, no one can console me.
The one I love so much is fleeing,
Barbarous and unfaithful.’
Jerusalem-born mezzo-soprano Karin Shifrin’s creamy, rich voice is stable in all registers; her general perspective of the text, its plot and musical development were reflected in her facial- and musical expression. Shifrin and Rosenblatt gave a flexible, hand-in-glove performance of the work, Rosenblatt wielding the fortepiano part strategically as the plot moved from joy, to urgency, to hope and finally to despair. Yet the artists held each mood under control, at no stage overstepping the bounds of good taste, the audience moving with them, experiencing and identifying with the hopelessness of Arianna’s predicament and with the finality of fate.

The concert ended with five of the English Canzonets Haydn set to words of the poetess Anne Hunter. The daughter of military surgeon Robert Hume, Anne Hunter (1742-1821) began publishing lyrical, nature poetry at a young age, eventually also writing melodies to some poems. After her marriage to a renowned London surgeon, she mixed with fashionable circles in London, one close friend being Haydn; her lyrics led the composer to write fourteen English salon songs, a genre to which he was partial (much of what Haydn composed in London was aimed at domestic music-making); the texts for at least nine were written by Hunter. Her poems meet the expectations of the style and bounds within which women writers were expected to express themselves in the late 18th century – propriety, modesty and understatement. The first set of Haydn’s English Canzonettas was published in 1794, the second in the following year. The American musicologist H.C.Robbins Landon, a Haydn scholar, wrote that it seemed clear that “Haydn’s intention was to compose technically easy songs which could be sung at sight by any educated music lover and played at the piano prima vista by the average lady of musical inclination.” Composed for voice and keyboard, the PHOENIX Ensemble added the flute and ‘cello to the fortepiano instrumentation, the result being a lushness of texture more than pleasing together with Karin Shifrin’s buoyant singing. Shifrin and the instrumentalists addressed the subject and spirit of each song, Shifrin’s performance of them well shaped, communicative and in keeping with their dignity. The PHOENIX artists opened with the playful, canonic “Mermaid’s Song”. In “The Wanderer”, Geiger’s introduction and subsequent ornamenting of it (later as an interlude) added beauty to the tragic undertones of the song, its gloomy intensiveness perpetuated by Haydn’s use of the lowered second step of the scale.
‘To wander alone when the moon, faintly beaming
With glimmering lustre, darts thro’ the dark shade,
Where owls seek for covert, and nightbirds complaining
Add sound to the horror that darkens the glade.’
Shifrin’s excellent English diction and slight flexing of rhythms allowed listeners to make what they wanted of the much-loved and decidedly feminine, strophic “Pastoral Song”, where the somewhat melancholy text is married to a cheerful melody. The keyboard part is lively and demanding, with only the most subtle harmonic hints as to the poem’s sadness.

“The Spirit’s Song” conveys Hunter’s Romantic concept of life after death; Haydn’s eerie introduction and imaginative keyboard writing take the listener by surprise, its message underlined by such effects as his sudden use of unison in “My spirit wanders free”. In the jolly “Sailor’s Song” (text anonymous), Shifrin uses the text’s consonants well to match Haydn’s onomatopoeic keyboard effects of bugles, cannons, rattling ropes, etc.

Hearing Haydn played on period instruments was a rare pleasure, this certainly enhanced by the fine acoustic of Christ Church. Once again, PHOENIX players offered audiences a high quality, new and enriching listening experience. People interested in historical instruments should not miss hearing the Baas fortepiano, its temperament (in more than one meaning of the word) daring and alluring. Avner Geiger, a newcomer to PHOENIX, is well suited to the ensemble’s enterprising musical approach. Karin Shifrin’s singing of these Haydn works is not to be missed.

Inauguration of the Young Symphonic Orchestra Weimar Jerusalem

2012-01-08T04:31:00.000-08:00

Viktor Ullmann

Although the orchestra has already performed some concerts in Germany and Israel, the official inauguration of the Young Symphonic Orchestra Jerusalem Weimar was December 27th 2011 at the Mary Nathaniel Golden Hall of Friendship, YMCA Jerusalem. In his dedication address of the Jerusalem YMCA On April 18th 1933, Field Marshal Edmund Lord Allenby referred to the building as “a place whose atmosphere is peace and religious jealousies can be forgotten, and international unity fostered and developed”. This was surely the right venue for the event.

The Young Symphonic Orchestra Jerusalem Weimar brings together young musicians from Israel and Germany – students from the Jerusalem Academy of Dance and Music and The Liszt School Weimar, as well as outstanding players from their respective high schools. All play together in one orchestra; they rehearse, perform concerts, discuss and celebrate together. The young orchestral members are learning to understand the past, at the same time experiencing human encounter and understanding through music. One mission of the YSOJW is to perform works of European Jewish composers, including those of composers who perished in the Holocaust. The orchestra’s first concert opened the Weimar Kunstfest (Weimar Arts Festival) in a program dedicated to the memory of victims who had perished in the Buchenwald Concentration Camp.

Professor Ilan Schul, President of the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, spoke of the concert as a meaningful and historical occasion and mentioned Michael Miro, Director of The Voice of Israel (Israel Broadcasting Authority), Adv. Yair Green and Professor Michael Wolpe (JAMD) as some of the Israelis instrumental in the project. Professor Schul welcomed colleagues from Germany and Mrs. Christine Lieberknecht, Prime Minister of the Free State of Thuringia, whose determination was responsible for making this dream a reality.

Chargé D’Affaires of the German Embassy in Israel, Mr. Peter Prügel, referred to the cultural, historical and political meaning of the orchestra, claiming that the complex background of the project joined Weimar – a city associated with Goethe, Schiller, Bach, Liszt and Brahms, with Bauhaus art and with the Holocaust – and Jerusalem – a city of conflict, but also a symbol of hope and fraternity.

The last speaker was Mrs. Christine Lieberknecht herself, who referred to the Nazi era as a time when a wild barbarian spirit was endeavoring to put an end to the spirit of science and culture, the latter led by such prominent Jewish artists as Arnold Schönberg, Viktor Ullmann, Max Reinhardt and Else Lasker Schüler. She emphasized that, even today, we must fight for mutual respect and that the YSOJW will symbolize the linking of people, adding that she is happy to see new horizons and grateful that the young players can exploit their own freedom for making music.

The first work on the program was Johannes Brahms’ (1833-1897) “Tragic” Overture in D minor opus 81. Composed in the summer of 1880, it does not appear to refer to any specific tragic event. Whether or not inspired by the composer’s interest in the tragedies of Sophocles and Shakespeare is not clear; the work probably represents a melancholic streak in the composer’s personality, Brahms preferring solemnity, majesty and drama to frivolity and joy. At its premiere, the work had received a cool reception and continues to be played less than other Brahms works. A concise and dramatic piece, making innovative use of sonata form, it is scored for a larger orchestra than any of the four symphonies, instrumentation including piccolo and tuba. Conductor Alexander Merzyn (b.1983, Germany, recently appointed chief conductor of the Harvestehuder Symphony Orchestra of Hamburg) gave a reading of the work that was both flexible, powerful and delicate, constituting a rich kaleidoscope of orchestra color.

We then heard Piano Concert no.5 in F minor of Henri Herz (1803-1888) conducted by Alexander Merzyn, with Mariam Batsashvili (b.1993, Tbilisi, Georgia) as soloist. Born Heinrich Herz into a Jewish family in Vienna, he moved to Paris where he enjoyed huge success as a piano virtuoso, composer, teacher, inventor and piano manufacturer. Batsashvili followed Merzyn all the way through; her natural ease in dealing with much challenging passagework was impressive. Her playing was both melodic and unmannered. For an encore, she played Liszt’s 1838 etude “La Campanella” (Little Bell), its theme borrowed from Paganini’s Piano Concerto no.2. Batsashvili’s agility, lightness and brightness of touch allowed the music to speak for itself, her playing of the work detailed and never showy.

Hungarian-born Carl (Karl) Goldmark (1830-1915) was the son of a synagogue cantor. He made his living as an orchestral player and a music journalist. His Violin Concerto in A minor, Op.28 (1877), influenced by Hungarian folk idiom, the writing of Mendelssohn, Dvorak and somewhat by Wagner’s harmonic language, enjoyed great popularity till it was labeled “decadent art” by the Nazi regime and banned, as were other works of his. Under the baton of Israeli conductor Karin Ben-Josef, we heard Roi Shiloah (b.1970, Israel) as soloist; Shiloah navigated the natural, felicitous and complex score with composure, meaning and natural musicality, weaving its lyrical melodiousness throughout the work’s fabric. Adding to the richness of timbre and the audience’s enjoyment was Goldmark’s plenteous scoring of wind instruments.

Conducted by Karin Ben-Josef, the festive concert ended with the fifth movement of Czech composer Viktor Ullmann’s Piano Sonata no.7, as orchestrated by Israeli composer Michael Wolpe; Wolpe is presently Head of the Faculty of Theory, Composition and Conducting at the JAMD. Wolpe orchestrated the movement in 2007, but has since edited and re-orchestrated it especially for the Weimar-Jerusalem project. Ullmann (1898-1944) was among the most talented composers of his time till his life was cut short when he perished in the Auschwitz Death Camp at age 46. Written on scraps of lined paper, Sonata no.7 was dedicated to his children. The sonata is full of musical quotations, from Mahler to operetta, from Wagner and the Slovak National Anthem. The fifth movement of Sonata no.7 (composed in Theresienstadt and the composer’s final opus) consists of a set of variations and a concluding fugue on a melody by Yehuda Sharett. It seems Ullmann wanted to leave the work’s message as a gift or force; he wrote “Silently there is still hope (in me) for a late return”. The climax of the sonata is, indeed, the Theme, Variations and Fugue on Yehuda Sharett’s Zionist song “Song of Rachel” (a setting of a poem of the poet Rachel Blobstein), composed in Berlin in 1932. In the poem, the poet sees herself as the namesake of the biblical matriarch:
‘Behold her blood flows in my blood,
Her voice sings in mine –
Rachel, who tends Laban’s flock,
Rachel, mother of all mothers.’

The work is decidedly Jewish in flavor, the fugue ending majestically in the key of D major. Wolpe’s intention in setting the work for chamber orchestra was to give as many ensembles as possible the opportunity of performing it. A richly colorful and varied canvas of orchestration, the work constituted a fitting end to the event.

The JBO hosts violinist Walter Reiter (UK) in "Celebrating Chanukah and Christmas"

2012-01-07T04:43:00.000-08:00

Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber

As a member of the board of the Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra, I was interested to hear the orchestra’s third concert of the 2011-2012 season at the Enav Cultural Center (Tel Aviv) December 29th 2011. Violinist Walter Reiter (UK) led and soloed in “Celebrating Chanukah & Christmas”, a program of European Baroque instrumental music. Walter Reiter, very prominent on the Baroque music scene today, is principal player in The English Concert and leader of The Sixteen. He is Professor of Baroque Violin at The Royal Conservatory of the Hague, at the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music (London) and teaches in Cuba. When living in Israel over 20 years ago, Reiter taught several young Israelis who are today making fine careers as concert players.

Prior to the concert at the Enav Center, Reiter gave an informal, informative talk about works to be performed that evening.

Georg Muffat’s (1653-1704) Concerti Grossi were among the earliest German examples of the genre. His “Auserlesene Instrumental Musik” (1701) (Selected Instrumental Music) was an early collection of concerti grossi in the style developed by Corelli. The JBO performed Concerto no.5 in D of this volume, with Walter Reiter, Noam Schuss and Orit Messer-Jacobi (violins and ‘cello) forming the concertino. It was a performance richly spiced in the language of gestures, the JBO’s sympathetic orchestral timbre graced with some fine oboe-playing (Shai Kribus, Shira Ben Yehoshua). Of his merging of styles, Muffat wrote: “The notes, the strings, the sweet sounds of music give my life a sense of fulfillment, all the more because I mingle the French style with the German and Italian, without inciting a war; but, rather, holding up a mirror to the longed-for harmony and dear peace which these people so greatly desire.” With the same concertino combination we heard Arcangelo Corelli’s (1653-1713) Concerto Grosso Op.6 no.8 “Fatto per la Notte di Natale” (Made for the Night of Christmas), also referred to as the “Christmas Concerto”; it would have been played at the Christmas festivities in one of the great Roman houses of the time (these including the palaces of cardinals and the Pope) or at the Mass itself at the Vatican or at other churches. Its alternating fast/slow tempi include several joyous dances, the concluding Pastorale evoking images of shepherds in the fields, with angels hovering over Bethlehem. A superb combination of elegance, effective transitions and transparency characterized the playing of this work; Schuss and Reiter were very much on the same wavelength, with Messer-Jacobi highly articulate and expressive.

Jean-Féry Rebel (1666-1747) was only eight when he began studying violin and composition with Lully. Rebel became a court musician to Louis XIV, eventually taking the post of “batteur de mesure” (conductor) at the Royal Academy of Music. He made the “Symphonie de Danse” a form of his own, “Les Charactères de la Dance” (1715) being one of them, and providing inspiration for the ballerina Mlle. Prévost. The work is a seamless stream of dance fragments, one of the longest - a Musette - lasting about one minute, the suite ending with a stormy Sonate. It seems the charismatic Mlle. Prévost gave a spectacular performance as she was invited to do so again for Tsar Peter the Great. Despite their brevity, the many small sections each enjoyed different orchestration in the JBO reading of it (Rebel’s orchestral score did not survive) – in the Sarabande, we heard only recorder (Katharine Abrahams) and viola (Daniel Tanchelson) – providing royal entertainment that was over in the wink of an eye.

Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber (1644-1704), one of the most significant composers of the early 17th century Viennese violin style, was influenced by Italian composers such as Marini and Uccellini. The “Sonatae Tam Aris, quam Aulis Servientes” (for secular- and sacred use), the composer’s earliest collection, consists of twelve short sonatas for few instruments, each single-movement work falling into a series of small, connected sections, as in the earlier Italian canzona model. We heard Sonata IX, played by strings, theorbo and harpsichord, the changes in meter and tempo giving the work captivating unpredictability. Biber’s music was the main thread running through the evening’s program.

And back to the Christmas content of the evening: the “Noëls pour les Instruments” (c.1690) by prolific French composer Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1643-1704) who wrote mostly sacred choral works, were composed around 1690 but published only in 1973! Charpentier may have been the first composer to set noëls (popular Christmas carols) for groups of instruments. Composed probably when he was choirmaster for the Jesuits, consciously or not, there may have been some hidden agenda in the music, and how better way to convert could there be than with fine music peppered with popular tunes, some stemming from dance airs. Musicologist Catherine Cessac refers to the “grandeur and originality of Charpentier’s music” as “due to a combination of exceptional musical talent and deep faith”. One of the attractions of the “Noëls pour les instruments” is the delightful pairing of recorders in the score and the JBO did not disappoint: Katharine Abrahams and Shai Kribus added the pleasing, spirited timbre of recorders and much musicality to the buoyant, uplifting performance of the JBO, with Reiter’s delicate touch ever present, sculpting phrases and phrase-endings in filigree threads.

The concert’s Chanukah content consisted of the Overture to Georg Frideric Händel’s (1685-1759) “Judas Maccabeus”, a commissioned work, written in 32 days and premiered at Covent Garden (London) in 1747. The oratorio is in three parts and describes the changing moods of the people with the fluctuating situation of the Jews. Its Overture is one of Händel’s greatest; here, the composer borrows from one of his duets (Sono liete) and from Telemann’s “Tafelmusik”. For the Overture, Walter Reiter relinquished his violin to conduct the stately, dotted opening slow Grave, in its solemn, minor mode and characterized by angular leaps, followed by a fugue and French-styled Lentement. Fine oboe-playing gave color to Reiter’s intense, exciting reading of this piece.

A rare treat of the concert was the performance of two of Biber’s “Mystery Sonatas”. Composed around the mid-1760s and published only in 1905, this collection, also referred to as the “Rosary” Sonatas, constitutes one of the high points of violin literature. The 15 sonatas come with a figured continuo bass; engravings in the manuscript copy depict each of the scenes represented in the work – the music is not really program music - the latter grouped under the following titles: “The Joyful Mysteries”, “The Sorrowful Mysteries” and “The Glorious Mysteries”, these followed by a Passacaglia titled “The Guardian Angel”. In addition to the daring contrapuntal- and technical demands in Biber’s writing, there is much use of “scordatura” (deliberate mistuning of the violin strings in order to produce unusual effects). Walter Reiter performed two of the sonatas – nos.1 and .3, with Dr. David Shemer, founder and musical director of the JBO, playing the continuo role on the organ (a positive built by Gideon Shamir). Creating an atmosphere of mystery and awe, Reiter and Shemer evoked the emotional reactions to the events inspiring the composition in a range of effects so personal, languid and thought-provoking that one was not concerned with or even totally aware of the incredible range of complex violin techniques needed to produce the intricacies of such music. Reiter has made a much-celebrated recording of the complete work (Signum label). Hearing the concert at the Enav Cultural Center was advantageous – it gave listeners the opportunity of drinking in every wonderful sound and gesture of the timeless “Mystery Sonatas”.

The "Israel Early Music Project" at the Jerusalem Music Centre

2011-12-31T11:03:00.001-08:00

Alon Sariel

“The Israeli Early Music Project” was established in 2006 by a group of early music students of the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, with the idea of promoting historical performance of music composed before 1850. The artists play on period instruments and perform to many different kinds of audiences in Israel and abroad, also presenting educational programs for children of disadvantaged backgrounds. The ensemble has twice won prizes in the JAMD’s Chamber Music Competition and performs in major venues and festivals in Israel, Germany, the UK and Belgium. Although some of its members are currently studying in Europe, the artists meet to rehearse and perform a few times a year. Mandolin-player, lutenist and conductor Alon Sariel(currently in Germany) is the group’s musical director.

The IEMP artists were guests of the Jerusalem Music Centre in the second concert of the 23rd season of “Youth at the Centre”, which took place December 27th 2011; the series is recorded for the “Voice of Music” classical music radio station (Israeli Broadcasting Authority). The IEMP program included European music from the Middle Ages to that of the Baroque, opening with Shir Shemesh (medieval fiddle), Nadav Rogel (percussion) and Alon Sariel playing a lively Saltarello from a manuscript in the British Museum (Additional 29987) of secular Italian pieces from the 14th century. The saltarello’s distinctive hopping step made its presence in the performance, Rogel’s use of percussion delicate and understated. Using the same instrumentation (Shir Shemesh also moving from fiddle to recorder) we heard a bass dance from the Codex Faenza (in a library in the small town of Faenza, near Ravenna, Italy) a collection including much French and Italian instrumental music and instructions on diminution; copied between 1400 and 1420, it is written in the Italian six-line notation. The artists infused the rich flow of dance music with plenty of dynamic development.

An interesting work we heard was by Johannes Cuvelier (fl.1372-1387) a refined cosmopolitan man, successful poet, composer and statesman. His surviving musical works are found in a manuscript called the Chantilly Codex. Soprano Anat Edri (currently studying in Leipzig, Germany) sang a text typical of writings in literature of the Middle Ages - about a man in love with a woman of a higher social class than he. A work, written in the intricate, rhythmically complicated “ars subtilior” (mannered) style, in which each role functions independently, Edri, Sariel and Shemesh dealt admirably with the challenges of this complex style.

And to the world of Baroque music, to the “Ciaccona” for violin and continuo by Italian composer Thomaso Vitali (some scholars doubt it was written by him) made famous in a 19th century edition by German violinist Ferdinand David. It was performed by Sivan Maayani Zelikoff (violin), the basso continuo being played by Sariel on archlute and Talia Erdal (viola da gamba). Whether by Vitali or not, the piece keeps the audience on its toes with some strange tonal twists for Baroque music, suddenly modulating to unrelated keys. Maayani Zelikoff flexed lines delicately, weaving interesting embellishments into the text, reminding us all the way that music is there to please the senses. Sariel’s ornamenting of the ostinato (recurring bass) added to the work’s expressiveness.

“La Monica” was a popular tune in Italy, France, the Low Countries, Germany and England from the 16th- to 18th century; it was originally a song from Italy, “Madre non mi far monaca”, and tells the story of a girl forced to become a nun (a theme common in literature of the Middle Ages and Renaissance). Biagio Marini (c.1597-1665), a violinist under Monteverdi at St. Mark’s Venice, court musician in Parma and church choirmaster in Milan, used the melody in his sophisticated “Sonata sopra la Monica” (1626), written for two violins and basso continuo; it was given a virtuosic and dynamic reading by Maayani Zelikoff and Shir Shemesh (recorder) playing the violin parts, with Sariel and Erdal providing the basso continuo. Using the same theme, court composer, bassoonist, organist and voice teacher from Alsace, Philipp Friedrich Bödecker (1607-1683) composed his “Sonata sopra La Monica” for bassoon in the form of a passacaglia. Erdal, with Sariel on archlute, chose to play the bassoon part on the modern ‘cello. Both artists addressed melodic- and expressive detail and each other; Erdal’s use of textures, fine technique and range of emotions giving the work freshness and interest.

Violinist and composer Giuseppe Tartini’s (1692-1770) nomadic life and highly original works are clouded in myth and obscurity. Most of his works remain in manuscript, unpublished. The story surrounding “Il trillo del Diavolo” (The Devil’s Trill), a sonata in G minor, is no less enigmatic: in a dream one night in 1713, the composer makes a pact with the devil (who also happens to be a violinist virtuoso). Maayani Zelikoff, with Sariel and Erdal, was convincing in her feisty, richly colored playing of this unique and interesting work

Giulio Caccini (1551-1618) was a tenor singer employed by the Medici family and was renowned for singing and accompanying himself on the archlute. Edri performed two songs from his “Le nuove musiche” (1601, 1614). Her clean, direct and uncluttered singing of “Amarilli, mia bella” (a song too often made dramatic and too often over-embellished) reflected the persuasive and reassuring character of the piece and tied in with the composer’s clear purpose of creating a kind of musical expression that was as clear as speech. In “Sfogava con le Stelle”, to a sonnet of Rinunccini, one could not but appreciate Edri’s finely crafted phrasing and natural competence in melismatic passages:
‘Under the night sky,
With the stars an inferno of love,
He vented his grief, saying to them:
“O lovely images of my adored one,
Just as you reveal to me her rare beauty by shining so brightly,
Show her my burning love…’

Barbara Strozzi (1619-1677), outspoken, witty and beautiful, an outstanding singer and composer of secular works, referred to by composer Nicolo Fontei as “La Virtuosissimo Cantatrice” (the most virtuosic singer), was also the subject of gossip and satirical poems due to her public performances and involvement and active participation in musical life of Venice, these not yet the domain of women. With cantatas becoming popular in the mid-1600s, Strozzi both developed and popularized the genre; her cantatas were intended as chamber music to be performed at small gatherings. Her cantata “Lagrime mei” (Tears of Mine) is a typical example of the solo cantata; the text represents a man speaking – a tormented poet sings of his lost love - despite the fact that the work is written for soprano voice (possibly to be sung by a castrato). Opening with a vehemently dramatic lament, the poet’s pain depicted in daring dissonances, Anat Edri handles the challenging piece with understanding and good taste, giving credit to Strozzi’s personal form of expression, Erdal and Sariel’s playing underlining the melancholy of the work.

Following a Ciaccona by Tarquinio Merula (c.1594-1665), in which we heard all instrumentalists improvising on the ostinato bass form with an abundance of creative ideas, rhythmic play and musical conversations, the concert concluded with a performance of Claudio Monteverdi’s “Quel sguardo sdegnosetto” (That scornful little glance) one of the three “Scherzi musicali” of 1632. The song deals with the joys and dangers of physical love. In this piece, typically Baroque in its focus on virtuosity and emotion, Edri displayed vocal control and flexibility, weaving the vocal line above a solid bass line peppered with some free ideas on the part of the instrumentalists, creating the effect of spontaneity.

Performances of The Israel Early Music Project are based on interesting programming, sound knowledge of early music styles and of historic performance practice. Alon Sariel and his fellow musicians never fail to please audiences with high quality playing.

An evening for friends of the Moran Choirs at the Tel Aviv Museum

2011-12-22T11:56:00.000-08:00

Naomi Faran

Friends of the Moran Choirs were treated to a delightful evening of music and words in the new Herta and Paul Amir Wing of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art December 12th 2011. There was an air of excitement and expectation as guests arrived at the reception to enjoy a glass of wine, meet old friends and talk to Naomi Faran, the founder, musical director and conductor of the Moran Choirs (Emek Hefer). The evening – “Beyond the Voices” – was a celebration of 25 years of tireless activity and devoted work with singers of the Moran Choirs, their ages ranging from 5 to 25 years of age.

With the audience seated in the auditorium, the Moran Singers Ensemble opened with a lively performance of Naomi Shemer’s “Serenade” (arrangement by pianist and composer Eyal Bat). Conducting was a Moran graduate, baritone Guy Pelc. The Moran Singers Ensemble comprises young singers and graduates of Moran choirs, IDF soldiers of the Outstanding Musicians Program and students of music academies. Pelc’s richly-colored singing of the “Libera Me” from Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem, (singing the chorus was the Moran Choir 12- to 17-year-olds, conductors Naomi Faran, Carmit Amit Antopolsky, pianist Oleg Yakerevich) was moving. The Moran Singers Ensemble’s very fine singing of one movement of Israeli composer Daniel Akiva’s “Out of the Depths” (Psalm 130) included four soloists.

Naomi Faran then addressed the gathering, talking of her philosophy of choral singing – to instill a love of singing together, acceptance of the other, excellence and professionalism, to build confidence and discipline, to encourage listening and to nurture the ability to be expressive. She mentioned upcoming overseas concert tours. Moran singers also visit and sing with young cancer patients at the Schneider Children’s Medical Center. Naomi Faran concluded with her credo that singing can sometimes overcome life’s obstacles and produce undreamed-of results.

Chairman of the executive committee Shmuel Ben Dror reminded us that the evening we were attending represented many years of work and Naomi Faran’s vision of bringing people together.

For more than ten years, the Moran Choir has worked with the Tokayer Boarding School. Nira Peled, the school’s principal, spoke of the fact that there are people who can change, encourage and influence others and that singing together with the Moran Choir has presented a challenge to her students to adopt the appropriate behavior to participate in such activities; its rewards are many – higher self-esteem, acceptance into normative (in fact, an elite!) groups, as well as the joys of music-making. Peled hopes the Education Ministry will establish more projects of this kind.

Conducted by Sharon Ram, we then heard the Moran Youth Choir (ages 8-11), joined by boys from the Tokayer Boarding School for at-risk children (Kibbutz Bachan) in an arrangement by Rani Golan of Shmulik Kraus’s ever-popular and catchy “You Can Not Go Just Like That” (lyrics: Yoram Taharlev). A drum quartet of boys from the Tokayer School added to the snappy and lively performance of this favorite. Yoram Taharlev, himself, took to the stage to present a concise and witty review of the history of the modern Israeli song and its language, after which the two groups performed another of Taharlev’s songs; the soloist was a boy from the Tokayer School.
‘A song from the heart is simple
And it is so easy to remember.
It chooses words that will soothe pain
And will bring you light’.

Another Moran Choir graduate is soprano Yael Levita; a former member of the Israeli Opera Studio, she is currently based in Berlin. Her choice of “Adele’s Audition Aria” from Johann Strauss’s “Fledermaus” (The Bat) delighted the audience, not only because she chose to sing it in Hebrew: Levita’s vocal ease and flexibility, together with her bright timbre, were matched with fine stage presence - humor, use of facial expression, movement and a general sense of fun.

Opera singer, soprano Sivan Rotem has been a vocal coach with the Moran Singers Ensemble for some four years. Born in Buenos Aires, she started her musical training as a violinist. Today her singing performance schedule takes her all over the world. Joined by the Moran Singers Ensemble, she entertained the audience well with her performance of “Grenada” (music and lyrics: A.Lara, arrangement E.Bat). Rotem’s expansive voice, her dramatic flair and ease of movement conjured up the temperament and vitality of Spain and Spanish music and dance.

The Nitzan Onim Center was established in 1988 by the National Insurance Company to provide a framework for the population of adults with learning-, functional- and adaptive disabilities. Today, 90% of the young people there hold jobs and live independently. Rachel Rand, director of Nitzan Onim, spoke of Moran’s productive five years of work with the Nitzan people. With aims set at serious musical training and general excellence, their choir works with Rani Golan, with Sivan Rotem working on voice training. The young people are serious in their approach to their music education; their singing with the Moran Singers gives them a sense of equality and pride. We heard them together with the Moran Singers Ensemble in a delightful rendering of Eyal Bat’s arrangement of David Broza’s song “Homeland Visit” (lyrics: Y.Gefen), with Li’oz Gutman as soloist. One could not but be impressed with the fine blend of beautiful voices and polished performance…by any standards!

Arriving on stage, holding colorful umbrellas, the Moran Youth Choir presented a particularly charming performance of Rani Golan’s arrangement of “The Rain Song” (Lyrics:L.Goldberg, music Y.Welbe). Most of the evening’s song performances included movements, some a little stilted in style. The Moran Youth Choir’s movements, however, were natural and flowing. A number of creative ideas added touches that enhanced certain numbers: the 12- to 18-year-old singers of the Moran Choir donned glittery masks to perform Welsh composer Karl Jenkins’ (b.1944) unusual piece “Adiemus”, a work in which voices function as musical instruments, with the vocals not real words but syllabic fragments of the word “Adiemus” (Latin: We will draw near). A combination of singing, movement and drumming, the performance was spirited, original and, actually, quite inebriating!

And on the subject of the human voice as an instrument, MK Isaac Herzog, present at the event, spoke of the voice as a rare instrument, of singing as uplifting to us humans and of the Moran choirs as being musically-, socially- and communally exemplary - a “rare voice from Emek Hefer”.

Mo’adon Dana (Givat Haim) caters to children with special needs. Members of the Dana Club are excited about choral singing and about their warm connection with members of the Moran Choir. Together they performed Shmulik Kraus’s “It Happens”. Rani Golan has dedicated his arrangement of it to the friendship between the choirs. And friendship there certainly was, with the children singing so musically with their arms around each other and Nomi Faran moving around the stage, as if to address each child. What a beautiful moment that was!

It was no coincidence that the next song was “Giving” (music: Boaz Sharabi, lyrics: Chamutal Ben Ze’ev). Gil Aldema arranged the song, seeing it as symbolic of the giving, tolerance and sensitiveness which form the values behind the dynamic of the Moran choirs. In a poignant and tasteful reading of the song, we heard renowned soloist Hadas Faran-Asia's creamy, silvery singing and girls of the Moran Choir.
‘To give of the soul and the heart,
To give,
To give when you love.
And however one finds the difference
Between receiving and giving
You will learn to give, to give.’

Soprano Hadas Faran-Asia, another Moran graduate, performs widely and is a vocal coach with the Moran Choir. She and soprano Merav Barnea (a former Moran coach, now performing on the opera stage internationally) performed “Memories” from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Cats” (lyrics: T.S.Eliot).

The event ended with the young singers joining together in song, some little girls dressed in white holding long-stemmed roses. Many devoted people had worked hard to stage this memorable evening….too many to mention here. The audience had enjoyed the warmth and informality of the evening, the suitable repertoire for such an event and excellent choral singing, with all the young participants well rehearsed. Naomi Faran is quiet and understated in her manner; however, her energy and vision are changing young lives and society for the better.

Soprano Cilla Grossmeyer-Abileah has died

2011-12-20T12:15:00.000-08:00

The renowned Israeli soprano Cilla Grossmeyer-Abileah died on December 18th 2011 after a long illness. Born in Germany, she and her mother were incarcerated in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, later escaping to Holland before making their home in Israel. Cilla served in the Israeli army and then trained as an X-ray technician. She worked at Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center for many years.

Cilla’s great love was singing; she took voice lessons at the Rubin Academy of Music with Juliette Medioni and participated in master classes under Hilda Zadek and Jennie Tourel. Encouraged by her husband ‘cellist Rudi Abileah to leave her hospital job, she eventually decided to devote all her time and energy to performing and teaching. Cilla’s concert performances included singing with several Israeli orchestras under such conductors as Zubin Mehta, Mendi Rodin, Gary Bertini and Lucas Foss. She performed solo recitals, in chamber ensembles - mostly with the David Trio – and sang church music, Lieder, songs in Yiddish and Ladino and much Israeli music, both in Israel and on her many European concert tours. Many of her performances were with guitarist Yehuda Shryer, recorder-player Shlomo Tidhar, pianist Marina Bondarenko and oboist Eliyahu Torner. She performed and recorded much with her close friend – organist Elisabeth Roloff. Zvi Semel has been her piano accompanist over recent years.

Cilla Grossmeyer has taught some of Israel’s finest singers of today, was a vocal coach at the Hebrew Union College Cantorial School and trained young soloists of the Ankor Choir (children aged 11 to 18) of the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance.

Cilla’s rich, unmannered style of singing, her humor and her generosity will be remembered by very many of us. May her memory be for a blessing.

The Israeli Bach Soloists perform Bach Motets at St. Andrews Scots Memorial Church, Jerusalem

2011-12-17T05:52:00.000-08:00

The Israeli Bach Soloists performed “Sing a New Song” December 8th 2011 at St. Andrews Scots Memorial Church, Jerusalem. The program consisted of Motets of J.S.Bach. The Israeli Bach Soloists, a vocal- and instrumental ensemble directed by Sharon Rosner, sets its targets at performing J.S.Bach’s liturgical works and those of other Baroque composers in a manner consistent with Bach’s style and performance. Founded in 2008 by Sharon Rosner and Zohar Shefi, the IBS bases its performance on historical research, placing emphasis on all aspects of the verbal text - diction, pronunciation and intonation. Rosner prefers to rely on Bach’s original texts, at the same time allowing his performers individual musical expression based on a common consensus as to the reading of each work.

The motet has enjoyed an uninterrupted history from the beginning of the 12th century. Its status has always been lofty in the realm of polyphonic musical artistry. During the 18th century, in the Leipzig churches of St. Thomas and St. Nicholas, where J.S.Bach worked from 1723 till his death, the motet constituted a fixed element in the service, being sung by boys and men following the introductory organ prelude. It seems Bach composed motets throughout his career; however, six survive: all are settings of sacred texts in German for choir and basso continuo and most are thought to be from his time in Leipzig. As Bach allowed the text to dictate musical form, each is differently structured and the motets bear no standardized form. Thought by some scholars to be funeral music, they are complex and original, demanding deep aesthetic study and technical virtuosity on the part of the singers. So why are these masterpieces performed so seldom?

The Israeli Bach Soloists performers were placed as two choirs – on one side Joel Sivan (bass), Oshri Segev(tenor), Sharon Rosner (alto and direction) and Shimrit Carmi (soprano), with Zohar Shefi (organ) and Ira Givol (violoncello) in the centre; on the other side - Hadas Faran Asia (Soprano, Avital Deri (alto), David Nortman (tenor) and Guy Pelc (bass).

The program opened with “Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied” (Sing a new song to the Lord) BWV 225, probably composed in 1727. Using texts from Psalms 149 and 150 and an adaptation of a Lutheran hymn by Johann Gramann, the motet falls into four clear sections. The ensemble’s exuberant performance of the piece highlighted Bach’s word-painting, his distinctive, independent writing for each choir, complex layering and contrapuntal play. The singers’ fine diction and well-pronounced German added to the articulacy of the performance.

In “Ich lasse dich nicht” (I will not let You Go) Anh.159, Bach’s earliest known motet, had, for many years, been attributed to the Eisenach composer Johann Christoph Bach, who was J.S.Bach’s second cousin. It was later re-ascribed to J.S.Bach. Rosner and his singers availed themselves of word-shapes to form phrases and employed Bach’s economical use of strongly tonal and chordal musical material to inspire a compassionate, devotional and moving reading of the work.

“Fürchte dich nicht” (Be not afraid) takes its texts from Isaiah 41 and 43 and two verses from a chorale of Paul Gerhardt. The singers presented Bach’s strategic placing of texts carefully, moving from “weiche nicht” (Be not dismayed) to the powerful statement of “Ich bin dein Gott” (I am your God). “Ich starke dich” (I strengthen you) begins each time as a solo. Following the fugue, “Fürchte dich nicht” is completed by “du bist mein” (You are mine), a reminder of Bach’s deep religious conviction.

“Komm, Jesu, komm” (Come, Jesu, come) is a setting of a hymn by Paul Thymich that appeared in the Leipzig Hymnbook of 1697. The IBS singers painted the vivid imagery of the piece, from the effective separations of the repeated opening “Komm” (Come), uncompromising in its vehemence, to the expression of vulnerability via the symbolic thinning out of textures, introducing the plaintive “Die Kraft verschwindt je mehr and mehr” (My strength deserts me more and more), to a more bitter moment in the jagged melodic profile of “Der saure Weg” (The bitter journey), to the gently lilting and comforting 6/8 time “Du bist de rechte Weg” (Thou art the sure way).

“Der Geist hilft unser Schwachheit” BWV 226 (The Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness), composed in 1729 for the funeral of J.H.Ernesti, headmaster of the Thomasschule, draws on a text from Romans 8 and a hymn by Martin Luther. (It is the only Bach motet for which complete orchestral scores survive – with strings doubling the first choir and reeds doubling the second.) The Israel Bach Soloists utilized consonants to bring out key words in the text and showed mood changes of contrasting sections:
‘The Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness
We do not even know how to pray
As we should pray,
But through our inarticulate groans
The Spirit himself is pleading for us…’
The chorale ended the work with a sense of well-being.

The concert ended on an optimistic note with one of the three verses Bach set of Johann Gramann’s chorale “Nun lob, mein Seel, den Herren” (Now praise, my soul, the Lord) BWV 28/2.

It was clear the singers and instrumentalists alike were properly familiar with the German texts and the fact that Bach was a deeply religious man. The evening’s repertoire combined outstanding solo moments, high quality ensemble work, with the individuality of voices and personal expression of each artist adding much interest and drawing attention to Bach’s unique treatment of each vocal line. Performing were some of Israel’s finest Baroque singers. Zohar Shefi (organ) and Ira Givol (‘cello) provided a substantial instrumental basis; with much to say, they were never too prominent. Ira Givol’s innate musicality and involvement in every gesture of the music are ever present. Hearing these works - some of the finest and most profound Baroque sacred music - performed on such a high level was, indeed, both an uplifting- and humbling experience.

The PHOENIX Early Music Ensemble performs the Zapotec Mass

2011-12-10T01:34:00.000-08:00

The Mexican jarana

The PHOENIX Ensemble is once again performing “The Zapotec Mass”, a Mexican Baroque work; the first modern performance of the work was presented by PHOENIX in the Israel Festival of 2006. A recent performance took place November 28th 2011 at Our Lady of Peace Chapel at the Notre Dame of Jerusalem Center. The imposing building, overlooking the New Gate of Jerusalem’s Old City, was completed in 1984; it suffered heavy damage in 1948 and was restored to its original status as a pilgrim centre in 1973.

In the course of her research on Latin American Baroque music, PHOENIX founder and director Myrna Herzog met American musicologist Dr. Mark Brill after having read his article “Stylistic Evolution in the Oaxaca Cathedral:1600-1800”. Brill, who had discovered the Zapotec Mass at Tulane University, New Orleans, sent Herzog a score of the work, which he had edited. Having later heard Herzog’s performance of it, Brill was thrilled with the PHOENIX rendition, claiming that her “festive approach” was “exactly what this kind of music needs”. A four-voiced work with some stylistic traits of native Mexican composers, Herzog worked much on deciphering its tempi and rhythm changes and, aware of the fact that the Mexicans like the Mass performed with instruments – chrimias (shawms), recorders, sackbuts, dulcians, rebec, etc. - she needed to find suitable instruments and the people to play them! In the Jerusalem performance, the VOCE PHOENIX Vocal Ensemble made its official debut. Formed by Herzog, this new group consists of seven solo singers – sopranos Einat Aronstein and Michal Okon, altos Avital Deri and Alon Harari (countertenor), tenor Yaacov Halperin, baritone Zachariah Kariithi and bass Assaf Benrath.

The Zapotec Mass was written by an Indian of the Zapotec tribe. Dr. Herzog has put together a “spectacle”, which includes the Mass as well as songs and dances of a number of Mexican Baroque sacred music composers, in what she refers to as a “time-space-culture trip”, the music representing various local populations: Indians, black slaves and Europeans of different origins. The Kyrie-Gloria, Credo, the Sanctus and Agnus Dei include pieces of various composers, each section ending with the relevant movement from the Zapotec Mass. The pieces accompanying the Mass were chosen by Herzog in an attempt to create an imaginary trip to Mexico. In fact, she recently visited the region of the Zapotec Indian tribe, the capital of which is Oaxaca, and was impressed by the area and its pyramids.

With gentle bird call effects issuing in the evening’s music, we are immediately transported far away from our own urban reality to the colors and rhythms of Mexico’s natural surroundings. The different styles represented here work well together - from gentle, lilting Mexican dance rhythms, to contrapuntal sacred music, to joyful celebratory pieces; this is due to careful, sensitive and tasteful approach to detail, shaping and balance of timbres. Singers were heard as soloists, duos, in small groups and as an ensemble. Kenyan baritone Zachariah Kariithi’s rich, easeful and natural singing was convincing and uplifting; countertenor Alon Harari’s vocal presence and articulate diction, Avital Deri’s well-profiled, mellow singing, Einat Aronstein’s delightfully pure sound and Assaf Benraf’s anchoring bass voice were joined by Michal Okon’s clean, tasteful and well-projected singing. Okon is clearly at home in the Spanish language and with this genre.

No less pleasing was the instrumental ensemble, outstanding in its attention to each individual mood and color, the blending of instruments and to the quality and textural diversity of the various solos. Herzog mostly conducted, infusing the music with its innate joy and infectious rhythms; at other times she joined as an instrumentalist.
The players were Shira Ben Yehoshua (shawm), Adi Silberberg (recorders, colascione), Raphael Isaac Landzbaum (alto bajón, recorders), Liron Rinot (sackbut), Alexander Fine (bass bajón), Omer Schonberger (charango, vilhuela, Baroque guitar), Dara Bloom (violone). Among the solos, there was some very impressive recorder-playing. Alexander Fine’s leading of the wind band, Rony Iwryn’s awareness of style and sensitive percussion playing and Yizhar Karshon’s (harpsichord, organ) attention to harmonic structure and to all his fellow players made for the integrating of all the musical strands.

Drawing all the threads of the program matter together to end the concert, we heard a Juguete (carol) & Guaracha (a genre of popular Cuban music of rapid tempo and with lyrics) by Juan Garcia de Zéspedes (c.1619-1678). Born in Puebla, Mexico, he sang as a choirboy under chapel master Juan Gutiérrez de Padilla (we heard a piece of Padilla in the Credo section of the program), eventually succeeding him in the post. Zéspedes composed both sacred and secular compositions in many styles – from that of Palestrina to the folkloric. “Convidando está la noche” (The night is inviting)begins as a tender lullaby, or perhaps something between a chorale and a sarabande; then, graced by vocal solos, the music changes and the Christ child is celebrated by an exuberant guaracha, Iwryn’s percussion solo lending spontaneity to the piece.
'The night is inviting here
With various pieces of music;
To the newborn infant
Let's sing tender songs of adoration...
Oh, in the guaracha, let's celebrate him
While the infant surrenders to dreams...
May they play and dance
Because we have fire in the snow, snow in the fire...' Translation:Myrna Herzog

The Carmel Quartet opens its 2011-2012 season with "Bohemian Rhapsody"

2011-12-06T11:31:00.001-08:00

Erwin Schulhoff

The Carmel Quartet opened its 2011-2012 season, the fifth of the commentated concert series “Strings and More”, with “Bohemian Rhapsody”. This writer attended the English language concert-lecture on November 23rd 2011at the Jerusalem Music Centre. Established in 1999, the Carmel Quartet is among Israel’s leading string quartets, has won prestigious prizes and performs in Israel and abroad. The quartet’s Carnegie Hall debut received an enthusiastic review in The New York Times. The Carmel Quartet has performed together with many renowned musicians. Members of the quartet are violinists Rachel Ringelstein and Lia Rakhlin, violist Yoel Greenberg and ‘cellist Tami Waterman.

The evening’s program began quite unconventionally: Rachel Ringelstein entered wearing a butchers’ apron, complete with a rubber chicken hanging off it, and read out a document publicly attesting to Anton Dvořak’s completion of a butcher’s apprenticeship. Musicologist Yoel Greenberg proceeded by informing the audience that that the butcher’s document was false, but that it was positive for the composer’s image in society! Anton Dvořak (1841-1904) was not from the upper echelons of society; his father, in fact, was a butcher. Greenberg then discussed the complications of being a Czech composer at a time when Czech music was considered “cheap”: Czech music was played in the streets of Vienna, in Europe the Czechs were considered “savage”; the German musicologist Hugo Riemann referred to the Czechs as “partially civilized” and George Bernard Shaw (who was also a music critic) felt he could not accept Czech music as serious! Dvořak, due to his social status, was no typical Romantic composer, and was referred to as a “wonder”. The truth is that audiences liked the “rustic charm” of his Moravian dances and the composer played along with this image, writing in a letter “…I still remain just what I was – a simple Czech musician…” Dvořak’s music was popular in Europe. Greenberg reminds us that conveying simplicity can sometimes be complicated!

The first violinist of the Florentine Quartet (Italy) had asked Dvořak to write a “Slavonic” quartet for the ensemble, the result being the Quartet in A major, opus 51 (1878-1879). Greenberg refers to the idea as an oxymoron, for the composer had come up with a sophisticated work in four movements. The folk elements include polkas (1st movement), a Dumka (2nd movement), a country “scene” (3rd movement), with the 4th movement – Allegro assai – representing a leaping dance. The Carmel Quartet’s performance brought out the work’s youthful fervor and warmth, clothing it in melodiousness and richness of sound - from soothing, mellifluous moments to the humor of the wink of an eye and to the hearty unbridled joy of a rustic celebration. Their playing, nevertheless, gave careful attention to detail, the variety of textures and melodic lines.

Erwin Schulhoff (1894-1942), conversely, was born to a family of musicians. He had actually been recognized as a child prodigy by Dvořak. A compulsive innovator, his music has mostly fallen into obscurity. Contrary to Dvořak, Schulhoff had no identity, or, according to Greenberg, he had a multiplicity of identities, this being evident in his compositional style, in which he mixed styles irreverently. A friend of German artist George Grosz, Schulhoff became associated with the Dada movement. Inspired by the latter style, the middle movement of his “In Futurum” is written exclusively as rests and marked “with feeling”. The audience at the JMC was able to see the score on a screen. (Greenberg reminded us that John Cage’s “4’33” was composed 30 years later.) Schulhoff toured Germany, France and England as a piano virtuoso. In the 1930’s, he and his works were blacklisted due to his radical politics and the fact that he was Jewish, his music being declared “degenerate” by the Nazi regime. He became a Russian communist, even writing a cantata based on the Communist Manifesto, was arrested as a “Russian” before he had the chance to leave Czechoslovakia and he died of tuberculosis in a concentration camp in Bavaria.

Schulhoff’s Quartet no.1, composed in 1924, expresses the composer’s rejection of Romantic tradition, favoring a more direct approach. It is fiery and dramatic, its sense of urgency dominant from the beginning. The Carmel Quartet’s brilliant, well-chiseled performance created the vivid canvas of earthy, rustic elements, boisterous utterances, jaunty modern dance rhythms, grotesque humor and mimicry, catchy melodies and Slovak folk-type melodies. Especially bewitching was the final movement, unconventionally an Andante, with its ghostly high ‘cello melody, veiled static effects evoked by harmonics, etc. The artists’ crisp, energetic reading of the quartet threw light on the composer’s own very individual direction among the 1920 modernists, offering the audience the opportunity to experience and understand this very unique work and its background. Greenberg and his fellow musicians possess the knack of drawing their audiences into the endlessly rich world of music.

French Baroque composer Elisabeth-Claude Jacquet de la Guerre - a modern professional woman composer by all standards

2011-12-04T00:47:00.000-08:00

Élisabeth-Claude Jacquet de la Guerre was born in Paris in 1665 and died there in 1729. Her father, Claude Jacquet, from whom she received her first musical instruction, was a harpsichord builder and the organist of the Église Saint-Louis-en-Île in Paris, her great uncle was an instrument-maker, her brothers Pierre and Nicolas were both organists and her elder sister, Anne, was a protégé of the Princess of Guise. Her mother, Anne de le Touche, had connections with the Daquin family; Élisabeth, herself, was eventually to become godmother to Louis-Claude Daquin (1694-1772, organist, harpsichordist and composer in the Baroque- and Galant styles.)

At the age of 5, Élisabeth-Claude performed for King Louis XIV. The Sun King and his court were so impressed by her ability on the keyboard, as well as by her beautiful voice, that the king took “la petite merveille” (the “small wonder”, as she was affectionately known), under his wing, supporting her financially. She spent several years in the court at Versailles. She was a favourite of Louis XIV’s mistress of the time – Madame de Montespan, who supervised her education – and became a member of her entourage for three or four years. In 1677, a commentator for the French gazette and literary magazine “Mercure gallant” wrote of the twelve- or thirteen-year-old Élisabeth: “She sings at sight the most difficult music. She accompanies herself and accompanies others who wish to sing, at the harpsichord, which she plays in a manner which cannot be imitated. She composes pieces, and plays them in all the keys asked of her.”

In 1684, Jacquet married Marin de la Guerre, organist of the Saint Séverin Church, thus obliging the couple to return to Paris. He was the son of Michel de la Guerre, also an organist, the elder de la Guerre being involved in theatre and in early attempts at opera. By the time she returned to Paris, Élisabeth-Claude had established herself as a composer and harpsichordist, and her reputation was to become only greater in Paris, where connoisseurs of music flocked to hear her perform on the harpsichord. She was an expert improviser, following improvisations and fantasias with songs, her playing displaying taste, her palette of harmonies rich, daring and varied.

By 1680, Jacquet had begun composing seriously; these very early works are lost. The first collection she published was Book I of the “Pièces de Clavessin” in 1687. Thought to be lost, a copy of it (possibly the only existing one) was found by scholar Carol Henry Bates in a library in Venice. There is also only one known copy of the Second Book of Harpsichord Pieces (1707). No ornament table can be found in either volume; the performer, however, can study ornamentation in other works by Jacquet and observe her use of ornament symbols.

In 1691, Jacquet de la Guerre wrote a ballet “Les jeux à l’honneur de la victoire” (Games in Honour of Victory) a typical French ballet of the time, staging dramatic action, singing and dance. The musical score to this has also been lost, but the libretto exists and is dedicated to the Sun King. Jacquet was the first French woman to write an opera: her five-act, opera “Céphale et Procris”, opening with an allegorical prologue celebrating the glory of Louis XIV, was completed by1694. The libretto, by Joseph-François Duché de Vancy, takes its inspiration from the myth as told in Ovid’s “Metamorphoses”. Of the “tragédie en musique” or “tragédie lyrique” genres, it bears the influence of Lully, as may be expected, but it also bears the stamp of Elisabeth-Claude’s own original ideas. Premiered in Paris the same year it was composed and performed in Strasbourg in 1698, the opera was not well received and enjoyed a total of five performances at the time. (The king, it seems, had lost interest in opera and the opera genre had come under attack by Catholic religious authorities, who considered it too “sensuous” a form of entertainment.) Jacquet made no further attempt at writing opera, turning her attention to other forms.

Sébastien de Brossard (1655-1730), a clergyman and cathedral choirmaster living in Strasbourg, was an admirer of La Guerre. An autodidact, pedagogue and enthusiastic collector of music, he was the author of the first dictionary of music. He had a predilection for the Italian style, which was becoming all the rage in France at the time. At that time, Jacquet produced her first set of sonatas, among the earliest examples of this form, her interest also lying in the Italienate style of writing. In 1695, she sent de Brossard a copy of her “Sonnata della signora de la guerre”, a volume consisting of four trio sonatas and two sonatas for violin and basso continuo. Brossard was impressed by Jacquet’s liberal approach, in which she, for example, occasionally allowed the viol part to take leave of the bass line of the harpsichord. Two suites of harpsichord pieces, also suited to performance on the violin, as well as a series of violin sonatas, followed in 1707. In the years 1708 and 1711, she published a set of twelve cantatas loosely based on dramatic Old Testament stories set to French texts; consisting of alternating recitatives and airs, with no choruses, they were the only published cantatas in France in that period. In 1715, Jacquet wrote three secular cantatas, all scored for soprano (or tenor), with obbligato instruments joining the continuo forces. The latter cantatas were dedicated to Maximilian II Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria, a great music lover and amateur viol player, then living in France due to the defeat of his army during Spain’s War of Succession. (All her previous works had been dedicated to King Louis XIV.)

Élisabeth-Claude’s oeuvre includes contributions to collective anthologies of airs and drinking songs, as published by the Ballard family. She also composed music for the Théâtre de la Foire (a travelling theatre of actors, dancers, musicians, acrobats, animal trainers and puppeteers that visited the annual fairs in Paris.)

Jacquet de la Guerre’s last composition was a “Te Deum” (1721), a motet for full chorus, composed as a thanksgiving for King Louis XV’s recovery from small pox. The work, her only religious work in Latin, was performed in the Chapel of the Louvre. Unfortunately, the score has been lost.

Jacquet de la Guerre’s life was beset by two tragedies: her only son, a gifted child who was already performing and accompanying on the harpsichord from a tender age, died in 1695, in his tenth year. Her husband died in 1704. Now less in the public eye, but no less active in composing and playing, she gave private tuition and hosted concerts in the salon of her home, playing her own compositions and improvising on the three harpsichords she owned. Her private recital series drew many listeners, her public appearances becoming progressively more sporadic until her retirement in 1717.

Jacquet de la Guerre’s music is in the “style brisé” (this term was coined, it seems, in the 20th century!), a style which transferred the gracefully “broken”, arpeggiated style of 17th century lutenists to the harpsichord, steering clear of thick chords and fully-realized counterpoint, and allowing her the freedom to colour harmonies with “foreign” notes. She developed the unmeasured prelude (originating as a “tuning” prelude played by lutenists) into pieces fired with emotion, drama and virtuosic challenges. These preludes have neither bar lines nor metre, this meaning that note values are not absolute, thus encouraging performers to give personal expression and spontaneity to their reading and to vary each performance, creating an improvisatory approach to each work. The keys in which they are composed, each considered different in character according to Baroque musical thought, also have bearing on the performer’s interpretation of character and mood. Jacquet was in the habit if mixing stylistic ideas: she might begin a work with an unmeasured section, follow it with short measured sections as in the Italian toccata, then concluding it with an unmeasured section. Her approach was fresh: she addressed the styles of court dances and other forms common at the time, however, layering them with her own individuality, her enterprising use of dissonance and ornaments ready to surprise and entertain performer and listener.

Following Jacquet de la Guerre’s death in1729, a medallion was issued in her honour, with her portrait on it; the inscription on it read “Aux grands musiciens, j’ai disputé le Prix” (With the great musicians I competed for the prize”). Mademoiselle de la Guerre, as she was known, had also become recognized outside the borders of France. In the “Musikalisches Lexikon” published in 1732, J.S.Bach’s cousin and friend Johann Gottfried Walther wrote of her career and oeuvre in much detail. Then, in 1776, Sir John Hawkins, in his “General History of the Science and Practice of Music”, referred to her as one of the greatest musicians France had produced, writing “So rich and exquisite a flow of harmony has captivated all that heard her.” One of the most renowned and prolific of the Baroque women composers, the impressive body of her works displays her compositional mastery in both vocal and instrumental idioms, her extraordinary gifts as a performer, her sensitivity and her flair. Her sonatas form a fundamental step in the development of French chamber music, her open-mindedness promoting the bridging of French and Italian musical styles. Her music takes the listener into the “Grand Siècle” in France, and, at the same time, to the inner world of invention and imagination. A woman of outstanding creative ability, strong character and initiative, she led the life of a professional musician, supporting herself, performing, composing and publishing much of her oeuvre during her lifetime.

The Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra, soloists and The Collegium Singers celebrate St. Cecilia's Day

2011-12-02T23:38:00.000-08:00

As a member of the board of the Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra and a Baroque music buff, I was drawn to hearing the JBO’s second concert of the current season - “Hallelujah, Santa Cecilia” – on November 27th 2011 in the Henry Crown Auditorium of the Jerusalem Theatre. The concert was conducted by Dr. David Shemer, founder and musical director of the JBO; his program notes provided plenty of interesting information as to Saint Cecilia – the acclaimed patron saint of music and church music, of musicians, composers, instrument-makers and poets - and about the works performed annually on St. Cecilia’s Day. A thousand years after she was condemned to death (she survived suffocation and beheading before dying of loss of blood) her following flourished; songs and poetry were written in her name, she was painted by Raphael and Rubens and commemorated by Chaucer. The JBO’s Santa Cecilia concert did, in fact, take place close to her traditional feast day, celebrated in the Roman Catholic, Anglican, Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches on November 22nd.

George Frideric Händel (1685-1759) composed his Ode for St. Cecilia’s Day HWV 76 in 1739 to a poem by John Dryden of 1697. It is a true ode, having no plot, and, although often overshadowed by “Alexander’s Feast” (also celebrating St. Cecilia), it is Händel’s writing at its best. We heard the Overture to the Ode, paradoxically, not in the least evocative of purity, martyrdom or Cecilia’s grisly end, but rather, a text of lively, splendidly scored and effusive music to flatter Händel’s patrons and entertain his London audiences. Opening with a dotted French overture, leading to a fugal section and a Minuet, the work draws, to some extent, on Gottlieb Muffat’s “Componimenti Musicali per il Cembalo” (Händel was an inveterate recycler) but reworked and transformed by Händel. Shemer’s reading of the overture was crisp and bristling with vitality, its pacing, overall shape and radiant timbres whetting the audience’s appetite to hear the complete Ode.

Henry Purcell (1659-1695) composed “Hail! Bright Cecilia”, also known as the “Ode to St. Cecilia”, the last and greatest of the composer’s four Odes to St. Cecilia, to a text based on Dryden’s poem by Anglo-Irish poet and clergyman Nicholas Brady in 1692. “Hail, Bright Cecilia” is the largest of the four Odes, with orchestra, six-part choir and six vocal soloists; it depicts a competition between various musical instruments, with the organ winning. The first performance took place at the Stationers’ Hall (which still exists) in November 22nd. According to P.A.Motteux, who attended the premiere, it met with “universal applause” and had to be repeated!

Shemer and his musicians presented the rich, many-faceted scope of Purcell’s writing in a performance of constant interest and aesthetic pleasure. Oded Reich’s performance in solo, duet and trio was exemplary in depth, musicality and richness of vocal color. Mezzo-soprano Avital Dery (singing the role frequently performed by a counter tenor) was attentive to detail, her vocal ease, timbre and range impressive, her awareness of the text colored by its emotions. (Unfortunately, the muffled acoustic of the Henry Crown Hall is not conducive to projecting the darker voice!) Her handling of the melismatic, heavily ornamented aria “’Tis Nature’s Voice” was, indeed, competent. Tenor David Nortman’s voice and musicality are well suited to this style: he excels in the delicate shaping of phrases, his uncluttered singing and his sensitive approach and fine British diction.

The bright, articulate and silvery signature sound of the Collegium Singers (musical director Avner Itai, prepared for this concert by Eduardo Abramson) was especially well suited to the work and Purcell’s contrapuntal choruses. We heard two sopranos from the choir in solo- and ensemble roles.

With the text of the work rife with references to musical instruments (Dryden was the first to suggest that Cecilia invented, rather than just played, the organ) the score calls for much obbligato playing and the JBO players did not disappoint. We heard delightful recorder-playing (Drora Bruck, Katharine Abrahams) in the sarabande “Hark, each tree” and in the expressive alto and tenor duet set to a passacaglia bass “In vain the Am’rous Flute”; oboes (AmirBakman, Shira Ben Yehoshua) and bassoon (Alexander Fine) in “Thou tun’st the world” and joining Oded Reich in the compelling “Wondrous machine”. Playing on natural trumpets, Yuval Shapira and Richard Berlin added sparkle and pizzazz to the energy and overall timbre of the ensemble.

A celebratory work, comprising of masterful instrumental sections, majestic choruses and various solos, duets and trios, the work’s unparalleled invention and richness is as fresh and inspiring today to performers and audiences alike as it was when composed. Seventeenth century audiences appear to have been less taken up with verbal texts than today’s concert-goers, with Purcell’s captivating music making up for some of the lesser quality texts he chose; his word- and text painting is a brilliant feature of his writing and not to be ignored.

As fate would have it, Purcell died on the eve of St. Cecilia’s Day of 1695, probably of pneumonia. He was only 36 years old.

Ludwig van Beethoven visits the Hadassah Medical Center, Ein Kerem (Jerusalem) in the hope for a better diagnosis

2011-11-26T09:10:00.000-08:00

The subject was the life and death of Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) as seen through the eyes of four doctors and researchers of the Hadassah Medical Center Jerusalem. It was 1:00 on November 23rd and the auditorium of the Ein Kerem hospital was more than crowded with medical staff interested in the case history of a great composer. The event began with the opening bars of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata in A flat major opus 26 played by Dr. Ayelet Shower (Cardiology). Dr. Shower then proceeded to sketch in details of Beethoven’s life – that his father was an alcoholic and that he had lost three siblings, that he was single and alone and that his hearing had begun to deteriorate at age 26. She spoke of the many hearing devices Beethoven himself and his friend Maelzel (inventor of the metronome) had built in order to hear sound vibrations better, of his suicide wish at one stage, his liking of women and drink and of his many health issues. The long list of medical problems was compiled from his doctors’ reports and his own writings; to name some - headaches, fever, rheumatism, gout, back pain, eye problems and liver problems. He seems to have spent much of his 50’s in bed. Close to his death, Beethoven's appetite much diminished but suffering from constant thirst, his doctor prescribed a cocktail in an attempt to save him, but to no avail.

Next to talk was Professor Yaakov Naparstek, chairman of Hadassah University Hospital and professor of Medicine at the Hebrew University Hadassah School of Medicine (Internal Medicine, Clinical Immunology, Allergy). Professor Naparstek based his diagnosis on the writings of Beethoven’s last doctor, on Beethoven’s conversation books (used for communication), the Heiligenstadt Testament, etc. He spoke of the composer’s deafness and despair: “What humiliation when anyone beside me heard a flute in the far distance, and I heard nothing.” We viewed a picture of Beethoven bent over his piano, his ear actually resting on the wood! By 1801, Beethoven no longer heard high notes, yet he could not tolerate shouting. Naparstek mentioned the “Beethoven gene” and talked about research done on the composer’s skull. He rules out the possibility of Beethoven having suffered from Paget’s disease (a chronic bone condition) but not Cogan’s Syndrome (a rare rheumatic condition characterized by inflammation of ears and eyes).

Dr. Shower’s playing the opening of the “Moonlight” Sonata opus 27 no.2 provided some welcome relief prior to Professor Naparstek’s launching into a detailed discussion of Beethoven’s internal problems. He talked about research based on examination of Beethoven’s bones and hair and corrected some of the misinformation concerning the composer: Beethoven did not have syphilis; neither did he suffer from rheumatism (this Naparstek saw from pictures of the composer’s hands). Beethoven liked to drink, but he was not necessarily an alcoholic. He had intestinal problems. Did the composer suffer from lead poisoning as the result of his drinking from a goblet made partially from lead? Professor Naparstek claims that what is absolutely clear is that Beethoven died of liver malfunction.

Ear, Nose and Throat specialist Dr. Michal Kaufman-Yeheskeli imagined Beethoven navigating the corridors of the Hadassah Medical Center, carrying a bag with his various hearing aids. She diagnosed him as having inner ear problems and as suffering from tinnitus, driven mad by “rushing and roaring sounds” in his head. Today the Hadassah specialists would be able to improve the state of his hearing with a cochlear implant. Beethoven was obliged to leave the world of performing because of his deafness, investing his energy in composing.

Pathologist Dr. Karen Meir reinforced what had sadly become clear to all of us present – that Beethoven had suffered a lot. Lying on his deathbed, the composer requested the doctors carry out an autopsy on his body; Dr. Johann Wagner and Karl von Rokitansky performed it in Beethoven’s house and a detailed report was written. Dr. Meir suggests Beethoven might have suffered from a multi-system disease from a young age, but she emphasized that microscopic examinations were not carried out and that these would have produced clearer findings.

In a letter to his brothers, to be opened only after his death, Beethoven wrote:” Oh ye, who think or declare me to be hostile, morose or misanthropical, how unjust you are, and how little you know the secret cause of what appears to you….six years ago I was attacked by an incurable malady, aggravated by unskillful physicians, deluded from year to year, too, by the hope of relief, and, at length, forced to the conviction of a lasting affliction”. Poor Beethoven! His music has given so much interest, inspiration and joy to the world yet he, himself, was lonely and ill. On his deathbed he uttered “Applaud, my friends. The comedy is over…”

Andrew Parrott conducts The New Israeli Vocal Ensemble in a program of French sacred music

2011-11-23T08:18:00.000-08:00

Camille Saint-Saens

“Sun over Paradise” was the title of the concert that opened the New Israeli Vocal Ensemble’s 2011-2012 concert season. Andrew Parrott (UK) conducted the concerts, which comprised of sacred works of Saint-Saëns and Fauré. This writer attended the concert November 17th 2011 at the Jerusalem Khan.

The New Israeli Vocal Ensemble, formed in 1993 by its musical director Yuval Ben Ozer, is a professional chamber choir performing widely in concerts and festivals in Israel and further afield. The ensemble’s varied repertoire spans from music of the Middle Ages to contemporary music, singing both a cappella works and others, performing under the direction of Ben Ozer and other internationally-renowned conductors. The NIVE has also premiered several Israeli works.

Scholar and conductor Andrew Parrott, associated with his work with the Taverner Choir, Consort and Players, one of today’s foremost groups performing Renaissance- and Baroque music, is a specialist in authentic performance of 16th-, 17th – and 18th century vocal music, but is no less at home conducting works of later eras. Maestro Parrott is a familiar figure of the Israeli concert scene.

One tends to associate the music of Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921) with certain popular works – such as his operas, the 3rd Symphony or “Carnival of the Animals”. The fact remains that, towards the end of his long life, the composer took to composing sacred works. His Oratorio de Noël opus 12 is, however, an early work, written when the composer was 23 years old. It is more a cantata than oratorio in length, was composed in less than two weeks and completed shortly before its first performance on Christmas of 1858. Actually, only a small part of the text tells the Christmas story, the rest being made up of largely of Psalms. Somewhat evocative of the sacred music of Mendelssohn, the work is graced with shapely vocal lines and elegant contrapuntal choral writing and is typical of historicism, an approach common in church music of the time.

In the performance we heard, the many solos were sung by members of the NIVE, some solos engaging, others pedestrian. Parrott had his singers pronouncing the Latin text in the French manner. The Benedictus – duet for soprano and baritone, harp and organ – was given a lively, pleasing reading by soprano Carmit Natan and baritone Guy Pelc. Seated on one side of the stage, the instrumental ensemble, though small, provided some illuminating tone painting of the texts, from the dramatic storm scene of
‘Why do the nations conspire
And the peoples plot in vain?’ (Psalm 2,1)
to the ethereal tranquility of the following “Gloria Patri”.
In general, the vocal ensembles provided plenty of musicality and interest in a performance that did not always manage to sweep the audience into the warm Romantic transcendency of the work. There is no doubt that the dry, uncompromising acoustic of the Khan theatre worked against the sparkle usually generated by the work, plus the fact that an electronic organ is no substitute for the timbre and character of the pipe organ.

It was Saint-Saëns, Fauré’s teacher at the Niedemeyer School for Church Musicians, who initially encouraged the young Fauré to compose. Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924) began to compose his Requiem opus 48 in 1887, making a point of deviating from the overloaded, sentimental and bombastic operatic writing of his day. His use of texts for a Requiem also deviated from what was conventional. Despite Fauré’s being an agnostic, one can not ignore the powerful spirituality evident throughout the work, its harmonic language based on plainchant and modal writing.

A larger ensemble accompanied the NIVE in this performance of Fauré’s Requiem. The opening Kyrie, dramatic and fateful, ‘cellos and double bass creating a dark backdrop for this movement, set the scene for Parrott’s reading of the work, for his emphasis of the play of light and dark, with tempestuousness transforming into delicately reflective, spiritual moments of consolation. Parrott’s interpretation of the work was not one of conservative restraint. The audience enjoyed the choir’s rich mix of timbres together with Fauré’s palette of instrumental color, as in the shimmering Sanctus (Holy, Holy), glistening with violin and harp. Baritone Guy Pelc carried the lion’s share of solos convincingly, his voice luxuriant, his performance imbued with feeling. He was joined by the choir in an involving performance of the “Libera me” (Free me, Lord), in which Fauré paints a fearful and personal vision of “Judgement Day”. The “Pie Jesu” (Merciful Jesus) with its cradle-like rocking lilt, was performed neither by a boy soprano nor by a countertenor: soprano Carmit Natan performed the simple, childlike prayer with melodious tranquility. Parrott conveyed the work’s message, quoted by the composer himself as being “dominated…by a very human feeling of faith in eternal rest”. Fauré, the organist of the Madeleine in Paris, threads the haunting, sublime sounds of the organ through the entire work. Once again, the absence of the sonority and presence of a pipe organ was a disadvantage.

Trio Nota Bene (Switzerland) performs Mendelssohn, Martin and Tchaikovsky at the Jerusalem Music Centre

2011-11-16T04:49:00.000-08:00

The Jerusalem Music Centre, in collaboration with Culture Scapes- the Swiss Season in Israel – hosted Trio Nota Bene in a concert at the JMC November 11th, 2011. All three members of the trio – pianist Lionel Monnet, violinist Julien Zufferey and ‘cellist Xavier Pignat – come from the Canton of Valais (Switzerland), receiving diplomas in chamber music from the Lausanne Conservatory in 2000. Trio Nota Bene performs widely in Europe, collaborates with other players and ensembles, records and takes part in festivals. The trio premieres new chamber works and is the recipient of a number of prizes and awards.

Following words of welcome from Hed Sella, executive director of the Jerusalem Music Centre, the concert opened with Felix .Mendelssohn’s (1809-1847) Piano Trio no.2 in C minor, opus 66. In the 1844-1845 season, Mendelssohn had taken a year off from his accumulating performing- and conducting obligations in Leipzig, where he served as the first musical director of the Gewandhaus Orchestra; by the beginning of 1945, Mendelssohn was free to devote more time to composition, composing, among other works, the opus 66 C minor Trio. It was dedicated to the renowned conductor, composer and violinist Louis Spohr, who was known to have played through the work with Mendelssohn at least once. Opening with the Allegro energico e con fuoco, Trio Nota Bene’s playing of the work was communicative, controlled and clean, Mendelssohn’s powerful utterance of this movement never sounding over-sentimental, Monnet’s use of the sustaining pedal never washing away clear melodic lines. If we were reminded of the “Songs Without Words in the Andante, the third movement – Scherzo - conjured up the charm, lightness and fantasy of the setting of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, its dreamlike timbres eventually dissolving into minimal vaporous strands . The Finale, a rondo, began with a vivacious, sharp-profiled melody in the ‘cello, but then we hear the piano quoting “Vor Deinem Thron” (Before Thy Throne), a chorale from the Geneva Psalter of 1551, an unexpected element in chamber music, although Mendelssohn had used chorales several times in other instrumental compositions.

The Swiss content of the program consisted mostly of Frank Martin’s (1890-1974) Piano "Trio on Popular Irish Folk Tunes" (1925), a work commissioned by a wealthy Irish-American business man. Living in Paris at the time, Martin found the ancient Irish melodies in books in the Bibliothèque Nationale (National Library) of Paris and used them as melodic- and rhythmic raw material for the three movements of the work. The work begins with a drone to set off the first Irish melody, setting the scene for a work based on folk music. The Nota Bene players certainly got into the spirit of energy and exuberance of Irish music, emphasizing the work’s spicy, asymmetric phrases, sudden changes of melody and textures, Martin’s skilful use of thematic variation, syncopations and wild dance rhythms. Zufferey’s playing was certainly evocative of the fiddle. The players gave the Gigue (Irish Jig) their all, with plenty of intensity and give-and-take.

When Nadezhda von Meck (Tchaikovsky’s patron and confidante) wrote to the composer asking why he had never written a trio, the composer answered that, in this sonority, the instruments formed an unnatural combination and that “any kind of trio or sonata with piano or ‘cello is absolute torture for me”. P.I.Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) did then write one piano trio – Piano Trio in A minor opus 50 “In Memory of a Great Artist”(1882) – the artist being pianist Nikolai Rubinstein, founder of the Moscow Conservatory of Music, who died at age 45. Rubinstein was a colleague and close friend of the composer and had premiered many of Tchaikovsky’s piano works; yet he was also a severe critic of Tchaikovsky and his music. The A minor Piano Trio consists of two movements – an introductory elegy and a vast theme and variations, the last variation constituting an independent finale. Tchaikovsky purposely gave the piano much prominence. The trio is a mammoth work both in length and in its technical demands; in the past, chamber music players have been known to shorten sections…an unorthodox practice! Trio Nota Bene took on board the technical and emotional aspects of the work, opening with sonorous weaving of melodies and gestures, its funereal, darker moments punctuating more intensive sections. The movement ended with a thoughtful rendering of the original theme in a fragmented form. The players presented a range of emotions, styles, associations and references in the Theme and Variations (Tchaikovsky wrote that the variations represented scenes and events of Rubinstein’s life) – from dark foreboding, heavy gestures, to feather-light moments, to Viennese-type dance associations, to a Chopinesque Mazurka, from highly orchestrated variations to ghostly arpeggiated textures, finally referring back to the doleful opening theme of the first movement. It was a moving performance. Trio Nota Bene exercises restraint and good taste, avoiding mannerisms and taking troule to illuminate the musical text. Their playing is direct, focused and sincere.

For an encore, the trio chose the second of Swiss-born composer Ernest Bloch’s “Three Nocturnes for Piano Trio” (1924), its serene, lyrical theme expressed in long phrases.

Subscribers to the JMC’s 2011-2012 Chamber Music Series were invited to attend the festive concert as guests of the Centre, later enjoying a reception and the chance to chat with the artists.

The Israel Contemporary Players open their 2011-2012 season with works by Avni, Ferneyhough and Adams

2011-11-13T04:31:00.000-08:00

Ernesto Molinari

The Israel Contemporary Players, conducted by Zsolt Nagy, opened their 2011-2012 season with a program of music by Israeli-, American- and English composers. The program was one of the events in conjunction with Culture Scapes (Switzerland) with Swiss clarinetist Ernesto Molinari as guest artist. Introducing the Israel Contemporary Players’ 21st concert season, Zmira Lutzky (Voice of Music, Israel Radio) mentioned that the evening’s program would include works of “New Complexity”, “New Simplicity” and styles that exist between them, a program of ensemble works and solo performance. This writer attended the concert on November 6th 2011 at the Jerusalem Music Centre.

Born in 1956 in Lugano, Switzerland, Ernesto Molinari studied clarinet in Basel and bass clarinet in Amsterdam. He performs as soloist and chamber musician throughout Europe, performing Classical, Romantic and contemporary music. He has premiered many works, some of which were composed for him. Molinari is also a jazz musician. He presently teaches at the Conservatory in Bern.

Hungarian conductor Zsolt Nagy (b.1957) is one of today’s most sought-after conductors of contemporary music. A graduate of the Ferenc Liszt Academy (Budapest), Nagy conducts and holds master classes in Europe and further afield. He has premiered over 500 new compositions. He has been conductor and artistic director of the ICP since 1999 and has received a special award for excellence in the performing of Israeli music.

The program opened with Israeli composer Tzvi Avni’s (b.1927) “Five Pantomimes” for eight instruments, a collection of miniatures composed in 1968, each inspired by a different famous painting. Tzvi Avni was present at the concert in Jerusalem and talked briefly about “Five Pantomimes”. He opened by saying that he had seen each of the original paintings, the resulting five pieces describing his emotional reactions to them rather than the paintings themselves. The audience was able to view the paintings on a screen. Stark, uncompromisingly foreboding sonorities, siren-like sounds, the eerie knell of the gong and static moments were expressed in Avni’s piece based on Pablo Picasso’s “Guernica” (1937), a painting representing the bombing of Guernica by Italian and German airplanes during the Spanish Civil War. Following the arid, sadly humorous canvas evoking Marc Chagall’s “I and the Village” (1911), in which we heard a plaintive Yiddish melody (viola) and bells, the atmosphere lightened to show Wassily Kandinsky’s joyful “La petite emouvante” on the screen. Avni’s music describes its two main sections and other smaller details, opening with a lilting double bass melody, the ensemble bringing out the whimsical aspect of the work with an entertaining kaleidoscope of detail and instrumental color. Inspired by Salvador Dali’s surrealistic “The Persistence of Memory” (1931), with its melting, soft watches placed in the painter’s own landscape, the piece invites the listener to indulge in the irrational and the disquieting to the ticking of time. For Tzvi Avni, Paul Klee’s “17 Astray” (1923) describes the temperament and drama in the mind of a 17-year-old. In this whimsical collage of hints and associations, we hear a little Viennese-type waltz, whistles, small mood changes and even a Dies Irae. (Klee was quoted as saying “Art does not produce the visible; rather, it makes visible”.) “Five Pantomimes” is a richly expressive and representative work, using a combination of modernist techniques and reflects the composer’s deep connection with the plastic arts.

Also inspired by painting, the program included British composer Brian Ferneyhough’s (b.1843) “La Chute d’Icare” (The Fall of Icarus). In this case, the work was inspired by Pieter Brueghel’s painting of 1558, where the individual is dwarfed by the landscape around him, as well as W.H.Auden’s poem about the same painting. In Ferneyhough’s score, the role of Icarus is played by the clarinet (Ernesto Molinari). The score, for mixed septet and solo clarinet, is one of complicated substructure (New Complexity), into which relatively free musical material is placed. The composer sees these overlapping rhythmic- and formal layers as “prisons in which the music lives”. In an intense, many-faceted texture, the disquieting music spirals into a clarinet cadenza (representing the downfall of Icarus) in which Molinari’s playing presents anguish in sounds evocative of the human voice. This is a kind of mini clarinet concerto in which the seven other instruments appear to have their own agenda but they pick up on the clarinet‘s energy. Ferneyhough’s complex and technically challenging writing is known to take players out of their comfort zone; not so the Israel Contemporary players and the unruffled Molinari. Zsolt Nagy took his players through the work with clear and emphatic direction.

Brian Ferneyhough’s solo pieces from the mid-70’s – Unity Capsule for Flute, Time and Motion Study I and II for bass clarinet and ‘cello, respectively – all deal with transcendence. The composer said that “these compositions emerged from the moment of explosive confluence of a large array of concerns, many of them not directly or obviously ‘musical’ in nature…..what place music can realistically claim in the task of critically observing the world around us.” Ferneyhough began “ Time and Motion Study I” in 1970, returning to it in 1977, the various fragments coming together in a “network of procedures, transformed into structural energy”. Ernesto Molinari presented the work’s polyphonic aspect – each voice as a different personality - on a monophonic instrument, the work’s fabric composed of a contrast of registers, intensities, moods and emotions. Outspoken gestures are juxtaposed by veiled moments. Disjointed- and conjoined gestures come together as the result of the player’s strategic timing between motifs. It was a deeply moving performance. So strong was the human message of Molinari’s performance that it seems superfluous here to mention the piece’s innate virtuosity.

John Adams’ (b. USA, 1947) “Son of the Chamber Symphony” (2007) was commissioned by Stanford University, Carnegie Hall and the San Francisco Ballet. A homage to Schönberg’s chamber symphonies, it is scored for flute (also playing piccolo), oboe, clarinet, bass clarinet, bassoon, horn, trumpet, trombone, piano (also playing celesta), two percussionists, two violins, viola, ‘cello and double bass. This large chamber ensemble, or small orchestra, means that all players get to be soloists, giving Adams “an opportunity to do the kind of challenging virtuoso writing that I would never attempt with a large orchestra”. Referring to the spirit and style of his previous works – his approach a far cry from the academic modernism of many of his contemporaries - Adams lures us into his world of orchestral colors and witty propulsion. “Son of the Chamber Symphony” opens with jouncing, stop-start rhythms and a jazzy urgency and is rife with jagged, dance-like rhythms that make staying seated in a concert hall a somewhat challenging task. The second movement soothes the audience with sonorous, nostalgic melody lines of fluidity and tranquility before twisting itself into a more agitated state, with strings and horns moving together at a frantic pace. The third movement sweeps listeners back to vibrant timbres and forceful rhythms, the bass drum insisting throughout. Adams’ score actually calls for trash can lids for the work’s gentler, hazier parting sounds.

Zsolt Nagy’s approach is of depth, lucidity and articulate musical expression; he and the sharp-witted young instrumentalists of the Israel Contemporary Players communicate directly, providing an evening of fine music, much interest and outstanding performance.

The Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra opens its 2011-2012 season with "The Contest Between Phoebus and Pan"

2011-11-09T00:07:00.000-08:00

As a member of the board of the Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra, I was curious to hear the ensemble’s opening concert for the 2011-2012 season - “The Contest Between Phoebus and Pan” - in the Henry Crown Auditorium of the Jerusalem Theatre November 1st, 2011. This all-Bach program was the JBO’s first concert in this venue. The Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra was founded by Maestro David Shemer in 1989 and continues to be directed by him.

The program opened with Johann Sebastian Bach’s (1685-1750) Ouverture-Suite no.3 in D major BWV 1068, one of four Orchestral Suites (also referred to as “Ouvertures”) probably composed in Leipzig in the 1720’s and possibly first performed by the Collegium Musicum – an association of musicians and music enthusiasts, of which Bach was a member. In his program notes, Shemer talks of the Collegium Musicum concerts as being one of the first concert series in Europe. With Bach and his contemporaries constantly “borrowing” from themselves, these suites may well be arrangements from previously composed works. In the D major Suite, orchestration varies from movement to movement; the instrumentation – which includes three trumpets, timpani, two oboes, strings and continuo - suggests that it may have been written for performance outdoors. The oboes rarely play independently of the violins, with the trumpets and drums adding color and emphasis. Bach chose the bright, open key of D major for this suite, which is based on French dance movements. Opening with a dotted, decidedly grand French overture the JBO presented each dance and mood, leaning into dissonances, the rich scoring supporting the more exuberant movements. Violinist Boris Begelman leads articulately, etching phrases with elegance and shape. In the well-loved second movement – Air – Begelman’s cantabile (but, happily, not over-sentimental) playing of this much-loved solo melody delighted the audience, his tasteful and sparing use of vibrato ornamenting longer- and key notes.

The JBO’s performance of Bach’s secular cantata “The Contest Between Phoebus and Pan” BWV 201 was a groundbreaker, being the first performance of this wonderful work on period instruments and by an Israeli ensemble. To a libretto by Picander (after Ovid), it is unique in that it was neither commissioned nor dedicated to a patron, thus giving the composer the liberty to express his own opinions on aesthetic- and other matters. The opening chorus, with its rich, swirling instrumentation, sets the scene for Bach’s prescribing of a few home truths, these clothed in a frivolous storyline. Take, for example, the wisdom of Momus (god of satire, mockery, censure, writers and poets) in an aria performed by young soprano Anat Edri. Edri’s voice is excellent for Baroque music, her technique light and agile.
‘My lord, this is just wind –
When someone brags and has no cash,
When someone thinks the truth
Only what is in front of his eyes,
When fools are clever,
When fortune itself is blind –
My lord, this is just wind.’

Mezzo-soprano Inbal Hever’s reedy, strong voice has presence and a rich mix of vocal color. As Mercurius (god of trade, abundance and commercial success) it is she (he, actually) who suggests that Pan and Phoebus should each choose a judge and that they hold a context. In her final aria “Puffed up passion”, in which Mercurius warns those who know nothing not to judge, flautists Geneviève Blanchard and Idit Shemer join forces, gracing the aria in a superb obbligato duet. It seems this aria carries a word of advice to music critics….

Phoebus was played by bass Assif Am-David. His understanding of Baroque style, excellent German, humor and natural stage ability were matched by mellifluous singing of melismatic passages and delicate ornamentation in “With longing I press your tender cheeks”. Bach’s lighter instrumentation creates the mood, also expressed elegantly by Blanchard on flute.

Tenor David Nortman, sang the role of Tmolus - a mountain god, judge of the musical contest between Phoebus and Pan. In his pleasing presentation of the aria “Phoebus, your melody was born of charm itself”, he is joined by the warm and caressing sounds of the Baroque bassoon (Alexander Fine) in dialogue with superb playing on the part of German oboist Inge Brendler, who, at the last minute, more-than-competently took over the reins from the first oboist who was taken ill.

Adding a lighter vocal timbre was Jake White (UK) who played Mydas, the wealthy but foolish king of Phrygia, whose golden touch did not prevent him from being awarded a pair of asses’ ears (we hear the braying in Bach’s score) for his poor judgement in preferring the music of the pipe. Setting off the vocal line was the articulate and artfully-phrased playing of double bass player Dara Blum
‘Ah! Do not torment me so much.
That is the way I heard it.
How badly this appointment
Has turned out for me.’

Audiences are currently enjoying bass-baritone Oded Reich’s lustrous, stable voice and musicality in many local performances. Outstanding in his expressive performance of sacred music, he, indeed, entered into the whimsical spirit of this cantata in the role of Pan. Both facially expressive and light of foot in the following aria, he also created a nice contrast in the serious content of middle section.
‘In dancing and leaping my heart shakes.
When music sounds too laborious
And the voice sings under control,
Then it arouses no fun”.

The soloists also formed the chorus, as in the manner of Bach’s own performances of his choral works. Unfortunately, the changed acoustic of the recently-refurbished stage of the Henry Crown Auditorium seemed to somewhat intercept the JBO’s brightness and articulacy of sound before it reached the ears of the audience. There were also some intonation problems with the Baroque trumpets; nevertheless, it was a treat hearing these natural instruments in a Bach cantata, problematic as they are, and let’s hear more of them!

“The Contest Between Phoebus and Pan” is a fine work, worthy of more airing. The audience followed the text with interest and left the concert smiling and well entertained. This reviewer, however, is not taking Picander’s text and Bach’s message with a grain of salt!

The Chiri Jazz Trio performs a mix of jazz and traditional Korean music at the Enav Center (Tel Aviv)

2011-11-05T04:26:00.000-07:00

Australian Ambassador Andrea Faulkner and Korean Ambassador Kim Il Soo hosted a unique musical event October 29th 2011 at the Enav Cultural Centre, Tel Aviv. On arriving, guests were offered an opportunity to taste Korean food and Australian wines as they circulated, chatting with invitees and members of the Chiri Jazz Trio – percussionist Simon Barker (Australia), trumpeter Scott Tinkler (Australia) and Korean pansori singer Bae Il-Dong (Korea). The Chiri Trio is on a concert tour hosted by Australian embassies in Egypt, Jordan, Cyprus, Jordan, Turkey and Israel, the tour ending with a performance in Washington D.C.

Ambassador Andrea Faulkner welcomed newly appointed Ambassador Kim and guests, mentioning that this special evening was also a celebration of 50 years of bilateral relations between Australia and Korea. She spoke of the event bringing together the excellence of standards of music in Australia, the fact that cultural exchange creates new genres and of the sophisticated music scene in Israel. Ambassador Kim, thanking Ms. Faulkner for this opportunity, spoke of the meeting of east and west, about the fact that Korea wishes to reach out to the world through its art forms and that Korean artists are open to experimenting.

Scott Tinkler spoke of the two Australians’ deep, long-standing involvement in Korea and the essence of its music. We were shown a few minutes of Australian singer Emma Franz’s documentary “Intangible Asset No. 82”, a film telling of Simon Barker’s search for Korean shaman (intercessor between gods and humans) Kim Seok-Chul, a man he believes to be one of the world’s greatest improvisers. The film, set in the wild, unspoiled nature of mountain regions in Korea, shows how pansori singers spend many hours a day undergoing vocal training by waterfalls. (Pansori – often referred to as Korean opera – is a type of traditional music-theatre performed by a singer and drummer.) From the film, we learn that Bae Il-Dong spent seven years living alone by waterfalls, learning to sing. “Chiri” is a mountain in the southern Sobaek range of Korea where Il-Dong camped during those years. The singer recalls: “Looking back now, I don’t know how I lived like that. But I believe in reincarnation and I believe I was born with this destiny”.

The first half of the program at the Enav Center consisted of a series of improvised pieces. Tinkler began the first as a trumpet solo, soon to be joined by Barker. From the outset, the audience quickly became aware that we were, indeed, hearing two outstanding jazz musicians. Bae-Il-Dong, dressed in traditional Korean clothes and holding a fan, then joined, singing long, monosyllabic notes, his powerful singing using a variety of different vocal effects. Each mood piece, fresh with spontaneously inspired improvisations, constituted musical expression of tireless energy and deep communication. Bae was not static on the stage, often approaching the player with whom he was connecting. All musicians communicated with face and eyes.

The second half of the program presented content of a more programmatic nature - two epic poems. The first “The Scent of Spring Fragrance”- telling the story of a beautiful young married woman thrown into prison because of refusing the advances of an official – opens with an evocative gong solo. As the drama develops, Bae adds meaning with hand- and body movements, approaching one instrumentalist or the other. There were many tender moments in this piece.

In the second epic poem, we were in for more emotional action in the story of a young woman who sacrifices herself in the sea to a dragon lord in order to restore her blind father’s sight. The Banquet Scene is one of powerful drama, using speech mixed with song, an extraordinary display of circular breathing on the part of Tinkler….in short, total involvement on the part of all three artists. It is a piece of vehement, intense outpouring. Barker and Tinkler play it out in their own musical language and Dong in his. This mix of styles retains its separateness, coming together in the artists’ oneness of spirit. Dong is an artist to be reckoned with: his uncompromising, gritty, instinctual vocal style comes from the gut – his is the expression of deep pain and ecstatic joy. Tinkler talked of the ensemble’s work as based on trust, relationships and ongoing work. The audience was impressed and moved.

The Israel Camerata Jerusalem, together with soloists and the Basler Madrigalisten, performs Handel's "Messiah"

2011-11-03T08:21:00.000-07:00

Having recently opened its 28th concert season, the Israel Camerata Jerusalem performed G.F.Händel’s “Messiah” on October 25th 2011, filling the Henry Crown Auditorium of the Jerusalem Theatre. The concert was also one of the events of Culture Scapes – the Swiss Cultural Season in Israel. Under the baton of its founder, director and conductor Maestro Avner Biron, the orchestra was joined by the Basler Madrigalisten (Basel Madrigalists) and soloists – soprano Ruby Hughes (UK), countertenor James Laing (UK), tenor James Oxley (UK) and bass-baritone Markus Flaig (Germany).

The writing of Händel’s “Messiah” HWV 56 (1741) was actually requested by Charles Jennens, Händel’s librettist. The composer obliged, writing the entire work (he composed 26 oratorios in London) in 24 days, the oratorio having its first performance in Dublin in 1742. So great was the demand for tickets to the premiere that a request was sent out asking “the favour of the Ladies not to come with hoops” and the gentlemen “to come without their swords”. The oratorio’s initial years of airing in London, however, came up against opposition of different kinds: the English claimed it had no story, that there were too few solos and too many choral movements. Jennens, himself, was disappointed and wrote “I shall put no more sacred works into his hands”. Various religious groups were opposed to Händel’s use of biblical texts in the theatre, “prostituting sacred things to the perverse humour of a Set of obstinate people”. (Most of the texts are taken from the Old Testament, specifically from the Book of Isaiah, the New Testament texts coming from a number of different scriptures.) Those objecting were surely unaware of the fact that the duet-choruses in “Messiah” were actually reworkings of love-duets Händel had written previously, these providing balance with the larger choruses, interaction between individual singers and moments of intimacy to the work. Actually intended as an Easter oratorio, “Messiah” is much performed around Christmas. Twenty five years following its premiering, however, “Messiah” had become so popular in London that there were almost riots amongst those wishing to attend performances at Westminster Abbey. The work has remained one of the most frequently performed oratorios.

The Basler Madrigalisten (musical director Fritz Näf), an ensemble of up to 24 singers (depending on repertoire), founded in 1978 at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, addressed each choral section with the choir’s bright timbre hallmark, superbly articulate diction and use of consonantal textures and separations to draw attention to key words. Their choral sound is one of a rich mix of individual colors, all sections well balanced, the two countertenors adding interest to the alto section. Soprano Ruby Hughes sang with radiant purity of sound on one hand, her performance enhanced by her sense of drama, on the other. Tenor James Oxley was commanding, gripping and intense in his detailed presentation of the texts. Bass-baritone Markus Flaig’s work on the oratorio genre spans from the Renaissance to contemporary works. His solos in this performance illuminated the meaning of the text. His reverent and expressive singing of “For behold, darkness shall cover the earth” (Isaiah 40/60) evoked, almost visually, the play of light and darkness in the words. Charismatic young British countertenor James Laing addressed and involved the audience all the way, his voice, powerful and moving, delivering the text with emotional depth, his lines tastefully ornamented. His fluid singing of “He was despised” (Isaiah 50/53) was imbued with both suffering and resentment.

The orchestra’s playing was effective, clean and delicate, Biron never missing an opportunity to create a mood, to flex very gently in the name of expression and to draw out contrasts. His brass players also delighted the audience in their exuberant, precise gesturing. Spiraling into an exciting Hallelujah Chorus (the audience did not rise), the performance then swept us with the optimism and exuberance of the “Hymn for the Final Overthrow of Death” to the final, many-faceted and grand fugal “Amen”. There have been many performances of “Messiah” in Israel over recent years. The Israel Camerata Jerusalem’s performance of “Messiah” was, however, truly memorable.

The Basel Madrigalists perform at the October 2011 Abu Gosh Vocal Music Festival

2011-10-31T06:24:00.000-07:00

The Basler Madrigalisten (Basel Madrigalists) are an ensemble founded at the Basel Schola Cantorum in 1978. Focusing largely on early- and contemporary music, the choir has toured much of Europe, Australia, the United States, Lebanon and the Far East. The Basler Madrigalisten drew a large audience at a concert in the Abu Gosh Vocal Music Festival, October 21st 2011 in the Kiryat Yearim Church in the Judean Hills. The Basler Madrigalisten were in Israel as part of the "Culturescapes" Season of Swiss Culture.

Having founded the Basler Madrigalisten, performing tenor, teacher and orchestral- and choral conductor Fritz Näf (b.Switzerland, 1943) has been full-time artistic director and conductor of the ensemble since 2000.

Pianist Paul Suits (b.California) (piano and organ) has concertized in the Far East, Canada, throughout Europe and the United States. He has held positions in opera houses and music academies in Switzerland. Paul Suits has also composed operas, choral works and songs.

Opening the program with a joyous rendering of Heinrich Schütz’ jubilant motet “Die Himmel erzählen die Ehre Gottes”, Psalm 19 (The heavens are telling of God in glory) (1648) for mixed choir, one of 29 motets of the opus 11 “Geistliche Chormusik” collection (Spiritual Choral Music). In his preface to these works, the composer writes that instrumental forces may be used together with voices (we heard it with organ). From the very first notes of the work, it was clear that we were to hear a vocal group in which each word and phrase is shaped and chiseled. J.S.Bach’s motet “Komm, Jesu komm!” for eight voices BWV 229, probably composed during Bach’s Leipzig years, makes an unusual combination of a funeral hymn by Paul Thymich and biblical texts. The Basler Madrigalisten bring out the contrasts between contrapuntal- and imitative choral passages and mood changes. Small separations between key words and the use of strongly articulate consonants fire each phrase; constant, heavy accents on each tactus sometimes worked against smooth singing of phrases.

Moving into the 19th century, we heard Anton Bruckner’s (1824-1896) “Locus iste” for four voices (1869), one of some 30 motets written by Bruckner, who was a devout Roman Catholic. Näf’s reading of it moved from the dramatic to the intimate, with much emphasis on the word “irreprehensibilis” (without reproof) in the middle imitative section.
‘This place was made by God,
A priceless mystery,
It is beyond reproach’.

Swiss composer Daniel Glaus (b. 1957) is a church musician and organist in Biel and teaches in music schools in Zurich and Berne. He is involved in questions concerning the building of organs and, in addition to music, engages in the study of philosophy, the Bible, art, butterflies and trees and political-economic-ecological-ethical issues to do with the environment. We heard “Teschuvah” (1989), a section of his oratorio “Sunt lacrimae rerum” (There are tears for things) with the composer’s life focus on religion, mysticism and the human voice coming together. With some of the singers placed at the back of the church and others either side of the stage, the audience was gently enveloped in sound, from that of one strand, of long held notes, to clusters, to a layering of vocal timbres, to a lavish polychoral effect; an atonal work, musically demanding of each singer, it retained ethereal lucidity throughout.

Swiss composer Frank Martin (1890-1974) composed his Mass for Double Choir during 1922 and1926, but the work remained out of sight (and out of hearing) for almost 40 years; the composer, a religious Calvinist, only released it for performance and publication in 1963. Martin wrote “I did not want it to be performed…I consider it…as being a matter between God and myself…that an expression of religious feelings should remain secret and removed from public opinion.” A work of lushness and scintillating beauty, it bears the influence of Austro-German discipline blended with the sensual sonorities of French music – that of Debussy, Ravel and Roussel. The Basler Madrigalisten performed three movements of the Mass, starting with an expressive and compassionate reading of the Kyrie, its long phrases woven in and out of the two choir groups, the Kyrie ending on the Picardian third. In the Gloria, the singers use their rich palette of gestures and the rhythm of words to build up power and intensity. In the Agnus Dei, added in 1926, Martin gives each choir a very different role – one sings in constant rhythmic movement, the other more polyphonic, with both uniting in the reverent “Dona nobis pacem”.

Franz Schubert composed the “Rosemunde” incidental music for a melodramatic play by Helmina von Chézy, “Rosemunde, Princess of Cyprus”, scored for soprano, chorus and orchestra. It was premiered in 1823, the play was a failure, the text was lost and what remains of this play with ballet and music are some much loved pieces of music. The Basler Madrigalisten, together with Paul Suits at the piano, gave the three choruses of the work a performance abounding in freshness, warmth and joie-de-vivre, with the second chorus “Geisterchor” (Chorus of Spirits) “In the Deep Dwells the Light” leading us, via a carefully blended choral sound, into the darker, more arcane world of characters who are brewing poisonous ink.

Also suiting the character of the Madrigalisten, we heard Johannes Brahms’ “Zigeunerlieder” (Gypsy Songs) opus 103 (1887). This collection of miniatures, its choral writing representing a straightforward approach to life’s issues, makes great demands on the pianist. Näf, the choir and Suits, working in close collaboration, created each vignette of gypsy life – its connections with nature, its wild characteristics, tender songs, longing, innocent moments, highly colored textures and intimacy – achieved by way of large dynamic contrasts and an in-depth understanding of the texts themselves.

This choir exudes energy and brightness of color, each voice section well-balanced, its performance forthright and polished. The choice of G.Rossini’s “La Passeggiata” as an encore was somewhat out of keeping with the evening’s program. The Basler Madrigalisten signed out with a jolly a cappella medley of Swiss folk songs (complete with the call of the cuckoo!)

The PHOENIX Ensemble performs "French Delight - Songs of Wine and Love" at the Abu Gosh Vocal Music Festival

2011-10-27T11:23:00.000-07:00

Francois Couperin
The Abu Gosh Vocal Music Festival celebrated its 20th anniversary with a wide choice of concerts performed in the two Abu Gosh churches. Festival-goers came from far and wide to enjoy the relaxed atmosphere of the concerts, small outdoor musical events under the expansive trees, the craft stalls and a picnic in the natural surroundings of the Judean Hills in autumn. The Crypt below the Crusader Church, with its lively acoustics, is the venue for a host of chamber concerts. The church’s leafy, well-tended garden, with its flowers and mature palm trees, offers the visitor tranquility.

Four members of the PHOENIX Ensemble – Assif Am-David (baritone), Yasuko Hirata (Baroque violin), Marina Minkin (spinet) and PHOENIX founder and director Myrna Herzog (viol and recorder) performed “French Delight – Songs of Wine and Love” in the Crypt October 20th, 2011. The artists opened with a an anonymous 12th century Jongleur song “A l’entrada del temps clar” (When the clear days come) a jolly song celebrating spring, dance, love and fertility, sung in Occitan (a vernacular local to southern France and Spain and areas of Italy) with all the musicians joining in singing of the chorus.

Marina Minkin takes us into the realm of elegant French court music with the third prelude of François Couperin’s “L’Art de Toucher le Clavecin” (The Art of Playing the Harpsichord) - actually an 18th century instruction book containing information on technique, fingering, phrasing, ornamentation and keyboard performance style. Minkin’s performance of it is pensive, carefully paced and gently swayed. Couperin’s Concerts Royaux (Royal Concerts)were composed for the ailing Louis XIV and to be performed at the Sunday concerts at Versailles by renowned court musicians, including the composer himself. We heard a sympathetic reading of two movements from the Second Concert Royal, the Prelude played on bass viol and spinet, with Yasuko Hirata sculpting each musical gesture in the more Italienate Air Contrefugué.

In “Le Tombeau de Couperin” (1919), Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) wished to celebrate “Le Grand” as a founder of the French school of keyboard music in a set of piano pieces written in the instrumental forms of Couperin’s time. In the Menuet (dedicated to the memory of Jean Dreyfus, one of the fallen of the First World War) Herzog plays the opening melody on recorder, later moving to the bass viol. Minkin’s abundant use of spreads adds a plucked texture and intensity to the melancholy character of the piece. A small tasty morsel was Francis Poulenc’s (1988-1963) Villanelle for pipeau (a French folk flute, chosen by the composer to lend an authentic aspect to the villanelle, a peasant song) and piano (1934). The piccolo role was played on recorder by Herzog in this miniature of French transparency and harmonic richness.

The program offered much variety of French vocal music. When Jean-Philippe Rameau’s (1683-1764) opera “Dardenus” (libretto: Charles-Antoine le Clerc) was premiered in 1739, the critics accused Rameau of creating an opera with no coherent plot; they claimed that the inclusion of the sea monster violated the French operatic convention of having a clear purpose for encounters with supernatural beings. Rameau eventually rewrote the tragédie en musique leaving out some of the supernatural elements. But, for those of us with a penchant for the fantastic and the bizarre, the “Monstre affreux” (Hideous Monster) number was a treat, its introduction already warning us that we were in for some full-on drama. Baritone Assif Am-David is convincing, dramatic and expressive, the piece’s range bringing out the pleasing mix of vocal color in Am-David’s high register.
‘Dread monster, fearsome monster,
Ah! How kind fate would be to me
If he exposed me only to no blows but yours!
Dread monster, fearsome monster
Ah! Love is much more terrible than you.’

This was followed by Rameau’s early cantata “Thétis” (c.1715), a work borrowing elements of French opera. Thétis is a very beautiful sea-goddess. The cantata tells of her being courted by both Zeus (Jupiter) god of the sky and weather (thunder included) and Poseidon (Neptune) ruler of the waves, both of whom demonstrate their power in a terrifying fashion. Thétis chooses to marry a mortal – Peleus - bearing him a son, Achilles. Herzog referred to this cantata as a feminist work.

Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) used a poem of 16th century poet Clément Marot for his song “D’Anne jouent de l’espinette” (To Anne Who Plays the Spinet) of 1896. In this pre-World War I song, Am-David’s descriptive approach and fine French enunciation is coupled with Minkin’s strategically timed and refined playing, Ravel’s whimsical keyboard writing suggesting the young Anne at the spinet practicing. (Marina Minkin was playing on a triangular spinet, built in 1992 for Herzog in San Paulo, Brazil, by Abel Vargas.)
‘When I watch the pretty young brunette, and hear her voice and her fingers making a sweet sound on the keyboard, both my eyes and ears feel a greater pleasure than the saints in their immortal glory – and I become as glorious as they are when I think that she might love me a little.’

In keeping with all things French, the concert ended with four songs on the subject of food and wine, beginning, on a sad note, with Gabriel Fauré’s (1845-1924) “Tristesse” (Sadness) opus 6/2, composed originally for voice and piano. The text is from Gautier’s “La Comédie de la Mort” (The comedy of Death) (1838). This song, with its Parisian emphasis on the first, rather than second syllable and melodramatic refrain, takes the listener on an interesting and not-always-predictable melodic journey, with the violin adding bitter-sweet comments. Am-David weaves in the melodic line sensitively, also speaking some of the words…giving it a very French flavor.

It is fitting that Ravel’s last completed work, his song cycle for voice and orchestra “Don Quichotte à Dulcinée” (Don Quixote to Dulcinea) (1932-33) to texts by Paul Morand, should refer back to his Spanish roots, both musically and in subject matter. The audience delighted in Am-David’s exuberant performance of the Drinking Song, a jaunty, sassy jota (Spanish song-dance form), enhanced by Minkin’s Spanish guitar effects on the spinet. Following J-B de Bousset’s (1662-1727) tamer drinking song, the concert ended with Gabriel Bataille’s (1575-1630) strophic courtly air “Qui veut chasser une migraine” (Whoever wants to chase away a migraine headache). Rife with dance rhythms, the lascivious text, peppered with the graphic details of rustic “courtship”, offers a dubious cure for the affliction – drink!
‘Water does nothing but rot the lungs,
Drink, drink, drink, friends!
Let’s empty this glass and fill it up again…’

Myrna Herzog does not hesitate to mix secular French works of the 17th- to 20th century in one program, and in no specific chronological order; and this works well! The PHOENIX arrangements, created partly by her and partly evolving from discussion among the players themselves, are pleasing and colorful and allow for individual expression. The intimate Crypt, with the festival audience seated on three sides of the stage, offers a very lively acoustic to players and singers and to the joy of listeners. The intermingling of church bells and the muezzin calling to prayer provide a meaningful background to the Abu Gosh events.

The Barrocade Ensemble performs Italian Baroque music at the Khan Theatre, Jerusalem

2011-10-19T09:44:00.000-07:00

Francesco Geminiani

The Barrocade Ensemble opened its 2011-2012 season with what might be called a “triptych” – three concerts within three days – “Sukkoth of Music and Wine in the Khan”. People attending the festive opening of the new season enjoyed a glass of wine from some of the best Israeli boutique wineries. This writer attended the third program – “La Serva Padrona” October 15th, 2011 at the Khan Theatre (Jerusalem).

Whetting one’s appetite for an evening of late Baroque Italian music, the ten Barrocade instrumentalists opened with Francesco Geminiani’s (1687-1762) Concerto Grosso opus 3, no.3 in E minor (1733). Clearly influenced by the practices of his teacher Corelli, with the concertino playing off the larger ripieno section, also adhering to the pattern of slow-fast-slow movements, the opus 3 collection nevertheless established Geminiani’s own personal style, a style that used more eccentric figurations and more daring harmonies and textures than did that of his teacher and mentor. Geminiani provides ornaments for both slow and fast movements as well as cadenzas, and he recommends the use of much vibrato. With its dense part-writing and small, jagged motifs, the music made for crowd-pleasing concert music in London, where the composer spent much of his working life as a virtuoso violinist, composer and pedagogue. And it is, indeed, fine concert music. With violinist Shlomit Sivan’s articulate leading, the Barrocade performance of the work was both lively and sensible in fast movements and expressive in the slow movements.

An interesting item on the program was Venetian violinist and composer Carlo Tessarini’s (c.1690-c.1767) Concerto for Violin and Strings in G major, opus 1 no.5, from his opus 1 set of 12 violin concertos, accompanied by strings and basso continuo, and first published in Amsterdam (1724). This was the Israeli premiere of the work, a mere 290 years after its composition! Professor Jehoash Hirshberg (Hebrew University of Jerusalem), who, together with Professor Simon McVeigh (Goldsmiths, University of London), researched the subject of the Italian concerto, together publishing a modern score of Tessarini’s “Twelve Violin Concertos Opus 1” (A-E Editions, 2001), gave a brief talk on Tessarini’s life and music. Although a pupil of Corelli, the composer’s concertos were modeled on those of Vivaldi, Tessarini’s 15 years of work at the Ospedaletto in Venice having also taken a similar course to that of Vivaldi. After leaving Venice, Tessarini was then employed at Urbino Cathedral, later working in Paris and London and ending up in Amsterdam. Tessarini’s more than 40 concertos – 36 for violin - feature throughout the composer’s international career. His oeuvre consists exclusively of instrumental music. At the Barrocade concert, Shlomit Sivan was both soloist and orchestral player in Tessarini’s G major Concerto for Violin and Strings, competently showing the audience through the text which juxtaposes ritornello- and solo sections, boasting fast, nervous changes, presenting simple, direct melodies and inviting virtuosic playing. A work of unadulterated joy, it lacks the panache of the Vivaldi- and Corelli concertos.

Giovanni Battista Pergolesi’s (1710-1736) opera buffa “La Serva Padrona” (The Servant Turned Mistress), based on a play by Jacopo Angello Nelli, was premiered in Naples in 1733 and has never lost popularity. Only some 45 minutes in length, the opera was originally used as an intermezzo. Almost 300 years later, audiences still enjoy the elements that make up the libretto – a manipulative maidservant (Serpina) and her somewhat dimwitted bachelor employer (Uberto). The original score also calls for a silent manservant (Vespone). In the Barrocade production, however, Vespone (Yehuda Lazarovich) reveals all the undercurrents of the story in playwright Rachel Ezouz’s cleverly written patter of witty, rhyming Hebrew. Lazarovich’s performance is articulate and suitably droll. Soprano Revital Raviv is absolutely cut out for the role of the coquettish and scheming Serpina: her facial expressions and body language address each nuance of the text, her voice delighting the audience in its true and natural quality. Bass-baritone Oded Reich tackles the score well, his superbly rich voice pleasurable, as usual. Considering the plot’s high jinks, frivolity and characterization, I found his playing of Uberto somewhat too reserved. The instrumentalists engaged- and involved their audience in this delectable music, their communicative playing enhanced with precision, involvement and joyousness.

The PHOENIX Ensemble performs "Wind and Sea" at the Mormon University(Jerusalem)

2011-10-14T00:00:00.000-07:00

David Feldman,Dorival Caymmi,Myrna Herzog (Photo: Eliahu Feldman)

The PHOENIX Ensemble performed “Wind and Sea”, a program of Brazilian music, on October 2nd 2011 in the Sunday Evening Series of the Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies (Mormon University). The concert focused on music of two of Brazil’s greatest composers – Dorival Caymmi and Heitor Villa-Lobos.

Dorival Caymmi (1914-2008), born in Salvador, the capital city of the Bahia region in the northeast of Brazil, was a singer, actor, painter and song-writer. He composed popular songs representative of Brazil’s indigenous song-forms – sambas, toadas (melancholy romantic tunes), modinhas (sentimental songs) songs and chants of fisherman, and music inspired by the singing of the Afro-Brazilian Candomblé religion. His songs tell of people and places, of life and love in Bahia; he was a storyteller of the folkloric tradition, sensitively portraying simple, working people,

Born in Rio de Janeiro, Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959) having learned music from his father, an educated amateur musician, was a ‘cellist who started life as a café musician. His music brought to light the wealth and variety of Brazilian music, enriched by the folk music he collected on his travels around Brazil. On one of his European tours, he was quoted as saying:” I don’t use folklore, I am the folklore”. Unconventional in his compositional style, his music is personal and idiosyncratic. “My music is natural, like a waterfall” points to his non-conformism. He became well known in the USA and France, where he conducted many of his orchestral works. An ardent patriot, Villa-Lobos was also a pedagogue, promoting the teaching of the rich culture of Brazilian music in his own country.

“Wind and Sea” is a program with a story behind it. The project began in 2000 with a conversation between PHOENIX Early Music Ensemble’s founder and musical director Dr. Myrna Herzog and Hanna Tsur, director of the Abu Gosh Vocal Music Festival. On learning that Herzog was Brazilian, Hanna Tsur suggested adding some of Caymmi’s songs to the PHOENIX repertoire. What looked originally like a seemingly insane idea was to become reality when Herzog’s composer/jazz musician son, David Feldman, agreed to do the arrangements of Caymmi’s songs for the program. The first performances were received enthusiastically, with many people finding in Caymmi’s music an association with that of Villa-Lobos. “I felt the two composers complemented each other” writes Herzog, adding that she herself “took care of the Villa-Lobos arrangements”. In 2001, David Feldman came to Israel for the recording of “Wind and Sea” (NMC label); inspired by with the blessing of the great Dorival Caymmi himself, the recording includes the world premiere of a lullaby dedicated to Caymmi’s granddaughter and “godmother” of the project, Stella Caymmi. The disc has now been reissued.

The concert at the Center for Near Eastern Studies opened with a short recording of the message delivered in Portuguese by the late Dorival Caymmi, his voice ringing with aged wisdom, musicality and emotion. “For Myrna. Myrna, are you listening to me? This is Dorival Caymmi. I plead to God the Divine to bestow blessings to protect this work, such beautiful work you are doing, Myrna. Wholeheartedly, Dorival Caymmi.” With these words still echoing in one’s mind, the audience was then transported to the rich world of Brazilian folklore, ritual, nature, the gentle, lilting dance rhythms and “vistas” painted by Caymmi in fine, pastel tints mixed with a sensuous blend of timbres. “A lenda do Abaeté” (The Legend of Abaete), for example, tells of a dark lagoon illuminated by a white moon, the place imbued with magic and fear. Many of Caymmi’s songs tell of the sea and fishermen, of fishing as a livelihood as well as the ever present attraction of the sea. Chilean-born soprano Macarena Lopez-Lavin presented the nostalgic, well-loved “Ė doce morrer no mar” (It is Sweet to Die in the Sea) with much delicacy. In “Canto de Obá” (Song for Oba), considered one of Caymmi’s greatest songs, we experience the fusion of African- with Catholic church music. Brazilian-born singer and percussionist Joca Perpignan and young Israeli guitarist Omer Schonberger communicate within a bewitching collage of individual melodies and asymmetrical rhythms. Caymmi’s carefree samba “Maracangalha” (1956), which earned him the award of Best Composer of the Year, tells of this tiny community, of which there are many stories. Feldman’s arrangement of this song calls for both singers, its interludes spiced with gentle dissonances. Caymmi’s caressing musical style is evocative and stirring, yet never aggressive.
‘I’ll go to Malancangalha, I’ll go
I’ll go dressed in white, I’ll go
I’ll go in a straw hat, I’ll go
I’ll invite Anália, I will
If Anália doesn’t want to go, I’ll go alone….’

Herzog has referred to Heitor Villa-Lobos as the most important classical Brazilian composer. His nine Bachianas Brazileiras suites, composed 1930-1945 for different instrumental- and vocal combinations, blending harmonic and contrapuntal traits of Bach with the flavors of Brazilian music, abound with lush melodies and infectious rhythms. Indeed, they represent the soul itself, also using references to nature. The suites are infused with “saudade”, a feeling associated with a sense of longing, of being far away from one’s lover, from one’s country. “O trenzinho do caipira” (The Little Train of Caipira), the toccata that concludes Bachianas Brazileiras no 2 (1933), depicts a train chugging through the forests of Brazil; we hear Herzog and Schonberger alternating in the playing the melody, complete with train whistles and Joca Pepignan evoking the rhythm of the train’s motion with the use of the shaker/caxixi (an indirectly struck idiophone, considered in Brazilian folkloric beliefs to ward off evil spirits), set against the dissonant noise of the train. Lopez-Lavin, less guarded now, gave an emotional and well contrasted reading of the Aria from Bachianas Brasileiras V.

One of the strengths of this program is surely the finely blended sound and interest created by the instrumental scoring, the instrumentalists using meantone temperament – Riki Peled, Shmuel Magen and Herzog on viols, Omer Schonberger playing vilhuela and Baroque guitar, complemented by Pepignan’s imaginative and delicate percussion playing; add to this the fresh, reedy, precise and carefully understated playing of Alexander Fine on the Baroque bassoon and you get a timbre to titillate the senses. Macarena Lopez-Lavin is well attuned to her players, her singing finely nuanced. Joca Perpignan’s chocolaty, slightly gritty, natural voice and musicality are inebriating. For Myrna Herzog, “Wind and Sea” was “possibly the most beautiful project of my life”, bringing together her love for Brazilian music and the sound of viols with other early instruments. A truly delightful concert.

Derek Stein's watercolor studies of an orchestra and its players

2011-10-06T04:28:00.000-07:00

(Photo Derek Stein)
“Usually, we think of an orchestra as a whole. The players wear, as it were, a common black uniform to emphasize their oneness. This is the public persona of the orchestra. And only the soloists and conductor stand out separately.”

This is how artist Derek Stein introduces the public to a collection of his paintings he calls “Diary of an Orchestra”, all in watercolor and pencil. Offering visitors to the recent Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival the opportunity to view the pictures at the concert venue, the exhibition, showing in the tranquil lounge of the Jerusalem International YMCA, opened September 24th 2011 and will continue till the end of October.

Derek Stein (b.UK), in Israel since 1969, teaches painting in watercolor and drawing. For nearly a year, he sat in on rehearsals of the Yad Harif Chamber Orchestra (director and conductor: Roni Porat), occasionally attending the orchestra’s concerts. Stein told me that what really fascinated him was watching the movement of the players and observing the relationship between players and orchestra as an organic whole. It was exciting to see how the conductor broke down the music in order to request emphasis on one note or a small phrase and how the players would respond to the urgency of the conductor. Stein speaks of music and art as both taking place in time, explaining that, on viewing a painting, you initially grasp the picture as a whole, but, in the process of observation, your eye moves around the picture, reconstructing it in sections. And then there are the artist’s associations: for him, the head of a double bass is evocative of the bow of a ship.

Rather than present the orchestra as a whole, Stein’s project “builds up the picture of the orchestra as a process” showing us the “intimacy between the individual players and their instruments, between the individual and the group”. As the project was getting under way, it seems the artist himself was undergoing his own process. He writes “It is now two months since I began and I feel within me how the music and the intensity of the players is affecting the organization of my page and even the movement of my brush”. Stein told me that each picture was painted in the span of no more than two hours, sketched very quickly in pencil and then worked on in color. Having identified the specific movement of the player that he wanted to show, it was a matter of waiting for it to return.

From many of the pictures in the exhibition, one becomes aware that Stein was mostly seated behind the orchestra. Viewing two violinists playing from one stand, one senses the connection between them. In a painting showing a female double bass player dressed in black, Stein has added a few small pencil sketches of other players at one side; these relate to the image of the double bass player. A picture of the woodwind section features a play of the diagonal direction of the instruments, matched by the players “moving forward” in the act of playing. In another painting, a trumpeter’s back, shoulders and position of the head reflect the effort of blowing a brass instrument. In “Costa Tuning His ‘Cello”, on the other hand, the player is slumped on a bench, relaxed, yet listening and very focused.

Stein’s awareness of the conductor as leader is clear in all the pictures showing Roni Porat. The conductor’s hands say it all. One picture of the Yad Harif Chamber Orchestra performing a concert in the YMCA auditorium brings us back to the uniform black clothes of orchestral players. Once again, the instrumentalists appear to be moving towards Porat. Stein sees an orchestra as a picture of black and white. Here, the music on a stand provides an “area of light”.

One painting with a humorous touch was inspired by a program called “Fantasy for Chimpanzee and Orchestra”, based on “Report to an Academy”(1917), a short story by Kafka, to music composed by Porat. In the story, an ape called Red Peter has learned to behave like a human being and presents the story of this transformation to an academy. Stein’s whimsical take on it has a chimpanzee placed close to the double bass player.

Thought-provoking and pleasurable to the eye, the exhibition will interest those who enjoy the understatement of watercolor as well as concert-goers and musicians alike.

Pianist Eduard Stan in a solo recital at the Austrian Hospice (Jerusalem)

2011-09-26T01:53:00.000-07:00

The Romanian Cultural Institute in Tel Aviv and the Austrian Hospice of the Holy Family hosted a recital of pianist Eduard Stan in the salon of the Austrian Hospice in the Old City of Jerusalem on September 19th 2001. This recital was the pianist’s Israeli debut. (Photo:Sabrina Scheffer)

Born in the city of Brasov, Transylvania, Eduard Stan moved to Germany at age 11. A student of Arieh Vardi, Karl-Heinz Kämmerling and Martin Dörrie, Stan graduated from the Academy of Music and Drama in Hanover, today having a busy international performing schedule as a recitalist, chamber musician and in a duo partnership with violinist Remus Azoitei. Maestro Stan records, his most recent CD being with baritone Peter Schöne for the Genuin label. For promoting Romanian culture abroad, Stan was awarded the Prometheus Prize in 2009.

Markus St. Bugnar, rector of the Austrian Hospice in Jerusalem since 2004, welcomed the audience, mentioning the fact that local and overseas artists perform at concerts in the salon of the Austrian Hospice and expressing his pleasure at the cooperation between the Romanian Cultural Institute and the Austrian Hospice. Mr. Dan B. Krizbai, deputy director of the Romanian Cultural Institute in Tel Aviv, also addressed the audience, informing us that the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra was to perform the following evening under the baton of Maestro Zubin Mehta in the 2011 George Enescu Festival in Bucharest. Mr. Krizbai spoke of Maestro Stan as being one of Romania’s most acclaimed artists.

Eduard Stan began the recital with Franz Schubert’s (1797-1828) Sonata in B flat major D 960. Playing this monumental work by one of Austria’s greatest composers was a fitting opening gesture at the venue of the Austrian Hospice. Schubert’s last three piano sonatas, all late works, all three penned within a month, hang together as a kind of trilogy. The composer played all three at a party held by Dr. Ignaz Menz on September 27th 1828, having completed the Sonata in B flat major D 960 the previous day. Schubert died less than two months later. Performing this mammoth piece, Schubert’s last piano work, is a demanding technical, analytical and emotional undertaking to the pianist. Constructed of subtle melodic material moving through a sophisticated scheme of modulations, some of Schubert’s markings (such as the “fp” in the last movement) challenge the pianist to ask himself/herself how to reproduce certain effects that were played on Schubert’s piano. Stan’s playing addresses each modulation, taking on board the impulsiveness of Schubert’s melodies as they merge into each other; he sets before us Schubert’s emotional map in the face of death – his resignation, his introspection, his vulnerability and brooding, but also moments of a sense of well-being. Stan’s playing of the delicate Scherzo (third movement) was not overly fast following the sparse, bleak second movement. Altogether, his treatment of the B flat major sonata was profound, colored and sensitive. Franz Schubert was buried at the Währing Cemetery in Vienna. His gravestone bears the following epitaph: “Music has here buried a rich treasure. But fairer in hopes, Franz Schubert lies here”.

Romanian pianist, virtuoso violinist, conductor and pedagogue George Enescu (1881-1955) composed his Piano Suite no.2 in D major opus 10 (1903) for a competition run in 1903 by the French magazine “Musica”, Enescu winning both first prize and the Pleyel Prize for the best piano piece. The piece was dedicated to Louis Dièmer (with whom Enescu had studied piano in Paris). Much of Enescu’s music predominantly reflects the music of his homeland, but this work is also clearly influenced by French Impressionism (Enescu had gone to Paris in 1895, where he studied composition with Massenet and Fauré), three of the four movements bearing the titles of French court dances. (There is a 1943-1944 recording of the work in which Enescu plays the Sarabande and Pavane and Dinu Lipatti, the Toccata and Bourée.) Enescu is usually remembered as a brilliant violinist, but his piano notation and precise markings (pedaling, half-pedaling, for example) attest to his mastery of the piano. One tends to forget that he was an expert orchestral score reader on the piano, that he performed solo piano recitals, did much accompanying of artists, even accompanying his own singing at the piano; the piano figures in 18 of his 33 numbered works.

Eduard Stan brought out the fusion of the young Enescu’s fast developing pianistic style in a performance of Piano Suite no.2, creating a rich but ever articulate canvas, from the bells issuing in the opening Toccata (Enescu had also titled the suite “Des cloches sonores”) layered with massive pedaling. The Sarabande, with its calm melody accompanied by arpeggiated chords, finds energy in melodies that are propelled from within and colored with both functional harmonies and empty fourths and fifths and chromaticism. Enescu reminds us again of the bells in the Toccata, the second movement ending with the sound and rhythms of massive church bells. Stan’s reading of the somewhat pastoral Pavane was personal and evocative, an introspective, autumnal soundscape, its intensive trilling perhaps suggesting the sound of a shepherd’s pipe, its conclusion tinted with sparkling delicacy. The work ended with Stan’s virtuosic and precise playing of the forthright Bourrée, the artist using a solid, hammered touch, complemented by rhythmic variety. Eduard Stan’s rich and detailed performance brought home how neglected Enescu’s music is in concert hall repertoire and how rich a kaleidoscope his music provides.

Eduard Stan played four pieces by Frédéric Chopin, beginning with the Polonaise in F sharp minor opus 44 (1841) often referred to as the “tragic” Polonaise; the artist’s playing of the dramatic work expressed the generous, noble character of the dramatic piece, as well as its delicate and lush aspects. In Nocturne in F sharp major opus 15 no.2 (1830-1831) Stan weaves ornaments into melodic lines with natural, poetic ease, his reading of the poignant Mazurka in C sharp minor opus 50 no.3(1841-1842) peppered with small Polish folk dances, with Chopin’s “zal” (Polish:sadness) ever present. In Chopin’s Barcarolle in F sharp major opus 60 (1845-1846), his one and only Barcarolle, Stan’s playing suggests the rhythm and motion of a boat on the water, not always calm water, the complexities and huge dynamic range of the piece inspiring personal expression on the part of the artist. Stan’s performances of the Chopin pieces were sincere and unmannered, the pianist delving deeply into the real style and meaning of each genre.

Concluding the festive occasion at the Austrian Hospice, Eduard Stan played Brahms’ introspective and tranquil Intermezzo in A major opus 118, the second of the “Six Piano Pieces”, a late work completed in 1893 and dedicated to Clara Schumann. Stan’s clean enunciation of contrapuntal moments was artfully woven into the tender, expressive fabric of the piece to make for a poignant performance..

Eduard Stan’s playing is a celebration of the expressive and coloristic range of the piano and the result of his deep study of each composer’s ideas and intentions. Standing away from the limelight, he allows the music to speak.

Lawrence Siegel's "Kaddish-I am Here" is performed at Yad Vashem, Jerusalem

2011-09-19T00:01:00.000-07:00

As the late summer sun was setting over Jerusalem, hundreds of people were pouring onto Warsaw Ghetto Square of Yad Vashem, Jerusalem on September 8th 2011. Many were overseas guests, friends of Yad Vashem, there were diplomats, members of Knesset and other well-known Israelis and there were many elderly people making their way there slowly and silently; the latter were Holocaust survivors. All were gathered to hear American composer Lawrence Siegel’s “Kaddish-I Am Here”. This was to be the eighth performance of this Holocaust work, a piece commissioned by the Cohen Center for Holocaust Studies of Keene State College, Keene NH, debuted at the Redfern Arts Center at Keene State College in May 2008, with the world premiere in Minneapolis in November 2008. Originally scored for chamber orchestra, a full symphonic version was premiered in Houston in 2010. We heard the work performed by the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Gil Shohat, with the New Israeli Vocal Ensemble (Yuval Ben Ozer, conductor and musical director) the Shahar Choir (conductor and musical director Gila Brill) and four American soloists: soprano Maria Jette, mezzo-soprano Adriana Zabala, tenor Thomas Cooley and baritone James Bohn. I had the honor of exchanging a few words with the composer, who was present at the event.

Current speaker of the Knesset, MK Reuven Rivlin spoke of music as belonging to a pure world; he emphasized how the Nazis had shattered this myth. Rivlin, however, contends that music still stands for life, just as the Mourners’ Kaddish strengthens the living by praising life, and that Lawrence Siegel’s work is positive in its purpose. Chairman of the Yad Vashem directorate, Avner Shalev, welcoming guests to the Mount of Remembrance, spoke of music as always having been a part of Jewish life – before, during and after the Holocaust. As a token of appreciation to Jane and Richard Cohen (USA) for their generous support in the project, Shalev presented them with the key to Yad Vashem.

Dr. Lawrence Siegel is a composer, theatre artist, scholar and performer, working in interrelated fields. The artistic director of Tricinium (building communities through participatory arts), he brings his “Verbatim Project” (an encounter in which people create and perform an original work about their own lives) to communities, schools and organizations. Siegel has composed much vocal music, chamber- and orchestral music and music for theatre, also being involved in collaborative projects. Born in the USA, Siegel is not a child of Holocaust survivors; his grandparents migrated to America from Kovno (Lithuania) and Poland.

Most of the verbal text for “Kaddish-I Am Here” was put together by Dr. Siegel, who condensed material taken from 60 hours of testimonies recorded by the composer himself in personal interviews with Holocaust survivors. Benjamin Warren, the son of Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen and Ravensbrück survivor Naomi Warren, initiated the production of the concert at Yad Vashem. In fact, Naomi Warren’s uplifting words end the work: “Here I am! I am here, I survived, and look who is with me!” The work falls into three sections: “The World Before”, “The Holocaust” and “Tikkun Olam” (Repairing the World).

As the work opens with a melancholy instrumental version of the Yiddish song “Oifen Pripichick” (In the fireplace burns a little fire) we are transported to pre-Holocaust Europe. Baritone James Bohn sings the Mourners’ Kaddish. This is followed by the mentioning of names of Jews from different locations as well as colorful pictures of aspects of Jewish life in pre-Nazi Europe - sung by soloists or choir – descriptions of smallholder farms, cooking, the love of learning, anti-Semitic beliefs among local gentiles and many references to tradition. Section flows into section, the music being mostly tonal, Siegel’s choral writing and orchestration are transparent, clean and never overloaded.
‘We could be on the horse and wagon,
And it rained, or snowed
Or sleet or whatever
Came a certain time
My father would stop the horse,
Get off the wagon
Face east
Shama! Yisroel!....(Hear, o Israel)

As the first movement concludes with the Yiddish song “Mutter Erd” (Mother Earth), choral and orchestral textures become disturbingly dissonant, issuing in the stories told in the second movement - “The Holocaust”. “My Daughter’s Name” powerfully tells the story of a survivor’s little sister being killed as his parents stayed with him, looking on; the men singers sing “Arrival at Auschwitz” to the strident, clattering sound effect associated with the sound of trains. “What a Beautiful Place You Have” is an eerie, haunting piece describing the life of a happy, secure and intellectual domestic existence becoming fraught with fear of being caught, ending in descriptions of people’s attempts to hide from the Nazis. “A Burden You Cannot Share” is painted with a cynical brush, at the same time enjoying the flavor of good, rhythmic American-style music. The work’s second movement ends with a spoken collage, a dynamic, loaded but articulate layered canvas of words, whereby choir members and, in fact, all the instrumentalists read out names and dates of people who had perished in the Holocaust, with Maestro Shohat bringing in and fading out small groups of speakers, larger groups and even individuals in the reading of names, ending in just one solitary voice. An outstanding effect.

Issuing in “Tikkun Olam” we heard James Bohn, accompanied by piano and horn, in a mellifluous and moving rendering of the Kaddish prayer, the third movement then moving into a positive mode with “Nothing Is As Whole As a Heart Which Has Been Broken” (words based on the teachings of Rabbi Nachman of Breslau) its refrain being as follows:
‘Nothing is as whole as a heart which has been broken.
All time is made up of healing the world.
Return to your ships which are your broken bodies.
Return to your ships, which will be rebuilt”.
This paves the way for Naomi Warren’s celebration of life, her joy at having survived the Holocaust and in being able to revisit her native Poland and Auschwitz with her whole family in 2003.

Lawrence Siegel steers away from complex, avant-garde musical styles, this sometimes resulting in a lack of sophistication, but he sees to making the verbal text audible and accessible to all, while his orchestration and choral style remain lucid and articulate. The fine diction of both choirs invites audience members to hear each word and gesture, to follow the message of the work and to connect with their own feelings. Maestro Gil Shohat led his orchestra and choirs with precision, clarity and dedication. The four soloists, clearly familiar with the work, its narrative and its meaning, all gave superb performances. With the final victorious, long major chords now just an echo, the people gathered in the Warsaw Ghetto Square of Yad Vashem rose to their feet in silence, respect and remembrance.

Cabaret artist Steve Ross performs in Jerusalem

2011-09-14T11:51:00.001-07:00

(Photo: Mike Martin)
How do you explain hearing an evening of American- and European cabaret music from the early- to mid 20th century as one of the events of the 2011 Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival? It is quite simple: Yeheskall Beinisch, chairman of the JICMF, met Steve Ross at a party in the USA and spontaneously suggested he come to Jerusalem to give a performance at the JICMF, now celebrating its 14th year. On September 9th 2011, the Mary Nathaniel Golden Hall of Friendship of the Jerusalem International YMCA was packed to capacity with people for whom the music of Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Gershwin and Édith Piaf was familiar.

Steve Ross was born in New Rochelle, New York. As a child, he lay under the piano, enraptured at hearing his mother playing songs of Noel Coward, Cole Porter and Gershwin - “all those standards that were collapsing around me”. Ross studied the piano and, following studies at Georgetown University and a stint in the US army, relocated to New York City in the early 1970’s, where he worked as a “background piano player”. In NYC, Ross played in venues that required him to sing and so he began voice training studies. (Steve told me that voice-training for him is an ongoing focus and that today he still enjoys and benefits from working with top voice teachers.)

Ross’s work in the popular New York “Backstage” piano bar and restaurant attracted a steady clientele eager to hear his repertoire of American songs; it was there that artists such as Liza Minnelli and Ginger Rogers were known to have stood up spontaneously to sing with him. In New York Ross developed his reputation of communicating easily with audiences, entertaining them well, often plying them with the tongue-twister lyrics of Cole Porter songs. His career spiraled when he became the first cabaret performer of the Algonquin Hotel’s newly opened “Oak Room”. Instrumental in the cabaret revival of New York, Ross has spent many years taking his show further afield - to the London Ritz, to “Pizza in the Park” (London), to Australia, Brazil, to festivals in many countries, yet still performing the length and breadth of America, as well as On-and-Off Broadway. Ross’s performance at the 2011 Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival was his Israeli debut.

Seating himself at the piano, Ross begins by apologizing for the fact that he does not play Brahms or Schubert. He opens with Irving Berlin’s “Puttin’ on the Ritz”:
‘Have you seen the well-to-do?
Up and down Park Avenue?
On that famous thoroughfare,
With their noses in the air?
High hats and arrowed collars,
Wide spats and fifteen dollars.
Spending every dime,
For a wonderful time.’

Taking the audience for a wistful, whimsical and, indeed, romantic stroll down the memory lane of the golden age of the sentimental music of the 1910’s, 1920’s and 1930’s, Ross first presents a selection of songs by Eddie Kantor, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter and Gershwin. The piano is Ross’s band, adding color, rhythm, tenderness, magic and virtuosic panache to the songs… as well as some amusing interludes: interrupting Irving Berlin’s decidedly erotic “I Love a Piano” (1915) the artist suddenly quotes the pompous opening of Grieg’s Piano Concerto and, later, the much-loved and naïve C major Mozart Piano Sonata you may have played many years ago as a young piano student.

Cole Porter is high up on Ross’s list of favorites; much of the evening’s program focused on Cole Porter songs, including a number of songs from “Anything Goes” (1934) - “I Get a Kick Out of You”, “You’d Be So Easy to Love”, “Anything Goes”, and more. We heard “I’ve Got You Under my Skin”, (1936) a hit that became a signature song for Frank Sinatra and “Just One of Those Things” written by Cole Porter in 1935 for the musical “Jubilee”. The audience was reminded of Fred Astaire’s unforgettable role in “Night and Day”, a performance ushering in a new era of filmed dance in the movie “The Gay Divorcee” (1934) and Astaire’s "tripping the light fantastic” with Ginger Rogers in “Swing Time” (1936). Ross claims that what Porter and he have in common is the fact that they both fell in love with Paris and in Paris. As a Valentine to Paris, Steve Ross conjured up the sparkle of “La Ville-Lumière” and its enticing setting for romance (not forgetting its disappointments) in the wonderful “I Love Paris in the Springtime” and “C’est magnifique” (It’s Magnificent) both from Can-Can (1953), with the audience now less guarded and gently humming along in these numbers.

Another association with Fred Astaire was George Gershwin’s downhearted “A Foggy Day (in London Town” (lyrics Ira Gershwin), introduced by Astaire in the 1937 film “A Damsel in Distress”.
‘A foggy day in London town,
Had me low, had me down.
I viewed the morning with such alarm,
British Museum had lost its charm.’
This was followed by “S’Wonderful”, also written by the Gershwin brothers, for the Broadway musical “Funny Face” (1927) and introduced by Allen Kearns and Adele Astaire (Fred Astaire’s older sister.) Both numbers took the listener back to the heyday of the big band, with its polished, velvety brass instrument playing.

One of the highlights of the evening was a piano medley of Édith Piaf songs, with Ross giving his all, creating a vibrant and moving canvas of the bittersweet songs of the 40’s and 50’s Piaf had sung in Paris nightclubs, for the German forces in occupied France and also in the USA, her songs fired with inspiration and energy but also tinged with the tragedy of her life.

Steve Ross has been performing for 50 years. His voice is as bright and pleasing as his personality. With few spoken words and many sounds, Ross places the music centre stage, using the rich palette of his art to invite his audience to reminisce, to smile, to shed a tear, to take the nostalgic journey back to the time when romance was in vogue, when show-biz people looked chic and when hits reached the status of greatness. Communicating and singing out to his audience, one might almost forget that Ross was also the superb, spontaneous pianist accompanying the program.

The evening was drawing to a close; Steve Ross signed out with two Irving Berlin songs. With the audience in the palm of his hand, there was now no need for Ross to invite the people gathered at the Jerusalem YMCA to join him in singing Irving Berlin’s “Cheek to Cheek”. How could one not resist indulging in just one more moment to savor this wonderful era of music?

Renee Fleming and Joseph Calleja perform in Jerusalem with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Zubin Mehta

2011-07-31T10:02:00.000-07:00

On the evening of July 28th 2011, a festive concert featuring soprano Renée Fleming (USA) and tenor Joseph Calleja (Malta), together with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and Maestro Zubin Mehta, took place at the Jerusalem International Convention Center. The event was screened live in 480 movie theatres throughout the USA. The concert, a tribute to the renowned American tenor and cantor Richard Tucker, and supported by the Richard Tucker Music Foundation, was the closing event of the Jerusalem Season of Culture 2011, six weeks of cultural events and artistic experiences that included dance, music, poetry, philosophy, visual arts, new media, and more. Events took place in a variety of locations - from the Tower of David Museum, to the Israel Museum, the Goldman Promenade, to private homes and to Jerusalem’s colorful Mahane Yehuda open-air food market. This being its first year, the Jerusalem Season of Culture offered a summer festival of events created by Israeli- and other artists, “summoning the ancient muse” of 3000 years of the city’s history to entertain and inspire people of all ages and walks of life.

Lyric soprano Renée Fleming is one of today’s greatest singers, drawing audiences to opera houses and Lied recital halls and performing at momentous occasions such as the 2006 Nobel Prize ceremony, the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and the Obama Inaugural Celebration. A three-time Grammy winner, Ms. Fleming has recorded widely, of late, releasing the CD “Dark Hope” focusing on songs by indie-rock and pop artists! Fleming is also involved in new music, performing works of contemporary composers. An advocate of literacy in the USA, her own book “The Inner Voice” was published by Viking Penguin in 2004.

Born in Malta in 1978, tenor Joseph Calleja began singing at 15, making his professional debut in his country in 1997, going on to win awards and becoming a prizewinner in Domingo’s Operalia (1999). Mr. Calleja has performed in opera houses throughout Europe and the United States and in solo recitals in France, Romania, Japan and his native Malta. With many acclaimed recordings, his festival appearances include Salzburg, Regensburg and the BBC Proms. Renée Fleming and Joseph Calleja collaborated in a DVD of Verdi’s “La Traviata” under the direction of Antonio Pappano.

Following the overture to Verdi’s “La forza del destino” (The Force of Destiny), the audience enjoyed hearing Joseph Calleja in a rousing performing of “La donna è mobile” (Woman is flighty) from Verdi’s “Rigoletto”. Enter Renée Fleming, dressed in a sumptuous gown of strong pinks. She began by performing the Jewel Song from Gounod’s Faust, her vocal lightness and agility posing the questions and expressing the amazement of the modest Marguerite at seeing herself in the mirror decked in jewels. Performing the aria “Vissi d’arte” (I have lived for my art), from Act II of Puccini’s “Tosca”, in which Tosca sings of the two driving forces of her life – love and music – Fleming is pensive, alternating asides with vehement passages in an eloquent, impassioned statement and outpouring of grief. Now dressed in a luxuriant, frothy black gown, Fleming’s singing of the lovely, haunting “J’ai versé le poison” (I have poured the poison) from “Cléopâtre” by Massenet unfolded in a hand-in-glove performance with the orchestra, her fragile, delicate and personal rendering boasting sensuousness, control and French transparency.

Opening with an ominous clarinet solo, we heard Joseph Calleja in “E lucevan le stelle” (How the stars used to shine there) from Act III of Tosca. An aria sung by Tosca’s lover, the painter Mario Cavaradossi, while waiting for his execution, Calleja’s beauty of tone, passion and sheer strength were a veritable tour-de-force. Calleja joined Renée Fleming in “Parigi, o cara” (Dearest, we will leave Paris) from Act III of Verdi’s “La Traviata” in a tender, communicative rendering, Fleming evoking Violetta’s selflessness and inner despair, her short detached phrases ( matched with those of the orchestra) characterized by tessitura leaps creating a sense of anxiety. The program ended with the duet from Act I of Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly” (Fleming’s first performance of it) in the scene where Pinkerton and Butterfly discuss their feelings towards each other and declare their love with an intertwining of vocal lines and gestures. Fleming is a feminine and vulnerable Butterfly, her upper register notes soaring in golden timbres, her characteristic lower register fruity, her facial expression reflecting the text’s every mood.

Most enjoyable was the selection of opera overtures and instrumental pieces performed with eloquence by Zubin Mehta and the fine IPO players – the Overture to Verdi’s “Forza del destino”, opening with its festive brass, was both lyrical and expressive of doom. Mehta’s treatment of the Prelude to Act One of Verdi’s “La Traviata” is both mysterious and delicate, a sense of expectation setting the scene for the ensuing social scandal. Originally composed for piano, Albeniz called his Iberia pieces “impressions” of Spain. “Triana” – inspired by the gypsy quarter of Seville - from this collection in its orchestrated form, was a fine vehicle for the IPO’s rich palette of colors, dynamics and timbres. Remaining in the Spanish temperament, what music could be more Spanish in flavor than Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Capriccio Espagnol”, of which we heard the 4th- and 5th movements. Bristling with solos, elegant percussion-playing and glittering harp passages, the work finally breaks into a dizzying, joyful fandango. One of the most magnificent instrumental movements in all of opera, the Intermezzo from Puccini’s “Manon Lescaut” describing Manon’s voyage from Paris to the prison at Le Havre, draws together the threads of the story so far, interpolating a reminder of the fragile “nell’occhio” (In your profound eyes) love theme with the underlying presence of fate lurking not far away, the latter heard in the crashing of timpani, to be followed by an almost optimistic conclusion reached as we arrive in Le Havre to find Manon in chains. Mehta paints in fine brush strokes, his orchestral language ever detailed and transparent, no matter how dramatic, as he invites his audience to discovere the information and messages these instrumental pieces have to reveal about the operas in which they appear.

Renée Fleming’s first encore was a poignant, gently flexed rendering of “O mio babbino caro” (O my dear father) from Puccini’s opera “Gianni Schicchi”. She then moved into a completely different genre, singing Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah”. Singing in her middle range and making use of a microphone, the quality of Fleming’s now smoky, relaxed vocal timbre was a far cry from her opera personality as she invited the audience to join her in singing the refrain.
Calleja then joined Fleming in an exuberant performance of the Wine Song from Verdi’s “La Traviata”:
‘Let us drink from the goblets of joy
Adorned with beauty,
And the fleeting hour shall be adorned
With pleasure.’

Lyric soprano Renée Fleming is one of today’s most exciting and charismatic artists. What a treat it was to hear her here in Jerusalem performing various operatic roles and to experience her magnetic stage presence and artistry. Joseph Calleja’s performance was dashing: he is, indeed, a natural, his glorious voice, spontaneity and joy of singing happily intermixing with his appealing personality and modesty.

The audience reacted with a standing ovation. It was an evening to remember!

The Young Israel Philharmonic Orchestra performs under the baton of Hans Peter Ochsenhofer

2011-07-27T11:32:00.000-07:00

The Young Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, under the auspices of the Jerusalem Music Centre and in cooperation with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, consists of 80 or so of Israel’s finest young musicians from age 14 to 18, most of them recipients of Israel-America Cultural Foundation scholarships. Founded by Mr. Bruno Landesberg and the Hanan Susz Foundation, the YIPO is also supported by the Marc Rich Foundation, the America-Israel Cultural Foundation, the Beracha Foundation and the Austrian Cultural Forum. Major General (res.) Nehemia Dagan and the Karev Foundation help in obtaining scholarships for YIPO members currently serving in the Outstanding Musicians Program of the Israel Defense Forces.

Throughout the academic year, the young players study mostly solo- and chamber works; the YIPO provides the students with an opportunity to play orchestral repertoire and gain experience in music-making of a different kind. The players are selected from all parts of Israel and from different communities. Twice a year, the YIPO meets for intensive playing sessions, guided by renowned Israeli- and overseas conductors. The orchestra has also collaborated with the RIAS Young Symphonic Orchestra in Berlin (2008) and with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (2009) in joint programs. Coaching the players in the 2011 summer session were violinists Nitay Tzori and Uri Dror, violists Zvi Carmeli and Kshistoff Kozalsky (UK), double bass player Nir Conforti, flautist Yossi Arnheim, bassoonist Miri Ziskind, trumpeters Eran Reemy and Yuval Shapira, horn players Alon Reuven and Luca Benucci (Italy) and percussionist Alon Bor.

Conducting the YIPO on July 21st 2011 in the Henry Crown Symphony Hall (Jerusalem Theatre) was Maestro Hans Peter Ochsenhofer (Austria) whose instrumental background includes trumpet, violin and viola. This was the second time he has worked with the YIPO. Ochsenhofer has played with the Vienna State Opera Orchestra, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, the Wiener Virtuosen and the Vienna String Quartet and has taught at the Vienna Conservatory, being offered a full professorship for viola at the Vienna National University of Music in 1993.Maestro Ochsenhofer has conducted and instructed orchestras in Europe, the USA and Japan.

German composer Paul Hindemith (1895-1963), having frequently clashed with Hitler’s government (he was not Jewish), left for America in 1940 (a country once referred by him as the “land of limited impossibilities”.) There, he had a working relationship with the ballet impresario Léonide Massine, having composed the music to his “Nobilissima visione”; the two discussed the possibilities of producing a ballet with music based on works of Carl Maria von Weber. A falling-out ensued and the project was dropped. Three years later, however, Hindemith reworked the piece, resulting in his “Symphonic Metamorphosis on Themes of Carl Maria von Weber”. The themes are taken from Weber’s Piano Duets opus 60.4, the Overture to Turandot, Piano Duet opus 3.2 and Piano Duets opus 60.2 and 60.7. (Hindemith was familiar with the Weber duets from playing them with his wife.) The 1943 version of Metamorphosis was an immediate success, being the kind of splashy, colorful orchestral piece that appealed to American audiences, and it has remained among Hindemith’s most popular works. The title word “Metamorphosis” is central to the work, with Hindemith adapting one musical extract to each of the work’s four movements, expanding forms and modifying melodies, dressing melodic lines up with trills and freeing up rhythms. From the very outset, Ochsenhofer and his young players draw their audience into a kaleidoscope of orchestral timbres and gestures, the orchestra’s full orchestral sound never too dense to be articulate; they make use of the gamut of dynamic variation and beautiful solos. One was under the impression that the players had delved deeply into the score with its tender melodies, spectacular symphonic writing and its allusion to birdsong, Chinese music and jazz.

As a result of much success and several visits to England, Bohemian composer Antonin Dvorak’s (1841-1904) Symphony no. 7 in D minor opus 70, written between 1884 and 1885, was commissioned by the London Philharmonic Society. It was premiered in London in April of 1885 under the baton of the composer. Composed in the shadow of Dvorak’s mother’s death, the symphony is sometimes referred to as “The Tragic”; Dvorak himself subtitled the work “From Sad Years”, it being the product of a time of “silent sorrow and resignation”. Influenced by Brahms’ Symphony no. 3, Dvorak’s 7th Symphony shows sharper focus on form and polyphony than previous works. An emotionally tall order for a youth orchestra, the audience was presented with a mature, noble and profound performance by the YIPO. Opening with a sense of foreboding, the many disturbing and dramatic elements of the first movement were only temporarily relieved by a small clarinet dance motif. The yearning nostalgia of the second movement found expression in moving performance of horns, ‘cellos and oboe. Following a “driven”, exciting Scherzo punctuated by a rustic-type trio evoking bird calls and hunting horns, anguish and torment return with the final Allegro.

Both works on the program gave the stage to the many fine players and to the individual colors of each of the sections. The YIPO boasts a rich, well-blended string section, fine wind sections and competent percussionists. All were heard. Professor Ochsenhofer’s approach is personable, his conducting language delightfully detailed and clear. Shut your eyes and your ears are met by the musicianship of experienced orchestral musicians. Open them and you see and partakes of the joy and exuberant energy of tomorrow’s finest players.

The Trimavera Piano Trio performs at the Felicja Blumental Music Center in Tel Aviv

2011-07-24T11:45:00.000-07:00

The Trimavera Piano Trio performed at the Felicja Blumental Music Center (Tel Aviv) July 18th, 2011. Members of the trio are pianist Batia Murvitz, violinist Lea Tuuri (Finland) and ‘cellist Lauri Rantamoijanen (Finland).

Batia Murvitz (b.1982, London) has degrees from the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music (Tel Aviv) and Indiana University. She performs in Israel and abroad, has recorded for the Voice of Israel classical music station, performed in the “Youth at the Center” concerts at the Jerusalem Music Center and has appeared on Israeli television. Her work has included playing for workshops of the Israel Opera. Performing with several chamber music players, Murvitz is also a member of the “Sine Qua Non” Ensemble, together with violinist Helena Madoka-Berg, clarinetist Uriel Vanchestein and ‘cellist Se-Du Park. As of April 2010, Ms. Murvitz has been a member of faculty of the Mehli Mehta Music Foundation, Mumbai.

Lea Tuuri (b.1985, Finland) began violin lessons at age five, later studying at Indiana University and the New England Conservatory. She is presently completing an M.Mus at the Sibelius Academy. She has performed in the USA, Israel, England, France and Italy, participates in master classes and has recorded for MTV3 and the Finnish Broadcasting Company. She plays on a Jean Baptiste Vuillame violin with a Noel Burke bow.

Lauri Rantamoijanen (b.1985, Finland) began ‘cello studies at age seven, moving on to the youth department of the Sibelius Academy, where he later began the performing artists’ program in 2005. He was a young soloist with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra in 2003 and Finnish finalist in the Eurovision Young Soloists. He is currently studying at the Sibelius Academy under Professor Martti Rousi. An active chamber musician, Rantamoijanen plays in several ensembles. He plays on a Francesco Ruggiero ‘cello, dated 1693.

The concert opened with Franz Schubert’s (1797-1828) Piano Trio in B flat major D28 (Sonatensatz), a single-movement work composed in 1812. Schubert had been a chorister in the Court chapel, and, with his voice breaking, he had written on a choral score “Schubert, Franz, krähte zum letzten Mal” (has crowed for the last time) 26 Juli, 1812”. Schubert had now become a pupil of court Kapellmeister Antonio Salieri, the result being a flow of compositions, many of them since lost. The Sonatensatz, the teenage composer’s first attempt at writing music for piano and strings, reveals the young composer’s potential with moments of beauty and interest. As to the evening’s program, the best was yet to come.

Prominent and award-winning composer Kelly-Marie Murphy (b.1964), one of Canada’s most frequently performed, writes music ranging from orchestral- to electroacoustic music, as well as much chamber music. Commissioned by the Gryphon Trio (Canada) in 1997, “Give Me Phoenix Wings to Fly” was inspired by the Phoenix myth as addressed in two poems. One is Keats’ poem “On Sitting Down to Read King Leah Once Again”:
‘But when I am consumed in the fire,
Give me new Phoenix wings to fly at my desire.’
The other poem is Robert Graves’ “To Bring the Dead to Life”:
‘Blow on a dead man’s embers
And a live flame will start.’
Kelly-Marie Murphy writes “I’ve always been intrigued by the myth of the Phoenix, a bird that immolates in fire and then rises up again from its own ashes. It is such a powerful image, and one which is relevant to disaster. No matter how devastating any single event might be, you can still recover and begin again.’

A work in three movements, “Give me Phoenix Wings to Fly” opens with untiring, driving rhythms peppered with heavily accented clusters. In the second movement, with the dense textures and virtuosic, fiery scene of the first movement left far behind, the piano sets up a drone (a somewhat tonal center), creating a transparently icy and eerie soundsape, against which violin and ‘cello each play expressively. As if a single voice emerging from a lifeless vista, the ‘cello then leads into the third movement with a quasi cadenza, and we find ourselves back in the unrelenting intense, demonic energy heard in the first movement. A somewhat programmatic piece, it can be enjoyed as absolute music. The Trimavera musicians performed this demanding and highly virtuosic work with oneness of spirit, its dramatic, evocative text finding a communicative voice within themselves, its performance creating a gripping, live-music experience.

At the age of 21, Johannes Brahms’ (1833-1897) published his Trio no. 1 in B major opus 8. Fiercely self-critical, the composer had burned all his previously composed chamber works. In 1890, close to the end of his creative life, having written all his symphonies and concertos, Brahms decided to revise the trio, shortening it significantly, yet leaving its original form and moods intact. “I did not provide it with a new wig” he wrote, “just combed and arranged its hair a little”. Significantly, the Trio in B major represents both the young Brahms at the beginning of his public career and the maturity of the elder Brahms.

Despite its “official” B major key, the work, in its many moments of dark brooding, gravitates naturally to minor keys. In the lengthy, restless first movement, the Trimavera players create a mellow canvas, swelling into richly-colored Romantic textures that are melodically and harmonically expressive. In the duality of the trio’s scoring, with the piano part carrying half the tonal weight, Batia Murvitz displays plenty of strength, juxtaposing Brahms’ thick piano textures with those of the strings as she leads her fellow players through the score in a manner that never oversteps the bounds of good taste. In the poignant Adagio movement, Murvitz sets the scene, giving a little extra time to some of the spacious, meaningful chords, dispensing the movement’s magical quality at a delicate pace, to be answered by the strings in pensive dialogue. In the turbulent, complex Allegro movement, the strings are adversaries, each mostly playing alone with the piano. In the breathless urgency of the disquieting final movement, motifs come thick and fast, the final moments reminding us once more of the work’s enourmous scope and sound. The Trimavera’s reading of the work was rich and exciting, truly Brahmsian in the artists’ approach to its dark, massive and contrapuntal fabric.

The concert ended with another Schubert work - Piano Trio in B flat major D.898 opus 99 – a work composed only 15 years later than the student work Sonatensatz, however, being the last year of the composer’s life. The first of his two monumental piano trios, the B flat Piano Trio was not performed publicly, nor was it published during the composer’s lifetime. The Trimavera Trio’s performance of the work was up-front, fresh and dynamic. The players’ deep reading of it produced much contrast, with intimate, fragile sotto voce moments alternating with those of life-affirming energy in an acute awareness of Schubert’s turn of ideas and of the charm inherent in the Viennese style. Lia Tuuri weaves melodies of exquisite expression; ‘cellist Lauri Rantamoijanen convinces and moves his audience in sonorous, sweeping melodic lines. Batia Murvitz makes skilful use of timing to address each musical gesture, often poignantly “underlining” one key note. Embracing Schubert’s style, the trio’s playing is emotional but never precious.

The artists sent the audience home in the exhilarating, jazzy, uninhibited mood of the fourth movement of Austrian composer and jazz musician Werner Pirchner’s (1940-2001) “Wem gehört der Mensch” (To whom Man belongs) (1988).

The Trimavera Piano Trio offers its audiences much interest in its wide choice of repertoire. Its members are, indeed, young players but they are already endowed with much fine musicianship and experience. Their performance is articulate and confident, their individual expression and collaboration superbly balanced.

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The Gloriana Ensemble performs "Gloriana Armada" at St Andrews Scots Memorial Church in Jerusalem

2011-07-20T22:53:00.000-07:00

Focusing on Renaissance music, the Gloriana Ensemble is one of Israel’s newest vocal groups. It was founded two years ago by countertenor Noar Lee Naggan; in the meantime, however, the ensemble has undergone changes in an effort to find suitable singers and the kind of blend Naggan had in mind. It presently consists of mezzo-soprano Avital Dery, countertenor Noar Lee Naggan, Eliav Lavi-tenor voice and lute and bass-baritone Oded Reich. An unusual combination of voices, Lee Naggan sings the soprano part, with Dery (whose lower register is extensive and mellow) singing the second line. Noar Lee Naggan studied Animation at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, nowadays designing websites, but has taken voice lessons and sung all his life, soloing as a boy and adult with choirs and orchestras.

At St. Andrews Scots Memorial Church (Jerusalem) on July 17th 2011, the Gloriana Ensemble performed a concert of English- and Spanish Renaissance music, both sacred- and secular. The program’s title - “Gloriana Armada” (The Armed Queen) – refers to the “Golden Age” in England – the period of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (she was sometimes referred to as “Gloriana”).

From the first notes of an anonymous Spanish villancico (a 15th- and 16th century Spanish form of poetry and music similar to the frottola) “Riu riu Chiu” (representing the chirping of the nightingale) to a text about shepherds in the Christmas story, the ensemble’s rich, bold signature timbre, superbly blended sound and finely sculpted phrasing became apparent, and the singers had the audience in the palm of their hands for the duration of the evening! They gave life and humour to the saucy, miniature anonymous Spanish romance “Dindirindin”, the song’s message also embellished with bird calls. Still on the subject of birds, we heard composer and playwright Juan del Encina’s (1468-1529) villancico “Cucú, cucú” a whimsical song that deals out a few home truths on how to keep one’s wife from straying!

Of the English sacred music in the ensemble’s repertoire, we heard three works of Thomas Tallis (1505-1585). “Remember not, o Lord God” and “If ye love Me” are both anthems, written in the vernacular, for the use of the Anglican Church. (Tallis was a Catholic.) The mostly homophonic style of these pieces gives rise to emphasis of specific key words and to the devotional sentiment of the works. In the votive antiphon “Sancte Deus” (Holy God, Holy Mighty One), its Latin text, however, reflecting Tallis’ Catholic faith, the Gloriana singers bring out the highly personal character of the work. Their crystal-clear diction, fired with consonants, addresses the importance of the textural meaning. Also of the Catholic faith, William Byrd (1543-1623) was a pupil of Tallis. The Gloriana Ensemble gave a moving performance of Byrd’s magnificent motet “O Admirabile Commercium” (O wondrous exchange) in a reading rich in choral color and melodic shape.

With the lights in the church lowered, the audience was invited to appreciate the mystic and spiritual temperament of two works of Tomas Luis de Victoria (c.1549-1611). “O Vos Omnes” (1585) belongs to the Tenebrae, a prayer ritual traditionally sung in a darkened church. A work of extraordinary pathos, the composer outlines words of the plangent text with chromatics and other musical devices.
‘O all you who pass by the way,
Pay heed and see
If there is any sorrow like my sorrow.
Pay heed, all people
And see my sorrow.
If there is any sorrow like my sorrow.’
From the same Responsories from the Tenebrae Matins, we heard “Judas Mercator Pessimus” (Judas, the vile merchant), a vehement, at times stark decry of Judas Iscariot. The singers display the passionate, emotional quality of the piece, showing awareness of its “text painting”. Juan Gutiérrez de Padilla (c.1590-1664) was greatly influenced by the music of the older Victoria. Using one of the great Marian texts, describing the mother of Jesus at the foot of the cross, Padilla’s “Stabat Mater” is more modest than that of Pergolesi, its scoring less lush that the music of Victoria.

And to the secular content of the program: Alonso Mudarra (1510-1580), a canon at Seville Cathedral, played the vihuela lute and wrote music for it. We heard Avital Dery singing a coquettish, traditional-style villancico from his “Tres Libros de Música” (1546) with Eliav Lavi on lute. Dery and Lavi bring to life Mudarra’s lively vocal- and instrumental score, creating a charming vignette of situation and emotion. Dery’s voice is stable, her singing effortless and pleasingly rich; she displays confidence and competence. A member of the Israeli Bach Soloists, she has soloed with ensembles and orchestras, among them, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. Dery is also a physicist.

On the lute, Eliav Lavi then performed a fantasia by court musician Luiz de Narváez, one of the great 16th century masters of Spanish music. “La canción del Emperador”, a reworking of Josquin des Pres’ “Mille Regretz”, can be found in “Les seys libros des dolphin” (1538), a collection including most of Narváez’ works, the vihuela parts written in contemporary Italian tablature. From the rich number of ideas in the piece, it is apparent that Narváez was a skilled improviser on the vihuela. Lavi’s playing of it was delicately paced and flexed, his melodic lines almost narrative in character. This was followed by John Dowland’s Cornish Galliard. Lavi is studying lute at the Academy of Music. He has sung in a number of choirs and taken part in larger productions, including Purcell’s “Fairy Queen”. Lavi has also been a member of a rock band and sometimes plays electric guitar for rock- and pop recordings.

Oded Reich, a student of the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, is no unknown quantity to the Israeli concert-goer, his soloing in many large choral works, such as Fauré’s Requiem, Gounod’s Saint Cecilia Mass (Aharon Harlap, Oratorio Choir) and the Bach B minor Mass (Andrew Parrott, Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra), inspiring and thrilling audiences with his expressive quality and rich vocal timbre. He will presently be joining the Opera Studio of the Israel Opera.

The Gloriana Ensemble cashed in on the playful and risqué character of John Farmer’s polyphonic, pastoral chanson “Fair Phyllis I Saw Sitting All Alone”, enjoying its humor and conjuring up the hide-and-seek antics of shepherdess Phyllis and her lover.

“When Griping Griefs”, found in William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”, survives both in text and music. A poem by Richard Edwards printed posthumously, reads:
‘Where griping grief the heart would wound
And doleful dumps the mind oppress
Then music with her silver sound
Is wont with speed to give redress,
Of troubled mind for every sore,
Sweet music hath a salve therefore.’
This bitter-sweet work, its melodic and harmonic path one of surprises, was performed by Naggan and Reich, singing alternate verses and then joining, with Lavi accompanying on lute. Noar Lee Naggan understands the genre of Renaissance vocal music; he has fine vocal presence, his countertenor voice powerful, highly colored and even.

The Gloriana Ensemble singers presented their audience with an interesting and well-balanced program, their voices embracing the (problematic) acoustic of the Scottish Church with exuberance and alacrity. The four singers communicate with the audience and each other, presenting a cappella performance with excellence; their accuracy, fine intonation, pleasing pronunciation and innate musicianship will appeal to the most discerning of music-lovers in Israel and further afield. Lutenist Eliav Lavi is an asset to such a group.

The Fleshquartet (Sweden) performs Steve Reich's "Different Trains" and their own composition "Tears Apart" at the Tower of David Museum of Jerusalem

2011-07-18T21:44:00.000-07:00

As the sun was setting over the Old City of Jerusalem, we entered the Tower of David Museum via the Jaffa Gate on July 16th, 2011. The banalities of daily life were suddenly left way behind as we negotiated Jerusalem’s Citadel, the imposing walls of the city’s medieval fortress looming above, below and around us as we descended and mounted the wooden castle moat steps in awe-struck silence on our way to the recently opened Kishle Prison. Jerusalem’s long and eventful history was paramount. The Kishle Prison was built by Ottoman Turks in the mid 1800’s; it later served as a British jail, housing Jewish- and Arab prisoners up to the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. A decade ago, archeologists dug below the prison, finding important remains dating back three millennia that included walls built by King Herod and medieval facilities for dyeing fabrics. The infamous Kishle landmark was especially renovated and reopened in July 2011 to serve as the venue of an unusual and extraordinary artistic event of the Jerusalem Season of Culture.

Entering the minimally lit, rectangular hall, the audience is seated around the walls. Islands of large glass vessels are visible, many of the tear-shaped glass vessels also hanging from the ceiling. A podium for the players is positioned between the islands of glass. The glass installation was created by Ann Wåhlström (b.1957, Stockholm). Film screens are situated on the two far walls. We were to hear two works performed by the award-winning Fleshquartet (Sweden), an (often) electric quartet whose musical styles range from classical string music to experimental rock; members of the quartet are Christian Olsson-sampled violin, Örjan Högberg-viola, Mattias Helldén-‘cello and Sebastien Öberg-‘cello.

The first work was Steve Reich’s “Different Trains”. One of America’s greatest living composers, Reich (b.1936, New York) has been a leading pioneer of Minimalism, in his youth breaking away from the “establishment” (serialism). He studied, among a variety of other disciplines, the Gamelan, African drumming and the chanting of the Hebrew scriptures, embracing non-western harmonies and American vernacular music. Composed in 1988, “Different Trains” evolved from the sound and rhythm of trains, familiar to Reich from an early age. The work is semi-autobiographical, the speech overlay being phrases taken from Reich’s interviews with Virginia (the composer’s governess, who had taken him on the many train trips between his divorced parents), Lawrence Davis (a retired Pullman porter) and three Holocaust survivors. The direction, concept and set design for the “Different Trains” performances at the Tower of David Museum is by Pia Forsgen of The Jewish Theater, Stockholm. The production’s state-of-the-art synchronization includes computer screen music stands.

Constructed of repetitive fragments, this is the first work in which Reich uses music extracted from speech-melody patterns that are woven into a continuous musical texture of live and pre-recorded string quartets, over-layered with harsh, metallic train noise. In three concise movements, the composer contrasts the cross-continent trains of his childhood with the cattle trucks to Auschwitz. On the screens, we view black-and-white slides of trains and of people crowding to alight them in the Holocaust. Specially designed lighting units bring out refractions of different colors in the glass vessels, which light up according to the work’s content – red, when, for example, when the text talks about the Nazi camps.
‘Flames going up to the sky – it was smoking.’
Each audience member is obliged to grapple alone with the intense and urgent musical score and effects in a hall basically plunged into eerie darkness, the various lighting effects attracting one’s eye to the glistening, icy, motionless tear-drop glass pieces at least as often as to the screens. Suddenly the recorded audial effects cease and the quartet is left to play on alone:
‘…and the war was over.
“Are you sure?”
“The war is over.” ’
The railway rhythms then commence once more, this time to describe lively train movement in post-war America. The screen now shows slides in color. The work ends with the poignant reminder of a Jewish girl with a beautiful singing voice:
‘and they loved to listen to the singing, the Germans
And when she stopped they said
“more, more” and they applauded.’
In this dark and compelling piece, Reich concludes by reminding us that the Germans’ artistic awareness constituted a haunting and horrific contrast to their actions.

“Different Trains” was immediately followed by the Fleshquartet’s own recently composed work “Tears Apart”, a commentary and reflection on Reich’s “Different Trains”. Utilizing the glass installation, the instrumentalists leave their podium to produce sound effects, such as that of the rubbing of rims of water-filled glasses, the playing of a set of chimes mounted on hanging glass vessels, a percussive maracas effect from shaking a glass piece filled with stones, etc. Colors and simple designs were projected onto the screens. With the players gradually returning to the podium, the water glass drone was eventually replaced by a low electronic synthesized ‘cello throbbing buzz. Then, unexpectedly, we suddenly find ourselves floating together with an inebriating and nostalgic melody. This is followed by many rapid mood- and style changes: jazzy, cool moments and zingy percussion, music reflecting a gentle, vulnerable mood, rock music, and more. In a conversation with Swedish writer Aris Fioretos, Pia Forsgen says “It was important that Different Trains be followed by Tears Apart. I wanted to let go of the high tension that Reich maintains… I also wanted them (members of the Fleshquartet) to restore a strong sense of joy to the audience – sensualism, hope, playfulness.”

The Fleshquartet is a highly intelligent and versatile ensemble, its performance breathing accuracy deep searching into the meaning of music and art. The program was unique, creative and superbly performed. It was powerful - a moving and unforgettable experience.

The Renaissance 2011 Ensemble hosts viol player Tal Arbel at a concert in Tel Aviv's Felicja Blumental Music Center

2011-07-15T05:35:00.000-07:00

The “Renaissance 2011” Vocal Ensemble is a small group of singers whose members come from well-known Israeli choirs. It focuses on genres of music that give personal expression to each voice, in particular, Renaissance music, in which balance between voices and transparency of expression meet. A chamber choir, it is directed by Alon Weber, a graduate of the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music in orchestral- and choral conducting and whose experience includes the conducting contemporary music. Weber founded the choir three years ago. It has, however, undergone changes. The concert, with the enigmatic title of “Songs -Sacred and Secular – Yehuda Halevi, Corner Ibn Gvirol” was the choir’s first in its current form. Viol-player Tal Arbel was guest artist.

The ensemble performed several a cappella Renaissance works. The evening began with sacred works. English composer John Dowland (1563-1626) composed 13 Psalm settings: “All people that on earth do dwell” appears in “The Whole Booke of Psalmes” (1592) of Thomas Est. Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina’s (c.1526-1594) “Confitebuntue Coeli” - Psalm 89 (For who in the skies can compare with the Lord?) is from his 68 Offertories published in 1593, as is his “Benedicam Dominam - Psalm 16 (I will praise the Lord who counsels me).

Of the ensemble’s secular repertoire, we heard two chansons by Franco-Flemish composer Josquin des Pres (c.1450-1521) – “Plusieurs regretz” and “Cueurs désolés”, both of which speak of disappointed love.
The text of “Plusieurs regretz”:
‘A thousand regrets at leaving you
And departing from your loving look.
I feel such great sorrow and grievous pain
That all will see my days are numbered.’
Josquin’s satirical little frottola “El Grillo” (The Cricket) (c.1505) is thought to be a hint to his patron Galeazzo Sforza to pay his musicians. Largely homophonic, it is earthy, humorous and full of double-entendres and word-painting.

The leading composer at the court of Burgundy, Pierre de la Rue (1452-1518) was both prolific and innovative. We heard his “Autant en emporte le vent” (It is as if gone with the wind), composed around 1500.

The ensemble concluded its concert with three chansons by Clément Janequin (c.1486-1668), a priest who composed some 250 chansons, some vividly descriptive, some moving and others outright bawdy.

The “Renaissance 2011” Vocal Ensemble’s repertoire is indeed rich, attractive and challenging. The audience appreciated hearing choir members reading translations of many of the texts into Hebrew. The group would be wise to focus more on a finer blend of sound, a more transparent timbre, better shaped phrasing and more distinctive pronunciation of English and other languages. The vibrato employed by some of the singers can be detrimental to Renaissance intonation. All these pitfalls are typical teething problems encountered by groups starting out on the long and difficult journey into authentic performance of early vocal music.

And to Yehuda Halevi and Ibn Gvirol, the play on words alluding to streets named after the two poets in Tel Aviv. We heard Alon Weber reading texts by both poets.

Viola da gamba player, Tal Arbel, back in Israel, following years of study and performance in Basel and London, performed pieces from the repertoire for bass viol. She opened by talking about the fact that composers of these works were viol players themselves, and that the pieces would have been played in private salons. Arbel opened with English composer Tobias Hume’s (c.1569-1645) “Good Againe”, from “Captain Hume’s Musicall Humors” (1605). Hume’s personal history reads very differently to that of any other composer: a “gentleman” (amateur composer) and a contemporary of Shakespeare, he was a soldier and mercenary, some of whose charming solo pieces tell the story of his colorful life. Following its plucked opening section (Hume was one of the first composers to use that technique on the viol) Arbel allows the pensive course of the piece to unfold, showing its different textures and moods. Monsieur de Sainte Colombe’s (1640-1700) Chaconne offered effective contrasts, Arbel’s intricate passagework gracing a number of the variations. In L’Arabesque” by St. Colombe’s pupil Marin Marais (1656-1728), Arbel brings out the piece’s whimsical, conversational and speech-like character. His “Grande Chaconne” emerges as a kaleidoscope of gestures, sounds and textures. Tal Arbel (b.1978, Tel Aviv) began her musical life as a recorder player, her first viol teacher being Dr. Myrna Herzog. Arbel’s solo recitals include her own musical arrangements, original material and improvisations. Her tone is articulate and refined, if not yet daring. Arbel’s characteristic, intelligent reading into works, her knowledge, musicality and competence promise audiences many more fine viola da gamba performances.

We then heard two English solo songs performed by Noa Zachoval and Tal Arbel. Mezzo-soprano Zachoval’s musical focus is on works of the Middle Ages, Renaissance and Baroque periods. Together with Arbel, she performed Tobias Hume’s love song “Fain would that I change that note” (1605). Henry Purcell’s (1659-1695) “Sweeter than Roses” is a love song of a different kind. Composed for Richard Norton’s tragedy “Pausanius, Betrayer of his Country”, it is a seductive song, volatile in its mood changes and virtuosic in its demands on the singer. Zachoval is convincing in her portrayal of the songs’ temperament and messages, her voice not always anchored and stable in melismatic phrases. Arbel’s accompaniments bristle with interest.

Celebrated American lyric soprano Renee Fleming to sing in Jerusalem

2011-07-12T10:50:00.000-07:00

Renée Fleming was born in 1959 in Indiana, Pennsylvania and grew up in Rochester, New York. Her parents were both voice teachers and she had the privilege of receiving a very fine music education. She, herself, had also intended joining the teaching profession and took a degree in education at the State University of New York, Potsdam. While still an undergraduate student, Fleming sang at bars with her jazz trio. Hearing her performance and impressed by her singing, the legendary jazz saxophonist Jacquet Illinois invited her go on tour with his big band, but, encouraged to pursue a singing career, Fleming refused and proceeded on to graduate studies at the Eastman School of Music and the Julliard School of Music, joining the Julliard School’s American Opera Center from 1983 to 1987 as a student of Beverly Johnson. Winning a Fulbright Scholarship in 1984, Fleming left Julliard temporarily to study under Dame Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Arleen Augér in Frankfurt, Germany, before returning to New York in 1985 to complete her studies.

Fleming’s debut as Konstanze in Mozart’s “Abduction from Seraglio” at the Landstheater in Salzburg in 1986 was an important landmark in the singer’s profession journey. Fleming became acutely aware that there was still much work to be done on her vocal technique and on the problem of stage fright. She took on any jobs offered her by opera companies, many of them last minute offers, and she became accustomed to learning roles on ‘plane trips. In 1988, Fleming won the Metropolitan National Opera Auditions, resulting in invitations to sing at the Houston Grand Opera, Covent Garden and the New York City Opera; she also won the George London Prize (in the same week!) Fleming’s big break came in 1991 when she stood in for the ailing British soprano Felicity Lott to sing the role of the Countess in Mozart’s “Marriage of Figaro”, receiving rave reviews for her fresh, individual approach to the work in what was to become the first of her signature roles.

Fleming’s career then soared to great heights: she performs in opera houses all over the world, her performing schedule also including solo recitals. She is also involved in the performing of contemporary music, premiering many newly-penned operas. Her other big love – jazz – has resulted in plans to record a jazz album. In fact, the eclectic singer has always hankered after music that is more “unbuttoned”. Take, for example, the rock songs by Muse and Arcade Fire Fleming has recorded on “Dark Hope” (2010), in which her two teenage daughters appear as back-up singers! Fleming is, therefore, both heady and earthy. Her CD “Homage: The Age of the Diva” (2006) was nominated for two Grammy Awards. Her DVD “Sacred Songs” (2006) was recorded live in Mainz Cathedral and she starred in “In Search of Mozart”, a documentary film on Mozart’s life, marking the 250th anniversary of his birth.

Renée Fleming supports “Get Caught Reading”, an American national literacy campaign to promote the joys of reading. In her own book “The Inner Voice – The Making of a Singer” (2004) Fleming addresses those contemplating a career in the arts, sharing her life experiences as an artist, discussing practical issues, her doubts, her mentors, the “heart-throat-mind” connection, and more.

Renée Fleming is one of today’s most sought-after lyric soprano singers, whether on the opera stage, in concert or Lied recitals, on television, radio or on disc. In addition to her work on stage, she has represented Rolex timepieces in print advertising since 2001; a fragrance “La Voce by Renée Fleming” was designed for her and she inspired the “Renée Fleming Iris” which has been replicated in porcelain by Boehm. Fleming has performed in auspicious ceremonies – the 2006 Nobel Prize ceremony, the Beijing Olympics and the Obama inauguration. But, above all, the fetchingly glamorous Fleming is a stage artist, capturing audiences with her lush vocal timbre, her innate musicality, her unique stylistic versatility, her artistry and her radiant stage presence.

Joined by Maltese tenor Joseph Calleja, one of today's tenors most sought after in opera houses on both sides of the Atlantic, Renée Fleming will be appearing at the Jerusalem International Convention Center (Binyanei Ha’Uma) July 28th 2011 in a concert with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Maestro Zubin Mehta. This event will wind up the Jerusalem Season of Culture. Fleming will be performing both her personal repertoire and songs written about Jerusalem. The concert also celebrates 50years since Mehta’s first Israel visit and will be a tribute to Richard Tucker, the great American tenor and cantor, a gesture by Fleming in support of the Richard Tucker Music Foundation. Ms. Fleming, to be accompanied by her two daughters on what will also be a private visit, is very excited about her first visit in Israel.

The 2011 Sounding Jerusalem Festival presents a mix of european- and oriental music

2011-07-10T04:57:00.000-07:00

The Sounding Jerusalem Festival, under its founder and director - Austrian ‘cellist Erich Oskar Huetter - took place June 26th to July 2nd 2011 for the sixth year running. This year’s festival included eight concerts, the last of which was held July 2nd 2011 in the courtyard of the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in the Old City of Jerusalem. The festival’s mission is to embrace the region and its people with the artistic event, to offer concerts not usually available to all people and to take the listener on a musical journey that evokes the rich sites of Jerusalem and the region. In addition to concerts, a team of three people interacted with and entertained children in the various locations of the concerts.

As daylight was fading, the Redeemer Church’s tranquil courtyard, built in the 12th century and restored in 1995, was filling with people from many local communities, as well as tourists, enjoying a glass of wine and relaxing in the tranquil, leafy outdoor venue and enjoying the balmy Jerusalem evening air.

Waving in the evening breeze, a cloth screen showed photographs taken by Christian Jungwirth (Austria) – pictures of Sounding Jerusalem Festival concerts and their audiences, as well as the street people and sites of East Jerusalem – forming a reminder of the region inspiring the concert series titled “Village Voices” or “Mélange oriental”. The music was performed by an ensemble consisting of Erich Oskar Huetter (‘cello), Mahran Moreb-qanun (Rama village, Galilee), Stefan Heckel-accordion (Austria), Raed Saed-percussion (Jerusalem), Michel Lethiec-clarinet (France) and Wassim Odeh-oud (Nazareth).

Setting the musical scene was Stefan Heckel’s piece “Zenobia’s Desert View” (Zenobia was a 3rd century Syrian queen who conquered- and ruled over Egypt) a piece peppered with the rhythms of Arabic music. Heckel’s piece “Bab al Amud (Damascus Gate) - a tripartite piece, its outer sections monodic, its inner section graced delicately with harmonies played on the accordion – is an evocative work featuring improvisations. The performances of two Armenian dances – “Zouika” and “Zartounk” – reflecting a dance tradition going back 1000 years – were highly energetic and laden with temperament, as was the Longa Sakiz. The longa is a genre of Turkish music that was adapted from the Gypsy music of Eastern Europe in the late 19th century. The latter piece displayed fiery, brilliant playing, the ensemble’s playing accurate and polished.

The ensemble played songful and touching arrangements of “Asentada en mi Ventura” (Sitting at my Window), a Sephardic song of the Ottoman Empire speaking of disappointed love and “Irme Kero Madre”, a 15th century Sephardic song, describing a longing for Jerusalem:
‘O Mother, I want to leave for Jerusalem,
To eat of her fruits, to drink of her waters.
I will make a home there.
I will worship there…’
No less poignant was the gentle and charming arrangement of eclectic American composer John Zorn’s (b.1953) “Mahshav” (Hebrew: thought), a meditative, klezmer-style piece.

Addressing Christian sacred music, the ensemble played an arrangement of “Jerusalem”, the soprano aria from Felix Mendelssohn’s (1809-1847) compelling first oratorio “Paulus” (St. Paul), composed in 1835. The combination of clarinet, accordion and ‘cello, playing homophonically produced an effective timbre somewhat associated with that of the pipe organ.

Palestinian singer Rula Hazzan (b.1985) sings both western- and Arabic music, performing in Israel and abroad. At the concert, she sang a selection of Arabic songs, to the filigree accompaniment of oud (Odeh), qanun (Moreb) and percussion (Saed), with the accordion playing an interlude in the love-song “El Bint in Shalabia” (The Shalabi Girl), a song made famous by the great Lebanese singer Fairuz..
‘You appear in the distance and my heart is wounded
And I reminisce about days past…’
Hazzan has a well-anchored, imposing and stable voice, moving among registers with ease and confidence.

Raed Saed performed an intricate, poignantly integrated solo work on percussion instruments, his technical skills matched with a wealth of ideas and good taste.

The three Austrian team members, who had spent the week communicating with local children in a language of non-verbal gestures, entertained us in the same fashion: Günter Meinhart and Bernhard Richter encouraged the audience to be active, conducting all assembled in a whimsical ad hoc “vocal” work, later inviting some audience members to join the instrumental ensemble. People watched with bated breath as Nicole Kehrberger, utilizing two lengthy pieces of red cloth hung from cables from high above the courtyard, performed a wonderful acrobatic act, accompanied by improvisations played by clarinetist Michel Lethiec in synchronization with her display.

The 2011 Sounding Jerusalem Festival concluded with an evening of music from many of the region’s ethnic groups, It was a meeting of local artists and European musicians collaborating in fine music-making that was polished, elegant, inspired, finely balanced and respective of style.

The Young Israel Philharmonic Orchestra prepares for its two 2011 summer concerts

2011-07-07T05:51:00.000-07:00

The Young Israel Philharmonic Orchestra is an orchestra made up of 80 of Israel’s finest young orchestral players; their ages range from 14 to 18. The orchestra meets annually for an intensive summer course, rehearsing under the baton of world famous conductors. The YIPO is one of the flagship programs run by the Jerusalem Music Centre, an organization that discovers and nurtures young players in its projects, and enjoys the support of musicians from the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the Marc Rich Foundation for Education, Culture and Welfare and the America-Israel Cultural Foundation. This year, to perpetuate the memory of Hanan Zoz, the chair of concertmaster will be dedicated to his name, with the help and generosity of the Hanan Zoz Family Foundation.

The Young Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Israel’s national youth orchestra, was founded by Bruno Landesberg and the late Hanan Zoz. Selecting its participants from the finest players of classical music in Israel, its aim is to give these outstanding young people a love of orchestral music, the joy of working together, experience and a chance to work with some of the world’s best-known teachers and conductors. A number of today’s internationally renowned Israeli artists cut their teeth in the YIPO when starting out. Meeting and working together in an environment of excellence and equality, players of the YIPO come from religious- and secular homes, Jewish- and Arabic communities, from the cities, agricultural villages, from peripheral towns, from the north of Israel to the south. Some of the players have grown up with classical music from early childhood, whereas others have discovered it and become deeply involved in it in their teens.

One of the many success stories of the YIPO players is that of double bass player Talia Horwitz, a 12th grade student originally from the western Negev town of Sderot, today living on moshav Nir Akiva (close to Netivot). Talia’s mother runs a day centre for the elderly, her father is a mechanical engineer, her older sister is studying education and her brother is now completing his army service. Talia’s parents have never put pressure on her to study music. She started by playing the guitar and was accepted as a student to the Israel Arts and Science Academy in Jerusalem, a high school bringing together motivated and very able students. It was there that the music staff became aware of Talia’s outstanding musical ability and suggested she learn the double bass. Through her studies on the giant instrument, Talia discovered the world of classical music. Teachers at the high school contacted the JMC, informing its specialist teaching staff of their talented young double bass player. She was auditioned and selected to play in the YIPO and, in addition, was presented by them with a double bass on loan. In the 11th grade, Talia left the Israel Arts and Science Academy to study at the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music at Tel Aviv University, completing her matriculation examinations at the same time. Talia Horwitz has recently been accepted as a student to the Julliard School of Music (New York) on a full scholarship, the dream of every outstanding young musician. If all goes to plan, Talia will defer her mandatory army service by four years and will need to have a double bass of her own for her studies in New York.

The 2011 July YIPO workshop is taking place in the Ben Shemen Youth Village. Participants are busy playing music from morning to night under the guidance of renowned musicians from Britain, Italy and Israel. The results of their hard work will be heard and seen in two concerts with the well-known Austrian conductor Hans-Peter Ochsenhofer. In the meantime, the young players are spending weeks consolidating musical notes and rhythms into fine orchestral performance, at the same time, enjoying the company of their co-players. Ochsenhofer worked with the YIPO in 2008, inspiring the young instrumentalists and audience alike in a program of works by Haydn, Tchaikovsky and Gulda. This year’s program will include Dvorak’s Symphony no.7 and Hindemith’s Symphonic Metamorphosis on Themes of Carl Maria von Weber. Audiences will enjoy hearing two great orchestral works not frequently performed in Israel. These concerts will surely be among this summer’s most attractive and inspiring musical events!

Concerts will take place in the Henry Crown Auditorium (Jerusalem Theatre) Thursday July 21st at 20:00 and in the Frederic Mann Auditorium, Tel Aviv Friday July 22 at 12:00.

Barrocade signs out of the 2010-2011 concert season with "Concerto"

2011-07-04T04:37:00.000-07:00

The concert was titled “Concerto”, and St. Andrews Scots Memorial Church, Jerusalem, was filled to capacity June 28th 2011 for the Barrocade Ensemble’s last concert of the 2010-2011 season. Established in 2007, Barrocade consists of some 12 instrumentalists and a singer and performs mostly without a conductor. The ensemble’s musical director is Amit Tiefenbrunn. Harpsichordist Yizhar Karshon led and directed this concert.

The program began with A.Vivaldi’s (1678-1741) Concerto for Strings, RV 117. Of his more than 500 concertos, some 40 of these small gems are for string orchestra (ripieno concertos) and adopt the three-movement format. Adding flute (Geneviève Blanchard) and a plucked timbre (Jacob Reuven-mandolin, Eitan Hoffer-theorbo) to its string ensemble, Barrocade gave the concerto’s outer movements an accented, strongly profiled character, reflecting the composer’s passionate temperament, the Largo lyrical and poignant.

Vivaldi’s “Stravaganza” opus 4 (the title suggesting “originality” or “eccentricity”) -composed from 1712 to 1713 – constitutes twelve concertos for violin, strings and basso continuo, music that was distinctly experimental for its time. The concertos boast swirling melodies, dazzling solos, compelling gestures and wonderfully lyrical, contemplative moments. An early Vivaldi collection, its music, nevertheless, inspires and transports both player and audience. So how is the Violin Concerto no. 6 in G minor of opus 4 to work with the mandolin as soloist? Paring down their large, solidly anchored sound, the Barrocade instrumentalists and mandolin player Jacob Reuven take the audience into a sound world of both delicacy and exuberance, however, on the mandolin’s terms. Reuven’s melodic lines are finely crafted and articulate, sparkling with vitality and brilliance as he leads his listener through Vivaldi’s harmonic- and tonal minefield. His competence, constant eye communication with fellow players and deep musicality, coupled with technical ease, made for a magical performance of the work.

G.F.Händel’s opus 3 concertos owe their existence to John Walsh, an English publisher, interested in publishing works by some of Europe’s foremost composers. He encouraged Händel to supply him with material as an ongoing arrangement, and, in 1734, the composer (or possibly the publisher) quickly assembled reworked sections of Händel’s previous pieces together with new material, making up the opus 3 Concerto Grossi. Händel, at this stage, was beginning to take more of an interest in non-operatic works, aware that amateur musicians would be interested in performing them. (He was never one to let opportunities pass him by.) The first two movements of Concerto Grosso no.3 are arrangements of anthems written at the time the composer was in the employ of the Duke of Chandos, and the last movement is based on a keyboard fugue from the same time. With Blanchard playing one of the concertino parts , there was much lively passagework on flute and violin (Shlomit Sivan, Yasuko Hirata), Blanchard’s treatment of the Adagio movement appealing and sensitive.

Like Händel, the Italian violin virtuoso Francesco Geminiani (1687-1762) also made his home in London, a city fast becoming a major European music centre, partly due to Händel’s presence there. Both composers had studied with Corelli in Rome. Geminiani was quick to establish himself in London, performing, composing and publishing “The Art of Playing the Violin”(1731) there. When invited to play for George I in 1715, Händel accompanied Geminiani on the harpsichord. Geminiani’s opus 3 Concerti Grossi (1733) were immediately to become very popular, proving him to be a master of the genre. As to his rhythmic and melodic approach, his contemporaries referred to him as “il Furibondo” (the furious). Barrocade took on board Geminiani’s Italian, non self-conscious personality, presenting the opening Adagio statements punctuated generously with dramatic pauses. Violins (Sivan, Yasuko Hirata) and viola (Daniel Tanchelson) created a richly legato singing concertino, Geminiani assigning the viola with a much more significant and independent role than composers before him.

Written in his time as Hof-Kapellmeister to Prince Leopold in Cöthen (1717-1723) J.S.Bach’s (1685-1750) Concerto for Harpsichord and Strings in D minor BWV 1052 is thought to be based on a lost violin concerto. The manuscript calls for a two-manualed harpsichord; the work uses the Italian ritornello form. It was in Cöthen that the composer wrote a great variety of secular works and many instructive pieces. The prince, himself a skilled musician, was particular about the standard of music at court. When Bach became director of the Collegium Musicum in Leipzig, where weekly concerts were held in Zimmermann’s coffee house, he was to supply the music. In the Barrocade concert, Yizhar Karshon performed the solo on a Titus Krijnen two-manualed harpsichord. From the outset, Karshon and the ensemble set out clearly the dramatic conflict between solo and orchestra, their (sometimes) separate agendas, the decidedly large variety of Bach’s ideas as well as the major-minor shifts inherent in the work, the latter not common practice in the Baroque period. From the first notes, Karshon displayed consistently fine playing of the dense harpsichord part, his textures exciting but well controlled and measured, the work’s urgency never lacking direction. In the Adagio movement, also in a minor key, Karshon and his fellow players created the austere, transparent aria-like melody with breath-taking expressiveness, Karshon’s playing unmannered and convincing, his ornamenting delicate and tasteful. In the final Allegro, we, once again, luxuriated in the richness of Bach’s tonal changes, the scoring’s fullness alternating with intimate moments and the nuances of Bach’s writing. Karshon’s playing bristled with sparkle and virtuosity, his quiet confidence allowing for the work’s timeless musical message to emerge.

In his autobiography of 1718, G.P.Telemann (1681-1767) wrote that he was no great lover of concertos; this statement might have meant that he disliked the display of virtuosity for its own sake common in the Italian-style concerto, a genre in which he had encountered “many difficulties and awkward leaps, but little harmony and even poorer melody”. Telemann preferred the four-movement sonata da chiesa model, his interest lying in innovative structure, scoring and style. Only three of his concertos were published during his lifetime; manuscripts of the others do not indicate dates of composition, but it is supposed they were composed before 1735. Telemann’s instrumental training was in harpsichord, violin and recorder, but we read in his 1740 autobiography that he wished to familiarize himself “also with the oboe, transverse flute, chalumeau, gamba etc., up to the double bass and trombone pitched a fifth below”. In his Concerto for Flute and Recorder in E minor TWV 52:e1, Telemann juxtaposes the recorder with the transverse flute, a combination extremely rare in the Baroque, a farewell to the old, a welcoming of the new. Barrocade players Geneviève Blanchard (traverso) and Adi Silberberg (recorder) delighted the audience in a stellar performance of the concerto, their precision, collaboration and uncannily finely matched intonation matched with sweetness of tone and grace. Orchestra and audience reveled in the rousing final movement – a raucous Polish-style dance - with its bass drones and fiddle motifs.

This was an ambitious program, performed with flair, joy and excellence. Barrocade took leave of the concert season on a high note!

The Carmel Quartet winds up its 2010-2011 lecture-concert season with "Simply Serenades"

2011-06-27T07:30:00.000-07:00

The Carmel Quartet closed its 2010-2011 season of Commentated Concerts with “Simply Serenades”, the English language lecture-concert taking place June 22nd 2011 at the Jerusalem Music Centre. With the audience seated, lights were dimmed and the evening began with a slide show displaying several paintings of well-known artists titled “The Serenade”. These were shown to the strains of “Oh, Come to the Window” the serenade from Mozart’s “Don Giovanni”, a genuine old-fashioned serenade to a plucked accompaniment. The audience was now in the right frame-of-mind to hear more about the genre, with the help of violist Yoel Greenberg and his co-players – violinists Rachel Ringelstein and Lia Rakhlin and ‘cellist Tami Waterman.

Greenberg referred to the “serenade” genre as not only a romantic song performed to the accompaniment of a plucked instrument but also as musical entertainment for parties and celebrations. Its etymological origins might have come from the same roots as “serene”; the serenade was also a form of “notturno”, “nocturne” or “Nachtmusik” – music to be played in the evening. Such music might be heard in the streets and parks of Vienna on summer evenings. In some serenades, such as the Hofstetter Serenade, (attributed to Haydn) an instrument, taking on the vocal role, might “sing” the melody. Greenberg referred to the serenade form as light, relaxed and easy-to-grasp, as “a musical greeting”. In 18th century Vienna (and some other cities in Europe) there was a serenade to match every occasion, many of these works being commissioned for specific events, such as weddings, public celebrations and private parties. This being the case, the serenade is a social and functional musical form, its length suiting the length of the occasion, its movements in accordance with the various activities of the occasion it accompanies. The serenade might start with a kind of march (Beethoven’s Serenade in D major for violin, viola and ‘cello opus 8 begins with a march; the first movement of Dvorak’s Serenade for Wind Instruments in D minor opus 44 is marked “Moderato, quasi Marcia”) or a fanfare to issue in important personages or guests.

Greenberg sees W.A.Mozart as the stage director of his Serenade no. 13 for Strings in G major K.525 (1787), a work more often referred to as “Eine kleine Nachtmusik” (A Little Night Music), its plan including gentle music, a small, intimate dance and joyful music to send the guests home in good spirits. The original second movement, a dance – probably a minuet and trio - was removed by someone in the 19th century and has subsequently been lost. Greenberg calls Mozart’s K.525 “a multi-contextual work, firmly embedded in the social reality of its time”, adding that the Mozart scholar Alfred Einstein spoke of it as “supreme mastery in the smallest possible frame”. The Carmel Quartet’s performance of the “Eine kleine Nachtmusik”, led by the singing violin of Rachel Ringelstein, was rich in melodiousness, fine detail, understated flexibility and human expression; the players’ use of light textures contrasted with resolute moments, Mozart’s humor and nobility of expression both present.

In the course of the turmoil of the 19th century, the changing of society, the scarcity of patrons and the focusing on highly personal emotions, the serenade should have disappeared. Greenberg, however, mentions the 19th century as seeing a renaissance of the serenade! He talked about Austrian composer Hugo Wolf (1860-1903), one of the greatest Lied composers whose “Italian Serenade” was the next work on the program. Greenberg, referring to him as the “quintessential Romantic”, spoke of Wolf’s bouts of depression alternating with periods of much composing, and his low self image. The composer worked as a teacher and music critic, having studied composition mostly on his own, a factor contributing to his originality and experimental approach. The Italian Serenade, an early work, composed within three days in 1887, was probably inspired by Josef Eichendorff’s “Aus dem Leben eines Taugenichts” (From the Life of a Ne’er-Do-Well), the central figure of the novella being a talented, well-meaning musician, but a somewhat pathetic character. It seems Wolf identified with the novella’s hero. We heard the fine soprano voice of Rachel Ringelstein in an appealing and whimsical performance of Wolf’s “Der Soldat I” (The Soldier) from the Eichendorff-Lieder. The song is quoted in the serenade.

‘Although my horse may not look so handsome,
He is actually quite clever
And will carry me through the dark to a certain little castle
Quickly enough.

Although the castle is not very splendid,
Out of her door and into the garden
Steps a maiden, who, all night,
Will be friendly to me.

And although this small girl
Is not the fairest in the world,
There is still no other
That I like better.

But if she speaks of marriage,
I’ll leap onto my horse –
I’ll stay free
And she’ll stay at the castle.’

Wolf’s “Italian Serenade”, constructed in a loose rondo form, presents the Romantic style peppered with the wit of the work’s programmatic content, its irony and “simplicity” the basis of the young man’s serenading of his lady. On hearing the work, Max Reger spoke of it as “of such an enchanting tonal charm, of such a captivating highly original color that it will certainly inspire the greatest enthusiasm…” The Carmel Quartet’s reading of the work reflected its humor and rhythmic interest, its entertaining and appealing qualities, its instrumental- and extra-musical agenda.

And to an even later serenade – Hungarian composer and conductor Erno Dohnanyi’s (1877-1960) Serenade for String Trio in C opus 10, composed in 1902 and premiered two years later in Vienna with considerable success. Greenberg spoke of Dohnanyi (Ernst von Dohnanyi) as one of the greatest pianists and teachers of his time and a prolific composer, writing in the conservative style. Dohnanyi had received much support from Brahms, and the Serenade recalls Brahms in sonority and structure. Greenberg calls this serenade a “19th century reference to an 18th century serenade”. The concise first movement, marked Marcia, presents a lively and varied canvas, its fragmented march reappearing in the last movement. The tender Romanza’s thought-provoking main melody was stated on the viola (Greenberg), its theme placed either side of a stormy section. A Scherzo followed, a demonic, virtuosic and intense piece, bristling with many ideas. The modal, plaintive Tema con Variazioni reminds us of Dohnanyi’s Hungarian roots, the Carmel players’ reading of it evocative, creating an almost visual landscape. In one of the variations, the violin “sings” a serenade to the pizzicato accompaniment of viola and ‘cello. A high-spirited Rondo movement ends the work. The players capture Dohnanyi’s melodic invention and build a soundscape of full Romantic harmonies with conviction, their performance crisp, muscular and warm.

The Carmel Quartet’s “Commentated Concerts” are an auspicious contribution to Israel’s concert scene, each concert focusing on a subject, each highly informative yet informally presented. Yoel Greenberg does most of the talking, with his co-players adding charming vignettes and touches. The English language lecture-concert offers much enjoyment and musical enrichment to Jerusalem’s English-speaking community. The Carmel Quartet’s high quality of musicianship always makes for fine listening.

Barrocade launches "Folk Baroque" disc and appears in "Light in Jerusalem" Festival

2011-06-16T14:40:00.000-07:00

June 16th 2011 was a cool, pleasant evening. Jerusalem was swarming with people spilling out of the Mamilla Mall, making their way into the Old City via the Jaffa Gate to view the “Light in Jerusalem” Festival, running from June 15th to 22nd. Taking place for the second year in a row, it features the work of local- and international light artists, dramatically illuminating the wealth of historical sites within the walls of the Old City.

In the plaza joining the Mamilla Mall to the Jaffa Gate, the Voice of Music (Israeli Radio) had set up a makeshift studio and was broadcasting live. There was much lively discussion about the “Light in Jerusalem” Festival in the studio, but this evening proved to be a double celebration: the Barrocade Ensemble had just launched its new disc “Folk Baroque” – Timeless Music on Early Instruments, in which its instrumentalists are joined by soprano Ye’ela Avital. Founded in 2007, Barrocade is an ensemble with a difference, with all members contributing to decisions as to the manner in which works are to be performed. Directed by viol player Amit Tiefenbrunn, and mostly playing without a conductor, Barrocade performs Renaissance- and Baroque music, integrating Jazz and folk music into concert programs, without losing sight of the importance of each style. The group’s wider scope, however, lends flexibility and spontaneity to its playing.

Five Barrocade members – Amit Tiefenbrunn, violinist Shlomit Sivan Jacobi, mandolin player Jacob Reuven, harpsichordist Yizhar Karshon and Ye’ela Avital - took part in the studio discussion, after which they performed some early English dances and the traditional British ballad “Scarborough Fair” in the open air to the enjoyment of passers-by stopping to listen. The “Folk Baroque” disc includes music by composers such as Purcell, Dowland, Monteverdi and Vivaldi alongside anonymous pieces and folk songs and dances as well as pieces by Astor Piazzolla and Joseph Kosma.

Florilegium (UK) performs Baroque works at the 2011 Israel Festival

2011-06-15T20:53:00.000-07:00

The Henry Crown Auditorium (Jerusalem Theatre) was the venue for a concert performed by Florilegium, the prestigious British ensemble, June 5th, as part of the 2011 Israel Festival. Co-founded by recorder-player and flautist Ashley Solomon in 1991, Florilegium focuses on music spanning from the Baroque to the Romantic period; the ensemble plays on period instruments. Performing widely, Florilegium is a flexible ensemble, presenting works for small chamber works to large-scale orchestral pieces and has been Ensemble in Association at the Royal College of Music since 2008. Director Ashley Solomon performs all over the world as a soloist but invests much of his energy nowadays in his work with Florilegium.

The program opened with Antonio Vivaldi’s (1678-1741) Concerto “Il Gran Mogol”, a flute concerto composed in the late 1720’s or early 1730’s as one work of a set of four concertos representing the culture of different countries. The other three have been lost; this concerto was also missing till 2010, when it was rediscovered in Scotland. A small gem, the concerto typifies Vivaldi’s vitality and sense of color. Florilegium’s reading of it allowed the temperament of its phrases to dictate movement and shape, Solomon’s mellifluous playing of the melodic line of the Larghetto movement elegant and fetching.

We then heard Giovanni Battista Pergolesi’s (1710-1736) Salve Regina in C minor, a setting of a traditional Latin prayer and possibly the last work by the composer, written in a Franciscan monastery, where he spent the last two months of his short life. Joining Florilegium to perform the solo in this work was Canadian soprano Gillian Keith. An opera singer in demand, Keith also sings oratorio. Her performance of the Pergolesi Salve Regina was spiritual and compassionate, her lyrical, sweet-timbred voice, tempered with much vibrato (for Baroque music) supported by instrumental playing of real beauty. Also featuring Gillian Keith, we heard J.S.Bach’s (1685-1750) cantata “Ich habe genug” BWV 82a (It is enough). To an anonymous text based on a story in the Book of Luke, it was originally composed in 1727 for bass, oboe and strings; we heard the 1731 reworking of the cantata for soprano, flute and strings. An intimate work of religious conviction in the face of death, Keith’s performance of it was sympathetic and imbued with feeling and humility, her bright upper register boasting fine presence, her lower range somewhat less. In “Schlummert ein, ihr matten Augen” (Close in sleep, you weary eyes), Keith’s meditative, tranquil reading of the aria reflected the timelessness and transcendence and hope evident in Bach’s own deeply religious existence. The audience was involved and enthusiastic.

G.F.Handel (1685-1759) is estimated to have written over 1000 da capo arias throughout his creative life. “Sweet Bird”, an aria for soprano and flute obbligato, is found in Part 1 of his oratorio “L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato” (The Joyful Man and the Contemplative Man). Premiered in 1740, the work belongs to the period of Handel’s interest in large-scale English works and reflects his liking for pastoral imagery. Keith and Solomon play out the avian discourse, the flute’s birdlike warbling and slightly flexed comments filling each gesture with meaning, Keith’s crystalline timbre suited to bird imagery as she negotiates each leap with ease. Following the minor middle section, void of bird calls but upholstered with steadily pulsed chords on the strings, the artists profusely ornamented the da capo section. There was much charm in the performance of the work.
‘Sweet bird, that shun’st the noise of folly,
Most musical, most melancholy!
Thee, chauntress, oft the woods among,
I woo to hear thy even-song….’

Two of Henry Purcell’s (1659-1695) chaconnes provided a nice instrumental diversion from the vocal works on the program. Purcell was fascinated by the creative possibilities offered by works composed to a ground. In the Chacony in G minor (c.1678), based on an eight-bar ostinato, the ensemble, led articulately by first violinist Bojan Cicic, colored the variations with different instrumentations, creating constant interest and leaning into Purcell’s surprising harmonies based on altered notes. Moving swiftly into the Chaconne from “Timon of Athens”, Florilegium gave light and rhythmical expression to the frisky dancelike character, its economy of gestures adding to the ensemble’s sophisticated approach.

Of late, J.S.Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto no.5 seems to have been the flavor of the month in Jerusalem, not a bad thing at all! Throughout much of the evening we heard South African-born Erik Dippenaar playing the organ. Here, he was at the harpsichord, joined by Solomon and Zagreb-born Cicic to form the concertino section. Florilegium’s playing of the opening Allegro was articulate, elegant and subtle. Dippenaar paced the start to the long cadenza carefully, allowing for breaths between the various sections of it, its virtuosity shining through the artist’s sincere and understated approach. The lightly scored Affetuoso was sensitive and gently swayed, the violin occasionally covering the flute. The closing Allegro movement was delicate and fragrant, its many-faceted texture delicate and transparent.

The Florilegium concert was surely one of the most enjoyable musical events of the 2011 Israel Festival, an evening appealing to the senses and to those seeking good taste and excitement in Baroque performance.

The Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra presents four of J.S.Bach's Brandenburg Concertos at the St. Vincent de Paul Church in Jerusalem

2011-06-07T08:51:00.000-07:00

I am a member of the board of the Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra.On Friday June 3rd 2011, people flocked to Jerusalem to enjoy a variety of short concerts in many of the churches, the Tower of David Museum and the Jerusalem Theatre…you might call it a one-day “fringe festival”, the result of collaboration between the Israel Festival and the Israeli Opera Festival.

Leaving the noise of the bustling shops, cafes and street musicians of the Mamilla Mall behind us, we opened a door to enter the tranquility of the Monastery of St. Vincent de Paul, an impressive ecclesiastical structure built in the 19th century. This was the venue for a concert of four of J.S. Bach’s (1685-1750) Brandenburg Concertos, to be performed by the Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra.

In his program notes, Dr. David Shemer, the JBO’s founder and musical director, begins the story of the six unique concerti grossi which make up the set of the Brandenburg Concertos: “In 1721, Christian Ludwig, Margrave of Brandenburg, received a present – a score carefully handwritten by Johann Sebastian Bach.” (Scholars speculate that the Margrave of Brandenburg did not even peruse the works, as the original manuscript has have been found to be unopened.) Shemer mentions the concerto grosso form, a genre consisting of one small group of solo instruments set against a larger group, the rest of the orchestra, concluding that “each of the six Brandenburg Concertos is characterized by a different and most unusual orchestration”.

The program opened with Concerto no.4 in G major, BWV 1049, the concertino consisting of two recorders (Drora Bruck, Katharine Abrahams) and violin (Noam Schuss). An inspired, exuberant reading of the ever-charming opening movement was followed by the touching Andante movement, Bruck’s small solo phrases played sensitively. Moving straight into the Presto, Schuss handled the virtuosic violin solo with energy and verve. Bruck and Abrahams partnered, blended and communicated.

Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto no.3 in G major, BWV 1048, scored for only stringed instruments, deviates from the usual concerto grosso mould, with the nine instruments playing individually or in combinations that constantly regroup. With violinist Dafna Ravid leading (and Katharine Abrahams now playing ‘cello) the effect created by the JBO was mellow, well profiled, bristling with exciting dynamic changes and individual expression, at the same time, addressing key notes and phrases. Moving from first to third movement via two linking chords, one’s attention was drawn to the technical bravura of the lower strings.

Concerto no.6 in B flat major, BWV 1051, composed in 1718, invites two violas (Amos Boazson, Daniel Tanchelson) and ‘cello (Orit Messer-Jacobi) to form the concertino section. Bach, himself, probably played one of the viola parts, the question remaining being who played the second viola part, which is every bit as challenging as the first. It is likely that Prince Leopold played one of the viola da gamba parts, at this performance played by Myrna Herzog and Amit Tiefenbrunn. The firm basso continuo (Dara Bloom played the double bass) gave the texture a well grounded sound, the violas in constant dialogue, Messer-Jacobi’s presence majestic. The JBO’s playing of this concerto brings to mind Bach’s instructions to his pupils to write instrumental parts “like persons who conversed together as if in a select company”.

Brandenburg Concerto no. 5 in D major, BWV 1050 features flute (Genevieve Blanchard), violin (Dafna Ravid) and harpsichord (Davis Shemer) in the solo section. Bach was interested to show the merits of the new harpsichord he had brought to Cothen from Berlin in 1719, playing the harpsichord role of the concerto himself. It was the first time the harpsichord had appeared as a solo concerto instrument. How magical the instrumentation of this work is! After Ravid and Blanchard elegantly show the listener through the play of tonality shifts of the opening Allegro, supported by harpsichord and ripieno, the harpsichord part builds up to break into one of Bach’s most daring and brilliant moments – the lengthy, sparkling cadenza that grows more dazzling as it ends up showering down cascades of golden notes. Shemer pulls out all the plugs, juxtaposing and juggling the various sections with fine articulacy, his audience having a hard time containing its applause to the end of the concerto! Ravid, Blanchard and Shemer then presented the tranquil, intimate Affetuoso in a series of singing gestures, leaning into its dissonances, then floating the final movement of intricate passagework and light textures with joy and ease. Blanchard’s playing of the Baroque flute was outstanding in its eloquence.

The Brandenburg Concertos did not achieve their original purpose – to secure Bach a job in Brandenburg – but they never cease to thrill and surprise audiences and, I dare say, the players. The JBO’s performance did just that, players and audience joining in the elevating experience of this music. There were people in the audience who had come from out of Jerusalem to be part of the experience and there were people there, curious and excited, attending their first concert of that kind. The concert was no less inspiring for seasoned concert-goers.

Leaving the church, we walked out into Jerusalem’s blinding midday sun, still steeped in the sounds of Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos, not yet ready to be a part of the life outside.

Maestro Gabor Hollerung conducts the New Israeli Vocal Ensemble in an evening of "Gypsy Songs"

2011-06-04T08:24:00.000-07:00

Concert no.5 of the New Israeli Vocal Ensemble’s Vocal Experience series was titled “Gypsy Songs”. Conducting the concert was visiting Hungarian conductor Gabor Hollerung. This writer attended the concert May 30th at the Jerusalem Music Centre, Mishkenot Hasha’ananim.

The New Israeli Vocal Ensemble was established in 1993 by Yuval Ben-Ozer, its musical director. Ben-Ozer, a much sought-after conductor in Israel and abroad, also runs management workshops for business organizations.One of the finest ensembles in Israel,the NIVE's members are professional singers, its repertoire spanning from music of the Middle Ages to contemporary music, including the premiering new works of Israeli composers. The ensemble records, has performed at the Israel Festival and in festivals in Europe and Korea and has won prizes at international choral competitions. The NIVE appears with Israeli orchestras and works with leading conductors, among them, Frieder Bernius, Anthony Rooley and Andrew Parrott.

Gabor Hollerung (b.Budapest, 1954) has been conductor of the Dohnanyi Orchestra Budafok since 1989 and musical director of the Budapest Academic Choral Society since 1980, the latter receiving the “Choir of the World” title in Llangollen (Wales.) Maestro Hollerung is deeply involved in the organization of worldwide choral events and competitions – he is a musical director of “Musica Mundi”, the “Interkultur” International Music Competitions Foundation and of the “Choir Olympics”. Hollerung trains conductors, one of his most interesting projects being the annual conductors’ workshop he directs in Taipei (Taiwan.) Maestro Hollerung is no new face on the Israeli concert scene, having conducted the Israel Chamber Orchestra, the Israel Camerata Jerusalem, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and the Tel Aviv Philharmonia Singers.

Pianist Irit Rub accompanied the NIVE. As soloist and chamber music player, Ms. Rub performs in Israel and further afield. She is a member of the “Idan” Trio; she performs with flautist Yossi Arnheim, also accompanying singer-actor David Sebba in his own parody on the history of voice and opera show “Mad About Opera”.

In “Gypsy Songs” we heard choral works, all of which were influenced by gypsy music. Stories, poetry and songs depicting the lives of gypsies abound in Romantic (and earlier) literature, their influence evident in music, with the Romantic spirit attracted to the mysticism, nature and the exotic elements of the gypsy lifestyle. The program opened with Robert Schumann’s (1810-1856) “Zigeunerleben” (Gypsy Life.) Schumann’s interest gypsy lifestyle came from reading Emanuel Geibel’s “Gypsy Poems”, this finding expression in his “Zigeunerleben” opus 29 no.3. Composed in 1840, the composer’s “song year”, it was scored for soprano, alto, tenor and bass voices with piano accompaniment but is now commonly performed by choirs. We heard it sung by the choir, with small solos performed by Shirel Gidekel, Hadas Gur, Tal Koch and Ronen Ravid. The work, not actually gypsy music, nevertheless set the scene and created the atmosphere that would pervade the evening’s program.
‘In the shadows of the forest, among the beech trees,
Something moves and rustles and whispers all at once.
Flames are flickering, their glow dances
Around colorful figures, around leaves and rocks;
It is the roaming band of gypsies
With flashing eyes and waving hair…’

This was followed by Johannes Brahms’ (1833-1897) eleven “Zigeunerlieder” (Gypsy Songs) opus 103, composed in 1887 to texts of Hungarian folk songs translated into German by the composer’s friend Hugo Conrat. Brahms learned about gypsy music from Hungarian violinist Eduard Hofmann (Remenyi), accompanying him on a concert tour, where he learned to play “alla zingarese” (in gypsy style.) Although beginning each song on the downbeat (in keeping with the Hungarian language), Brahms decides against using the scales found in gypsy music. Yet, the work is Hungarian in spirit. Hollerung peppers it with fast tempi, hearty, strident, folksy moments, light textures and songs of appealing, reflective tenderness; all these serve to describe flirting and love, rejection and parting, accompanied with poignant descriptive scenes. Irit Rub was attentive to each nuance.

We heard the women members of the NIVC, with Rub at the piano, in seven of Antonin Dvorak’s (1841-1904) Moravian Duets opus 32, works that won the composer much success, launching his international career and making him a hero in the eyes of his countrymen. In 1877, Dvorak had submitted opus 29 and 32 for an Austrian composers’ competition and was awarded the prize of 600 florins. Brahms, (Dvorak’s mentor) a member of the judging committee, wrote to publisher Fritz Simrock that the songs “seem to me so perfectly charming they should be a practical publishing venture.” Dvorak was unhappy about Simrock publishing the titles in German. An ardent nationalist, he wished the works to be performed in the original Czech dialect of Moravian. In some of the songs, the composer had discarded the original folk melodies, devising his own. The NIVC ladies contended with the Moravian text, their performance rife with changing emotions, folk dance rhythms and dialogue, creating a colorful (at times, almost visual) description of the daily joys and sorrows of small town life. These small, charming vignettes are sumptuously enriched by the piano accompaniment.

The choir performed two a cappella songs of Hungarian composer, ethnomusicologist and pioneer of music education pioneer Zoltan Kodaly. In 1925, Kodaly composed two songs for a Budapest boys’ choir, one of them being “Turot eszik a cigany” (See the Gypsies Munching Cheese). Although the composer had written choral music previously, this was a significant point in his career, with choral music becoming the main genre of his oeuvre. The NIVC produced the wild rhythms of this song, enforcing them with percussive consonants and spicing them with many accents. In “Esti Dal” (Evening Song) (1938), the sopranos present most of the plaintive, introspective melody, with smooth background parts moving in lush harmonies provided by the other voices. The singers recreate Kodaly’s intimate mood piece, evoking the wonder, peace and richness of the night sky.
‘As I lie down for the night by the edge of the woods,
I pull a blanket up under my chin.
I put my hands together,
Thus imploring you, my good Lord

My Lord, grant me a place to stay,
For I’ve grown tired of wandering,
Of hiding,
Of living in a foreign land…’(Translation: Michael Kaulkin.)

Composer and ethnomusicologist Bela Bartok’s (1881-1945) Four Slovak Folksongs, unaltered settings of the songs, the melodies mostly in the upper voice, were arranged for mixed choir and piano in 1916. Using little counterpoint, the composer harmonized the songs simply and mostly note for note or not at all. They open with the delicate “Wedding Song from Poniky”, sensitively presented by the choir and Rub; it is a dialogue between mother and daughter; its text reveals that the daughter is to be sent away to marry a cruel man in a foreign country. Following the “Song of the Hay Harvesters”, featuring irregular rhythmic meters, the “Song from Medzibrod” suggests dance rhythms, while the fourth, “Dancing Song from Poniky” evokes drones and peasant bagpipes.

Introducing the last work of the evening, Maestro Hollerung informed the audience that Zoltan Kodaly’s “Kallai Kettos” (1950) (Kallo’s Double Dance) – representing the tradition of singing and dancing together - was the only authentic gypsy music on the program, and that the Irit Rub would have the task of representing a virtuosic gypsy orchestra always ready to improvise! The title of the work derives from Nagykallo, a town in northeast Hungary, where the dance originated during Turkish occupation. Hollerung, conducting both choir and pianist, presented the audience with a colorful rendering of music rooted in Hungarian tradition – a varied canvas of sentimental melodies, inebriating rhythms, vast dynamic contrasts and the onomatopoeic use of repeated syllables.

This was a very different and refreshing choral concert on the Israeli concert scene. Yuval Ben-Ozer is original and daring in his demands and choice of repertoire; his carefully selected singers are ready for the challenge. Irit Rub’s accompaniments added pleasure and support. Maestro Hollering arrived in Israel to find the NIVE well prepared for his pre-concert rehearsals. It is no mean feat for Israelis to sing a concert in German, Hungarian, Moravian Czech and Slovenian. The New Israeli Vocal Ensemble’s mixed and richly colored signature timbre is especially suited to this type of music. The audience at the Jerusalem Music Centre was well entertained.

Members of the Helsinki Baroque Orchestra and soloists at the 2011 Israel Festival

2011-05-31T11:08:00.000-07:00

Members of the Helsinki Baroque Orchestra, with harpsichordist Enrico Baiano (Finland-Italy) performed a concert of J.S.Bach harpsichord concertos May 28th 2011 at the Henry Crown Symphony Hall, Jerusalem Theatre, as part of the 2011 Israel Festival. The Helsinki Baroque Orchestra was founded in 1997; as of 2003, harpsichordist Aapo Hakkinen has been the HBO’s artistic director.

Johann Sebastian Bach composed seven complete concertos for single harpsichord, three for two harpsichords, two for three harpsichords and one for four, their opus number ranging between BWV 1052 and1065. All (excepting the Brandenburg Concertos) are thought to be arrangements from previously composed concertos for melodic instruments, probably from Bach’s time in Cothen. From 1729 to 1741, Bach directed the “Collegium Musicum” in Leipzig, a student society (founded by Telemann) that played at Zimmermann’s coffee house. Bach’s keyboard concertos, among the first of their kind, were performed there.

All the concertos on the program consisted of three movements, of the Vivaldi concerto model of fast-slow-fast. The program opened with Concerto for Two Harpsichords in C minor BWV 1060 (1735), thought to be a transcription of an oboe and violin concerto which has been lost. The differences between the two harpsichord parts would suggest that the original work was for two different treble instruments. Whether the latter existed or not, the Concerto in C minor exists for two harpsichords, the composer having written it to be performed by himself with the Collegium Musicum in Leipzig. The first two movements were presented somewhat blandly by the HBO, with more energy infusing the third movement.

We then heard Bach’s Concerto for Harpsichord in D minor (1738-1739), a piece reworked from previous works of the composer. A mammoth work demanding virtuosity on the part of the soloist, Enrico Baiano spelled out its intensity, complexity and dazzling beauty. The ripieno string members commented and communicated.

In the Concerto for Harpsichord in D major BWV 1054, recast from a violin concerto in E major, transposed down a tone, and with new figurations, we heard Hakkinen as soloist in an articulate, spirited reading of the work.

It is assumed that Bach’s Concerto in C major BWV 1061 originally consisted of the two harpsichord parts, with the string parts having been added later. The strings play a less focal part, being absent in the second movement. There was much lively interaction between Baiano and Hakkinen.

There is no denying the high quality of the HBO players. The works were delivered with competence but the evening lacked panache. There were moments when Bach’s music was pared down to being pedestrian. Where was the flair and pizzazz that make Bach’s music so timeless? The two fine harpsichord soloists might fare better in a more inspiring environment.

The Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra hosts oboist Alfredo Bernardini in works bridging from the Baroque to Classicism

2011-05-28T07:37:00.000-07:00

The Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra’s sixth and final concert of the 2010-2011 subscription series – “Pygmalion” – focused music written in the transition between the Baroque- and Classical periods. Guest artist and conductor, oboist Alfredo Bernardini, joining the JBO for the first time, drew the audience’s attention to the fact that the works performed in this concert had been composed within a span of less than 30 years. Bernardini’s predilection for this music stems from its overtly emotional content. This writer (I am a member of the board of the JBO)attended the concert May 24th 2011 at the Mary Nathaniel Golden Hall of Friendship YMCA, Jerusalem.

Alfredo Bernardini (b. Rome, 1961) in Israel to direct JBO concerts in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and hold master classes at the Israel Conservatory of Music, is among today’s leading Baroque oboists. A soloist and member of several prestigious early music ensembles, Bernardini researches the history of woodwind instruments. His more recent teaching appointments have been at the Escola de Musica de Cataluna (Barcelona) and the Conservatory of Amsterdam.

The evening’s program opened with the Suite from Jean-Philippe Rameau’s (1683-1764) “Pygmalion”, an opera written (in eight days) in 1748 to a libretto of the same name by Ballot de Sovot. The story, told and retold over the last 2000 years, of the artist who falls in love with one of his own sculptures, was the perfect vehicle for the typically French Baroque genre of the “acte de ballet”, an autonomous sung and danced stage work. Bernardini, his playing partnered well with that of oboist Shai Kribus, takes an energetic (and not the languishing) approach to the suite, creating lively interaction between the string section and the whole orchestra. The various dance types are presented individually and contrasted, with orchestral timbres and textural devices coloring a rich canvas: piccolos (Genevieve Blanchard, Idit Shemer), silvery harpsichord touches (David Shemer) with the rich, fruity quality of the woodwind section based and “bassed” on the secure, supportive, well-phrased and lively playing of bassoonist Alexander Fine throughout the evening.

In his program notes, Dr. David Shemer, JBO founder and director, draws attention to the fact that Joseph Haydn’s (1732-1809) “Lamentatione” Symphony no.26 in D minor (c.1770) is of the “da chiesa” genre of symphonies, having been “performed in conjunction with church services”. In fact, its motifs include Gregorian plainchant that weaves its way through the work, making for its somber atmosphere. Embodying the manner of “Sturm und Drang” (Storm and Stress), the symphony belongs to Haydn’s middle period, and, although composed only 20 years later than the Rameau Suite, we are aware, from the outset, of the nervous, restless atmosphere the fabric of which the work is created. The horns (Baroque natural horns in the competent hands of Italian guest artists Alessandro Denabian and Fabio Forgiarini) served to add beauty and intensity to the ominous atmosphere. Even the Minuet and Trio are serious and austere, bringing to an end a work so different from those of the jolly, humorous Haydn we often hear in the concert hall.

Czech composer and instrumentalist Johann Stamitz (1717-1757) was one of the most influential figures in European music of the mid-18th century. A notice advertising a concert in Frankfurt am Main on June 29th 1742 informed the public that Stamitz was to perform alternately on violin, viola d’amore, ‘cello and double bass and that the concert would also include a concerto for two orchestras composed by him! He is known for his work with the Mannheim Orchestra (referred to by Burney as an “army of generals”), composing a number of concertos (14 for flute), yet only one for oboe, all of them probably inspired by the fine standard of the players of the Mannheim Orchestra. We heard Johann Stamitz’s exuberant Concerto for Oboe, its technical demands on the oboe apparent from the very first strains of the opening Allegro movement. Bernardini’s treatment of the warm, gallant slow movement was delicate and embellished, his (Bernardini’s) original, spontaneous cadenza carefully spelled out. Lyrical, charming, infused with Bohemian joie-de-vivre and virtuosity, the work also attests to the emergence of the Classical style. Bernardini’s leading and playing held the work’s energy and excitement to the end.

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-1788), J.S.Bach’s prodigiously talented second son, wrote 19 symphonies, the Wq 183 symphonies among his greatest symphonic achievements. Symphony in D major Wq 183/1 calls for horns, oboes and bassoon. Peppered with urgency, leaps, rapid mood changes and jagged melodic lines, we are faced with C.P.E.Bach’s “Empfindsamkeit” style, in which emotions are the driving force behind his musical expression. The composer wrote that “music has higher intentions…to set the heart in motion”. Intense, yet spontaneous in character, the JBO’s performance of the symphony spoke of energy and joy, of rich orchestral color and vitality. Bernardini and his players let their hair down, taking on board the adventurous, innovative and individual character of this music. The audience was thrilled.

The Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra’s 2010-2011 season, now ended, was one of highlights, much interest and fine performances. Baroque music lovers have yet another treat in store. The Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra will perform four of J.S.Bach’s Brandenburg Concerts (3, 4, 5 and 6) at the Jerusalem Opera Festival. The concert will take place June 3rd at 11:30 a.m. at the St. Vincent de Paul Church (Mamilla, Jerusalem.) Subscribers to the 2011-2012 season are eligible for reduced price tickets. These can be purchased at Bimot: (02) 6237000 www.bimot.co.il

Ensemble Mezzo performs at the Redeemer Church in Jerusalem's Old City

2011-05-27T09:15:00.000-07:00

Having descended several steps from the Jaffa Gate, past the colorful shops of Jerusalem’s Old City market, one turns right into the Muristan area of the Christian Quarter and, leaving behind the noise of the vendors closing and shuttering their stores, one enters the tranquility of the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer. The occasion was the recital of recorder player Doret Florentin and organist Assif Am-David - Ensemble Mezzo – on May 21st 2011.

Doret Florentin, a native of Thessaloniki (Greece), studied recorder in Greece, at Tel Aviv University, and at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague. She also holds a B.A. in Mathematics and Statistics. Florentin is now also playing the early bassoon. She performs widely in Europe, teaches in Tel Aviv and is a founding member of the “Me La Amargates Tu” Ensemble, a group researching and performing Sephardic- and Spanish music of the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries. At this concert, Doret was playing on a G.Klemisch Baroque recorder and on two Genassi-fingering instruments made by Yoav Ran (Israel).

Assif Am-David (b.1981, Tel Aviv) started his musical training as a pianist, also moving into the field of early music as a singer and harpsichordist. After completing a B.Mus. degree in voice and conducting at Tel Aviv University, Am-David went to Freiburg in Breisgau (Germany) to complete a diploma in harpsichord. It was there that he also studied organ. Playing and singing in several early music ensembles and other groups, he is also a tutor at the Early Music Workshop of the Jerusalem Music Centre. Am-David is currently working on a dissertation in Linguistics.

The concert opened with virtuoso Venetian cornettist Girolamo Dalla Casa’s suggestions as to ornamenting Franco-Flemish composer Thomas Crecquillon’s (c.1505-1557) chanson “Petite fleur coincte et jolye”. Dalla Casa’s 1584 treatise “Il Vero Modo di diminuir con tutte le sorti di stromenti di fiato, e corda, e di voce humana…” (The correct way of playing divisions on all types of wind and stringed instruments, and with the human voice…) Florentin and Am-David pace the work together at a tranquil pace, Florentin, however embellishing the melody profusely, the general effect creating an exciting yet clean texture, this enhanced by a pleasing balance between the instruments.

Playing on the Redeemer Church’s organ (21 registers, two manuals and pedal) built by Karl Schuke (Berlin) in 1971, Assif Am-David presented “Sei Gagliardi” (Six galliards) by Girolamo Frescobaldi. (1583-1643). Assif’s playing of the dances was tasteful, brighter registers never over-strident, contrasts achieved in various timbres, tempi and small pauses, resulting in the composer’s personal style coming across transparent and exuberant.

Then to Frescobaldi’s daring “Cento Partite sopra Passacagli” (One Hundred Variations on the Passacagli), a work reminding us that the composer was not only a skilled improviser but also an experimenter in modulation and enharmonic chromaticism! Frescobaldi stipulated that “the manner of playing ought not to be subject to a beat, just as we have it in today’s madrigals”. Am-David, not to be side-tracked by Frescobaldi’s audacity, is always in control, presenting the dazzling piece to his listeners with a sympathetic mix of registers, negotiating the musical plan with subtlety and elegance.

Nothing is known about the Venetian instrumental composer Dario Castello (c.1590-c.1568) himself. In fact, it has even been suggested that “Castello” was a pseudonym, despite its being a name common in Venice. Castello’s compositions, however, were and continue to be popular, suggesting that he was among the leading instrumental composers of the early seventeenth century; his works require technical proficiency rarely found among those of his contemporaries. His first volume of “Sonate Concertate” appeared in Venice in 1621, a second in 1629. We heard Sonata Seconda, from the latter collection, played on soprano recorder and organ. Weaving the small contrasted sections featuring virtuoso solo sections (recorder) into concertante exchanges and back again, Florentin’s playing was fresh and interesting, creative in its embellishments and attentive to dissonances, with Am-David sensitive to the nuances of each section.

An Italian composer of mostly sacred music, Paolo Benedetto Bellinzani (c.1690-1757), little known today, but, in his time, known all over Italy for pushing the requirements of recorder playing to a higher level and for the quantity and quality of his works, was one of the many composers to write variations to the 8-bar ground of the Portuguese dance melody ostinato “La Follia”, along with A.Scarlatti, Corelli, C.P.E.Bach, Kapsberger and Lully, to mention a few. This concert was a fine opportunity to hear Bellinzani’s “La Follia” Variations opus 3 (1720), a work not often heard, with both artists exploring the moods, colors, technical- and textural ideas of the divisions, and not all allotted exclusively to the recorder role. Florentin tackled the technical feats of fast arpeggiation, voicing within textures, rhetorical- and intimate moments, both artists providing contrasts between divisions.

Doret Florentin left the organ loft to perform J.S.Bach’s Partita for Solo Flute BWV 1013 from the front of the church. A unique work, Bach’s other suites for solo instruments are for stringed instruments. Not being a flautist, Bach was left to his own ingenuity in producing this superb suite using dances popular at the time. Florentin’s performance of it, bringing out the work’s implied counterpoint and harmonic references via its daring leaps and chromaticism, was expressive, delicate and profound, the final Bourree anglais light and playful. Taking into account the acoustic of the church, Florentin paced each movement strategically, presenting the High Baroque charm and beauty of the Partita to her audience.

The concert ended with J.S.Bach’s Sonata for Flute and Keyboard BWV 1030. Thought to have been composed some time between 1720 and 1741, it is one of three sonatas (1030-1032) to which the composer wrote out the right hand of the keyboard part in full. Originally composed G minor, Bach transposed it to B minor for the transverse flute. Which was then taking over from the recorder; the solo sonata is played in C minor on the recorder. Opening with the expansive, singing first movement, Florentin and Am-David expressed the work’s solemn and aristocratic character as well as its energy.

Despite the Redeemer Church’s welcoming acoustic, performing in a church is no small order when it comes to articulacy, good taste and balance. Florentin and Am-David make it seem easy! This was surely one of the most delightful and pleasurable Baroque concerts of the season. Unfortunately, the recital was not publicized in the local press. For the sake of those music-lovers who missed it, the concert really should be performed again. Not to be missed!

The Resonance Ensemble performs Baroque- and early Classical music at the Austrian Hospice

2011-05-22T04:53:00.000-07:00

“Vivaldi Goes to Vienna” was the theme of a concert performed by the Resonance Ensemble May 14th 2011 in the salon of the Austrian Hospice of the Holy Family in Jerusalem’s Old City. The Resonance Ensemble is a new Israeli group focusing on Baroque chamber music. Its members have each made their name in the field of performing and, as ensemble musicians, they focus on bringing out the particular spirit of the time of works they perform.

Zvi Meniker, director of the Resonance Ensemble, was born in Moscow but grew up in Israel. An organist and specialist in performance on early keyboard instruments – harpsichord and fortepiano – Professor Meniker performs and records widely and heads the Early Music department of the Hochschule for Music and Theater in Hannover (Germany).

Ira Givol (b.1979, Israel) Ira plays both viola da gamba and ‘cello and mostly devotes his time to the performance of chamber music. A member of several Baroque ensembles, Givol is also a founding member of the Tel Aviv Trio. He is the recipient of several awards and has performed with leading Israeli orchestras.

Avner Geiger (b.1982, Israel), currently a member of the Israel Camerata Jerusalem, plays both modern flute and Baroque flute (traverse). He is a graduate of the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance and has taken postgraduate studies in Germany and France. Geiger has soloed with orchestras in Israel and further afield.

Composer, arranger and violinist Jonathan Keren (b.1978, Israel) began his violin studies with Chaim Taub. He spent his three years’ mandatory service in the Israel Defense Force as a member of the “Outstanding Musicians” unit, where he arranged more than 50 pieces for chamber- and vocal ensembles. Keren holds a masters degree from the Julliard School of Music. His works have are performed widely, his most recent piano piece recently appearing on a disc played by David Greilsammer. Jonathan Keren currently resides in New York.

Antonio Vivaldi’s (1678-1741) Trio in D major RV84 for Traverso, Violin and Basso Continuo is, in fact a concerto, in which the flute appears as a solo instrument in the episodes, with the violin functioning as a ripieno instrument in tutti sections. Soloing with the energetic and many-faceted dimensions of the group’s signature sound, Avner Geiger’s performance was lively and flexible, his use of ornaments rich and varied.

It is not known when Vivaldi’s composed his six sonatas for ‘cello and continuo. Not especially demanding technically, they may have been written for students at the Ospedale, the school for orphan girls, where the composer was employed. Ira Givol’s reading of the work was flexible, dramatic and adventurous, infused with emotional energy.

The foremost German keyboard composer before Bach, Johann Jacob Froberger (1616-1667) studied with Frescobaldi in the late 1630’s (converting to Catholicism in order to study with him in Rome.) He was in court employment in Vienna and Brussels and won success as a performer in France and England. The personal idiom he developed combined aspects of German, French and Italian styles, his surviving oeuvre consisting almost exclusively of keyboard music. Zvi Meniker performed one of Froberger’s toccatas. Featuring multiple sections, Meniker’s playing of it took the listener into the more daring harpsichord repertoire as he brought out the individual character of each small section, texture, with arpeggiation, ornamentation and other devilish, technical challenges making for a sense of spontaneity and personal expression.

On January 2nd 1791, Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) arrived in England for the first of two visits that would leave their mark on the host country and on Haydn himself. The “London Trios” (1794), originally scored for two flutes and ‘cello, were composed for two of Haydn’s London patrons, Lord Abingdon and Sir Walter Aston, both amateur flautists and, clearly, competent musicians. Geiger, Keren and Givol performed this “lightweight” Haydn repertoire with charm, vitality and technical mastery, emphasizing the work’s naïve, humane lyricism, humor and warmth.

In 1729, Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767) wrote of his artistic development: “First came the Polish style, followed by the French, church, chamber and operatic styles, and finally the Italian style, which currently occupies me more than the others do”. He composed the Twelve Fantasias for Flute Solo in Hamburg in 1732 or 1733, the G minor Fantasia TWV 40:13 being the last of the set of twelve. Avner Geiger wove the opening Grave in an almost vocal fashion, creating contrasts between the ensuing miniature movements to the Dolce, built on arpeggios and slow, large intervals, closing with a fast Bourree in Polish style.

Austrian composer Heinrich Ignaz von Biber (1644-1704), considered the greatest violinist of his time, represented the high point of the Austrian Baroque. He was court composer to the Salzburg Cathedral. The first half of his Violin Sonata no.6 in C minor calls for scordatura (altered tuning), resulting in special tone-color effects. Opening with the broad, noble Largo, Jonathan Keren presents the Passacaglia with a mix of richly weighty and light bowing, brilliant passagework and temperament. Keren handles Biber’s musical and technical demands with verve, contending with the elaborate double- and triple stopping written by the violin virtuoso, adding ornaments to repeated sections. He and Meniker partnered in a thrilling and courageous performance of the final Gavotte.

C.P.E. Bach (1714-1788), the second of J.S.Bach’s sons, composed his Trio Sonata for Traverso, Violin and Basso Continuo in B flat major Wq 161/2 (H.587) in 1748 when employed at the court of Frederick the Great. The trio sonatas were an important part of his chamber music output there, the king being a keen musician and amateur flautist. C.P.E.Bach was one of the foremost representatives of the “Empfindsamkeit” aesthetic in music, which slanted towards personal emotions. In his autobiography (1773), C.P.E.Bach wrote “I feel that music must, above all, touch the heart”. The Resonance Trio presented the grace, beauty and melodiousness of this felicitous music, entertaining the audience with its charm and the many dynamic changes, the latter characterising the impish and playful final movement.

The Resonance Ensemble focuses on the energy and excitement of Baroque music, adamantly pressing the point. All four players are impressive in their technical- and musical aptitude, giving individual expression and interest to the music. Their energy and intensity were not balanced with the mellifluous blending and tranquility also inherent in the repertoire performed, the ‘cello, despite its gut stringing, very often sounding too dominant.

Barrocade Ensemble and Shahar Choir collaborate in an evening of Italian Baroque music

2011-05-18T00:57:00.000-07:00

The Barrocade Ensemble, Israeli Baroque Collective (musical director Amit Tiefenbrunn), collaborated with the Shahar Choir (director Gila Brill) in a concert celebrating the “Glory of Italian Liturgy”. This writer was present at the well-attended concert in St. Andrews Scots Memorial Church (Jerusalem) May 12th, 2011.

Founded in 2007 by a group of enthusiastic Baroque music specialists, Barrocade – consisting today of some twelve artists - performs mostly without a conductor and is known for its forthright signature sound, its rich continuo section, the latter creating a suitable environment for its bright soprano instruments. The ensemble performs much Renaissance- and Baroque music, venturing into the fields of folk music, modern works and jazz. In rehearsals, all members contribute their own ideas and opinions as to the performance of each work. Barrocade is supported by the Music Department of the Culture Administration of the Ministry of Science, Culture and Sport.

The Shahar Choir was founded by Gila Brill in 1994 and continues to be directed and conducted by her. The choir, characterized by its clean, fresh choral sound, meets in Rehovot and focuses much on Baroque music, also including other styles in its repertoire. The Shahar Choir performs widely in Israel, presenting a cappella music, but also sings with local instrumental ensembles. The Shahar Choir is supported by the Rehovot Culture Fund, the Rehovot Municipality and the Music Department of the Culture Administration of the Ministry of Science, Culture and Sport.

The concert opened with Giovanni Battista Pergolesi’s (1710-1736) “Stabat Mater”. The work, a setting of the sequence for the Feast of Seven Dolours of the Blessed Virgin Mary, was written during Pergolesi’s last months, these spent at the Franciscan Monastery in Pozzuoli. What is clear is that the ailing composer (probably suffering from tuberculosis) was not expecting to recover and the “Stabat Mater” is possibly the last work written by Pergolesi before his death at age 26. Consisting of 12 sections, Pergolesi’s setting to the somber text is enigmatically lush and bitter-sweet. In the opening choral movements (referred to by Rousseau as “the most perfect and most touching to have come from the pen of any musician”) the Shahar singers (women only) got off to a somewhat staid start, with high soprano notes not quite “covered”; however, by “Fac ut ardeat cor meam” (Grant that my heart may burn) their creamy timbre and careful dynamics came to the fore. The choice of soloists - soprano Revital Raviv and alto David Feldman - could not have been better! Raviv’s singing is delightfully spontaneous, stable and energetic; she is convincing and gripping, singing into the text and its emotions. In “Cuius animam gementem” (Through her weeping soul, compassionate and grieving, a sword passed.) Raviv outlines the dramatic character of the words, expressing compassion in “Vidit sum dulcum natum” (She saw her sweet Son dying, forsaken, while he gave up His spirit). David Feldman is an inspiring artist. He weaves his voice into and around the text, his ease, agility and spontaneity matched by the rich timbre and “depth” of his voice. He chisels his phrases well and is constantly aware of the instrumental score. In their duets, Raviv and Feldman went for superb blending, word painting and tasteful ornamentation. Barrocade’s precise playing brought out the chromatic tensions of Pergolesi’s writing as well as its tenderness, never falling into the pitfalls of so many over-Romantic interpretations of the work. Shlomit Sivan is a strong, articulate leader.

After intermission, the Barrocade Ensemble performed Arcangelo Corelli’s (1653-1713) Concerto Grosso opus 6/4. The six opus 6 concertos, six “da camera” and six “da chiesa”, not published during the composer’s lifetime, nevertheless became some of the most famous pieces of the time. They remain wonderful concert pieces due to their powerful bass scoring, their rich contrapuntal textures and performance options. Concerto no. 4 in D major is a concerto da chiesa, reserved and eloquent, but not lacking Italianiate virtuosic flair. With violinists Shlomit Sivan and Yasuko Hirata seated at the front of the stage, the audience was constantly aware of interaction between them and of the concertino role in particular, their seamless reading of the work not void of individuality. Bright, fresh and audience-friendly, Barrocade’s presentation of the work was neither dizzily flamboyant nor conservatively heavy, but glowing in majesty and joie-de-vivre, the dynamic layers, tempi and timbres of strings, theorbo and harpsichord of the ripieno collaborating and contrasting with those of the soloists.

Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) spent most of his professional life teaching and composing for the students of the Ospedale della Pieta, one of the four orphanages for girls in Venice, all known for their high standard of music. (The Ospedali were, in fact, homes for illegitimate female offspring of noblemen and their mistresses.) Vivaldi was given the job of “Maestro di Violino” at the school, only later taking the position of “Maestro di Coro” to fill in for a tutor who had taken ill. It was during the time he filled the latter post that he wrote sacred choral music, performed by the girls in screened-off galleries. It is, however, difficult to pin a date to the “Gloria”. What we do know is that this (and another Gloria) fell into obscurity for 200 years. Vivaldi’s Gloria for Soloists, Chorus, Orchestra and Basso Continuo RV 589 would have been well liked in Venice of the time, its theatrical quality appealing to the Venetian public and to the many people visiting the city. The Shahar Choir and Barrocade performed the D major opening “Gloria” in all its joy and fanfares, its trumpet and oboe “comments” coloring the movement with festive gleam. Brill uses textures and detached notes to articulate certain words in the text, underlying dance motifs and dance rhythms used by the composer. In the third movement (Laudamus te), Raviv engages with choir member soprano Sivan Trajtenberg in the florid intertwining of lines spiced with suspensions. In the sixth movement (Domine Deus) Raviv and oboist Amir Bakman create a duet graced with creamy stability, expressiveness and elegance. Feldman’s sensitive and subtly ornamented singing of the “Domine Deus”, accompanied only by continuo and interpolated with choral comments, represented the intimate pleas of man. The tenth movement, an enigmatic piece, refers to sins and pity, with Vivaldi, however, clothing the words in buoyant dance rhythms. In it, Feldman plays skillfully with sounds and words:
‘Who sit at the right hand of the Father, have mercy on us.’
Gila Brill led the Shahar Choir and Barrocade in a performance that addressed the work’s contrapuntal detail in a vital and immediate manner. The triumphant, fugal last movement, bristling with imitations, majesty and lively in its fine wind playing, brought the concert to a joyful, triumphant end.

This was a well-balanced program. Italian music stirs the soul!

Maestro Leon Botstein conducts the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra in the 2011 Independence Eve concert

2011-05-11T01:29:00.000-07:00

A large audience filled the Henry Crown Auditorium (Jerusalem Theatre) to attend the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra’s special festive concert for the Independence Eve May 9th 2011 under the baton of Maestro Leon Botstein, Conductor Laureate of the JSO.

The program opened with Marc Lavry’s (1903-1967) symphonic poem “Emek” (Valley) opus 45. Born (Marc Levin) in Riga, Latvia, he settled in Palestine in 1935. His oeuvre is very large, consisting of operas, symphonies, chamber music and popular songs, several of which have yet to be published. Lavry loved the history, poetry and heritage of his new country and was especially impressed with its landscape, the latter serving as the inspiration for several of his works. He is considered to be one of the most important composers active in the formulating of “Israeli Music”. Based on a song of the same name written in 1935 by Rafael Eliaz, “Emek” (1937) was inspired by the pioneer workers of the Jezreel Valley who toiled to drain the swamps in the daytime, in the evening taking time to sing and dance. It remains one of the most frequently performed Israeli works. A festive work to open Israel’s 63rd Independence Day, it bristles with a sense of the landscape Lavry is describing, with Israeli melodies, dance rhythms and pride. A tonal, forthright work, peppered with charming solos, Botstein’s extended orchestra made for a large and colorful orchestral soundscape.

Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943) composed his Concerto in D minor for Piano, no.3 opus 30, premiering it as soloist on his first tour of the USA in 1909, a tour rendering him popular there prior to his emigration to New York in 1917. We heard the solo in the hands of young Boris Giltburg. Born 1984 in Moscow, but living in Tel Aviv since early childhood, he is the recipient of numerous international prizes, his a busy performing schedule taking him to the UK, Europe, Hong Kong and Japan. From the thoughtful opening theme, which the composer said “simply wrote itself”, Giltburg’s penchant for Rachmaninoff was clear as he followed the composer’s thread of ideas – full-blown lyricism, bursts of joy quickly melting into fragile moments, darker moments, breathtaking presto runs presented with clear outlines and clean, detailed pedaling. The challenges of the extended cadenza of the first movement, a dazzling piece of pianistic writing, were met with aplomb. Giltburg does not indulge in the showy “fireworks” heard by some pianists in some interpretations of the piano solo; totally in control, he delves into the meaning of the score. Not merely orchestra and soloist, Giltburg and Botstein together weave orchestral- and piano lines into a multifaceted yet integrated whole, the JSO’s sound rich, warm and blended.

For an encore, Boris Giltburg played Rachmaninoff’s highly pianistic setting of Fritz Kreisler’s “Liebesleid” (Love’s grief) in a sensitive, delicate manner, using his agility and lightness of touch to bring out the piece’s charm and intimacy that meet the listener’s ears with a touch of kindly humor. This was surely one of the high points of the evening.

The concert ended with Johannes Brahms’ (1833-1897) Symphony no.1 in C minor, opus 68. The composer made his first sketches for the work in 1854. Burdened by the challenge of writing a work that would live up to his own high expectations and those of his audiences and a work worthy of honoring Beethoven’s memory, Brahms wrote “You have no idea how it is for the likes of us to feel the tread of a giant like him behind us”. The symphony, premiered in 1876, was well received and even called “Beethoven’s Tenth” by some critics. As in Beethoven’s 5th Symphony, Brahms’ 1st begins in C minor, ending in the positive mode of C major. Botstein sets before his audience the broad canvas of this work, the first movement weighty in its message of mental conflict and hope. Botstein did not use a baton to conduct the second movement – Un poco allegretto e grazioso – in which we heard Shira Ben Yehoshua’s lyrical oboe, with concertmaster Geana Gandelman playing the final melancholic melody. Following a sense of wellbeing provided by the lush timbre of the JSO’s woodwind section in the third movement, the mammoth fourth looms large with its horn theme (a melody for Alphorn heard by Brahms in Switzerland), its chorale intoned by trombones and bassoons and majestic coda.

"The Twin Sisters" premiering at the 2011 Israel Festival, combines music, theatre and video art

2011-05-09T03:48:00.000-07:00

The 50th Israel Festival Jerusalem will open May 25th 2011, offering a variety of theatrical performances, music, dance and street events. One event combining music, video and theatre is “The Twin Sisters”, a theatrical piece based on a story of the same name by 1983 Israel Prize recipient Avrom Sutzkever. Born near Vilna in 1913, Sutzkever became a renowned Yiddish poet and was considered one of the great poets of the 20th century. A survivor of the Vilna Ghetto and a partisan the New York Times had referred to him as “the greatest poet of the Holocaust”. In Israel, Sutzkever founded the Yiddish literary journal “Di goldene Keyt” (The Golden Chain).

“The Twin Sisters” (1973), a true story, tells of sisters Grunia and Hodesl. Grunia survived the Holocaust, whereas Hodesl, a talented violinist, perished in the camps. In a small café in Old Jaffa in the 1970’s, Grunia meets a poet who had been their neighbor in pre-war Vilna, telling him of Hodesl’s fate; Hodesl had been the love of his youth.

The theatre version of “The Twin Sisters”, to be premiered at the 2011 Israel Festival, was initiated by actress Hadas Kalderon. Kalderon is Sutzkever’s granddaughter and describes herself as belonging to the generation that serves as “a memorial candle, in spite of itself”. Born in Israel, Kalderon is a graduate of the Nissan Nativ School of Acting, has performed in Beit Lessin productions and several independent productions, as well as in television documentaries and series. In 2009, she was awarded the Rosenblum Prize for her acting.

Assuming a key role in the production, violinist Jenny Huenigen plays Hodesl. Huenigen was born in Berlin and studied at the Hanns Eisler School of Music. From 2002 to 2004 she was a member of the Orchestra Academy of the Berlin State Orchestra and has been concertmaster of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra since 2004. Huenigen also performs as a soloist. As did Sutzkever, Huenigen’s (German) grandfather joined the Partisans, while his own father was in concentration camps for six years.

The two artists interact with each other – Kalderon (Grunia) in words and actions, Huenigen playing the “silenced” Hodesl in gestures and through the various melodies she plays on the violin; we are a witness to the fact, that, despite the two different “languages” they speak, their souls are intertwined. This is powerful meeting of theatre, music and video art; audiences will appreciate the artists’ profound performance and will connect easily to its genuine emotions. Dorona Ben Dor is the producer of this performance for three actors; the music, by Daniel Galay, will be performed by the Elysium Ensemble. Musical direction is by Gil Shohat.

June 5th 2011 at 21:00, the New Studio, Jerusalem Theatre

Inaugural concert of the new St. George organ at the Notre Dame of Jerusalem Center

2011-05-06T08:36:00.000-07:00

The inaugural concert of the new St. George pipe organ at the Our Lady of Peace Chapel of the Pontifical Institute, Notre Dame of Jerusalem Center, took place on Easter Friday, April 29th 2011. The organ had been built in 1905 by the Nelson Organ Company for the St. George Methodist Chapel of Wearhed, County Durham (UK). The instrument has 650 pipes, several having being produced before 1905. The Orgelbauwerkstetten Willi Peter GmbH & Co.KG (organ builders) suggested installing this organ in the Notre Dame Chapel, there having previously been no organ there, and the company invested at least 2000 hours of work in restoring it. This was made possible by the generosity of Georg and Barbara Balkhausen (Germany). The Easter concert at Notre Dame was also one of the official events of a program organized by the Bishop’s Conference to celebrate the beatification of Pope John Paul. Pope John Paul had played a significant part in Notre Dame’s recent history.

Following words of welcome and thanks from church officials, including from Archbishop Antonio Franco, Apostolic Nuncio to Israel, Georg Balkhausen, attending the event with his wife, addressed a few words to the audience and, being an amateur organist himself, played a piece on the organ. The St. George organ is primarily used for worship; there are a few volunteer organists who play it and a chapel choir is in the process of forming.

The concert began with a number of solos played by German organist Thiemo Dahmen, the organist of St. Peter’s Catholic Church in Cologne. Dahmen also directs organ tours, performing on historical organs in France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany. The first piece he performed was a reworking by J.S.Bach of the Violin Concerto in G major by Johann Ernst, Prince of Sachsen-Weimar. Bach worked in Weimar between 1708 and 1717, during which time he wrote profusely for organ, also writing organ and harpsichord transcriptions of works by contemporaries, notably Vivaldi, Telemann, Marcello and Johann Ernst. It seems Bach was challenged to achieve the concerto effect on a two-manual organ; or, perhaps he and his colleagues wished to familiarize themselves with contemporary works without needing to employ an orchestra. (Bach has also created a harpsichord arrangement of Ernst’s G major Concerto.) Prince Johann Ernst, a nephew of Bach’s employer in Weimar, was a talented young composer; he died at age 18. Bach, in his arrangement of this Violin Concerto, elaborates on the harmonic and contrapuntal layers of the original, preserving the solo and tutti dimensions. The middle Grave movement begins as two single voices before developing into a thicker texture. Dahmen chose bright registers for the young Bach’s setting.

The Liechtenstein organist, composer and teacher Josef Gabriel Rheinberger (1839-1901) wrote instrumental, vocal and choral music (his Catholic liturgical music is still much in use today) but he is principally remembered for his organ music, namely the 20 Organ Sonatas composed throughout his career. Organ Sonata no.8, opus132, is possibly the most popular of them. Dahmen performed the Intermezzo from it, presenting its tranquil, autumnal toning and varied sections poignantly.

Pietro Alessandro Yon (1886-1943) was an Italian-born organist. For a time, he served as an organist in the Vatican and at the Royal Church in Rome before moving to the USA in 1907, where he remained, working as church organist, recitalist and composer. His oeuvre includes instrumental music and songs; he is, however, considered one of the most important American composers of sacred choral- and organ music for the Roman Catholic Church. Yon’s Humoresque “L’organo primitivo” (Toccatina for Flute), inspired by a primitive portative organ he had seen at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), is written for the most basic of organ resources, but is, nevertheless, technically demanding, more so for both hands than for the feet. The work’s gentle yet bright timbres partner its effervescent, perpetual movement, optimistic and personal and colored with a gentle sprinkling of humor.

The solo organ recital ended with two works by French composers. Jean Langlais (1907-1991), blind from the age of two, became a reputed teacher, improviser, organist, string-player and composer. He held the prestigious position of organist at Sainte-Clotilde (Paris) for 42 years. He composed vocal, instrumental and organ music, the latter being second in extent only to that of Bach! We heard Langlais’ “Chant de paix” (Song of Peace) from his “Nine Pieces for Organ”. The pensive, meditational fabric of the piece is woven in clusters, creating a mood piece of delicate beauty.

One of the more conservative French composers, organist and teacher Francois-Clement Theodore Dubois (1837-1924), wrote important books on counterpoint and theoretical and practical harmony. Most of his compositions have been forgotten. He composed oratorios, ballets and symphonies, his best-known work being the oratorio “The Seven Last Words of Christ” (1867). Dubois’ Toccata in G for organ (1889), from the “Twelve New Pieces for Organ”, is the composer’s most familiar organ piece. A cheerful, tonal piece, Thiemo Dahmen’s playing of it demonstrated dexterity and fine the use of registration. The artist’s choice of works was well suited to the venue, the characteristic bright, clean timbre of the Saint George organ and to the audience.

We then heard the Jerusalem Oratorio Chamber Choir in a performance of Gabriel Faure’s (1845-1924) “Requiem in D minor” opus 48 (published 1900) conducted by its musical director Maestro Ronen Borshevsky, with choral conductor and musical director of St. Engelbert Catholic Church (Cologne) Wolfgang Siegenbrink at the organ. Despite the lack of orchestral instruments, or, should I say, as a result of the latter, the audience was able to focus on the choir’s sumptuously colored and finely shaped performance, the organ (Siegenbrink, disadvantaged in being placed behind Borshevsky) providing the mesmerizing, mystical and spiritual musical basis of the work. The choir’s finely blended sound embraced the chapel, the singers’ diction crystal clear, creating a sense of floating timelessness, the “Libera me” bringing the work to a dramatic peak:
‘On that day of dread,
When the heavens and earth shall move,
When You shall come to judge the world by fire.
I am made to tremble, and to fear,
When destruction shall come,
And also your coming wrath….’
Peace is restored with the radiant “In Paradisum”, its intertwining of texts effective and delicate. Young soprano Stav Tsubery sang the “Pie Jesu” expressively (often sung by a boy soprano), her voice pure but not “covered”. Bass-baritone Oded Reich’s performance was outstanding in every way, his singing evocative of the work’s message and spirituality, his mellifluous voice reaching out to move the listener. This was, altogether, a very satisfying performance of Faure’s Requiem, a work that has been referred to as a “lullaby of death”.

Bringing the festive evening to a close, the “Laudamus Te” Choir and Orchestra (Stuttgart), joined by a few members of the Jerusalem Oratorio Chamber Choir, performed Antonio Vivaldi’s (1678-1741) “Gloria” in D major, RV 589. The choir was founded in 2007 by its conductor, Brazilian-born Monica Meira Vasques, who is no newcomer to the Israeli concert scene. Motivated to bring people of different cultural origins and nationalities together through musical projects in Germany and abroad, the “Laudamus Te” Choir and its members have developed a close relationship with Israel and the Jewish people. Soloists in the evening’s performance were soprano Carin Rommel and alto Sonia Maria Hoefler.

Vivaldi’s “Gloria” was composed in Venice, probably in 1715. In this traditional Gloria from the Latin Mass, the composer’s palette offers daring leaps, imitative and antiphonal styles, chromaticism and bracing harmonies. His most famous choral piece, it is thought to have been performed by the choir of the Ospedale della Pieta, a school for orphan girls where Vivaldi was employed. The “Laudamus te” movement, a duet for soprano and mezzo-soprano (performed here by Rommel and Hoefler) is indicative of the high standard of music at the Ospedale. Vasques’ reading of the “Gloria” was fervent, the choir’s signature sound large, highly colored and joyful, a trifle ragged at times and lacking in moments of subtlety, Vasques’ soloists also having expansive voices; the soloists indulge in more vibrato than might sit well with Baroque music. Hoefler’s solo in the “Domine Deus Agnus Dei” was poignant and meaningful. The orchestra’s trumpeter and oboist added sparkle and verve to the work’s positive atmosphere with their fine performance.

'Cellist Ithay Khen performs a solo recital at Jerusalem's Austrian Hospice

2011-05-01T09:59:00.000-07:00

Israeli artist Ithay Khen performed a solo ‘cello recital April 25th 2011 in the salon of the Austrian Hospice of the Holy Family in the Old City of Jerusalem. Born in Israel, Khen received his first ‘cello instruction from his father, at age 16 beginning studies with Professor Uzi Wiesel (Tel Aviv Academy of Music.) He continued his studies at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music (Berlin), has performed widely and is the recipient of scholarships and awards. Khen has played in chamber music with members of the Berlin Philharmonic, was solo ‘cellist of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, later becoming first solo ‘cellist of the Nuremberg Opera.

J.S.Bach’s (1685-1750) Solo Violoncello Suites probably date from around 1720, from the time Bach served as Kapellmeister in the employ of Prince Leopold in Coethen. It is thought that the first four were written for Christian Ferdinand Abel, a bass viol player at Coethen or for Christian Bernhard Linigke, a ‘cellist, both players being friends and colleagues of J.S.Bach. Khen opened his recital with a performance of the Suite no.1 in G major BWV 1007. His reading of the opening Prelude was compelling and intense. His playing of the ensuing court dances leaned closer to the energetic than to the reflective, excepting for the Sarabande and the poignant second Minuet, which were, indeed, introspective, the repeats of the noble Sarabande graced with embellishments. Khen uses textures, pauses and gentle rubato to create clear phrasing and for expressive purposes. Beyond the technical, structural and textural complexities of the suite, the artist meets Bach’s challenge – to create his own interpretation in a spontaneous and personal manner.

Gaspar Cassado (1897-1966) was one of the last great composer-performers. A ‘cello student of fellow Catalonian Pablo Casals, he studied composition with Manuel de Falla and Maurice Ravel; his “dual” life was represented in the concerts he gave. He composed and arranged much music for ‘cello, also composing orchestral- and chamber works. (He is also known to have attributed some of his own compositions to other composers, such as Frescobaldi, Boccherini and Schubert!) Cassado’s Suite for ‘Cello Solo (c.1950) reflects his native heritage, his technical expertise and his knowledge of the instrument. Khen takes on board both the technical challenges and the multi-faceted character of the work – its lyrical sensuality, its allusions to oriental modes, to fiery Spanish music and dance as well as its reference to early music (he bases the second movement “Sardana-Danza” on a drone.) The artist performed the work, presenting its kaleidoscope of colors, moods and energy with aplomb.

Hungarian composer, ethnomusicologist, educator, linguist and philosopher Zoltan Kodaly’s (1882-1967) Sonata for Solo ‘Cello opus 8 is one of the major works to be written for solo ‘cello after J.S.Bach’s ‘Cello Suites. One of the composer’s most remarkable and frequently performed works, its formal three-movement simplicity is deceptive when considering its technical complexities. It is influenced by folksong and dance music Kodaly had heard on his field trips with Bartok. Indulging in the work’s variety of pizzicato interspersed with arco bowing, multiple stoppings, virtuosic runs, harmonics, its use of spiccato, strumming, etc., Khen conjures up the sonata’s temperament in its “dark and light” tonings, earthy melodies and its moments of languishing lyricism juxtaposed with its wild restlessness. One of those daunting works tempting the virtuoso player to grapple with it, Khen has, indeed, been tempted; he succeeds in mixing its rich cocktail of ideas with spirit and alacrity.

Having swept listeners off their feet with the performance of three mammoth and complex solo ‘cello works, Ithay Khen brings his audience down to earth with the tranquil, uncluttered melodic beauty of Jean-Louis Duport’s (1749-1819) Etude no.8 in D major. The Austrian Hospice hosts art exhibitions, concerts and lectures; its salon is a wonderful venue for a solo recital.

The Millennium Ensemble presents a program of "Concerti" in the Eden-Tamir Center's 2011 Passover Festival

2011-04-30T06:30:00.000-07:00

The Eden-Tamir Music Center in Ein Kerem (Jerusalem) hosted a Passover Festival of three concerts. “Concerti”, a noon concert on April 23rd 2011, was performed by the Eden-Tamir Center’s ensemble in residence – the Millennium Chamber Ensemble. Players at this concert were violinists Yevgenia Pikovsky, Eliakum Salzman and Elena Tishin, violists Dimitri Ratush and Vladislav Krasnov, ‘cellists Kirill Mihanovsky and Yefim Eisenstadt, double bass player Evgeny Shatsky and pianist Marianna Sorkin. The Millennium Chamber Ensemble was founded in 1997 by violinist Yevgenia Pikovsky, its players being immigrants from the former Soviet Union.

The concert opened with Felix Mendelssohn’s (1809-1847) Concerto for Violin, Piano and Strings in D minor, soloists being Yevgenia Pikovsky and Marianna Sorkin. Composed in 1823, this concerto leaves no doubt as to the young Mendelssohn’s interest in virtuosity and melodic invention. Pikovsky’s Romantic and forthright solo playing in the opening Allegro, tying in with the movement’s technical demands, with its (characteristically Mendelssohn) fugal approach and intricacies, was spirited. Sorkin took a more understated approach. The soloists, however, conversed and communicated, Sorkin taking time to state the theme in the lyrical Adagio, its calm tempo never lagging. This was followed by the hearty flamboyance of the Allegro molto, peppered with brilliant passagework and effervescence. An ensemble exhibiting the accuracy and attention of long-standing collaboration, the non-soloists worked their lines in and around the solos, making for an exciting performance.

Developed in 1823 by Viennese luthier Johann Georg Staufer, the arpeggione, a bowed 6-stringed fretted instrument, similar to the guitar and with the same tuning, was not generally well received. It did, however, generate a small group of enthusiasts and players. One of these was Vincenz Schuster, for whom Franz Schubert (1797-1828) composed his Sonata “Arpeggione” in 1824. (Schuster also published the only method for playing the instrument). The use of the arpeggione, however, was short-lived – a mere ten years. In fact, by the time the Sonata for Arpeggione and Piano (D821) was published in 1871, the instrument for which it had been composed was extinct. With the arpeggione role nowadays played on ‘cello or viola (I have heard it performed on clarinet) we heard veteran Israeli violist Ze’ev Steinberg’s (b.1918) arrangement of it for viola and strings. Soloist was violist Dimitri Ratush. The Millennium Ensemble preserved the chamber quality of the piece, bringing out its depth of expression, its underlying wistfulness ever present, its joy tinged with sadness, the players never allowing tempi to turn the work’s folksy melodies into vulgarity. For the “Arpeggione” was, indeed, written after Schubert’s physical and mental health had taken a turn for the worse. In a letter penned to his friend Leopold Kupelweiser some months before composing the “Arpeggione”, Schubert writes “I feel myself to be the most unhappy and wretched creature in the world…a man…whose most brilliant hopes have come to nothing.” In the performance at the Eden-Tamir Center, Ratush leads and paces, he intertwines the virtuosity of Schubert’s text into the musical fabric, rather than using it as an end in itself, his playing giving expression to the poignancy, poetry and innate Schubertian humility of the sonata.

The concert ended with Pyotr Ilych Tchaikovsky’s (1840-1893) Variations on a Rococo Theme for ‘Cello and Strings opus 33. Composed in 1876 for Wilhelm Fitzhagen, principal ‘cellist of the Moscow Conservatory, the ‘cellist made some changes to the work – cutting out the introduction and eighth variation, shortening the coda and changing the order of variations, this version of the work being the accepted one till the Soviet edition of Tchaikovsky’s complete works in 1956. We heard ‘cellist Kirill Mihanovsky in the solo role. After stating the daintily charming and somewhat mischievous theme with the use of non-legato bowing and slight rubato, Mihanovsky proceeds to setting out the variations. He presents the character and mood of each, from the whimsical second variation, to the soulful third, to the flexed and virtuosic fourth. Fine, filigree lines are presented sensitively, as are broader gestures, each variation sounding freshly created, the artist’s bass note melodies richly colored and moving. The seventh variation, vibrant and urgent, whisking away introspective moments heard in the sixth, brought the work to a brilliant and joyful close. A little poorer for the lack of woodwind instruments, the artists, nevertheless, brought out the charm and grace of a work void of Tchaikovsky’s dark brooding. The audience delighted in the performance.

The Jerusalem Barbershop Ensemble performs at Beit Avi Chai, closing the 2011 Stage One#2 Amateur English Theater Festival

2011-04-27T12:00:00.000-07:00

Beit Avi Chai (Jerusalem), in collaboration with Mercaz Hamagshimim Hadassah’s Center Stage Theater, held the “Stage One #2” Amateur English Theater Festival, April 20-22 2011. The aim of artistic director Rafi Poch and producer Tamar Akov, in presenting three days of local English language theater, was to shine a spotlight on this thriving subculture. The festival also included some musical events. This writer attended an informal morning family concert performed by the Jerusalem Barbershop Ensemble at Beit Avi Chai on April 22nd 2011.

The Jerusalem Barbershop Ensemble was founded in 1983 by Joe Romanelli. Its repertoire ranges from traditional folk music to modern songs in English and Hebrew, arranged mostly in the barbershop style, sung a cappella (unaccompanied). Its members are bass Dani Barkai, bass Howard Clapsaddle, lead baritone Ian Cohen, lead Boaz Feinberg, tenor Roger Friedland (assistant director), baritone and lead R.Martin Rogovein (director) and lead Joe Romanelli (manager).

Native to the United States, stemming from the time the barber shop itself was a center of many communities in the second half of the 19th century, the barbershop style combines chord structure, sound, delivery and interpretation, usually performed by quartets of unmixed men or women's voices. In its early days, barbershop singers improvised harmonies or “woodshedded” (tenor, baritone and bass harmonizing to a lead’s melody).

In a selection of the JBE’s song repertoire, interspersed with jokes and quips, we heard many old favorites in barbershop arrangements like “The Glory of Love” (written by songwriter William Joseph “Billy” Hill and made famous by Benny Goodman), “Don’t Blame Me” (Jimmy McHugh, Dorothy Fields, first performed in 1932) and Baby Face (Harry Akst, Benny Davis). The JBE’s program offered plenty of variety, such as Billy Joel’s “Longest Time”, the Beetles’ heatwarming “When I’m 64”, the Hillbilly number “Mountain Dew” performed with the assistance of musical and/or courageous audience members, the poignant “There’s a Place for Us” (Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim) and, from the south of America, “When Uncle Joe Plays a Rag on His Old Banjo” (T.Morse, D.A.Esrom, 1912) rendered in velvety tones.

The audience of mostly English speakers, ranging from toddlers to the elderly, was well entertained. Not to be ignored, however, are the challenges of singing barbershop music in its harmonic, rhythmical and formal complexities. The Jerusalem Barbershop Ensemble’s blend, intonation and expressive range lend shape and polish to its singing, the members’ fine aesthetic sense making for a truly musical experience.

A hearty performance of “I’m Gonna Live Till I Die” (Frank Sinatra) rounded off the program, sending people off into the somewhat inclement Jerusalem weather with a smile.
‘I’m gonna live till I die! I’m gonna laugh ‘stead of cry,
I’m gonna take the town and turn it upside down….’

Ensemble William Byrd (France) closes the 2011 Felicja Blumental International Music festival

2011-04-26T07:37:00.000-07:00

The 2011 Felicja Blumental International Music Festival ended with a concert performed by Ensemble europeen William Byrd (France) and pianist David Selig on April 16th 2011 in the Recanati Hall of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. The festival, dedicated to the memory of Polish-born pianist Felicja Blumental, was directed by Blumental’s daughter, soprano Annette Celine together with Avigail Arnheim. One focus of the festival, in cooperation with the Australian Embassy, was on the music of Australian pianist and composer Percy Grainger, marking 50 years of his death.

For almost 20 years, Ensemble europeen William Byrd has been performing Renaissance and Baroque vocal music, with particular emphasis on music of the 17th century, the six singers presenting it in a one-to-a-part setting. The ensemble is directed by Australian singer and musicologist Graeme O’Reilly.

The concert began with works by Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643), the first being “Si ch’io vorrei morire!” (Yes, I would prefer death) from the composer’s Fourth Book of Madrigals, to an anonymous text depicting the state of abandoned lovers. The group lavished it in pathos and drama. And to “Lamento d’Arianna” (Arianna’s Lament): a work that was so significant that it created the “lament” as a recognizable genre of vocal chamber music. Monteverdi completed the five-voiced madrigal setting of the text based on his opera of the same name to a text by Rinuccini, publishing it in his Sixth Book of Madrigals, with the monody reworked into the madrigal settings. Here again, we are presented with the drama of the soul – mostly suffering and despair - sketched in chromaticism and dissonant leaps. At the end, in the final stages of Arianna’s despair, when nobody hears Arianna’s tears, Monteverdi takes the voices into the low register to express this. Ensemble William Byrd’s performance of it was expressively crafted, capricious and theatrical, the effective use of dark and light vocal colors providing contrast, the power of words being “the master of the harmonies”.

Thomas Tomkins’ (1572-1656) died 13 years after Monteverdi. His “When David Heard” is surely among the most tragic and moving works of the genre of the English sacred madrigal. The Byrd Ensemble presented the work’s blend of polyphonic- and harmonic writing, leaning into the dissonances that speak of David’s state-of-mind, stressing key words (in authentic pronunciation) and clothing them in clear resonance.

In “Thule, the Period of Cosmography”, a six-part madrigal from Thomas Weelkes’ (1576-1623) collection of “Madrigals of Five and Six Parts” (1600), the amazing travelogue of an Andalusian merchant returning “with cochineal and china dishes”, Weelkes paints volcanoes, sulphurous fire, frozen scenery (Iceland also being an allusion to the end of the world) and flying fish in musical notes and gestures rife with underlying symbolism. An interesting choice, sung with as much descriptive variety as its text boasts, the audience would have gained more insight into this fascinating work by having the text printed on the program to follow.

The second half of the concert presented works by Australian composer Percy Aldridge Grainger (1882-1961.) It began with the composer’s piano arrangement of his orchestral piece “Blithe Bells” (1930-1931), titled “Ramble on Bach’s ‘Sheep May Safely Graze’ for theater, massed or small orchestra”, “ramble” being the composer’s term for “transcription, arrangement or creative thinking”. A free fantasia, its naïve melody set in a richly polyphonic setting, the title “Blithe bells” refers to sheep bells. Australian-born pianist David Selig challenged the local audience to enter this musical maze inspired by the great Bach - a piece that is grand, delicate and humorous, perhaps bearing cynical undertones. Selig also played the piano version of “Molly on the Shore”, a delightful setting of two Cork Reel tunes, energetic and charming in its dance rhythms. Composed originally as a string quintet as a birthday present for his mother in 1907, it has also undergone several transformations; Grainger’s “elastic scoring” was in keeping with his aim to make pieces available to many players and instrumental combinations. Selig played Grainger’s “Walking Tune”, outlining its inner voices together with its expressive, direct melodiousness. This piece was played in its original form by the Hindemith Wind Quintet (April 14th 2011, Felicja Blumental International Music Festival.)

Percy Grainger was a collector of folk tunes in England and Denmark. In fact, he was an avid collector of plenty of good song melodies. Ensemble europeen William Byrd sang a representative selection of the composer’s song arrangements, many of them a cappella. Folk song settings from the British Isles included the saucy “I’m Seventeen Come Sunday” (British Folk Music Settings no.8) (its piano accompaniment a little too loud) the unaccompanied energetic, homophonic “Agincourt Song” after a 15th century song and “Lord Maxwell’s Goodnight”. In the latter, arranged by David Tall, the text of the first half is from Sir Walter Scott’s “Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border” with the second half added by Grainger himself. Here the solo was sung by soprano Edwige Parat.

In his quest to collect and set what might be called “world music”, Grainger was one of the first ethnomusicologists to record on the wax cylinder. His interest lay in melody and harmony, but also in the timbre, inflections and performance style of folk music. Grainger showed much interest in Scandinavian folksongs; he spoke Swedish, Danish and Norwegian. (He knew Grieg and Delius.) The strophic, homophonic, pleasantly asymmetrical “Song of Varmeland” was representative of the phase during which he collected these songs.

Another genre used by Grainger was the “wordless” song, an idea in which he had dabbled from 1899. He spoke of it as carrying “its own special message to the soul” and as being a “natural musical instinct”; he contended that singing in that manner “proves that choirs develop a purer, richer and more voluminous sonority”. We heard the “Australian Up-Country Song”, based on a melody Grainger had composed in 1905 and set for unaccompanied choir in 1928. Grainger wrote: “In that tune I had wished to voice Australian up-country feeling as Stephen Foster had voiced American countryside feelings in his songs”.

The Ensemble europeen William Byrd boasts some fine singers, its signature sound forthright and individual rather than French in elegance. O’Reilly places much emphasis on words and diction. Of his work with the William Byrd Ensemble he writes: “Any performance …stands or falls by the extent to which it makes apparent the relation between the words and the notes, particularized in the context of its period, and universalized into ours.” In this unusual and daring program, presenting Monteverdi, Tomkins, Weelkes together with Grainger in one evening, O’Reilly has introduced did the Israeli concertgoer to Percy Grainger – his diversity, originality and accessibility. With Grainger’s reputation sadly damaged by the details of his personal life, the 50th anniversary of his death is a fine opportunity to remember, appreciate and enjoy the Australian composer’s music.

The Hindemith Wind Quintet (Germany) performs in the Felicja Blumental International Music Festival

2011-04-21T05:08:00.000-07:00

The Felicja Blumental International Music Festival and Guitar Week took place at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art from April 11th to 16th 2011. It presented a selection of concerts, movies and theatrical productions and featured performers from many countries. One focus of the festival was on the works of Australian composer Percy Aldridge Grainger (1882-1961), in collaboration with the Australian Embassy, on the 50th anniversary of his death.

The Hindemith Wind Quartet hails from Germany, its members all principal players from the Frankfurt Opera Orchestra, each originally coming from a different country. Flautist Clara Andrada de la Calle (Spain), oboist Nick Deutsch (Australia), clarinetist Johannes Gmeinder (Germany), horn player Sybille Mahni (Switzerland) and bassoonist Richard Morschel make up this select group. The quintet performs only works written originally for this specific combination.

The Hindemith Wind Quintet opened its concert, in the Assia Gallery April 14th 2011, with Samuel Barber’s (1910-1981) “Summer Music for Wind Quintet” opus 31, a work composed and premiered in Detroit in 1956. Barber’s only work for wind ensemble, the opening section of the work, the first of 11 continuous sections, is marked “slow and indolent”. A mood piece, evocative, poetic and nostalgic, its sections varied, it is characterized by its exquisite oboe solo (Deutsch) and haunting, long notes on the horn (Mahni). The Hindemith Quintet’s reading of it was sensitive, creating a richly colored canvas. This was followed by German Jewish composer Hanns Eisler’s (1898-1962) “Divertimento opus 4” for wind quintet. This early chromatic and harmonically dense work, composed in 1923, before the composer’s unhappy move to the USA, bears the influence of Schonberg and Webern, both of whom had been Eisler’s teachers. Offering many solos, the work is restless and capricious.

Czech-born Antoine-Joseph Reicha (1770-1836), the most significant pioneer of the woodwind quintet, composed 24 of them, each in four movements; they constitute some of the finest repertoire composed for winds, sometimes being referred to as “symphonic” in scope. The Quintet in E flat major opus 88 no.2 (1817) is the most famous of them. In the extended bassoon solo in the opening movement, Morschel’s cantabile playing was a treat. The quintet’s playing of the work was fresh, direct, unmannered and a delight to the audience.

Paul Hindemith (1895-1963) composed his “Kleine Kammermusik” (Small Chamber Music) opus 24 no.2 in 1923, this, yet another work showing the composer’s predilection for wind instruments, being clearly influenced by Stravinsky’s neo-classical language. The first movement expounds a rakish clarinet theme (Gmeinder), setting the scene for the piece with its characteristically Hindemith ostinato figures. The players skillfully guide the audience through the sinewy score, its bitter-sweet and sardonic moments, its lyrical, buffoonish and terse moments. Hindemith’s economy of writing (the fourth movement gives each instrument a solo within its mere 23 bars) and sophistication were molded into a brilliant and interesting performance. Deutsch’s playing in the third dirge-like movement was soul-searching and compelling.

Of his “Walking Tune” for Wind Five, Australian-born pianist and composer Percy Grainger writes of this, his only work for winds (it subsequently underwent many transcriptions): “I composed the little tune on which this piece is based as a whistling accompaniment to my tramping feet while on a three days’ walk in West Argyleshire (Scottish Highlands) in the summer of 1900. At that time – I had just turned 18 – I was deeply in love with thoughts of the Celtic world…” Indeed British in flavor, this short, tonal piece abounds in lush hues and lovely melodies, ending on the thoughtful added sixth major chord.

Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) began his Wind Quintet opus 26 in April 1923 and finished it in July 1924 after having worked on the twelve-tone method for ten years, a period in which time he published nothing. The quintet is a milestone in that sonata-rondo forms once more present the possibility to compose in the light of atonal music, the composer thus reinventing himself as a neo-classicist. Here he demonstrates the versatility of his new system in a lengthy, large-scale work. The Hindemith Wind Quintet ended its concert with the final movement of it, the Rondo. The players presented the virtuosic movement in its inherent energy and variety, its individual lines ever apparent to the listener.

The Hindemith Wind Quintet is an ensemble of five superb musicians, whose in-depth performance is intelligent, thorough, convincing and moving. The audience was clearly appreciative of their high quality playing. Attending the concert in the Assia Gallery, surrounded by European oil paintings, added to the evening’s enjoyment; exhibited were two paintings of Felicja Blumental, one by Irwin Dom O-Sen, the other by Kees van Dongen, both paintings being part of the Mizne-Blumental Collection.

"Israel in Egypt" performed by the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra under David Stern

2011-04-12T05:18:00.000-07:00

“Israel in Egypt” (1738) is the fifth of 19 oratorios that Georg Frideric Handel (1685-1759) composed in England. Written in 27 days, it was premiered in 1739 at the King’s Theatre, where Handel was manager at the time. The first performance was not received well: the London audience was confused at hearing a sacred work in the theatre and would have preferred more vocal solos and fewer choral movements. “Israel in Egypt” was only performed nine times in Handel’s lifetime and, despite its splendour, was considered a failure at the time. The composer made several changes, his 1756 version being that which we heard in the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra’s “Great Vocal Series” concert no. 5 April 7th 2011 in the Henry Crown Auditorium of the Jerusalem Theatre. In a slightly abbreviated version conducted by Maestro David Stern (director of the Israeli Opera), the chorus (mostly double choir) was made up of The New Vocal Ensemble and The Kibbutz Artzi Choir (Yuval Ben Ozer, conductor). Soloists – all local talent - were sopranos Claire Megnaghi and Avigail Gurtler, countertenor Alon Harari, tenor Nimrod Grinboim, baritone Yair Polishook and bass Amit Friedman.

Essentially a choral oratorio using texts from the Bible (the Book of Exodus and Psalms) “Israel in Egypt”, out-of-the-ordinary in its lack of overture, consists mostly of massive double choruses. The two choirs gave their all to the complex musical detail, the many-faceted counterpoint, the dramatic development of the work and to the nuances of its emotional roller-coaster ride. The English text, so pertinent in this work, was given attention and lucidity. The singers followed Stern’s articulate conducting, their collaboration resulting in precision and clean phrasing.

Tenor Nimrod Grinboim, a charismatic artist with a fine sense of the stage, set the scene, his manner forthright, his English articulate:
‘Now there arose a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph; and he set over Israel taskmasters to afflict them with burdens, and they made them serve with rigour.’ (Exodus 1:8, 11:13.) Countertenor Alon Harari, continuing the narrative, was outstanding in his expressiveness and sincerity, his voice distinctive and mellifluous. In “Their land brought frogs…” his “reading of the text” became dramatic, fired by consonants and enriched with fine melismas and ornaments. In the duet “Thou and Thy mercy”, Grinboim and Harari blend and balance in a delightful mix of timbres and shapes. In the bright and cantabile soprano duet “The Lord is my strength and my song”, its minimal instrumental accompaniment, offering the stage to Claire Meghnagi and Avigail Gurtler, the vocal combination was pleasing; however, Meghnagi needs to take into account Gurtler’s less expansive voice. Meghnagi has much musical personality, her solos compelling; issuing in the final chorus with two startling unaccompanied phrases, her singing had listeners sitting on the edge of their seats. Opening with Yair Polishook’s dramatic statement, he and Amit Friedman provided a fresh, virile and exhilarating performance of “The Lord is a man of war”.

David Stern wielded Handel’s massive score with composure and consummate skill, the JSO players painting the buzzing of flies, lice and locusts, the hopping of frogs, the pelting of hailstones and rain and fire onto Handel’s technicolor canvas.

Description of the above plagues was followed by the spine-chillingly eerie chorus “He sent a thick darkness over the land”, the latter chorus graced by mellow and empathic playing on the part of the JSO’s woodwind section. Stern’s performance set before the audience the Israelites’ despair which turns to gloom, the savage smiting of the first born - effectively chiseled in detached notes - followed by and contrasted by the idyllic and pastoral silver-and-gold threaded comfort of “But as for His people, He led them forth like sheep”. The work then evokes the raging waters engulfing and drowning Pharaoh’s men and horses, these texts inspiring Handel to create some of the most vivid, visual and dramatic moments in Baroque music, the energy and power of the situation being reflected in the complexity of the music. Throughout the work, we are constantly reminded of the power of the sea:
‘And with the blast of Thy nostrils the waters were gathered together, the floods stood upright as in a heap, and the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea.’ (Exodus xv: 8.)
Majestic triumph ensues, then celebration and dancing; Alon Harari’s tranquilly beautiful rendition of “Thou shalt bring them in and plant them in the mountain of Thine inheritance” provides relief, respite and reassurance, its message especially relevant in a performance in Israel! Stern, the opera conductor, and his fellow musicians give audience members their money’s worth of excitement! Not to be ignored, however, are the choruses which poignantly punctuate the drama with hymns of conviction and devotion, strategically placed, their cantabile textures caressing and soothing.

Not performed on authentic instruments, Maestro Stern nevertheless addresses the Baroque style of the work. The orchestra was at its best. This was surely one of the JSO’s finest and most enjoyable concerts of the season.

The Israel Early Music Project in "The Joy of Improvization" at the Eden-Tamir Music Center, Ein Kerem

2011-04-05T06:49:00.000-07:00

March 26th 2011 greeted Jerusalem with one of those idyllic late winter mornings bathed in sunshine, the local bird population in full throat. With this tranquility blotting out the previous week’s pressures, we made our way to the Eden-Tamir Music Center, Ein Kerem, to attend “The Magic of Improvisation” a concert performed by the Israel Early Music Project under the direction of Alon Sariel. Welcoming artists and audience, Professor Alexander Tamir mentioned that the Eden-Tamir Center has not made a practice of presenting many early music concerts on authentic instruments, but that there would be more emphasis placed on early music in the center’s next concert season. Alon Sariel talked briefly of the central role of improvisation in Renaissance- and Baroque music, as in the practice of playing divisions over an ostinato bass or taking a well-known song as the basis for instrumental variations.

The concert opened with songs from Henry Purcell’s (1659-1695) “Orpheus Britannicus” collection. Published posthumously in two volumes by Henry Playford, many of the songs were originally written for the stage, either as operatic songs or for incidental music. Soprano Anat Edri performed “If music be the food of love, play on” from Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night”. Orsino, frustrated in his courtship of Countess Olivia, muses that an excess of music might cure his obsession. Backed by ‘cello and lute, Edri follows the text in its emotional fluctuations. Not all words emerge crystal clear; she, however, masters the tricky melismatic passages with aplomb. This was followed by “The Plaint”, a song from the masque in Act V of “The Fairy Queen”, a veritable mini-drama; it was enhanced by a violin solo (Sivann Zelikoff) and word-painting on the part of Edri. In “Hark! The echoing air” (also from “The Fairy Queen”) Edri flitted through the joyful and virtuosic melodic line with agility, her English pronunciation suitably British.

Remaining in England, the ensemble performed two John Dowland (1563-1626) songs. Dowland composed 88 lute songs. Anat Edri and Alon Sariel (archlute) gave a poignant reading of “Come Again” to be followed by “Can she excuse my wrongs”, the latter, in the style of a galliard, possibly referring to the Earl of Devereaux’s stormy relationship with Queen Elizabeth I. In the instrumental version of the song, ‘cellist Talia Erdal contended admirably with the polyphonic nature of the arrangement.

Giulio Caccini (1551-1618), an outstanding singer, who spent most of his life in Florence, was one of the first composers to write the chordally accompanied solo song, as appearing in his collection “Le Nuove Musiche” (The New Music), “new” referring to the fact that his accompaniments were not polyphonic and that certain of the rules of classical polyphony were stretched to enhance the text with “una certa sprezzatura di canto” (a certain noble nonchalance of song). Both volumes of “Le Nuove Musiche” (1602,1614) include explanations as to performance practice, singing techniques, ornaments, etc. We heard Edri and Sariel performing two Caccini love songs. In “Sfogava con le Stelle” (One who was lovesick) Edri presents the vehement suffering of the lovesick man convincingly and spontaneously, with a good dose of Italian melodrama. In the infatuated “Amarylli mia bella” (Amaryllis, my beauty), Sariel is attentive to Edri’s pace and tasteful embellishments, delicately ornamenting the lute part. “Amarylli” was then played on ‘cello and lute. Erdal is a highly expressive musician, using rhythmic flexibility strategically.

And to Renaissance France. “Ma belle si ton ame” (My beautiful one, if your soul) is a courtly song by Gilles Durant de la Bergerie. The strophic chanson was performed by Edri, the ensemble punctuating with interludes between verses. Her singing boasted French elegance and transparency. Born in Alsace, bassoonist, organist and voice teacher Philipp Friedrich Bodecker (1607-1683) was in the employ of the courts of Darmstadt and Durlach, but also spent many years as a church musician. He wrote a treatise on thoroughbass “Manductio nova”. His “Sonata Sopra La Monica”, in the form of a passacaglia and based on “Ma belle si ton ame”, is actually a bassoon sonata. Erdal and Sariel performed it on ‘cello and archlute. A virtuosic work, with the ‘cello soloing in most of the elaborate variations, the audience delighted in playing that was beautifully crafted.

Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) had more knowhow of the potential of the lute than many other Baroque composers. His two trio sonatas for lute, violin and continuo, commissioned by and dedicated to Count Johann Joseph of Wrtby of Bohemia, were probably composed in the early 1730’s, the Trio Sonata in C major RV.82 being the first. What distinguishes them from many other Baroque works for lute is that here the lute partners the violin, with the ‘cello taking on the continuo role. A work of joy free of emotional complexities, the unpretentious opening Andante sees violin and lute at times doubling, at others with the lute ornamenting sustained violin notes. The Largo is in a minor key, violin and ‘cello accompany the lute in pizzicato. Sariel takes the listener into the realm of magical, filigree melodic lines created on the lute, gracing them with dainty ornaments. The Allegro, restoring the violin-lute partnership, took the listener back to the unadulterated joy of the opening movement.

Violinist Giuseppe Tartini (1692-1770) is one of the most enigmatic characters of the Italian Baroque. In his treatise “Arte dell’ Arco” of 1714, he wrote of the phenomenon of differential tones, claiming that his students were playing out of tune if two related notes played simultaneously did not produce the “terzo sono” (third note.) He composed over 170 sonatas for violin, the sonata he is best remembered for being his Sonata in G Minor (c.1714), known as “Il trillo del Diavolo” (The Devil’s Trill”). The story behind the work ties in with Tartini’s flamboyant personality: one night, the composer dreamt that the Devil was at the foot of his bed trying to bargain for his soul, so Tartini challenged him to a musical “duel”. According to Tartini, the Devil played “with consummate skill a sonata of such exquisite beauty as surpassed the boldest flight of my imagination”. On waking, the composer sat down to write down the music, creating one of the most virtuosic Baroque works for violin. A sonata da chiesa, we heard violinist Sivann Zelikoff in the solo role (the cadenza she played was written by Fritz Kreisler) with Erdal and Sariel providing the basso continuo. In the opening Larghetto affettuoso, Zelikoff’s playing of the theme and its variations was lyrical and touching, using vibrato to embellish. The ensuing Allegro, a virtuosic movement based on a sharply-profiled subject, is highly decorated. Following a brief cantabile movement, more an interlude than a movement, the Devil appears in the final Allegro assai movement, a piece rife with Italian temperament, tricky trills and drama. Zelikoff performed it with gusto and good taste.

The concert ended with two madrigals of Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643). The first from “Il ballo delle ingrate” (librettist Ottavio Rinuccini), published in his ballet-opera “Ballo of the Ungrateful Ladies”, produced in 1608, is set at the mouth of hell and focuses on the fate of heartless ladies who have declined the attentions of their suitors. Accompanied by Sariel, Edri convincingly lavishes the song with suffering and urgency, Monteverdi’s daring dissonances evident. In “Quel sguardo sdegnosetto”, from Monteverdi’s “Scherzi musicali”, Edri, Sariel and Erdal collaborate to dramatize the feisty text:
‘That scornful little glance
Gleaming and threatening –
That poisonous dart –
Shoots out and strikes my heart.
Charms that have set me on fire,
And have divided me.
Wound me with a glance
Heal me with laughter!’

The IEMP’s young artists make a deep study of works performed; their concerts delight the senses.

The Jerusalem Oratorio Choir performs works by Faure and Gounod

2011-03-31T11:47:00.000-07:00

The Jerusalem Oratorio Choir, together with the Israel Chamber Orchestra, opened the 10th Jerusalem Arts Festival with a performance of Faure’s “Requiem” and Gounod’s “Messe Solonelle de Sainte Cecile” (Saint Cecilia Mass) March 29th 2011 in the Henry Crown Hall of the Jerusalem Theatre. The concert, “Vocal Liturgy with a French Aroma”, was conducted by Aharon Harlap. Soloists were soprano Enas Massalha, tenor Eitan Drori and bass-baritone Oded Reich.

Once a year, all four ensembles of the Oratorio Choir join to perform major works from the choral repertoire. Conductors of the individual choirs – Ronen Borshevsky (Oratorio Chamber Choir), Oded Shomrony (The Oratorio Singers), Noah Burstein (Bel Canto) and Flora Vinokurov (Cantabile) – work mostly on individual programs with their choirs. Maestro Ronen Borshevsky guided the singers through the lion’s share of preparation of the two large choral works for the concert, with Maestro Harlap adding the finishing touches and conducting the concert itself.

Words of welcome were spoken by Mr. Shemi Amsalem (head of the Jerusalem Municipality Arts and Culture Departments) and Mr. Yossi Heiman (General Director, Jerusalem Municipality.) They spoke of Jerusalem as an important centre of culture and of the 26 dance-, drama- and musical events of the Jerusalem Arts Festival in halls and in the open as providing a platform for local amateur performers.

Gabriel Faure (1845-1924) spoke of his best-known work, the choral-orchestral setting of the Roman Catholic Mass for the Dead as “everything I managed to entertain by way of religious illusion” in “my Requiem, which, moreover, is dominated from beginning to end by a very human feeling of faith in eternal rest”. Composed in stages between 1887 and 1900, Faure’s “Requiem” in D minor opus 48 got off to a shaky start: following the first performance January 16th 1888 at “La Madeleine” Church in Paris, where Faure was chief organist and choirmaster, with children making up the soprano section and a boy soloist performing the “Pie Jesu” (Kind Lord Jesus), the composer was reprimanded by the vicar for presenting prayers of “dangerous novelties”. Faure, clear in his intention to stay away from the operatic “bel canto” style and “larger-than-life” statements fashionable in Paris at the time, used melodies and rhythms from Gregorian chant in a setting suggesting freedom and spontaneity. However, he is more than explicit when it comes to markings and performance instructions; Faure uses color and rich, complex harmonies to paint his soundscape rather than dramatic fortissimos (of which there are, in all, 30 bars!) Viewing death as “a happy deliverance, an aspiring towards the happiness of the hereafter, rather than as a painful passing away”, the composer omits the “Sequentia” section of the Mass text, with its apocalyptic sense of wretchedness and allusions to hell; he adds the “Pie Jesu” and “In Paradisum”, both of which speak of eternal rest. As to the verbal text, Faure had no qualms about leaving out a phrase or adding a word in order to shape the music.

From the outset of the work, Harlap and his musicians create the mysterious, introspective mood of the work, its many effective dynamic changes expressed in pastel tints. The choir was well coordinated, its choral blend pleasing, if not always transparent. The large choir moved together well, exercising restraint and good taste, gestures and phrase beginnings and endings articulate and artistically chiseled. In the “Sanctus”, the atmosphere brightens, and ethereal timbres sweep away earlier introspection, the work returning to haunting acceptance and spiritual comfort of the “In Paradisum”. Bass-baritone Oded Reich handled the “Offertoire” (Offertory – when bread and wine are brought to the altar in the Eucharist service) and the “Libera me” (Deliver me) solos expressively and with conviction, his richly-colored vocal timbre matched with musicality and poise. Soprano Enas Massalha’s singing of the pivotal “Pie Jesu” (final couplet from the “Dies Irae” text) was profound yet understated, her shaping of it taking its cues from the text itself, her vocal quality captivating. Not to be ignored is the importance of the organ part throughout, ever present in its humility and ecclesiastical association, handled competently by Tanya Schupak, whose tireless work with the choir and its members is admirable.

Charles Gounod (1818-1893) is appreciated by the listening public as an opera composer, but his sacred works outnumber the 13 operas from his pen. In fact, he studied theology at the Saint-Sulpice Roman Catholic Church (Paris) and spent time in the Sistine Chapel studying the works of 16th century masters; for a while he even referred to himself as “Abbe Gounod”. The challenge of composing a grand mass in honor of St. Cecilia, the patron saint of music, was no easy one, presenting the composer with many dilemmas. After the premiering of the “Messe Solonnelle de Sainte Cecile” November 1855 (St. Cecilia’s Day) in Paris’ Sainte-Eustache Church, Saint-Saens spoke of the work as causing “a kind of shock”, that “its serene light, which rose before the musical world like a breaking dawn, troubled people” and that congregants were “dazzled, then charmed, then conquered”.

One of the few Romantic Masses intended specifically for the church, it is rich and lush and cushioned in an accessible, highly Romantic harmonic style. Harlap’s reading of it brings out its intimacy, joy, pomp, fine melodies and its play of instrumental and vocal color; he steers away from the sentimentality sadly present in some performances of the work. Soloists Massalha, Reich and Drori weave their vocal lines in and out of the textural fabric. In the “Sanctus”, the climax of the Mass, tenor Eitan Drori, his silvery, distinctive voice projecting with ease, contends well with the orchestra. Massalha’s soothing and prayerful performance, opening the “Benedictus”, issues in the translucent and uplifting “Osanna”, with the compassionate Agnus Dei” rondo closing the work, in which solos and choral sections alternate. The ICO supported all the way, its brass section adding vim and gloss to climactic moments.

Most members of the Jerusalem Oratorio Choir are amateur singers. The results of their musicality, devotion and hard work, and that of the conductors, were impressive and, indeed, pleasurable in this festive and enjoyable concert.