The Atar Trio in a concert from Tartini to Piazzolla at the Redeemer Church, Jerusalem

With the cool winds of Autumn about to make themselves felt in Jerusalem, people made the best of the pleasant, balmy evening of September 27th 2014 to attend a “Summer Nights in the Courtyard” concert of the Atar Trio and sip a glass of wine in the medieval cloister courtyard of the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in Jerusalem’s Old City. The Atar Trio – pianist Ofer Shelley, violinist Tanya Beltzer and ‘cellist Marina Katz – regularly performs in the tranquil surroundings of this church. The concert was called for 21:00 in the hope that the bird population lodging in the rich foliage of the courtyard would have ceased their twittering and be asleep for the night.

Following words of welcome by the Provost of the Church of the Redeemer, Wolfgang Schmidt, the concert opened with Giuseppe Tartini’s (1692-1770) Trio Sonata in G major, one of the composer’s “30 Sonate piccole”. In a work rich in Romantic lyricism and charm, violinist Tanya Beltzer was in her element with Tartini’s virtuosic writing, his deep and strong feelings, as she gave expression to the refined, poignant and ornamental writing of one of the greatest violinists and theorists of the 18th century. Remaining in Italy, we heard Tomaso Albinoni’s (1671-1751) enigmatic “Adagio” (composed largely or wholly by 20th century musicologist Remo Giazotto), a piece that has undergone endless arrangements, also serving as background music in films and television series and bandied around by pop singers and jazz pianists. The Atar Trio has devised its own arrangement of the well-known piece, making use of textures, contrast and a little flexing of melodic lines.

Then to a work from the most Classical repertoire for piano trio, Haydn’s Trio in C major, Hob. XV:21, one of three trios published in 1797 and dedicated to a London friend, Theresa Bartolozzi. Although it belongs to repertoire associated with the amateur musician of the time, here is chamber music at its best, with the demanding piano part attesting to Ms. Bartolozzi’s undisputed competence on the piano. The Atar players communicated the work’s lyrical grace, its intensity, its moments of tranquility and Haydnesque major-minor playfulness, as well as the work’s intrinsically conversational aspect. With the first notes of the opening Allegro, the bird population of the Redeemer Church courtyard, clearly Haydn aficionados, awoke to accompany the work with effusive twittering. The Haydn Trio was followed by “Duett”, the third piece from Robert Schumann’s (1810-1856) Fantasiestücke Op.88, its gentle dialogue between violin and ‘cello played out over Shelley’s sensitive piano accompaniment.

The second half of the program consisted of a group of dances – a potpourri of works by various composers from different countries and in a number of very different styles – beginning with a Tango by Argentinean composer Alberto Ginastera (1916-1983), played with sensuous melancholy, its sultry Latin temperament enhanced by the use of rubato. Still in Argentinean mode, the players gave an outstanding performance of “Autumn” (1969) from “The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires” by the grand master of the “new” tango Ástor Piazzolla (1921-1992); in playing radiant with freedom, emotion and color, the Atar Trio gave expression to the piece’s sophisticated blend of Classicism and jazz, its intensity and mood changes, as they wove virtuosic solos into the texture. The Atar Trio’s performance of “Three Irish Dances”, arranged by versatile Nashville master fiddler Craig Duncan, was songful, hearty and foot-tapping, the ‘cello (Marina Katz) often taking the role of second violin. Two pieces adapted from Marc Lavry’s “Three Jewish Dances for Piano” (1945) provided the program with Israeli content: played with much delicacy and a hint of percussion (on the part of Katz), the “Yemenite Wedding Dance” evoked a demure Yemenite bride performing the dance in small steps with gentle, circular hand movements. Another pleasing arrangement played with verve and abandon, Lavry’s “Hora”, a lively and earthy Israeli dance, conjured up the energy and joy of the popular Israeli dance. Born in Latvia, Lavry (1903-1967) was the first composer to introduce the hora into Israeli art music. Another hora played – the popular encore piece “Hora Staccato” – by Romanian composer and violin virtuoso Grigoraş Dinicu (1889-1949), was given a splendid performance by Tanya Belzer, who took on board the piece’s huge technical demands - staccato bowing, rapid note successions, witty scales and spicy verve. The concert ended with sympathetic arrangements of two New Year songs written by the “first lady of Israeli song and poetry” Naomi Shemer (1930-2004).

The Atar Trio’s playing addresses many styles. Not confining its concerts only to conventional trio repertoire, the three artists offer their listeners high quality across-the-board programs. This outdoor concert was no exception. The audience was well entertained.

Violinist Enrico Onofri directs and soloes with the Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra in a program of Italian music







The Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra’s 5th concert for the 2013-2014 concert season featured Italian violinist Enrico Onofri as soloist and conductor. It was Onofri's first collaboration with the JBO. Born in Ravenna, Onofri’s career took wing when Jordi Savall invited him to serve as concertmaster of “La Capella Reial”. Onofri has worked with many ensembles and orchestras and is the founder of the “Imaginarium” Ensemble, a chamber group performing Italian Baroque repertoire. Enrico Onofri records widely. As of 2000, he has been professor of Baroque violin and Baroque interpretation at the Bellini Conservatory (Palermo), has tutored and conducted the European Union Baroque Orchestra and holds master classes in Italy, Europe, the USA and Japan.

In “La Follia Italiana”, on April 8th 2014 in the Henry Crown Symphony Hall of the Jerusalem Theatre, Onofri and the Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra (with founder and musical director David Shemer at the harpsichord) took the audience on a whirlwind 150-year journey of Italian music, opening with a Canzona from Book II of Dario Castello ‘s (c.1590-c.1658) “Sonate concertate in stil moderno”. Castello was a composer and chamber musician at Saint Mark’s Basilica, Venice, at the time Monteverdi was maestro di cappella there. Promising an evening of exhilarating music, Onofri led the players through the work with the adventurous nuances, extreme dynamics and skilful playing typical of stile moderno in Italy and especially of Castello’s dazzling sonatas, utilizing expressive harmonies and theatrical effects. Then, via a communicative and sensitive reading of Giovanni Gabrieli’s (1557-1612) Sonata XXI con tre violini (Onofri, Dafna Ravid, Noam Schuss), its moods constantly changing, to the well-chiseled melodic lines and strongly Venetian style of Sonata in a minor for 4 violins and basso continuo from Giovanni Legrenzi’s (1626-1690) opus 10 “La Cetra” (The Lyre) of 1673 (Onofri, Ravid, Schuss, Ruth Fazal), its rhythms fiery, its transitions delicately ornamented by Onofri.

Less virtuosic than that of contemporaries such as Vivaldi, Albinoni’s music, in the hands of unaware players, runs the risk of ending up as rather pleasant background music. Not so here. In Tomaso Albinoni’s (1671-1751) Sonata V in B flat major for strings and basso continuo opus 2 no.9 from “Sei Sinfonie a cinque” beauty of melody, articulacy and variety were the key, with Onofri’s solo playing leaning into dissonances to give a gentle tug at the heartstrings without ever being too sugary.

The program included two of Antonio Vivaldi’s (1678-1741) violin concertos – Concerto no.8 in g minor RV 332 and no 9 in D major RV 230. Dealing with their glittering virtuosic sections with alacrity, high energy and radiance, Onofri’s playing was, nevertheless, a far cry from showmanship and pyrotechnic display; he riveted our attention on Vivaldi’s text, its shaping and its poignant, delicate and expressive aspects, inspiring players and audience alike. The fine-spun sounds of the theorbo (Eliav Lavi) added timbral gleam to the ensemble sound throughout the evening.

With Baldassare Galuppi’s (1706-1785) oeuvre largely made up of opera, sacred vocal works and solo harpsichord music, his small output of instrumental music tends to be overlooked. Musicologists date Galuppi’s concertos for string ensemble at around 1740; without a solo part and flexibly scored in high, Italienate style, these concertos are among the last of their kind. Rococo in style, highly melodic yet using early imitative practice, Concerto in D major offered much dialogue and made for fine ensemble fare. The program ended with Concerto Grosso no.12 in d minor, referred to by Maestro David Shemer in his program notes as “a creation of no less than three composers”, this work being Francesco Saverio Geminiani’s (1687-1762) orchestration of Corelli’s variations on an anonymous composer’s “La Follia” (Folly) melody, based on a dance of Portuguese origin. Geminiani’s setting of Corelli’s virtuoso part (Onofri) is mostly unchanged, but he went and deftly added a second solo violin part (Schuss). Other solo roles were performed by violist Daniel Tanchelson and ‘cellist Orit Messer-Jacobi. With concertino and ripieno juxtaposed to heighten contrasts between sections, here is a concert piece of the most exciting kind. Following the noble and forthright statement of the “La Follia” melody and harmonic scheme, we were presented with over twenty variations – from caressingly lyrical, cantabile variations, bristling with charm and fine ornamentation, to intoxicatingly thrilling moments, Onofri’s liberated expression inviting the other soloists to take part in the musical delight. Orit Messer-Jacobi’s solos were infused with energy and joy.

Punctilious about good intonation, Enrico Onofri addressed each player in order to tune with him between works. Onofri’s musical language and effervescent personality epitomize the energy and joyfulness of Italian music. His involvement and that of the JBO players on stage were transmitted to the audience. There was magic in the air!

Christiane Kessler in an organ recital at the Redeemer Church, Jerusalem



On July 20^th 2013, Christiane Kessler played an organ recital at the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in the Old City of Jerusalem. Ms. Kessler, a church organist and choral conductor from Marburg (Germany), gives two to four recitals per year; she was in Jerusalem for a month also to accompany services at the Lutheran Church. This was her first recital in Israel. The organ of the Redeemer Church was built in Berlin by Karl Schuke in 1971. It has 21 registers connected to two manuals and the pedal. It is an instrument rich in color and energy. From 1976 to 1980 Christiane Kessler studied Church Music in Frankfurt am Main, working as a regional church musician near Frankfurt from 1981 to 1994. Moving to Marburg in 2000, Ms. Kessler is organ professor in Schluechtern and a tutor at the Summer Academies for young Organists at the Baltic Sea.

The concert opened with Concerto in G major by the little-known North German composer Christoph Wolfgang Drückenmüller, of whom there are few works. Kessler’s playing of the work was vivacious, fresh, exact and well defined in character. This was followed by Venetian composer Tomaso Albinoni’s (1671-1750) Adagio in g minor, a work only discovered in 1940 by musicologist Remo Giazotto in the Dresden State Library. A reconstruction based on realization of the figured bass, possibly for organ, it was probably a fragment of a sonata da chiesa. The work is mostly Giazotto’s, with Albinoni’s two thematic elements consisting of only six bars. Kessler presented the work’s poignant pathos, its melodic tranquility and elegiac character.

An interesting item on the program was Fantasia in g minor by Czechoslovakian organist, harpsichordist and composer Jan Křtitel Kuchař, one of the first musicians to recognize and publicize Mozart’s works. Bohemia’s leading organist of the Rococo style and one of the few composers to see the organ as a full-blown solo instrument, Kuchař’s best-known compositions are those for organ. Constructed in an ABCBA cyclic form, one hears the influence of Mozart’s style and the polyphonic richness of organ repertoire in the g minor Fantasia. Kessler brought out its spontaneous character and textural possibilities – ranging from intense denseness to light, bell-like and even naïve utterances.

It takes an organ recital of this kind to remind the concert-goer that the great and versatile musician and artist Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) was both an accomplished organist, a skilful improviser on the instrument and the first composer of international renown after Bach to return to the organ. He composed several dozen organ pieces of one kind or another.  One important collection is that of the “Three Preludes and Fugues” opus 37 (1837), dedicated to the English organist Thomas Attwood, with whom Mendelssohn was acquainted. Christiane Kessler’s playing of two preludes showed Mendelssohn at his most traditional, with Baroque forms and Romantic techniques not at all incompatible.  The Prelude in G major exuded a sense of well-being, with the C major played in more strident timbres. Also of the German organ repertoire, we heard Josef Gabriel Rheinberger’s (1839-1901) Cantilena in F major opus 148 from one of his 20 organ sonatas. Rheinberger’s organ had no swell division; dynamic changes could be created only by adding or taking off stops. He disliked ostentation and avoided dramatic writing. The Cantilena is, therefore, conservative and Classical in concept, but the piece is highly melodious, accessible and wistfully sentimental, with ascending and descending octaves in the pedal.

Moving to France, Théodore Salomé (1834-1896) was well-known not only for his brilliant organ-playing but also for his chamber music, piano pieces, songs and church music. The three pieces of his Kessler played are probably used in church services; they displayed the compelling grandness and full use of organ sonority. French organist and composer Louis Lefébure-Wély (1817-1869), who was instrumental in the development of French organ music, in particular, in the evolution of French symphonic organ style, also wrote other instrumental music and a comic opera. A highly respected figure on the music scene and in the bourgeois salons of Paris, he held some of the most prestigious organ posts the city. He was known for his exceptional pedal technique. Christiane Kessler chose to perform two contrasting pieces by Lefébure-Wély. The first was Andante: “Choeur de Voix humaines” (Chorus of the Nuns) – an interesting and especially lush combination of dark-colored bass sounds, reedy melody and a brighter embellishing voice.  Kessler’s energetic playing displayed the panache (and the composer’s penchant for secular music) in her playing of the flamboyant “Boléro de concert”. The latter piece boasted much Spanish flavor, its middle section evoking a village fairground.  

Austin Lovelace (1919-2012) was one of America’s most distinguished church musicians, a prolific composer of hymnody and organ music and educator in the field. His “Gigue for Fanfare Trumpet”, although tonal, avoids cliché writing. Its joyful mood makes good use of woodwind- and brass stops. We heard a short piece by another American composer – David German (b.1954). “Festive Trumpet Tune”, also tonal in concept, features the festive sound of the trumpet (the score includes a separate trumpet part).

This was an especially interesting selection of organ works, introducing the audience to some lesser-known works and covering three centuries of music from Europe and the USA. Christiane Kessler’s playing is vivid and informed and audiences can enjoy her interest in the wide gamut of organ repertoire. Talking to her over a glass of wine following the recital, Ms. Kessler said she was looking forward to having more time to explore the dynamic action of the organ in the Redeemer Church.