Octopus, the Israel Pianists Quartet, performs works from Norway, Russia, Czechia, Hungary and a new Israeli work at the Mormon University, Jerusalem

Meir Wiesel,Ifat Zaidel,Tavor Gochman,Bart Berman (photo:Maxim Reider)

“40 Fingers around the World” was an apt title for the latest concert of Octopus - Israel Pianists Quartet - at the Sunday Evening Classics series of the Jerusalem Center for Far Eastern Studies on January 13th, 2019. Featuring four pianists playing on two pianos, Octopus was founded in 2013. Its eight hands are those of Ifat Zaidel, Bart Berman, Tavor Gochman and Meir Wiesel. Certainly a rare combination, the ensemble’s players are of diverse ages, hailing from Holland, Morocco and Israel. Much of their repertoire consists of arrangements; however, some new works have been written for the ensemble by Yosef Bardanashvili, Eran Ashkenazi, Naama Perel, Tzvi Avni and their own Meir Wiesel. Octopus will be performing at the Novi Sad Festival (Serbia) in July 2019.

The artists opened with a magical, picturesque reading of Edvard Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suite No.1 Op.46, as arranged by Adolf Ruthardt. Their delicate, evocative rendition of “Morning Mood” presented Grieg’s description of sunrise over the Moroccan desert, its melody singing over long-held, static bass notes and unfolding mysteriously. Following the artists’ buoyant and incisive playing of “Anitra’s Dance”, with its seductive melody and playful chromaticism, their rendition of  “The Death of Ase”, majestic yet intimate, ascribed  Peer Gynt’s mother more respect than did Gynt himself! Then to the underground palace “In the Hall of the Mountain King” and its dark caverns, its grotesque, hopping course and richly dissonant music becoming more and more menacing as it grew in volume and drama to an epic finale.

The piano arrangement of Alexander Glazunov’s orchestral fantasy “The Sea” Op.28 (1889) was penned by the composer himself, actually creating the vast seascape in no-less impressive dimensions than the orchestral version. The Octopus players’ descriptive presentation of the work, now decidedly pianistic, had the audience perched at the edge of their seats. Its rich agenda of nature’s moods, from squalls soaring to dramatic, tumultuous proportions, to moments of almost visual brightness and of restored serene tranquility, called forth the many facets of the sea, its beauty and its power. Glazunov’s own attached program, read by Wiesel, explains that the work depicts what is seen by a man looking out from the shore over a vast seascape; Glazunov adds his own personal message, claiming that  "everything the man had seen and all that he had felt in his soul, he recounted later to other men."

And to the world premiere of Meir Wiesel’s programmatic one poem “Ostinaton”, dedicated to fellow musician Bart Berman on the occasion of his 80th birthday. Wiesel set the scene with his eloquent narration of the work’s agenda: “Imagine you are walking in space. Everything is quiet, but, from time to time, interruptions occur. Aton, the Egyptian god of the sun, is watching you…” In an eerie, otherworldly manner, the chordal work evokes the person’s steps in chords some of a tonal nature, some with added dissonances, the ever-present steps occasionally diverting from rhythmic regularity, at others, punctuated by disturbing, grotesque comments (strange creatures?) or echoes. It’s quite a journey! Wiesel’s work creates a unique atmosphere, both beguiling and disturbing, as he takes the listener on a walk through infinity.

Back on terra firma, to Anton Dvořák’s Slavonic Dance in E-minor Op.46 No.2. Before orchestrating his two sets of Slavonic Dances, they were written as piano duets (one piano), indeed remunerative for both composer and publisher. The Slavonic Dances were arranged for eight hands by German music editor Robert Keller, who worked for the N.Simrock music publisher.  In dealing with his own native idiom, Dvořák did not use existing folk tunes in his dances, but created his own themes in the authentic style of Eastern European traditional  music, creating superb, idealized examples of their genres. The E-minor Slavonic Dance, in the form of a Ukrainian dumka, was performed with moments of lyricism and nostalgic yearning alternating with hearty, carefree sections. An infectious and  beautifully crafted performance. Remaining in Eastern Europe, Octopus concluded its world tour with a hearty Konzertstück - Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No.9, also known as “Carnival in Pest”; this, like the work before it, has also undergone a number of transcriptions, from  the original piano version, to a version for orchestra and for piano duet. Meeting Emil Kronke’s setting of it for eight hands at eye level, the players gave vivid expression to the work’s various tableaux, its Hungarian dances, its personal moments and its marvellously extravagant finale.

A fitting encore for their Jerusalem concert, the Octopus pianists performed Bart Barman’s artistic and sensitive arrangement of “Jerusalem of Gold” (Naomi Shemer), with its subtle  sprinkling of harmonic caprices. This was followed by their bold, zesty and high-spirited  playing of Aram Khachaturian’s  “Sabre Dance”. With its repertoire of various styles, the Israel Pianists Ensemble has much to offer its audiences, but it is the close collaboration of its members and their addressing of music’s smallest details that produce the quartet’s distinctive transparency- and beauty of sound.

 

The Stuttgart Chamber Choir, conducted by Frieder Bernius, opens the 52nd Abu Gosh Vocal Music Festival

Photo: David Goland

Of the three visiting choirs to the October 2017 Abu Gosh Vocal Music Festival, the Stuttgart Chamber Choir (Kammerchor Stuttgart), under its founder and musical director Frieder Bernius (no new face to the Israeli concert stage) performed a program of works of Bach and Romantic composers at the festival’s opening concert in the Kiryat Yearim Church on October 11th. Founded in 1968, the ensemble today comprises mostly young professional singers and is renowned for its high musical standards and stylistic flexibility.

 

The program opened with Felix Mendelssohn’s imposing “Te Deum” in D-major written for double choir, soloists and eight soloists. Written in 1826 for the opening of Berlin’s Singakademie building in 1827, Mendelssohn, a newly-baptised Christian, composed his first liturgical work. Although only 17 years old at the time, his complete mastery over every aspect of choral writing is  evident throughout the work. In twelve movements and using Baroque continuo concept, the work relies heavily on the musical language and scoring of the 17th and 18th centuries, producing an eclectic mix of styles. Bernius and his singers’ articulacy of musical expression and diction presented the work’s variety of colour, texture and dynamics. One highlight was the “Te aeternum patrem” (All the world doth worship thee) in which, one by one, each of the soloists commented on the text in ascending/descending patterns. The “Dignare, Domine” (Vouchsafe, O Lord), spiralling into a web of 16-part counterpoint, was also especially moving.

 

Then, to two solo songs of Gustav Mahler, arranged for a-cappella choir by German composer, conductor and musicologist Clytus Gottwald (b.1925). In “Um Mitternacht” (At Midnight) (Rückert) the singers created the haunting mood of the piece (reflecting the composer’s inner conflict in his moment of collapse some months previously), their melodic lines melting seamlessly into each other, here and there meeting in urgency and dissonance, Mahler’s message, though finally positive, tinged with the disturbing death knell. This was followed by “The Two Blue Eyes of My Beloved”  from “Songs of a Wayfarer”, with Gottwald’s brilliant “orchestration” of the voices presented poignantly in subdued tones. Mahler’s moments of happiness are tinged with longing and sadness. Following the Mahler songs, we heard the Stuttgart Chamber Choir in another of Gottwald’s skillfully created arrangements - “Solveijg’s Song” (Peer Gynt), easily the most popular of Edvard Grieg’s 180 songs. The singers gave delicate contrast to the song’s two alternating melodies - the wistful, more nostalgic mood and the gently lilting folk dance-type refrain.

 

The concert concluded with “Jesu, meine Freude” (Jesu, My Joy) BWV 227, J.S.Bach’s longest and most complex motet, written some time between 1723 and 1727 for St. Thomas’ Church, Leipzig, where Bach was director of music. It uses as its basis the eponymous chorale by Johann Crüger (words by Johann Franck), but includes passages from St Paul’s Epistle to the Romans. One fascinating aspect of the a-cappella work is its virtually palindromic form, Bach’s experimenting with structure and balance tying in with how the composer augments the four-part chorale settings with movements of both five and three voices and with its message. What characterized this performance was the choir’s means of displaying the work’s stark contrasts - heaven and hell, joy and suffering - achieved in the more vehement, anguished sections through the abrasive use of consonants and detached textures. And, in contrast, for example, how tender and lyrical the 6th section was, the work’s centrepiece double fugue, finally taken to its confident conclusion. The keyword to Bernius’ reading of the work was “clarity”, offering the audience the opportunity to follow all melodic lines, even in the densest contrapuntal moments. A work with a large dramatic range, it is the final chorale, in its directness, returning to simplicity of setting following its copious transfigurations, that leaves the audience humbled and moved.

 

For its encores, the choir performed two Israeli songs, much to the delight of the audience.

 

"Eternal Light" - Franz Herzog (Austria) conducts the Israel Vocal Ensemble in a program joined by saxophonist Eyal Aizik

Maestro Franz Herzog (photo: Peter Purgar)

“Eternal Light” was the title of the Israeli Vocal Ensemble’s recent concert directed by guest conductor Franz M. Herzog (Austria). Also taking part in the event was saxophonist Eyal Aizik. This writer attended the concert at St. Andrews Scots Memorial Church, Jerusalem, on March 2^nd, 2017.

Born in 1962, conductor, composer and music educationalist Franz M. Herzog today serves as artistic director of the Vocalforum Graz (chamber choir) and was founder and chief conductor of the Cantanima, a Styrian youth choir (2004-2013). He is currently head of choral conducting at the Johann Joseph Fux Conservatory (Graz) and lecturer at the Graz University of Music and Performing Arts. As a composer, his oeuvre largely focuses on choral- and vocal music. This was his first Israeli concert tour.

Established in 1993 by Yuval Benozer, who continues to serve as its music director, the Israeli Vocal Ensemble, comprising professional singers, is among Israel’s finest choral chamber choirs. With its own concert series, the IVE performs in major Israeli concert venues, also taking part in local festivals and overseas. The ensemble’s repertoire ranges from medieval to the most contemporary of works; it has also recorded film music. The Israel Vocal Ensemble is supported by the Ministry of Culture and Sport, Mif’al Hapais and private donors.

“Eternal Light”, a program of mostly European pieces, many sacred and (almost all)  a-cappella from the Renaissance through Romantic music to that of the 21^st century, took the listener on a spiritual journey through the course of a day, starting out in the sparkling light of daybreak. The program opened with the Lenten hymn “Christe, qui lux es et dies” (O Christ who are light and day) by Robert White (1538-1574), a sophisticated, imitative piece, its polyphonic verses built around the chant.  Via the densely-interwoven textures and descriptive effects of György Ligeti’s (1923-2006) “Morning”, we were presented with a performance of young Norwegian composer Ola Gjeilo’s (b.1978) stunning spiritual- and richly blended 8-voiced “O magnum mysterium”, with saxophonist Eyal Aizik’s mellifluous playing of phrases weaving into-, complementing- and conforming with the work’s vocal lines.

Of great interest to singers and audience alike were two works of Franz Herzog himself, their first Israeli performances. We heard the Kyrie and Gloria of his Missa “Lux caelestis” (2004), a richly-coloured multi-dimensional canvas of ostinati creating vital rhythms, of clusters, the enmeshment of seconds and contrasts between lighter and darker timbres - music of excitement and conviction. “Laudato si, mi Signore” (2011) uses a text from St. Francis of Assisi’s Canticle of the Sun of 1224 and in the original Umbrian dialect of Italian.  Here, Herzog’s writing threads his evocative use of syllables and words effectively with the natural beauty of voices in a gripping kaleidoscope of lush, introverted textures then spiralling into powerful grandeur, expressive of the text’s message of both suffering and forgiveness.

An interesting reflection on the text of Heinrich Schütz’ exquisite motet “Herr, nun lässest Du deiner Diener” (Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace) from the burial service for Prince Heinrich von Reuss, a Dresden nobleman, was the division into a low 5-part choir and a smaller ensemble of two sopranos and bass and set apart. In the latter, the bass represented the soul in bliss, with the sopranos as two seraphim. With each choir singing a different text, the IVE singers highlighted the work’s extraordinary texture in unforced singing and fine projection of words, even at moments when both texts were intertwined.

Another fascinating motet was Felix Mendelssohn’s setting of Psalm 43 (opus 78 No.2) (1844), its five double verses divided into four sections, with basses and tenors singing the melody in unison against sopranos and altos in harmony, then moving into “O send your light and your truth” soaring into eight-part harmony. The work concludes with the composer (texturally and musically) revisiting the cry of suffering from his setting of Psalm 42, a heartrending personal gesture. Rich in Romantic harmonies, Edvard Grieg’s “Ave, maris stella” (Hail, star of the sea) was given a personal and dynamic reading, poignant in its gentle echoes.  Probably his best-known sacred work, Joseph Gabriel Rheinberger’s (1839-1901) subtly introspective, syllabic six-voiced "Evening Song" (1873) was sensitively shaped and richly satisfying. Another fine miniature was “O nata lux” (O Light born of Light) from “Lux Aeterna” by one of America’s most acclaimed and widely-performed choral composers Morton Lauridson (b.1943), its economic use of pure triads and those coloured by an added second or fourth flowing in in a stream of undulating melodic lines in the composer’s glistening treatment of the theme of light. And to “Stars”, a mysterious and mystical night piece in four voices by Latvian composer Ēriks Ešenvalds (b.1977) to the text of American poetess Sara Teasdale’s poem of the same name.  Ešenvalds’ unique setting calls for water-filled glasses of specific pitches and sounded by the singers themselves by running a wet finger around the rim. Herzog led the singers securely through this work of floating, magical timbres with its underlay of clusters created by the water-tuned glasses (and their overtones) and the sonorous choral writing of fluctuating crescendos and diminuendos as its spacious, otherworldly mood was crowned by a weightlessly-suspended high soprano “a”.

‘Alone in the night
On a dark hill
With pines around me
Spicy and still,

And a heaven of stars
Over my head,
White and topaz
And misty red…’

Turning to a different kind of repertoire, we heard “Amazing Grace” William Cowper’s hymn text to words by Anglican minister John Newton, published 1779, nowadays mostly sung to the melody of “New Britain” and referred to by Gilbert Chase as “the most famous of all the folk hymns”. In Israeli composer/conductor Tzvi Sherf’s evocative and imaginative arrangement of the song, IVE bass Ronen Ravid soloed with splendid natural mastery, at one point joined by soprano Talia Dishon to give the performance a fleeting Afro-American touch.

An unusual and unique addition to such a program, Eyal Aizik’s hearty-, imaginative- and intermittently intimate saxophone improvisations, taking their cue from the program’s repertoire, added an enriching and indeed profound dimension to the event. The “timeline” agenda of Maestro Herzog’s program effected the integrating of works of all eras into a fluid and satisfying continuum, with the obvious rapport between him and the IVE singers resulting in interesting, high-quality choral performance of exceptional depth and beauty.