Notes from the 2015 Eilat Chamber Music Festival (4) Julian Marshall's "Out of the Darkness"

A unique work performed in the 2015 Eilat Chamber Music Festival, all the events of which took place in the halls of the attractive Dan Eilat Hotel, was Julian Marshall’s “Out of the Darkness” (February 6th). A graduate of the Royal College of Music, Julian Marshall (UK) has spent many years teaching, performing and writing light music, working in recording and as an improviser and solo jazz musician, also writing music for theatre. However, with composition becoming his consuming passion, Marshall has written a Missa Brevis, many jazz compositions for his own bands, songs, a film score for “Old Enough” and “The Clock of the Long Now”, a millennium commission written for the Plymouth Symphony Orchestra and several school choirs. His cantata “Out of the Darkness”, premiered on Winchester and London in 2009, written for mezzo soprano, choir and two ‘cellos, was inspired by a poem of the same name by Gertrud Kolmar (1894-1943), a German-Jewish poet who perished in the Holocaust. Writer and poet Jacob Picard has referred to her as one of the most important woman poets in the whole of German literature. “In 2008” writes Marshall “I stumbled across the poetry and letters of Gertrud Kolmar and was at once struck by what a remarkable woman and poet she was…Her writings suggest that even in the darkest of circumstances she was able to meet her fate with a stoic equanimity.” Her poem” Aus dem Dunkel” (Out of the Darkness) , written in 1937, evokes “powerful, dreamlike images of crumbling and decay – serving as an eerie foretelling of the imminent tidal wave of horror about to hit the world…” In the compositional process, Marshall looked for a musical language that would meet the darkness in the poem, but different influences came to him, a mix of styles, such as tango, bossa nova and more abstract ideas. The chamber cantata falls into seven sections, the sixth – “River” - being the only section not from Kolmar’s poem, but from two Sephardic ballads. Of this Marshall writes: “I have allowed myself this poetic license as River allows brief time for reflection away from the journey of the main text”. The work’s texts are in German, English and Spanish.

Performing the work, we heard ‘cellists François Salque (France) and Hillel Zori (Israel) with the Kölner Vokalsolisten (Germany) and Danish-born soprano Rosemarie Danziger (Israel); conducting was baritone Ansgar Eimann (Germany), a founding member of the Kölner Vokalsolisten. The vocal ensemble opened with low, held notes.
‘Out of the darkness I come, a woman,
I carry a child, but no longer know whose;
Once I knew it…’
Presenting its rich choral soundscape, the Cologne singers dealt well with the challenges of the choral text, its tonal and atonal moments (tuning forks used) and gentle clusters, its jazzy rhythms and harmonies, its drama and effects, always remaining focused on the text’s meaning within Marshall’s changing, multi-genre compositional style. Rosemarie Danziger’s lush, creamy vocal timbre gave beauty and expression to the dejected mood of the text, whether in solo singing or threaded through the rich musical collage, the ‘cellos (Salque, Zori) adding vehemence, intensity and resonance – both emotional and sonorous – to Kolmar’s richly varied depictions of what she passes on this sole journey. Spiraling to forte sounds, the work concludes with:
‘A cave awaits,
Its deepest chasm a shelter for the metal-green raven who has no name.
There I shall enter,
Under the aegis of those huge, shadowing wings
I shall crouch down and rest.
Somnolent, I shall listen to my child’s mute, growing word
And sleep, my face turned toward the East, until sunrise.’

When asked whether “Out of the Darkness” would fit into the category of a “Holocaust piece”, Julian Marshall answered thus: “My answer is both yes and no. It is, in as much as the text is, of course, deeply embedded historically in European and Jewish social context. It is also, however, for me, important to approach the piece in a broader context: as an enquiry into the critical issues of freedom and constraint that have relevance for so many today.”

A thought-provoking work within the 2015 Eilat Chamber Music Festival’s musical fare, here was a collaboration between Israeli and overseas artists and the chance to hear a contemporary and very different work.

Early music at the 2015 Eilat Chamber Music Festival




From February 4th to 7th, the 2015 Eilat Chamber Music Festival will take place at the Dan Hotel Eilat. Established in 2006 by violinist and conductor Leonid Rozenberg, who continues to serve as its artistic and general director, the festival, celebrating its tenth year, is one of Israel’s most prestigious, attracting both local- and overseas concert-goers interested in the best of chamber music. Most of the artists of the 2015 festival hail from Europe and the UK, with one Canadian; these musicians will be joined by a number of Israel’s finest musicians. Master classes will be held there for music performance undergraduates and graduates as of February 2nd.

With a rich variety of music and genres, early music aficionados will be well catered for. The Kölner Vokalsolisten (Cologne Vocal Soloists) will open the festival with “Carpe Noctem” (Seize the Night), a program of Renaissance-, Baroque music and more. As its title infers, the mood will be one of night, the glowing signature sound of these six singers lighting the audience through the many musical and poetic avenues of this ever-mysterious theme.

Those of us who heard the Accordone Ensemble at the Israel Festival some years back will be excited to hear that the group will be presenting two concerts at the upcoming Eilat Chamber Music Festival. Fired by their passion for pre-Bach music and original instruments, Guido Morini and Marco Beasley formed Accordone in 1984. In its fresh and informed approach to interpretation, and inspired by the values, poetics and skill of early musicians, the group focuses on Italian music for voice and continuo from the 16th and 17th centuries. With the attention the Accordone musicians give to theatrical elements, each concert is bound to be a dramatic and spirited experience. Performed by 10 members of the ensemble and joined by Italian folk dancer Silvia Pirone, “Storie di Napoli” will create a fresco of Neapolitan music from the 16th century to the present day. In “La Bella Noeva” festival-goers will hear music ranging from Gregorian chant to Monteverdi, from the tarantellas of Salento to music composed by Guido Morini himself. Singer and composer Marco Beasley is an artist of striking natural musicality and charisma.

In addition to concerts presenting some of the greatest works of Classical, Romantic and later chamber music repertoire, one very different and significant event will be the Israeli premiere of British composer (and rock musician) Julian Marshall’s 2009 chamber cantata “Out of the Darkness”, based on texts of the very great Jewish German poet Gertrud Kolmar, who perished in the Auschwitz Extermination Camp. This event will bring together the Kölner Vokalsolisten, conductor Ansgar Eimann, French ‘cellist François Salque, Israeli instrumentalists and Israeli sopranos Claire Meghnagi and Rosemarie Danziger. To let one’s hair down at a late-night jazz concert, “Brassfire” will feature the celebrated Canadian trumpeter Jens Lindemann, who will perform with three local jazz players. And to wind up the festival with excitement and passion, "Flamenco al Natural" will send festival-goers off home with a fill of color and emotion created by renowned Falemenco dancer Maria Juncal, performing with a large ensemble of musicians and dancers. Still, for those dominated by that constant hankering to hear more Renaissance and Baroque music, you will find some early music works interwoven into other programs: an interesting meeting of artists and cultures will be seen and heard "East and West", in which the Fitzwilliam Quartet (UK) will host local singer Mira Awad in a program of music rearranged for string quartet as well as Baroque music performed by Awad. Marin Marais’ Suite from “Alcione” will be played in “The Reign of the ‘Cello” (Camerata Geneva, David Greilsammer-conductor, Stephen Isserlis-‘cello), J.-P. Rameau’s Suite from “Platée” in “La Casa del Diavolo” (Geneva Camerata, David Greilsammer-conductor and pianist) and music of Bach in “Shem Tov Levi and a String Trio” - featuring Levi himself and some of his music.

www.eilat-festival.co.il