"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.

 

 

 

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

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.