"Maestro Elbaz's World of Wonders" - the Israel Netanya Kibbutz Orchestra hosts the Gilad Ephrat Ensemble

The Gilad Ephrat Ensemble (photo: Yoel Culiner)

The Israel Netanya Kibbutz Orchestra’s third concert of the 2017-2018 season - “Maestro Elbaz’s World of Wonders” - remained true to the current season’s “north-south-east-west” theme, as usual, also including Israeli content. The NKO hosted the Gilad Ephrat Ensemble (Gilad Ephrat-double bass,Keren Tannenbaum-violin/vocals, Hilla Epstein-’cello and Shmuel Elbaz-mandolin). Shmuel Elbaz, the orchestra’s house conductor directed the orchestra and played as a member of the quartet, also soloing on the mandolin. This writer attended the event in the Recanati Auditorium of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art on December 30th 2017.

The three works by European composers took the listener to different points of the compass, beginning with the Overture to French composer Adrien Boieldieu’s (1775-1834) opera “The Caliph of Baghdad”.(1800), eastern in subject matter, but definitely European in musical style, although Boieldieu’s vibrant use of percussion would have been an association or the orient for European audiences of that time. Charming and joyful, albeit conventional, the piece was good concert fare, setting the scene for an evening of genial music. Gioachino Rossini’s Overture to “The Italian Girl in Algiers” (South) (Rossini wrote the opera at age 21!)  was a fine opportunity to hear one of Rossini’s most sparkling overtures and some of the NKO’s finest players in solo moments, a substantial amount of the solo work was played by Hila Zabari-Peleg, the orchestra’s very fine 1st oboe. Taking us westwards, Jewish-Hungarian composer Leó Weiner’s (1885-1960)  “Three Hungarian Folk Dances” were originally written for piano solo. Arrangements for piano duet and for violin and piano exist. Shmuel Elbaz has arranged the work for mandolin and orchestra. Opening with the lively “Fox Dance”, Elbaz and his players present the vivacious dances, each from a different region of Hungary, with much zest and exuberance, With the wink of an eye, Maestro Elbaz challenges the audience to follow him through the whimsical rubato of the “Ronde from Marossék”, as he pulls out all the plugs in the virtuosic abandon of the “Peasants’ Dance”,  a type of fast Csárdás.

Following the above whirlwind world trip, the rest of the concert all comprised contemporary Israeli repertoire. Oded Zehavi (b.1961) composed his Fantasy for mandolin and orchestra (Concerto No.2) in 2017 for the Israel Netanya Kibbutz Orchestra. This concert was the work’s world premiere.  Prof. Zehavi’s program notes discuss where he stands as regards Israeli music and the elements that go to make up this work: modal patterns, sounds heard in music of this region and outside of it, rhythms taken from the debka and hora dances and the concept that a symphony orchestra can sound somewhat informal. Opening with a long oboe solo, the first movement, with its octave melodies and homophonic utterances, bristled with associations of Arabic music. The Andante (2nd movement), communicating a sense of well-being, took on a more western character, with the final Rondo allegro seeming to bring east and west together in a seamless, busy soundscape. The piece sits well on the mandolin, with Elbaz articulately addressing its challenges and fine details and the mandolin easily heard at all times. Oded Zehavi speaks to his listeners through sounds and gestures that are intelligible, accessible and indeed pleasurable and with which they can identify.

Continuing the NKO’s project of presenting short new works by students of both Jerusalem and Tel Aviv Academies of Music, we heard “The Sun Was Dark at Givon” by Naama Zafran (b.1988), a masters student of the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance. Composer, arranger, pianist and teacher, Zafran’s already comprehensive oeuvre includes chamber music, works for orchestra, for theatre, for video art and cinema. “The Sun Was Dark at Givon”, a program work set in 1207 B.C., describes a solar eclipse. “A solar eclipse is perhaps the most  spectacular natural event people will see”, writes the composer. “During the day, the sun is hidden by the moon, with the stars briefly seen in a sky illuminated with the pink light of dusk…” A mysterious violin melody leads the listener into Zafran’s rich, intense and dramatic musical canvas, wrought of maqam associations, but not just, of articulate melodic strands, energy and compelling orchestral writing.

For the rest of the program, the Gilad Ephrat Ensemble joined the Netanya Kibbutz Orchestra in a selection of Israeli and other numbers arranged by Eugene Levitas. The pieces featured the four ensemble members, with the NKO mostly joining them in tutti support. The quartet’s upbeat, polished and understated style and individual solo improvisations made for sophisticated performance, be it in the sultry, typically Spanish “Murcia”, “Iri-An” with its Irish motifs and pizzazz, Chick Corea’s bouncy, jazzy “Sea Journey” or Ephrat’s “Stockholm”, (dedicated to the NKO’s musical director Maestro Christian Lindberg) the latter weaving folk-like motifs with jazzy sounds. In Moshe Vilensky’s “Lighthouse” and the caressing, nostalgic “Song of the Valley” (Marc Lavry/Rafael Eliaz), Keren Tannenbaum’s low-key singing and more folklike use of the violin added spontaneity to the performance. Established by composer and double bass player Gilad Ephrat, the ensemble’s virtuosic artists perform music of a style that brings together jazz, classical music,ethnic- and Israeli music. The ensemble recently returned from a concert tour of Brazil and South Korea.

The Israel Netanya Kibbutz Orchestra goes for different and daring programming, with Israeli music always high up in its priorities. It is much to the NKO’s credit that its audiences are curious and open to new ideas. And they were kept on their toes at this unusual concert, examining and enjoying the less familiar, the surprises and the challenges of the program. Maestro Elbaz presented his wonders in high-standard, polished performance.

 

 

Composers in Discussion at Beit Avi Chai

This was a very different musical event from most in Jerusalem. It was one event in a series called “Duet” - a meeting between two Israeli composers and it took place in a tiny auditorium seven floors below street level in the new Beit Avi Chai complex. Tal Gordon emceed the evening. On the stage, seated behind a small table on which were a bottle of red wine and three tall glasses, were Dr. Benjamin Yusupov (b.Tajikistan 1962, in Israel from 1991), Professor Oded Zehavi (b.Jerusalem 1961) and Gordon.

The event began with each composer presenting his professional I.D. card, after which we heard a performance of two of Zehavi’s songs to words of Israeli poet Natan Altermann. Soprano Michal Okon performed them, with Zehavi at the piano. Okon, a musician of fine technique, emotional depth and understanding of the complex material at hand, captured the dark, pensive mood of these songs. Zehavi’s accompaniments were delicate and poignant. Yusupov then performed a short piano work of his – “Melancholia”.

The ensuing discussion focused on many issues facing Israeli composers, such as the difficulty in defining the term “classical music”, styles, individuality versus a common approach to composition and how “Israeli” a local composer should be. Zehavi began his career as a pianist, hoping to become an arranger. After his experiences in the 1st Lebanese War, he felt a need to compose his own music in order to express what the ordeal had meant to him. It is a fact that he wrote a Requiem at the age of 28. Today, Zehavi is Associate Professor of Music at Haifa University, where he enjoys the wide ethnic mix of students. Yusupov’s background is vastly different to Zehavi’s. He is heavily influenced by the ethnic musical styles of his native Tajikistan. However, coming to Israel, battling with and learning a different mentality and a new language have opened his mind to new styles in music. Yusupov’s early studies were in piano; today he teaches, conducts and is a prolific composer whose works are widely performed.

Yusupov’s Sonata for Cello and Piano was performed by cellist Hillel Tzori with Yusupov at the piano. Composed in Tajikistan before Yusupov left for Israel, the work uses authentic folk motifs and textures based on music and instruments of the region. The first movement, with its mesmerizing drone anchor, gives both players much individual expression. With the very first strains of sound, you are transported far away from the world of European music…far away from everywhere familiar to most of us…into the Pamir mountain region. The second movement is fiery, rhythmic and earthy, intense and syncopated, ending magically with a bubbling piano effect. In the third movement, Tzori fits the cello with a mute, thus totally changing the cello sound quality to produce a very different and folk-type of effect. The movement transports you into a landscape of endless distances and mystery, moving into a dramatic section and, then, back to the meditative mode of the beginning.. Kudos to Tzori for his very convincing and profound reading of a work in a musical language so different to that of European music. His own conviction inspires the listener to follow his every nuance.

Okon and Zehavi performed three more of Zehavi’s songs, this time to texts of poet Yair Horowitz. Horowitz’s restrained poetry expresses the gentle sadness of one aware of his own mortality. Zehavi’s sometimes atonal melodies are suggestive and delicate. Okon meets the challenge with fine diction and competence, revealing the text’s inner and somewhat disturbing messages with humility. Zehavi, a generally gregarious, outgoing person shows another side of his inner self in his fragile, introspective piano accompaniments.

Beit Avi Chai offers much in the way of cultural events: and, for the music-lover, a very different fare. This was an enrichening and worthwhile evening, with a nice balance of music and discussion.

Duet: Benjamin Yusupov and Oded Zehavi on One Stage.
Beit Avi Chai, 44 King George St.
February 13, 2008