The fourth concert of the Jerusalem Music Centre’s chamber music series featured the Emerson Quartet playing to a packed hall in an evening of works by Schubert and Shostakovich. Formed in 1976, the New York-based quartet is in residence at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Members are violinists Eugene Drucker and Philip Setzer, who alternate as first and second violinists, Lawrence Dutton-viola and David Finckel-cello.
Franz Schubert’s (1797-1828) String Quartet in A minor D.804, “Rosamunde”, composed in 1824, was dedicated to the violinist Schuppenzigh, a violinist of the string quartet appointed by Beethoven, who also played in its premiere performance of the same year. Written in the shadow of the early days of Schubert’s fatal illness, the quartet has an air of melancholy, each movement beginning pianissimo. It also reminisces by quoting other works of the composer. With Philip Setzer as first violinist in this and the second work on the program, we were treated to the haunting “Rosamunde” theme and the contrasting intense moments of the first movement. From the delicate Andante to the Minuetto with its somber ‘cello message, to the final Allegro Moderato in which Schubert reminds us of his liking for the Hungarian idiom, we were presented with a clean, fine performance, perhaps one not quite moving enough for this personal testimony of Schubert’s.
The second work on the program was Dmitri Shostakovich’s (1906-1975) String Quartet no. 13 in B flat minor, opus 138. Conceived in 1969 and completed in 1970, it, too, is a work composed at a time of chronic illness and its bleak message is presented uncompromisingly and in grim reality. Based on a twelve-tone row and constructed in a single movement slow-fast-slow form, the outer sections suggesting medieval organum, pace and tensions are the essence to this only attempt of the composer at a palindromic form. It was dedicated to Vadim Borisovsky, violist of the Beethoven Quartet, giving the viola a very demanding and prominent role throughout and uses such effects as striking the wood of the bow on the body of the instrument. Violist Lawrence Dutton did justice to the central role played in this vehement and cynical canvas.
For the second half of the concert, Eugene Drucker took on the role of first violin. Schubert’s “Quartettsatz” (Quartet movement) in C minor D.703 (1820) is an unfinished work, consisting of one movement. (There are 40 bars of a second movement in evidence.) Written at a time of uncertainty in Schubert’s creative life, it does, however, make much greater demands on the ‘cellist, being the first chamber work intended for performance by professionals; Schubert, however, was not to hear it performed during his lifetime. The Emerson Quartet brought out both the feeling of unrest and turbulence and the Romantic singing qualities of this much-loved work. The quartet’s interpretation of it felt freer and more engaging than that of the “Rosamunde” Quartet.
“Every piece of music is a form of personal expression for its creator…If a work does not express the composer’s own personal point of view, his own ideas, then it doesn’t, in my opinion, even deserve to be born.”(Dmitri Shostakovich. 1973.) Shostakovich began working on his String Quartet no. 14 in F sharp major opus 142 in England, when visiting the home of Benjamin Britten in 1972, and he completed it in 1973. It was dedicated to Sergei Shirinsky, ‘cellist of the Beethoven Quartet, the quartet that had premiered most of Shostakovich’s quartets. The work consists of three movements – two animated movements flanking an Adagio movement. The first movement, opening with a droll theme given to the ‘cello, is contrapuntal, both agitated and whimsical, ending on a major chord. The Adagio was given a somber and melancholy reading, becoming intense and tragic at times. Moving straight into the third movement, the Emerson Quartet presented intense, driving, atonal moments, offset by dreamy, hazy Shostakovich “landscapes”, contrasted by a Romantic melody in the first violin backed by pizzicato on the ‘cello. Recalling elements from the two previous movements, the work ends on the optimistic note of a major chord.
There is much to be said for the fine programming of this concert. The Emerson Quartet’s playing is polished and it is a paradigm of fine string playing. However, I felt the quartet’s playing reached out more to the intellect than to touch the spirit of the listener.
The Emerson Quartet
Eugene Drucker, Philip Setzer-violins
Lawrence Dutton-viola
David Finckel-‘cello
Concert no. 4 of the Chamber Concert Series of the Jerusalem Music Centre
The Mary Nathaniel Golden Hall of Friendship, Jerusalem YMCA
January 8, 2009
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Thursday, January 22, 2009
The Kantorei Sankt Barbara in Jerusalem as guests of the Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra
The Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra hosted the Kantorei Sankt Barbara Chamber Choir in a number of concerts in Israel. From Krakow, Poland, it is an ensemble of mostly young people, established in 2000 as a joint enterprise of the German community at the Church of St. Barbara and the General Consulate of the Republic of Austria, and has become an important part of Krakow’s thriving musical life. Maestro Wieslaw Delimat, its founder and musical director, lectures in organ and choral singing at the Papal Academy of Theology in Krakow and is head of the Archdiocesan Music School and directs the music at St. Mark’s Church in Krakow. The choir’s concert tour to Israel was organized by the Pro Musica Mundi Artistic Association, an organization founded by Krakow musicians in order to promote music in Europe and closer cooperation between musicians from various countries.
The concert on December 27 in Jerusalem, conducted by Maestro David Shemer - musical director of the Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra - opened with two small instrumental works by Baroque composer, violinist and writer of prose and poetry, Adam Jarzebski (1590-1648). Jarzebski spent from 1612 to 1619 as a violinist in the cappella of the Elector of Brandenburg in Berlin, taking leave in 1615 to travel to Italy to acquaint himself with Italian music. On his return to Poland, the composer seems to have joined the cappella of Sigismund III and, later, of Wladislaw IV. His oeuvre, exclusively instrumental, 27 chamber compositions for two, three and four instruments with basso continuo, collected in 1629 under the title of “Canzoni e Concerti”, is an important body of Polish Baroque repertoire. Showing the influence of Italian composers of the time, each piece consists of one movement made up of a number of short, contrasting sections. Jarzebski’s “Sentinella” and “Canzon Seconda”, scored for strings and organ, provided a pleasurable aperitif to the evening’s musical fare.
Grzegorz Gerwazy Gorczycki (c.1665-1734) studied at the universities of Prague and Vienna and was ordained as a priest in Krakow in 1692. After a short stint in Chelmno lecturing in rhetoric and poetry as well as conducting the local orchestra, he returned to Krakow, where he spent the rest of his life as a priest and musician in the Wawel Cathedral there. It stands to reason, therefore, that much of Gorczycki’s output is sacred music, some in the highly contrapuntal stile antico style and some in the later concertante style. The “Completorium”, possibly his most important work, scored for choir, soloists and instrumental ensemble, is of the latter style. The Completorium, the last of the seven daily services of worship, consists mainly of Psalms, the doxology and an anthem. The work is constructed as a kind of choral collage, with the voices of the four soloists intertwined in most movements, both as soloists and as a quartet. Young Polish soprano Jolanta Kowalska has a stable and attractive voice and was sparing in her use of vibrato. Israeli baritone Assif Am-David was articulate and expressive; Israeli tenor David Nortman shone with his beautiful vocal color. Polish alto Agnieszka Monasterska, who lectures in vocal performance at the Krakow Academy of Music, had presence and the audience enjoyed her authentic alto timbre. The choir, itself, makes good use of consonants, is attentive to the finest detail and each vocal section sings as one person. A highly disciplined choir, it places emphasis on blending rather than on showy performance. Their singing of the “Te Lucis”, with its mysterious opening, was spiritual and moving.
“To thee before the close of day,
Creator of the world, we pray
That, with thy wonted favor, thou
Wouldst be our guard and keeper now.”
The final work in the evening’s concert was J.S.Bach’s (1685-1750) Mass in G minor BWV 235, composed in Leipzig in 1735. This is one of four Lutheran masses composed by Bach, all shorter than the Catholic mass, all four borrowing from previous works of the composer. (Actually, they are all incomplete settings of the Ordinary of the Catholic mass and are sung in Latin, so calling them Lutheran Masses is somewhat of a misnomer.) Vocal soloists were Agnieszka Monasterska, David Nortman and Assif Am-David. In the Qui Tollis, a movement scored for tenor, bassoon, organ and oboe obbligato, Nortman’s musicality, fine diction and rich, warm timbre were set off by Magdalena Karolak’s pleasing oboe sections. In the Domine Fili, Monasterska guided the listener through the text, gliding through melismas with ease, the darker colors and lights of her voice delighting the audience. There were lovely moments in the Gratias, but it seems too low-placed for Am-David’s voice. The choir was velvety, with phrasing and textures clear and transparent. Their singing was modest and somewhat too understated to make for an exciting performance. Shemer brought out the instrumental interest of the work.
“Bach and the Voices of Poland” Program 1
The Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra
David Shemer-musical director
Kantorei Sankt Barbara
Wieslaw Delimat-conductor
Jolanta Kowalska (Poland) –soprano
Agnieszka Monasterska (Poland) –alto
David Nordman-tenor
Assif Am-David-baritone
The Mary Nathaniel Golden Hall of Friendship, YMCA Jerusalem
December 27, 2008
………………………………………………………………………………………………
On January 1, 2009, The Kantorie Sankt Barbara, under conductor Wieslaw Delimat, performed a concert of mostly a cappella works: sacred works from the Middle Ages to the 20th century as well as a selection of Polish Christmas carols.
In 1580, Renaissance composer, singer, flautist and trumpeter Mikolaj Gomolka (1535-c.1609) published settings of all 150 Psalms in the Polish language, of which the choir sang three. We also heard two motets by Grzegorz Gerwazy Gorkzycki (1667-1734), a Gregorian chant – “Mother of God” and two pieces by the very prolific Stanislaw Wiechowicz (1893-1963), a composer very involved in promoting the art of choral singing in Poland. In Anton Bruckner’s (1824-1896) antiphon “Tota pulchra es Maria” in Phrygian mode for tenor, chorus and organ, we heard tenor Zygmunt Magiera interacting with the choir in an impassioned and moving performance, his control over the “piano” sections impressive.
The choir presented a number of works of the 20th century. Especially interesting were Andrzej Koszewski’s (b.1922) “Blessed be, o Splendid Princess” with its interesting layering, held notes and clear reference to medieval polyphony and Romuald Twardowski’s ((b.1930) tonal and scintillating “Alleluja” an eight-voiced motet for mixed choir.
Maestro Delimat, introducing the Christmas carols in the last part of the program, explained that these songs, centering on the theme of peace, are known to all Poles and are sung within the family circle. The first carol was “God is Born”, arranged by conductor Wlodzimierz Siedlik. A strophic, homophonic song on a simple harmonic scheme, Siedlik’s setting does not lose site of the folk origins of the carol. It was performed with joy and with warmth.
Several of the carols sung were imaginative arrangements by composer Henryk Jan Botor (b.1960), who teaches piano and organ improvisation at the Krakow Academy of Music. In “Come, Shepherds, to the Stable” there were some interesting vocal background effects as well as rhythms suggesting a donkey ride. “The Shepherds Ran to Bethlehem” is a piece for voice and piano. Young tenor Zygmunt Magiera’s performance of it was brilliant yet delicate and sincere.
Well-known choral conductor Stefan Stuligrosz (b.1920) has researched choral music and singing; his oeuvre consists of over 600 sacred choral works and 100 arrangements of Polish and other carols. In his strophic “Sleep Little Jesus”, soprano Izabela Szota gave an emotional and highly colored performance.
The Kantorei Sankt Barbara’s a cappella concert presented works not generally heard here in the Israeli concert hall and this repertoire promoted interest and curiosity on the part of the audience. The choir’s performance of Polish sacred music was impressive not just in its humility and conviction but also in the fine detail and dynamics worked into each piece.
Kantorei Sankt Barbara – A Cappella Concert
Wieslaw Delimat-conductor
Izabela Szota-soprano
Zygmunt Magiera-tenor
Piotr Zagorski-organ
The Mary Nathaniel Hall of Friendship, Jerusalem YMCA
January 1, 2009
The concert on December 27 in Jerusalem, conducted by Maestro David Shemer - musical director of the Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra - opened with two small instrumental works by Baroque composer, violinist and writer of prose and poetry, Adam Jarzebski (1590-1648). Jarzebski spent from 1612 to 1619 as a violinist in the cappella of the Elector of Brandenburg in Berlin, taking leave in 1615 to travel to Italy to acquaint himself with Italian music. On his return to Poland, the composer seems to have joined the cappella of Sigismund III and, later, of Wladislaw IV. His oeuvre, exclusively instrumental, 27 chamber compositions for two, three and four instruments with basso continuo, collected in 1629 under the title of “Canzoni e Concerti”, is an important body of Polish Baroque repertoire. Showing the influence of Italian composers of the time, each piece consists of one movement made up of a number of short, contrasting sections. Jarzebski’s “Sentinella” and “Canzon Seconda”, scored for strings and organ, provided a pleasurable aperitif to the evening’s musical fare.
Grzegorz Gerwazy Gorczycki (c.1665-1734) studied at the universities of Prague and Vienna and was ordained as a priest in Krakow in 1692. After a short stint in Chelmno lecturing in rhetoric and poetry as well as conducting the local orchestra, he returned to Krakow, where he spent the rest of his life as a priest and musician in the Wawel Cathedral there. It stands to reason, therefore, that much of Gorczycki’s output is sacred music, some in the highly contrapuntal stile antico style and some in the later concertante style. The “Completorium”, possibly his most important work, scored for choir, soloists and instrumental ensemble, is of the latter style. The Completorium, the last of the seven daily services of worship, consists mainly of Psalms, the doxology and an anthem. The work is constructed as a kind of choral collage, with the voices of the four soloists intertwined in most movements, both as soloists and as a quartet. Young Polish soprano Jolanta Kowalska has a stable and attractive voice and was sparing in her use of vibrato. Israeli baritone Assif Am-David was articulate and expressive; Israeli tenor David Nortman shone with his beautiful vocal color. Polish alto Agnieszka Monasterska, who lectures in vocal performance at the Krakow Academy of Music, had presence and the audience enjoyed her authentic alto timbre. The choir, itself, makes good use of consonants, is attentive to the finest detail and each vocal section sings as one person. A highly disciplined choir, it places emphasis on blending rather than on showy performance. Their singing of the “Te Lucis”, with its mysterious opening, was spiritual and moving.
“To thee before the close of day,
Creator of the world, we pray
That, with thy wonted favor, thou
Wouldst be our guard and keeper now.”
The final work in the evening’s concert was J.S.Bach’s (1685-1750) Mass in G minor BWV 235, composed in Leipzig in 1735. This is one of four Lutheran masses composed by Bach, all shorter than the Catholic mass, all four borrowing from previous works of the composer. (Actually, they are all incomplete settings of the Ordinary of the Catholic mass and are sung in Latin, so calling them Lutheran Masses is somewhat of a misnomer.) Vocal soloists were Agnieszka Monasterska, David Nortman and Assif Am-David. In the Qui Tollis, a movement scored for tenor, bassoon, organ and oboe obbligato, Nortman’s musicality, fine diction and rich, warm timbre were set off by Magdalena Karolak’s pleasing oboe sections. In the Domine Fili, Monasterska guided the listener through the text, gliding through melismas with ease, the darker colors and lights of her voice delighting the audience. There were lovely moments in the Gratias, but it seems too low-placed for Am-David’s voice. The choir was velvety, with phrasing and textures clear and transparent. Their singing was modest and somewhat too understated to make for an exciting performance. Shemer brought out the instrumental interest of the work.
“Bach and the Voices of Poland” Program 1
The Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra
David Shemer-musical director
Kantorei Sankt Barbara
Wieslaw Delimat-conductor
Jolanta Kowalska (Poland) –soprano
Agnieszka Monasterska (Poland) –alto
David Nordman-tenor
Assif Am-David-baritone
The Mary Nathaniel Golden Hall of Friendship, YMCA Jerusalem
December 27, 2008
………………………………………………………………………………………………
On January 1, 2009, The Kantorie Sankt Barbara, under conductor Wieslaw Delimat, performed a concert of mostly a cappella works: sacred works from the Middle Ages to the 20th century as well as a selection of Polish Christmas carols.
In 1580, Renaissance composer, singer, flautist and trumpeter Mikolaj Gomolka (1535-c.1609) published settings of all 150 Psalms in the Polish language, of which the choir sang three. We also heard two motets by Grzegorz Gerwazy Gorkzycki (1667-1734), a Gregorian chant – “Mother of God” and two pieces by the very prolific Stanislaw Wiechowicz (1893-1963), a composer very involved in promoting the art of choral singing in Poland. In Anton Bruckner’s (1824-1896) antiphon “Tota pulchra es Maria” in Phrygian mode for tenor, chorus and organ, we heard tenor Zygmunt Magiera interacting with the choir in an impassioned and moving performance, his control over the “piano” sections impressive.
The choir presented a number of works of the 20th century. Especially interesting were Andrzej Koszewski’s (b.1922) “Blessed be, o Splendid Princess” with its interesting layering, held notes and clear reference to medieval polyphony and Romuald Twardowski’s ((b.1930) tonal and scintillating “Alleluja” an eight-voiced motet for mixed choir.
Maestro Delimat, introducing the Christmas carols in the last part of the program, explained that these songs, centering on the theme of peace, are known to all Poles and are sung within the family circle. The first carol was “God is Born”, arranged by conductor Wlodzimierz Siedlik. A strophic, homophonic song on a simple harmonic scheme, Siedlik’s setting does not lose site of the folk origins of the carol. It was performed with joy and with warmth.
Several of the carols sung were imaginative arrangements by composer Henryk Jan Botor (b.1960), who teaches piano and organ improvisation at the Krakow Academy of Music. In “Come, Shepherds, to the Stable” there were some interesting vocal background effects as well as rhythms suggesting a donkey ride. “The Shepherds Ran to Bethlehem” is a piece for voice and piano. Young tenor Zygmunt Magiera’s performance of it was brilliant yet delicate and sincere.
Well-known choral conductor Stefan Stuligrosz (b.1920) has researched choral music and singing; his oeuvre consists of over 600 sacred choral works and 100 arrangements of Polish and other carols. In his strophic “Sleep Little Jesus”, soprano Izabela Szota gave an emotional and highly colored performance.
The Kantorei Sankt Barbara’s a cappella concert presented works not generally heard here in the Israeli concert hall and this repertoire promoted interest and curiosity on the part of the audience. The choir’s performance of Polish sacred music was impressive not just in its humility and conviction but also in the fine detail and dynamics worked into each piece.
Kantorei Sankt Barbara – A Cappella Concert
Wieslaw Delimat-conductor
Izabela Szota-soprano
Zygmunt Magiera-tenor
Piotr Zagorski-organ
The Mary Nathaniel Hall of Friendship, Jerusalem YMCA
January 1, 2009
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
The Troubadour and the Nun
“The Troubadour and the Nun”, a disc on the Etcetera label, recorded by Ensemble Sprezzatura, takes a serious and profound look at the feminine mystery from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. Members of the ensemble are Evelyn Tubb-soprano, Michael Fields-medieval harp, Renaissance lute, theorbo and David Hatcher-vielle, recorder, viola da gamba. Songs presented cover many aspects of courtly love and the idealized lady, from songs of the medieval troubadours to those of Renaissance composers. In addition to the joys and suffering of secular love as an ideal or as reality, the disc includes songs dedicated to the Virgin Mary as the embodiment of perfect virtue.
Giraut de Bornelh (c.1138-c.1200), born to a lower class family, was a poet and songwriter at the court of Alfonso II of Aragon and was referred to as the “master of troubadours” by his contemporaries. It is possible he went on the Third Crusade but it is known for sure that he made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. In “Reis Glorios” an erotic “dawn song” in the Occitan language (also known as Provencal), Evelyn Tubb takes the listener into the timelessness of night, to thoughts and dilemmas. Her singing is sometimes unaccompanied, sometimes accompanied by harp; lute and vielle play interludes.
‘Dear friend, calling you, song lifts my words,
Sleep no more, for I hear the song of birds
that go to seek the day through the trees,
And I fear that you, the Jealous One will seize.
And soon it will be dawn.’
Born in Limousin, Bernart de Ventadorn (1140-c.1180) was another prominent troubadour, the son of a servant. He is credited with 45 songs in various manuscripts, of which 20 have music. His most famous piece is “Can vei la lauzeta mover” (When I see the lark beating its wings). On the disc, the vielle sets the scene and the harp accompanies. The lark, a bird frequently symbolizing the woman, has broken the singer’s heart as she shows him no favor. Tubb breathes despair into each phrase of this tragedy of unrequited courtly love. The poignant anonymous “Bryd one brere” (Bird on a briar), a duet of voice and recorder, also uses the bird symbol.
Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179) was a German abbess, author, counselor, linguist, naturalist, scientist, philosopher, physician, herbalist, poet, visionary and composer. Tubb performs three of her songs on this disc, all three, needless to say, are songs of devotion to the Virgin Mary. Tubb sings “Ave Generosa”, (Hail, Most Noble Lady) and “O Clarissima Mater” (O shining light, Mother of healing) unaccompanied, weaving the melodic line of each phrase with mastery, articulacy, color, shape and endless interest. “O viridissima virga” (Hail to you, o most green and fertile branch!”), is a song comparing the Virgin Mary’s qualities to Nature. The harp accompaniment is understated, adding the occasional melodic comment and the artists bring out the fresh lushness of the text.
‘And so the Heavens give dew to the grass,
And all the earth rejoices
Because its womb brings forth corn,
And the birds of the air build their nests upon it..’
In a similar spiritual vein is the anonymous “Edi be thu, heven-queene” (Blessed be thou, Queen of heaven), a strophic, lyrical song in Early English in which Tubb, weaving her melodic line into those of recorder and harp, uses the light, pearly color of her voice to present the knight’s admiration of the purity and perfection of the Virgin Mary.
An anonymous 14th century “Lamento di Tristano” is delightfully presented by David Hatcher on vielle. Tobias Hume (1569-1645) a soldier and composer, had a great love of the viol, claiming it could provide polyphony, expression and variation. Hatcher gives Hume’s piece “Death” a pensive, rich and poignant reading, bringing out its melancholic and conversational quality.
The Comtessa de Dia (early 13th century), probably called Beatritz, is the most prolific of the trobairitz – a name given to female troubadours, all of whom were from the nobility. Her works reflect traditional modes of courtly love, but from a woman’s perspective. It seems Beatritz was married to Lord William of Peitieus, but was in love with the troubadour Raimbau d’Aurenga, for whom she wrote many songs. “A chanter m’er” (Now I must sing of that which I would rather not) is the only melody of hers which survives. Hatcher sets the scene with a vielle solo; the song itself is accompanied by harp, with harp and vielle interludes between sections. Beatritz is bitter at being ignored by the man she loves; Tubb adopts a hurt, critical tone, with a touch of tenderness here and there, advising the man she loves that “excess of pride has been the downfall of many”. Is the trobairitz, therefore, more practical in love than the troubadour?
We move to Renaissance England, with two of John Dowland’s (1563-1626) lute songs. “Sweet, stay a while” (after a poem by John Donne) is a parallel to the troubadour “Alba”, or “dawn song”, whereas “I saw my lady weep” reflects the “Canso” style, representing unrequited courtly love. Michael Fields plays a more comprehensive, notated accompaniment on the lute, together with some beautiful ornamentation. In “Sweet, stay a while” Tubb, with her delicate sense of timing and silvery piani, creates that fragile moment between night and day. “The light you see comes from your eyes. The day breaks not…” Soon all will “die” and “perish”. Words, such as “joys”, “desire”, “blissful” and “die” are individually shaped and presented. “I saw my lady weep” is thoughtful and sad but philosophical: “Passion wise, tears a delightful thing.” Tubb’s interpretation brings out the most subtle nuances of texts and deeper meaning. From Dowland’s lute music, Fields performs Dowland’s gentle “Melancholy Galliard” with delicacy… a slow galliard for a melancholy composer.
Nicholas Lanier II (1588-1666) was a composer, singer, lutenist and painter. In “Like Hermit Poor”, soprano voice and bass viol (played in the “lyra” manner) converse and sketch in the bleak details of love as melancholy and despair.
Tubb sings “The Given Heart”, William King’s (1676-1728) song composed to Abraham Cowley’s poem from “The Mistress” (1656), to the accompaniment of a theorbo. The poet is not addressing the lady, rather seeking advice from others with a similar fate to his - a broken heart. His own solution, using military terminology, is extreme: to “blow up all within/ Like a grenade shot from a magazine. Then shall Love keep the ashes and torn parts.” A song of hopelessness, Tubb’s performance is both vehement and tragic, each word given a role in the context, to the very last “fire!” which is given a lingeringly dissonant and painful ornament.
Robert Johnson (1583-1633) a lutenist, composed music for entertainment and theatre at the courts of James I, Prince Henry and Charles I. He wrote catches and drinking songs and also collaborated with poets and playwrights, including Shakespeare. He used Ben Jonson’s poem “Have You Seen but a White Lily Grow?” for the final song on this superb disc. The lady is compared to many of Nature’s beauties. Tubb reinforces the concept of the woman with an almost visible, dazzling, pristine brightness of tone and energy.
This disc is especially interesting and Michael Fields’ notes, as well as all the texts printed, give the listener the information necessary to understand its content. The recording itself is effective and of a high quality. Evelyn Tubb is an artist of depth and rare versatility. Michael Fields and David Hatcher’s solos and accompaniments are nuanced and beautifully phrased, they blend and enhance and meet the challenge of each style with good taste.
“The Troubadour and the Nun”, (ET’CETERA KTC 1361)
Sacred and Secular Reflections on the Feminine Mystery from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance
Evelyn Tubb-soprano
Michael Fields-medieval harp, Renaissance lute, theorbo
David Hatcher-vielle, recorder, viola da gamba
-
Giraut de Bornelh (c.1138-c.1200), born to a lower class family, was a poet and songwriter at the court of Alfonso II of Aragon and was referred to as the “master of troubadours” by his contemporaries. It is possible he went on the Third Crusade but it is known for sure that he made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. In “Reis Glorios” an erotic “dawn song” in the Occitan language (also known as Provencal), Evelyn Tubb takes the listener into the timelessness of night, to thoughts and dilemmas. Her singing is sometimes unaccompanied, sometimes accompanied by harp; lute and vielle play interludes.
‘Dear friend, calling you, song lifts my words,
Sleep no more, for I hear the song of birds
that go to seek the day through the trees,
And I fear that you, the Jealous One will seize.
And soon it will be dawn.’
Born in Limousin, Bernart de Ventadorn (1140-c.1180) was another prominent troubadour, the son of a servant. He is credited with 45 songs in various manuscripts, of which 20 have music. His most famous piece is “Can vei la lauzeta mover” (When I see the lark beating its wings). On the disc, the vielle sets the scene and the harp accompanies. The lark, a bird frequently symbolizing the woman, has broken the singer’s heart as she shows him no favor. Tubb breathes despair into each phrase of this tragedy of unrequited courtly love. The poignant anonymous “Bryd one brere” (Bird on a briar), a duet of voice and recorder, also uses the bird symbol.
Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179) was a German abbess, author, counselor, linguist, naturalist, scientist, philosopher, physician, herbalist, poet, visionary and composer. Tubb performs three of her songs on this disc, all three, needless to say, are songs of devotion to the Virgin Mary. Tubb sings “Ave Generosa”, (Hail, Most Noble Lady) and “O Clarissima Mater” (O shining light, Mother of healing) unaccompanied, weaving the melodic line of each phrase with mastery, articulacy, color, shape and endless interest. “O viridissima virga” (Hail to you, o most green and fertile branch!”), is a song comparing the Virgin Mary’s qualities to Nature. The harp accompaniment is understated, adding the occasional melodic comment and the artists bring out the fresh lushness of the text.
‘And so the Heavens give dew to the grass,
And all the earth rejoices
Because its womb brings forth corn,
And the birds of the air build their nests upon it..’
In a similar spiritual vein is the anonymous “Edi be thu, heven-queene” (Blessed be thou, Queen of heaven), a strophic, lyrical song in Early English in which Tubb, weaving her melodic line into those of recorder and harp, uses the light, pearly color of her voice to present the knight’s admiration of the purity and perfection of the Virgin Mary.
An anonymous 14th century “Lamento di Tristano” is delightfully presented by David Hatcher on vielle. Tobias Hume (1569-1645) a soldier and composer, had a great love of the viol, claiming it could provide polyphony, expression and variation. Hatcher gives Hume’s piece “Death” a pensive, rich and poignant reading, bringing out its melancholic and conversational quality.
The Comtessa de Dia (early 13th century), probably called Beatritz, is the most prolific of the trobairitz – a name given to female troubadours, all of whom were from the nobility. Her works reflect traditional modes of courtly love, but from a woman’s perspective. It seems Beatritz was married to Lord William of Peitieus, but was in love with the troubadour Raimbau d’Aurenga, for whom she wrote many songs. “A chanter m’er” (Now I must sing of that which I would rather not) is the only melody of hers which survives. Hatcher sets the scene with a vielle solo; the song itself is accompanied by harp, with harp and vielle interludes between sections. Beatritz is bitter at being ignored by the man she loves; Tubb adopts a hurt, critical tone, with a touch of tenderness here and there, advising the man she loves that “excess of pride has been the downfall of many”. Is the trobairitz, therefore, more practical in love than the troubadour?
We move to Renaissance England, with two of John Dowland’s (1563-1626) lute songs. “Sweet, stay a while” (after a poem by John Donne) is a parallel to the troubadour “Alba”, or “dawn song”, whereas “I saw my lady weep” reflects the “Canso” style, representing unrequited courtly love. Michael Fields plays a more comprehensive, notated accompaniment on the lute, together with some beautiful ornamentation. In “Sweet, stay a while” Tubb, with her delicate sense of timing and silvery piani, creates that fragile moment between night and day. “The light you see comes from your eyes. The day breaks not…” Soon all will “die” and “perish”. Words, such as “joys”, “desire”, “blissful” and “die” are individually shaped and presented. “I saw my lady weep” is thoughtful and sad but philosophical: “Passion wise, tears a delightful thing.” Tubb’s interpretation brings out the most subtle nuances of texts and deeper meaning. From Dowland’s lute music, Fields performs Dowland’s gentle “Melancholy Galliard” with delicacy… a slow galliard for a melancholy composer.
Nicholas Lanier II (1588-1666) was a composer, singer, lutenist and painter. In “Like Hermit Poor”, soprano voice and bass viol (played in the “lyra” manner) converse and sketch in the bleak details of love as melancholy and despair.
Tubb sings “The Given Heart”, William King’s (1676-1728) song composed to Abraham Cowley’s poem from “The Mistress” (1656), to the accompaniment of a theorbo. The poet is not addressing the lady, rather seeking advice from others with a similar fate to his - a broken heart. His own solution, using military terminology, is extreme: to “blow up all within/ Like a grenade shot from a magazine. Then shall Love keep the ashes and torn parts.” A song of hopelessness, Tubb’s performance is both vehement and tragic, each word given a role in the context, to the very last “fire!” which is given a lingeringly dissonant and painful ornament.
Robert Johnson (1583-1633) a lutenist, composed music for entertainment and theatre at the courts of James I, Prince Henry and Charles I. He wrote catches and drinking songs and also collaborated with poets and playwrights, including Shakespeare. He used Ben Jonson’s poem “Have You Seen but a White Lily Grow?” for the final song on this superb disc. The lady is compared to many of Nature’s beauties. Tubb reinforces the concept of the woman with an almost visible, dazzling, pristine brightness of tone and energy.
This disc is especially interesting and Michael Fields’ notes, as well as all the texts printed, give the listener the information necessary to understand its content. The recording itself is effective and of a high quality. Evelyn Tubb is an artist of depth and rare versatility. Michael Fields and David Hatcher’s solos and accompaniments are nuanced and beautifully phrased, they blend and enhance and meet the challenge of each style with good taste.
“The Troubadour and the Nun”, (ET’CETERA KTC 1361)
Sacred and Secular Reflections on the Feminine Mystery from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance
Evelyn Tubb-soprano
Michael Fields-medieval harp, Renaissance lute, theorbo
David Hatcher-vielle, recorder, viola da gamba
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Labels:
David Hatcher,
Evelyn Tubb,
Michael Fields
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Alon Sariel - mandolin artist. Aviv Competitions 2009
Young as he is, Alon Sariel, born in Israel in 1986, is a mandolin artist with an outstanding record of solo- and chamber music performance of both western and eastern music. I was present at a recital he gave at the Jerusalem Music Centre in the first stage of the 2009 Aviv Competitions, the Israeli Competitions for Young Musicians.
The recital opened with two movements from J.S.Bach’s (1685-1750) Sonata no.2 for Solo Violin in A minor, BWV 1003. Composed in 1720 when Bach was in Coethen, the six Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin have been both transcribed and orchestrated and have been performed variously on piano, harpsichord, viola, -cello, guitar, banjo, lute and marimba, to mention a few. Sariel performed it on a Brescian mandolin, a 4-stringed instrument tuned the same as the violin. In the Andante, Sariel gave the delicate melodic line expression, time to breathe and some rhythmic flexibility. The Allegro was energetic, with emphasis on voice-play, chromatics and harmonic tension.
Playing on the same Brescian mandolin, Sariel continued his recital with Sonata no.1 for Mandolin and Continuo in A major (composer unknown). At the harpsichord was Zohar Sheffi. There had been no time for the two artists to rehearse, but, nevertheless, we were treated to a competent and enjoyable performance, whereby slow movements were ornamented and rich in feeling and fast movements boasted youthful joy and energy and fine technique.
Next on the program was a Pavan by Alfonso Ferrabosco I (1543-1588). Sariel played this piece on the archlute, a lute with an extended neck and 13 or 14 single or double courses of strings, popular in both Italy and England during the Renaissance. Sariel captured his audience in an interpretation into which he wove harmonic interest, a richness of ideas and much elegant ornamentation.
The recital ended with “Two Episodes for Solo Mandolin”, composed in 2008 by Gilad Hochman (b.1982, Israel), and dedicated to Alon Sariel. For this work, Sariel played a modern mandolin built by Arik Kerman (Israel.) In the first piece, “Into a Dream”, a collage of temperaments and textures, Sariel takes his listener into the fractured nature of the dream world, sketching a suggestive canvas of effects where melodic ideas appear and fade. His playing was free and spontaneous, but clearly planned out in his mind. “Under Torn Skies” opened in a strident, dissonant manner, its blatant message intense but punctuated with pianissimo moments, a concentrated and technically demanding movement, handled convincingly by Sariel.
This was a fine opportunity to hear different styles at the hand of this gifted young artist. Sariel’s choice of repertoire was attractive and varied. Following this recital, the artist progressed to the second stage of the competition, winning the audience prize (donated by Meira Gera.) Next week, Alon will be joining the West Eastern Divan Orchestra to celebrate ten years of its existence with a concert tour that will take them to Moscow, Vienna and Milan.
Alon Sariel-mandolin and lute
Aviv Competitions 2009
The Jerusalem Music Centre
December 28, 2008
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The recital opened with two movements from J.S.Bach’s (1685-1750) Sonata no.2 for Solo Violin in A minor, BWV 1003. Composed in 1720 when Bach was in Coethen, the six Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin have been both transcribed and orchestrated and have been performed variously on piano, harpsichord, viola, -cello, guitar, banjo, lute and marimba, to mention a few. Sariel performed it on a Brescian mandolin, a 4-stringed instrument tuned the same as the violin. In the Andante, Sariel gave the delicate melodic line expression, time to breathe and some rhythmic flexibility. The Allegro was energetic, with emphasis on voice-play, chromatics and harmonic tension.
Playing on the same Brescian mandolin, Sariel continued his recital with Sonata no.1 for Mandolin and Continuo in A major (composer unknown). At the harpsichord was Zohar Sheffi. There had been no time for the two artists to rehearse, but, nevertheless, we were treated to a competent and enjoyable performance, whereby slow movements were ornamented and rich in feeling and fast movements boasted youthful joy and energy and fine technique.
Next on the program was a Pavan by Alfonso Ferrabosco I (1543-1588). Sariel played this piece on the archlute, a lute with an extended neck and 13 or 14 single or double courses of strings, popular in both Italy and England during the Renaissance. Sariel captured his audience in an interpretation into which he wove harmonic interest, a richness of ideas and much elegant ornamentation.
The recital ended with “Two Episodes for Solo Mandolin”, composed in 2008 by Gilad Hochman (b.1982, Israel), and dedicated to Alon Sariel. For this work, Sariel played a modern mandolin built by Arik Kerman (Israel.) In the first piece, “Into a Dream”, a collage of temperaments and textures, Sariel takes his listener into the fractured nature of the dream world, sketching a suggestive canvas of effects where melodic ideas appear and fade. His playing was free and spontaneous, but clearly planned out in his mind. “Under Torn Skies” opened in a strident, dissonant manner, its blatant message intense but punctuated with pianissimo moments, a concentrated and technically demanding movement, handled convincingly by Sariel.
This was a fine opportunity to hear different styles at the hand of this gifted young artist. Sariel’s choice of repertoire was attractive and varied. Following this recital, the artist progressed to the second stage of the competition, winning the audience prize (donated by Meira Gera.) Next week, Alon will be joining the West Eastern Divan Orchestra to celebrate ten years of its existence with a concert tour that will take them to Moscow, Vienna and Milan.
Alon Sariel-mandolin and lute
Aviv Competitions 2009
The Jerusalem Music Centre
December 28, 2008
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Monday, December 29, 2008
From Bethlehem to Jerusalem - Concert for Life and Peace
The Concert for Life and Peace is a yearly event that takes place both in Bethlehem and Jerusalem. Initiated and produced by Rino Maenza, under the auspices of the Association for Life and Peace, the project began in Christmas of 2001 and is a gesture of friendship, solidarity and hope to the people of Palestine and Israel by the President of the Italian Republic, the Italian Senate, several Italian regional authorities as well as private companies. This year’s concert featured the Capella della Pieta de’ Turchini Orchestra. Formed in Naples in 1987 by its present conductor Antonio Florio, the ensemble is made up of instrumentalists and singers who specialize in the performance of Neapolitan music from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries and places importance on performing works of little-known composers. This concert included much Christmas content.
Following words of greeting in Italian, Hebrew and English and the lighting of candles for the first night of Chanukah (the Feast of Lights), the orchestra opened its concert with Angelo Ragazzi’s (c.1680-1750) “Sonata Pastorale” for violin solo and strings. This was followed by Oratio Giaccio’s “Peccatori Su Su”. Giaccio was born in Aversa towards the end of the sixteenth century, composing only secular music before his ordination as a monk in 1620, after which he composed mostly sacred music till his death in Naples towards 1660. The audience enjoyed this attractive pastoral chaconne, scored for strings, harpsichord, Baroque guitar, recorders and percussion, with its folksy, lilting, dance-like refrain, the artists performing without their conductor. Florio gave it a delicate reading. Tenor Giusseppe de Vittorio, remembered for his entertaining and theatrical performance with “Accordone” in the 2008 Israel Festival, is most suited, both vocally and in his freedom on the stage, to music of the folk genre and his Italian good nature lights up the concert hall. He was joined by Rosario Totaro; Totaro’s voice is more of the opera timbre, yet their voices blended well, their sense of timing balancing a sense of spontaneity. The orchestra was again joined by the two tenors in Bonaventura Cerronio’s “Gaudiamus Omnes” (Let Us Rejoice in the Lord), a mosaic of small sections with instrumental ritornelli.
Composer, violinist and organist, Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1720-1736) was born in Jesi but moved to Naples in 1725, where he spent his working life in the service of aristocratic patrons, dying of tuberculosis at the tender age of 26. Maria Ercolano was the soloist in Pergolesi’s “Salve Regina” in A minor for soprano and strings. Composed in Latin during the Middle Ages, the verbal text is predominantly used in the Catholic church.
“Hail, holy Queen, Mother of Mercy,
Our life, our sweetness and our hope
To you we cry, the children of Eve,
To you we send up our sighs,
Mourning and weeping in this land of exile….”
Considering the fact that this is a Baroque work, Ercolano, an opera singer trained in Naples, uses much vibrato, but she has much presence, her voice has color and depth, she is convincing both in tragic and in joyful moments and her phrases are well crafted. Her performance of the work was detailed, profound and devotional.
Composer Emanuele Barbella (1717-1777) was born in Naples, working there as a violinist and teacher. Florio gave his lullaby, “Ninna Nonna” for strings and guitar, a dynamic reading characterized by dynamics sometimes ranging from piano to pianissimo, giving it real delicacy. Another Neapolitan composer, Nicola Fago (1677-1745), spent his life directing church music. His oeuvre includes operas, secular cantatas and arias and much sacred music. “Quid hic statis pastores” (There Were Shepherds Standing Here) is a Christmas motet scored for soprano, alto and instrumental ensemble, consisting of recitatives, duets and arias. Taking part in this joyful work was soprano Enas Massalha . Massalha, born in Nazareth, studied in Israel and performs widely in Europe. Those of us who heard her in the 2007 Concert for Life and Peace were interested and delighted to hear her once again this year. In the “Gloria” from Pietro Antonio Gallo’s “Messa in pastorale”, Florio, once more, made use of his palette of dynamic color.
Composer, musicologist, playwright and director Roberto De Simone, born in Naples in 1933, broke off a promising career as a concert pianist to study Anthropology and Ethnomusicology, researching shepherding and farming culture in Campania. In his version of the traditional “La Santa Allegrezza”, we are hard put to stay seated with this spirited, foot-tapping, strophic piece sung by both tenors and bass Sergio Petrarca, with recorders, pizzicato in ‘cello and double bass and the joviality of a tambourine to add to the dance-like quality. The concert ended with a tarantella from Cristofero Caresana’s (c.1640-1709) “Per la Nascita del Verbo”, a piece illustrating the vivacity and liveliness of Neapolitan music of the time, in particular, at Christmas. Opening with an ostinato on guitar and bass instruments, we begin to hear sections sung by tenors and bass, sections sung by the women, as well as a variety of little vocal solos, lovely recorder-playing and the joy of music-making so typical of Italian singers and players. The piece ended as it began, with just the few strand.
The annual Concert for Life and Peace is always a lively, festive affair. Antonio Florio guides his players with precision and understatement. His instrumentalists (and singers) blend well rather than taking on the character of an “orchestra of soloists”. A program of Neapolitan music, performed by a Neapolitan ensemble, has much to interest the concert audience. Fuller program notes, including texts of vocal works, would have been welcome, considering the number of little-known composers represented in the concert and the fact that Neapolitan Italian has its own expressions and nuances not always clear to all who understand basic Italian..
“From Bethlehem to Jerusalem” – Concert for Life and Peace
Capella della Pieta de’Turchini Orchestra
Antonio Florio-conductor
Maria Ercolano, Enas Massalha-sopranos
Alexandra Chebat-mezzo-soprano
Guiseppe De Vittorio, Rosario Totaro-tenors
Sergio Petrarca-bass
The Henry Crown Symphony Hall, Jerusalem Theatre
December 21 2008.
Following words of greeting in Italian, Hebrew and English and the lighting of candles for the first night of Chanukah (the Feast of Lights), the orchestra opened its concert with Angelo Ragazzi’s (c.1680-1750) “Sonata Pastorale” for violin solo and strings. This was followed by Oratio Giaccio’s “Peccatori Su Su”. Giaccio was born in Aversa towards the end of the sixteenth century, composing only secular music before his ordination as a monk in 1620, after which he composed mostly sacred music till his death in Naples towards 1660. The audience enjoyed this attractive pastoral chaconne, scored for strings, harpsichord, Baroque guitar, recorders and percussion, with its folksy, lilting, dance-like refrain, the artists performing without their conductor. Florio gave it a delicate reading. Tenor Giusseppe de Vittorio, remembered for his entertaining and theatrical performance with “Accordone” in the 2008 Israel Festival, is most suited, both vocally and in his freedom on the stage, to music of the folk genre and his Italian good nature lights up the concert hall. He was joined by Rosario Totaro; Totaro’s voice is more of the opera timbre, yet their voices blended well, their sense of timing balancing a sense of spontaneity. The orchestra was again joined by the two tenors in Bonaventura Cerronio’s “Gaudiamus Omnes” (Let Us Rejoice in the Lord), a mosaic of small sections with instrumental ritornelli.
Composer, violinist and organist, Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1720-1736) was born in Jesi but moved to Naples in 1725, where he spent his working life in the service of aristocratic patrons, dying of tuberculosis at the tender age of 26. Maria Ercolano was the soloist in Pergolesi’s “Salve Regina” in A minor for soprano and strings. Composed in Latin during the Middle Ages, the verbal text is predominantly used in the Catholic church.
“Hail, holy Queen, Mother of Mercy,
Our life, our sweetness and our hope
To you we cry, the children of Eve,
To you we send up our sighs,
Mourning and weeping in this land of exile….”
Considering the fact that this is a Baroque work, Ercolano, an opera singer trained in Naples, uses much vibrato, but she has much presence, her voice has color and depth, she is convincing both in tragic and in joyful moments and her phrases are well crafted. Her performance of the work was detailed, profound and devotional.
Composer Emanuele Barbella (1717-1777) was born in Naples, working there as a violinist and teacher. Florio gave his lullaby, “Ninna Nonna” for strings and guitar, a dynamic reading characterized by dynamics sometimes ranging from piano to pianissimo, giving it real delicacy. Another Neapolitan composer, Nicola Fago (1677-1745), spent his life directing church music. His oeuvre includes operas, secular cantatas and arias and much sacred music. “Quid hic statis pastores” (There Were Shepherds Standing Here) is a Christmas motet scored for soprano, alto and instrumental ensemble, consisting of recitatives, duets and arias. Taking part in this joyful work was soprano Enas Massalha . Massalha, born in Nazareth, studied in Israel and performs widely in Europe. Those of us who heard her in the 2007 Concert for Life and Peace were interested and delighted to hear her once again this year. In the “Gloria” from Pietro Antonio Gallo’s “Messa in pastorale”, Florio, once more, made use of his palette of dynamic color.
Composer, musicologist, playwright and director Roberto De Simone, born in Naples in 1933, broke off a promising career as a concert pianist to study Anthropology and Ethnomusicology, researching shepherding and farming culture in Campania. In his version of the traditional “La Santa Allegrezza”, we are hard put to stay seated with this spirited, foot-tapping, strophic piece sung by both tenors and bass Sergio Petrarca, with recorders, pizzicato in ‘cello and double bass and the joviality of a tambourine to add to the dance-like quality. The concert ended with a tarantella from Cristofero Caresana’s (c.1640-1709) “Per la Nascita del Verbo”, a piece illustrating the vivacity and liveliness of Neapolitan music of the time, in particular, at Christmas. Opening with an ostinato on guitar and bass instruments, we begin to hear sections sung by tenors and bass, sections sung by the women, as well as a variety of little vocal solos, lovely recorder-playing and the joy of music-making so typical of Italian singers and players. The piece ended as it began, with just the few strand.
The annual Concert for Life and Peace is always a lively, festive affair. Antonio Florio guides his players with precision and understatement. His instrumentalists (and singers) blend well rather than taking on the character of an “orchestra of soloists”. A program of Neapolitan music, performed by a Neapolitan ensemble, has much to interest the concert audience. Fuller program notes, including texts of vocal works, would have been welcome, considering the number of little-known composers represented in the concert and the fact that Neapolitan Italian has its own expressions and nuances not always clear to all who understand basic Italian..
“From Bethlehem to Jerusalem” – Concert for Life and Peace
Capella della Pieta de’Turchini Orchestra
Antonio Florio-conductor
Maria Ercolano, Enas Massalha-sopranos
Alexandra Chebat-mezzo-soprano
Guiseppe De Vittorio, Rosario Totaro-tenors
Sergio Petrarca-bass
The Henry Crown Symphony Hall, Jerusalem Theatre
December 21 2008.
Saturday, December 20, 2008
La Serva Padrona - Pergolesi and Paisiello
Have you ever seen two operas by two composers using the same libretto performed as one performance in one evening and on one stage? This was precisely the case on Sunday December 14 2008 at the Hirsch Theater of Mercaz Shimshon in Jerusalem. The concept was that of Ilya Plotkin, conductor and musical director of the Musica Aeterna Choir and Opera Aeterna.
Italian composer Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710-1736) had his opera buffa “La Serva Padrona” – The Servant Mistress - (libretto by G. A. Federico, after a play by A. Nelli) premiered in 1733. It served as an intermezzo, a comic operatic interlude, inserted between acts or scenes of an opera seria, in this case, of “Il Prigioner Superbo” – The Proud Prisoner - also composed by Pergolesi. In the meantime, La Serva Padrona has been performed much as a separate and popular opera.
Giovanni Paisiello (1740-1816), also Italian, was a successful and influential opera composer, writing 94 operas, of which we know. In 1776, Paisiello was invited by Empress Catherine II of Russia to St Petersburg, where he remained for eight years. It was there that he composed his “La Serva Padrona” in 1781.
The story is that of a chambermaid, Serpina, deceiving her master into marriage and is presented in a combination of pantomime, music and comedy of deception, thus fulfilling the function of the “intermezzo”, which was to provide light entertainment and relief from the more serious opera. The characters are Uberto (bass) a bachelor, Serpina (soprano) his maid, and Vespone, Uberto’s valet, who plays a silent role. In the Plotkin concept, there is an extra character – Cupid, the god of love.
The curtain goes up. Ilya Plotkin and his ensemble of string players from the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra and two keyboard players are seated at the back of the stage. The stage is eye-catching and tasteful in its sumptuous fabrics and is divided into two symmetrical sides - one side furnished in gold, one side in black. On each bed, an Uberto sprawls out in deep slumber. The enigma of how the two operas can be combined begins to unravel. On the Paisiello side of the stage, Shirelle Dashevsky will play Serpina and Alexei Kanunikov, Uberto; on the the Pergolesi side of the stage, Ekaterina Chepelev with play Serpina and Andrei Trifonov will be Pergolesi’s Uberto. Following the overture, we begin to hear the same text of each aria performed as both Pergolesi and Paisiello composed it. Only at the end do both couples sing together. You could call it seeing double, or, should I say, seeing and hearing double.
Itzhak Pekar, as Vespone, is cast as a mute, but in our performance, he ungags himself in order to be the narrator in a whimsical flow of Hebrew patter, with a word of Italian thrown in here and there. In addition to his articulate speech, Pekar is a fine opera buffa style clown, holding the whole doubled up plot together. Tenor Dmitry Seminov as Cupid, wearing a pastel-colored dress and blond wig, delighted us with his musical renditions of some well-loved arias, of those sung frequently by voice students. Cupid here belongs to both operas, leaving him free to dance with both servant girls.
Reveling in the many lovely solos and duets, both couples (servant and master) brought the libretto text alive in the finest of operatic singing. The singers are all Russian-trained. Shirelle Dashevsky shone with her coquetish sweetness and delightful stage presence. The instrumental ensemble provided fine support for the singers, with the keyboard in the harpsichord register for some pieces, creating a Baroque effect. Costumes were nicely designed and colorful. Opera Aeterna’s yearly performance is a festive event to which the Jerusalem audience looks forward. This was especially enjoyable, joyful, different, surprising, and new in concept. The audience was enthusiastic. Another excellent performance, Aeterna; let’s have more opera in Jerusalem!
“La Serva Padrona”
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, Giovanni Paisiello
Opera Aeterna
Ilya Plotkin-musical director and conductor
Irena Tkachenko-stage design and production
Julia Plakhin-assistant director
Andrei Trifonov, Alexei Kanunikov-Uberto
Ekaterina Chepelov, Shirelle Dashevsky-Serpina
Itzhak Pekar-Vespone
Dmitry Semenov-Cupid
Hirsch Theatre, Mercaz Shimshon, Jerusalem
December 14, 2008
Italian composer Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710-1736) had his opera buffa “La Serva Padrona” – The Servant Mistress - (libretto by G. A. Federico, after a play by A. Nelli) premiered in 1733. It served as an intermezzo, a comic operatic interlude, inserted between acts or scenes of an opera seria, in this case, of “Il Prigioner Superbo” – The Proud Prisoner - also composed by Pergolesi. In the meantime, La Serva Padrona has been performed much as a separate and popular opera.
Giovanni Paisiello (1740-1816), also Italian, was a successful and influential opera composer, writing 94 operas, of which we know. In 1776, Paisiello was invited by Empress Catherine II of Russia to St Petersburg, where he remained for eight years. It was there that he composed his “La Serva Padrona” in 1781.
The story is that of a chambermaid, Serpina, deceiving her master into marriage and is presented in a combination of pantomime, music and comedy of deception, thus fulfilling the function of the “intermezzo”, which was to provide light entertainment and relief from the more serious opera. The characters are Uberto (bass) a bachelor, Serpina (soprano) his maid, and Vespone, Uberto’s valet, who plays a silent role. In the Plotkin concept, there is an extra character – Cupid, the god of love.
The curtain goes up. Ilya Plotkin and his ensemble of string players from the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra and two keyboard players are seated at the back of the stage. The stage is eye-catching and tasteful in its sumptuous fabrics and is divided into two symmetrical sides - one side furnished in gold, one side in black. On each bed, an Uberto sprawls out in deep slumber. The enigma of how the two operas can be combined begins to unravel. On the Paisiello side of the stage, Shirelle Dashevsky will play Serpina and Alexei Kanunikov, Uberto; on the the Pergolesi side of the stage, Ekaterina Chepelev with play Serpina and Andrei Trifonov will be Pergolesi’s Uberto. Following the overture, we begin to hear the same text of each aria performed as both Pergolesi and Paisiello composed it. Only at the end do both couples sing together. You could call it seeing double, or, should I say, seeing and hearing double.
Itzhak Pekar, as Vespone, is cast as a mute, but in our performance, he ungags himself in order to be the narrator in a whimsical flow of Hebrew patter, with a word of Italian thrown in here and there. In addition to his articulate speech, Pekar is a fine opera buffa style clown, holding the whole doubled up plot together. Tenor Dmitry Seminov as Cupid, wearing a pastel-colored dress and blond wig, delighted us with his musical renditions of some well-loved arias, of those sung frequently by voice students. Cupid here belongs to both operas, leaving him free to dance with both servant girls.
Reveling in the many lovely solos and duets, both couples (servant and master) brought the libretto text alive in the finest of operatic singing. The singers are all Russian-trained. Shirelle Dashevsky shone with her coquetish sweetness and delightful stage presence. The instrumental ensemble provided fine support for the singers, with the keyboard in the harpsichord register for some pieces, creating a Baroque effect. Costumes were nicely designed and colorful. Opera Aeterna’s yearly performance is a festive event to which the Jerusalem audience looks forward. This was especially enjoyable, joyful, different, surprising, and new in concept. The audience was enthusiastic. Another excellent performance, Aeterna; let’s have more opera in Jerusalem!
“La Serva Padrona”
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, Giovanni Paisiello
Opera Aeterna
Ilya Plotkin-musical director and conductor
Irena Tkachenko-stage design and production
Julia Plakhin-assistant director
Andrei Trifonov, Alexei Kanunikov-Uberto
Ekaterina Chepelov, Shirelle Dashevsky-Serpina
Itzhak Pekar-Vespone
Dmitry Semenov-Cupid
Hirsch Theatre, Mercaz Shimshon, Jerusalem
December 14, 2008
Friday, December 12, 2008
"Raving Winds" - Haydn's Scottish Songs and early keyboard trios
It was December 3, 2008 and we were at St Andrews Scots Memorial Church, Jerusalem, to hear “Raving Winds” – with Soloists of the PHOENIX Ensemble performing some of Haydn’s Scottish song arrangements and two of his keyboard trios. Soprano Tamar Kleinberger was joined by Yasuko Hirata (Baroque violin), Michael Borgstede (harpsichord) and Phoenix’s musical director Dr. Myrna Herzog (Baroque ‘cello.)
Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) first became acquainted with Scottish songs when in London from 1791 to 1792, where he had arranged a few of them as a favor to a publisher friend, William Napier, who was in financial straits. Between 1791 and 1805 Haydn wrote arrangements of almost 400 Scottish songs, most of them for voice and trio, for other publishers, 214 of them, however, commissioned by the Edinburgh publisher George Thomson, who included Pleyel, Kozeluch, Hummel, Weber and Beethoven in his project to collect, edit and publish Scottish, Irish and Welsh folksongs; Thomson’s aim was both to preserve them and provide performance material suitable for amateur musicians, now that there was much music-making in private homes. Haydn’s arrangements, therefore, are a marriage of the gamut of Scottish folk tradition and superb instrumental writing. In addition to traditional folk poems, they include texts by Robert Burns, Alexander Boswell, Anne Grant, Joanna Baillie and Walter Scott. The songs offer some whimsical home truths, they also tell of love, (idyllic and less so), honor and pride, happiness and heartbreak and, in keeping with Scotland’s history, of war. We heard them as scored by Haydn.
“Raving winds around her blowing,
Yellow leaves the woodlands strowing,
By a river hoarsely roaring,
Isabella stray’d deploring –
‘Farewell hours that late did measure
Sunshine days of joy and pleasure!
Hail, thou gloomy night of sorrow-
Cheerless night that knows no morrow!” Robert Burns
Thus began the concert, with Kleinberger’s robust, direct performance of this typically Scottish pentatonic melody, cushioned in instrumental textures no less engaging, taking the audience into the freshness and directness of these songs, which are true gems. Follow the words and the gentle, tongue-in-cheek Scottish humor in so many of them will easily become apparent. In “The Shepherd’s Son”, where the young man sees a lady swimming in a brook and urges her to spend her time in a more suitable manner – sewing, we hear the grinding action of the sewing machine in the accompaniment. On a more serious note, “The White Cockade” (Robert Burns), referring to the Jacobite troops who had no uniform besides the emblem of a white cockade (rosette) on a blue bonnet, tells of a young woman whose love has gone off to war; she is willing to leave everything behind and follow him. Kleinberger’s strong background in theatre as well as the English language made for a performance of convincing directness. She has a large, powerful voice but, unfortunately, with the acoustic of the Scottish Church tending to blur words, both spoken and sung, much of the verbal text was indistinct. The printed program was, therefore, necessary and valuable in its information on each of the songs.
The instrumental trio played two early Haydn trios. The early piano trios were composed in mid- to end of 1750’s, when Haydn was musical director to Count Ferdinand Maximilian Franz Morzin. Reflecting characteristics of the Baroque trio sonata, Haydn gives the two trios – that in F major, Hoboken XV: 40 (1760) and that in G major, Hoboken XV: 41 –the title of “Partita” and “Divertimento” respectively, and we hear the ‘cello in its baroque capacity. With harpsichords still widely in use around 1800, it stands to reason that these early trios might well have been performed using the harpsichord. Michael Borgstede’s playing was articulate, ornamented and brilliant, well matched in character to the definite, strongly-profiled style of Yasuko Hirata, enriched and firmly grounded with Myrna Herzog’s secure and highly expressive ‘cello playing. The performance brought out much Haydnesque happiness, sensitive timing and crafted phrase endings; it was a balance between individual expression and the interaction of fine chamber musicians. What was clear to the audience was the sheer joy experienced by the players in performing these works.
Herzog’s creative programs take the audience on a variety of musical adventures. This program provided a rare opportunity to hear these marvelous Haydn Scottish song arrangements and it was an opportunity not to be missed at the hands of such fine musicians. I, myself am looking forward to hearing another performance of the same concert but in a hall with better acoustics; as a lover of lyrics, I would like to follow them word by word!
Joseph Haydn: Scottish Songs and Keyboard Trios
Soloists of Ensemble PHOENIX
Tamar Kleinberger-soprano
Yasuko Hirata-Baroque violin
Myrna Herzog-Baroque ‘cello
Michael Borgstede-harpsichord
St Andrews Scots Memorial Church, Jerusalem
December 3, 2008.
Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) first became acquainted with Scottish songs when in London from 1791 to 1792, where he had arranged a few of them as a favor to a publisher friend, William Napier, who was in financial straits. Between 1791 and 1805 Haydn wrote arrangements of almost 400 Scottish songs, most of them for voice and trio, for other publishers, 214 of them, however, commissioned by the Edinburgh publisher George Thomson, who included Pleyel, Kozeluch, Hummel, Weber and Beethoven in his project to collect, edit and publish Scottish, Irish and Welsh folksongs; Thomson’s aim was both to preserve them and provide performance material suitable for amateur musicians, now that there was much music-making in private homes. Haydn’s arrangements, therefore, are a marriage of the gamut of Scottish folk tradition and superb instrumental writing. In addition to traditional folk poems, they include texts by Robert Burns, Alexander Boswell, Anne Grant, Joanna Baillie and Walter Scott. The songs offer some whimsical home truths, they also tell of love, (idyllic and less so), honor and pride, happiness and heartbreak and, in keeping with Scotland’s history, of war. We heard them as scored by Haydn.
“Raving winds around her blowing,
Yellow leaves the woodlands strowing,
By a river hoarsely roaring,
Isabella stray’d deploring –
‘Farewell hours that late did measure
Sunshine days of joy and pleasure!
Hail, thou gloomy night of sorrow-
Cheerless night that knows no morrow!” Robert Burns
Thus began the concert, with Kleinberger’s robust, direct performance of this typically Scottish pentatonic melody, cushioned in instrumental textures no less engaging, taking the audience into the freshness and directness of these songs, which are true gems. Follow the words and the gentle, tongue-in-cheek Scottish humor in so many of them will easily become apparent. In “The Shepherd’s Son”, where the young man sees a lady swimming in a brook and urges her to spend her time in a more suitable manner – sewing, we hear the grinding action of the sewing machine in the accompaniment. On a more serious note, “The White Cockade” (Robert Burns), referring to the Jacobite troops who had no uniform besides the emblem of a white cockade (rosette) on a blue bonnet, tells of a young woman whose love has gone off to war; she is willing to leave everything behind and follow him. Kleinberger’s strong background in theatre as well as the English language made for a performance of convincing directness. She has a large, powerful voice but, unfortunately, with the acoustic of the Scottish Church tending to blur words, both spoken and sung, much of the verbal text was indistinct. The printed program was, therefore, necessary and valuable in its information on each of the songs.
The instrumental trio played two early Haydn trios. The early piano trios were composed in mid- to end of 1750’s, when Haydn was musical director to Count Ferdinand Maximilian Franz Morzin. Reflecting characteristics of the Baroque trio sonata, Haydn gives the two trios – that in F major, Hoboken XV: 40 (1760) and that in G major, Hoboken XV: 41 –the title of “Partita” and “Divertimento” respectively, and we hear the ‘cello in its baroque capacity. With harpsichords still widely in use around 1800, it stands to reason that these early trios might well have been performed using the harpsichord. Michael Borgstede’s playing was articulate, ornamented and brilliant, well matched in character to the definite, strongly-profiled style of Yasuko Hirata, enriched and firmly grounded with Myrna Herzog’s secure and highly expressive ‘cello playing. The performance brought out much Haydnesque happiness, sensitive timing and crafted phrase endings; it was a balance between individual expression and the interaction of fine chamber musicians. What was clear to the audience was the sheer joy experienced by the players in performing these works.
Herzog’s creative programs take the audience on a variety of musical adventures. This program provided a rare opportunity to hear these marvelous Haydn Scottish song arrangements and it was an opportunity not to be missed at the hands of such fine musicians. I, myself am looking forward to hearing another performance of the same concert but in a hall with better acoustics; as a lover of lyrics, I would like to follow them word by word!
Joseph Haydn: Scottish Songs and Keyboard Trios
Soloists of Ensemble PHOENIX
Tamar Kleinberger-soprano
Yasuko Hirata-Baroque violin
Myrna Herzog-Baroque ‘cello
Michael Borgstede-harpsichord
St Andrews Scots Memorial Church, Jerusalem
December 3, 2008.
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