The PHOENIX Ensemble performs J.S.Bach's organ Trio Sonatas in several venues around Israel

J.S.Bach composed the Trio Sonatas BWV 525-530 for organ or pedal clavichord (an instrument the Bach household possessed, possibly for practicing works to later be played on pipe organ). They were found in an autograph dating from the composer’s first few years in Leipzig, where he lived from 1723 till his death in 1750. In his 1802 Bach biography, Johann Nikolaus Forkel writes that the works were written for Bach’s eldest son, Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, to give him practice in dexterity on the organ. In which case, they join other pedagogical collections of keyboard works, such as the Inventions. And we know that Wilhelm Friedemann went on to have a brilliant career as organist. The sonatas demand outstanding coordination of hands and feet, with three lines played on two keyboards and pedal. There is much variation in the registrations organists choose for these pieces. Some believe in selecting three different timbres for the three voices, allowing for every detail of the counterpoint to be heard. Others are of the opinion that the sonatas benefit from similarity of timbre in the voices. Here, Bach is offering a wide scope in how the player may concern himself with “good taste”. Even more of Bach’s flexibility is displayed by that fact that Bach was constantly reworking pieces to use them in new settings: the first movement of Trio Sonata in e minor BWV 528 began its existence as an instrumental trio for oboe d’amore, viola da gamba and harpsichord in Cantata no.76, whereas the Adagio e Dolce from Sonata in d minor BWV 527 was later recast as the middle movement of the BWV 1044 Triple Concerto.

It is highly likely that Bach wrote a lot of chamber music that has been lost and there is quite a choice of arrangements of these trio sonatas for chamber ensembles. Indeed, here Bach himself was imitating a chamber genre in the three-movement Italian model. Consider the fact that these works are not the flamboyant organ toccatas and fugues, nor are they characterized by the mysticism of the organ chorale-preludes. So it is fitting that Myrna Herzog, founder and director of the PHOENIX Ensemble, should choose to play a concert of these pieces on four instruments, a true trio sonata line-up of violin–Noam Schuss, flute-Na’ama Lion (USA/Israel), harpsichord-Marina Minkin and with Herzog herself on viol. This writer attended the concert on May 31st 2014 at St. Andrews Scots Memorial Church, Jerusalem.

From the very first sounds of Trio Sonata in G major BWV 525, one became acutely aware of the Scottish Church’s receptive acoustic, displaying the clarity and beauty of these period instruments. In probably the first of the six to be written, offering a fusion of sonata- and concerto styles, the players set out the musical narrative with crystal clarity and freshness. Schuss and Lion created dialogue that was joyful, bristling with interest and appealing, each retaining her- and the instrument’s individuality. However, all instruments had much to say and I found myself needing to tune in to the melodic and harmonic richness of each individually. Sonata in d minor BWV 527 was presented as a suave gamba sonata, the harpsichord part being an obbligato role. Herzog and Minkin engaged in discourse of the most mellow of coloring in a relaxed setting, their tempi carefully paced, their flexing subtle. Sixteenth notes and arpeggii were threaded into the lush text with delicacy and understatement, the artists’ message being that this was no showpiece, rather the noble music of a Lutheran church composer. Trio Sonata in D major opened with a lively soundscape, its imitative style giving flute and violin a green light to intertwine their thoughts in a texture where the flute took the upper strand, with Schuss the middle (left hand on the organ), as they played with sixteenth notes that oscillated around a fixed pedal point followed by lively eighth notes. In the Lento, the artists expressed the Siciliano movement’s profound three-voiced dialogue, careful not to over-embellish, lest they camouflage the nuances of melodic lines.

PHOENIX presented Sonata in C major BWV 530 as a flute and obbligato sonata. Together with its sparkling, virtuosic character, very much of the Vivaldian concerto style, Na’ama Lion (her well-anchored sound defying the “shrinking violet” character adopted by many Baroque flautists) chose to show the listener through the text’s course, with Marina Minkin’s rich and elegant playing highlighting prominent moments. Their playing was celebratory, intelligent and interactive. Sonata in e minor BWV 528 was performed as a violin sonata with obbligato harpsichord. Harpsichord and viol provided a solid bass through which continuum Schuss threaded the upper line. Noam Schuss’s playing is directional, secure and informed, always rewarding. As all address the serious character of the work, Schuss moves through its expansiveness and textural density, also standing back to give Minkin the stage. Dr. Myrna Herzog referred to Trio Sonata in d minor BWV 526 as “the most loaded”. Opening with graceful, buoyant playing of the Vivace, the players’ reading of it was both perceptive and introspective, the haunting Largo movement, with Minkin making use of the lute register, gentle, mellifluous and contemplative. The players had their listeners sitting on the edge of their chairs as they presented the choral-style fugue, its subject fanfared by two noble whole notes, a tour-de-force of compositional brilliance and beauty to end the concert.

This program was the result of much searching work, discussion and decisions of all four artists. To anyone not familiar with these works on organ, it might have seemed that these trio sonatas were scored for the PHOENIX quartet instrumentation. In tailored melodic lines that “sang”, at no time overloaded with showy ornaments, the players’ clarity of texture and lightness were all to the good of Bach’s ingenious counterpoint. This was playing of commitment, of beauty of melodies, of inner dialogue, of sincerity and musical persuasiveness. In an anonymous quote of 1788, some wise person (was it C.P.E. Bach?) wrote: “Bach’s trios still sound good; they will never grow old, but, on the contrary, will outlive all revolutions of fashion in music.”

The Jerusalem Oratorio Choir presents "Viva la musica!"

The Jerusalem Oratorio Choir’s annual gala concert took place on May 28th 2014 in the Henry Crown Symphony Hall of the Jerusalem Theatre. “Viva la musica!” was the title given to the program music of Italian composers, or music in the Italian language, stretching from the Renaissance to 19th century choral pieces from Italian opera.

Established in 1987, the Jerusalem Oratorio Choir is the largest of its kind in Israel, its 150-or-so members consisting of amateur- and semi-professional singers coming from many sections of Jerusalem's local- and foreign communities. Having become an independent, member-based association, the choir today continues to receive funding from the Israel Ministry of Culture and Sport and the Jerusalem Municipality. The Jerusalem Oratorio Choir actually comprises five choirs, each working independently, with some joint annual collaboration. In total, they perform some 20 concerts a year. The five ensembles are as follows: The Oratorio Singers, directed by Ms. Naama Nazrathy Gordon, Bel Canto, directed by Ms. Noa Burstein, Cantabile (a women's choir), directed by Ms. Flora Vinokurov, Capellatte, directed by Ms. Shelley Berlinsky (absent from the concert due to imminent childbirth) and The Jerusalem Oratorio Chamber Choir, directed by Mr. Ofer dal Lal. Ms. Tania Schupak is the choir’s piano accompanist. The Oratorio Choir was joined by the Israel Chamber Orchestra, by Tania Schupak and Natalie Povolotsky (piano, organ) and soloists soprano Svetlana Kosyatova and mezzo-soprano Ella Wilhelm. Veteran radio announcer Hayuta Dvir emceed the event.

Throughout the evening, each choir sang separately, with several works performed by two or more of the choirs. In singing that was both majestic and transparent, the program opened with “Barekhu” (Bless the Lord, Songs of Solomon) and “Halleluja” (Psalm 146) works of the Jewish Italian composer Salomone Rossi (1570-1630), the first non-cantorial composer to use Hebrew texts. Continuing with two witty villanellas of Franco-Flemish composer Orlando di Lasso (1530-1594), “O La, O Che Buon Eccho” (The Echo Song) was sung by heart by Capellatte and Bel Canto, making for much eye contact between singers and finely crafted, natural echo effects. In “Matona Mia Cara”, a bawdy song mocking the efforts of a German soldier to clumsily woo an Italian lady, Bel Canto and the Chamber Choir blended well, shaping phrases delicately…perhaps too delicately for such a text! Reacting sensitively to Nazrathy Gordon’s conducting, the Oratorio Singers and Chamber Choir created the sacred, reverent mood of the Kyrie from G.Rossini’s (1792-1868) “Petite Messe Solenelle”, with its musical references to the “stile antico” style and the unconventional but highly effective piano and organ accompaniment. (This scoring arose from the fact that the work was premiered in the private chapel of Countess Louise Pillet-Will, in which there were both piano and harmonium.) Antonio Vivaldi’s (1678-1741) “Magnificat”, performed by the Jerusalem Oratorio Choir and conducted by Nazrathy Gordon, brought the first half of the concert to a close. Here, the choir displayed a well-trained choral sound and clear understanding of the verbal text, with the movements well contrasted, their singing of the gorgeous and plangent “Et misericordia” (And His mercy is on them) bathed in poignancy and anguish, the “Fecit potentiam” (He hath showed strength) deisplaying the text’s spirit of strength. Svetlana Kosyatova and Ella Wilhelm gave impressive, pleasing performances, both as soloists and in duo.

With Ofer dal Lal conducting, we heard the Chamber Choir and Bel Canto in one of the many settings (they range from four- to ten voices) of the “Crucifixus” text by Antonio Lotti (1667-1740). Their singing presented the work’s awe and mystery and highlighted its compelling dissonances, dal Lal’s use of dynamic color moving from fragile piano to a scintillating, silvery and exciting choral sound. One of the evening’s high points was the Chamber Choir’s performance of the “Plorate Filii Israel” (Weep, you children of Israel) the expressive lament ending Giacomo Carissimi’s (1605-1674) most famous oratorio “Jepthe”. Against an effective organ (Schupak) and ‘cello (Gregory Yanovsky) setting, the sopranos floated their melodic strands with weightless ease over and through Carissimi’s well-crafted imitative polyphony, the piece’s tragedy, grief and suffering heightened via the work’s multiple suspensions.

Moving away from sacred music, Cantabile and the Chamber Choir, conducted by Vinokurov, took the audience into the world of secular song of an Italian flavor with D.Bollati’s “La Mammoletta” (Shrinking Violet). The presence of two mandolins (Yulia Sinievsky, Sarah Taylor) added charm and delicacy to this friendly, sweetly sentimental song. With Umberto Giordano’s (1867-1948) “O Pastorelle, Addio” (Now is the time for parting) we had launched into the genre of operatic choruses, this section concluding the concert. In this graceful song, from “Andrea Chénier”, an opera focusing on the life of the poet Andrea Chénier, the wealthy Countess di Coigny is hosting a ball, the entertainment being an 18th century pastorale. Cantabile and the Chamber Choir, some of their women members hiding behind Venetian masks, created the piece’s mood, the harp (Sara Shemesh) adding magic and sparkle to the singers’ velvety choral timbre. Sung by the collective Oratorio Choir under the baton of Ofer dal Lal and accompanied by players of the Israel Chamber Orchestra, we then heard a selection of well-known opera choruses, the majority by Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901). Performed with verve and spirit, these pieces provided hearty choral fare and much orchestral say, from the devil-may-care “Tarantella” from “The Force of Destiny” and “La Vergine degli Angeli” (The virgin of the angels), its solo sung exquisitely by Kosyatova, to the expressive, sweeping- yet disturbingly underlying melancholy of the “Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves” (Nabucco). Two poignant choruses from Pietro Mascagni’s (1863-1945) “Cavalleria Rusticana” (Rustic Chivalry) completed the bill.

A great deal of serious and painstaking musical work had clearly been invested into the preparation of this concert, the result of which was pleasing amateur choral singing of a high standard. Singers were confident, expressive and articulate, their collective choral sound well shaped and clean, at the same time, both rich and transparent. The concert, providing hearty enjoyment to those attending, was a credit to Oratorio’s conductors and singers alike.

Early music at the 42nd Abu Gosh Vocal Music Festival

The 42nd Abu Gosh Vocal Music Festival will take place from June 3rd to 7th 2014. Concerts will take place in two churches in Abu Gosh – the spacious Kyriat Ye’arim Church, sitting high up on the hill and the Crypt – a small, 12th century Crusader Benedictine church set in a magical, exotic garden in the lower part of the town. The Abu Gosh Festival has existed in its present form since 1992. People come from far and wide to attend concerts, picnic in the open, buy trinkets at the outdoor stalls set up near the Kyriat Ye’arim Church and relax in the tranquil surroundings of the Jerusalem Hills. The festival features many Israeli groups and soloists, also hosting some overseas artists. As of 1995, Hannah Tzur has been musical director of the festival. Ms. Tzur, a contralto who has soloed with major orchestras and conductors in Israel, has directed the Ramat Gan Chamber Choir for 19 years.

The 42nd Abu Gosh Vocal Music Festival will present a variety of music and styles, from Morley Pergolesi, to Bach and Händel, from Romantic music to Slavic songs, Villa-Lobos, music of Leonard Bernstein, Nat King Cole, Joan Baez and Paul Simon as well as a work of Israeli composer Eyal Batt. Here is a brief outline of some works early music aficionados might want to hear. Concert no.3, performed by the Ramat Gan Choir, conducted by Hannah Tzur, will include works by Pergolesi. Concert no.12 “I Saw a Bird of Infinite Beauty- On the Wings of Poetry” will feature the Melzer Consort – Michael and Yael Melzer and Ezer Melzer – and soprano Ye’ela Avital. Their program will include works of English composers Thomas Morley, Richard Nicholson and John Bennet. The Israeli Vocal Ensemble (music director Yuval Benozer) joined by Ye’ela Avital will present works of Händel, Bach and Corelli in Concert no.5. The festival’s visiting choir – the very fine Nederlands Kammerchor (conductor Risto Joost) - will include Bach’s Cantata no.4 in Concert no.6. Concert no.10, featuring the Tel Aviv Chamber Choir (conductor Michael Shani) and the Barrocade Ensemble will include Pergolesi’s “Magnificat”. The festival will sign out with the Upper Galilee Choir (conductor Ron Zarhi) and soloists in Händel’s “Messiah” (Concert no.11).

Folk songs mostly have early origins and there will be plenty of those to hear in the various concerts throughout the five days of the festival.

http://www.agfestival.co.il

Idit Shemer, Netta Ladar and Doron Schleifer at the Eden-Tamir Music Center in "O Let Me Weep"

The lush, well-tended gardens either side of the stairs leading to the Eden-Tamir Music Center in Ein Karem, Jerusalem, had donned vivid spring finery to welcome guests to a morning concert in the Musica Antiqua series on May 17th 2014. The artists taking part in “O Let Me Weep” were Idit Shemer-Baroque flute, Netta Ladar-harpsichord and Doron Schleifer-countertenor.

Opening with Henry Purcell’s (1659-1695) bittersweet “A New Ground in e Minor” from “Welcome to All the Pleasures” (1683), Netta Ladar took the mood piece at a relaxed pace, its personal, pensive mood tempered by the triste, falling three-measure bass ostinato. This was followed by all three artists in a performance of “O Let Me Weep” from Purcell’s semi-opera “The Fairy Queen”. Doron Schleifer’s singing in fine British English and his dramatic focus lured the audience into the piece’s devastating pathos, Idit Shemer’s gently swayed weaving of melodic lines providing a tender flute obbligato, her shaping of small musical gestures adding sighs to the singer’s plight of rejection. In a similar vein, but moving to France, we heard Shemer and Ladar in Suite no.5 for flute and continuo by Pierre Danican Philidor (1681-1731). From a family numbering composers and instrument builders, P.D.Philidor was a wind player in the grande écurie (military band) of Louis XIV from 1697, oboist in the royal chapel from 1704 and a flautist in the chamber du roi from 1712. Louis XIV considered his music as the “perfect representation of his purest taste for the arts”. P.D.Philidor was one of the few French composers to specify instruments for a given work, however, offering more than one possibility. Opening with a beautifully crafted and spontaneous-sounding movement marked “Très lentement”, Shemer lavished its somber mood with opulent ornaments, Ladar’s harpsichord spreads adding elegance. Following the proud-stepping, solid Allemande - a collaboration of rich textures and individual expression - the Sarabande sounded somewhat bare, with its harpsichord texture extensively pared down. The Gigue livened up the scene.

Of the instruments relating to how music affects the human soul in John Dryden’s libretto to G.F.Händel’s (1685-1759)“Ode for St. Cecilia’s Day”, “The Soft Complaining Flute” mirrors lovers’ woes, with the solo flute naturally providing the obbligato. Actually a soprano aria, Schleifer gave it a beguiling performance, bringing to life the key words of the text and its birdlike effects:

‘The soft complaining flute

In dying notes discovers

The woes of hopeless lovers,

Whose dirge is whisper’d by the warbling lute.’

Shemer, both collaborating in every turn of the text, yet also presenting the flute’s separate agenda, made clear how poignant and evocative this role is when played on Baroque flute.

A work rarely heard on the Israeli concert platform is Händel’s small secular cantata “Mi Palpita Il Cor”, one of some 60 cantatas for solo voice and obbligato written by the composer. Scored originally in Italy for soprano voice, this cantata may very well have been performed at musical gatherings at the Accademia dell’Arcadia, these being costumed affairs in which those attending would arrive dressed as Arcadian shepherds. “Mi Palpita” was later revised and re-scored for alto voice in London. Beginning “My heart palpitates, but I do not know why”, it tells of a young man confused at being in love. Here is an example of Händel’s virtuosic writing in the Italianate vocal style (and language), a pastoral-Arcadian style piece using an unabashed heart-on-sleeve text. Free of the constraints of singing off the score, Schleifer skillfully wielded the Italian text to explain, gesture and express the angst caused by love in the world of shepherds and shepherdesses. He fired such words as “Tormento e gelosia, sdegno, affano e dolore” (anguish and jealousy, fury, grief and pain) dramatically as he handled the work’s technical challenges, interacting well with the other two artists. The pastoral qualities of the transverse flute enhanced the scene, a flute part that is very demanding. Shemer’s playing of it was stylish and warm in tone.

The artists devoted the second half of the concert to works of J.S.Bach (1685-1750). The text to Cantata BWV 182 – “King of Heaven, be thou welcome” - from which the artists performed “Leget euch dem Heiland unter” (Submit yourself to the Saviour), a work from Bach’s Weimar period, was probably written by Salomo Franck, the Weimar court poet, many of whose texts Bach had set to music. In this attractive aria with flute obbligato, the artists presented the piece’s mood of devotion, purity and dedication in a reading that was reverent, subtle and not over-embellished. In “Öffne dich, mein ganzes Herze” (Open yourself, my entire heart) from Cantata BWV 61 “Now Come, Saviour of the Heathens”, Schleifer’s mellifluous singing and facial expression evoked the believer’s joy at the onset of the Advent Season. “Wohl euch, ihr auserwählten Seelen” (It is well for you, you chosen souls) is the only aria in Cantata no.34 “O Eternal Flame, O Fount of Love”. Its text celebrates the merits of those “whom God has chosen”; here Schleifer wove the aria’s words of love, peace and contentment into the tender yet fervent melodiousness of the piece. Harpsichord and flute substituted for the work’s scoring of strings, two flutes and continuo in what was, nevertheless, mellifluous and lullaby-like delivery.

Netta Ladar’s unrushed and unmannered playing of Prelude and Fugue in f sharp minor from J.S.Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier Book I brought out the differences in character between the two pieces, the course of the fugue slightly flexed as its course unfolded. The last instrumental work on the program was Bach’s Sonata in C major BWV 1033, a continuo sonata in which Bach provided the harpsichord part with only the bass line. There is, in fact, some doubt as to which Bach composed the work. Opening with a short elegant Andante section, Ladar kept the harpsichord role minimal in the Presto. After a touching, serene reading of the noble Adagio movement, two graceful minuets brought the work to a close.

The audience at the Eden-Tamir Music Center delighted in this concert featuring home-grown talents, bringing together three outstanding Jerusalem-born musicians in Baroque performance that was as well-informed as it was tasteful.

Heinrich Walther (Germany) in his first performance on the Schuke organ of the Redeemer Church, Jerusalem

The bells of the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer issued in the third event of the Old City of Jerusalem Concerts on May 10th 2014 – an organ recital by the Heinrich Walther. Born in 1959 in Germany, Heinrich Walther studied in Freiburg, Toulouse and Dallas, studying organ with Zsigmond Szathmary, Xavier Darasse, Robert Anderson and Larry Palmer. Walther performs worldwide as an organist and on period keyboard instruments. His many CD recordings include, for example, new works of contemporary composers and his own transcriptions of orchestral works by Mendelssohn, Franck and Reger. Heinrich Walther teaches at the colleges of music/church music in Freiburg, Heidelberg and Rottenburg; he joins courses as guest tutor and, as of 2006, has been honorary organist of the Saint Matthieu Church Colmar, France.

The program opened with Johann Sebastian Bach’s (1685-1750) Prelude and Fugue in e minor BWV 548, a mature work dating from the composer’s Leipzig period, a time he was testing organs and performing recitals for aristocratic audiences. One of the most ambitious and monumental works for the organ, it shows Bach at the peak of his performing career. Walther presents the pliant, richly harmonic and somewhat vocal material of the concerto-style prelude, in its four ritornello sections, as majestic and seamless musical narrative. The fugue is sometimes referred to as the “Wedge Fugue” on account of the opening theme which starts with one note, then with two notes either side to form a minor third, gradually widening to an octave; here is Bach’s fascination with forms and numbers. A true “Spielfuge” (virtuoso fugue), it is 231 bars long, Bach’s longest organ fugue and challenging to the extreme. Walther tackles its bravura passages with color and contrasts, tempering its flamboyancy with objective, level-headed playing and articulacy.

Heinrich Walther then performed three chorale settings of “Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr” (To God alone be praise) from the “Leipzig” Chorale Preludes, these eighteen pieces constituting a summit of the instrument’s repertoire. Originally composed in Weimar and revised in Leipzig from 1747 to 1749, the last years of Bach’s life, each of the “Great Eighteen” explores the various ways of transforming a simple chorale tune into an elaborate, multi-layered piece. Walther performed all three settings based on “Allein Gott in der Höh”, choosing to begin the elegant, contrapuntal introduction to the first (BWV 662), (Bach marked it Adagio) in a somewhat veiled timbre, the ornamented cantus then riding buoyantly above it in brassy tones. Walther’s reading of the second version, marked Cantabile, with the cantus in the tenor presented in reedy tonings, was tranquil; the cantus was preceded by the chorale melody in the pedals. He chose a range of interesting registrations. The third version, a trio setting celebratory and concerto-like in character, resounded in vital, positive utterances, its detail carefully presented.

The section of works by J.S.Bach concluded with Trio Sonata no.5 in C major BWV 608. According to Forkel, Bach’s first biographer, these trio sonatas were written some time between 1723 and 1729, or even as late as 1731, for Bach’s teenage son Wilhelm Friedemann to improve his flexibility and accuracy of both fingers and feet. To be played “à 2 Clav. E Pedal” may refer to the works’ three voices or to performance on a piped instrument (three manuals); perhaps they were practised on a pedal harpsichord in the Bach home. What characterizes all six of these trio sonatas is that the counterpoint is mostly woven into the two upper voices, harmonically supported by a bass line, a line nevertheless not taking a back seat when suggesting dance rhythms and engaging in dialogue. The trio sonatas adhere to the three-movement Vivaldian concerto form. As to BWV 529, Bach later transcribed it as a trio sonata for oboe and viola. Walther’s reading of the opening Allegro was bright, energetic and optimistic, its joyousness held under control, the florid Largo then personal and singing, spiritual rather than mournful, its reading both tasteful and appealing. The final Allegro was sympathetically played, noble rather than urgent in ambience, all melodic lines clean and pleasingly apparent.

The recital ended with W.A.Mozart’s “Fantasia for Mechanical Organ” in f minor K.608. The work was written at a time when there was a fashion among wealthy people to own mechanical clocks that had organs built into them. Mozart wrote three works for such machines. There is no autograph score for the K.608 Fantasia, but is familiar to many due to the many arrangements of it for piano (two- and four hands), for string quartet, orchestra, organ, and more. With its French overture-style beginning and two fughettas, it might be seen as Mozart’s homage to Bach, some of whose music he knew. Walther infused individual color and character into each of the different sections of the work, from its imposing brassy opening, its fughettas, its large chords and the lyrical, pastoral section to the grand concluding cadence. The artist’s engaging performance raises the question of how a mechanical instrument could do justice to such a fine piece. This was Heinrich Walther’s first visit to Israel. Talking to him following the concert, he said he had very much enjoyed playing on the Redeemer Church’s Karl Schuke organ (built 1971). A very fine recital.

Andrew Parrott directs the Israeli Vocal Ensemble and the Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra in Handel's "Israel in Egypt"

The Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra (founder and conductor David Shemer) signed out of its 2013-2014 subscription series with a festive performance of G.F.Händel’s oratorio “Israel in Egypt”. Conducted by the JBO’s honorary conductor Andrew Parrott (UK), the orchestra was joined by the Israeli Vocal Ensemble (music director Yuval Benozer) and soloists Hadas Faran-Asia, Taliya Dishon, Alon Harari, David Nortman and Yoav Weiss. This writer attended the performance on May 10th 2014 in the Henry Crown Symphony Hall, Jerusalem Theatre.

The fifth of the nineteen oratorios penned by Händel in England, “Israel in Egypt” was written in 1738, the composition of the whole colossal work taking a mere 27 days! It was originally a work in three acts, the first, now omitted, being an adaptation of the Funeral Anthem HWV 264, composed the previous year on the death of Queen Caroline. The texts of both original- and later versions were taken almost entirely from the Book of Exodus. The only additions are a few psalms. The eminently dramatic text, taken literally from the Bible, is set essentially as a choral oratorio, comprising 28 large double choruses linked together by a few bars of recitative, five arias and three duets. The dramatic aspect of the piece is achieved via a large repertoire of textures – cantus firmus themes with moving counter-melodies, antiphonal double choirs, thunderous choral homophony and a great many fugues. Atypical of Händel’s oratorios, “Israel in Egypt” has no overture; rather than unveiling a plot that is driven by individual passions, it presents and celebrates the story of a people. Moses and Miriam are mentioned in the text but the oratorio lacks any defined individual characters or conventional plot.

One of the earliest existing recordings of “Israel in Egypt”, a wax cylinder recording from 1888, was made at a performance at the Händel Festival at the Crystal Palace, London, with a choir 4000 strong!! The Israel Vocal Ensemble – numbering 12 singers in each choir, placed on either side of the orchestra – addressed the content of each event and emotion of the text with involvement, the singers’ vocal color, dynamic range and outstanding technique a dependant and determining factor, critical and decisive to the general outcome of the performance. The soloists also sang as part of the double choir. As to the soloists, kudos to tenor David Nortman, who contended well with both orchestra and the size of the Henry Crown Hall in singing that bristled with fine English diction, beauty of timbre, competence and a sense of comfort in the oratorio genre, Nortman valiantly taking on the role of the second bass with singer and oboist Yoav Weiss in “The Lord is a man of war”. Countertenor Alon Harari wielded the oratorio’s vivid text convincingly, creating a richly colored duet with Nortman in ”Thou in Thy mercy hast led forth thy people” and firing the dire message of his first solo with volatile consonants:

“Their land brought forth frogs, yea, even in their king’s chambers. He gave their cattle over to the pestilence; blotches and blains broke forth on man and beast.” (Psalm 105:30, Exodus 11:9,10). With the tempestuous events subsiding into the past, Harari expressed hope, warmth and tranquility in his final solo – "Thou shalt bring them in and plant them in the mountain of Thine inheritance…” - his delicate ornamentation taken up by the JBO strings. Sopranos Hadas Faran-Asia and Taliya Dishon fared less well, the timbral quality of two fine voices ill-matched in “The Lord is my strength and my song”. As to the soprano aria ”Thou didst blow with the wind”, joined by oboes and bassoons, singing without the score would have freed Faran-Asia to communicate more with orchestra and audience.

Maestro Parrott infused life and color to the many unique, almost visual ideas creating the rich canvas of the work – the evocation of the plagues, Händel’s humor in violin lines mimicking leaping frogs, in the majestic “He spake the word”, its text constantly interrupted by the buzzing and whirring sound of insects, then the brassy, stormy hailstorm with fire that “ran along upon the ground”, the savage blows and single, detached words of “He smote all the first-born” and the totally eerie, opaquely drawn chorus describing “a thick darkness over the land”, its small,saparate vocal utterances emerging here and there as lost people groping about in the gloom. And then the pastoral, illuminated serenity making up the soundscape of “But as for His people, He led them forth like sheep”. Opening the second part – “The Song of Moses” – Parrott launched straight into the brief, incisive orchestral prelude, the choir’s declaration that “Moses and the children sung this song” and the imposing fugued chorus “I will sing unto the Lord for He hath triumphed gloriously”. From here to the end, we are presented with concepts of strength, triumph and stately assertion, several of the allusions to strength being to that of the sea. Parrott created a somber, funereal all-too-real atmosphere of the drowned in “The depths have covered them”, then not soft-pedaling when it came to the bassy, merciless vocal effects in one of the oratorio’s most dramatic and horrific passages “And with the blast of Thy nostrils the waters were gathered together, the floods stood upright as an heap, and the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea.” With fine instrumental and choral forces at hand, Parrott encapsulated what Mozart once wrote, that “Händel understands effect better than any of us; when he chooses, he strikes like a thunderbolt.” At a talk given by Maestro Parrott for the Friends of the Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra on May 9th at the Jerusalem International YMCA on Händel and the ins-and-outs of the “Israel in Egypt” score, Maestro David Shemer informed the audience that Andrew Parrott had required the instrumentalists to be familiar with all the words of the work, their meaning and their inferential- and linguistic emphases. The result was an uplifting and vivid event to draw the Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra’s 2013-2014 season to a satisfying close.

The Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra performs on the eve of Israel's 2014 Independence Day

The annual Independence Eve concert of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra IBA took place on May 5th 2014 in the Henry Crown Symphony Hall, Jerusalem Theatre. Due to illness of the orchestra’s house conductor, Frédéric Chaselin, the concert was conducted by Yuval Zorn and Amos Boasson.

Having performed extensively as a pianist in Israel and Europe, Israeli-born Yuval Zorn today combines conducting, assisting and coaching, working in opera festivals and opera houses, the latter including the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden (London) and the Frankfurt Opera. The 2013-2014 season sees him taking musical direction of Salvatore Sciarrino’s “Lohengrin” at the Oldenburg State Theatre (Germany).

The 2014 Independence Eve event opened with Arie Shapira’s (b.1943) Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (2014). This was the composer’s debut with the JSO. Soloist was Amit Dolberg. A brief, mostly atonal work, making use of aleatoric elements, the score calls for an orchestra of 23 instruments in keeping with Shapira’s view that “Israeli music should be lean and precise...not obese and sweaty…” (Interview JSO, May 3rd 2014.) The work is built around the constant, relentless piano role, this given articulacy, energy, a sense of urgency and direction by Dolberg. The piece begins with a large, brisk and colorfully-timbred screen of single notes. As the piece progresses, the small orchestra seeks to join the piano, its players’ random sounds and tempi eventually joining Dolberg in what becomes a texture more unified in pitch and close to homophony. The piece ends on a major chord. Shapira claims there are “no Israeli sounds” and that he is the only Israeli composer who feeds on the Israel situation – “nervous, frantic, unclear, doubtful, relentless, violent”. Maestro Yuval Zorn guided the players through each section of the work with assured precision and transparency. Amit Dolberg is the founder and director of the Meitar Ensemble; today he heads the Workshop for Contemporary Music at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance.

Then to Argentina, to Astor Piazzolla’s (1921-1992) “Las Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas” (The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires). Best known for the sophisticated and experimental genre he created in the 1940s from the traditional tango he combined with jazz and classical music to produce the (then controversial) “Nuevo Tango” (New Tango), music designed more for listening than for dancing, Piazzolla wrote four separate pieces pertaining to the seasons. Composed from 1965 to 1970, and scored for his quintet of violin (viola), piano, electric guitar, double bass and bandoneón (a kind of concertina playing an essential role in the tango orchestra) the pieces were not originally intended to be performed together. After Piazzolla’s death, violinist Gidon Kramer commissioned Russian composer Leonid Desyatnikov (b. 1955, Leningrad) to place the four pieces together and transcribe them for solo violin and string orchestra. Kremer wanted a piece he could perform in concert on the same program as Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons”. Desyatnikov created a bridge between the two works by interpolating witty references from Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” into Piazzolla’s work, one whimsical idea being the quoting of Vivaldi’s “Winter” in Piazzolla’s “Summer”. As in Vivaldi’s work, each season of Desyatnikov’s setting falls into three sections. The movements are “Verano Porteño (Buenos Aires Summer), originally composed as incidental music for the Alberto Rodriguez Muñoz’ play “Melenita de Oro”, “Otoño Porteño” (Buenos Aires Autumn), “Primavera Porteña” (Buenos Aires Spring) and “Invierno Porteño” (Buenos Aires Winter). In these descriptive and evocative tableaus, Desyatnikov, transferring the composer’s stylistic- and programmatic elements to the world of the virtuoso violin concerto, has combined Piazzolla’s tango-inspired rhythmic pulse and complex contratempos with his own skilful orchestration. Piazzolla’s dissonances and abrupt tempo shifts, electrifying rhythms, together with some instrumental effects, make for exciting listening.

The violin soloist in this work was Rusanda Panifili (b. 1988, Moldova). Endowed with a fine inside view of the musical text, a masterly, dazzling technique and much temperament, this violinist, violist, dancer, actress and composer had the listeners perched at the edges of their seats as she revealed her large expressive range, spicing her playing with shape, exuberance, sultry nostalgia, sensuality, heart-on-sleeve lyricism, spontaneity and unbridled, defiant energy. She was the perfect artist for the demands of this genre. In his mellifluous solos, ‘cellist Oleg Stolpner wove pensive melodiousness and melancholy into the “Autumn” movement. Co-principal violist of the JSO, Amos Boasson, also assistant conductor of the Israeli Sinfonietta Beer Sheva since 2011, conducted the work with as much attention to detail and melodic shape as to the work’s large emotional range, introducing the enchanted audience to its heady, colorful mix of jazz, Romantic- and Impressionistic ideas, its humor and playful modern techniques as well as to its sentimental beauty.

For her encore, Panifili performed Alexey Igudesman’s (b.1973, St. Petersburg) “Flamenco Fantasy”, an energy-packed display of color, virtuosity and panache, its Spanish flair supported by occasional percussive foot-stamping.

The concert ended with Yuval Zorn conducting P.I.Tchaikovsky’s (1840-1893) Symphony no.5 in e minor, opus 64, the symphony composed in 1888 in the tranquility of the composer’s vacation residence on a forested hillside outside Moscow, where he had taken up residence. However, despite the beauty of his idyllic surroundings, Tchaikovsky’s music was never divorced from his own personal existential issues as he struggled with thoughts on destiny and the quest for happiness. Although audiences were enthusiastic about the work’s first performances, Tchaikovsky was fraught with self-doubt, writing “Having played my symphony twice in St. Petersburg and once in Prague, I have come to the conclusion that it is a failure. There is something repellent in it, some over-exaggerated color, some insincerity of fabrication that the public instinctively recognizes.” Whether or not the listener chooses to relate to the message of “fate” or “providence” in the somber theme enunciated at the outset of the work in low clarinet register, the motif then threaded throughout the fabric of symphony, is immaterial to the individual’s enjoyment of the work. What came through in the JSO’s performance of the work was its emotional power, its vivid orchestral coloring, its geniality, large dynamic range and its flowing, majestic melodies. Scored for 3 flutes (the third doubling on piccolo), 2 oboes, 2 clarinets and 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani and strings, the work asks for fine wind playing and the JSO players did not disappoint, from the imposing clarinet statement opening the work, to the languid, lush horn melodies going on to converse with other winds in the second movement and the subdued, caressing statement of clarinets and bassoons towards the end of the third movement. Relieving the mostly weighty seriousness of the symphony, the Allegro moderato Waltz movement was given a light, buoyant reading, striking an association with the composer’s graceful ballet music. Fine orchestral fare, Tchaikovsky’s Symphony no.5 made for a satisfying and enriching end to the program.