The Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra closes its 2014-2015 concert season with a birthday celebration for J.S.Bach

“A Baroque Offering” was the title for the Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra’s birthday celebration for J.S.Bach (1685-1750) and the orchestra’s final concert for the 2014-2015 season. The Tel Aviv concert took place right on Bach’s birthday - March 21st - with the Jerusalem concert a slightly belated but nevertheless hearty celebration. Conducting the concerts from the harpsichord was the JBO’s founder and musical director Maestro David Shemer. Soloists were sopranos Adaya Peled and Yuval Oren and flautist Idit Shemer. This write attended the concert on March 25th in the Mary Nathaniel Golden Hall of Friendship, the Jerusalem International YMCA, this concert being one of the events of the 2015 Jerusalem Arts Festival.

The event opened with one of Bach’s four surviving orchestral suites (the composer referred to them as “Ouvertures”) Orchestral Suite No.2 in b-minor BWV 1067, a work for strings, continuo and flute from around 1739. Indeed a dance suite in the French style, it, like its sister suites, opens with a long overture, followed by a set of stylized dance movements. However, with the flute figuring in a soloistic manner in this suite, Bach here merges elements of the solo concerto into the French suite. Here was a sympathetic and eloquent reading of the work, fresh and vital, abundant with French lightness and charm. David Shemer chose natural, unlabored tempi allowing for much satisfying interchange and making for lively and characteristic dance rhythms. Idit Shemer handled the virtuosic flute role with intuitive ease and beauty, interacting pleasingly with violinist Noam Schuss. The small ensemble gave the performance piquancy and intimacy.

We then heard Claudio Monteverdi’s motet for soprano (or tenor) and basso continuo “Laudate Dominum” (O, praise the Lord), here accompanied by harpsichord, ‘cello (Orit Messer-Jacobi) and theorbo (Eliav Lavie). Adaya Peled gave a spirited, at times dramatic performance of the arioso piece, handling the expressive, nuanced (somewhat instrumental in its demands) style admirably, enriching vocal lines with melismas and Monteverdi’s own ornaments. From Giovanni Paolo Cima’s “Concerti ecclesiastici” of 1610, we heard “Surge propera” (Arise, my love), scored for two sopranos “in ecco”, to a text from Song of Songs 2:13-14, again supported by a simple continuo bass. Adaya Peled, positioned at the front of the stage, was echoed by vocal student of the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance Yuval Oren, a new face to JBO concerts, standing further back. Their presentation was effective.
‘Arise, my love, my beautiful one,
And come away.
O my dove, in the clefts of the rock,
In the crannies of the cliff,
Let me see your face,
Let me hear your voice,
For your voice is sweet,
And your face is lovely.’
In Monteverdi’s antiphon “Pulchra es” (Thou art beautiful) also from “Song of Songs” from the “Vespers” published in 1610, Peled and Oren joined in a delightful performance of the duet, highlighting the emotional words with ornaments or dissonances.

Little is known about Dario Castello’s life. What is known is that he published two collections of sonatas and that he was probably a musician at San Marco in Venice when Monteverdi was maestro di cappella there; a chamber musician, he was leader of a wind ensemble. The JBO instrumentalists gave a varied reading of his Sonata no.12, bringing out its contrasts of tempi, with different combinations of instruments producing varied timbral effects in a text offering distinctively different roles for players.

Idit Shemer rejoined the other JBO players in the final work on the program, J.S.Bach’s secular Italian chamber cantata “Non sa che sia dolore” (He knows not what sorrow is). The text deals with parting, functioning as a valedictory ode, but there are various theories as to whom the text refers. The town Ansbach is mentioned in the text, possibly referring to Torelli working in the court there, and whom Bach knew, or perhaps it is, as David Shemer writes in his program notes, a “farewell song to a friend who leaves the town in order to serve in the army”. The work is constructed as two paired recitatives and arias, preceded by a substantial sinfonia. As to when it was composed, the use of a virtuoso flautist in three of the five movements suggests it might have been written around 1724-5, when Bach was composing challenging flute parts in some of his religious cantatas, due to having a virtuoso flautist at hand in Leipzig; and a fine concert piece for flute this is! Idit Shemer’s playing was carefully detailed throughout, being especially luxuriant in the first aria, a piece contradictory in its sadness at leaving but pleasure in a new life challenge, as she wove its rich, triplet-abundant flute melodies into and around the vocal line Adaya Peled, free and comfortable in this Baroque medium, addressed her audience, setting the narrative out boldly and articulately, in a pleasingly unmannered way, bringing the work to an end, as she contended ably with the word-painting and melismas of the final aria.

The Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra signed out of the 2014-2015 concert season with a flourish!

The Jerusalem Oratorio Choir opens the 2015 Jerusalem Arts Festival with works from Bach to Bernstein

Opening the 2015 Jerusalem Arts Festival to a packed Henry Crown Hall of the Jerusalem Theatre on March 22nd 2015 was “A Varied Sound – from Bach to Bernstein”, a choral evening performed by the Jerusalem Oratorio Choir. Now in its 14th year, the Jerusalem Arts Festival gives the stage to Jerusalem artists in the fields of music, dance, theatre and the plastic arts. The event began with words from Mr. Shemi Amsalem, director of the Department of Arts of the Jerusalem Municipality, and Mr. Nir Barkat, Mayor of Jerusalem, who also opened the festival. Veteran radio announcer and narrator Hayuta Dvir emceed the event, introducing the choirs, artists and works performed.

The Jerusalem Oratorio Choir was established 28 years ago by Yehuda Fickler. Comprising five choirs today, it is the largest choral body in Israel, attracting amateur singers from all walks of life. Each choir prepares and performs its own repertoire, but, once a year, all the choirs join to work on joint repertoire to be performed at the annual festive concert. Joining the 150 Oratorio singers were the Israel Chamber Orchestra and the Young Efroni Choir (musical director: Shelley Berlinsky). Conducting the Oratorio Choir and the Israel Chamber Orchestra were Naama Nazerathy-Gordon and Flora Vinokurov.

The concert opened with an impressive performance by the men of the choir singing the a-cappella piece “Vayimalet Cain” (Then Cain Fled) (text: Yaakov Shabtai) by Israeli composer Yehezkel Braun (1922-2014). Articulately performed and well shaped, the singers presented the piece’s narrative in an engaging and vivid manner. Especially pleasing was the tenor soloist.

This was followed by some of the movements from J.S.Bach’s (1685-1750) Cantata 140 “Wachet auf” (Awake, calls the voice to us) conducted by Naama Nazerathy-Gordon. One of Bach’s best-known cantatas, it was composed in 1731, when the composer was in Leipzig in the employ of the Lutheran Church. It is based on a hymn composed by Philipp Nicolai in 1599. The Oratorio Choir’s choral sound was rich and mellow, both well blended and finely balanced with the orchestra. In Chorale verse 2, the choral tenors amalgamated to sing as a well blended section, alternating with the exquisite ritornello theme. In the role of Christ (in the accompanied recitative) baritone Yair Polishook addressed each phrase with insight and meaning. This was followed by the duet between Christ and the bride (savior and soul), with Polishook and soprano Daniela Skorka in an uplifting performance, their roles seemingly independent both melodically and register-wise, the interlacing of the voices, however, enhanced by the extrovert joy of the oboe obbligato. Skorka’s fine technique takes her up into the upper register with ease and beauty.

Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924) was barely 20 years of age when he wrote the “Cantique de Jean Racine” opus 11, a short hymn setting of a medieval Ambrosian Latin hymn for mixed choir, translated from Latin into French by Racine. This was the first of Fauré’s several religious works and his first significant composition. The text of “O Light of Light” is an entreaty to God for his heavenly gaze, fiery mercy and guidance towards the path of righteousness. Presented here in John Rutter’s setting for keyboard, strings and harp, the harp added silvery fibres to the beauty of this piece. Singing by heart, the many small girls and one boy of the Young Efroni Choir joined the Oratorio choristers in silky, translucent, well-prepared singing; both choirs linked well to give a subtle, restrained and convincing performance of this small jewel, bringing out its sober, limpid harmonies. With Nazerathy-Gordon conducting the ICO and Shelley Berlinsky conducting the children, the Young Efroni Choir then gave a competent, pleasing performance of “Vois sur ton chemin” (Look to Your Path) (music: Bruno Coulais, lyrics: Christophe Barratier) from the 2004 film “Les Choristes” (The Choristers).

The program then moved to a very different genre and soundscape, to Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s (1895-1968) “Gypsy Ballads” opus 152, conducted by- and to a setting by Flora Vinokurov for mixed choir, guitar, harp and ‘cello (the original being for choir and guitar). Soloists were Yair Polishook, Daniela Skorka and mezzo-soprano Ella Wilhelm. An Italian-born, Jewish composer today best remembered for his guitar- and film music, Castelnuovo-Tedesco was familiar with Spanish music, as is evident in his seven “Gypsy Ballads”. Not easy music for amateur singers to learn and handle, the Oratorio Choir gave a richly-colored performance of the madrigal-style songs, their spirit suggestive of the cante jondo style (a vocal style in Flamenco music. Garcia Lorca was devoted to keeping this tradition alive), with the instrumental ensemble coloring the songs with Spanish rhythms and vivid harmonies. Adding to the audience’s enjoyment of the songs, Flamenco dancer Michaela Haran took to the stage in some dazzling costumes and dancing that was fetching, tasteful and no less dazzling than the music!

The event concluded with a performance Leonard Bernstein’s “Chichester Psalms”. The work was commissioned by the Dean of Chichester Cathedral in 1965. Calling for boy soprano (or countertenor), vocal quartet, choir and orchestra, a reduction made by the composer pared the ensemble down to organ, harp and percussion. Naama Nazerathy-Gordon and the Oratorio Choir performed it with piano, harp and percussion. The texts used are Psalms 108, 100, 23, 131 and 133, including choruses sung in Hebrew, “a suite of Psalms, or selected verses from Psalms” in the composer’s words. Bernstein’s original name for the work was “Psalms of Youth”, but he subsequently changed it for fear people might think it easy to perform. Previous to composing the “Chichester Psalms”, the composer had spent a year experimenting with 12-tone music, but decided the style was not a natural musical language for him. The “Chichester Psalms”, therefore, are rooted in B-flat major. Uniquely, they comprise the vocal part-writing of church music with Judaic liturgical tradition. In a performance that never lagged, we were presented with the work’s kaleidoscope of contemporary and modal music, with its unusual meters, its drama and vigor, its devilish, jazzy moments and its flowing cantabile sections. As to the lyrical setting of Psalm 23 (The Lord is my Shepherd) Bernstein wanted a boy soprano to sing it as it bears an association with King David, the shepherd-psalmist. With no tradition of cathedral boy soprano soloists in Israel, 12-year-old Yael Shapira was chosen for the part. Her vocal timbre is very close to that of a boy’s and she created the tranquil mood of the piece very nicely, backed by the evocative harp role. With soloists, the Young Efroni Choir and members of the Oratorio Choir, Nazerathy-Gordon created the large, varied and vivid canvas of the life-affirming work representing Bernstein’s hope for brotherhood and peace.

“From Bach to Bernstein” was a very varied and highly ambitious program for any choir, let alone an amateur choir. Kudos to all performers and conductors for a performance that displayed musical interest, dedication and much involvement.

Pianist Amir Katz performs Bach and Chopin in Tel Aviv recital

Israeli pianist Amir Katz performed a solo recital at the Enav Cultural Center, Tel Aviv, on March 21st 2015. Born in Israel in 1973, Amir Katz lives in Berlin today, running a busy international performing schedule of solo recitals, chamber music and performance with orchestras. Since 2010, he has been accompanying Slovakian-born tenor Pavol Breslik. Their outstanding CD of Schubert’s “Schöne Müllerin” for the ORFEO label was recently released. In fact, Amir Katz’s recordings have won him great acclaim. In November 2014, he performed in the world premiere of a concerto by Chinese composer Xiaogang Ye with the German Radio Philharmonic Orchestra in Munich.

Of late, Amir Katz has focused much on Romantic repertoire in both recitals and recordings. The Tel Aviv recital brought together works of J.S.Bach and Chopin. Strange bedfellows? Well, no, surprisingly not. Katz has managed to juxtapose works of the two composers in a masterful and relevant fashion. The concert opened with Johann Sebastian Bach’s English Suite No.3 in g minor BWV 808. The six English Suites (unsuitably named English for reasons not clear till today) are his earliest keyboard suites, now thought to have been composed around 1715 during Bach’s employ at the Weimar court. Katz opened with a forthright reading of the Prelude, his approach to the hearty chordal writing of the smaller and larger “instrumental groups” of its concerto grosso-type form including much voice play. As to the dances that follow, Katz goes straight to the heart of the music, presenting the character of each dance together with the beauty and intimacy of the music, from the personal utterance of the Allemande, to the daring Sarabande with its florid, ornamented repeats, from the playful, unabashedly semplice Gavotte, to the energy Katz releases in his clear analysis and precise playing of the complex counterpoint of the Gigue Bach composed in the form of a three-part fugue. In his performance of English Suite No.3, Katz played off the elegance of French court dances with Bach’s German intellect. With some ornaments emerging a little heavy at times, his playing presented fine detail and articulate melodic lines.

This was followed by the artist’s performance of Frédéric Chopin’s 12 Etudes opus 10. Making for a smooth connection, could one perhaps surmise that Etude no.1 was inspired by Prelude no.1 of Book 1 of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier in form, harmonically and in the arpeggiation woven throughout? We are reminded that Chopin’s Opus 10 marks the beginning of the modern school of piano playing, with each study clearly focusing on a specific technical aspect and addressing the new tonal potential of the piano. Amir Katz, however, sees the work’s technical originality and challenges as a means to presenting the intellectual and emotional dimensions of these superb pieces (the first work to display Chopin’s fully formed genius) and of highlighting the contrasts between them. Katz does this via a technique that is crystal clear and eloquent touch. His playing of Etude no.6, for example, offered a mysterious element, its richly chromatic middle voice subtle, its melodic lines legato and personal. I especially enjoyed Etude no.9 with its minor “narrative”, its drama and rapid modulations and fast changing dynamics, with the pianist divulging a second subdued melodic line hidden among the left hand arpeggios. Katz presents his audience with the composer’s score and intentions, staying well clear of the over-pedalled and ego-centred performances of Chopin so often heard in concert halls in the name of “Romantic music”.

Following the intermission, Amir Katz took the listener back to Bach, this time playing the Prelude in e-flat minor and its enharmonic partner, the Fugue in d-sharp minor from Book 1 of the Well-Tempered Clavier. The Prelude has a spontaneous, improvised character, Bach having written in the key of e-flat minor in only one other instance (Minuet no.2 of the E-flat major Harpsichord Suite), its minor orientation and slow harmonic development giving the piece a unique, floating, star-struck feel. Katz allowed each motif and gesture to dictate the manner of its presentation. He carried the mysterious ethos and perhaps Bach’s divine inspiration into the large d-sharp minor Fugue, showing the listener through the many expositions, augmentation and varied use of stretto with humility.

Chopin’s second set of Etudes – opus 25 – appeared in 1837, with a dedication to Countess Marie d’Agoult (Liszt’s mistress). Of these pieces, British pianist and Chopin and Liszt authority Robert Collet wrote that the Opus 25 Etudes are “the most universal of his works”, that they “transcend barriers of time and nationality…” Katz fashioned an almost seamless and totally acceptable transition from the Bach Fugue into the first Etude, the “Aeolian Harp”, of which Clara Schumann had said that it “embodied the playing of Chopin himself.” Light, clean and delicate, his playing spelled out the piece’s evocative melody above a maze of pastel filigree lines. Through his own insight and superb technique, Katz proceeded to bring to life the fusion of Chopin’s musical imagination and writing of opulence unparalleled in the composer’s oeuvre. He added a touch of humor to the fast repetitive rhythms and strong accents of Etude no.3 (F major) and whimsy to no.5’s melodies sweeping up and down the keyboard. And how very poetic Etude no.6 sounded, with its play of chromatics manipulated in 3rds! Katz took the audience through the meditative course of No.7 with its sumptuous left hand melody, his playing profound and meaningful. In the whole of the piano repertoire, there are few works as difficult (punishing!) in technical demands as in the outer sections of Etude no.10 (b minor), with its stormy, triplet-driven intensity, relieved only temporarily by its lyrical middle section, and how dramatically satisfying this was to the listener! Following it was “The Winter Wind” (no.11), a true storm scene, whether a descriptive or emotional storm, leading into Amir Katz’s inspiring and soul-searching recreating of the ebullient canvas of the final Etude - no.12 (c minor), the “Ocean” Etude, a piece that includes many elements of other Opus 25 etudes, and, of course, a 4-voiced contrapuntal line, its harmony and melody a reminder of Chopin’s love of and familiarity with Bach’s music. So had we come the full circle? It seems we had.

This was indeed a memorable evening.

PHOENIX Ensemble "In Search of the Chaconne"

Ensemble PHOENIX’s latest program “In Search of the Chaconne” presents many approaches to the chaconne and asks a number of questions about this early form. This writer attended the concert at the Israel Conservatory of Music, Tel Aviv, on March 17th 2015. PHOENIX is a broad, multi-faceted ensemble specializing in early music. PHOENIX's repertoire ranges from music from the Middle Ages, through the Renaissance and Baroque to early Romantic music, all played on period instruments. Herzog, however, does not limit herself when it comes to the presenting of a very broad repertoire, introducing audiences to works rarely performed and, in fact, to new music. Such was the case in this concert. Artists taking part in the program were Tali Goldberg and Cordelia Hagmann (Baroque violin), Miriam Manasherov (Baroque viola), Marina Minkin (harpsichord) and Myrna Herzog (viola da gamba).

There is reason to understand that the chaconne, originally a fiery, suggestive dance that appeared in Spain around 1600, may have originated in Mexico. Apparently danced with castanets by a couple or a woman alone, it spread to Italy, where it was considered as disreputable as it was in Spain! Viewed as obscene because of the indecent costumes worn to dance it or because of the vulgar body language it entailed, some people have even attributed the dance’s invention to the devil! In the 17th century, a more subdued, stately and slower version of the chaconne entered the French court, where it also appeared in the stage works of Lully. Usually in triple time, the music is characterized by variations over a recurring bass or harmonic pattern. As to the difference between the chaconne and passacaglia, some theorists have defined the chaconne as a set of variations over a harmonic progression, as opposed to the passacaglia variation form being written over a melodic bass pattern. However, one can find the reverse theory; so attempts to arrive at a clear distinction are arbitrary and historically unfounded.

The PHOENIX program opened with Passacaglia in g minor Op.22 by one of Italy’s first virtuoso violinists Biagio Marini (1587-1663). Indulging in the lush affects of this beguilingly tragic piece, the artists rode on the piece’s dissonances, with ornamenting that was personal and inspired by the moment. There were other “mainstream” chaconnes, too. Issued in by the ostinato subject played pizzicato on the viol, the two violinists took on the musical play, complexities and virtuosity of Tarquino Merula’s (c.1594-1665) Ciaccona with fine assuredness and clear interaction between them. The piece also offers the viol a lively, intricate solo. Then, to the poetic expressiveness of the Chaconne in D-major, taken from the first volume of Marain Marais’ “Pièces de Viole”. Herzog and Minkin’s performance of this was anchored on a delicate sense of balance, bringing out the flow of new ideas and highlighting its French elegance and understatement. Although a solo viol piece by Marin Marais (1656-1728) to whom German music theorist, organist and composer Johann G. Walther referred to as “an incomparable French violist da gamba, whose works are known in the whole of Europe”, one was also constantly reminded of the interest and sophistication of the harpsichord role. Written for dance at court or in the theatre, the chaconne of Henry Purcell’s (1659-1695) Pavan and Chacony (“Chacony” seems to be Purcell’s own term) in g-minor, an early work dating from around 1680, is based on a freely descending tetrachord. It was given its own authentic string expressiveness and “narrative” by the artists, who presented the composer’s mastery of writing variations which grow in power and magic as they proceed through a series of harmonic adventures. One of many chaconnes by G.F.Händel, we heard the chaconne from “Terpsichore”, the ballet-prologue the composer wrote in 1734 for his third version of “Il Pastor Fido”. Here was a chaconne to be danced, written for performance of the French dancer and choreographer Marie Sallé, who performed in this and other Händel operas from 1734-1736, when she was in London.
There were some Baroque composers, to name two, G.Frescobaldi and François Couperin, who enjoyed the play of ambiguity in composition, as they used genre characteristics in a tongue-in-cheek manner. A curious departure from the chaconne was heard In Couperin’s rondeau-chaconne “La Favorite”, written in duple time, rather than triple, yet linked to the dance form by its stately character and its cyclic form. Its recurring bass line is a chromatic scale with figurations. Bristling with interest, Marina Minkin’s reading of this ”Chaconne à deux temps” presented Couperin’s picturesque harpsichord expression, unfailing interest and variety, as she juxtaposed the color of registers and used creative ornamentation to intensify and, sometimes, to relax the music’s course. Minkin also performed a 20th century work inspired by the same form – Hungarian composer György Ligeti’s (1923-2006) “Passacaglia Ungherese”. One of only two harpsichord pieces Ligeti had written, it is based on eight intervals slowly spiraling downward through invertible counterpoint; the composer’s instructions were that it be performed on an instrument tuned to mean-tone temperament, producing eight completely pure intervals. The total effect has a curious otherworldly effect and makes for a beguiling mood piece, a dialogue in a non-tonal musical language with a few somewhat tonal progressions. Add to this some elegant melodies, growing rhythmic intricacy and intensifying, blatant fraught dissonances. Minkin, known for her performance of modern music, juggled the many elements of this piece with great skill and insight.

Another very different take on the dance form at hand was British composer Gustav Holst’s (1874-1934) Chaconne from Suite No.1 in E-flat opus 28 (1909), written for wind band. (Holst was a trombonist). The Chaconne (first movement) is based on a 14-note melody that moves from instrument to instrument, with much weaving of varied lines in and through the ground. In this concert, the work was played on strings only, and period instruments at that! But the instrumentalists recreated the articulacy, atmosphere and sound world of early 20th century British music very successfully, reminding one of Ralph Vaughan Williams’ description of Holst’s music as “uncompromisingly direct (it) reaches into the unknown but never loses touch with humanity”.

The event also included world premieres of two chaconnes, both composed for PHOENIX and for the program. Of his Chaconne, violinist, violist and composer Jonathan Keren wrote: “Treating a melody or a recurring bass have always fascinated me, so I was happy when Myrna Herzog asked me to write a chaconne for the PHOENIX Ensemble…The recurring bass I used in my work is a series of ten notes (a 12-tone row minus two notes.) This row makes writing in the early style difficult as it does not comprise a typical (chaconne) course, being almost atonal in character…” This being the case, the piece opened in a tonal manner. However, with the ground always obvious, it proceeded to touch the ear’s associations of both tonal- and atonal music as the individual lines became more complex and sometimes less so. So the listener finds himself straddling both tonal- and atonal sound worlds quite comfortably, without giving up on either. Jonathan Keren’s Chaconne is both accessible and rewarding to hear.

Moscow-born pianist, arranger and composer Uri Brener is an artist who performs and writes music of many styles and genres, from music for piano, chamber music, vocal-, choral- and symphonic music, electro-acoustic- and crossover music. “In Search of the Chaconne”, a vibrant, eclectic work, from which the concert took its name, reflected Brener’s use of a wide range of styles. His musical agenda included oriental touches, dance music, the bourdon, clusters and driving rhythms in what built up to relentless, full-on energy. This energy spent, we were presented with a tranquil, homophonic chorale-like section, the piece finally winding down to the minimal strand of pizzicato notes on the viol. Brener is a master orchestrator with much to say in the chamber music medium. Writing for specific artists meant including vigorous, challenging solos of strongly individual character – for violin, viola as well as some electrifying material for harpsichord.

Once again, PHOENIX has presented its listeners with a unique, thought-provoking program, taking the courtly Baroque chaconne as its point of reference and examining works inspired by it right up to today. There was a sense of in-depth enquiry, inventiveness, involvement as well as enormous vivacity in the playing of all five artists, inviting the listener to immerse himself fully in each item on the program.

Andrew Parrott and the Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra in Stradella's "San Giovanni Battista"





For its sixth subscription concert of the 2014-2015 season, the Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra (founder/director David Shemer) chose to take its audiences into the complexities of the story and values of Alessandro Stradella’s (1639-1682) “San Giovanni Battista” (St. John the Baptist). Directing and conducting the work from the positif organ was the JBO’s honorary conductor Maestro Andrew Parrott (UK). Vocal soloists were Hadas Faran-Asia, Alon Harari, Yair Polishook, Shira Agmon and Antonio Orsini (Italy); those making up the chorus were Lucie Bloch, Shira Agmon, Antonio Orsini and Yoav Weiss. This writer attended the performance in the Mary Natheniel Golden Hall of Friendship of the Jerusalem International YMCA on March 9th, 2015.

While San Giovanni Battista is categorized as an oratorio, with its biblical theme and static staging of the soloists, it departs from the oratorio form in other ways: firstly, it is sung in Italian and not Latin and the course of its plot spirals in a way more characteristic of opera than of the oratorio. Here is a mixed-genre theatrical work, offering duets, 5-voiced madrigals and dialogue-arias. The librettist, a Sicilian priest Girardo Ansaldi, did away with having a narrator, his focus rather being on exchanges between Herod and John the Baptist. It is possible that Corelli might have been one of the violinists in the work’s first performance in 1657. A native of Rome, Alessandro Stradella’s reputation rested largely on his pioneering role in the development of the concerto grosso, but he composed operas and other stage works, oratorios and other church music, hundreds of cantatas and 27 instrumental works. His personal life, however, took a scandalous course, with an attempt to embezzle money from the church in 1669, affairs he engaged in with noble ladies, an unsuccessful attempt on his life, a later attempt finally doing the job, as he met his death by a hired assassin on the Piazza Bianchi in Genoa. Interestingly, considering Stradella’s personal reputation, when Pope Clement X declared 1675 as a Holy Year, Stradella was chosen to compose one of the 14 oratorios for the year. It goes without saying that such a composer’s taste for a plot would not be for the faint-hearted. Although some sources clain that Stradella’s music was never performed, at least two popular novels and three operas were composed around the story of his notorious life.

The biblical story Stradella uses takes some strange turns from the original. Text sheets in Italian and English were distributed to the audience, albeit bristling with typographical errors. The work opened with arias and recitatives, in which Giovanni (countertenor Alon Harari), addressing the audience in a relaxed manner, articulately took his leave from the “friendly woods…of tranquil peace”. Emerging pleasingly bright in timbre, the role at times seemed placed slightly too low for Harari. Opera tenor and ensemble singer Antonio Orsini, performing in Israel for the first time, is a true find. As the king’s counselor, he skillfully wound his lush, silky voice around the texts, bringing each gesture to life, also blending superbly with Hadas Faran-Asia and Yair Polishook. One just wanted to drink in each lush, mellifluous sound.
‘Let it never happen that such sweet servitude should disperse
Nor that the heart should turn elsewhere and my king no longer love.’

A new local face was mezzo soprano Shira Agmon, in the minor role of the Mother, a young singer of fresh, unmannered expression. And then there is the wily Salome. Soprano Hadas Faran-Asia presents her initially as cold and calculating. As the work progresses, she launches into more intense emotional expression, ever sweetly and winningly feminine, engaging in the florid singing of the role of the manipulative woman. As to baritone Yair Polishook’s performance, the role of Herod was just made for him: authoritative, powerful, imposing, wicked and revengeful, this fine baritone singer negotiated the whole large vocal range with alacrity, as he presented Herod’s rising ego, lust and weakness. Polishook and Faran-Asia’s final duet, with its conflicting agendas, all occurring together, is intelligent writing on Stradella’s part, the work ending with an unresolved chord.

Stradella had considered “San Giovanni Battista” his best work. It was the composer’s first work to be performed in the 20th century (with Maria Callas playing Salome). Musically the work offers new ideas, such as little contrast between recitatives and arias, with several recitatives accompanied by the orchestra, in addition to the concerto grosso effect, not to speak of the composer’s unconventional use of chromatics (representing happiness!) Maestro Andrew Parrott brought out the strange and wonderful musical elements of this work and the interesting partnering of text and music, leading the JBO players in fresh, vital and crisp performance. Here was a different, less familiar and wonderful work to appear on the local Baroque concert scene and how lively and rewarding an experience it was!

The Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, directed by Andres Mustonen, in "With You, Armenia", a concert commemorating the centennial of the Armenian Genocide

Taking place on March 5th 2015 in the Henry Crown Symphony Hall of the Jerusalem Theatre, “With you, Armenia”, a special concert performed by the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra IBA under the direction of Andres Mustonen (Estonia), was the first of many concerts worldwide commemorating the centennial of the Armenian Genocide. Featuring works by three Armenian composers, followed by Beethoven’s Symphony No.3 “Eroica”, the event took place in collaboration with the Perspectives Music Festival, Yerevan, Armenia. Soloists were Moscow-born Armenian pianist Artur Avanesov and Mustonen himself (violin).

Addressing the UN General Assembly on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Israeli President Mr. Reuven Rivlin made mention of the 1915 Armenian Genocide: “In 1915, when members of the Armenian nation were being massacred, here in the Land of Israel no one denied the massacre that had taken place. The residents of Jerusalem, my parents and members of my family, saw the Armenian refugees arriving by the thousands – starving, piteous survivors of calamity. In Jerusalem they found shelter and their descendents continue to live there to this day…”

Following words of introduction and welcome and of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra’s director General Yair Stern, the Patriarch of Jerusalem Nourhan Manougian and Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian both spoke about genocide in history. Filling the Henry Crown Hall to capacity, members of local and overseas Armenian communities as well as representatives of other churches were present at the event.

The program opened with the Adagio from Aram Khachaturian’s (1903-1978) ballet “Spartacus”. Winning the composer the Lenin Prize in 1954, it was premiered in what is now the Mariinsky Theatre two years later. The Adagio appears at a high point of the plot in Act II, when Spartacus manages to free his wife Phrygia. A piece colored by exoticism and glowing sensuality, Andres Mustonen, conducting without a baton, imbued the Adagio with tender lyricism, highlighting its gorgeous melodiousness. This is fine orchestral fare; it was enhanced by fine small solos on the part of the JSO’s woodwind players and a final plangent violin solo.

Especially poignant were two fragments from traditional Armenian monodic singing arranged by Komitas (1869-1935) for violin and orchestra. A monk and church scholar, Komitas was a singer, flautist and teacher; referred to as the musical voice of Armenia, his major achievements lie in his expertise in Armenian national music, his collecting and writing down of folk songs, his study of church music and the connection he forged between the two genres. He also carried out research on Armenian “khazes” (symbols used in early Armenian notation). Sharing in the fate of his compatriots in the 1915 Armenian Genocide, Komitas’ mental condition deteriorated and he spent his final 20 years in a psychiatric hospital in Paris. At the Jerusalem concert, the two sacred vocal monadic pieces performed by Mustonen (violin) to minimal, filigree-fine bourdon-type orchestral accompaniments were “Horsham” – an anonymous burial, repentant piece – and “Havun-Havun”, written by 10th century Armenian poet, musician, philosopher and theologian Saint Grigor Narekatsi. Mustonen’s treatment of these melodies was intensely personal, superbly shaped and spiritual. His playing brought out the raw, delicate beauty of these pieces and their powerfully vibrant expression. For Armenians, music is memory; these pieces were indeed apt to the event.

The final Armenian work on the program, forming a link between contemporary Armenian music, between east and west, Christian ritual and traditional monody, was Stepan Rostomyan’s (b.1956) Symphony No.4. One of the key figures of the musical scene in Armenia today, he has written chamber music, symphonic works, a mono opera, vocal- and instrumental pieces, film- and theatre music. A former director of the Yerevan State Academic Theatre of Drama and founding member and president of the “Yerevan Perspectives” International Music Festival, Rostomyan established the Electronic Music Department at the Yerevan State Conservatory, where he has served as professor of Composition since 1988. Symphony No.4, a highly spiritual piece steeped in devout Christian belief, has a clear (extra-musical) program, tracing the human being from birth and innocence through to adulthood and then to man’s struggle in a world of sin. Via the richly atonal orchestral language of both individual and agglomerate timbral colors and textures, from the opening eerie, otherworldly moments, building up to the composer’s unmistakable depiction of chaos (both worldly and that of the soul), eventually to the calm and tranquility of a temple and heaven, we were shown through the work’s program in finely articulate direction and playing, enriched by recorded music sounding the singing of angels and, at the end of the piece, a long, meditative recorded bass saxophone solo, first highly amplified and then gradually becoming softer and dissipating. The challenging piano part was undertaken by Artur Avanesov, a composer and renowned performer of contemporary music, who had studied under Rostomyan. This was a rewarding performance. The composer was present at the concert.

Following the intermission the JSO performed L.van Beethoven’s (1770-1827) Symphony No.3 in E-flat major opus 55, “Eroica”. The first sketches for the work date from 1802, with the symphony being completed in 1804. Dedicated to Prince Franz Joseph von Lobkowitz, a great music-lover, it was premiered in private performances at Lobkowitz’s palace in Vienna in 1804, the first public performance taking place at the Theater an der Wien (Vienna) in 1805, with the composer conducting. Beethoven’s Symphony No.3 marked a dramatic advance beyond the symphonies of Haydn and Mozart, moving the art of the symphony into a new stage from which there was no turning back. When criticized for having written the longest symphony ever, Beethoven retorted with “If I write a symphony an hour long, it will be found short enough”. Mustonen’s treatment of the work was fastidious, detailed and articulate, full-blooded and intense. In his unconventional conducting language, each gesture was addressed, as the work moved from tension to release and back again. Especially beautiful were the wind solos. In the fugal section of the second movement, each entry offered a new musical message. Andres Mustonen’s musical language is a kaleidoscope of dynamic interest; this work was a fine vehicle for his approach.

Andres Mustonen directs Barrocade and soloists in Vivaldi's "la Senna Festeggiante"

Antonio Vivaldi

In its latest concert, “Vivaldi in Paris”, directed by violinist-conductor Andres Mustonen (Estonia), no new face to Israeli audiences, the Barrocade Ensemble offered its audiences the opportunity to hear a work of a different genre, probably a work unknown to most local concert-goers. This writer attended the production at the Kyriat Ye’arim Church, Abu Gosh, on February 28th 2015. Antonio Vivaldi’s “La Senna Festeggiante” (Seine Celebrations), one of the composer’s more obscure works, is a full length “serenata”, this genre being a cross between a cantata and an opera. Serenatas (or evening operas) are shorter, smaller-scaled operatic compositions intended for festivities and celebrations. This libretto for this work was probably written by Domenico Lalli, a librettist in great demand and a dominant force on the Venetian operatic scene. So why did Vivaldi write a work set in Paris, flavoring it so generously with French musical practice? Nobody is absolutely sure of all the details, but it seems to have been composed for an event in France to celebrate the restoring of amicable diplomatic relations between Italy and France after a 14-year break. Another suggestion is that it was written for the name day of Louis XV. There are, however, references to Versailles and King Louis XIV in the text. Exactly when “La Senna Festeggiante” was composed and even whether it was performed remains unclear.

Typical of this kind of work, La Senna Festeggiante has but a slight storyline: the Golden Era and Virtue are looking for true happiness. They find it on the banks of the Seine with the god of the river, La Senna. It follows the usual serenata form, in which the allegorical characters are introduced gradually, first l’Età ldell’Oro (The Golden Age) - Einat Aronstein, then La Virtù (Virtue) - Alon Harari and, finally, La Senna (The Seine, the river god) –Guy Pelc. Hallmarks of the French style to be heard in this work are the French-type ouverture, the use of many wind instruments, the fact that most recitatives are accompanied by strings and – most representative of French entertainment of the upper echelons – a grand selection of French dances. Some of the costumes were brought from Basel.



Of great interest was the singers’ use of early theatrical gestures. Barrocade brought Sharon Weller (Basel, Switzerland) to Israel to instruct the three singers in this specific theatrical “language”, a tradition of symbolic movements stemming from the Middle Ages and still to be seen in the old silent movies. American-born Sharon Weller is a singer, teacher and stage director, whose specialty is historical staging. The singers showed varying degrees of skill in this expressive use of the hands, face and eyes, with moments of eyes looking heavenwards (appropriate to these non-earthly characters) and occasional frozen stances. In addition to its purpose of entertaining members of the nobility, this work is virtuosic and staging it depends on the choice of singers of high ability. The young Israeli singers in the Barrocade production did not fall short, capturing the spirit of the allegorical and fluvial characters. Soprano Einat Aronstein, dressed in a flowing gold gown, gave an engaging performance, brimming with emotion, agility and rich sonority, of effortless soaring into the higher register of her voice, shaping phrases, ornamenting deftly and teasing the audience with dissonant notes held just that bit overtime at the ends of sections. Dressed in green and gold, his head crowned with a garland of gold leaves, countertenor Alon Harari made for an authoritative Virtue. The serenata genre fits him like a glove, his warm, ample voice giving as much life to recitatives as arias, as he delighted in the fantasy, joy and humor of the work, communicating with the audience with the wink of an eye. In Harari and Aronstein’s duets, the voices blended superbly as they interacted. The bass role, however, is perhaps the most demanding and virtuosic. It is certainly the most dramatic. Here Guy Pelc handled it well, with its fast tempi to be contended with in the lower register; his first aria “Qui nel profondo” described the Seine’s depth and rapid flow. A highlight of the performance was Pelc’s tender and compassionate singing of “Pietà, dolcessa”. And how advantageous it was to have singers knowing the work well, performing it without the encumbrance of holding scores!

Historian Alon Klibanov, dressed in traditional Venetian costume – red suit, black cloak, a gold-trimmed three-cornered hat and, of course, the white mask – provided the audience with information on life and culture in Venice at the time as well as on the very unique presentation we were witnessing.

Andres Mustonen’s interpretation of Baroque music goes for color and excitement. In his personal, unconventional style of conducting, the maestro wrung every gesture and emotion out of the instrumental score, producing much timbral variety in playing that was involved and full of sparkling freshness and poetry, with moments of magic. Much is to be said for the substantial presence of wind instruments, their reedy richness setting off the singers’ voices congenially. Yizhar Karshon’s harpsichord transitions and utterances at transparent points proved that eloquence and delicacy do not necessarily rule out spontaneity, imagination and daring. As to the variety of dances threaded through the score, we were presented with a broad range, from elegant court dances to the earthiest of country dances.

On its various levels, this exuberant and polished production was surely one of the highlights of the 2014-2015 concert season.






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