The 47th Abu Gosh Vocal Music Festival to take place May 2015 in the Judean Hills



The 47^th Abu Gosh Vocal Music Festival will open on May 22^nd 2015. Existing in its present set-up since 1992, the festival, directed by Hanna Tzur, takes place twice a year – during the Succoth and Shavuot holidays. Concerts are held in the spacious Kiryat Ye’arim Church that graces the top of a hill and in the intimate crypt of the 12^th century Benedictine Crusader Church, nestling in a peaceful, exotic garden. People from all over Israel attend the festival, taking time out from the bustle of everyday life to immerse themselves in good music, enjoy the views over the Judean Hills, to picnic and browse the craft stalls.

 This year’s Shavuot festival will take place May 22^nd, 23^rd and 24^th, and will feature a good selection of Israeli artists in a wide variety of events. The festive opening event will be “Cherubini - Requiem, Mendelssohn - Psalm 115” (Kiryat Ye’arim Church, June 22^nd, 11:30) in which Maestro Ronen Borshevsky will conduct the Israel Kibbutz Choir and the Israel Netanya Kibbutz Orchestra. A rare treat at this concert will be Israeli composer Yoni Rechter’s “Adorned is Your Forehead” (lyrics: Avraham Khalfi) for choir oboe and piano (arr. Shaul Gilad). Soloists will be soprano Beata Lipska, tenor Boaz Ben-Sira and baritone Jacob Basch.

 People wishing to indulge in the joys, roller-coaster emotions and vivid colors of Latin music will be drawn to “Misa Criolla, Misa a Buenos Aires” (Kiryat Ye’arim Church, May 22^nd, 15:00) to hear works of Ramirez, Piazzolla, Palmeri and more, performed by the Kibbutz Artzi Choir, the Raanana Symphonette Orchestra and a Latino-America Ensemble, under the baton of  Yuval Benozer; and, later that day, “Ramirez, Villa Lobos, Gilberto Gil, Caymmi”, a rich variety of highlights from Brazil and Argentina, will be performed by soprano Daniela Skorka and guitarist Eyal Leber (the Crypt, May 22^nd, 16:15).

 This Abu Gosh Festival also offers an event for opera lovers. They will be able to enjoy arias, duets and ensembles from a number of operas in “Rossini – The Barber of Seville, the Italian in Algiers” (Kiryat Ye’arim Church, May 23^rd, 15:00), performed by up-and-coming (and more veteran) singers from the Israeli Opera’s Meitar Opera Studio, accompanied by pianist and musical director of the studio, David Sebba.

Those with a taste for American music are going to enjoy two special events: in “Homage to Joan Baez – Her Loved and Renowned Songs” (the Crypt, May 22^nd, 14:00), soprano Revital Raviv with guitarist Eyal Leber and Shaul Gross (guitar, harmonica, mandolin) will bring back nostalgic memories to many of us with American, Scottish and Irish folk songs, songs of Bob Dylan, Don Dilworth and Dire Straits. From the finest of American musical theatre repertoire, soprano Sharon Dvorin, mezzo-soprano Karin Shifrin and pianist Yoni Farhi will present numbers from ”Porgy and Bess”,  “West Side Story” and “The Sound of Music” , topped off with songs from Kurt Weill’s tragicomic evocation of decadence and vice in Germany of the late 1920s in his  “Threepenny Opera” and “Mahaggony” in the event titled “Gershwin, Bernstein, Hammerstein and Kurt Weill” (the Crypt, May 23rd, 16:15).

 The mandolin will hold a unique place at this Shavuot’s Abu Gosh Vocal Music Festival. In “Maestro Vivaldi’s Mandolin” (Kiryat Ye’arim Church, May 23^rd, 11:30) we will actually hear three mandolin artists – Shmuel Elbaz (soloist), Jacob Reuven and Roy Dayan. In a program of works by Vivaldi, Ortelli and Monteverdi, they will be joined by tenor Daniel Portnoy, countertenor Eliran Dadosi, Amit Tiefenbrunn (viola da gamba), Yizhar Karshon (harpsichord), Ma’ayan Beider-Jacobson (double bass) and the Shachar Choir under the direction of Gila Brill. Totally different concert fare will be the order of the day in “Shem Tov Levi – Singer, Composer, Musician” (the Crypt, May 23^rd, 14:00), when Shem Tov Levi himself (b.1950), violinist Yael Barolsky, violist Yael Patish-Comforty and ‘cellist Shira Mani-Sror will present Levi’s songs alongside  music of J.S.Bach and Piazzolla in a curiously motley selection of works.

 In addition to the opening concert, sacred music, as always, will figure largely in this Shavuot’s Abu Gosh Vocal Music Festival. In addition to the much-loved “Fauré – Requiem for soloists, choir and orchestra” (Kiryat Ye’arim Church, May 22^nd, 18:00) the same concert will feature a lullaby by Veljo Tormis, pieces of Benjamin Britten, the “Pie Jesu” from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Requiem”, Yehezkel Braun’s lush arrangement of Naomi Shemer’s “Jerusalem of Gold” and some French chansons, with Anat Morahg conducting an instrumental ensemble and the Ma’ayan and Bat Kol Choirs; vocal soloists will be soprano Shira Patshornik, alto Noga Morahg and baritone Guy Pelc. Marina Ganshin will provide the poignant harp role so essential to the Fauré Requiem. “Händel – Ode for St. Cecilia’s Day” (Kiryat Ye’arim Church, May 24^th, 11:30) will be accompanied by an impressive line-up of instrumentalists and feature soprano Yeela Avital, tenor Assaf Kacholi and flautist Noam Buchman, with the Upper Galilee Choir, conducted by Ron Zarhi. This will be followed by “Works by Bach, Mozart and Liszt – Mass, Cantata, Vespers” (Kiryat Ye’arim Church, May 24^th, 15:00) with soprano Shira Patshornik, organists Yizhar Karshon and Alexander Wolch, the Barrocade Ensemble and the Tel Aviv Chamber Choir conducted by Michael Shani.  Not to be missed is  the festival’s closing event, in which the Abu Gosh Vocal Music Festival’s musical director Hanna Tzur will be conducting the Ramat Gan Choir in “Rossini – Petite Messe Solenelle” (Kiryat Ye’arim Church, May 24^th, 18:00), a convivial, colorful and somewhat enigmatic piece (declared by Napoleon III as “neither small, solemn, nor especially liturgical in spirit”). Soloists will be soprano Daniela Skorka, alto Sigal Haviv, tenor Eitan Drori and baritone Alexey Kanonikov. Performed here in the composer’s original chamber setting, this optimistic work is sure to emerge as more personal and elegant, lending itself to live performance and constituting a fine adieu to the upcoming Abu Gosh Vocal Music Festival.

 

 http://www.agfestival.co.il

Urban F.Walser and Alexander Koschel (Switzerland) perform music for corno da caccia and organ at the Redeemer Church (Jerusalem)

“Music from the Baroque Period for Corno da Caccia and Organ” was the subject of a concert at the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in Jerusalem’s Old City on May 9^th 2015.  The guest artists were organist Dr. Alexander Koschel and trumpeter Urban F. Walser, both from Switzerland. For this unique program, Mr. Walser played the corno da caccia. A transposing instrument, the corno da caccia, a valved horn of higher pitch than the orchestral French horn, was played from the Baroque right up to the beginning of the Romantic period. It was frequently played by trumpeters, due to its high register and without hand-stopping. In the late 20^th century, horn literature of the 18^th century was being rediscovered and, with it, the notion that the brighter-sounding instrument with its narrower bore was more in keeping with the character of Baroque and later repertoire. The virtuoso German trumpeter Ludwig Güttler, an expert on 18^th century trumpet music, was largely responsible for the revival of the corno da caccia. All the works performed by Walser at the Redeemer Church were written originally for the corno da caccia, an instrument frequently often used by J.S.Bach.

 

The program opened with G.Ph.Telemann’s (1681-1767) Concerto in D-major, played boldly in a reading sparkling with freshness, the organ’s bell-like registrations and the horn sound forming a vibrant mix of timbres. Hearing the corno da caccia for the first time, I was surprised at how forthright and powerful a sound the instrument has, together with a certain amount of dynamic flexibility. Never belying the technical challenges of the instrument, its demands regarding breath control and intonation traps, Walser’s playing was easeful, ornamented and entertaining.

 

J.S.Bach’s small Fantasia in C-major BWV 573 appears as incomplete in the 1722 Little Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach. Alexander Koschel’s playing of the version completed by Arnold Strebel was majestic and jubilant, his solid choice of volume highlighting the piece’s joyfulness. This was followed by an Aria with 6 Variations, an anonymous piece from an organ manuscript in the St. Katherinenthal Monastery in Switzerland. Choosing a more veiled timbre for the subject, Koschel then colored the variations with varied timbres and some ornamentation, his playing retaining the piece’s directness.

 

Organist and court musician at the Court of Schwerin, Peter Joachim Fick (d.1743) was both a copyist and prolific composer. His Horn Concerto in E-flat major, found in the State Library of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, highlights the influence of the Italian school on his writing. Following this work, an imaginative transition played by Koschel led into German organist and composer Georg Böhm’s (1661-1730) chorale melody “Vater unser im Himmelreich” (Our Father in the kingdom of heaven). Böhm, who held the post of organist at St. John’s Church Lüneburg for most of his professional life, was an important figure in the development of music in the Lutheran church. Boehm’s works influenced J.S.Bach, his writing using the “stylus phantasticus” approach that involved playing as based on improvisation. Koschel allowed piece’s the solemn, reverent beauty and humility to speak for itself, enlisting the rewarding palette of colors of the Redeemer Church’s Karl Schuke organ for the task.

 

In a very different vein, Alexander Koschel then performed J.S.Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D-minor BWV 565.  Whether an early work of the exuberant young Bach from his time in Arnstadt or the composition of some other composer, as has been suggested, (the manuscript no longer exists) Koschel gave expression to the work’s grandeur, drama and excitement, indeed, to its outright flamboyancy, and to the spontaneous freedom the toccata form offers, its style connected to the North German “stylus phantasticus” mentioned above. The sonorities he chose added to the imaginative character of the piece. Koschel’s seemingly effortless performance of the fugue was no less eventful, and his pacing strategic, as he presented its poly-layering in articulate fine “orchestration”.

 

The concert concluded with the Concerto in D-major by tenor and opera composer Carl Heinrich Graun (1703-1759), a leading exponent of the pre-Classical Berlin school and musical director to Frederick the Great. Sending the audience at the Redeemer Church back out into the spring sunshine with a fill of enjoyment and a unique musical experience, Graun's user-friendly Italianate galant style offered the artists another opportunity to present articulate, virtuosic and vibrant performance.

 

Urban J. Walser studied the trumpet with Roger Delmotte (Paris) and taught at the Basel Music Academy. His trumpet performances of J.S.Bach works have led to collaborations with many leading ensembles and conductors. He is a leader in the reintroduction of the corno da caccia. His recording of Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No.2 on the instrument has won high acclaim. This was Mr. Waiser’s first performance in Israel.

 

Alexander Koschel studied in Germany, Russia and Austria, completing his PhD at the Arts University in Graz (Austria). Involved with the preservation of the heritage of German organ builder Friedrich Ladegast, Koschel is the author of comprehensive academic papers and a publisher of organ music. As a performer and musicologist, his main interest lies in the organ music of Central Germany. Both artists have been performing together since 2002. In addition to playing repertoire designated to the corno da caccia and organ, they are interested in performing works of little-known composers of the Renaissance and Baroque.

 

 

 

 

Nine new works performed by Musica Nova at HaTeiva (Jaffa, Israel) in honor of Israeli composer Amnon Wolman's 60th birthday

On April 29th 2015, artists of Ensemble Musica Nova presented “60 - a Tribute to Amnon Wolman”.The concert took place at the intimate HaTeiva Concert Hall in Old Jaffa. Putting together the program, Ensemble Musica Nova called on a number of composers - friends, colleagues and former students of Amnon Wolman - both from Israel and overseas, inviting them to write works for the event. The scoring of works required would be any combination to fit in with Musica Nova’s ensemble of two pianists, ‘cello, saxophone, percussion and electronics. Some composers submitted works for the complete ensemble, while others wrote for smaller combinations; there were also electronic works, works integrating video, electronic soundtracks and live performance. Some 50 works arrived from the USA, England, Germany, Singapore, Spain, Portugal, France and Israel, of which nine short pieces were selected for the event itself. All nine pieces, all of them composed in 2015, including one by Wolman himself, were premiered at the festive Jaffa concert to celebrate the composer’s 60th birthday.

Currently on the faculty of the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance and artistic director of Ensemble Musica Nova (Tel Aviv), sound artist and composer Amnon Wolman focuses much interest and involvement on technology and on issues of time information, alongside questions regarding the creative process and those engaging in it. A highly respected teacher, Prof. Wolman has taught at Northwestern University, City University of New York-Brooklyn College and Tel Aviv University and has held master classes and summer courses in different locations. In 2012 he was guest professor of composition at Harvard University.

The evening opened with American composer David Grubbs’ (b.1967) conceptual-performative untitled work for Amnon Wolman: a quotation projected onto a screen in front of which the Musica Nova artists stood in silence. This was followed by Israeli composer Chaya Czernowin’s (b.1957) “Adiantum Capillus-Veneris” Etudes in fragility for voice and breath (1&2), performed by contralto Noa Frenkel – music consisting of delicately chiseled series of breathy effects, textures of tongue and lips, alternating with pitches sung in single syllables. Frenkel, a specialist in contemporary music performance, focused, communicative and convincing, drew the audience into the filigree-fine details of the two pieces.

“The Shirakawa Barrier” for four voices and electronics was Ido Govrin’s contribution to the program and his tribute to Amnon Wolman. Born in 1976 in Jerusalem, the sound artist, curator, composer and writer was director of Musica Nova from 2008 to 2012. As to the work’s title, Shirakawa, close to the Nasu Highland area (some 188 kilometers from Tokyo), once served as the entrance to the Tohoku region. Around the 5th century, a barrier was built to prevent potential attacks. The site has become a poetic landmark, to which many Japanese poets return, either physically or in their minds, becoming the inspiration for the “utamakura” i.e. a category of poetic words, many of which are place names or the names of features associated with them, creating an allusion and intertextuality between individual poems and within the tradition. In which case, the symbolic site of the Shirakawa Barrier does not distinguish between history and poetry. Govrin’s intimate, evocative work took the audience into the theme of journeys, with different texts (in Hebrew) spoken softly but articulately, singly, in pairs and sometimes simultaneously by all four artists on stage. The work was backed by a tape of musical fragments recorded for and by members of Musica Nova. This connotative work is highly effective, indeed beguiling, demanding choices and active listening on the part of the audience. I felt that one hearing was not sufficient in order to grasp enough of the spoken texts.

A highly engaging listening experience was provided by “Attachment Unavailable” for live and pre-recorded tenor saxophone, a tribute by Neil Leonard (b.1959) to a “friend, mentor and collaborator”, as he refers to Prof. Wolman, speaking of the “immense impact that knowing Amnon has had on many of us.” An American composer, saxophonist, interdisciplinary artist  and artistic director of the Berklee Interdisciplinary Arts Institute, Berklee College of Music (Boston), Leonard’s work ranges from solo concerts for saxophone/live electronics, to works for orchestra, audio/video installation and sound for dance, theatre and performance. I had the pleasure of being in touch with Prof. Leonard and discussing the piece with him. As to the prerecorded material, he himself recorded it mostly in public spaces, playing lines that would resonate in those atriums and corridors, with the intention of later multi-tracking or layering fragments from it. In live improvisation, saxophonist Tom Soloveitchik used the prerecorded material as a basis on which to add new sound combinations, to partner, react and interact freely with it, to emote and express within the possibilities and language of the instrument. What emerged was an intense, dynamic, piece of vibrant timbres and one asking to sound differently with each new performance.

In the program notes, Oded Assaf (b.1947) speaks of his autobiographic piano miniatures “Postscriptum: 2 References” as forming a continuum, a kind of later, condensed appendix to his previous work “Pockets”, the word “References” here shedding light on “works, composers, materials and principles forming my [compositional] basis”, in the composer’s words. Performing the two mood pierces, pianist/improviser and composer Assaf Shatil (b.1976) took time to spell out the meditative content of both pieces: the first - chordal, tonality-based and punctuated with many rests, the second, an eerie, ruminating and less tonal piece.

Guitarist and composer Reuven Seroussi (b. 1959, Uruguay) felt he could take up the challenge to write a work for the 60th birthday event only after he had found a text to inspire him and one fitting to be a homage to Amnon Wolman and Wolman’s own particular poetic style. Seroussi chose the opening and closing lines of a poem written in 1912 by Spanish poet Juan Ramón Jiménez (1881-1958), a text powerful in its connections between the final and the everlasting. “Evening”, as referred to in the poem, constitutes an experience of the senses, enlisting an atmosphere of acceptance, insight and wonder. Prior to the performance, the composer read out a Hebrew translation of the poem. The work was presented by ‘cellist Dan Weinstein, a musician focusing much on contemporary and experimental music, and contralto Noa Frenkel. A compelling performance, Frenkel made use of a gamut of different vocal textures, the score calling for much leaping between high and low registers, for speech, the breathing of words and a play of syllables. With the ‘cello part no less intensive, Weinstein’s playing balanced, reflected and supported the vocal role.

Tel Aviv-born composer and sound artist Kiki Keren Huss, today working largely in the electro-acoustic medium, called the work she had written for the event “Birthday Soup”. In a spirit of whimsy, the composer explained her “small musical theatrical piece for pianist and humming” thus: “not exactly soup, but for a birthday. One pianist, a few piano sounds and a little humming”. The pianist was German-born Shira Legmann, who paced the minimalist, intimate work leisurely, pausing between phrases. The delicate, fragile piece is based on the motif of a rising second, with Legmann’s pastel vocal sounds contributing to add a harmonic dimension. Following a nostalgic little waltz and the reminder of the rising second, the work concluded with a quotation from a children’s nursery rhyme: “Flying man flying man, up in the sky. Where are you going to?”

Amnon Wolman referred to his work “To Nova” for alto, narrator, saxophone, ‘cello, piano and two keyboards as a work of gratitude, to celebrate Musica Nova and show his appreciation to various ensembles which have constituted “Musica Nova”, together with whom new ideas were tried and with whom he aspired to present music not represented on the Israeli music scene. Wolman’s objective in this work was to suggest various kinds of musical partnerships taking place over tens of years, “but through my own personal glasses...My encounter with Musica Nova has been an abundant gift. This work aims to celebrate this.” Indeed, this piece included the whole Musica Nova team in a collage of poignant delicacy. Bean boxes (evocative rain stick effects), and the sound of falling pebbles, forming the percussive element of a series of tranquil sound screens, complemented small solo fragments. Selecting from her distinctive and rich vocal palette, Noa Frenkel made use of some of her characteristically earthy low notes, also offering a few moments of suggestive nightclub chanteuse. Of the three short texts woven through the work and read by Avigail Arnheim, the first two were written by Wolman himself “in the language and place of performance”: “Imagine a beautiful melody played on an oboe; it gets closer, then moves away and disappears slowly to…” and “and a call of a crow, which is repeated again and again and again.” The third text was from Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”: “Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end, and stop”. Amnon Wolman is known for his long-standing interest in the creative process, the relationship between performer and artist and for his belief that music is an art form expressing many dissimilar ideas of beauty. This small work, taking the listener into a world of grace, naivety and fantasy, represented those values.

The event concluded with ‘cellist, composer and interdisciplinary artist Anton Lukoszevieze’s (UK) “Mapping Amnon” for video playback and piano. The film loop used was a tiny fragment of an old home movie, showing an Israeli beach scene and accompanied by recorded ‘cello sounds. Also heard was a recording of American poet John Wieners (1934-2002) reading his “Poem for Painters” (1958).
‘Drawing the face and its torture.
That is why no one dares tackle it.
Held as they are in the hands
of forces they cannot understand.
The despair is on my face and shall show
in the fine lines of any man…’

Here is a mood piece, the broader canvas powerful with the poet’s mesmeric, melancholic reading, his strong images commented upon by the piano part – integrated, jazzy and American – at the hands of Assaf Shatil. So where does the “mapping” come in? Lukoszevieve explains that the simple 4-note repetitions on the soundtrack are a “musical rendition of me saying the 4 syllables of Amnon’s name” and that Wieners’ voice together with the rippling film tableaux “made me feel I was ‘mapping’ Amnon and his travels through life in my mind’s eye.” The work’s various elements seemed to invite the listener to join its course, that of a piece both moving and thought-provoking.

Since its establishment in 1986, Ensemble Musica Nova, a Tel Aviv-based collective, has played a central role in the field of experimental music and in presenting new works of Israeli and overseas composers, having premiered over 180 Israeli compositions to date, and collaborating with renowned composers and artists. In its broad approach, Musica Nova often bridges the gap between concert hall music and that of other disciplines, such as dance, video art and theater. Currently the ensemble in residence of the Musrara School of the Arts, Musica Nova’s artists, work and performances set a high standard in the field of contemporary music in Israel.

 

Michael Tsalka's 2014 recording of Viktor Ullmann's seven Piano Sonatas

Born in Silesia, Viktor Ullmann (1898-1944) grew up in Vienna, where he received his education. He took part in Schoenberg’s advanced courses and became one of Alexander Zemlinsky’s conducting assistants at the New German Theatre in Prague in the 1920s, becoming first Kapellmeister at the municipal theatre in Aussig (1927-1928). A member of the Schoenberg circle, he was also a devotee of Rudolph Steiner’s anthroposophical movement.

Unable to find work in London or South Africa, Ullmann was in Prague after the German invasion of March 1939. He was deported to Theresienstadt in 1942 where fortunately he was asked to work as a critic and concert organizer in the “model” concentration camp – a sly Nazi propaganda showcase project - assisting in performances and lecturing on various topics, a place where, in his own words, “anything connected with the muses is in utter contrast to the surroundings”. His compositional output there was large – three piano sonatas, a string quartet, Lieder, orchestral works, an opera “The Emperor of Atlantis” and arrangements of Yiddish and Hebrew songs. In addition to his concert reviews there, he also wrote extensively in words – essays, an opera libretto and “The Strange Passenger”, poems and aphorisms in which he discloses his misery, ambivalence regarding his Jewish identity and his cynicism. Ullmann was deported in one of the last transports to Auschwitz in October 1944, where he perished.

After 1945, Viktor Ullmann’s works sank into oblivion, to be rediscovered in the 1990s. Of late, there has been renewed interest in his seven sonatas. Israeli-Dutch keyboard performer Michael Tsalka recorded all seven of Viktor Ullmann’s piano sonatas in 2014 for the Paladino Music label. They are played on a 1912 Steinway, now in the historical instrument collection of the Nydahl Collection, Stockholm, Sweden; it is an instrument “which, by virtue of its individualized registers and distinct timbers, served well to bring back to life the sonic imaginarium of Ullmann’s piano sonatas” in Tsalka’s words. Dr. Tsalka and painter Corinne Duchesne were both artists-in-residence at the Anderson Center for Interdisciplinary Studies in Red Wing, Minnesota at the time he was learning the sonatas. The painting displayed on the back of the liner note booklet was done by Duchesne as she listened to Tsalka rehearsing the sonatas.

Ullmann’s seven piano sonatas, composed between 1936 and 1944, trace the composer’s stylistic thinking and development, displaying the influence of Schoenberg, Béla Bartók, Alban Berg and other composers; but what is also highly relevant to both performer and listener is the political and artistic climate in Europe during which they were composed and which they reflect. The first four sonatas were written when Ullmann was still in Prague. From the very first notes of his playing of Sonata No.1 opus 10, one senses how naturally Tsalka adapts Ullmann’s own modernistic language of 1936 to his own mindset in 2014. Melodic voices take on individual and conversational reality, the Andante funeral march (2nd movement of Sonata No.1), written in memory of Mahler, emerges as soul-searching and spontaneous. As in Sonata No.1, and, in fact, in all seven sonatas, the composer grapples with the issues of the pull of tonality and what lies beyond it in Sonata No.2 opus 19 (1939). Following Ullmann’s use of a Czech folksong in the 2nd movement, Tsalka takes the final Prestissimo-marked movement leisurely enough to highlight its fine detail and underlying pessimistic searching, as it plumbs the depths of the mind. In Piano Sonata No.3 opus 26b (1940), the pianist presents more demonic elements, the 2nd movement - Scherzo Allegro violente (prestissimo), unsmiling and cynical, offers few comforting moments. As to the enigmatic 3rd movement – Variations on a Theme of Mozart – Tsalka states the naïve melody with simple, positive eloquence, presenting the gamut of styles of its intriguing transformations as the composer pushes the boundaries of tonality, leaving it and returning to it. Ullmann dedicated Sonata No.4 opus 38 (1949) to pianist Alice Herz-Sommer, who had premiered his Sonata No.2 in 1940. Herz-Sommer (1903-2014) survived Theresienstadt. Tsalka presents and contrasts the alternating moods of Sonata No.4’s opening Allegro vivace movement – the despondent, downcast opening mood set against a more Romantic mood, wistful rather than brooding, concluding the movement with a pastel-hued major gesture. The middle movement – a contemplative fugue, as interesting and delicate as it is joyless, is played with eloquence. Tsalka’s articulate and clean playing shows the listener with sensitivity through the complexities of the 3rd movement, a fugal tour-de-force, addressing and highlighting its somber shapes and nuances, ending with a major chord.

The last three sonatas were composed in Theresienstadt. There Ullmann wrote: “In my work in Theresienstadt I have bloomed in musical growth and not felt myself at all inhibited…” proof of his belief in the supreme value and strength of artistic creativity. Sonata No.5 opus 45 (1943) “Von meiner Jugend” (From my Youth) was dedicated to the memory of Ullmann’s wife Elisabeth, who had just died in the camp. Tsalka’s reading of it brings to life each witty, playful gesture of the positive C-major/atonal first movement, punctuated by its sentimental tonal episodes and lavished with a sense of wellbeing. The composer’s bleak situation colors the following Andante with ghostly musings, Tsalka’s small pauses on introducing new phrases giving the piece a sense of searching. Following energetic playing of the cynical, miniature, densely compiled Toccatina, Tsalka takes us into the Serenade and the composer’s memories of youth with a nostalgic Slavic folk melody; this is colored with sad, tender and occasionally dark moments. More sinister and mercurial is the fugal Finale. The pianist’s playing of the first movement of Piano Sonata No.6 opus 49a (1943) takes the listener from elements of jazz, through lyricism, then intensity, finally settling in into an introverted, almost vulnerable mood. Following Ullmann’s inspired theme and variations (2nd movement) the work forges on to two movements of huge technical demands. Sonata No.7 (1944), dedicated to three of his children (a fourth child died in Theresienstadt) and bearing no opus number, was the last of Ullmann’s works written before he was transported to the gas chambers of Auschwitz. Yet the opening Allegro movement, reflecting the late German Romantic style, is exhilarating and life-affirming. Tsalka’s playing supports its energy, stability and the affirming message of the major tonality. With the ominous message of the Alla marcia (2nd movement), however, most of this optimism is replaced by a sense of fatalism, of isolation and inner despair, also expressed in the atonal language of the following Adagio and of a Scherzo deprived of joy and peace, save for a quote from a musical – a flash of happy past memories. In the final movement, rich in the elements threaded through Ullmann’s musical, emotional and intellectual life (references to Bach, to Christianity versus Judaism, folk music, theme and variation form, counterpoint, the fugue, tonal versus atonal writing) Michael Tsalka opens with the tender, lush playing of a Yiddish tune. The work concludes on a triumphant chord.

Michael Tsalka has made an in-depth study of Ullmann’s music and life. His recording of all seven sonatas offers the listener the opportunity of following developments in Ullmann’s writing over the final eight years of his life. The 1912 Steinway piano, with its fresh, open sound and wide range of timbral and expressive possibilities, was an optimal choice for this music. Tsalka’s articulate and sensitive reading gives each sonata palpable musical life, the works coming across as “contemporary” and as relevant to current musical thought today as when they were written. This is a great and lasting strength of Viktor Ullmann’s writing. Michael Tsalka finds a fine balance between his understanding of the background and circumstances of each sonata and his objective playing of some of the finest piano music composed in the first half of the 20th century.

An artist of great versatility, Tsalka performs repertoire from early Baroque- to contemporary music on keyboard instruments from harpsichord, clavichord, fortepiano, chamber organ, to historic pianos and the modern piano. His performance schedule takes him all over the world, where he also holds master classes.






Michael Tsalka (photo:Rami Tsalka)

The Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Yaron Gottfried, in a concert to celebrate Israel's 67th Independence Day

With the Henry Crown Hall of the Jerusalem Theatre packed to capacity on April 22nd 2015, the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra IBA, under the baton of Yaron Gottfried, performed a festive concert for the eve of Israel’s 67th Independence Day. Soloist was singer Yasmin Levy.

Following words of welcome from JSO director Yair Stern, the event got under way with L. van Beethoven’s Leonore Overture No.3 opus 72a (1806). Of the four overtures Beethoven wrote for his opera “Leonore” (later renamed as “Fidelio”) this piece, better suited to the concert hall than the opera house, traces the dramatic ups and downs of Florestan’s fate in the “Fidelio” story in Beethoven’s full orchestration, a setting rich in its use of wind instruments (including off-stage trumpet, to signal Pizarro’s defeat.) Programmatic content aside, Gottfried and the JSO gave an incisive, varied and exhilarating performance of the work, offering pleasing flute and bassoon solos and whetting the audience’s appetite for a musical event that kept it captive throughout the evening.

We then heard Alexander Uriya Boskovich’s (1907-1964) “The Golden Chain”, instrumental settings of Jewish melodies the composer had heard in villages of the Carpathian Mountains. In 1938, Maestro Issay Dobrowen invited the Transylvanian composer to attend the Palestine Orchestra’s (later to become the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra) premiering of the work, one consequence being that Boskovich attended the premiere and decided to stay in Palestine (Israel), becoming an important figure and teacher in the country’s musical life, the other consequence being that his life was saved. In vivid and tasteful orchestrations of melodies familiar to many in the audience, its orchestration offering some dissonance intertwined with the bitter-sweet harmonic fabric, the vignettes of “The Golden Chain” evoked the atmosphere of Jewish life in Eastern Europe, from the melancholy modal lullaby of “Sleep, my Daughter”, to the joy and humor of the “Chazke’le” wedding dance, the mystery and small solos of “The Eternal Enigma”, the magical setting of the love song “Deep in the Woods” and the sweet naivety of the maiden’s song “Yume, Yume”.

Suite no.1 from Manuel de Falla’s (1876-1946) ballet music “The Three-Cornered Hat”, quintessentially Spanish in its folk modes, its traditional dances and excitement, is based on a novella by Pedro Antonio de Alarcón, in which love, jealousy and buffoonery play out against each other. Choreographed by Leonid Massin, the ballet itself was premiered in 1919, with décor by Picasso. Again, without necessarily referring to its programmatic content, the audience was well entertained by the JSO’s presentation of the work’s joy, its brilliant orchestral colors, fast-changing rhythms, driving rhythms and exotic hues.

Following the intermission, the audience returned to the hall to see some extra players seated with the orchestra: Eduardo Abramson - bandoneón (a small concertina played in Argentina, Uruguay and Lithuania), Yechiel Hasson - guitar, Ishai Amir - cajón (a box drum, originally from Peru, on which the player sits) and Philip Luria – piano. This part of the concert featured Yasmin Levy singing tango songs and songs in Ladino, all of them arrangements by Yaron Gottfried. Levy presented the tango songs in all the dramatic roller-coaster ride of love of which they tell, their sensuous passion and the sweeping, inebriating rhythms of the exotic tango dance. Such is “El Amor Contigo” (Loving You):
‘Loving you is difficult.
It is almost impossible.
You are everybody
And really you are nobody…
I never asked that you love me
That your secrets discover me
That you expect me impatiently
That you hopelessly dry my tears at night,
That you make me laugh.
I only ask to be able to love you.’ (Translation: Jessica Malo)
As to the songs in Ladino, those in the audience less familiar with the songs heard in Boskovich’s work were clearly familiar with the gently caressing, lyrical songs of the Sephardic Jewish community as passed down in Ladino from generation to generation. Levy spoke of her parents having sung these songs to her, just as she sings them to her own children. In “Adio kerida” (Goodbye, My Beloved), a song lamenting disappointed love, Levy invited the audience to join her in the refrain:
‘Goodbye,
Goodbye beloved.
I do not want to live.
You have made my life miserable.’
Yasmin Levy’s burnished, unleashed and true voice is not her only attribute: she is very free on stage as her temperament and emotions pour out generously via the texts and melodies. An artist of international renown, she is warm, dramatic and humorous, communicating directly with her audience. She is also a born storyteller. Maestro Gottfried’s arrangements, tailor-made to Levy and to the songs, bristle with color and interest. Add to the above much involved, subtle and polished performance on the part of Luria, Hasson, Amir and Abramson.

A multi-disciplinary musician, who bridges classical, contemporary and jazz music, Maestro Gottfried is known for his innovative and creative concert programming. This event saw Israel’s 67th Independence Day in with heartwarming delight.

Harpsichordist Imbi Tarum (Estonia) performs a recital at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem

“Then and Now” was the title given to a “Baroque Fridays” event on April 17th 2015,a series in which the Israel Museum hosts the Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra. At this event, however, the Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra hosted Estonian harpsichordist Imbi Tarum. Preceding the harpsichord recital, Dr. Shlomit Steinberg, curator of the Israel Museum’s European Art Department, gave a most enlightening talk on the personification of music in European art.

A prominent figure in Estonia’s musical life, Imbi Tarum, a graduate of the Heino Eller Music School and the Tallinn Conservatory, wrote her doctorate on the treatment of harpsichord in works of Estonian composers. An ensemble player, Dr. Tarum has also played solo recitals throughout Europe. Since 1991, she has been teaching harpsichord and basso continuo at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre. Her recital at the Israel Museum focused on French music, but it included one work by a contemporary Estonian composer. Imbi Tarum was in Israel some 25 years ago as a member of the Hortus Musicus Ensemble. Her 2015 visit included holding master classes at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance and this recital, in which she played on David Shemer’s Skowroneck harpsichord.

Tarum performed two suites by J-Ch. Chambonnières (c.1602-1672), this music being influential repertoire, in the light of the fact that Chambonnières is considered the father of the French harpsichord school; his writing was also influential on music outside of France. A court musician (the first to hold the position of “the King's harpsichordist) he was also an exceptional dancer, in 1535, dancing alongside the young King Louis XIV and Lully. Tarum’s performance of the Suite in a-minor, boldly set out and rich in ornamentation, melodic narrative and harmonic interest, brought out the composer’s brilliant style of harpsichord writing. Her reading of the three movements she played from the Suite in F-major displayed the poetry, charm and tenderness projected through the dance forms in Chambonnière’s works.

A renowned teacher, Chambonnières was known to have taught such musicians as d’Anglebert, one of the Gautiers and all three Couperin brothers. In fact, at one stage of his career (and in the thick of court politics) there was a plot to force Chambonnières to resign as court harpsichordist in favor of his pupil Louis Couperin (c.1626-1661). Couperin, however, out of loyalty and high regard for his teacher, refused the post, accepting the job as treble viol player in the court. Imbi Tarum’s playing of Louis Couperin’s Suite in F-major combined stylish courtly elegance with imagination and spontaneity, again with much ornamentation, then taking a step away from aristocratic elegance to perform the Branle de Basque – a dance lighter of heart and heavier of foot. For the last movement of the suite, “Tombeau de Mr. de Blancrocher”, Tarum enlisted the music’s gestures and raison d'etre to spell out the text of this curious piece. A musical tribute to the lutenist Charles Fleury, Sieur de Blancrocher, who died in 1652 after having fallen down the stairs, it is thought by some that the downward leaps in the bass might de descriptive of the accident, with the use of the highest descant register possibly representing the lutenist’s ascent to heaven!

Well suited to Imbi Tarum’s technical prowess and temperament were three pieces from J.N.P.Royer’s (c.1700-1766) “Premier Livre de Pièces pour Clavecin” (1746). Born in Turin, Royer moved to Paris in 1725, working for the court, eventually becoming director of the Royal Opera orchestra. With Tarum taking the lead from the fact that Royer had an Italian soul and that he had set pieces from his own operas and ballets (many of them lost) for harpsichord, we were presented with some dramatic and colorful performance. In “L’Allemande”, taken from “Le pouvoir de l’amour” (The Power of Love) a ballet-héroique, the artist brought out its theatrical aspects, its tendency to the unpredictable and its timbral interest. “La Sensible” (The Sensitive One), beautifully shaped and gracefully melodic, yet still surprising in its arpeggiated middle section, was lyrical and tender. This was followed by “La Marche des Scythes” (March of the Scythes) a transcription from Royer’s opera “Zaïde”, a feisty, virtuosic and clamorous rondo, strange and daring, so interestingly orchestrated and so wonderfully entertaining!

I would have liked to have heard Imbi Tarum perform more Estonian music; what we did hear, however, was Rein Rannap’s “Variations”, commissioned by Tarum in 2007. Born in Tallinn in 1953, Rannap is a virtuoso pianist who has performed many of his own piano works. But he is also a rock musician, a jazz musician and bandleader; he has written and performed arrangements of Estonian folk songs, written his own songs, composed songs for children and written film music and stage music. “Variations” is a mood piece, a journey starting out meditatively in the lute register. An evocative vista linked in tonality, the piece investigates many aspects and moods of harpsichord sound as it takes the listener into the world of timbres and of the mind, the piece finding its way back to the lute register sound, ending with minimal sound fibres.

Imbi Tarum is an artist with rare expressive and technical ability. She has the knack of drawing her audience into the essence of each work; in her hands, the instrument becomes a dynamic, powerful and highly orchestrated medium. This recital was a treat - one of this season’s highlights.

Concert in memory of conductor and composer Gary Bertini, marking the 10th anniversary of his passing

A concert in memory of Maestro Gary Bertini took place in the Henry Crown Hall of the Jerusalem Theatre on April 7th 2015. An event of the Bertini Choral Fest (March 30th-April 24th 2015) it marked the 10th anniversary of Gary Bertini’s passing. Produced by Haggi Goren, the concert featured the Gary Bertini Israeli Chamber Choir (musical director/conductor: Ronen Borshevsky), the Jerusalem Academy Chamber Choir (musical director/conductor: Stanley Sperber), the Israel Netanya Kibbutz Orchestra (musical director/conductor Shalev Ad-El) and vocal soloists. The concert was made possible by support of the Bertini family, especially by the generosity of Mrs. Rose Bertini, and also with the help of the Israeli Ministry of Culture and Sport and the Tel Aviv Municipality Department of Culture. The evening's proceedings were introduced by Danny Orstav and broadcast live on the Voice of Music IBA, Israeli radio.

Gary Bertini (1927-2005) was born in Bessarabia. The family immigrated to Palestine in 1946. Following studies at the Music Teachers’ College in Tel Aviv, Bertini continued his studies in Milan, Italy and then at the Paris Conservatoire. On returning to Israel, he established the Rinat Choir in 1955, becoming musical advisor to the Batsheva Dance Company and composing incidental music for productions of the Habima and Cameri Theaters. He founded the Israel Chamber Orchestra in 1965, remaining its conductor till 1975, was conductor of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra from 1978 to 1986, assuming artistic direction of the New Israeli Opera from 1994 to his death. Gary Bertini also had a prestigious musical career in Europe, Japan and the USA. He is especially remembered for his dedication to promoting Israeli music.

The Rinat Choir was a unique ensemble and has been a major influence in the shaping of the culture of choral music in Israel. It was a central force in the performance of much new Israeli choral music written at the time. Starting out as the “Chamber Ensemble”, the Israeli Chamber Orchestra also introduced new and exciting orchestral ventures to players and audiences.

The Gary Bertini Israeli Choir was established in 2009 by Haggi Goren and Ronen Borshevsky and performs a wide range of repertoire with celebrated conductors and orchestras. The Gary Bertini Israeli Chamber Choir is the representative body of the choir. Conducted by Ronen Borshevsky, it also has a sizable a-cappella repertoire and has taken two European concert tours. The Bertini Chamber Choir opened the Jerusalem concert with three very different a-cappella pieces. With Gary Bertini’s own setting of the Catalonian folk melody “Song of the Birds”, memories of the Rinat Choir sound came flooding back to those of us who had heard Rinat and learned to know Israeli vocal music through its distinctive choral sound. Following a rewarding, well delineated performance of Salamone Rossi’s “I will praise thee for thou hast heard me” (Psalm 117), Borshevsky took his singers and the audience into the emotional roller-coaster of Claudio Monteverdi’s love-sick madrigals, with a brilliant and dramatic performance of “Di Ch’io vorrei morire” (Yes, I want to die) from the 4th Book of Madrigals; via its barrage of musical sighs, whispers and screams, the madrigal’s message is glued together with a daring amount of seconds. The Israel Netanya-Kibbutz Orchestra joined the choir in a performance of eight songs from Johannes Brahms’ “Liebeslieder” Waltzes opus 52 and one Lied from opus 65, in the composer’s own arrangement for small orchestra, rather than for two pianos. There was much to enjoy in the performance, with its happiness, longing and nature imagery set in light, dancelike vignettes so lush in their harmonies and nicely contrasted. The more intense, despondent and ambivalent texts, however, (possibly prompted by Brahms’ own anguish at Clara Schumann’s daughter’s engagement) made for movements of stronger profile and more heightened interest. Soprano Einat Aronstein contended well with the orchestra in some lively solo singing. One of the evening’s highlights was the performance of Marc Antoine Charpentier’s grand polyphonic motet “Te Deum” (c.1692) for five soloists, choir and instruments. Soloists were sopranos Einat Aronstein and Daniela Skorka, countertenor Alon Harari, tenor Eitan Drori and baritone Guy Pelc. Borshevsky’s direction of the work brought out its brilliance and dramatic impact, inspiring the artists to take on board Charpentier’s vivid soundscape. The orchestra offered energetic and energizing support, with zesty percussion and some fine wind playing, the full orchestral and choral forces finding a good contrast with smaller combinations for solo voices. Many of the solos were stylistically pleasing and the various soloists’ ensembles were well coordinated. The audience was justifiably enthused by the work’s mix of drama and devotion and by the ceremonial brilliance that infused the performance.

Following the intermission, we heard the Jerusalem Academy Chamber Choir, conducted by Stanley Sperber (Maestro Sperber conducted the Rinat Choir for 17 years.) Founded in 1969, the choir, made up of Academy students, performs widely. It was the first Israeli choir to appear at the Dachau concentration camp and its recent concert tour to Hungary was highly successful. In the Jerusalem concert, the Academy Chamber Choir presented a group of mostly a-cappella pieces in the spirit of the repertoire Rinat had performed throughout the years. In keeping with the choir’s reputation, each item emerged as a detail-perfect, carefully polished musical jewel. The choir opened with three Jewish texts, from the meditative, filigree-fine singing of “Yihiyu leratzon” (Let it be Your will) from Earnest Bloch’s “Avodat Hakodesh” (Holy Worship), to the strategic mix of timbres Sperber uses for Yehezkel Braun’s setting of the ancient grace after meals “Tzur mishelo” (The Lord, whose food we have eaten) to the playful vocal “orchestration” of Oedoen Partos’s “Hamavdil” (sung at the conclusion of the Sabbath, with a reference to Elijah). Then to Anton Bruckner’s astounding, symphonic motet “Chistus factus ist”, its canvas one of wide dynamic contrasts, dramatic tension and personal, sacred expression, to then be soothed and comforted by Claude Debussy’s flowing, “Dieu, qui la fait bon” (God, but she is fair), glittering with the ideal of beauty and sung with a real sense of the French transparency of language and timbre. Articulacy and sophistication set the scene for the luxuriant, ecstatic intensity of Samuel Barber’s “Come with Me”. And, on a lighter note, George and Ira Gershwin’s 1930 jazz standard “I Got Rhythm”, garnished with the singers’ vocal percussion effects, was tossed off with carefree precision, to be followed by Fats Waller and Harry Brooks’ “Ain’t Misbehavin’” (with piano). This part of the concert ended with fine blending and engaging solo moments in Tami Kleinhaus’ arrangement of Avraham Halfi and Yoni Rechter’s “Atur Mitzchekh” (Your forehead is gold black).

Concluding the concert, both choirs joined to perform three works with orchestra of which Gary Bertini was very fond. Sperber conducted the choir and Daniela Skorka in a velvety, lush reading of W.A.Mozart’s haunting “Laudate Dominum” (Praise the Lord) from “Vesperae Solennes de Confessore”, Skorka’s singing addressing the work’s spirituality. Following the well-chiseled, unbridled joy of G.F.Händel’s festive “Hallelujah” Chorus, Sperber went to join the choral singers and Borshevsky returned to the conductor’s podium to conduct two movements from the Mozart “Requiem”. The uncompromising drama juxtaposed with sotto voce otherworldly moments (women’s voices) of the “Confutatis” (While the wicked are confounded), followed by a heartrending, gripping and intimate reading of the “Lacrimosa” (Oh that day of tears and weeping), the latter begun on the day Mozart died, made for a moving end to the concert which was, in Haggi Goren’s words, “a homage to Bertini’s enormous contribution to our culture and life and a testimony that Gary’s heritage is still so meaningful and alive”. Add to these sentiments the high standard of choral performance we heard throughout, dedicated direction on the part of both conductors and the five fine “homegrown” vocal soloists.

The evening was an impressive and fitting tribute to Gary Bertini.