The Mendi Rodan Symphony Orchestra is joined by singers of the Meitar Opera Studio at its opening concert of the 2016 season



The Mendi Rodan Symphony Orchestra was joined by five members of the Meitar Opera Studio for the opening concert of the 2016 season on January 12^th in the Mary Nathaniel Golden Hall of Friendship of the Jerusalem International YMCA.  

Established in 2012 the Mendi Rodan Symphony Orchestra is named in memory of Maestro Mendi Rodan, Israel Prize winner, professor of conducting and Head of the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance.  Members of the orchestra are students at the Academy; they audition to be accepted as players and work intensively prior to each concert, first in sectional rehearsals, then with all players. This way, participants receive professional training and become familiar with orchestral repertoire. Prof. Eitan Globerson, the orchestra’s founder, home conductor and musical director, conducted the opening concert.

The Meitar Opera Studio, under the auspices of the Israeli Opera and directed by Maestro David Sebba, is a practical study- and performance program for young Israeli opera singers following their graduation from music academies, giving them training and stage experience in preparation for opera careers. On graduation from the Meitar course, some singers join the Israeli Opera, with others performing further afield.

Following the Mendi Rodan Symphony Orchestra’s finely crafted playing of the Overture to W.A.Mozart’s opera “Don Giovanni”, members of the Meitar Opera Studio gave some electrifying renditions of opera arias: soprano Efrat Vulfsons and tenor Gitai Fisher contended well with the large orchestra, giving expression to “Ma quale mai s’offre oh dei” (What is this I behold) from Don Giovanni.  Vulfsons presented all the strong emotions of the piece, Donna Anna’s shrieks of relief, hallucinations and revenge, with Fisher a stable and authoritative Don Ottavio. In “Quando m’en vo…” (And you who know) from Puccini’s “La Bohème, Vulfsons combines her variety of textures with a fine technique to create an unaffected performance of this opera favorite.  In Ferrando’s aria from “Cosi fan tutti” “Un’aura amorosa” (A loving aura) Fisher’s cantabile, tender singing of the serenade was pure delight. Tenor Osher Sebbag, equipped with both a superb operatic voice and charisma, pours emotion into each role as he addresses his audience. With his tender, heartfelt performance of Nemorino’s aria “Un furtive lagrima” (A furtive tear) from Donizetti’s “L’elisire d’amore”, replete with carefully placed dramatic pauses, he took his audience with him all the way. Sebbag was joined by soprano Tali Ketzef for two arias from Verdi’s “La Traviata”; with the orchestra highlighting the delicacy of the moment of Violetta and Alfredo’s reuniting in “Parigi, o cara” (Dearest, we shall leave Paris), the singers collaborated well, timing gestures sensitively. In “Sempre libera” (Free and aimless) Ketzef floats the dizzying coloratura sections with ease, depicting Violetta as a jolly (or possibly insane) woman, with Alfredo’s amorous voice heard from the street. In “O, mia Babbino caro” (O my dear father) from Puccini’s “Gianni Schicchi”, soprano Irena Alhazov’s warmth of tone and vocal ease provided the audience with much enjoyment of the opera’s most famous aria. Kudos to the Mendi Rodan Symphony Orchestra’s players and their articulate conductor for their sensitive, richly colored and finely detailed orchestral support of these outstanding singers.

Following the intermission, Maestro Eitan Globerson and the Mendi Rodan Symphony Orchestra performed Hector Berlioz’ “Symphonie Fantastique” (1830), a work surely of great interest to the young players, its style and fantasy launching the spirit of Romantic period in music, its extra-musical agenda firing the fantasy of both players and listeners. In 1827 Berlioz saw a performance of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”; he was smitten by the power of the drama but also by the beauty of actress Harriet Smithson. It seems she did not return his advances, hence the symphony’s program with its “idée fixe” running throughout the work, eventually taking the composer to the gallows (Berlioz’ eventual marriage to her ended in divorce.) To what extent the work is authentically programmatic (in time, Berlioz addressed less importance to the several programs he had written) or the result of visions due to the effects of drugs is not certain. Such superb and original music, the astounding, innovative combinations of its orchestration, not to speak of the “speaking” part given to the drums, keep the 5-movement work inspiring in its freshness and no less fascinating in its psychological aspects.  The score calls for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 4 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets and 2 cornets, 3 trombones, 2 ophicleides (usually replaced by bass tubas), timpani, bass drum, snare drum, cymbals, low-pitched bells, two harps and strings. All of the above background and ideas make this work an experientially musical and affecting experience for players and audience alike. Globerson and his players gave fervent expression to the work’s sweeping melodic lines and shapes, its timbral interest, its small plangent solos and abundantly colored tutti.  Much attention was also given to the work’s more intimate utterances, finding their way straight to the listener’s heart. The choice of the “Symphonie Fantastique” may have been no coincidence: as to the workings of the mind, Prof. Globerson is a researcher of brain science at Bar Ilan University, his post-doctoral research probing the perception of melody, using state-of-the-art imaging to track brain responses to pitch, loudness, timbre and other auditory attributes. Berlioz once wrote: “The predominant qualities of my music are passionate expression, inner fire, rhythmic drive – and the unexpected.” This was indeed evident in Prof. Globerson and the Mendi Rodan Symphony Orchestra’s exciting and masterful performance.

The 2016 Eilat Chamber Music Festival's large repertoire offers much to Baroque music aficionados

The 11^th Eilat Chamber Music Festival (Leonid Rosenberg - founder and musical director) taking place at the Dan Eilat Hotel from February 3^rd to 6^th 2016, will feature first class artists from many countries, offering a rich selection of music of all kinds. Baroque music aficionados will be pleased to know that programs will also cater to their taste. In “Handel and the Italian Baroque” (Friday February 5^th,, 17:00), Dutch mezzo-soprano Rosanne van Sandwyk will join  the prestigious Concerto Köln in a concert of works by Evaristo Felice Dall’Abaco, Locatelli, Vivaldi, G.B.Sammartini, Charles Avison and Telemann. Established 30 years ago and ranked among today’s leading ensembles engaging in historically informed performance, Concerto Köln aims to rediscover and perform works of composers who have remained overshadowed by more celebrated names; hence their performance of the piece by Verona-born composer and ‘cellist Dall’Abaco (1675-1742). Then, on Saturday February 6^th at 17:00, Concerto Köln will perform four of Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos. What will be of particular interest in No.4 are the “echo flutes”, double recorders built for the Cologne group according to what Bach seems to have had in mind for the work. On February 5^th at 21:00 Baroque music lovers are in for another treat: conductor and violinist David Grimal (France) will solo with “Les Dissonances”, the orchestra he formed in 2004, in Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” concertos, this work to be followed by Piazzolla’s “Four Seasons of Buenos Aires” (Brazilian music with some subtle quotes from Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons”). “Les Dissonances” comprises musicians from all over Europe and, as the program shows, plays works of a very wide range.

Canadian-German trumpeter Jens Lindemann and the International Brass Collective will open their night-owl concert (February 3^rd, 23:00) with works by Bach and Vivaldi, then to proceed to pieces by Mozart, Morley Calvert, Kevin McKee, Piazzolla, Duke Ellington, Bix Beiderbecke, Ian MacDougall…and finishing with Liszr!  The Belgian-based “Trilogy” String Trio, together with piano and percussion, will actually open its wildly non-mainstream performance on February 5^th at 23:00 with the Allegro from their own transcription of Vivaldi’s Concerto in A-minor RV522. Created in 2011 by three internationally-acclaimed violinists, “Trilogy”‘s aim is to take a fresh look the great works of Classical and popular repertoire.

And a concert for the whole family – “A Bach Celebration” - February 6^th at 11:00 will feature Moscow-born Israeli clown and actor Fyodor Makarov and a line-up of Israeli and overseas singers and instrumentalists in a tale of confusion in which a sloppy stage-worker solves the chaos he has got himself into by speaking directly to Bach, requesting him to write music that is more cheerful.

http://www.eilat-festival.co.il 

  

Members of the Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra perform a house concert in Kfar Shmaryahu, near Tel Aviv

A festive fundraising concert for the Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra was generously hosted by Mrs. Ora Holin on January 8^th 2016 at her home in Kfar Shmaryahu, a tranquil suburb within the Tel Aviv district. Inclement weather did not deter the many guests from arriving from near and far to attend the house concert performed by some of the orchestra’s artists, both instrumental and vocal. Maestro David Shemer, the orchestra’s founder and musical director, opened with words of thanks to Mrs. Holin, talking briefly about the orchestra as the first Israeli ensemble to play Baroque music on period instruments. He added that playing in a private home was indeed the most authentic environment for performing Baroque music.

The evening’s musical program opened with Antonio Vivaldi’s Trio Sonata opus 1 no.12 “La Follia” in d-minor RV63, the final work of twelve trio sonatas composed in 1705. This bold and daring work, scored for two violins (Noam Schuss, Dafna Ravid) and basso continuo (Eliav Lavie-theorbo, Orit Messer-Jacobi-‘cello, David Shemer-harpsichord), a true concert piece bearing the stamp of Vivaldi’s true genius, was a hearty opener for such an event. One of several sets of variations based on the same melody, Vivaldi’s “La Follia”, a single-movement sonata, comprises the subject melody and 19 variations. The JBO players presented the full variety of moods offered by Vivaldi’s work, from the noble opening variations, to virtuosic variations for first violin (Schuss) or ‘cello (Messer-Jacobi), to tranquil charm and elegance, to a dirge-like variation, to energetic brightness, variations of fuller and lesser textures, from the intimate to the exciting and exhilarating, then ending with two understated, retreating phrases to bring the listener back down to earth. One sensed the inspiration of the moment in some eloquent ornamentation heard, especially on the part of Noam Schuss.

For the three last movements of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Suite no.2 in b-minor, the ensemble was joined by Idit Shemer-flute, Tami Borenstein-viola and Yehuda Halevy-double bass. In this work, Bach took the opportunity of giving the flute the solo part: the transverse flute was coming into its own at the time. Composed in Leipzig, there is every reason to assume it was performed one-to-a-part, this theory endorsed by Joshua Rifkin and Andrew Parrott. The JBO players’ performance at the house concert gave lively support to this assumption. Here was Bach’s secular music – his stylized dance vocabulary - played in all its refinement, sophistication and subtlety, with flautist Idit Shemer opting to emphasize the elegant and playful side of the virtuosic flute role.

The final work on the program was Giovanni Battista Pergolesi’s “Stabat Mater”, the dying composer’s masterpiece, with its compelling paradox of tenderness and vividness. Vocal soloists soprano Daniela Skorka and countertenor Alon Harari coordinated well, setting the tragic scene in the opening section, leaning into dissonances, Harari’s accenting and ornaments highlighting verbal gestures, with Skorka utilizing her easeful vibrato to color strategic words. Both addressed the rhetoric with empathy, lyricism and, at times, forthright intensity. In “Dum emisit spiritum” (Till His spirit forth he sent) each detached syllable created a spine-chilling sense of the waning of life. The crystal-clear, personal utterances of the instrumentalists, weaving Pergolesi’s rich counterpoint through the musical fabric, made for an inspiring milieu for singers and audience alike.

Following the concert, Mr. Dan Shorer spoke of the first international “Bach in Jerusalem” Festival to take place from March 17^th to 21^st 2016 under the auspices of the JBO and centering around the actual date of J.S.Bach’s birthday. Inviting the Baroque music-loving public to give its support to this exciting project, he spoke of renowned artists taking part in the concerts and emphasized the slant the international festival would be taking: to examine the influence Bach’s music has had on musicians and the development of music in general.       

The Encore! Educational Theatre Company performs Gilbert and Sullivan's "Iolanthe"

The most recent production of the Encore! Educational Theatre Company in association with the Jerusalem Gilbert & Sullivan Society was W.S.Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan’s “Iolanthe” or “The Peer and the Peri”, with stage direction by Robert Binder. Conducting the New Savoy Orchestra was musical director Paul Salter, choreography was by Judy Brown-Davis and set designs by Roxane Goodkin-Levy. Established in 2006, Encore! has been presenting classics of the musical stage as well as lesser-known and original works, programs on the lives of prominent Jewish composers and entertainers and more.  This writer attended the performance on January 6^th 2016 at the Hirsch Theatre, Beit  Shmuel, Jerusalem.

“Iolanthe” originally opened at the Savoy Theatre, London, on November 25^th 1882 and ran for 398 performances. The “fairy opera” is a surprisingly topical satire on love and the British House of Lords as home to the ineffective, the privileged and dim-witted; it is a satire on  the political party system, with other institutions coming under criticism.  Librettist and composer, however, managed to keep out of trouble as the opera pleased London audiences with its wonderful melodies and appealing absurdities. With Gilbert and Sullivan at the height of their creative activity in 1892, “Iolanthe”, their seventh collaboration, is considered by some to be their best crafted work.

In a nutshell, Strephon, an Arcadian shepherd, wants to marry Phyllis, a ward of the Chancery. Phyllis is not aware that Strephon is half-fairy (his upper half; his legs are mortal). When she sees him kissing a young-looking woman, she jumps to the obvious conclusion. This woman, however, turns out to be his mother Iolanthe, a fairy banished 25 years earlier for having married a peer of the House of Lords but now pardoned. As to her youthful appearance, it turns out that fairies never grow old. Phyllis’ guardian, the Lord Chancellor, and several peers of the House of Lords are head-over-heels about Phyllis. The peers and fairies declare war. Things are eventually put right, thanks to the “subtleties of the legal mind” and Phyllis and Strephon are reunited.

In the Encore! performance -  energetic, fast-flowing, polished and characterized by good diction - the stage filled with people  of a huge range of ages; those singing in the women’s choir and the men’s (fairies and peers), all well trained, sang with taste and blended beautifully.  Of the many people on stage – both soloists and chorus, there was a good mix of English speakers and native Israelis, all engaging in British-accented English, as should be in the case of Gilbert and Sullivan. Judy Brown-Davis invested much work and invention in movement routines, with artists all knowing what they were doing. Playing Phyllis was soprano Aviella Trapido, highly experienced in musical theatre and no newcomer to Encore!  productions, the company’s patrons once again enjoying her warm, creamy voice, her vocal ease and natural stage ability, her expressive face and appealing manner. Making his debut with Encore! Israeli-born Lior Inbar, a voice student of the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, played Strephon. His voice still in need of some refinement, he showed competence in the British English theatre environment.  Mezzo-soprano Amit Hemo, a recent M.Mus. graduate from the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance and another new face to the company, played a convincing and vehement Iolanthe, her diction a little unclear at times. Highlighting the daft and comical characteristics of the Lord Chancellor, Mordechai Buxner won the audience over with his droll and entertaining performance, his meaningless self-important monologues, his charisma, physical flexibility and stage manner. As Queen of the Fairies, Claire Greenfield’s richly endowed contralto voice and majestic stage presence gave substance and authority to the character. The role of Private Willis of the Grenadier Guards suited bass Steven Liron Timoner splendidly. In Israel since 2005, Timoner is a professional opera singer.

Once again, Encore! , with its huge team of helpers and participants, has proved that months of demanding training, dedication and teamwork (on- and off stage) can result in productions of a high standard and that English-language amateur theatre is thriving in Jerusalem.  Children taking part worked as hard as their adult counterparts. Young Shalem Goldstein, as the Lord Chancellor’s train-bearer, did not miss a step or gesture as he mirrored each of those of his master.  Costumes were attractive as were both stage settings – the lush opening set of Fairyland and that of Westminster – offering a feast to the eye and enhancing the general effect of the opera itself. Under the baton of Paul Salter, the New Savoy Orchestra’s exhilarating and tasteful playing added much to the performance. The fact remains that, 140 years after the inauguration of their collaboration, Gilbert and Sullivan still have much to say that remains relevant to our lives, that little has changed in society, politics and love…and Gilbert and Sullivan say it with the wink of an eye and some wonderful music!  Encore!'s next venture will be “Intrepid”, written by Robert Binder, with music by Paul Salter. Depicting the romance and intrigue of the NILI spy ring, the new opera will be performed April 3^rd as part of the Jerusalem Festival of the Arts.

   

In its fourth production, the Jerusalem Opera performs "Madame Butterfly"

The Jerusalem Opera was founded in 2011, its debut performance taking place in 2012. The company was established by Jerusalem residents and artists who saw the need for Israel’s capital, a cultural and spiritual centre for centuries, to have its own high quality opera company.  Recognized by the Israeli Ministry of Culture and Sport and supported by the Jerusalem Foundation, the Jerusalem Municipality and private donors, its aim is to nurture local talent, with visiting international artists playing some of the leading roles guiding and coaching the younger singers. The company will offer programs including both operatic repertoire and Jewish music. With community outreach among its aims, the Jerusalem Opera will give preference to singers and artists who live and work in Jerusalem. The Jerusalem Opera’s first season (2012-2013) presented “Masters and Servants” (a fantasy based on Mozart operas), its second (2013-2014) staged outdoor performances of “Don Giovanni” at David’s Citadel and the third (2014-2015) saw a production of “The Marriage of Figaro”. The recent production of “Madame Butterfly” was performed in Jerusalem and Ashdod. This writer attended “Madame Butterfly” in the Sherover Theatre of the Jerusalem Centre for the Performing Arts. In the same capacity as he has been since the Jerusalem Opera’s founding, Omer Arieli was music director and conductor, with Prof. Andre Hajdu serving as musical advisor. Italian baritone Gabriele Ribis was stage director and Oded Shomrony choirmaster. The orchestra was the Tel Aviv Soloists Ensemble (director: Arie Bardroma).

An opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, with the Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, the storyline of “Madame Butterfly” is based in part on John Luther Long’s 1898 short story of the same name. The opera was premiered at La Scala (Milan) in 1904 and has become one of the most frequently performed operas worldwide. The Jerusalem Opera cast brought together local singers as well as overseas guest artists. In the role of Lieutenant B.F.Pinkerton, French tenor Avi Klemberg presented the character as initially tense in the situation of marrying a 15-year-old geisha, his appearance in the final scene focused and convincing. Italian baritone Marcello Lippi was authoritative as Sharpless, the American consul to Nagasaki. Fleet of movement and offering comic relief to the opera’s tragic agenda, young Israeli tenor Ron Silberstein played the role of Goro, the marriage broker. Other soloists were Noa Hope as Kate Pinkerton, Gilad Rosenberg as Prince Yamadori, Ehoud Yaari as the Bonzo and German-American baritone Samuel Berlad as the Commissioner. Born in Belarus and today residing in Germany mezzo-soprano Anna Peshes, equipped with a mellow, stable and richly colored vocal timbre, also empathy and quiet charisma, made for an outstanding Suzuki (Butterfly’s servant). Israeli-born, today residing in Berlin, Yasmine Levi-Ellentuck played Cio-Cio San (Madame Butterfly), a mammoth role both vocally and emotionally. Singing this role for the first time, what was clear to the audience was the deep enquiry she has made into the person, the mentality and vocal challenges necessary to take on the portrayal. In beautifully chiseled vocal lines, some wonderfully controlled pianissimo singing and her refined and understated acting, she revealed the inner world of the young geisha woman confronted with the western mentality and the tragedy of the illusion of her marriage to Pickering.

Under the baton of Maestro Omer Arieli, the Tel Aviv Soloists Ensemble played with vitality and attention to detail, occasionally being a little too loud for the soloists. The Jerusalem Opera’s fine, engaging and vibrant performance and Puccini’s splendid music took precedence over the not overly inspiring stage setting and the lack of beautiful Japanese costumes and suitable make-up.  

The Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra and vocal soloists perform three of Handel's Chandos Anthems

The great German Baroque composer Georg Frideric Händel (1685-1769) arrived in England in 1712, establishing Britain as his new home and winning great popularity and respect among the concert-going public there. It was in 1717 that Henry James Brydges, the first Duke of Chandos, took him into his employ at Cannons, the Duke’s palatial mansion near London.  There Händel became chapel master, with another German, Dr. Johann Christoph Pepusch serving as composer-in-residence.  A flautist and an extravagant patron of the arts, the Duke kept a fine team of over 20 musicians at Canons, among them Francesco Scarlatti (Alessandro’s brother) and Johann Christoph Bach, J.S.Bach’s cousin. Händel would certainly have played the organ in the Church of St. Lawrence on the Cannons estate and the eleven Chandos Anthems, three of which were performed on December 31^st 2015 at the Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra’s third subscription concert of the 2015-2016 season in the Mary Nathaniel Golden Hall of  Friendship, the Jerusalem International YMCA, would surely have been performed in this dramatic setting, its walls and ceilings covered with frescoes of biblical scenes painted by the most celebrated artists of the day.

Händel knew the Bible well, choosing texts based on the Psalms for the Chandos Anthems, allowing each text to inspire him with the wealth of musical ideas that go to make up this collection. In his program notes, Maestro David Shemer, founder and musical director of the Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra, talks of the unusual scoring of the hymns - works for three voices and for six and “scored for an ensemble of violins and basso continuo”, bassoon and one oboe, with no violas in the instrumental group and no alto voice in the vocal ensemble. Shemer reminds his listeners that the Chandos Anthems preceded the composer’s oratorios, “the musical genre that brought Händel so much fame”.

In inverse chronology but to whet audience members’ appetite with a work more familiar to them, the concert opened with the Overture to Händel’s oratorio “Judas Maccabaeus” (1746), a dramatic overture in the French style.  Presenting the two-part overture, refined, majestic and energizing in its royal pomp, the JBO players set the scene for the inspiring Händel program.

The three singers performing the solos and duets, but also forming the choir in the program comprising three of the Chandos Anthems – “I will magnify Thee” Anthem V HWV 250a, “As pants the hart for cooling springs” Anthem VI HWV 251a and “O be joyful in the Lord” Anthem I HWV 246, were Hadas Faran Asia-soprano, Doron Florentin-tenor and Yair Polishook-bass.  The three Israeli singers gave engaging performances, celebrating the wealth of contrapuntal and timbral interest of the choruses. As to the works’ solos and duets, these pieces gave the audience time to ponder the unique contribution of each singer: laying her operatic persona aside, Faran Asia related to the texts with devotional empathy and warmth, with flowing easeful and melismatic melodic lines, giving attention to the instrumental and vocal expression happening around her. Contending splendidly with the variety and demands of the tenor role, Florentin, his voice aggregating color and consistency, was expressive and active in narrating the text, relating to such musical/textual features as the vibrant play of mood changes and dissonances in “The Lord preserveth” (Anthem VI). Polishook’s musicality and understanding of the Baroque genre are well known; his addressing the importance of a solid base to the vocal ensembles of the anthems, his highlighting of a key phrase here and there and his signature quality of relating a text in its full meaning contributed much to the performance. The oboe and bassoon parts, the linchpin of the Chandos Anthems and an essential element of their expressive aspect, were performed adeptly by Tal Levin and Gilat Rotkop, as in their duet in the opening duet of “As pants the hart for cooling springs”. In the latter anthem, singers and orchestra brought a tear to the eye in their conveying of the anthem’s fragility, its grief and drama; the final chorus “Put thy trust in God” is written in opulent contrapuntal musical language of such a high order that one is at a loss to focus on all voices, let alone on some. These works bristle with superb instrumental writing. In their fresh, energetic and sensitive reading of the beautiful, intimate settings of liturgical texts, whose beauty does not fall from that of Händel’s oratorios, the Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra, conducted by David Shemer, gave listeners a thrilling opportunity to hear these rarely-heard works splendidly performed .

The Silver-Garburg Piano Duo performs at the Eden-Tamir Music Center (Jerusalem)



The magical, tranquil vista of the Jerusalem village of Ein Kerem glistened in the winter morning sunshine, welcoming crowds of people to spend time there and enjoy the surroundings. Offering a variety of weekly concerts, the Eden–Tamir Music Center situated in the village was founded in 1968 by renowned duo-pianists Bracha Eden and Alexander Tamir. The concert on December 26^th 2015 hosted duo-pianists Sivan Silver and Gil Garburg. Introducing the artists, Prof. Alexander Tamir referred to his predilection for the duo-piano genre, both on two pianos and on one.

Silver and Garburg opened with Saint Saëns’ arrangement of Franz Liszt’s Sonata in B-minor S.178. The original solo piano sonata, dedicated to Schumann (already in the asylum) dates from 1854. Saint Saëns transcribed it for two pianos in 1914 but it took till 2004 to see it published.  Close friends, Liszt and Saint Saëns played as a piano duo for some 20 years.  For Silver and Garburg, taking on board the mammoth proportions of the sonata’s four-movements-all rolled-into-one-continuum meant orchestrating the work’s gestures and its variety of emotions with precision, a well mapped-out plan of action, crystal clear phrasing, articulacy and a masterful use of textures. Creating a vibrant canvas whose motivic units (sometimes the same motif) transformed from the menacing and demonic to the lyrical, heartrending and vulnerable, the artists used strategic timing and the wealth of pianistic textures so readily accessible to them, guiding the audience through the work’s uncompromising agenda with suspense and excitement. 

Completed in 1828, shortly before his death, Franz Schubert’s Fantasie in F-minor for piano four hands (one piano) D.940, dedicated to Karoline Esterhazy, the composer’s former pupil with whom he had spent many hours playing duets, is the last and one of the most poetic of the composer’s  some 60 piano duets. Like the Liszt sonata, it also consists of four, interconnected movements. At the Ein Kerem concert, with Silver playing the primo, the pianists struck a fine and subtle balance throughout in this moving and sensitive tribute to the composer. Strategic pauses and tastefully flexed tempi brought about changes in mood, with the artists’ drawing attention to an occasional single altered note, issuing in a new key, so intrinsic to Schubert’s compositional thinking. In a performance that was insightful and highly communicative, Silver and Garburg brought out the work’s delicacy, its Romantic charm and nostalgia, their playing of the more energetic, dancelike sections never overpowering or thick in texture. The fugue, taken at a moderate tempo and rich in dynamic variety, was carefully enunciated. Silver and Garburg’s reading of the work was objective and intelligent, but also real and empathic in its expression, indeed a summary of Schubert’s emotional world.

The program concluded with Saint Saëns’ Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, arranged for two pianos by Claude Debussy. It was originally composed for violin and orchestra in 1863, the brilliant solo to be played by the great Spanish violin virtuoso Pablo de Sarasate. Silver and Garburg gave this concert piece humor and eloquence, presenting it with more sophistication than is often heard on the concert platform. Spelling out the Introduction with suave subtlety, its Romantic theme creating a languid mood, they then to break into the Rondo, skillfully playing with textures, with the piece’s varied temperament and its somewhat exotic Spanish flavor.  Gil Garburg talked about Debussy’s elegant two-piano arrangement of the work and the thread connecting all three works on the program.

 

For an encore, Sivan Silver and Gil Garburg performed the spicy miniature “Danse russe” from Stravinsky’s “Petrushka”, a rhythmic tour-de-force, the artists’ playing bristling with joy and the clarity of light textures. So effective on the piano, the listener was reminded that Stravinsky did indeed compose at the piano. 

Among today’s leading piano duos, Israeli pianists Sivan Silver and Gil Garburg have been playing together for 17 years. With their aim to adapt programs to each event and audience and to perform the many compositions for four hands – both those well-known and those less familiar to the public - their busy performing schedule of recitals and appearances with orchestras takes them all over the world. In 2014, the Graz University of the Arts chose the two artists to receive professorships for duo piano. Previous to that, they taught at the Hannover Conservatory, where they themselves had completed studies in 2007 under Arie Vardi.   A duo in real life, Sivan Silver and Gil Garburg live in Berlin with their son. This was the Silver-Garburg Duo’s first performance at the Eden-Tamir Music Center.