Michael Tsalka, Izhar Elias and Alon Sariel perform works for piano and plucked instruments at the Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies

Izhar Elias,Michael Tsalka,Alon Sariel (photo: Sonja Bauermann)

On November 13th 2016, the Sunday Evening Classics series at the Jerusalem Center for Near
Eastern Studies (Brigham Young University) featured Alon Sariel-mandolin (Israel/Germany), Izhar Elias-guitar (Holland) and Michael Tsalka-piano (Israel/Holland) in a program of works all based on a song of Paisiello. The three artists, sharing a passion for historical performance and contemporary music, all having busy international careers, meet a number of times throughout the year to perform together. Composers from Europe, Canada, Israel and Australia have written works for this unique trio. The works heard at the Jerusalem concert appear on the trio’s first album “Paisiello in Vienna” (Brilliant Classics). The trio’s recently issued CD “Sharkiya” (IMI) presents the world’s first recording of original music for a plucked trio (harpsichord, guitar and mandolin) by Israeli composer Yehezkel Braun (1922-2014).

“Nel cor più non mi sento” (In my heart I no more feel) appears in Giovanni Paisiello’s 1788 comic opera “L’amor contrasto”, better known as “La Molinara”. A simple and sweetly sentimental melody, indeed, a vehicle for ornamentation by singers of the day, it has served as the theme for a host of instrumental works by several European composers. The program opened with Alon Sariel and Izhar Elias’ performance of Bartolomeo Bortolazzi’s Variations in G-Major opus 8 on the song. There is some doubt as to this almost obscure Italian composer’s exact dates (possibly 1772-1846); what, however, is known is that he was a central figure in the field of plucked instruments, touring Vienna, Leipzig, Dresden and London as a mandolin virtuoso and singer. He wrote instrumental and vocal music, becoming the author of two important books on mandolin- and guitar methods. In 1809 he moved to Brazil, where he had connections with local music, theatre, politics and masonry. Sariel and Elias’ reading of the work rode on Sariel’s beautifully crafted, cantabile playing, on fine balance between the two artists, on the constant variety that well-written variations offer and on playing in which charm and directness enjoyed an equal footing.

Born in Pressburg (Slovakia), Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778-1837) dedicated his Grande Sonata in C-major opus 37a (1810) to Bortolazzi. Hummel’s cosmopolitan style straddles Classical- and Romantic styles (Hummel studied with Mozart, Haydn, Salieri and Clementi). The Grande Sonata can be played on mandolin or violin and harpsichord or piano. In the “Paisiello in Vienna” CD, Tsalka performs all the keyboard roles on fortepiano, well in keeping within the character of salon music of the time and whose sound meets plucked instruments at eye level. Playing on the BYU’s Steinway grand piano at the Jerusalem concert, Tsalka deftly pared down its volume to meet that of the mandolin, his touch lighter but shaped and expressive, their interaction imaginative, highlighting the different sound world of each tonality. Sariel took up the Andante movement’s enticement to add much embellishment, with both artists’ skilful and flexible rendering of the Rondo an intermixture of differently presented episodes, peppered with a dash of humour. Italian composer, guitarist, ‘cellist and singer Mauro Giuliani was one of the principal composers writing for piano and guitar, a seemingly unlikely combination. His Introduction and Variations in A-Major opus 113, written in the composer’s Vienna period, gave the audience the opportunity to hear and delight in Izhar Elias’s finely honed solo art. Following the unhurried piano introduction, Elias and Tsalka took turns to handle the melody and the piece’s whims and textures, with Elias engaging in ornately wrought phrase endings and transitions, building up momentum to end this fine concert piece with vigour.

Then to Ludwig van Beethoven’s Six Variations in G-Major WoO 70 for solo piano, one of the composer’s minor pieces, tossed off by Beethoven within a night to please a noblewoman next to whom he had been seated at an opera performance. Conforming to performance practice of the time, Michael Tsalka took the liberty to add just a few tasteful transitions and embellishments. And, with the variations’ rapid runs, filigree textures and busy left hand moments, the audience was treated to elegant, finely detailed piano music, devoid of thick, heavy textures and certainly a far cry from the angry musings of Beethoven’s later works. The program concluded with all three artists performing prolific Bohemian composer J.B.Vanhal’s Six Variations in G-Major opus 42, for violin/flute and guitar/fortepiano. Following the piece’s opening flourish, the artists varied the work’s scoring and timbral colour by allotting a different instrumental combination to each variation, keeping the listener on his toes both visually and audially. Once again, each artist’s personal and different expression was instrumental in creating the ambiance of the salon of the Viennese aristocracy. We may not have been seated in the plush music room of a wealthy Austrian family, but we were certainly able to hear every filigree sound and fragile gesture played by the artists in the BYU auditorium.

Taking the audience back to the Middle East, the artists performed “Sharkiya” (East Wind) from their new CD, a work by Israeli composer Yehezkel Braun (1922-2014), its modal, inebriating soundscape delicately perfumed with exotic oriental rhythms and melodies.

 

The Israel Netanya Kibbutz Orchestra in an evening of "Hidden Treasures of the Orchestra"

Maestro Shmuel Elbaz (photo:Natan Yakobovich)

The Israel Netanya Kibbutz Orchestra’s second concert for the 2016-2017 season offered an evening of “Hidden Treasures of the Orchestra”, a concert in which the soloists were all members of the orchestra. This writer attended the event on November 5^th 2016 at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. Shmuel Elbaz, the orchestra’s house conductor, directed the concert, briefly introducing the works on the program as well as the soloists.

The concert opened with J.S.Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No.4, in which Daphna Itzhaki and Michal Tikotsky played the flute parts and concert master Gilad Hildesheim the solo violin role. In true Baroque style (but on modern instruments) most of the instrumentalists played standing rather than sitting. Vivid, graceful and buoyant, the Allegro movement set the mood for a lively performance, Itzhaki and Tikotsky’s playing delicately shaped and well-coordinated, with Itshaki’s echoing of Tikotsky in the Andante movement indulging in some tasteful ornamenting and gentle flexing. Following a couple of rough edges in his playing at the start, Hildesheim engaged in the ensuing violin sections splendidly and with some spontaneity (Brandenburg 4 has at times been referred to as a solo violin concerto!). Elbaz took the final seriously contrapuntal movement at a lively pace, its tempo nevertheless feeling comfortable and controlled, with direction that was clear and dynamic.

Composed when Antonin Dvořák was at the height of popularity in his native Czechoslovakia as well as in Austria, his Serenade in D-minor for winds, ‘cello and double bass opus 44 (1878) took him only two weeks to write. Bristling with Slavonic folk melodies, rhythms and harmonies – as in the sousedská (a calm Bohemian dance danced in pairs) in the wistful second movement – the score calls for two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, three horns, ‘cello and double bass, its sound world an association with the hearty sounds of the “harmonie” band, popular at the end of the 18^th century.  Placed in a semi-circle around the stage, the NKO instrumentalists performed the work without the conductor; the players, watching each other closely, infused the work with freshness, energy and lightness, highlighting the unique timbral colours and textures offered by its specific instrumental combination. But, above all, the players created the work’s sense of well-being, its whimsy, its vigour and dynamic potential, as well as the jubilance of folk dances. Each player could be heard, with outstanding solos from oboist Hila Zabari-Peleg and clarinettist Igal Levin.

Then to Maestro Shmuel Elbaz’ solo – Antonio Vivaldi’s Concerto in C-major for mandolin and orchestra. Despite the fact that, of Vivaldi’s very many concertos, this is the only concerto for one mandolin, the composer’s writing sits very well with the instrument. And Elbaz brought out the colour, directness and vigour inherent in Venetian art, with orchestra and mandolin engaging in layered, Baroque-style dynamics. His easeful playing bristled with energy, his skilful ornamenting, at times quite florid, never concealing the melodic line. In the Adagio movement, he wove the fragile filigree strands of its arpeggios into a pensive mood piece. A little less microphone amplification would have sufficed…or perhaps none at all.

Prior to the next item, clarinettist Igal Levin recounted the curious story of how Felix Mendelssohn’s Konzertstück No.1 in F-minor for two clarinets and orchestra (the original version was for clarinet, basset horn and piano) came about. It was when Munich court musicians clarinettist Heinrich Joseph Bärmann and his basset hornist son Carl visited the Mendelssohn home in Berlin in 1832 that a deal was struck: the court musicians would roll up their sleeves and prepare the composer some Dumpfnudeln (steamed dumplings) and Rahmstrudel (sweet cheese strudel) if, while they worked in the kitchen, Mendelssohn would write them a piece for them to perform on their upcoming tour to Russia. Mendelssohn produced the work the same evening, only needing to add a few minor instrumental changes following its completion. He orchestrated it three weeks later. The challenging score attests to the high quality of the two Bärmanns’ playing. The NKO’s performance featured clarinettists Igal Levin and David Lobera. A work of three brief movements, its scoring of double winds – flutes, oboes, bassoons, horns and trumpets – was indeed suited to the strengths of the NKO. Soloists and orchestra gave dedicated expression to the work’s hearty, lush Romantic textures, its drama and songful melodies, its tranquillity and agitation, with Levin and Lobera engaging in musical banter, speedy figurations and exuberant hell-for-leather runs.

Bringing the orchestra together to conclude the concert, we heard Josef Haydn’s Symphony No.96 in D-major, the first of his “London Symphonies”, erroneously named “Miracle” due to a near-catastrophe when a chandelier fell from the ceiling when Haydn was conducting Symphony No.102 in London in 1795. Elbaz led his orchestra in playing of substantial orchestral quality, of Haydnesque good humour and richness of contrasts.  And there were plenty of solos here, too, some minor utterances, others more generous: the two principal violinists are featured in solo passages, as well as all principal wind players. In the Andante (2^nd movement), the focus is indeed on the winds and first violin, the latter possibly a token of appreciation of Haydn to impresario Johann Peter Salomon, who, in addition to producing Haydn’s London concerts, happened to also be his concertmaster.  In the Trio of the Menuetto (3^rd movement) we once again heard outstanding oboist Hila Zabari-Peleg in an eloquent rendering of the Ländler.  Altogether, Maestro Elbaz and the NKO presented Haydn’s light, expressive scoring and appealing earthiness, bringing to an end an evening of fine music, in which the orchestra’s treasures certainly did not remain hidden!

 

 

Marco Frezzato (Italy) opens the American Colony Hotel's new concert season with three Bach Solo 'Cello Suites

Violoncellist Marco Frezzato

©Ribalataluce Studio

On November 2nd 2016, the American Colony Concert Music Series opened its 2016-2017 season
with a solo Bach recital by violoncellist Marco Frezzato (Italy). Classical music has always played an important role in the cultural history of the American Colony Hotel. In fact, the hotel’s archives house an impressive collection of scores and music written at- or for the hotel. Initiated and organized by Ms. Petra Klose (K und K Wien), the first concert series opened in Autumn of 2015, with events all taking place in the exquisite Pasha Room of the hotel. The series features several internationally renowned artists performing music from the Baroque period to that of contemporary composers.

Born in Padua in 1973, Marco Frezzato studied ‘cello with Mario Brunello, Antonio Meneses and Amedio Baldovino and chamber music with the Trio di Trieste, doing postgraduate work at the Fiesole Music School, the Chigiana Academy (Siena) and the Duino International School of Music. From an early age, Frezatto has been drawn to performance practice on original instruments, taking studies in early music under Gaetano Nasillo, Laura Alvini and Lorenzo Ghielmi (Civic School of Music, Milan). Mr. Frezatto serves as principal ‘cellist with several orchestras and ensembles and has taken part in numerous recordings and in radio and television broadcasts. In 2002, he co-founded the AlcaEnsemble, with the aim of exploring performance of string quartet repertoire of the Classical and Romantic periods on original instruments.

The genesis of J.S.Bach’s six Suites for ‘Cello has remained unclear. It is thought that they date from the early 1720s, when Bach served as Kapellmeister at the Court of Prince Leopold at Cöthen, composing much instrumental music there. He may have written the ‘cello suites to be performed by gamba player and composer C.F.Abel or by a ‘cellist by the name of Lingke, both members of the court orchestra, but there is no evidence to prove this assumption. The first German solo works for ‘cello solo, they remained in near obscurity till a 13-year-old ‘cello student Pablo Casals found a second-hand copy of the suites in a Barcelona bookshop in 1890. Casals’ recording of the suites re-established them as major and treasured works of ‘cello repertoire.

Marco Frezzato, performing on a 1941 ‘cello built by Marino Capicchioni, and changed to a Baroque set-up, played three of the Bach Suites à Violoncello senza Basso, opening with Suite No.5 in C-minor BWV 1011. Right from the work’s French-style Ouverture, one gets a sense of how Frezzato allows Bach’s musical text to dictate pace and timbre changes, from spontaneity in the broad, pensive opening to small pauses on key notes, highlighting the dialogue of the ensuing tripla. As he moves into the dance movements, we find the artist’s reading of them exploring their creative potential more as music of the senses than as pure dance forms, his free playing of the Allemande and Courante traversing bar-lines in deference to phrases and personal expressiveness. In his playing of the Sarabande, Frezzato presented Bach’s stark, melancholy, otherworldly agenda, taking time to place the more dissonant, bare leaps that are so heart-rending. Springy and free, but not over-light-hearted, his performing of the Gavottes - as articulate as they were thought-provoking, with the second Gavotte tender and detailed in virtuosic, understated runs - was followed by a rubato Gigue of various colours, a riveting journey through textures and keys.

Emerging from the darker regions of the soul (C-minor), Frezzato then took his audience into the very different sound world - the sunny, crystal clarity of the tonality of G-major - of Suite No.1 BWV 1007, with the tonality enhanced by the freedom and resonance the open g string offers. We were drawn into the course of the Prelude’s energetic, joyful arpeggiation, to arrive at the mirthful, virtuosic yet noble Courante via the suave Allemande. And to the Sarabande - deep, singing and meditational under Frezzato’s bow - a bewitching moment taking one’s breath away, a moment that should not have to end - followed by the charm of the Minuets, the second, in D-minor (!),poignantly played with just a touch of reticence. The G-major Suite’s brief athletic Gigue provided Frezzato’s final personal statement on Bach’s G-major Suite.

Suite No.4 in E-flat major BWV 1010 is different again: its key creates a sense of power and complexity, making great technical demands on the player, with its zig-zag-shaped figurations. In Frezzato’s playing of the broad, richly harmonic Prelude, with its decorative transitions, one has a sense of the artist’s own curiosity as to where each arpeggio could lead, then creating another unpredictable journey in the Allemande, with its wide-ranging figurations and brisk rhythms, finished and a lively spread. Frezzato entertained us with his mischievous and virtuosic play of textures in the Courante, his breathlessly hasty section repeats keeping the listener perched at the edge of his seat. The Sarabande of the E-flat major suite always strikes me as if Bach has taken up the narrative mid-phrase; characterizing his gently lilting pace of the Sarabande, Frezzato’s focus lay in intensity of sound and the discriminating placing of each and every note. The joy, lightness-of-touch and the dash of devilry with which he infused the Bourrées were carried over to the Gigue, its frenetic mood nevertheless clear in direction.

How fortunate it was that Bach’s second wife Anna Magdalena had put the ‘cello suites to paper, of course, with no indications as to articulation and bowing, leaving much to the ‘cellist’s discretion. Frezzato’s playing placed Bach’s score in the foreground, the artist’s economic use of embellishment never obscuring the music’s noble greatness, his virtuosity a means to an end and not the focus of the recital. Marco Frezzato embraced the suites through his own very personal reading of them. The audience filling the Pasha Room was moved, privileged to be a part of the profound and inspiring experience.

 

The Laudatus Te Choir (Stuttgart) and the Jerusalem Oratorio Choir perform Mendelssohn's Songs of Praise in Jerusalem

Photo: Tamar Balter

“Mendelssohn’s Songs of Praise”, the second concert in the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra’s Vocal 
Series and the first of its Liturgical Series, featured the Jerusalem Oratorio Choir and the Laudamus Te Choir (Stuttgart). Conductors were Naama Nazrati-Gordon (Jerusalem) and Monica Meira Vasques (Germany), with soloists sopranos Daniela Skorka, Alla Vasilevitsky and Jennifer May Owusu and tenor Alexander Yudenkov. This writer attended the concert on October 27^th 2016 in the Henry Crown Auditorium of the Jerusalem Theatre; this and the concert following in Tel Aviv completed yet another joint project of the two choirs, in which they had performed the same program in Stuttgart some days prior to the Israel concerts.

The program opened with Felix Mendelssohn’s Psalm 42, opus 42 “As Pants the Hart”, conducted by Naama Nazrati-Gordon, with Daniela Skorka performing the solo role. Mendelssohn wrote 19 settings of Psalm texts, prompted by the high esteem he held for J.S.Bach’s music and by his love of Martin Luther’s hymns. Opus 42 was composed in 1837, when Mendelssohn and his bride Cécile were on their honeymoon. Usually a severe critic of his own music, the composer, in letters to his sister Fanny and other friends, referred to the work as his “very best sacred composition”. Opening with the image of the hart (stag, deer) yearning for fresh water, the absence of both shows becomes apparent, with the water appearing as tears, rushing streams and surging waves. At the Jerusalem performance, Nazrati-Gordon directed the choirs in a fragile, poetic reading of the opening chorus, the later more forthright choral utterances vehement and intense but steering way from roughness of sound. Contending well with orchestra and choir, Daniela Skorka, her voice bright, ample and easeful, shaped words into eloquent phrases, giving meaning and emotion to the texts, some delightful oboe-playing-playing accompanying the first soprano aria. Movement 6, in which Skorka was joined by tenors Alexander Yudenkov and Ori Batchko, baritone Dor Magen and bass Dov Faust, formed a sonorous and rich ensemble piece. The JSO players presented the vivid score with elegance, highlighting the variety, colour and beauty of Mendelssohn’s evocative instrumental writing.

In 1838 or 1839, Mendelssohn began writing a symphony in B-flat major. Having later received the commission to write one of the works celebrating the 1840 quadricentenary of Gutenberg’s movable type for a Leipzig festival, the composer returned to the symphony sketches, using them and new material as the basis of the three-movement sinfonia that would be followed by a series of nine vocal movements involving choir and soloists to form the mammoth Symphony No.2 in B-flat major opus 52 “Lobesgesang”. The “Hymn of Praise” texts, most of which are taken from the Bible, praise God and mankind’s progress from darkness to enlightenment. Mendelssohn’s most ambitious undertaking, it enjoyed much popularity during his lifetime, becoming a rarity on the concert platform after that, a strange fact considering its celebration of the German Reformation and literacy (to which Gutenberg had contributed), of German church music and Bach’s weighty influence (chorales, fugal writing) on him. The work also merges music of the concert hall with church music, forming a hybrid genre breaking the tradition of separating the two. Symphony No.2 was premiered at St. Thomas Church Leipzig, where Bach had served as Kapellmeister for 17 years.

Monica Meira Vasques conducted orchestra, choir and soloists in the “Lobesgesang” Symphony. In the three movements of the Sinfonia, the trombones open with a noble, Luther-like hymn tune that proceeds to thread its way through sections of the three orchestral movements, setting the scene for the choral movements. Tenor Alexander Yudenkov, his voice warm and substantial, possesses fine musical presence: his gripping rendering of the texts was both articulate and convincing, at times narrative, at others, emotional, raising the dramatic level:

‘The sorrows of death had closed all around me,

And hell’s terrors had got a hold upon me

With trouble and deep heaviness; (Psalm 116)

Opera singer Alla Vasilevitsky displayed flexibility, power and lyrical beauty of timbre, her collaboration with Yudenkov in “My song shall always be Thy mercy”, highlighting key words, producing a fine duet. In her duet with Jennifer May Owusu, the two soprano voices did not find an ideal balance, possibly due to the fact that the two were standing too far away to hear each other, Owusu’s rich, creamy voice not quite audible enough, and more the pity! The choir’s singing of choruses was well prepared and engaging, however, often drowned out by the orchestra, rendering the verbal text unintelligible.

Formed in 1987, the Jerusalem Oratorio Choir, numbering some 140 singers and performing repertoire from early to contemporary music and folk music, works in separate groups and with different conductors, the groups joining up once or twice a year to perform a large choral work. Oratorio ensembles have performed in the UK, Italy, Romania, France and Germany and have recorded eight CDs. Naama Nazrati Gordon is currently musical director of the Jerusalem Oratorio Choir.

Laudamus Te (Stuttgart) was formed in 2007 by current conductor Monica Meira Vasques. It consists of a chamber choir, a project choir, an orchestra and various smaller vocal ensembles, their repertoire spanning from Baroque- to contemporary music. Laudamus Te performs in the Stuttgart region as well as outside of Germany. With Vasques’ strong emphasis on sacred music, a close friendship with Israel has developed, their association with the Jerusalem Oratorio Choir existing since 2008 and resulting in several joint performances both in Germany and in Israel over recent years.

With the Henry Crown Hall full to capacity, the ambitious undertaking by both choirs and conductors in “Mendelssohn’s Songs of Praise” made for a vivid, festive affair. 

 

 

 

J.S.Bach's funeral music for Prince Leopold of Coethen performed at the 50th Abu Gosh Vocal Music Festival

Maestro Ron Zarhi (photo courtesy Ron Zarhi)

“Bach – Requiem for a Prince”, an event of the 50^th Abu Gosh Vocal Music Festival, took place in the Church of the Ark of the Covenant, Kiryat Yearim, near Jerusalem, on October 24^th 2016. Under the direction of Ron Zarchi, we heard the Upper Galilee Choir, the Bach Ensemble and soloists Einat Aronstein-soprano, Avital Dery-alto, Eitan Drori-tenor and Yair Polishook-bass.

J.S.Bach’s Cöthen Funeral Music BWV “Klagt Kinder, klagt es aller Welt” BWV 244a (Cry children, cry to all the world) was composed in 1729 for the funeral of Leopold, Prince of Anhalt-Cöthen who had died March 24^th, some days prior to his 34^th birthday. Bach had served as Kapellmeister to the Prince at the Cöthen court from 1717-1723. His allegiance to-and friendship with the prince, however, continued after he left Cöthen to take up his position as Kapellmeister at St. Thomas, Leipzig, returning to Cöthen once a year to direct his works at Leopold’s court.  As to the funeral cantata, the problem was that the text, written by Christian Friedrich Henrici (also known as Picander) survived but not the musical score. What is known is that Anna Magdalena Bach and son Wilhelm Friedemann were among the musicians took part in the 4-part cantata. The story of the work’s reconstruction is too long to recount here in detail. In 1873, working on restoring the work, German musicologist Wilhelm Rust noted that all the arias and two of the choral sections fitted convincingly into the construction of some from the St. Matthew Passion. Bach generally made a practice of reusing previously written material of his, this reworking referred to as “parody”. In 1951, Bach researcher Friedrich Smend pointed out the similarity between two of the choral sections of BWV 244a and two in BWV 198, a funeral ode for Princess Christiane Eberhardine of Brandenburg-Bayreuth. What could not be traced were melodies for the recitatives; most of those used in this concert were composed by young German musicologist and harpsichordist Alexander Ferdinand Grychtolik, with one by British conductor Andrew Parrott. 

The cantata falls into four sections, the first dealing with the concept of mourning, the second with the prince’s departing and salvation of his soul and the third with Leopold’s commemoration, with the fourth dealing with farewell and eternal rest. At the Abu Gosh Festival performance, the opening chorus, sung with depth of emotion and graced with poignant flute-playing (Esti Rofé, Avner Geiger), set the mood for a work imbued with sadness and sorrow:
‘Cry, children, cry to all the world,
Let even distant borders know it,
How your protection hath been shattered,
How this your sovereign father falls.’

Avital Dery’s genuine handling of the alto recitatives and arias was profound, gripping and moving, her rich, ample voice expressive in presenting the pain and sorrow of mourning, the few moments of joy, temporarily lightening the mood, floated and ornamented.  Tenor Eitan Drori’s articulate and distinctive resonant vocal timbre, clean intonation and well-pronounced German were well received. Aria No.5 - “Faint with grief”, “sighing-laden torment”, with “tears” and “no sorrow to be likened” could have done with more plangent treatment of its word-painting. One of the high points of the concert, however, was “Go, Leopold to thy repose”, an aria for two choirs (representing the mortals, the chosen) in which Drori, oboist Meirav Kadichevski and the choir intermingled and combined to produce an item of splendid shaping and refined expression. Soprano Einat Aronstein, whose contribution to the 50^th Abu Gosh Vocal Music Festival’s concerts was altogether outstanding, gave musical and verbal meaning to each word and gesture of the text. In sensitive collaboration with Esti Rofé’s appealing flute line, Aronstein gave an empathic performance of “With gladness be the world abandoned, For death to me great comfort seems”, her voice substantial and easeful in all registers, later to be joined by both oboes, as she counselled courage in “Hold in check thine anxious fretting”. German Baroque oratorio is a genre that fits baritone Yair Polishook like a glove. His full, deep timbre and focus supported the comforting message of the work; in, for example, the somewhat enigmatic aria “Let, Leopold, thee not be buried”, he was joined by ‘cellist Yotam Baruch’s eloquent, personally-expressed and embellished obbligato, later offering a wonderfully velvet-smooth and calming presentation of the lilting aria “Rest ye now in your repose”.

Israeli-born Ron Zarchi graduated from the Rubin Academy of Music, Tel Aviv, in Composition and Conducting, then specializing in Early Music in Germany. In his work with several Israeli choirs, he has conducted the gamut of Baroque choral music, also Jewish liturgical music of the 19th and 20th centuries. Today Ron Zarchi is a member of faculty of the Levinsky International College of Education (Tel Aviv), also directing the Hemiola Women's Choir in addition to the Upper Galilee Choir.

Under Maestro Ron Zarchi’s direction since 1985, the Upper Galilee Choir, numbering some 45 singers, performs widely in Israel as well as overseas. What stands out is its meticulous training, musicality and competence. The choral sections in the BWV 244a cantata excelled in beautifully chiselled phrases, a vivid understanding of the texts and depth of feeling. Add to that Ron Zarchi's sensitive and articulate conducting, the sympathetic instrumental playing of the Bach Ensemble and four fine soloists and one comes up with a performance off home-grown artists that is gratifying, totally pleasurable and moving.  

 

The Upper Galilee Choir at Abu Gosh (photo: Paul Gluck)

 

Myrna Herzog directs Ensemble PHOENIX and singers in the world premiere of Michelangelo Falvetti's "Nabucco"

Left to right: Fabrizio Longo,Oshri Segev, Tal Arbel (photo:Eliahu Feldman)

On October 24^th 2016, Ensemble PHOENIX (director: Myrna Herzog) performed the world premiere of Michelangelo Falvetti’s “Nabucco” - the complete oratorio - at the 50^th Abu Gosh Vocal Music Festival in the Church of Our Lady of the Ark of the Covenant, Kiryat Yearim, close to Jerusalem. Of the many works Falvetti (1642-1692) composed, only two large pieces have survived in full – “Il Diluvio Universale” (1682), performed by Ensemble PHOENIX the previous year, and “Il Dialogo del Nabucco” (1683). Heavily modified versions of “Nabucco” have taken place, but thanks to the research and editing work of violinist and musicologist Fabrizio Longo (Bologna, Italy), unearthing the two major Falvetti works and raising this great Messina composer out of oblivion, and Myrna Herzog's work on the manuscript, the complete and authentic “Nabucco” score for ensemble and six singers has been reconstructed, culminating in the first full performance of it in modern times, with Dr. Myrna Herzog conducting and Fabrizio Longo playing first violin.  In which case, this was an auspicious, ground-breaking event in the history of performance of Italian Baroque music. Ensemble PHOENIX was joined by sopranos Einat Aronstein, Liat Lidor and Yuval Oren, mezzo-soprano Anne-Marieke Evers, tenor Oshri Segev and baritone Guy Pelc.

Fabrizio Longo has done much research on Sicilian music.  At a talk at the Italian Cultural Institute (Tel Aviv), he gave a palpable picture of Messina of the time, stressing its importance as a great commercial and cultural centre at the peak of its splendour. He mentioned several men of letters from there, their academic activity connecting literature with music, astronomy, philosophy and medicine. He spoke of the influence these key figures had on each other in the meeting of opinions and of poets changing emphases or even facts in biblical stories to suit specific works, i.e. taking a sacred subject and viewing it through their personal prism. Falvetti’s librettist Vincenzo Giattini (1630-1697) made clear choices as to where to place his focus in the plot, inspired by Chapters 2 and 3 of the Book of Daniel. The two main musical genres of the time were the oratorio and the monodrama. Longo also mentioned the different techniques used for printing music in the region. In 1682, Falvetti, a Sicilian priest, took on the position of maestro di cappella in the Messina Cathedral. The Cathedral, originating from the 12^th century, was an important centre of music, known to have had a paid orchestra and choir at hand. This was where such works as the two major Falvetti oratorios were performed.

The oratorio’s dramatic plot presents the story of the three Jewish youths condemned to be burned alive by Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar for refusing to worship the king’s gold statue and how they emerge unscathed from the flames. In Herzog’s words: “The opposition and defiance to this single statue embodying arrogance and idolatry become the main subject of the plot”.  The story was also used by composer and librettist to symbolize Sicily’s national struggle, following the arrival of the Spanish Viceroy Francisco Benavides to Messina after the 1674-78 rebellion, with the city deprived of ancient privileges and subject to harsh repression.  Thus, the work is infused with political reference. The story unfolds by way of dialogues launched in economic, seamless continuum via Giattini’s rapid directness, a style evocative in images and emotion. Falvetti matches this in immediacy, transparency of textures and a cogent build-up of tension.

Here is a true masterpiece, whose greatness is all written into the score, with no need of extra-textual material or editing. Longo had mentioned some uncertainty as to instrumentation due to composer’s use of terminology; Herzog’s finely balanced instrumental ensemble of 11 players on period instruments illuminated Falvetti’s mid-Baroque style with splendid delicacy, with sensuousness infused with Mediterranean expressivity and with involvement in the course of events. Especially enriching to the string section, which was attentively and elegantly led by Maestro Longo himself, were the early winds - cornett  (Alma Mayer), chalumeau (Gili Rinot), Baroque bassoon (Inbar Navot) and recorders ( Alma Mayer) – with the Baroque guitar (Ian Aylon) offering delicacy and poignancy. Other players were Aviad Stier-organ, Smadar Shidlowsky-violin, Tal Arbel-viola da gamba, Sonja Navot- Baroque 'cello and Dara Bloom-violone. Percussionist Oded Geizhals gave a subtle and sensitive underpinning to the ensemble, the castanets a bold and pronounced reminder of the fact that Messina had been under Spanish domination.

Ensemble PHOENIX was joined by members of its vocal group VOCE PHOENIX, featuring as follows: in the roles of the three young Jews from Judah – Anania, Azaria and Misaele – we heard sopranos Einat Aronstein, Yuval Oren and Liat Lidor in performance that was fresh, well blended, vibrant and interactional. Their bold, mocking of Nabucco in “Let it shine like the sun, the giant piece that proudly makes war on heaven”, its dance rhythm enhanced by tambourine and metal jingles, moves into tragic acceptance of death, then to return to courage and confidence in three exuberant solos extolling the beauty of flames in the language of metaphors. As Arioco, captain of the king’s guard, mezzo-soprano Anne-Marieke Evers was convincing and intense, her clean, unmannered singing occasionally lacking sonority in the lower register.  Baritone Guy Pelc, his large vocal presence authoritative, his singing highlighting and phrasing Giattini’s lofty language, was well cast as the larger-than-life prophet Daniel:

‘Let the arrogant ones be confused!
From the throne of Babylon
Nabucco believes to be able to make war on the stars, armed with a crown;
Yet he cannot banish the fear from his breast.’ (Translation: Myrna Herzog)
Tenor Oshri Segev did well at drawing together the threads of the Nebuchadnezzar personality - a soul troubled by dreams, his attempted tolerance and eventual fury – in singing that was communicative, vivid, resonant and pleasing in colour.

Straddling the genres of historical oratorio and “drama per musica”, Michelangelo Falvetti’s “Il Dialogo del Nabucco” is an extraordinary work, its musical canvas as rich instrumentally as it is vocally, one of both high drama and personal expression.  Myrna Herzog’s deep enquiry into the work and her exhilarating direction of it were meticulous and uplifting, resulting in Baroque performance of the highest order. Deeply moved, the audience showed its enthusiasm in lengthy applause, shouts and whistles. For those who missed the premiere, more performances of “Nabucco” are in the planning.

 

Photo: Eliahu Feldman

 

Yair Dalal and Yotam Haimovich perform at the 50th Abu Gosh Vocal Music Festival

Yair Dalal (photo: Elyasaf Kowner)

 

Entering the tranquil grounds of the finely preserved Benedictine Monastery of Abu Gosh (10 kilometres west of Jerusalem) one is confronted by one of the best-preserved Crusader churches of the area. It stands at the site of Emmaus. Visitors to the 50^th Abu Gosh Vocal Music Festival (October 21^st -24^th 2016) were sipping coffee with cardamom and eating rich sweet local pastries, spending time in the shade of the ancient olive and pine trees and enjoying the well-tended gardens before leaving the rest of the world behind them to enter the Crypt, its mighty and thick walls drawing one’s gaze upwards. A bubbling spring flows below the crypt.

“Sundown View” was the title of a concert in the early afternoon of October 21^st performed by Yair Dalal (oud, violin) and Yotam Haimovich (sitar).  Except for one traditional Jewish Sephardic melody (sung before and on the Day of Atonement), all the pieces performed were original works by Yair Dalal. At the start of the event, that very specific calm, soul-searching atmosphere of Dalal’s style rose from a single ornamented melodic line played by him on the violin. In time, Haimovich entered in unison with the melody, having now become more dancelike; as the sitar took over the melody, Dalal provided a drone with the occasional “comment”. Some of the items were songs – sung sotto voce by Dalal – accompanied by oud and sitar, with a few people in the audience joining him in gentle humming. Haimovich, barefooted and seated on the floor, played in the Indian tradition. All the pieces used middle-eastern modes, never marred by western harmony. The program revolved around melodic improvisation, the art of embellishment, musical dialogue between the artists, each in his own personal emotional style, soloing to bourdons, drones and ostinati, a profound discourse in the musical language of the senses, of aesthetics, of human communication.

Playing guitar from age 10, Yotam Haimovich (b.1973) engaged in classical music, jazz, electronic music and Middle Eastern music. In 1994, he went to India, where he studied the sitar, Indian philosophy and the indigenous music for seven years with Pandit Shivnath Mishra, living in the master’s house, then completing his studies at Varanasi University. Having become a sitar master, Haimovich performed all over India, an unusual course for a western musician. He has performed widely with such artists as Michael Benson, Erez Munk and Yair Dalal. In an effort to amalgamate traditional Indian and western music, Yotam Haimovich has devised an instrument that combines the sitar with a synthesizer – a keyboard instrument that preserves the sitar character.

Born in Israel (1955) to Iraqi Jewish parents, Yair Dalal studied the violin. Classically trained, he became interested in Iraqi folk music and western rock. Taking up the oud, he began playing music with the Azazme Bedouin tribe, this inspiring him to write music that strives to bridge the gap between Israelis and Arabs. His belief is in the emotional and transformative power of music. Dalal is also involved in preserving the cultural heritage of Arab-Israeli music. He speaks of the inspiration for his music, “When I play or when I compose, many things are in my head and in my spirit: the Jewish prayer from the Synagogue, the Iraqi maqam which was played in the Baghdad coffee shops by the Jews and the folk songs that we have in Arabic. And also, the desert, which is my favourite place” (Shapiro, M. (2002) Global Rhythm).

The artists, the event and the magical location in which it took place, made for an inspiring start to the 50^th Abu Gosh Vocal Music Festival.

Yair Dalal,Yotam Haimovich (photo:Martina Koelsch)