The St. Petersburg Philharmonic in the Bronfman Auditorium, Tel Aviv in May

Maestro Yuri Temirkanov (photo: Stas Levshin)

The St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra will be performing two concerts of Russian music in Tel Aviv this coming May. The concerts, under the baton of Yuri Temirkanov, will take place at the Charles Bronfman Cultural Center, 1 Huberman St. (home of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra) on May 9th and 10th  2018. It was Maestro Temirkanov’s wish to accompany the orchestra to Israel to perform in honour of 70 years of the State of Israel. The concerts also coincide with Victory Day (May 9th), a holiday that commemorates the victory of the Soviet Union over Nazi Germany in the Great Patriotic War following the signing of the German Instrument of Surrender late in the evening on 8 May 1945.

Chosen for the program for obvious reasons, the concert of May 9th will feature Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No.9, a work originally intended to be a celebration of the Russian victory over Nazi Germany. The concert will be preceded by Israeli pianist/conductor/composer Gil Shohat’s talk about  the work and the tragic events surrounding it.

The concert of May 10th will feature soloist Nikolai Lugansky, a pianist of extraordinary depth and versatility. He will perform Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Concerto No. 3 for piano and orchestra, one of the most technically challenging piano concertos of the standard classical repertoire. The program will also include Nikolai Rimsky Korsakov’s dazzling symphonic suite Scheherazade Op. 35.

The St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, the oldest Philharmonia in Russia, has been in existence for more than two hundred years. Its history goes back to 1802, when the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Society, the first in Europe, was created. It organized the world premiere of Beethoven's Missa Solemnis in 1824. Since 1988, Yuri Temirkanov, professor of violin at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory, Moscow and one of the world's leading conductors, has served as the orchestra’s artistic director and chief conductor.

Tickets, ranging from NIS 186 to NIS 626 can be reserved by contacting www.bravo.org.il *3221 or www.leaan.co.il *8780

 

Events to look forward to at the upcoming Abu Gosh Vocal Music Festival (May 18th to 20th)

The Kityat Ye'arim Church (photo: Danny Hermon)

The Abu Gosh Vocal Music Festival takes place twice a year in and around Abu Gosh, a town located 16 kilometers west of Jerusalem on the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem highway. The next Abu Gosh Festival will take place from May 18th to May 20th 2018, with a program of 12 concerts suited to varied musical tastes. Concerts will be performed in two churches – the spacious Kiryat Ye’arim Church, sitting high up on the hill, and the Crypt – a small, 12th century Crusader Benedictine church set in a magical, exotic garden in the lower part of the town of Abu Gosh.  The Abu Gosh Festival has existed in its present form since 1992. People come from far and wide to attend concerts, picnic in the open, sit in on open-air events, buy trinkets at the outdoor stalls set up near the Kiryat Ye’arim Church and relax in the tranquil surroundings of the Jerusalem Hills. The festival features many Israeli groups and soloists, also hosting some overseas artists. As of 1995, Hannah Tzur has been musical director of the festival. Ms. Tzur, a contralto who has soloed with major orchestras and conductors in Israel, has directed the Ramat Gan Chamber Choir for 19 years.

 

The Kiryat Ye’arim Church will host a number of concerts of classical vocal works: “The Giants’ Summit” (Concert No.2, May 18th) will present music of Beethoven and Brahms, with four solo singers joining the Israeli Vocal Ensemble (Conductor: Yuval Benozer) and the Israel Netanya Kibbutz Orchestra. Yuval Benozer will also conduct Fauré’s Requiem (Concert No.5, May 19th) with soloists Dana Marbach, Yair Polishook, the Israel Kibbutz Choir and the Raanana Symphonette. Sopranos Alla Vasilevitsky and Keren Hadar will join an ensemble of players from the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in a program of Mozart’s Mass in C-minor, the Great, and Bach’s Double Concerto for oboe and violin (Concert No.8, May 20th); they will perform under the baton of Hannah Tzur herself. Baroque music aficionados will be catered for in two events: Ensemble Barrocade, the Tel Aviv Chamber Choir (conductor: Michael Shani) and soloists will perform works of Händel, Bach and Marcello (Concert No.4, May 19th). Barrocade, conducted by Yizhar Karshon, and soloists will perform “The Judgement of Paris” (Concert No.3, May 19th), an opera by Daniel Purcell (Henry Purcell’s brother.) Guest choir to the May festival will be the Jauna Muzika Choir (Conductor: Vaclovas Augustinas) from Lithuania, performing a program of works of Bach, Mendelssohn, A.Scarlatti and Lithuanian folk songs (Concert No.7, May 20th). There can be no Abu Gosh Festival without a concert performed by singers of the Meitar Opera Studio under their conductor, pianist and arranger David Sebba; “Italian Love Affair” (Concert No.6, May 20th) will present these young, budding opera singers in arias, duets and ensembles from renowned operas of Bellini, Donizetti, Puccini, Verdi and Rossini.  The Jerusalem Academy Chamber Choir (conductor: Stanley Sperber) will commemorate 100 years of the birth of Leonard Bernstein in “Angels Singing” (Concert No.1, May 18th) with works of Bernstein and Mendelssohn as well as some spirituals.

 

Take a wander down to the Romanesque Crusader Church. Below it, the crypt, which was built in a former reservoir of the second century, is massive and austere; in some places its walls are more than 3½ meters thick. At its centre flows a spring. In the church’s exotic, tranquil garden, a local man will be there to serve you coffee with cardamom and rich, sweet pastries. Some of the more intimate and different-style concerts take place here. For festival-goers interested in folk music, soprano Einat Aronstein and lutenist Ophira Zakai will perform Scottish songs (“Scotland’s Green Pastures”, Concert No.9, May 18th). “The Castle's Tower – Spanish, Ladino and Renaissance Music” (Concert No.12, May 19th) will present singer Etty Ben-Zaken and instrumentalists in Eitan Steinberg’s arrangements of this appealing music. In an interesting combination of works, “Bach Bossa Nova Style” (Concert No.10, May 18th) will feature soprano Sharon Dvorin, Uri Bracha - guitar/arrangements and Gonen Rosenberg - percussion. Those of us with a penchant for Italian movies can join tenor Assaf Kacholi and guitarist Shani Inbar for some nostalgia in “La Dolce Vita, Cinema Paradiso – Nino Rota and Ennio Morricone”.

 

http://www.agfestival.co.il

           

 

 

Giovanni A. Matielli - Three Sonatas recorded on square piano by Patrick Hawkins

Patrick Hawkins, the Ganer square piano (Ron Hagell)

Patrick Hawkins’ premiere recording of three (and a bit) of Giovanni A. Matielli’s Opus 1 Sonatas on the square piano is definitely an enterprising project, considering the fact that Matielli (1733-1805) is virtually unknown to today’s audiences. Born in Vienna, he studied with Austrian court composer Georg Christoph Wagenseil, who was instrumental in seeing in the early Classical period. Known in Vienna as a teacher rather than a performer, it stands to reason that Matielli’s works would have been played by amateurs and diligent students. Not a great deal is known about the composer’s life; his reputation remains in the shadow of contemporaries of the likes of Haydn and Mozart. However, but it is known that Christoph W. Gluck “was fond of Matielli’s compositions and delighted in his keyboard sonatas”, as we read in the disc’s liner notes. Dr. Hawkins has recorded each of the complete sonatas on a different square piano, all of which were built in London at the end of the 18th century. Two belong to the Carolina Clavier Collection; the third - built by Christopher Ganer between 1785 and 1790 - is owned by Hawkins himself.

 

Patrick Hawkins invites the listener to a concert of salon music; we hear these sonatas as they must have sounded at the time. He opens with Sonata in A-major Opus 1/1 played on a Johannes Broadwood square piano of 1787. This is an exuberant work of some naïveté. Hawkins applies the instrument’s somewhat fluty timbre to highlighting the sonata’s brightness, its searching middle movement, then adding some fine ornamentation to the final Allegretto movement. Sonata in G-major Opus 1/3 is performed on a Longman, Clementi and Co. square of 1799, a piano whose more developed technology and depth of sound serves this more sophisticated and varied work well, with its many contrasts and expressive moments. Take, for example, the third movement - Affettuoso - a mood piece, played very personally, its repeated section embellished with some pleasing spreads. We hear some contrasted and spirited playing in the work’s fourth and final movement - Allegro - as Classical textures present themselves in quick, lively succession. Christopher Ganer’s 5-octave pianos, with their square, tapering legs, simple veneers of mahogany and satinwood and bronze medallions were typical of fashionable furniture of the 1780s. The Ganer instrument (1785-90), on which Patrick Hawkins plays Sonata in A-major Opus 1/5 has its own distinctive, more abrupt character. The sonata, opens with exuberant energy and a hint of flexing. Hawkins chooses a more detached texture for the second movement (Adagio), taking time and enlisting plenty of rubato to give it natural and thoughtful spontaneity, with the final movement exuberant, free and entertaining. Played appealingly, “La Caccia” from Sonata in E-flat Major Opus 1/6, the final piece on the CD, represents much that is so vivid and delightful about the Classical style, and how effective and engaging it sounds on the square piano. Introducing the listener to this unknown composer, “Giovanni Matielli, Three Sonatas” recorded in 2017 for the Golden Square label, will surely appeal to those interested in the style and possibilities of the square piano, its true sound and transparency. The liner notes offer much information, both on Matielli and on the instruments used for the recording.

 

Born in Virginia, Patrick Hawkins is a graduate of the Peabody Conservatory (Johns Hopkins University) and of East Carolina University and Arizona State University. Since making his European debut at the Cambridge Summer Recitals (UK) in 1993, he has continued to perform and teach internationally. As a choral conductor, he has conducted numerous school, church, and community choirs in Arizona, California, Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. A founding member of the Vista Ensemble, a historically-informed performing organization of musicians in Columbia, South Carolina, Patrick Hawkins has recorded for Arkay and Navona Records.

 

 

 

 

More notes from the 2018 Bach in Jerusalem Festival

Ensemble PHOENIX The Art of Fugue (photo: Ami Shamir)

The 3rd Bach in Jerusalem Festival, under the auspices of the Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra, took place from March 17th to 21st, the final day of the festival being the actual date of Johann Sebastian Bach’s 333rd birthday! Prof. David Shemer, founder and director of the Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra, is musical director of the Bach in Jerusalem Festival.

 

Opening the festival events, “Homage to Johann Sebastian Bach”, an organ recital performed by István Ella (Hungary), and in collaboration with the Israel Organ Association, took place at noon on March 17th at the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in Jerusalem’s Old City. With the church’s Karl Schuke organ proving to be especially suitable to performance of J.S.Bach’s music, István Ella’s  recital attracted a large audience, making for a festive first event as he opened with Bach’s dramatic, virtuosic and exhilarating Prelude and Fugue in A-minor BWV 543.The concert’s centrepiece was the Partita “Sei gegrüsset, Jesu gütig," (I Greet Thee, Merciful Jesus), in whose subject and variations Ella presented a fascinating kaleidoscope of organ timbres and techniques. The recital concluded with the Toccata and Fugue in F-major BWV 540, the work’s daring harmonic forays woven into its grand utterances and proportions.  István Ella’s playing combines articulacy, majesty and freshness with his exciting palette of diverse registrations.

 

A special event of the festival was devoted to J.S.Bach’s “Art of Fugue”. This took place on March 19th at the Jerusalem YMCA. Festival-goers filled the Mary Nathaniel Golden Hall of Friendship of the Jerusalem International YMCA to learn about- and experience more in one of the most enigmatic works of Bach and the Baroque period in general, and to hear some of its movements. Playing it on period instruments we heard Ensemble PHOENIX (this time, including some new faces): Yaakov Rubinstein-violin, Shai Kribus-oboe, oboe d’amore, recorders, Netanel Pollak-viola, Tal Arbel-viola da gamba, with PHOENIX founder and director Dr. Myrna Herzog also on viola da gamba. Musicologist Dr. Alon Schab’s discussion of the different movements performed at the concert was succinct, enlightening and entertaining, no mean task considering the fact that the sequence of 20 fugues and canons, grouped according to the contrapuntal devices they employ actually lacks all indications as to how they might be played. Schab certainly had his audience focused and keen to follow the course of each fugue. His and Herzog’s aim was to work from the manuscript as much as possible, rather than from printed editions. Having two bass viols meant that all the score’s notes could be sounded and having five players offered the opportunity for different scorings and timbral mixes. With the strings joined by the oboe in Contrapunctus II, their timbre was somewhat dominated by the more strident wind instrument, whereas the larger, mellower sound of the oboe d’amore blended splendidly with them, as in Contrapunctus IV. The artists also engaged in “colla parte” playing, a Baroque practice in which the highest instrument is doubled by another instrument, as in Contrapunctus VII, in which the recorder doubled the violin, the result being a very different and “new” instrumental timbre coming to the surface! So, one could say that, with each fugue, audience members were not only invited to follow the treatment of the fugal subjects but also to make their own personal decisions as to the effect of each different instrumental combination. For does the Baroque style not engage in questions of colour and taste? And how could the listener not ignore Bach’s daring utterances, as in the unconventional, somewhat wild, writing in Contrapunctus XI? As to the work’s conclusion (or lack thereof) are not most listeners shocked and disturbed in Contrapunctus XIV as the mammoth “Art of Fugue” trails off unfinished in the throes of this climactic four-part fugue, a piece which would have crowned the work as well as Bach’s career? And woven inside Contrapunctus XIV is the musical notation spelling out his name . . . B A C H. The PHOENIX players’ approach to the Art of Fugue was intelligent, articulate and devoted as they delved deeper and deeper into the mysteries of Bach’s counterpoint, its possibilities and expressive potential. Of the two new faces, there was young Jerusalemite Netanel Pollak (Baroque viola), a graduate of the Juilliard School of Music and violinist Yaakov Rubinstein, a soloist and concertmaster with a prestigious international performing career on the modern violin. Rubinstein was concertmaster of the PHOENIX Orchestra's performance of the 19th century Brazilian Requiem. This was Rubinstein’s first foray into the world of Baroque violin. In keeping with PHOENIX's practice, both Pollak and Rubinstein took on board the minute details, complexity and subtelties of the work, collaborating impressively with the other players. It is hoped they will continue to appear in future PHOENIX projects. 

 

Once again, the Bach House in Eisenach (Germany) has added much interest to the Bach in Jerusalem Festival, setting up yet another fascinating exhibition in the YMCA foyer. Showing festival-goers around were the museum’s managing director Dr. Jörg Hansen and Mr. Benjamin Leins. Items of interest included the original manuscript of J.S.Bach’s Magnificat and the St. Matthew Passion, “Bach in Berlin”, the Bach goblet, “Numeric  Symbols in Bach’s Music”, a recording (and x-ray of the hands) of harpsichordist Wanda Landowska, who had given the ground-breaking concert in Eisenach in 1911 (she was the first artist to record the Goldberg Variations) and, finally, the spectacular reconstruction of Bach’s face which the museum commissioned in 2008 and carried out using casts of the skull that was unearthed in 1894. The Bach House has been in operation for 111 years.

 

“Love Me Or Leave Me” was certainly a very different festival event. Drawing people of all ages to the Eden-Tamir Music Center, Ein Kerem on March 18th, Noam Vazana (vocals/ trombone/piano) hosted Ofer Portugali(piano), Arie Volnitz(bass) and Eitan Itzkovich(percussion) in an evening that included a selection of songs by Nina Simone. How does Nina Simone fit into a festival of Bach’s music? It turns out that she was a classically-trained pianist with a love of Baroque music and of Bach in particular. In fact, her dream was to become the first black American concert pianist. But, as fate and her lack of finance would have it, she began playing and singing in bars and clubs; in her songs and performance one can hear a strong influence of classical music and even quotes from works of J.S.Bach! Her song “Love Me or Leave Me” came about when she was attempting to write a fugue in the style of Bach. A versatile instrumentalist/singer, Noam Vazana is classically trained and the recipient of several awards. Her richly coloured voice, large vocal range, jazzy style, spontaneity and articulate English re-created the sentiments and messages of such Nina Simone numbers as “I Got Life”, “Little Girl Blue”, “I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free” and “Four Women”. Another touching piece was “Boi” (Come with Me), a song Noam Vazana herself composed after having moved to Europe, a song addressed to herself, “to the child within me”. Here we heard her singing, playing piano and trombone. Adding to the musical interest and richness of the event was Vazana’s collaboration with three first class artists. Introducing each number, Noam Vazana, in her relaxed, upbeat manner, gave the audience the feeling that we were her guests.

 

The 3rd Bach in Jerusalem Festival signed out with the solo recital of violinist Dmitry Sinkovsky (Russia), in which he performed two of J.S.Bach’s solo Partitas. The festive closing concert took place at the Jerusalem International YMCA on March 21st. Although many people tend to view Bach as a keyboard virtuoso, he was also, however, as was his father, a highly skilled violinist and it was as a violinist that he obtained his first public appointment, playing in the Weimar Court Orchestra. Carl Philipp Emanuel spoke of his father as playing the violin “purely and penetratingly and thus kept the orchestra in best order, much better than he could have done from the harpsichord.” The pinnacle of Johann Sebastian’s writing for the violin is unquestionably the six unaccompanied works he wrote for the instrument and completed in 1720, when he was Capellmeister to Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cöthen. Sinkovsky opened with Partita No.1 in B-minor BWV 1002, setting the scene with his bold, exciting and finely-chiselled playing of the Allemanda. The Corrente emerged in a finely delineated manner, with the artist’s use of broad gestures together with his rich palette of dynamics in the Sarabande exuding a sense of discovery, this followed by the substantial textures of the Tempo di Borea. But what typifies Partita No.1 is the Double following- and based on each dance movement. In these, Sinkovsky’s dazzling playing offered fresh meaning, flexibility and colour. Then, to the very different Partita No.2 in D-minor BWV 1004. Following the artist’s leisurely, sensitive rendition of the Allemanda, came the dotted, Italian-style light-of-foot Corrente, an inspired Sarabanda and the artist’s buoyant and stirring playing of the Giga.  Sinkovsky’s performance of the mammoth Ciaccona theme and variations presented its world of techniques, textures, gestures and emotions in one organic, architectonic tripartite continuum, reminding the listener of how tender the central major section really is and how touching the return to the minor mode can be to the human spirit. Sinkovsky’s easeful virtuosity and clear musical vision took the listener, via rapid scale passages, double stopping and arpeggios, to the world of illusion of separately moving and interweaving voices. One of today’s most prestigious Baroque violinists, Dmitry Sinkovsky was playing on gut strings. A conductor and countertenor, Sinkovsky communicates warmly with his audience. This was his first Israeli performance.




Dmitry Sinkovsky (photo: Maxim Reider)

 

 

 

From Magnificat to Magnificat at the 2018 Bach in Jerusalem Festival

Philippe Pierlot  - Magnificats of J.S.Bach, C.P.E.Bach  (Maxim Reider)

The 3rd Bach in Jerusalem Festival, under the auspices of the Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra, took place from March 17th to 21st 2018, the final day of the festival falling on Johann Sebastian Bach’s 333rd birthday! Prof. David Shemer, founder and director of the Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra, serves as musical director of the Bach in Jerusalem Festival.

With the central theme of this year’s Bach in Jerusalem Festival being the Magnificat and its various settings, visiting conductor Philippe Pierlot (Belgium) conducted the Cecilia Soloists Ensemble (director: Guy Pelc) and Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra players in two Bach Magnificats - that of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach and that of the elder Johann Sebastian Bach. This writer attended the concert at the Jerusalem International YMCA on March 17th.  Both Magnificats are written in the festive key of D-major. In his program notes, Maestro David Shemer wrote: “We cannot...ignore the fact that Carl Philipp Emanuel, still a young composer in his 30s when he composed his Magnificat, was not entirely free of his father’s influence. Even so, the musical language of both Magnificats is different, clearly pointing to a difference of style between that of the older Bach, whose work constitutes a high point of the Baroque period, and that of his son, who was now turning to the new galant manner of expression…” Pierlot’s energetic direction highlighted the immediacy of Carl Philipp Emanuel’s music — its abrupt harmony shifts, strange modulations, unusual turns of melody, changes of texture and dramatic pauses - with its delicacy accomplished by assimilating Baroque ornamentation into his new style. Offering fine opportunities to soloists, we heard the “Quia respexit” (He hath regarded the low estate) sung expressively by soprano Tom Ben Yishai, a skillfully handled and gripping ”Quia fecit” (He that is mighty) by tenor Richard Resch (Germany),Guy Pelc’s portrayal of  strength in in the “Fecit potentiam” (He has shown strength) and Avital Dery’s  gracefully engaging “Suscepit Israel” (He has helped his servant Israel), the latter joined by Idit Shemer and Geneviève Blanchard on flutes. Adding to the work’s joyful, triumphant mood were the three D trumpets - David Staff (UK), Jean-Charles Denis (France), Einat Kalitzky (Israel-Switzerland) - the “Et misericordia” (Mercy) with its dynamic changes from piano to forte depicting the scope of all generations and, finally, the two richly scored contrapuntal closing movements. C.P.E.Bach certainly stood by his belief when he claimed that “music must, first and foremost, stir the heart”.

J.S.Bach’s Magnificat, also in the key of D-major, followed with no less elation and exaltation, freshness and vitality. There can be few choral movements more exciting or arresting than the pulsing “Omnes generationes” (All generations), the generous word-painting firing the “Fecit potentiam”, the five-part fugal structure of Sicut locutus est (As He spoke to our fathers) or the work’s dazzling conclusion. Small in number, the effective and powerful presence of the small  Cecilia Vocalists Ensemble performing here in both Bach Magnificats were yet another endorsement of Maestro Andrew Parrott’s claim to this practice as being authentic. As to the work’s solos and duets, mezzo-soprano Avital Dery’s singing of the “Et exultavit” (My soul magnifies the Lord) was all shape and meaning, soprano Hadas Faran-Asia’s bright lucidity of sound coupled pleasingly with the somewhat melancholy oboe d’amore (Aviad Gershoni) in the “Quia respexit”, bass Yoav Meir Weiss’s gracefully flowing and rich vocal colors in the “Quia fecit” were rewarding, with Richard Resch’s forthright “Deposuit potentes” depiction of “He has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly” and alto Zlata Hershberg’s touching “Esurientes” (The hungry he has filled with good things) joined by the poignant flute sounds of Shemer and Blanchard. Maestro Pierlot’s direction made for an inspired and inspiring presentation of both Magnificats.

Taking place in the intimate surroundings of the auditorium of the Jerusalem Music Centre, Mishkenot Sha’ananim on March 21st, “The Small Magnificats” was a chamber concert of  settings of the Magnificat by a number of other Baroque composers as well as other works inspired by it. The concert was directed by Prof. David Shemer, founder and director of the Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra. Making up the vocal ensemble were young artists Adaya Peled-soprano and Jonathan Suissa-tenor, together with David Feldman-countertenor and Yair Polishook-bass. They were joined by violinists Dafna Ravid and Sharon Cohen, Tami Borenstein-viola, Lucia D’Anna-’cello and Hagai Zehavi-double bass, with David Shemer conducting from the organ. Works of Johann Pachelbel, beginning with his well-known canon, constituted a major part of the program. Pachelbel’s small but complete four-voiced Magnificat P.246 (also in D-major!) lasting all of five minutes consists of mostly homophonic movements following in close succession. Young soprano Adaya Peled held the top (melodic) part competently. Among the most expressive pieces ever composed for organ or keyboard are Pachelbel’s 95 short, preludial fugues on the Magnificat. Displaying the composer’s mastery of harmony and counterpoint, many of these works do not require a pedal. To the great interest and delight of the audience at the Jerusalem Music Centre, David Shemer performed four of them on the positiv organ. And there were two more choral Magnificats to follow. One was Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s Magnificat H.73 for three male voices, two violins and continuo. A brilliant composition, it is set as an extended ostinato aria over a g-minor tetrachord ground. The singers presented a spirited reading of its text of ideas, key words and rhetoric over the 89 ground figures, daring harmonies and textures. With the three very different singers - Jonathan Suissa with his young, lively natural vocal sound, Yair Polishook’s well-sculpted richly-colored bass and David Feldman’s substantial counter tenor timbre - there was much interest provided by the instrumentalists, whose exuberant ensemble sections dovetailed in with the sung sections.The other and final Magnificat setting was  that of Antonio Vivaldi, in which singers and instrumentalists created a fine blend of Vivaldi’s choral styles in and around brief solo sections, retaining the work’s intensity and emotional content. Choruses were impactful and exciting, with the “Et misericordia” creating a marvellous and moving moment. Soloists were Adaya Peled and David Feldman.

Festival-goers interested to hear more on the subject of Magnificat settings were invited to attend a symposium at the Jerusalem Music Centre on March 21st, the actual day commemorating Johann Sebastian Bach’s birth 333 years ago. Convened and opened by Dr. Alon Schab (Haifa University), we heard Mr. Benjamin Leins of the Bach House (Eisenach, Germany) outlining the origins and history of the Magnificat setting, Dr. Yonatan Bar Yoshafat (The Open University of Israel) talking about C.P.E.Bach’s Magnificat and Dr. Boriss Avramecs (Latvian University) discussing contemporary settings of the Magnificat in the USA, UK, Europe and, in particular, by composers around the Baltic Sea.

 

The Carmel String Quartet presents its views on Bartok's String Quartet No.5 and Beethoven's String Quartet in F-major op.135

Yoel Greenberg,Rachel Ringelstein,Tami Waterman,Tali Goldberg(Shuli Waterman)

“Noble Savages” was the somewhat enigmatic title given to the Carmel Quartet’s recent concert of the Strings and More series. This writer attended the concert at the Jerusalem Music Centre, Mishkenot Sha’ananim, Jerusalem, on March 12th 2018, in which explanations and readings were given in English. Directed by violist Yoel Greenberg, the series adds lively discussion as to the music played, with all members of the quartet taking part in that aspect of the event. Artists taking part were violinists Rachel Ringelstein (1st violin) and Tali Goldberg, Yoel Greenberg-viola and Tami Waterman-’cello.

 

In his humorous and lively manner, Dr Yoel Greenberg opened the evening with a quiz. Audience members were asked to identify from what period various snippets of music came. This turned out to be no easy task! All the examples were taken from Bela Bartok’s String Quartet No.5 and Ludwig van Beethoven’s String Quartet in F-major op.135. The first half of the evening would focus on the 1934 Bartok quartet. Greenberg spoke of Bartok’s Hungarian identity, his research into folk music (not just of his native Hungary) and his search to find natural sound, free of “Romantic grandiloquence”. Bartok’s fifth quartet brims with folk influence, one outstanding example being the asymmetrical Bulgarian dance of the third movement. Greenberg spoke of the work’s symmetrical arc structure and of two other visual/sound associations with which Bartok was fascinated - that of insects and of the sounds of night. The combination of the above-mentioned elements is what caused Bartok’s music to have both objective and subjective aspects. The Carmel Quartet’s performance of the highly virtuosic work was incisive and uncompromising, yet addressing its moments of empathy, the mystery of the world of insects and the composer’s strangely humorous removal of a folk song from its own tonality (2nd movement), the compound rhythm of the Bulgarian peasant dance (3rd movement) followed by the delicate, desolate otherworldly 4th movement, to return to the driven, acerbic, intensive effect on reaching the 5th movement. The artists presented the composer’s world of strange effects - of hisses, sighs, drones and pulses – existing together with classical forms on one musically rich and complex canvas, both shimmering and acerbic, yet always articulate, profound and sincere.

 

In reverse chronological order, Beethoven’s String Quartet in F-major op.135 occupied the second part of the program. Beethoven’s last complete work, composed in October 1826, written only a few months before his death in March 1827, this quartet differs from the monumental, soul-searching and sprawling late quartets (and piano sonatas). Beethoven’s personal life had descended into swirling chaos; he himself wrote much about his own suffering. This work, however, with its airy, transparent texture, its smaller proportions and playful nature, seems enigmatically removed from the struggle and suffering expressed in the above-mentioned late works. But it does ask questions, namely in the final movement bearing Beethoven’s strange inscription “Der schwer gefasste  Entschluss” (The Difficult Resolution) and on whose manuscript he asks “Muss es sein?” (Must it be?), later to answer in the affirmative. Greenberg spoke of Beethoven’s humour, his liking for puns, the work’s multiplicity of unconnected themes and the fact that, for the composer, there was little distance between comedy and seriousness. In the first movement, one as spare in texture as any quartet movement Beethoven had ever written, the Carmel players, in fine communication with each other, focused on objective playing and beautiful melodic shaping. They displayed the Vivace (2nd) movement’s humour in its “uncoordinated”, bumptious utterances and eruptive fortissimo section, to be followed by the profound, soul-searching character of the third movement, referred to by Greenberg as “one of Beethoven’s most moving”, as the instruments’ lower registers presented its theme. Then to the final movement, with Beethoven’s questions, its teasing playfulness alternating with anguished sounds. Yoel Greenberg suggested that Beethoven’s dilemma was to do with the complications of writing a string quartet. In a letter to his publisher, Beethoven wrote: “Here, my dear friend, is my last quartet. It will be the last; and indeed, it has given me much trouble. For I could not bring myself to compose the last movement. But as your letters were reminding me of it, in the end I decided to compose it. And that is the reason why I have written the motto: “The difficult resolution–Must it be? It must be, it must be!” A black sheep among Beethoven’s late repertoire, this was certainly a very curious and interesting work to discuss and present at the Carmel Quartet’s Strings and More series. As to its moods and gestures, Yoel Greenberg summed up his own thoughts with “we can never be sure which Beethoven we are looking at”.

 

 

Di Tsaytmashin performs Yiddish Baroque Music in Jerusalem

Photo: Dani Machlis

Yiddish Baroque music is not a genre one is likely to come across very often. It was curiosity that motivated this writer to attend a concert of an ensemble calling itself “Di Tsaytmashin” (The Time Machine) at Beit Hagat, a venue well hidden away in the tranquil, narrow streets of Jerusalem’s magical Ein Kerem village, on March 7th 2018. Beit Hagat (a historic building housing an old olive press) is an informal venue hosting workshops in various fields, lectures, regular classes, concerts, theater and performance events, jam sessions, film showings and more. It  provides a space to encourage joint and independent creation and for cultural and religious dialogue.The event was the official Israeli launch of Di Tsaytmashin’s CD “Yiddish Baroque Music - from the Book of the Rejoicing Soul”. Members of the ensemble are  Avishai Aleksander Fisz-vocals,  Bari Moscovitz-theorbo, lute, Ayela Seidelman-’cello, Daniel Hoffman-violin, Adi Silberberg-recorders and Oren Fried-percussion.

 

“Seyfer Simkhes Haneyfesh” (The Book of the Rejoicing Soul) is an ancient book of Yiddish songs by Rabbi Elkhanan Kirchen, published in Germany some 300 years ago. Located in Oxford, UK, it has been studied in depth by Aleksander Fisz, who accompanied the evening with much information as to the songs, their musical styles, the texts themselves and the work undergone by him and his fellow musicians to decipher the notation and arrange the music in an acceptably authentic manner. Fisz is well familiar with the language used - West Yiddish - the language spoken by Jews in western- and central Europe at the beginning of the 18th century. He mentioned the various curious forms of notation found in the book, in his opinion, probably due to the copyist being more well-meaning than professional.  The songs are long, some having 20 or 30 verses, meaning that each is rich in information and they are written in skillful rhyme; despite the complexity of some of the melodies, they are morality songs to be sung in the Jewish home.

 

We heard the Di Tsaytmashin artists performing songs for various festivals. Woven through the songs’ Baroque-style European melodies were melodic motifs of Jewish music. A countertenor with access to the tenor and baritone range, Fisz’s presentation of each song is alive and articulate, also theatrical, and the arrangements allow for much individual solo expression on the part of each artist, for duet interaction and improvisation. In the song for Passover, for example, the text deals with practical details of the festival - the pre-Passover cleaning and even details regarding the baking of the unleavened bread and its enemies - mice, humidity, etc. The piece  begins with an embellished recorder solo melody (Silberberg), the melody then taken by the theorbo (Moscovitz) and followed by a ‘cello solo (Seidelman). The violin duets with the singer, after which the recorder interacts with Fisz. One of the most astounding pieces, indeed a whole small theatrical performance, is the song for New Year/Day of Atonement, a time whose main theme is the torture awaiting those who have sinned. The players set the scene of the Day of Reckoning with a ‘cello drone, a ghostly “screen” of mixed instrumental sound, a wailing sopranino recorder and a fateful slow drum beat (Fried). Fisz’s performance expresses frantic fear. Hoffman’s heart-rending violin solo is imbued with motifs of Jewish music. The piece’s major ending, however, reflects optimism, expressing the fact that whoever is devout will be saved. Fisz spoke of the book’s clumsy notation of the song for Purim. “Allow yourself the freedom to sing this song in Purim, when already drunk…” we read in the liner notes. The song’s ungainly notation seems to represent quarter tones in a piece imitating Turkish music and Fisz gives us a decidedly oriental interpretation of it as the instrumentalists let their hair down to evoke the jocular atmosphere of the traditional reading of the Book of Esther. We learn of another interesting ritual in a song to be sung to a bride as she is having her hair plaited: the wedding jester aims to make her cry as he tells her of the hardships of wedded life as a punishment for Eve’s deeds. Fisz gives a colorful rendering of the text as he enlists his large vocal range.

 

Avishai Aleksander Fisz is considered a leading authority in the field of Yiddish folk repertoire. Di Tsaytmashin was established by him in 2012 in order to perform the pieces from Kirchen’s fascinating and timeless “Book of the Rejoicing Soul”. The artists’ performance is informed, polished and entertaining, as it bristles with life and interest. The disc was recorded in 2014 for the Brilliant Classics label.

.