"Mozart & the Piano" - Paul Lewis (UK) performs two piano concertos with the Israel Camerata Jerusalem. Conductor: Avner Biron

Pianist Paul Lewis © Kaupo Kikkas

At this time in history, the concert world is overrun with last-minute changes due to the corona pandemic. With American pianist/musicologist Robert Levin unable to appear with the Israel Camerata Jerusalem, British pianist Paul Lewis, whose Italian concert tour was cancelled, promptly stepped in to solo in "Mozart & the Piano", Concert No.5 of the orchestra's Instru-Vocal Series. The result was an unforgettable event! This was Lewis' first performance with the Camerata. Conducting was Avner Biron, the orchestra's founder and music director. This writer attended the event in the Henry Crown Hall of the Jerusalem Theatre on February 22nd, 2022.

The evening's Mozart theme set out with Israeli composer/pianist/educationalist Ron Weidberg's "Variations on a Theme by Mozart '', a work that originated as a quartet, but that has since undergone several arrangements, with extra sections added. Weidberg starts out by basing the piece on the well-known first movement of Mozart's Sonata for piano in A major K.331, the subject used by Mozart himself (and Max Reger) for variations. Weidberg's piece displays fine contrapuntal writing, but no less pleasing is the rich, streamlined variety of his orchestration. Some sections employ dissonance, (none, however, actually being atonal in concept) others sounding completely tonal and in the richly-coloured hues of the Romantic style. Weidberg guides the listener through the mindset of each variation, whether lyrical, tranquil, naive, whimsical or even outright boisterous, with a jazzy touch  here and there, as the melodic subject tends to become illusive in some movements. Suavely flowing and tender, the fifth (minore) variation abounds in poignant songfulness, replete with lovely woodwind utterances. Altogether, the composer engages the woodwinds amply throughout. As the piece signs out with the Finale's wonderfully flowing and articulately voiced triple-subject fugue, I am left with the impression that Weidberg's "Variations on a Theme by Mozart" is a splendid concert piece, indeed, a fine vehicle for the skilled players of the Camerata.  Born in Tel Aviv, Dr. Ron Weidberg has written much vocal music, including five operas. His instrumental oeuvre includes symphonies, piano- and violin concertos, chamber music and many works for piano.

Remaining in the same tonality, we heard Paul Lewis in Mozart's Piano Concerto No.12 in A major, K.414. With Mozart addressing the key of A major as lyrical and serene, this graceful, flowing work, composed on Mozart's move to Vienna (and to be performed by him), where he was launching his freelance career, fits the concept. Lewis enlists his fresh, lively and flexible touch and rich palette of textures (luxuriant playing but never muscular), to convey the many sides of the composer's personality and his music - Mozart's good-naturedness and joie-de-vivre in the outer movements, a sense of well-being, playfulness (as invited by development sections) and, here and there, a touch of mischief. Introduced In velvet-like hues by the orchestra, Lewis takes the audience with him into his personal, fine-spun reading of the Adagio movement, offering committed musical meaning to each gesture and phrase, with a sprinkling of small, suspenseful comments as the first section searches to find its way back in, following  the subtly darkened clouds of the middle section, with the concerto topped off by Mozart's own mirthful cadenza. 

Mozart's B flat Concerto K.595, completed in Vienna in 1791 (he had set it aside after working on it in 1788), is the composer's final piano concerto and the last work to be performed by him in public. Yet, despite the fact that 1791 was a dire year for Mozart, with his waning fame, financial problems, his wife ill and his own depression, the work is lyrical, poised and subdued rather than bitter. Lewis weaves the piano role through the work with musical intelligence and poesy, serenity and reflective grace, commenting and conversing with the orchestra in an assemblage of touching utterances (some diminutive), with both brilliance of playing and sotto voce fragility, threading the cadenzas into the musical fabric with a natural sense of sequence. Like-minded in approach, Maestro Biron and Paul Lewis produce Mozart at both his most thrilling and his subtlest: his genius, explicit humanity and music meet on the concert stage, with echoes of his opera writing never very far away.

Paul Lewis sent the audience off home with Franz Schubert's bittersweet Allegretto in C minor D.915, a small jewel of a work, rendered with tenderness, fervency and crystalline shaping.

Born (1972) in Liverpool, England, Paul Lewis, regarded as one of the leading pianists of his generation, has performed as a soloist and with world-class ensembles across Europe, Asia, Australia and the Americas. He is best known for his interpretations of Beethoven's 32 sonatas and piano concertos. performances of Mozart, Liszt and Schubert, including piano accompaniments of the latter's song cycles.

 

 

Violinist Kati Debretzeni leads and soloes with the Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra in "L'estro armonico', an evening of Vivaldi violin concertos and other Venetian works

Kati Debretzeni (Yoel Levy)

 

Violinist Kati Debretzeni has a long-standing relationship with the Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra, so her leading and soloing in ‘L’estro armonico’,Concert No.4 of the orchestra's 33rd season, was not only a festive event but yet another link in the amicable collaboration that began with Debretzeni's first forays into the world of Baroque violin. Performing with her were JBO string players, theorbo player (Eliav Lavi) and JBO founder and director David Shemer on the harpsichord. This writer attended the concert on February 13th 2022 at the Jerusalem International YMCA. 

 

Although Antonio Vivaldi is best known for his iconic set of violin concertos - 'The Four Seasons' - 'L’estro armonico' ('Harmonic Inspiration' or 'Harmonic Fancy') Op.3 is among the most important of his works. These concertos met with great acclaim soon after their publication in 1711, then blazing across Europe. Dedicated to Ferdinando de' Medici of Florence, one of the patrons of L'Ospedale della Pietà (the orphanage for girls in Venice where Vivaldi was employed for over thirty years) these Op.3 concertos would have mostly been performed by the composer's young lady students at the institution. Displaying Vivaldi’s preference for three contrasting movements (fast-slow-fast), the twelve works fall into four groups of three concertos, each group comprising one concerto for four violins, one for two violins, and a solo violin concerto.  Over time, many arrangements have been made of them for other instruments, the most important being the six transcriptions by J. S. Bach, these having played a crucial role in escalating the Vivaldi revival of the early 20th century.

  

Although the audience members in the YMCA auditorium might have needed to summon up quite some imagination and fantasy to envision being seated in one of the grand Venetian edifices, Debretzeni and her fellow musicians took them into the lively, exuberant and brilliant allegros, the lyrical, lingering bel canto cantilenas and the Italian passion and good humour of the 'L'estro armonico' concertos. But their playing also exuded a strong feeling of the intimacy of chamber music, offering ensemble playing of refreshing freedom, diversity and personal expression on the part of all soloists as the evening's performance reflected detailed and profound probing into both the musical and subjective meaning of each motif and gesture. How fascinating it was to witness the chain of events of Concerto No.10 in B minor (RV 580), a work that could only be viewed as highly original, even experimental, and not only due to its novel instrumentation — four solo violins (Debretzeni, Noam Schuss, Lilia Slavny, Noam Gal), strings, and continuo. From the opening movement's rapid exchange of passages between soloists as the main theme becomes varied and ornamented almost before it has been completely stated, to the mysterious slow movement, the four soloists playing over a quiet continuo accompaniment, with the 'cello (Orit Messer-Jacobi) assigned an important role in the continuo throughout, then to join the wonderfully unpredictable solo episodes of the powerful final movement.

 

Kati Debretzeni explained that Vivaldi had composed Concerto fatto per la Solennità della S. Lingua di S. Antonio in D major RV 212 to be performed with himself as soloist, that he had written out his own improvisations for the Grave movement in detail and noted in his own ornaments, rather than leaving them to the discretion of a performer. Leading and soloing in this spectacular music, Debretzeni awed listeners with her concept of the work, no less with her handling of the two long highly virtuosic cadenzas, at the same time reminding the audience that music is, indeed, a form of entertainment, its moments of whimsy an intrinsic component to be enjoyed. Although we know that 18th-century listeners were astounded, even intoxicated, by the rhythmic drive and extraordinary intensity of expression in these Vivaldi concertos, there is no doubt that today's listeners experience the pizzazz of these pieces with excitement and elation.

 

Interspersed between the ‘L'estro armonico’ concertos were works of three other Venetian composers: Sonata à 5 'La Fugazza' Op.8 No.11 of Giovanni Legrenzi, played with a fine balance of grace and intellect, Tomaso Albinoni's Sinfonia in D major T.Si.4 and renowned violinist and composer Biaggio Marin's Passacaglia Op.22, in which Debretzeni and the JBO instrumentalists set aside the composer's characteristic virtuosity to indulge in the lush affects of this beguilingly tragic piece.

 

Born in Transylvania, Kati Debretzeni studied the violin with Ora Shiran (Israel) and Baroque violin with Catherine Mackintosh and Walter Reiter at the Royal College of Music, London. Since 2000, she has led the English Baroque Soloists (Sir Eliot Gardiner). In 2008, she was appointed to be one of the leaders of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, with which she has also soloed and directed. Debretzeni has recorded widely, featuring as soloist in two versions of J.S.Bach's Brandenburg Concertos - one with the European Brandenburg Ensemble (Trevor Pinnock), the other with the English Baroque Soloists. Over recent years, she has been invited to direct various ensembles in Israel, Canada, Norway, Poland, Iceland and the UK. She currently teaches Baroque- and Classical violin at the Royal Conservatory of Music in The Hague.

 

Noam Schuss,Kati Debretzeni,Dafna Ravid,Lilia Slavny (Yoel Levy)

The final concert of the 2022 Israeli Schubertiade - instrumental music, Lieder and settings of Heine texts by three Israeli composers. Guest artist: tenor Daniel Johannsen (Austria)

Daniel Gortler,Daniel Johannsen(Michael Pavia)

 

At the sixth concert of the 2022 Israeli Schubertiade, the final event taking place at the Israel Conservatory of Music on February 3rd, there was more than a touch of spontaneity! Spontaneity was, however, typical of the Schubertiades that took place in the drawing rooms of wealthy Viennese homes in the early 19th century. The original Schubertiades were sociable, informal musical gatherings, where musicians and music-lovers would gather to hear and play music. 'Cellist Raz Kohn, one of the Schubertiade's founders (2007), and who serves as its artistic director, "sang the praises" of the artists and other people who had made the festival a reality in these uncertain times. Kohn also mentioned the uniqueness of this specific Schubertiade concert, in which settings of Heine poems by three Israeli composers would be performed.  No new face to Israeli audiences, Austrian tenor Daniel Johannsen, renowned for his interpretations of the German Lied, performed throughout the evening alongside Israeli artists.  

 

With the concert focusing mainly on music to texts of Heinrich Heine, the event opened with a talk on Heine's personality and dilemmas by researcher and cultural critic Ariel Hirschfeld. Hirschfeld also spoke of the problems involved in translating Heine's poetry. (Prof. Hirschfeld teaches Hebrew literature at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he, himself, studied musicology and Hebrew literature). Nothing could have better substantiated Hirschfeld's talk on Heine's crisis of identity, the profound meeting of Heine's writing with Schubert's music, the palpable psychological element of the German Lied and its emotional unshackling, than Schubert's seminal song “Der Doppelgänger”, the penultimate song of the posthumous Schwanengesang collection (D.957). Setting it to music three months before his death (November 1828), Schubert lifted from its third stanza the term (created by Jean Paul in 1796) to call his song “Der Doppelgänger” (The Apparition/Double). Pacing it sparingly, Johannsen and pianist Daniel Gortler led the listener into the song's frozen, eerie soundscape via its sinister declamatory manner: the piano mostly tolls a four-chord ostinato as the poet finds himself standing outside the house where his beloved had once lived. He sees a man standing there, wringing his hands, overcome with grief, only to realize that he is watching his ghostly self of years earlier. Such a performance as was heard at the Tel Aviv concert leaves the listener deep in thought.

 

The Heine poem settings by Israeli composers were all sung in Hebrew, with several of the translations undertaken by Yossi Schiffmann. Performing two songs from Yehezkel Braun's 2006 song cycle, "Gleanings", soprano Reut Ventorero gave delightful, tasteful theatrical expression to the satirical wit, irony and coquettish nature of the first, addressing the more serious nature of the second. Not to be ignored is Braun's splendidly buoyant writing for the piano, which was heartily evidenced in Irit Rub's delivery. Performing four of the eight songs from Ella Milch-Sheriff's "Heine Cabaret" (2006) (Hebrew translation: Shlomo Tamia, Yitzhak Kafkafi), Reut Ventorero and baritone Yair Polishook were joined by a jazz trio comprising Michael Takachenko- alto saxophone, Erga Kotler-piano and Nir Comforty-bass. With the character and message of each vignette presented articulately, Ventorero and Polishook's rendition was elegant and uttered in the subtle language of understatement, enhanced by the sensitive playing of the trio and some delightful instrumental solos. Polishook and Rub's reading of three of Shimon Cohen's "Eight Heine Songs" (!998/2001) defined Cohen's gentle, contemporary style, presenting the songs' Jewish elements and underlying nostalgia, with the third song a tongue-in-cheek number voicing a man's chagrin at his lady's discontent:

'Diamonds hast thou and pearls,

And all by which men set store,

And of eyes hast thou the finest –

Darling, what wouldst thou more?'

 

An interesting comparison was drawn between two settings of Heine's "Ich grolle nicht" (I bear no grudge), as performed by Yair Polishook and Irit Rub. First, Schumann's version, with the artists' intense expression of the ambiguity playing out in the psyche of the lover and characterized by a struggle between opposing emotions. A very different piece, Charles Ives' setting of the text (written as a composition task when still a student) is certainly no protest song, rather, reflective and intimate, with some waves of heightened emotion, and cushioned in the congenial harmonies of the early 20th century.

 

Back to Schubert's "Schwanengesang", there was an air of magic to Johannsen and Gortler's performance of the charming song 'Das Fischermädchen' (The Fisher Maiden), its light-of foot, lilting stepping out to a siciliano rhythm pleasing the senses. Then to the artists' spine-chilling rendition of "Die Stadt' (The Town), the obsessive octaves in the piano left hand setting off the ghostly insistent arpeggio in the right hand, only to be twice interrupted by passages in which the rhythm changes to that of a funeral march. Johannsen evokes Heine's dark, disturbing text, underscoring each key word. Let's hear more recitals at the hands of these superb Lied specialists!

 

Daniel Johannsen and Irit Rub enjoy a long acquaintance, So, when there were sudden program changes due to force majeure circumstances, Rub happily joined Johannsen to perform some more songs not previously planned for the event and the artists took them on with esprit and sangfroid. They began with Fanny Mendelssohn's gorgeous, strophic 'Schwanenlied' (Swan Song), text: Heine, the song appearing in print in 1846, the year before her death, as part of the first collection of songs to be published under her own name. Heine was a friend of the Mendelssohn family. Johannsen and Rub's beguiling and tender performance of the bittersweet song, mirroring the Romantic practice of presenting lush nature descriptions also referring to a state of mind, emerged both vocally and in the piano's steady sixteenth-note figurations, as the artists displayed Fanny Mendelssohn's attention to detail, her use of word painting and the song's magical sprinklings of harmonic interest. Following their zestful, gently flexed reading of Schubert's 'Der Wanderer an den Mond' (The Wanderer's Address to the Moon) text: Seidl, Rub and Johannsen plumbed the layers of 'Am See' (By the Lake), a Lied set to a text of the composer's contemporary, Franz von Bruchmann. Both simple and hypnotic, the song highlights the relationship between man and nature: the voice is brilliantly used to evoke the soul "flaming brightly" as the piano emulates the waves. Johannsen spoke of this unique song as "almost a Freudian picture". To conclude, the artists moved back to Schubert's "Schwanengesang" and Heine's theme of alienation to produce an uncompromising and powerful performance of 'Der Atlas', a song portraying the unhappy lover as a hubristic seeker of universal happiness (or pain), its text introducing imagery from Greek mythology and ironic self-flagellation. Johannsen's heavier use of the voice and his ever-articulate diction were compelling, the piano conveying the god-man's steps via Schubert's pervasive use of dotted rhythms and the lower range of the keyboard.

The 2022 Schubertiade was bookended by instrumental works. Opening the concert itself, violinist Asi Matathias and Daniel Gortler played Franz Schubert's Sonata for violin and piano in A minor D.385, a work that might well have been played at a Schubertiade hosting friends and intellectuals at a private home, with the composer at the piano. Echoing the influences of Beethoven and Mozart, this early work already reveals Schubert's lush, Romantic melodiousness and his masterful chamber music interplay. Gortler and Matathias performed it with much grace and charm, almost disguising the complexity of its harmonic structure. The concert drew to a close with a touching performance of the Rondo Finale arranged from the final movement of Schubert's Piano Sonata D.850 for violin and piano by Carl Friedberg. Joining Matathias was his duo partner pianist Victor Stanislavsky, who was called on at short notice to stand in for Daniel Gortler.

 

Reut Ventorero,Irit Rub,Yair Polishook
(Courtesy Y.Polishook)

Asi Matathias,Victor Stanislavsky
(Michael Pavia)

"Viennese Classics" - the Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra performs works of Mozart and Beethoven on instruments of the Classical period. Conductor: David Shemer. Soloists: Tom Ben Ishai, Yaron Rosenthal

Tom Ben Ishai (Uri Elkayam)

 

Yaron Rosenthal (jamd.ac.il)

Concert No.3 of the Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra's 33rd season marked a new and decidedly exciting shift for the ensemble. Introducing "Viennese Classics", JBO founder and artistic director Prof. David Shemer informed the sizable audience gathered at the Jerusalem International YMCA on January 9th 2022 that the Mozart/Beethoven program would be performed on instruments typical to the Classical period - authentic woodwinds and brass, with string players using Classical bows. Indeed, the keyboard instrument for the evening would be a fortepiano. Conducting the concert was David Shemer, with soloists Yaron Rosenthal-fortepiano and soprano Tom Ben Ishai.

 

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed the Divertimento in D major K. 136 for strings in Salzburg in the winter of 1772. Busy working on "Lucio Silla", a new, ambitious opera to be premiered in Milan, writing the Divertimento, K. 136 must have served as a means of releasing surplus energy for the 16-year-old composer. From the very first sounds of the vibrant opening Allegro, the JBO string players' genial, velvety timbres and minimal use of vibrato transported the listener into the ambience of a musical soirée taking place in the drawing room of one of Salzburg's leading residents, venues at which Mozart frequently performed on both keyboard and violin. The Baroque Orchestra's precise, unmannered playing allowed for the work's shape, charm, its effervescence and subtle surprises to surface, the warm, elegant Andante movement followed by the spirited Presto finale, bringing the Divertimento, a fine example of  an ambitious work in a genre traditionally designated as "light" music, to a close.

 

Concerts in Mozart’s day always included a vocal element. His concert arias were occasional works to be inserted into his own operas, those of other composers, or simply composed for singers who possessed voices he particularly admired. In the latter case, they were tailored to the range, ability, tonal- and dramatic qualities of those singers. The concert arias are small, dramatic set pieces which, almost invariably, borrow their words from full-length opera libretti. Taking its text from "Ezio", "Misera! dove son…Ah! non son io" K.369 (Ah! It is not I who speak) was composed in 1871 for Countess Josepha von Paumgarten, a 19-year-old amateur singer. Young Israeli-born opera singer Tom Ben Ishai issued in the recitative with restraint, its course becoming somewhat more agitated as it. progressed. In the aria proper, offering brief ornamental flourishes and dynamic changes, Ben Ishai's beauty of tone coloured sustained notes as she engaged easefully in its wide intervals and dramatic leaps, portraying the character’s frenzied mental state. And how lush the instrumental canvas sounded, scored for two violins, two violas, basso, two flutes and two horns. 

 

Another concert aria "Ch'io mi scordi di te? Non temer, amato bene" K.505 (Should I forget you? Fear nothing, my beloved) is unconventional in that it was written for the combination of solo voice, piano obbligato and orchestra. Mozart composed it in 1786 for English soprano Nancy Storace, who had sung the role of Susanna at the premiere of "The Marriage of Figaro''.  He created the complementary piano part, a farewell to Storace, for the concert aria which he and Storace performed together in early 1787, shortly before her departure from Vienna.  A work bearing a clearly strong personal element, the piece -  a unique sort of duo concertante, the only one of its type in Mozart’s oeuvre -  is the melding of an opera aria and piano concerto. (In Mozart's own thematic catalogue, it is labelled "Für M'selle Storace und mich," which might indicate a sympathy between them that went beyond art! ) Lush in its instrumental scoring for 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, and strings, with solo piano, the ambience is one of warmth and tenderness, well reflected in Ben Ishai's musical and well-shaped rendering of the piece, music indeed sympathetic, with plenty of give and take between singer and fortepiano (Yaron Rosenthal). The sound of the handsome fortepiano (Chris Maene, Ruiselede, Belgium), not built for the likes of the large concert hall, however, emerged as well-defined, its mellifluous timbre intimate and beguiling, adding its unique colours to the orchestral web. Mozart never saw Nancy again; yet he regularly wrote her letters, which regrettably have been lost.

 

And, to an auspicious occurrence in the history of the Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra - the ensemble's first performance of a work of Ludwig van Beethoven and one to challenge the concepts long ingrained in the minds of concert-goers. Listening to Beethoven's Piano Concerto No.1 in C major Op.15 at this concert, the listener was obliged to put aside the pompous sound world of the large symphony orchestra and the modern Steinway grand. We meet the 29-year-old Beethoven juxtaposing the inherited styles of his predecessors and Classical models with his own musical ideas, forms and taste, a Beethoven not yet beset by the crisis that would be brought about by his gradual loss of hearing. Maestro Shemer offers us the opportunity to embrace the leaner proportions of the historic Classical chamber orchestra, with the JBO instrumentalists' lightness and transparency setting off the robust but mellow brass instruments and silvery sounds of the fortepiano. In fact, once the ear had adjusted, the wealth of details emerging from orchestra and keyboard was rewarding, to say the least, with orchestra and soloist sustaining a balance that was precise and unfaltering. Rosenthal was clearly on home territory, with playing that was delicate, richly coloured, hearty, agile and tastefully flexed. It was all enjoyment on his part and ours and an elevating experience to hear the work in the more personal proportions with which the composer would have been familiar. Totally magical!

 

Prof. Yaron Rosenthal is a leading Israeli pianist, combining an international career as a soloist and chamber musician. He is the pianist of the acclaimed Jerusalem Trio and a senior faculty member at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance. A graduate of the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance and the Israeli Opera's Meitar Studio, Tom Ben has won several awards. Launching a solo career, she is also a member of the Cecilia Ensemble and the Israeli Vocal Ensemble

 

 

 

 

The Silver-Garburg Piano Duo sees in 2022 with a performance of works by Rimsky-Korsakov, Schubert and Brahms at the Israel Conservatory, Tel Aviv

Gil Garburg, Sivan Silver (courtesy Silver-Garburg Duo)

 

2022 started "on the right foot" with a recital of the Silver-Garburg Piano Duo at the Israel Conservatory (Tel Aviv) on January 1st. The concert, of the Piano Recital Series, comprised works of Rimsky-Korsakov, Schubert and Brahms. Israeli artists Sivan Silver and Gil Garburg today reside in Berlin.

 

Guiding performers as to the subject matter of "Scheherazade", Symphonic Suite, Opus 35 (1888), a work inspired by a collection of Middle Eastern and Indian tales, known as "The Thousand and One Nights" (or "The Arabian Nights"), Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov prefaced his score with the following: "The Sultan Shahriar, convinced of the duplicity and infidelity of all women, vows to slay each of his wives after the wedding night. The Sultana Scheherazade, however, saves her own life by the expedient of telling the Sultan a succession of tales over a period of one thousand and one nights. Overcome by curiosity, the monarch postpones his wife's execution from day to day, then altogether renouncing his sanguinary resolution." However, while programmatic elements are undoubtedly present in "Scheherazade" and important to the shaping of the work, the music was not intended as an exact portrayal of any particular tale or any part of the collection. Indeed, the composer wanted the listener to "carry away the impression that it is beyond doubt an Oriental narrative of some numerous and varied fairy-tale wonders"... Scored for strings, harp, several woodwinds, brass and a variety of percussion instruments, the music of "Scheherazade" showcases Rimsky-Korsakov’s mastery as an orchestrator; in terms of the pure, sensory pleasure of sound and of the rich array of instrumental solos, he is unsurpassed. Performing the four-hand piano setting of the work presents a challenge to both players and listeners. Introducing this "story about a storyteller", Silver and Garburg present the two main characters with their own specific themes - the Sultan, his arrival announced by a bold, brash theme, to be answered by that of the mesmerising Scheherazade, the characters at the centre of these tales of love, intrigue and adventure. In playing that is finely chiselled, wonderfully clean, carefully paced, descriptive and imaginative, the artists take the audience east on an exhilarating journey into a fairy-tale world. Under their fingers, the action-packed work of four tableaus emerges richly textured, dramatic and evocative, but also intimate, only drawing to a close when Scheherazade’s stories finally come to a quiet and plaintive end. Listening to the third movement - "The Young Prince and the Young Princess" - the artists' tender and poignant playing of some of the loveliest and most sensual music of the entire work - leaves the listener in no doubt that this is indeed a love story. Altogether, the duo's playing of the work emerges with wonderful clarity, also owing to very careful and subtle use of the sustaining pedal. 

 

Franz Schubert's Divertissement for Piano 4 hands, D 823 "sur motifs originaux français" (1826-1827) is not frequently heard in today's concert halls for a number of reasons, one being that the composer's corpus of over forty works for four hands is largely unknown. (An inexplicable fact, as Schubert's genial, sociable "Viennese" disposition was ideally suited to the piano duet, to which genre he has contributed music of awe-inspiring originality, passion and virtuosity.) Another reason may be the Divertissement's extreme demands on the performers. If the work displays any French element at all, it could be the dotted rhythms of the stately main theme of the opening sonata-form movement, possibly a reference to the French Baroque Overture. Following Silver and Garburg's vivid handling of this movement, of its alluring and lyrical aspects and the timbral contrasts created by forays into the different piano registers, their playing of the exquisite Andantino varié, its bitter-sweet, delicate B minor melody burgeoning into four variations, was unrushed, pensive and sensitive, never over-sentimental. Forthright and dancelike, the finale, a sparkling Rondeau Brilliant, moving along at a galloping pace, emerged richly textured but never thick or muscular. Could this late Schubert Divertissement, a work stretching the piano duet medium and its practitioners to the limits in technique, subtle musicianship and endurance, be referred to as a Konzertstück? Not by Schubert. It would have been played within the private homes of his Viennese friends or with the composer seated next to his pupil, the young Countess Caroline Esterházy (with whom he was head-over-heels in love) at her family's summer residence.  

 

Remaining in the Viennese domestic drawing room, the duo-pianists concluded their Tel Aviv recital with a selection of Johannes Brahms' Waltzes for Piano Four Hands Op.39 (1865). First performed by Clara Schumann and Albert Dietrich at a party given by the Grand Duchess of Oldenburg in November 1866, these miniatures, each different in hue, each of a different mood, show a more intimate side of Brahms. In fact, they constitute some of the most delicate, subtly-fashioned jewels of 19th century dance literature. From the majestic opening statement of No.1 in B major, to the tender, wistful appeal of the G-sharp minor Waltz, to the flamboyant Romantic pianism of the E minor, the artists take the audience into the playful, giocoso asymmetry of the Vivace (C-sharp minor). No.11 in B minor, casting a furtive glance towards Eastern European dance styles and graced by small hesitations, gives way to the energetic, full canvas of the G-sharp minor Waltz, its sprinkling of irregular, accents teasing the ear ever so gently, with Silver and Garburg concluding the recital with the caressing Waltz in A-flat major. 

 

For an encore, Sivan Silver and Gil Garburg performed Cuban composer Ernesto Lecuona's zesty "Malagueña".

 

Ensemble Mezzo (artistic director: Doret Florentin) performs virtuosic Baroque works of German and Italian composers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Department of Musicology

Photo: João Moreira

 

Ensemble Mezzo (artistic director: Doret Florentin) performed a program of virtuosic Baroque instrumental music at a concert of the Monday Afternoon Concert Series of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Department of Musicology on December 27th, 2021. Performing were Doret Florentin-recorder, violinists Lilia Slavny and Dafna Ravid, Amos Boasson-viola, Benny Aghassi-bassoon, Sonia Navot-'cello and Yizhar Karshon-harpsichord, all Israeli musicians living either in Israel or Holland.

 

Ensemble Mezzo performed a number of the (relatively few) concertante works for the recorder written in the late Baroque period. Opening the concert was G.P.Telemann's Ouverture in A minor for recorder, strings and basso continuo, a piece indeed giving prominence to recorder. (Telemann himself was a professional recorder player.) In a performance highlighting both the noble and jaunty aspects of the piece, Florentin's soloing was vivid, taking up the composer's "invitation" to engage in some ornamentation. Vivaldi's Concerto in G minor "La notte" for recorder, bassoon, strings and b.c. RV 104 must be one of the composer's most engrossingly original, quasi-programmatic compositions. To evoke its dark narrative, woven of disturbing dreams and mystery, Vivaldi chooses the key of G minor, one whose rhetoric is associated with agitation, fear and revenge. From the work's menacing opening octave utterance, the players take the audience into its series of erratically changing sections, with Florentin's small hesitations adding to the suspense, drama, the frenetic tutti and occasional otherworldly moments. Meeting her dazzling playing, Aghassi, ever attentive, answers and comments (sometimes on a whimsical note) giving vivid expression to the bassoon's new role as a soloist in its own right. It is assumed that Vivaldi intended the sopranino recorder to be the solo instrument for his Concerto in C major for flautino, strings and b.c. RV 444, a favourite with audiences due to its light-hued tonality and virtuosic writing. Vivaldi, in his imaginative exploitation of the possibilities of the tiny solo instrument, shows no mercy to the player in this concerto, a work clearly designed to showcase the soloist's extraordinary technique. Doret Florentin chooses to highlight the entertaining nature of the work, dashing off its complex figurations and episodes of increasing virtuosity with aplomb.  

 

The program included two rarely-performed pieces. If J.S.Bach's student Johann Gottlieb Goldberg is remembered as harpsichordist to Count Keyserlingk in the (somewhat unlikely story of the) latter's bouts of insomnia, the fact remains that Goldberg, indisputably a keyboard player of exceptional skill and virtuosity, was already composing by the age of ten, becoming.an excellent and imaginative composer. Aside from his two surviving cantatas, Goldberg's oeuvre is essentially instrumental, the trio sonatas occupying a major place within it. Here was a rare opportunity to hear Goldberg's Trio Sonata in C major for two violins and b.c. DürG 13, with violinists Lilia Slavny and Dafna Ravid engaging in animated banter and imitation (each in her own personal musical language), the texture punctuated with spry bassoon comments (Aghassi). The program also included the Chaconne for violin and b.c. from Pietro Castrucci's Op.2 Violin Sonatas. Castrucci was born in Rome, where he studied with Corelli, in 1715 settling in London, there becoming known as one of the finest virtuoso violinists of his generation. (He was the inventor of the "violetta marina" - a modification of the viola d'amore. Handel, who engaged Castrucci as leader of his opera orchestra, wrote some obbligati for this instrument.) Drawing the audience into the Chaconne via their own sense of discovery, Slavny and Karshon fashioned each variation through a rich spectrum of textures, moods, tempi and violin- and harpsichord techniques, creating an exciting and not altogether unpredictable performance bristling with a sense of spontaneity. Foremost music historian of his time in England, Charles Burney considered Castrucci to be "more than half mad", obviously a good trait for an Italian composer writing virtuosic music. 

 

Then, to another Italian Baroque composer, but a musician located in a very different geographical and cultural environment. Born in 1685, Domenico Scarlatti spent the majority of his career in the service of the Portuguese and Spanish royal families, the latter appointment enabling him to devote his full attention to composing for the harpsichord. Living in an isolated environment accounts for the fact that the composer's music, though contemporary with that of Bach and Handel, differs so much from theirs in style. His employer and student, Portuguese Princess Maria Barbara, later to become Queen of Spain, must have been a very fine keyboard player if she was able to play Scarlatti's most difficult sonatas. Performing Scarlatti's bewitching Sonata in C minor K.115 (one of the composer's more than 550!) Yizhar Karshon's playing was subtle, his delivery calling attention to the eccentric contrast of the subjects playing out, the no-less eccentric Scarlatti-type progressions, the piece's Spanish flavour and what could only be defined in modern terminology as "clusters"! 

 

Ensemble Mezzo signed out with another Telemann work featuring the recorder - the Concerto in F major for recorder, bassoon, strings and b.c., its scoring atypical of the time as, when Telemann was at his peak, the recorder was becoming overshadowed by the more fashionable transverse flute, with the result that the recorder rarely appears in his ensemble music. Ensemble Mezzo addressed the shapes and gestures of the concerto's moods, both poignant and hearty, with Florentin and Aghassi engaging in some witty dialogue in the second and fourth movements. Complementing Florentin's lucid timbre (and virtuosic playing) with his warm, rounded tone and effervescent rendition, Aghassi proves that the lowest wind instrument of the ensemble can be just as agile and pizzazzy as the highest member. 

 

Ensemble Mezzo was established by recorder player Doret Florentin in 2015. All members are specialists in the performance of early music played on historic instruments. Mezzo's programs sometimes include traditional music from Greece, Cyprus, Italy and Spain, also music of Israeli composers and that of contemporary composers who have written works for the ensemble. 

 

Some of the vocal events at the 2021 Isrotel ClassiCameri Festival (Eilat, Israel) and an event linking the culinary world to musical taste

Mert Süngü,Keren Kagarlitsky,the Raanana Symphonette Orchestra (Yehuda Ben Itach)

Taking a break from the reality of these turbulent and uncertain times, music-lovers from all over Israel met in Eilat to attend the 23rd Isrotel ClassiCameri Festival (December 16th-19th 2021), a festival offering three days of fine music and carefree enjoyment in Israel's sunny, southernmost town. The festival is a collaborative project between the Raanana Symphonette Orchestra and the Eilat Isrotel hotels. Apart from two events, all the concerts took place in the convention hall of the gracious and hospitable Royal Beach Hotel. This writer stayed at the Isrotel Lagoona Hotel close by, enjoying the hotel's caring, quality service, superb cuisine and high standards.

In this article, I wish to make mention of some of the vocal events of the 2021 Isrotel ClassiCameri Festival. Versatile international opera singer, tenor Mert Süngü (b.Istanbul, 1986) performs a vast repertoire, his main focus at present being bel canto style works and the music of Mozart. Attending "A te, o cara", (Raanana Symphonette, conductor: Keren Kagarlitsky), festival-goers delighted in his technical ease and dramatic presence in opera arias of Mozart, Rossini and Delibes. Later, that same evening, the musical environment moved eastwards. Süngü was joined by other artists in "Across the Bosporus" (Raanana Symphonette Orchestra, conductor: David Sebba). Mandolin artist Jacob Reuven set the scene with his zesty playing (with orchestra) of a "longa" - a Turkish/Eastern European dance, a form later introduced into Arabic music. Maestro David Sebba spoke of Turkey as a country bridging many countries and cultures. The audience then delighted in Mert Süngü's moving performance of some Turkish songs, also accompanying himself on the guitar. In one Turkish song, he incorporated part of a Monteverdi aria as a middle section; it seems that disappointed love can be portrayed in all languages! In another effective number, Symphonette 1st violinist Nitai Zori joined Süngü in a song from Azerbaijan. Multifaceted soprano Keren Hadar added to the event's cultural intermixture with the bold, folk-like singing of a Yemenite song, followed by the caressing melodiousness of some much-loved songs from the Sephardic diaspora, these sung in Ladino. David Sebba's artistic and imaginative arrangements gave the event a touch of magic! 

"Tel Aviv-Berlin" also featured Keren Hadar, the Symphonette and Maestro Sebba at the helm. In their performance of Weill,  Brecht and Ira Gershwin songs (several orchestrated by Benny Nagari), some sung in English, others in Hebrew, Hadar transports the audience to the sultry, dark, intense cabarets of Berlin, as they evoke the harsh reality of Europe between the two world wars. Engaging her large palette of vocal timbres and theatrical skills, Hadar calls attention to the elements of love, fear, regrets, wistfulness, loneliness, tragedy and charm woven into these songs. With a few stories about former times in Israel adding spice to the performance, Hadar and her fellow musicians went on to perform some of the timeless Israeli songs of the 1940s and 1950s, their gentle nostalgia reflected in Sebba's transparent and poetic settings. 

Moroccan-born Anne-Marie David, a French singer, is a performer who appeared twice in the Eurovision Contest for two different countries, coming into the top three on both occasions. She represented Luxembourg in the 1973 Eurovision Song Contest, winning 1st prize with  “Tu te reconnaîtras”, returning in 1979 to sing for France, her home country, this time, taking 3rd place. In "Paris à moi", she joined Maestro Sebba and the Raanana Symphonette Orchestra for a late evening concert of French music, opening with the power, emotion and nostalgia of some much-loved Edith Piaf songs, those of Michel LeGrand and of others and, of course, “Tu te reconnaîtras”, possibly the best ever Eurovision song. Anne-Marie David's voice remains fresh, its stable, natural and somewhat mellower timbre and her relaxed stage presence continuing to captivate audiences. Her chanteuse-styled singing of the 20th century chanson française, a genre integrated so perfectly with the rhythm of French speech, comes across as unconstrained and convivial. Once again, David Sebba, the Raanana Symphonette Orchestra's conductor-in-residence, did a sterling job of the evening's arrangements and conducting, his finespun, subtle touch on the piano compatible with the unique flavour of the French chanson. 

The  Kolan Ensemble was formed in 1982 by immigrant musicians from Georgia. Consisting of  four male singers and  a keyboard player, Kolan initially became renowned for its performances of Georgian folk music, but has since broadened its repertoire. A morning festival event taking place in a shopping mall, for the benefit of the general public, "From Tbilisi to Napoli", presented a selection of songs from Georgia, Italy and Russia, also including Hebrew and Yiddish songs, offering listeners the opportunity to delight in the singers' polished performance,  the richly-coloured timbres of their voices and their fine blend. 

Every festival should leave its mark with an event that is "different". This happened on the final morning of the Isrotel ClassiCameri Festival, with the day's proceedings opening with "Musical Gourmet - When the Chef Met the Orchestra", a presentation/concert drawing parallels between the aromas and flavours of the culinary world and the senses that engage with beautiful sounds. Hosted by David Sebba and conducted by Keren Kagarlitsky, photographer and chef Dan Lev produced a most artistic film in which he meets with several Israeli chefs in their creative kitchen environments, hearing each talk about the music that inspires him/her. Each of the works was then played in full by the orchestra - the sweeping melodiousness of  "Fingal's Cave" (Mendelssohn), the oriental sensuousness of "Scheherazade" (Rimsky-Korsakov), the plangent flute and harp duet from "Orfeo" (Gluck), the Arabian Dance from Tchaikovsky's "Nutcracker" Suite, the lush sounds of Leroy Anderson's "Trumpeter's Lullaby" and more. Another highlight of the event was hearing solos performed by several of the Symphonette's fine players - flautist Rotem Nir, 1st cellist Gregory Yanovsky, oboist Ilay Mishor, 1st violinist Nitai Zori and trumpeter Naum Birman, to mention just a few. Royal Beach Hotel chef Nissim Lev also offered a few words on stage. Following the event, concert-goers were served Lev's signature dessert - pavlova, the meringue-based dessert named after the Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova. 

Keren Hadar, Maestro David Sebba (Moshe Barak)