Vocal works of Barbara Strozzi and Venetian instrumental music performed by David Shemer, Kati Debretzeni and Daniela Skorka at the annual "Witches?" Festival, Jerusalem

 

Barbara Strozzi (1619-1677) was born in Venice to Isabella Garzoni, a servant who was in the employ of Giulio Strozzi, a poet/librettist and an influential figure on the innovative new opera art form. In 1634, from when Barbara was fifteen, Giulio had her sing at his at-home accademia meetings. The attendees - writers, thinkers, and artists of the first rank - were awed and inspired by her artistry. She was educated and immersed in a vibrant artistic environment mostly inaccessible to women of her time, when professional female musicians were often stigmatized as disreputable. Strozzi studied with such eminent composers as Francesco Cavalli, becoming an influential Venetian composer and singer, recognized for her significant contribution to solo vocal music of the mid-17th century. Barbara Strozzi published several works, beginning with her first collection of madrigals in 1644, then composing throughout her life. Her oeuvre includes cantatas and sacred works. Indeed, she published more cantatas than any of her contemporaries in Italy, male or female. Her work was published prolifically during her lifetime. It was the composer Nicolò Fontei who referred to Strozzi as "la virtuosissima cantatrice" , (the most virtuosic singer.) 

 

"Barbara Strozzi: virtuosissima cantatrice and her Venetian milieu" was one of several events of the 5th "Witches?" Festival. The festival, directed by Prof. David Shemer and under the auspices of the Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra, showcases female composers, performers, muses and the influence of women in music and culture. Featuring Daniela Skorka (soprano), Kati Debretzeni (Baroque violin) and David Shemer (harpsichord), this concert took place at the Jerusalem International YMCA on October 17th, 2026.

 

The event opened with Kati Debretzeni's performance of her own arrangement for solo violin of Strozzi’s Che sì può fare (What can one do?), an aria from Opus 8 (Strozzi's final opus.) Showing the listener through the various textures and gestures of the variations of this (tear-motif) ostinato-based aria of the lamento genre, her playing was finespun and subtle. Daniela Skorka's performance of Strozzi arias and cantata excerpts was vibrant, dramatic and convincing as she fully addressed each emotional gesture and the dynamic contrasts that serve to increase the dramatic element and create an atmosphere of unpredictability. The unprepared dissonances and dissonances between the voice and accompaniment coloured and endorsed the songs' extreme emotions. The texts are about love - mainly misery in love and unrequited love. Strozzi's style merges older, declamatory vocal styles with free-flowing melodic invention. It anticipates 18th-century bel canto. The music's technical demands indicate that Strozzi must have had superb breath control. At the festival concert, the artists' performance of Strozzi's music was an intoxicating whirl of dramatic gestures, colourful emotion, twirls of melismatic flights and sensuality. In L'Eraclito amoroso" (Heraclitus in Love), a cantata from "Cantate, ariette e duetti" Op.2 (1651), its ostinato also based on the" tear motif", Skorka and Shemer's rendition, carefully paced, was fraught with yearning, its expressive musical gestures including plunging chromatic intervals and dramatic, wide vocal leaps incorporated to heighten the emotional intensity of the text.  And, as no concert of Venetian vocal music would be complete without a work of Claudio Monteverdi, we heard Et è pur dunque vero (And so it is true) from the composer's Scherzi musicali (1632.) Scored in strophic-variation form for solo voice, a treble instrument and basso continuo, Skorka and Debretzeni's spontaneous and finely ornamented treatment of the alternating solo sections created pleasure and interest.

 

Remaining in Venice, the program included three instrumental works. Of the short-lived composer Dario Castello (1602-1631), Debretzeni and Shemer performed Sonata seconda from Sonate Concertate in Stil Moderno II (1629), taking their inspiration to create its many moods and dynamic variety from Castello's imaginative and virtuoso style, one that was typical of the early Baroque Venetian composers. Biagio Marini (1594-1663), a famous violinist, settled in Venice, for a while playing at Saint Mark's Basilica in Venice under the direction of Monteverdi. In Marini's Sonata quarta 'per il violino per sonar con due corde' (sounding two strings), written in three contrasting sections, each featuring a different tempo, time signature, and technique, Shemer and Debretzeni dipped into the rich palette of the sonata, a work referring to styles from the newly emerging opera genre, with some passages even suggesting the speech-like, rhythmically free recitative. Calling for tremolo and various techniques showcasing unique violin techniques, this sonata is unique in the introduction of the use of double stopping. The artists' reading of it included some marvellous, elaborate ornamenting. Organist, lutenist and harpsichordist Giovanni Picchi is best known for his keyboard dance music. From Intavolatura di Balli d'Arpicordo (1621), Picchi's diverse collection of character dances representing different European traditions, Shemer gave a fetching, unmannered performance of Ballo alla Polacca, Ballo Ongaro and Todescha, the compositional style pointing to the kind of music being played in Venetian salons in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. 

 

An event of interest and outstanding performance.

 

 

The Three Tenors from Bucharest - Ethan Schmeisser conducts the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra and guest Romanian tenors in an evening of opera favourites

Maestro Ethan Schmeisser © Yossi Zwecker 

 

Adrian Dumitru, Andrei Pleșca, Doru Iftene (Courtesy JSO)

Leading into the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra's 89th season, "The Three Tenors from Bucharest", a concert of solo songs and opera favourites, took place in the Henry Crown Auditorium (Jerusalem Theatre) on September 17th, 2026. Under the baton of Maestro Ethan Schmeisser, the JSO was joined by three tenor soloists from leading opera houses in Bucharest, Romania - Adrian Dumitru, Andrei Pleșca and Doru Iftene. 

 

Opening the event with much good cheer and rich orchestral colour, we heard the Sinfonia (Overture) to Un Giorno di Regno (King for a Day), Giuseppe Verdi's second opera. Premiered at Milan’s La Scala on September 5th, 1840, the opera's first performance sadly also became its last. (The work, however, is by no means a failure!)  A comic opera full of energy and bounce, it was Verdi's last in this genre until Falstaff followed 53 years later!

 

Enter the three soloists. Together, they give an upbeat performance of Eduardo di Capua’s "O Solo Mio" (My Sunshine), prior to a rich selection of solo arias by Italian- and other composers. Of Austro-Hungarian composer Franz Lehár, we heard the fresh, warm voice of Andrei Pleșca in "Dein ist mein ganzes Herz" (Yours Is My Heart Alone) from the 1929 romantic operetta The Land of Smiles. Here, Pleșca sings the piece in Romanian. In "Che gelida manina" (What a frozen little hand) from Act 1 of La Bohème, Pleșca's pleasing, romantic Italianate sound, his fullness in the upper register and touching reading of the aria were subtly intertwined with Puccini's delicate instrumental writing.

 

As to "È la solita storia del pastore" (It's the old tale of the shepherd) from Francesco Cilea's L'Arlesiana, Doru Iftene engages his richly timbral mix, his fineness of tone and depth of feeling to give expression to Federico's pondering over the letter revealing that l'Arlesiana has another lover.  In "Cielo e mar" (Sky and Sea) from La Gioconda (Ponchielli), Iftene's breath control and lyrical phrasing convey the yearning, reflective mood of Enzo waiting on his ship at night, gazing at the sky and sea and longing for his beloved Laura.

 

From Verdi's Luisa Miller, Adrian Dumitru's presentation of the recitative "Oh! fede negar potessi agl'occhi miei!" (Oh, if only I could disbelieve my own eyes!) expressing Rodolfo's suspicions and anguish over his lover's perceived betrayal, is followed by the artist’s sensitive, beautifully phrased rendering of the aria "Quando le sere al placido" (When the evenings are peaceful), in which Rodolfo, mourning the loss of Luisa's love, tenderly recalls past tranquil evenings spent with her. And, introduced by the ever-haunting clarinet solo, "E lucevan le stelle" (And the stars were shining) from Act 3 of Tosca (Puccini), Dumitru holds the aria's emotional tension high throughout, giving veracity to Cavaradossi's farewell to life, sung as the painter awaits execution.

 

Following the evening's selection of solo arias, the soloists join once again to perform three much-loved tenor arias - the effervescent "Granada", in which Mexican composer Agustín Lara pays homage to the beauty and rich history of this ancient city (and its ladies). Then "Nessun Dorma" (Let no one sleep) from Puccini's Turandot, as the audience hums along and the soloists soar effortlessly up to the challenging final notes — high B and A. As to "Funiculi, Funiculà", composed by Luigi Denza to mark the opening of the first funicular railway on Mount Vesuvius, the jaunty Neapolitan song tells of a young man who compares his sweetheart to a volcano and invites her to join him on a romantic walk up to the summit. For their encore, singers and orchestra performed a beautiful setting of "Jerusalem of Gold" (Naomi Shemer). 

 

Attending "The Three Tenors from Bucharest", we are reminded that although opera repertoire offers many sparking, exuberant and humorous moments, opera and tragic love are also lifelong partners, incorporating words and music with heartbreak, jealousy, and fatal passion. With Maestro Schmeisser at the helm, the JSO players gave colour, meaning and eloquence to the festive evening fare, engaging in substantial, vibrant, articulate and high-quality performance.

 

Pianist, harpsichordist and vocal coach, chief conductor of the Jerusalem Lyric Festival and Studio, and former conductor/chorus master of the Israeli Opera, Israeli-born Ethan Schmeisser served as artistic director of the Romanian National Opera Bucharest from 2021 to 2023, today officiating as its conductor and chorus master.  

 

The 2026 Felicja Blumental Music Festival - "Winterreise Reimagined" (Schubert/Zender). Ido Shpitalnik conducts the Jerusalem Street Orchestra and the Tremolo Ensemble. Vocal soloist: Peter Wedd (UK)

 

Tenor Peter Wedd (© Emelle Kroon)

Maestro Ido Shpitalnik (© Michael Fabia)

Winterreise Reimagined (Schubert/Zender) was presented on September 1st 2026, the opening day of the 28th Felicja Blumental Music Festival. The performance took place in the Recanati Auditorium of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. The Jerusalem Street Orchestra, under its founder/director Ido Shpitalnik, was joined by the Tremolo Ensemble. Guest soloist was British tenor Peter Wedd.

 

In February 1827 Schubert invited a group of friends to listen to his latest collection of songs set to verses of Saxon poet Wilhelm Müller. Schubert sang the entire Winterreise (Winter's Journey) through in a voice brimming with emotion, referring to the collection as “truly terrible, songs which have affected me more than any others”. Müller, an equally short-lived contemporary of Schubert, had died just as Schubert was beginning work on Winterreise. The two probably never met. Franz Schubert's 24-song cycle, originally intended for tenor and piano, has since undergone several new settings - for trio with oboe and bassoon (in which the oboe takes the melodic line), for baritone and string quartet, a setting for two guitars, arrangements for soloist and choir, for singer and mixed ensemble, and more. Over recent years, I myself have heard it performed by three female singers and piano (Tel Aviv Opera) and, more recently,  Andrew Middleton's setting for baritone (Oded Reich) and wind quintet.

 

Enter German composer Hans Zender. Born in 1936 Zender, a controversial chief of the Hamburg State Opera in the 1980s, was a longstanding figure in the German musical avant garde. Written in 1993, his “composed interpretation”, Winterreise Reimagined, preserves the cycle’s structure, textual order and melodic material, but it refracts, expands, de- and re-constructs the songs through the sound world of his own times, of the fantasy of his own mind. Surely what must be the boldest of such projects, it has achieved enormous success worldwide. Describing his Winterreise setting as a "secular Passion". Zender’s orchestral writing is richly divergent from Schubert’s original piano line. His creation of the instrumental score, with its constantly shifting textures, takes its cue from 19th- and 20th-century Expressionism; it refers to the music of Mahler and the Second Viennese School, while the presence of accordion, guitar and saxophone suggest the influence of Weimar Republic cabaret music. As the listener is waiting and observing the instruments on stage (doubled woodwinds, horn, trumpet, trombone, strings, accordion, harp, timpani and several percussion instruments), it becomes apparent that something is now happening: initially almost inaudible, the shuffle of the wanderer’s feet is suggested by sand pipe and  col legno strings, prior to the distinctive descending melody in the woodwind section, taking us into "Gute Nacht" (Good Night). From the very outset, Peter Wedd sets in motion his candid, unhampered, theatrical delivery, at times engaging the use of a microphone, occasionally abandoning the sung note for spoken utterance, heightening the extra layer of emotional extremity and existential bleakness Zender has incorporated into the original Schubert work. The unique textures and timbral contrasts of Zender's orchestration create an almost visual canvas for each song: the eerie, icy drops of "Gefrorne Tränen" (Frozen Tears) evoked by the almost-pointillistic scoring of the ensemble, the barbed whirlwind in "Die Wetterfahne" (The Weather Vane), with the strings evoking a storm, in which the singer’s lines expand as if billowed by the wind, while, in the urgent ‘Erstarrung’ (Frozen Stiff), there are snarls from  muted brass. And, in the fantastical "Die Krähe" (The Crow), punctuated by caws from the oboe, we follow the bird soaring high into the sky as solo woodwind and brass trace the vocal melody. Zender's use of harp and guitar provide beautiful moments of tenderness and delicacy, his use of accordion, nostalgia. The pipe organ effect in Song No.21 "Das Wirtshaus" (The Inn), is warm, comforting and familiar in its church hymn association. As the cycle progresses, the songs become more fragmented and disconnected by means of augmentation and diminution, or by harmonic and rhythmic reconfigurations, as the vocal line slips in and out in disturbing, distracted utterances. There were wind players who wandered about the hall and into the wings with their instruments, a physical expression of the wandering concept. As to Zender's setting of "Der Leiermann" (The Hurdy-Gurdy Player), this is a true tour-de-force, his orchestration moving away from Schubert’s original to create a menacing, otherworldly soundscape, the hurdy-gurdy motif coming at one in layers from all directions, the score's ghostly harmonics transforming the winter landscape into something unstable and hallucinatory, the music testifying to the wanderer’s disconnection from reality. Bleak and terrifying, the music fades away without resolution.

 

Known for his Heldentenor roles, Peter Wedd's well projected, dark-coloured voice, his strong vocal endurance and theatrical presence, made for a gripping performance of the work. His insight into Hans Zender’s radical reimagining of Schubert’s Winterreise, its gestures and meaning, kept audience members at the edge of their seats. 

And kudos to Maestro Shpitalnik, who drew all the threads together in an eloquent, sparkling and intense performance, creating Schubert and Zender's vivid images and soundscapes with articulacy. And the players of the Jerusalem Street Orchestra and the Tremolo Ensemble certainly did not disappoint!

 

LA ESCONDIDA - Michael Tsalka's recent recording of Schubert's First Waltzes Op.9 and Piano Sonata in B flat major D.960

 

La Escondida! How does one explain the curious title of Michael Tsalka's recently-issued disc of Schubert piano works? Here is the explanation: Prof. Tsalka and his wife, musicologist Dr. Angélica Minero Escabar, were on a concert tour of New Zealand in March 2020, when Covid broke out. Musician friends invited them to stay at La Escondida (The Hidden/Concealed One), their beautiful property on the South Island. Tsalka writes: "For the first time in ages, I had the rare gift of time to spare…Cherished projects, long forgotten or set aside by the rigours of our regimented schedules, found their way back into my mind and soul." It was during his time at La Escondida that the unique program for this disc crystallised in Tsalka's mind. The idyllic time, spent there, surrounded by nature, music and good company, came to an end in June 2020, when commercial flights finally resumed. 

 

Franz Schubert's Originaltänze op. 9 (D 365) were the composer's first dance publication (although not Schubert’s first waltzes.) The 36 dances appeared in 1821, published by Cappi & Diabelli. Schubert was 24. The title was probably given by the publisher. Schubert might have labelled them Walzer, Ländler or Deutsche Tänze (despite their origin being more Austrian than German), those terms, in those days, being more-or-less interchangeable. The original manuscript is lost, but it is known that some of the pieces were written in 1818 (or earlier) and that nine of them (Nos. 5-13) were composed in a single day! Probably the best-known, Trauerwalzer (No.2) (Sadness Waltz) was (outrageously) published by Schott under Beethoven’s name in 1826, only to reappear two years later with a new title, “Sehnsuchtswalzer” (Waltz of Longing). What spring to mind on hearing these pieces are the convivial pictures we have seen of Schubert at the piano, surrounded by friends listening, dancing and joking, the kind of get-togethers that formed the basis for the long tradition of Schubertiardes, one which continues to this very day. Austrian lawyer, musician and writer Leopold von Sonnleithner, one of Schubert’s closest friends and a passionate advocate of his music, wrote that Schubert never danced at these soirées, but that, inspired by his friends' enjoyment, he was always ready to sit down at the piano for hours and improvise the most beautiful waltzes. On hearing a recording of Schubert's 36 Originaltänze played on a Romantic historic fortepiano when visiting Berlin-based historic keyboard builder Sebastian Niebler, Tsalka talks of the "curious, hypnotic effect" of the work. In the disc's liner notes, he mentions "the process of recreating on a modern Steinway the vibrancy and naive grace of the Biedermeier salon…" I, myself, have always been fascinated by miniature forms in music, or, rather, by how to play and listen to them, and the effect resulting from how they stack up. Tsalka's reading of the 36 dances goes far beyond addressing Schubert's extraordinary gift for melody, the composer's attention to voice-leading and changes in texture, register, dynamics, metre and rhythm. One hears how the artist probes each piece to connect with its character, be it wistful, melancholy, yearning or majestic, or to address the dances of a more folk-like nature, the hearty, weightier textures of those arising from German peasant dances from the Middle Ages. Indeed, Ländler melodies were fashionable in 18th- and 19th-century Vienna. With the first 13 dances all in the key of A-flat major, monotony plays no part here. The only dance in a minor key is No.22 in G-sharp minor, its first curious section wavering puzzlingly between the major and minor modes, a paradox to be met again in later works of Schubert. Tsalka's playing is clean, intimate, subtle and free of overuse of the sustaining pedal. His lightness of touch allows for the tiniest filigree details of this uncluttered style to be heard, as he flexes tempi and engages in some discerning embellishment. Drawing the listener into the charm and magic of these small jewels, each dance seems to whisk the listener's curiosity onto the next.

 

Composed in September 1828 only weeks before his death in November of the same year, Schubert's Sonata in B-flat major D.960 was the last and lengthiest of the composer's final three piano sonatas. An expansive, large-scale composition, it has constituted an ongoing and evolving part of Prof. Tsalka's musical repertoire and thinking, from performing it at his final doctoral recital in Philadelphia in 2008, to playing it on various historic- and modern pianos, a "cross-fertilisation process…a profound, familiar friend who keeps sharing new secrets and altering one's worldview", in the artist's words. As to describing the strokes of genius existing in this sonata and how they are dealt with by the artist, words tend to become banal and inadequate. Always judiciously paced, always eloquent, Tsalka's reading of it recreates the sonata's large canvas and its "players", giving expression to the work's pianistic wellspring, to the composer's exceptional melodic writing and, of course, to Schubert's vivid palette of emotions. Never thick or over-pedalled, Tsalka's playing takes the listener into the work's many layers, into the depths of the mind, into the final sum and substance of Schubert's existence via the fragility, the otherworldliness, the lyricism, the playfulness, the urgency and the buoyant optimism woven through the final B-flat major Sonata.

 

Brilliant, short-lived and incredibly prolific, Franz Schubert remains one of the most intriguing figures in music history. While his music attracts a wide audience, some of his private life remains shrouded in mystery; significant portions of his works have been overlooked. Michael Tsalka has chosen two works that bookend Franz Schubert's creative life. Inspired and inspiring, this disc makes for a profound listening experience.  

 

In late July 2025, Prof. Tsalka returned to New Zealand's South Island to prepare for the recording sessions of this disc. La Escondida was recorded on a Steinway grand piano on August 2nd 2025 at the Nelson Centre for Musical Arts (New Zealand) for the RATTLE label. Michael Tsalka has dedicated the disc to his teacher, the late Prof. Harvey Wedeen (Temple University) and to Margarita and Miles Jackson, who hosted him and his wife at La Escondida. The project was funded by the School of Music, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen CUHK-SZL. 

 

 

Michael Tsalka (GVAGAIN Studio,Shenzhen)

 

 

Celebrating 20 years of Sounding Jerusalem, Erich Oskar Huetter('cello) and Armin Egger (guitar) perform a program of short works at the Redeemer Church, Jerusalem

 

Erich Oskar Huetter (Courtesy EOH)

Armin Egger (Courtesy AE)

Sounding Jerusalem is celebrating 20 years of fine music-making and collaboration between musicians. Established and directed by Austrian 'cellist Erich Oskar Huetter, the festival has brought string quartets, soloists, jazz musicians, early music specialists and artists of diverse musical traditions to its audiences at a variety of venues in Jerusalem and further afield. This writer attended a festival concert at the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in Jerusalem's Old City on August 4th, 2026. It featured Erich Oskar Huetter himself and Armin Egger, one of Austria's leading classical guitarists, in "A Distillation of Twenty Years". On November 14th, 2026, this very concert will be performed by the same artists at the Campo Santo Teutonico in Vatican City.

  

Welcoming the audience on the festive occasion were a representative of the Redeemer Church and Marian Alexander Wrba, Austrian Representative and Head of Mission. Huetter himself spoke of the festival's history, its supporters and of its certitude - that "music can cross borders, create encounters…and remind us never to stop reaching out to one another…". In keeping with the festival's wide scope of repertoire, the program at the Redeemer Church offered a selection of pieces from different countries and of different communities. Opening the event, we heard prayers from the Syrian Orthodox liturgy in Aramaic, sung with beauty and conviction in the rich, bass voices of Deacons Andraus Bassous and Michel Zanbil.

 

The instrumental program commenced with some solo pieces. Erich Oskar Huetter opened with a personal, emotionally powerful reading of the Prelude from J.S.Bach's Cello Suite No.1 in G major, BWV 1007, followed by the opening piece of late-Baroque composer Giuseppe Maria Dall'Abaco's set of 11 Capricci for violoncello solo, his playing of this both rigorous, spontaneous and expressive. Armin Egger performed two pieces of Francisco Tárrega (often referred to as the father of modern classical guitar technique) - first, the Capricho Árabe, Egger's subtle playing of this serenata emerging warm, charming and suggestive of the Moorish and Arabic sounds that had shaped the composer's Spanish cultural landscape; then, the Recuerdos de la Alhambra, with the artist giving the stage to the small masterpiece's beguiling melody and to its rapid, mesmerizing, filigree-fine tremolo figure. 

 

What then followed was a stream of small duets from classical repertoire, many of the items well-known to the audience - Edward Elgar's Salut d'Amour Op.12, the Méditation from Jules Massenet's opera Thais, Enrique Granados' Andaluza·Danza española No. 5 and his Oriental, the Adagio from Joaquin Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez, and, finally, Aria by the legendary Austrian pianist and composer Friedrich Gulda. Egger and Huetter's playing was polished, subtle, strategically paced and beautifully shaped, their arrangements faithful to the original scores, each setting, however, bearing the personal hallmark of the long-established duo, with the artists’ engaging in textures, timbres and attentiveness creating their own specific uniquely interwoven modus vivendi for two instruments of very different styles of sound production.

 

The duo then performed Insirab by Palestinian composer/oud player Marwan Abado (residing in Vienna), a mood piece characterised by drones and gentle percussive effects, with Huetter's playing of its melodies emerging stylistically convincing. Also bridging the rich heritage of traditional Arabic music with western classical music, we heard Shattered Tent (this piece originally scored for guitar and 'cello) by Mahmoud Abuwarda (today living in Istanbul). The artists gave poignant expression to the piece's narrative of pain and struggle. Performing the Prayer, from Ernest Bloch's suite From Jewish Life (1924), one of the most emotional pieces written for 'cello and piano, the artists gave an impassioned, songful reading of the work. They also played two pieces of Austrian cantor/composer Salomon Sulzer (sometimes referred to as the father of modern synagogue music), their energetic and exuberant presentation of Schalom Aleichem suggestive of Hassidic dance music.

 

For their encore, Egger and Huetter performed the traditional Catalan Christmas song/lullaby El Cant dels Ocells (Song of the Birds), made famous outside Catalonia by Pablo Casals' ‘cello version. Following his self-imposed exile, Casals would begin each of his concerts by playing this song. Nostalgic and touching, Huetter and Egger's setting was exquisite, so imaginative in the delicate, shimmering fluttering effect of birds' wings, as evoked by Egger on the guitar.  

 

As suggested by the title of this year's festival, Erich Oskar Huetter has referred to Sounding Jerusalem 2026 as a "distillation: intimate, transparent and essential - music reduced to its core, where every sound carries weight and every silence has meaning."  A superb concert, a unique experience created by two outstanding artists. 

Armin Egger, Erich Oskar Huetter (Nicolas Galani)

 

"Hear My Voice" - Assaf Benraf conducts the A-Capella Jerusalem Vocal Ensemble, the Jerusalem Oratorio Chamber Choir, the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra and soloists in a program of sacred music

Maestro Assaf Benraf (Uri Elkayam)

The Henry Crown Auditorium (Jerusalem Theatre) was filled to capacity on the evening of July 30th, 2026. For the third concert of a choral series directed by Assaf Benraf, each with a different theme, "Hear My Voice" was a program of sacred works. The A-Capella Jerusalem Vocal Ensemble, the Jerusalem Oratorio Chamber Choir and members of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra were joined by soloists - Nir Gavrieli (oboe), Rinatya Nessim (soprano), Maya Amir (mezzo-soprano) and Dmitry Negrimovskii (baritone). Conducting the event was Maestro Benraf - director of both the choirs - with Dor Gidon Amran at the keyboard (organ/piano).

 

The first part of the program consisted of various short choral pieces. Opening with Anton Bruckner's 1886 motet Locus iste (This place), written for the dedication of the votive chapel at the New Cathedral Linz, Austria, where Bruckner had been an organist, the joint choir's clean, sensitive choral sound reflected the piece's sublime, hauntingly beautiful writing. Then to Gabriel Fauré's Cantique de Jean Racine (Chant by Jean Racine), Op. 11, the 20-year-old composer's elegant choral miniature (indeed, a precursor to the Requiem) its intensity fragile and lush. We heard Hallelujah (1989) by Israeli composer Tzvi Avni (b.1927), Avni's 1989 a-cappella setting of Psalm 150 fresh, bold and energetic, its harmonies both pungent and lush. In strong contrast, issued in with Dor Amran's meditative playing of the prelude, we enter into the aura of Enosh, one of Louis Lewandowski’s most moving compositions, the text (Psalm 102) describing the ephemeral nature of human life. This was a beautiful, carefully paced and profound reading of the piece, with Benraf's direction laying emphasis on the text, its connection to the harmonic course and on the alternation of forthright- and tender moments. Harry Burleigh, a forgotten hero of American music, was the composer/singer most responsible for turning spirituals into art songs, his devout arrangement of Deep River (1915) becoming a sensation in its day. The joint choir's articulate, lush rendition of the spiritual highlighted its yearning and beauty. Buena Semana (A Good Week), sung in Ladino, concluded the first part of the concert. The singers did justice to the splendid arrangement by the late Eyal Bat (the performance here dedicated to his memory) to the song's warmth and vivid, lilting dancelike quality (with a touch of the oriental), enhanced by Nir Gavrieli's uplifting playing of the oboe part.

 

Johann Sebastian Bach composed Cantata No.82 Ich habe genug (It is enough/I am content) for the Feast of the Purification on February 2, 1727, at the church of St. Thomas, Leipzig. Scored for bass singer, solo oboe, strings and continuo, the work conveys how mortality was viewed in the 18th century. It is based on the biblical words of Simeon, who, having seen the infant Jesus, said that he could now die in peace. At the Jerusalem concert, the soloist was young Russian-born baritone Dmitry Negrimovskii, a singer of fresh, bright vocal timbre and articulacy.  From the opening aria, "Ich habe genug," to the consoling lullaby "Schlummert ein, ihr matten Augen" (Go to sleep, you weary eyes), to the triumphant, buoyant performance of "Ich freue mich auf meinen Tod" (I rejoice at my death), with its spirited sixteenth-note melismas on the word "freue" ("rejoice"), Negrimovskii's engagement with the music and words gave expression to the cantata's magnitude and seriousness with an immediacy that underscored its essence. The elaborate oboe part testifies to the pool of talented players available to Bach in Leipzig. Initially plaintive, then mellow and finally bristling with optimistic joy, Gavrieli's playing, beautifully shaped, reached out to the vocal line throughout.

 

Antonio Vivaldi wrote several versions of his G minor setting of the Magnificat canticle, one of his masterpieces. He scored the RV 610 version for vocal soloists, four-part choir, oboes and string orchestra. This first version is dominated by the choral concept. In the second version, several movements were given new and extended solo arias, these tailored to voices of girls from the Ospedale della Pietà, the educational institution with which Vivaldi was affiliated for much of his adult life. For "Hear My Voice", Assaf Benraf chose movements from different versions. Commencing with a solemn, majestic performance of the choral "Magnificat anima mea" (My soul proclaims the greatness), the "Et exultavit" (My spirit has rejoiced) was rendered with charming lightness by Maya Amir, with Rinatya Nessim, her voice well-anchored, handling the "Quia respexit" (He has looked upon the lowliness) with aplomb. Together they delivered the "Esurientes" (Those hungry) with elegance and fine passagework. As to the choruses, "Fecit potentiam" (He has shown strength) was performed with fiery drama by both choir and orchestra. Following another grand choral moment in "Suscepit Israel" (He has helped his servant Israel), the three soloists (Amir, Nessim, Negrimovskii) gave a characterful "Sicut locutus est" (As He has spoken), graced by the two oboes, before the final choral movements' conclusion with a lively fugue.  

 

Maestro Benraf understands the potential and beauty of the human voice and its repertoire. He opened the event with some information on the works to be heard. It was an evening of interesting programming and of splendid, high-standard musical performance. Adding to the evening's excellence were Dor Gidon Amran's tasteful, attentive accompaniments throughout. 

Two spirituals - Daniel  Servant of the Lord and Rock-a My Soul - made for a hearty end to the evening.

The Gary Bertini Israeli Chamber Choir (music director: Ronen Borshevsky) performs sacred works of J.S.Bach, J.A.Hasse and Mozart at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art

 

 

Maestro Ronen Borshevsky (ronenborshevsky.com)

It was "Masterpieces of the 18th Century" that concluded the 2025-2026 subscription series of the Gary Bertini Israeli Chamber Choir (music director: Ronen Borshevsky). This writer attended the performance in the Recanati Auditorium of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art on July 7th, 2026. Soloists were Neta Flomen (soprano), Nitzan Alon (mezzo-soprano), Nevo Weiner (tenor) and Yoav Weiss (baritone). Established by Haggi Goren and Maestro Borshevsky in 2009, the Gary Bertini Choir, numbering some 26 singers, performs repertoire from Renaissance- to contemporary classical works, also folk music, music of Jewish- or Israeli content and world music. Joining them were members of the Israeli Chamber Ensemble.

 

The event opened with J.S.Bach's Cantata BWV 106 Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit (God's time is the best time), also known as Actus Tragicus, a funeral piece composed in 1707 when the 22-year-old composer was employed as church organist in Mühlhausen. One of Bach's earliest cantatas, its unusual instrumentation calls for two recorders, two violas da gamba and continuo section, vocal soloists and choir. Although not performing on period instruments, members of the Israeli Chamber Ensemble provided the soft-grained detail and comforting (sometimes almost heavenly) sound evoking the work's intimacy, intense expressiveness and meditation. From the quiet longing of the Sonatina, one of the loveliest, most soulful openings in any Bach cantata, recorder players Inbar Solomon and Leora Vinik evoked the duet's extraordinary beauty and devotion, the recorder roles' sharp seconds and unisons possibly symbolising earthly suffering. As to the soloists, Nevo Weiner gave a richly resonant reading of the mournful Arioso; Nitzan Alon, her voice mellow and even in all registers, shaped the text's meaning throughout "In deine Hände" (Into your hands); Neta Flomin wove the proclamation of the coming of Jesus into "Es ist der alte Bund" (It is the ancient law) with gossamer-fine beauty and ease. With the recorders in unison propelling the music forward, Yoav Weiss, gave "Bestelle dein Haus" (Put your house in order) a sense of divine urging, his voice buoyant, avoiding the muscular approach taken by some singers in this aria. Performing one of the pinnacles of Bach’s sacred music with emotional restraint, delicacy, transparency and subtlety, Borshevsky, players, choir and soloists showed listeners through the work's phases, from fearful death to joyful afterlife, from worldly complacency into uncertainty and on into the light.

 

Based on Psalm 51 (Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love), Johann Adolf Hasse's Miserere in C minor was composed in 1735 for the Ospedale degli Incurabili, one of several institutions in Venice dedicated to caring for- and educating orphaned and abandoned children. Originally written for women’s choir, this Miserere was later revised by Hasse himself to include the more standard vocal ensemble of SATB, soloists and choir,  adding a larger orchestra. He also added two final movements to the piece, the eight contrasting sections sharing the message of comfort, devotion, and mercy. The revised version was that performed at the Tel Aviv concert. The work is cast in a relatively compact structure. Hasse's musical language covers a broad stylistic and emotional range, bringing the dramatic flair of Neapolitan opera music to the penitent and pleading Miserere text. Setting the scene was the choir's majestic, clean and unmannered singing of the opening Miserere chorus. Solos, duets and ensembles followed, the solos and duets free of excessive vibrato. In the tranquil Libera me (Deliver me), recorder players Solomon and Vinik imitated and commented within the weave of Flomen and Alon's natural, unforced singing of the movement. Hasse spent much of his career as an opera composer in Dresden. His choral music is little known but, on the evidence of this performance, it is worth uncovering.  Borshevsky's rendition of the Miserere in C minor captured Hasse's refined juxtaposition of solemn grandeur and graceful beauty.

 

And to W.A.Mozart's Missa Credo in C major K.257, its title explaining the acclamations of “Credo” that constantly punctuate the so-named movement. Composed in Salzburg in 1776, this Mass is remarkable for its density of invention and for its keeping within the narrowest of confines, showing the 20-year-old Mozart's adherence to Count Hieronymus Colloredo’s preference for concise services. Even by the standards of the Salzburg church, however, this Mass is unusually eventful: jubilant ceremonial sonorities consist with sudden contrasts that feel almost operatic in their timing. Professor Borshevsky addresses the work's wealth of beautiful melodies, its rhetorically vivid and structurally decisive style, its drama, its assertive energy and dynamic contrasts, also addressing the work's "vehemence" (with few exceptions), in which the music does not always support the words. (Indeed, with Mozart known to have been irreverent at times, might it be that the Credo Mass comes across as a work of largely secular defiance and independence?)  One fascinating feature of the work is the existence of two distinct choral bodies. For the solo singers, who generally function as a quartet, Mozart writes in a filigreed and more ornamented manner than for the larger choir. The Tel Aviv performance offered much interest in both the exchanges and separateness of the two choral groups. “Benedictus qui venit” (Blessed is he), its exquisite writing providing introspective, meandering songfulness for the soloists, was moving (indeed, supportive of the words in every way!) Altogether, the singers were splendidly supported by the ICE's players, the instrumental score's chamber-music quality sometimes rising to almost symphonic proportions.