A new disc: Romantic works for clarinet and piano. Gaia Gaibazzi and Clarissa Carafa perform music of Brahms, Schumann and Reger

 

"MENTORS", a recently issued disc of German Romantic music for clarinet and piano, presents works of Reger, Brahms and Schumann performed by two Italian artists - Gaia Gaibazzi (clarinet) and Clarissa Carafa (piano). In her liner notes, Gaibazzi writes: "The works of Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms and Max Reger offer fascinating insights into how composers of the 19th and early 20th centuries reinterpreted and transformed the musical languages of their time." This Da Vinci Classics album presents a carefully-chosen and representative selection of Romantic works for clarinet and piano, works that are both technically demanding and emotionally profound.

 

 

In late 1890, Johannes Brahms was planning his will and declaring that his compositional career was at an end. Then, in 1894, on his summer vacation in the Austrian spa town of Bad Ischl, however, the composer wrote to clarinettist Richard Mühlfeld (principal clarinettist of the Meiningen Court Orchestra as of 1879, and whose playing Brahms had already encountered in the early 1880s) inviting him to visit him there for the two to play "two modest sonatas with piano". In fact, Brahms’ music for clarinet was clearly influenced by Mühlfeld's performance style. The first performances of the Op. 120 Sonatas were given privately soon afterwards, with the press proclaiming that these works were “wonderful” and that they "would cause a great sensation”. Indeed, a comeback from self-imposed artistic retirement has rarely reaped a more illustrious outcome than in the case of the two Opus 120 Sonatas for clarinet and piano! Gaia Gaibazzi and Clarissa Carafa perform the first of the two - Sonata No.1 in F minor. From the initial sounds of the opening Allegro appassionato movement (more wistful than passionate coming from Brahms' pen) one becomes aware of the artists' total affinity with the work, as they move hand-in-glove to seize each of Brahms' different gestures, each of the work's personal contours. Together they recreate the work's wonderful contrasts of texture and emotional energy, its urgency and grace, as its mostly introspective course culminates in the exuberance of the final Vivace movement. Their playing engages flexibility of tempo, so integral to the spontaneity of Brahms' musical expression, as Gaibazzi's lush playing exploits all the expressive possibilities unique to the clarinet, with Carafa's depth of understanding, the surging waves of feeling woven through and her penchant for the Romantic style are endorsed by easeful virtuosity.

 

 

Clarinettists and many music-lovers are familiar with Brahms' sonatas for clarinet and piano, but, somewhat surprisingly, not all have heard Max Reger’s three clarinet and piano sonatas. Indeed, it was on hearing one of Brahms' Op. 120 sonatas that inspired Reger to write his own. Brahms' influence is evident in their contrapuntal writing, their textures, the elaborate piano parts and singing clarinet roles, but Reger’s sonatas also bring attention to his rich, 20th-century idiom. Performing Sonata No.1 of Opus 49, that in A-flat major (1900), Gaibazzi and Carafa give exciting expression to Reger's original thematic material and harmonic progressions, as they engage in the sonata's plethora of colourful dynamics and intricate phrasing with freshness, buoyancy, inventiveness and finespun sensitivity. Their fine teamwork and transparency of sound present the listener with each gesture and nuance. In addition to the sonata, the artists perform two of Reger's charming miniatures, pieces which testify to the pleasure Reger (like Brahms) took in domestic music-making, those items generally being published in music journals, reflecting the composer’s desire to reach a wider public via smaller works. Carafa and Gaibazzi's delivery of "Albumblatt" (1902) is flowing, placid, at times pondering, their playing of the "Tarantella" (1902) effervescent, bold and wonderfully shaped, its zesty course temporarily halted by the coy middle section.

 

In February 1849, Dresden was seized by violent political turmoil, forcing Robert and Clara Schumann to flee to the countryside. In a whirl of feverish writing, Robert Schumann created the Fantasiestücke Op. 73 in two days. Coming from one of the happier periods of his life and career, the work (originally titled “Soiréestücke”, to which he then gave preference to the more poetic title) was published later that year. The first performance of the original clarinet and piano setting was given at a concert in Leipzig in January 1850. Carafa and Gaibazzi move seamlessly and deftly from the fantasies' moments of deep introspection through to its bursts of euphoria, each bewitching, unexpected harmonic shift sweeping the listener into a different fulcrum of Schumann's stream of consciousness. Expressive, buoyant and spontaneous, their playing of the three splendid miniatures is carefully paced and flexed, giving sincerity and warmth to the poetry and lush beauty of the Fantasiestücke.

 

Recorded at the Palazzo Cigola Martinoni, Brescia, Italy in November 2023, this is a disc to appeal to lovers of Romantic music and fine performance. Gaibazzi plays a Buffet Crampon RC clarinet; Carafa plays on a Steinway & Sons model D piano. 

 

 

 

"Pure Romanticism": Yaniv Dinur conducts the Israel Camerata Jerusalem in works of Gilad Hochman, Dvořák and Brahms. Roi Dayan - solo mandolin

 

Maestro Yaniv Dinur (nbsymphony.org)

Roi Dayan (Michael Pavia)

Conducting "Beyond Notes - Pure Romanticism", Concert No.6 of the Israel Camerata Jerusalem's 42nd season, was Yaniv Dinur (Israel-USA), with soloist Roi Dayan (Israel) on mandolin. This writer attended the concert at the Jerusalem International YMCA on February 26th, 2026.

 

The program opened with "Nedudim" (Wanderings), Fantasia Concertante for Mandolin and String Orchestra (2014), by Gilad Hochman (Israel-Germany). Written for- and dedicated to mandolinist Alon Sariel, the work combines both fantasia- and concerto genres. Setting the scene, the violins enter against a dark, dissonant, otherworldly screen of sound. Engaging in oriental modality, Hochman creates a work taking place within the desert scenery of the country of his birth, the soundscape timeless, austere, at times, disturbing. From the Fantasia's hushed, reflective moments to its intense, gripping tutti, Roi Dayan's playing drew one's attention into each gesture and new section. His performance was finely detailed, articulate, virtuosic and, above all, wonderfully shaped and eloquent. Dayan's personal approach to the work created a direct connection to that very element of Hochman's musical language. In an interview with Maureen Buja for "Interlude" (March 30th, 2018), Hochman said: "In Nedudim I have related to a personal and cultural field, with specific musical implications, and to the non-musical theme of wanderings." Maestro Dinur's direction made for an illuminating and moving performance of "Nedudim".

 

Then to the two Romantic works of the program, the first being Antonín Dvořák's String Quartet No.12 in F major Op. 96 "American", performed in a transcription for string orchestra by Turkish/Armenian conductor Nurhan Arman. Stemming from Dvořák's time in New York (1892-1895), where he served as artistic director/professor of composition at the National Conservatory of Music of America, the quartet was composed in the summer of 1893 in Spillville, Iowa, where the composer was vacationing. His delight at meeting up with the colony of fellow Bohemians there and with his wife and children, who had come from Prague for the summer, gave rise to this exceptionally joyful piece of music. Sketched within a mere 72 hours and completed in twelve days, Op.96 has emerged as the most popular of Dvořák’s fourteen quartets. The work has occasionally been criticised for a "lack of erudition and sophistication". With its marked homophonic style and directness, Dvořák, however, conveyed his aim as being “to write something really melodious and simple.” Adding a double bass line to the score, Nurhan Arman's setting makes few changes. With its pedals or drones and permeating pentatonic themes serving to transmit the rural flavour Dvořák wished to create, Maestro Dinur and the Camerata string players gave lush, fresh and vivid expression to Dvořák’s immediacy of expression and to the flow of effortless-sounding unifying- and thematic procedures. A violist himself, Dvořák gives the viola the opening pentatonic theme. As to the nostalgic, introspective Lento movement, unfolding in a broad arch building up to an exquisite climax, it ended with one last wistful utterance of the melody by the 'cello, here not played by the 'cello section, but by solo 'cello (Marina Katz). Whether or not Dvořák's American compositions show native American influences has long been debated. Making reference, however, to Iowa's natural surroundings, the Molto vivace movement imitates the rhapsodic warbling of an American bird, the Scarlet Tanager, its call played over and over and over again in various guises and at different tempi.

 

For his Serenade no. 2 Op.16 (1858–60), Johannes Brahms' score calls for piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns and for strings, but with no violins, thereby giving the main focus of the piece to the winds and to a darker timbral colour than usual. From the warm, gently-flowing lines initiated by the woodwinds in the opening movement, to the exuberant, fun-loving, folk-dance spirit of the second, to the strangely-titled Quasi menuetto (fourth movement) with its irregular phrases and the somewhat eerie moments of its Trio, to the carefree, bold, bucolic Rondo Allegro, in which  the piccolo makes its first entrance, the pulse and flow, the lushness of sound, the gracious melodies and invigorating cross rhythms made for the pleasurable listening associated with the serenade genre. That being said, the A minor Adagio non troppo, the third and central movement of the work, stood out, as it moved into spacious, mysterious and transcendent "non-serenade" territory, its expression pensive and profound. There was much to enjoy in this performance, with many beautiful solos on the part of the Camerata's splendid wind players.

 

A fine choice of repertoire matched by excellent performance!

 

Gilad Hochman (Stefan Maria Rother)

"Different Trains", marking International Holocaust Day. Members of the Israeli Chamber Project perform works of Gideon Klein, Jacob Weinberg and Steve Reich at the National Library of Israel

 

Korbinian Altenberger,Kobi Malkin,Michal Korman,Guy Ben-Ziony (Hanna Tayeb)

"Different Trains", Concert No. 3 (February 3rd, 2026) of the RESONANCE concert series, taking place at the National Library of Israel, Jerusalem, commemorated International Holocaust Day (observed annually on January 27th, marking the 1945 liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau.) This new concert series features the Israeli Chamber Project (artistic director: Tibi Cziger), an award-winning ensemble. The Israeli Chamber Project was established in 2008.

 

The program opened with String Trio for violin, viola and 'cello (1944) by Gideon Klein (1919-1945). The Moravian-born composer/pianist was one of several musicians who were incarcerated at  Theresienstadt (Terezín), a camp set up as a hub of culture for the Nazis to showcase to the world. Composed in a classical three-movement structure, the trio was written just ten days before Klein's transport from Terezín to Auschwitz. Performing it at the Jerusalem concert, Kobi Malkin (violin), Guy Ben-Ziony (viola) and Michal Korman ('cello) gave credence to the fact that Klein had been part of an  exciting, modernist and avant-garde cultural scene, one substantially based in Prague before World War II. The artists' playing of the opening Allegro, with its rhythmic perpetuum mobile, its drive and folk-like theme over a drone accompaniment, and of the fast, joyful dance of the brief finale (Molto vivace), with its clearly contemporary touch, reflected the energetic writing of a young composer. As to the Lento (middle) movement, bearing a strong reference to Janáček, their incisive playing gave beauty and interest to the eight variations of contrasting moods and textures, the theme itself based on an elegiac Moravian folksong. Prior to his transport to Auschwitz and death, Klein had entrusted his manuscripts to Irma Semecká, his Theresienstadt girlfriend, after which the works were eventually turned over to his sister Eliška. The Trio was first performed in 1946 in Prague's Rudolfinum, at a concert organized by Klein's sister.

 

Born in Odessa and educated at the Moscow Conservatory of Music, Jacob Weinberg (1879-1956) was affiliated with the Society for Jewish Folk Music (St. Petersburg), an organization promoting Jewish classical music. Renowned for writing the first Hebrew language opera, "The Pioneers" (Hechalutz), Weinberg composed songs, choral works, chamber compositions and oratorios. He was one of the founders of the Jewish National Conservatory in Jerusalem before immigrating to the U.S., where he became a leading figure in the cultivation of American Jewish music. The ICP artists' playing of Weinberg's Quintet for clarinet and strings Op.40 (1938) was crisp, discerning and quick-witted, giving keen expression to the work's contemporary feel, its introspection and witty vitality. The Recitativo (2nd movement) was moving, with the clarinet (Tibi Cziger) and 1st violin (Kobi Malkin) roles suffused with the melancholy of the kind associated with many eastern European Jewish melodies. As to the Vivo ed accentato (3rd movement), the score alternated between spirited (Jewish wedding) dancelike moments and those reverting to nostalgia. A fine performance of this excellent work. Joining Cziger and Malkin were violinist Korbinian Altenberger (Germany), Guy Ben-Ziony and Michal Korman.

 

In 1988, Steve Reich (b. USA, 1936) wrote "Different Trains" for string quartet and tape for the Kronos Quartet. Stretching the boundaries of the string quartet repertoire, "Different Trains" is layered with the recording of three string quartets, it combines digital sampling, actual spoken words and music derived from speech (the strings imitate the speech melodies and rhythms), the combined effect of train whistles and chugging string (engine) sounds, creating the real-life experience of travel on trains in the USA and Europe between 1939 and 1945.  The Jerusalem performance was accompanied by an outstanding video-art work of Spanish artist Beatriz Caravaggio. The work falls into three movements - the first representing the train journeys Reich took with his governess, as they travelled to and from his divorced parents in Los Angeles and New York, the second showing trains transporting people to the camps in the Holocaust, with the third capturing on soundtrack and film American trains and people immediately following World War II. A forthright work, with film footage shown on a large, tri-partite screen showing constantly moving trains, the people riding them and some occasional background scenery, its intense relentless soundscape is dense in content and message, with the incessant string timbres and the information contributed by "notated" repeated speech fragments from recordings of people - Reich's governess, a retired Pullman porter and some Holocaust survivors. And, with all these stimuli, not to be ignored are the string quartet players on stage reading the tricky score and adding yet another dimension to the rattling train scenes and to the no-less-rattling emotional impact. This is a powerful, uncompromising and disturbing work. Caravaggio's palette is one of predominantly dark and sepia hues; indeed, even her colouring of post-war New York in the third movement is sparing. Reich spoke of the work as presenting "both a documentary and a musical reality."

 

Based both in Israel and in New York, the Israeli Chamber Project is one of today's exemplary and most dynamic ensembles. With their attentive performance and profound reading into the works, the players made for an engaging evening of music. Adding to the experience, the audience was invited to view pictures, books and other digital items related to Jacob Weinberg from the National Library's collections. Ohad Sofer, of the Music Department at the National Library of Israel, was present to answer any questions.

"Violets Are Blue", a recently-issued disc of music on the subject of childhood, performed by Diana Weston and Michael Tsalka on square piano and harpsichord

 

"Violets Are Blue", early keyboard artists Diana Weston and Michael Tsalka's most recent recording, takes us into the world of childhood. Drawing inspiration from Béla Bartók's "For Children", Weston and Tsalka requested works associated with childhood from four contemporary women composers. We hear the works performed on harpsichord and fortepiano.

 

Well before embarking on the "Mikrokosmos", Bartók composed "For Children" (1908-1911), a  comprehensive collection representing the research into folk-song he had carried out together with Zoltán Kodály. The first volume is based on Hungarian folk tunes, with the second, on Slovakian tunes. The pieces have descriptive titles, referring to songs or dances. Tsalka and Weston arranged and performed a few pieces from each collection. Choosing to play five from the Slovakian Folk Tunes on  square piano, Tsalka performs them with personal expression and charm, pacing each thoughtfully, signing out with the Dirge, its left-hand melody graced by the haunting, repetitive ringing of bells allotted to the right hand. For pieces based on the Hungarian Folk Tunes, Weston's playing on harpsichord is animated and dancelike, the last piece (No.25) turning to introspection. For our young pupils, the pieces, suited to what small hands can manage, offer fine study material and plenty of variety. To our adult ears, they are exquisite, whole compositions. The artists' playing of these miniatures, each perfectly fashioned and characterized by the modes and authentic rhythms of those regions, emerges transparent, convincing and fetching. 

 

Commissioned by Diana Weston, "Hopscotch" (2025) by Ann Carr-Boyd (b. 1938, Australia) sits very well on early keyboards. Weston and Tsalka give zesty expression to Carr-Boyd's articulate, accessible language and to the almost-visible chronicles in which she embraces memories of children at play, the graceful movements (and music typical) of a ballet class, and we are also invited to envisage the drift of "I Hate Spinach". 

 

"The Rain Puzzle", by Australian composer Elena Kats-Chernin (b. 1957, Uzbekistan) is a fascinating piece. Adhering to the work's harmonic course and structure, the performer is at liberty to decide on dynamics, tempo and even on the choice of keyboard instrument(s). Choosing to play this perpetuum mobile on the fortepiano, Weston's performance takes the listener beyond the lightweight pitter-patter of raindrops that taper off now and then, yet never cease. Following each basically tonal harmonic process to its port of call becomes an intricate part of probing the puzzle. 

 

By another Australian composer, Diana Blom (b.1947, New Zealand), "Ballpark" for two harpsichords offers a series of clever depictions of the actions and pace of a number of ball games. This is spirited, characterful writing for two harpsichords, here performed with meticulous precision.

 

The selection of pieces from "Märchen" (Fairytales) by Violeta Dinescu (b.1953, Romania, in Germany since 1982) presents a rich potpourri of characters, situations, descriptions and short narratives sure to fire the imaginations of young listeners and of those of us adults reluctant to leave the world of fairytale fantasy. On this recording, some pieces are played on square piano (Tsalka), some on harpsichord (Weston) and a handful on both. Dinescu does not limit her style to any one tonal system, rather, making use of tonal-, modal- and/or atonal writing in order to create each tiny, finely-etched vignette, be it a description of some strange hybrid creature, the lure of magic, of a princess in a tree, Caspar's hen laying some notes, Grandmother's music box, a puzzle, and more. Then, with the artists performing in duo on square and harpsichord, we hear several more miniatures (this time untitled) from "The Story Book of My Grandma", Dinescu again employing various compositional strategies and  including a touch of folk idiom. In keeping with the fact that this second collection includes some aleatoric elements (suggested by whimsical graphic signs), the pieces were recorded live, undergoing no editing. 

 

The art of performing miniatures is of the essence in "Violets Are Blue" - contemporary music for square piano and harpsichord.  Dr. Diana Weston (Australia) and Prof. Michael Tsalka (Israel-China) address every fine detail and gesture, reading into each piece in depth with new curiosity and commitment. Their playing is polished, exhilarating and inventive, exhibiting fine teamwork. This  delightful line-up of works calls for active listening. Recorded in Sydney, Australia, September 30th 2025 for the Wirripang label, the artists perform on a Flemish single-manual harpsichord (Marc DuCornet), a Zuckermann single-manual harpsichord and a restored square piano forte by Robertson (c.1835), Liverpool, England.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

Diana Weston (Courtesy Thoroughbass)

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   
                                                                                                                                                                                                        

Michael Tsalka (Geelvinck Muziek Musea)

Daniel Johannsen and Dror Semmel perform Schubert's "Winterreise" at the Eden-Tamir Music Center, Jerusalem

 

Daniel Johannsen (Anette Friedel)

Dror Semmel (Alex Kaplan)

The stormy, blustery weather leading up to January 10th 2026 had given way to a hazy, pallid Jerusalem sky. The ground was damp underfoot. Nature had provided the ideal setting for a performance of Franz Schubert's "Winterreise" (Winter's Journey) to take place at the Eden-Tamir Music Center. In collaboration with the Israeli Schubertiade, we heard the song cycle performed by tenor Daniel Johannsen (Austria) with Eden-Tamir Music Center artistic director Dror Semmel playing the center's recently-acquired Graf fortepiano.

 

Dr. Semmel opened the festive event with a few words about the fortepiano as being the instrument Schubert would have heard, the fortepiano symbolizing the Romantic Lied genre, its timbre and scope creating an intimate connection between music and text. Builder of historic pianos Paul McNulty (US) modelled this Graf fortepiano (the only one in Israel) after instruments played by Beethoven, Schubert and Chopin.

 

Confronting his own approaching death, Schubert found appropriate content for the "Winterreise" song cycle in the dark, melancholic poems of a Prussian contemporary - Wilhelm Müller (1794-1827) - a lyric poet who was known to openly invite collaborations with musicians. Unjustly referred to in his day as second rate, Müller had, in fact, given new expression to the literary ideals of his time. "Winterreise" presents only one speaking character and no narrator, leaving the listener unaware of the protagonist's name, his appearance (except that he has black hair), his birthplace, occupation or personal history. Of his inner life, we learn more as the cycle progresses. From the first chords of the opening song, "Gute Nacht" (Good Night), as we join the protagonist stepping away from the town, rejected by the lady he loves, the piece's fleeting recollection of better times is replaced by the piano re-establishing the bleak mood and weary pace (a feature recurring in several of the songs.) Johannsen and Semmel's deep, rigorous inquiry into the wealth of fine details and the many layers of "Winterreise" summons the audience at the Eden-Tamir Center to be more than attentive!

 

In addition to some vivid story-telling, the artists' production displayed the cycle's succession of psychological states - the protagonist's emotions and moods, those ranging from sadness, anger, despair, nostalgia, illusion and hope to resignation - the different states of mind often shifting from one to another within the blink of an eye. With the fortepiano's timbre direct and transparent, we hear the occasional divergence between the character of the words and the keyboard score, an interesting element, at times intimating that the piano is more aware of certain issues than is the traveller, at others, perhaps more distanced. And the contrasts, so many contrasts - songs of intensive, explosive energy, songs of wispy textures and eerie stillness, references to the icy European winter, to the comfort of warmth, moments of gorgeous, idyllic Viennese melodiousness and then of despair, contrasts of texture, of tempo, of gesture, and more. They were all present, not only via the contours of the singer’s melody, but also in the pictorial vividness of the piano score, set within Müller and Schubert's immense, palpably existent nature canvas.  

 

I choose to mention "Die Krähe" (The Crow), a song unique in Lied literature and one of my favourites. Imaginatively evoking the crow's call (via the word “Krähe") Johannsen portrays the wanderer speaking fondly of- and to the crow that has accompanied him from the outset of his journey, asking if it will stay with him till he dies. However, presenting the song's austere duality, the wanderer also asks whether the crow is waiting to feast on his carcass. Taking leave of gravity, Semmel's playing elevates the listener way up into the tranquillity of the sky to join the bird soaring in its airy expanses, then to finally descend smoothly into the piano's lower register to deliver Schubert's grim answer. 

 

As to "Der Leiermann" (The Hurdy-Gurdy Man), the cycle's horrific final song, announced by a drone on the piano (a feature of the hurdy-gurdy, an early instrument having several drone strings), Johannsen and Semmel's careful, deliberate pacing of its bleak, haunted content creates a sense of staticity. The artists' melancholic, intense reading of one of the most enigmatic songs in Lied repertoire was heightened by an otherworldly effect Semmel created by combining use of the Graf's double moderator with the sustaining pedal.

 

Thirty years after Schubert’s death, Joseph von Spaun wrote of attending the first performance of "Winterreise" - a private affair, in which the composer performed the song cycle for his friends. Schubert referred to the work as " a cycle of horrifying songs", adding that they had cost him "more effort than any of my other songs.” With "Winterreise" originally composed for the tenor voice (possibly to give a sense of implied youthfulness) Daniel Johannsen is utterly convincing as he narrates and emotes, enlisting his large range of dynamics and engaging in word painting, his vocal timbre warm yet variously coloured, his diction inviting the audience to savour every word, every gesture. These qualities, together with Dror Semmel's outstanding and committed reading of the richly allusive and occasionally austere piano part, made for a vital, moving and altogether engrossing musical experience. 

Graf fortepiano (Courtesy Eden-Tamir Music Center)

 

 

Jochewed Schwarz (spinet) and Ashley Solomon (traverso) perform Baroque music on period instruments at a house concert in Jerusalem

Ashley Solomon (J.A.)

Jochewed Schwarz (Lauren Pressler)

 

In 18th-century Europe, salon concerts (some held in private homes, some within royal courts) were the main source of musical life for the aristocracy and wealthy elite. These exclusive events (coexisting with the emerging public concert scene) catered to the desire for intimate performance and social distinction, the invitees being eminent artists, writers, diplomats and other intellectuals. Gathered at a private home in Jerusalem on December 28th 2025, our gracious hostess offered us such an experience, with Jochewed Schwarz and Ashley Solomon performing on spinet and traverso (Baroque transverse flute). Taking the audience on "The Grand Tour - Baroque music from across Europe" the artists presented works of prominent composers from four European countries.

 

Starting the journey in England, Jochewed Schwarz invited the audience to experience some fine early keyboard playing with three lively, archetypal English pieces - corantos (short, dance-type pieces, characterized by short running passages) from the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book. (This pivotal historic tome includes keyboard pieces from 25 named- and anonymous composers from the late Renaissance and very early Baroque). Of George Frideric Handel, who settled in London in 1712, where he spent most of his career (becoming a naturalised British subject) the artists performed Flute Sonata in E minor (HWV 359b). Originally written for the violin, London music publisher John Walsh transposed it (and others) into suitable keys for the flute, presumably in order to improve their sales potential. Solomon reminded us that the flute was an instrument played by kings; this score was in King George II's library. Schwarz's elegant exploration of the original figured bass practice moved hand-in-glove with Solomon's melodiously lush, buoyant, expressive and tastefully ornamented playing.

 

Crossing the Channel to France, to where the transverse flute was one of the most popular instruments in the first half of the 18th century, we heard two works of Jacques-Martin Hotteterre. Of the Hotteterre family, important in the musical life of France under the "ancien régime", we know of thirteen members who were woodwind instrument makers, players and composers. Court musician Jacques-Martin was the most famous of them for his treatises, his teaching, as a composer of works for flute and recorder and as a brilliant player. Hotteterre's instruction was that his Suite No.1 be played on the transverse flute. Solomon and Schwarz gave subtle meaning to each of its different moods, with melodic lines abounding in "notes inégales" and displaying French techniques of ornamentation. Also, by Hotteterre, the artists gave wistful, embellished delivery of Hotteterre's setting of the song "Pourquoy doux rossignol" (Why, sweet nightingale.)  Exactly what François Couperin le Grand was referring to in his keyboard piece "Les Barricades Mystérieuses" (The Mysterious Barricades) remains obscure. Navigating the rondeau's course of skilfully dovetailed motifs written in the arpeggiated "style brisé" (broken style) with its driving, teasing rhythmic schemes and “unexpected” harmonies, Schwarz's playing of this small gem was captivating. French composer and renowned court flautist Michel de la Barre is recognized as being the first person to publish solo flute music. The Chaconne from his Suite "l`Inconnue" for flute and basso continuo in G major ("The Unknown Lady," the specific lady remaining unnamed, ties in with Baroque musical traditions of evocative titles rather than direct portraiture) made for a delightful concert piece. Zesty yet courtly, refined yet effervescent, rhythmically decisive and presenting a variety of different instrumental flute techniques, it was beautifully handled by both artists, with Schwarz effectuating the skeleton figured bass harmonic guidelines.

 

The artists performed works by two giants of the German Baroque. Ashley Solomon spoke of Georg Philipp Telemann as writing idiomatically for the flute. Whether the Twelve Fantasies for flute (solo) without bass were written for didactic purposes or to accommodate the virtuoso performers of his day is unclear. What is clear is that, groundbreaking as they were when written, they remain some of the most original and inventive pieces in the entire flute repertoire. Solomon chose to play Fantasie No.12 in G minor, his spontaneity calling attention to the piece's formal freedom, to the contrasting moods of its miniature movements and to the composer’s ingenuity in creating "false" polyphony and interior dialogues. Sharing the same tonality, we heard what has been known as Johann Sebastian Bach's Sonata in G minor BWV 1020. (Current scholarship now names the author as Johann Sebastian’s son C.P.E. Bach.) The artists underscored the charm and beauty of the work, presenting the depth and equal interest written into both instrumental roles, their dialogue real, subtle and engaging, with a lovely sense of balance between the parts. Their sparing use of flexing and rubato added to the sense of spontaneity.

 

And to Italy, known as the "land of the violin." The bulk of Pietro Antonio Locatelli's oeuvre consists of sonatas and concertos for his own instrument, the violin. Of  Locatelli's virtuosity on the instrument, a contemporary of his, Charles Henri de Blainville, remarked that he "was able… to make a caged song bird fall from its perch in a swoon of pleasure." Like those he wrote for the violin, Locatelli's Flute Sonatas Op 2 (published in Amsterdam, where the music publishing industry was lucrative) make considerable demands on the soloist's technique. Boding the emerging “style galant”, they contributed much to the genre of the solo sonata, which was now gaining prominence over the trio sonata. There was much to enjoy in the artists' performance of Sonata in C major - fine teamwork, virtuosic playing, the music's variety of expression, its rhythmic manoeuvres and the small surprises it (and the artists) had in store, these including, for example, just a few small, suspenseful halts in the 3rd movement. Many of us have played Francesco Barsanti's Recorder Sonatas Op 1. In 1735, the Italian composer and wind player left Italy in 1714 for London, where he played in Handel’s opera orchestra. In 1735, he moved to Edinburgh for eight years. There, he produced "A Collection of Old Scots Tunes", settings he dedicated to a certain young Lady Charlotte Erskine. The evening's program ended with Jochewed Schwarz and Ashley Solomon performing three pieces from the collection, their delivery appealing, charmingly sentimental and songful, the pieces indeed stylistically very Scottish coming from the pen of an Italian composer! 

 

It was an evening of warm hospitality, interesting explanations and fine music. For many in the audience, it was their first encounter with this repertoire and with period instruments. The artists very much enjoyed the audience’s curiosity, their attentive listening, the questions they asked and the genuine dialogue with them. Jochewed Schwarz (Israel) played an exquisitely beautiful spinettino built by William Horn, inspired by a 16th-century Italian trapezoidal spinet in the Kunsthistorisches Museum (Vienna).  Ashley Solomon (UK) brought with him two flutes - a boxwood flute by Rod Cameron after J.Denner (Germany, 1720) and an ebony flute by Martin Wenner after C.Palanca (Italy, 1750).

 

The Italian trapezoidal spinet (William Horn)

 

At the Jerusalem International YMCA, Maayan Licht (male soprano) and Matan Dagan (violin) solo at the 2025 Christmas concert of the Israel Camerata Jerusalem (conductor: Avner Biron)

 

Maayan Licht © Filip Adamus

Surrounded by the sparkling Christmas illuminations dominating the precincts of the Jerusalem International YMCA on the evening of December 24th 2025, crowds of people were enjoying a concert of Christmas carols and other melodies played by Professor Gabi Scheffler on the YMCA's 36-bell carillon. The event in the auditorium, Concert No.4 of the Israel Camerata Jerusalem's InstruVocal Series, was conducted by Camerata founder/music director Maestro Avner Biron. SOPRANO SENZA MASCHERA featured soloists Maayan Licht (male soprano) and Matan Dagan (violin).

Opening the festive event was Ms. Wendy Aryeh, chair of the board of the Jerusalem International YMCA. She spoke about the YMCA's work and of its new projects. As to the concert's title, "Senza maschera" (Italian) translates as "without a mask" or "unmasked", meaning to reveal one's true self, face, or identity, removing any disguise or pretence. Maayan Licht (b.Israel,1993) has wasted no time in soaring high into the international concert scene, performing male soprano roles, many of which are integral to Baroque opera. This was Licht’s first concert in Jerusalem.

The program commenced with the French-style overture to G.F.Handel's opera "Agrippina". With its emphasis on the oboe as a solo instrument, the Camerata's playing was fresh, rich in ideas and certainly much more convivial than the opera's various corrupt, greedy, and depraved characters! A major part of the program consisted of solo vocal numbers from works of Handel. From "Rinaldo", we heard "Lascia ch'io pianga" (Let me weep), with Licht evoking Almirena's despair, his singing beautifully ornamented in the repeated section, then to his exciting, virtuosic performance of the aria "Venti turbini" (Winds and tempests) with bassoon obbligato. As the evening progressed, the audience became progressively more aware of Maayan Licht's well-anchored, flexible singing, his rich vocal colour, dynamic range and fine phrasing, his theatrical expressiveness, his faultless memory and the astonishing technical prowess he engages to incorporate all of these elements. Take, for example, his performance of "Un pensiero nemico di pace" (A thought that is an enemy of peace) from Handel's oratorio "Il trionfo del tiempo e del disinganno" (The Triumph of Time and Truth), the aria’s frenetic outer sections brimming with melismatic runs, contrasted with the intimate, reflective middle section in which the voice duets with the 'cello. Licht also performed excerpts from operas of Vivaldi and Geminiano Giacomelli. The first performance of Giacomelli's opera "Merope" must have been a grand event in the Venice Carnival season of 1734, featuring the two most celebrated castrati singers of the time - Farinelli and Cafarelli. The opera itself then fell into complete oblivion, save for one aria, “Sposa, non mi conosci” (Spouse/Wife, you don't know me) sung by the character Epitide (written for Farinelli). Licht's performance of the aria highlighted its pathos, suspense and sudden outbursts of vehemence, his ornamenting and melismatic passagework keeping the audience at the Jerusalem YMCA at the edge of their seats.

It was time to catch one's breath! J.S.Bach's fascination with- and his supreme mastery of the Italian concerto style is heard in Violin Concerto No.2 in E Major BWV 1042. Camerata concertmaster Matan Dagan performed the solo role at the Jerusalem concert. His reading of it was ordered and sincere, the outer movements unmannered, indeed, played in accordance with the stipulations as to the individual’s expression within the hierarchy of the princedom. The Adagio (2nd movement), featuring a long-drawn-out ostinato, with the violin's intricate musings and free-flowing, doleful solo melody, emerged graceful and introspective.

With the concert taking place on Christmas Eve, Arcangelo Corelli’s Concerto grosso No. 8 - more commonly known as the Christmas Concerto - fitted the bill. Biron and the Camerata players gave a splendid reading of the concerto, highlighting both its joy and its mystery. Having played out its contrasts, its dissonances and counterpoint with precision and verve, the delicate beauty of the Pastorale, subtitled "Fatto per la notte di Natale" ("Made for Christmas Night") drew the work to a close in hushed contemplation. 

Following a joyous, carefully controlled, elaborate and beautifully contrasted performance of "Rejoice Greatly, O Daughter of Zion" from Handel's "Messiah", Maayan Licht had a surprise in store for those attending the concert - not another dazzling Baroque aria, but the Habanera from Bizet's "Carmen". Candid, theatrical and arresting, the artist thrilled the audience with his lavish singing, his facial expression and body language, creating his own connection with the unrestricted, fierce, mercurial and playfully alluring gypsy character, as she imparts her lesson on seduction in this aria.

Maestro Biron and the Camerata instrumentalists addressed the works on the program attentively, endorsing the meaning of each with careful detail, elegance and precision.

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