Celebrating 20 years of Sounding Jerusalem', Erich Oskar Huetter('cello) and Armin Egger (guitar) perform 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 pieces 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, with Huetter taking on most of the melodic course, 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, exemplary in the delicate, shimmering fluttering effect of birds' wings 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. 

 

"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.  

 

"Shattered Dreams" - the Nari Baroque Ensemble performs European and English vocal music at the Dormition Abbey, Jerusalem

 

 

Yotam Haran, Guy Pardo, Liron Givoni, Naomi Hassoun (Noam Livay)

"Shattered Dreams" was the somewhat enigmatic (indeed, thought-provoking) title given to the Nari Baroque Ensemble's recent concert of Baroque (mostly) secular music performed in the Divan hall of the Abbey of the Dormition, Mt. Zion, Jerusalem, on June 22nd 2026. Fr. Simeon Gloger welcomed the audience to the event. Members of the award-winning Nari Ensemble are Liron Givoni (soprano), Naomi Hassoun (recorders), Yotam Haran (Baroque 'cello) and Guy Pardo (harpsichord).

 

Each of Nari's concerts tells a story. Falling into three sections, this program presented musical works interspersed with original texts, the latter recited by Liron Givoni and Yotam Haran in fine, articulate English and with much emotion. The program comprised mostly da capo arias, with Pardo and Haran forming the continuo section and Hassoun taking on all the solo obbligato roles on the various recorders, from sopranino to voice flute. The concert offered a representative selection of Baroque arias and art songs by German, French, Italian and English composers.

 

Of course, the subject was love and its many aspects. There were a number of idolised, blissful love songs, always cast against idyllic, pantheistic nature settings, as in George Frideric Handel's Flammende Rose, Zierde der Erden (Flaming rose, adornment of the earth), in Handel's beautifully crafted Meine Seele hört im Sehen (My soul hears through seeing) and in the ensemble's wonderfully embellished reading of the composer's Endless pleasure, endless love. There was Alessandro Scarlatti's Quel venta che d'intorno (That wind which constantly plays around you), Pietro Torri's Son rosignolo (I am a nightingale), the latter abundant in bird calls, both vocal- and on the sopranino recorder, and The Midsummer Wish by Henry Carey, with its references to the lush natural English surroundings of the Thames.

 

However, so very many of the beautiful, bittersweet love songs from the 17th century are infused with longing, doubt, disappointment, refusal, jealousy, and farewell. Effectively performed, Handel's Brillava protetto (His radiance endured) speaks of grief endured and lingering sorrow. We experience the "enchanting pain" referred to in John Christopher Pepusch's Who, from his Heart securing and the efforts to "try to regain or quit the Cruel fair" in Pepusch's Why shou'd I love, the longing and word painting applied in the "beautiful, silvery tears" of Alessandro Scarlatti's Onde chiare che spargete (Clear waves, which scatter) and the predominance of happiness (yet hinting at "rebellious hearts" and "jealous fears") in Joseph Bodin de Boismortier's Règne, Amour (Reign, Love), its pastoral ambience fashioned by the velvety sounds of the voice flute, the work's French style suggestive of dance.  

 

Georg Philipp Telemann, who left one of the most extensive and celebrated legacies of recorder music of the Baroque era was, himself, a virtuoso recorder player. The program featured three Telemann pieces. In Nein, du wirst mich nicht versäumen (No, you will not forsake me) from Wer sehnet sich nach Kerker, Stein und Ketten (Who longs for dungeons, stones, and chains) a sacred cantata, the text celebrates the believer's spiritual and moral freedom from earthly trials. Here, Hassoun's virtuosic playing and Givoni's zesty reading of the vocal line were delightfully interwoven. From Telemann's collection of Easter and Pentecost cantatas, in the vehement Du bist verflucht! (You are accursed!), a da capo aria with recitative, the artists give masterful balance to the work's melodious element and counterpoint via their vocal- and instrumental finesse, the continuo instruments adding textural weight to the piece's all-consuming subject matter. Of an interesting genre, created in response to the growing popularity of works with moralizing texts, we heard a fiery, intense performance of Du bist ein tolles Ungeheuer (You are a wild monster) from the composer's Six Moral Cantatas (c.1739). For the program's only instrumental piece, Haran, Pardo and Hassoun (on soprano recorder) gave an evocative reading of L'hiver (Winter) from Telemann's Der getreue Musikmeister (The Faithful Music Master). 

 

Liron Givoni's enunciation of the relevant languages was excellent. Altogether, the Nari Baroque Ensemble presented an evening of informed, polished and moving performance. 

Conducted by Omer Arieli, the Jerusalem Opera performs Jules Massenet's "Cendrillon" (Cinderella). Libretto: Henri Caïn. Stage director: Daniel Lasry

 

Nadezhda Gaidukova, Mima Millo (Elad Zagman

Cinderella is one of the most beloved fairy tales of all time: A young woman of unmatched grace and goodness overcomes the abuse of her stepfamily, receives the help of a fairy godmother and wins the heart of a royal suitor, to live happily ever after. For almost 2,000 years, versions of the Cinderella story have been told across the globe, inspiring settings by authors, playwrights, musicians and filmmakers. The Henry Crown Hall of the Jerusalem Theatre seemed to be bursting at the seams on June 18th 2026 to accommodate the large number of people arriving to attend the Jerusalem Opera's latest production - Cinderella (in the original version, Cendrillon) composed by Jules-Émile Frédéric Massenet. An opera in four acts, Massenet uses the French libretto of Henri Caïn, one based on Perrault's 1698 version of the Cinderella fairy tale. Daniel Lasry was the stage director, with Omer Arieli (Jerusalem Opera musical director) conducting the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra and singers. The cast included soloists, a small choir, actors (the Spirits) and dancers (choreography: Yasmin Gariv).

 

Jules Massenet was the most prolific and successful composer of French opera in the late 19th- and early 20th centuries. Cendrillon premiered at the Opéra-Comique on May 24, 1899, at the height of Massenet’s career. It was an immediate success, soon to be performed across the world, becoming popular again in the latter half of the 20th century. The opera offers a mature and insightful recounting of the Cinderella story, without sacrificing humour or glamour in doing so. Massenet's score is constantly inventive, with much French post-Wagnerian writing, especially when the dramatic action is amorous. And while the major tunes are not catchy, the wide range of brilliant, even exotic music makes for excellent listening. The Jerusalem audience was presented with an impressive and well-cast line-up of soloists. Cendrillon’s father, a weak, inconsistent and conflicted man, objects to the indignities the step-mother inflicts on the young girl. With his warmth of timbre and fine dramatic presence, bass baritone Ivo Yordanov (Bulgaria) made for a compelling and kindly Pandolfe. In her uninhibited  portrayal of the outlandish stepmother, mezzo-soprano Noa Hope Sion (no new face to Jerusalem Opera productions) and the two grabby step-sisters (Shlomit Kovalsky, Yahav Dagan Gersht), formed a well-matched trio, united in their perception of the world, in their polished obnoxiousness, their vocal outbursts and droll buffoonery. Another exemplar of the distinct voice Massenet assigns to female characters is the role of the fairy godmother, here performed by soprano Nofar Yacobi. She delivers Massenet’s quirky coloratura part with glittering ease and brilliance, conveying all the charming authority demanded for the part. With no pumpkin carriage or mice-turned-valets, this is Cinderella for the adult audience, the sombre quality of the emotions of Cendrillon and the Prince (as dictated by the libretto’s heavy drift and Massenet’s lugubriousness) adding a more psychological dimension to the story. Both characters perform extended arias in which they bemoan their fates: Cendrillon is lonely and downcast; the prince is lonely and depressed. Mezzo-soprano Nadezhda Gaidukova, in the opera's trouser role, engaged her bold, richly-timbred vocal palette, her theatrical know-how and emotional depth to create the brooding character of the Prince, her voice adding distinctive colour to the love duets. Articulate, expressive and versatile, using the stage (and the Henry Crown Hall) to advantage, soprano Mima Millo reads into the persona of Massenet's Cinderella, taking the audience into the world of her emotion and passion with natural, vibrant vocal ease. So here, despite the fairy-tale aspect of the Cinderella story, the title character and her prince are recognizably human, "two lost people searching for love and meaning", in the words of stage director Daniel Lasry. As a last touch, the Jerusalem Opera production makes a point of reminding us that Cinderella is indeed a rags-to-riches princess, finally decking Millo out in an evening gown made of large, brightly-coloured raglike squares of fabric rather than a dreamy, white ball dress! 

 

With no orchestra pit in the Henry Crown Auditorium, Maestro Omer Arieli and the JSO instrumentalists occupied the back of the stage, with singers and the few props at the front. And there were some appealing staging effects, as in the dream scenes. In Act III, the chorus of fairies appears wearing their own tall, forest-type head-dresses, arranging themselves in a line down the centre of the stage for Cendrillon and the Prince's dream-like meeting in the woods. The dancers did a fine job throughout, reminding the audience that dance has always been an integral part of French opera. Keeping the music light on its feet, Maestro Arieli led the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra through the pizzazz and colour of one of Massenet’s most irresistible scores in a seamless ride of silvery, vivacious music, highlighting and incorporating the composer's humour and wit. 

 

 Another glittering and memorable Jerusalem Opera production!

 

Maestro Omer Arieli (Elad Zagman)

 

Hosting Shuli Waterman (viola) and Hillel Zori ('cello), the Carmel Quartet (music director: Yoel Greenberg) performs works of Byrd, J.S.Bach and Brahms

Yoel Greenberg,Tami Waterman,Hillel Zori,Tali Goldberg,Rachel Ringelstein,Shuli Waterman

The Carmel Quartet signed out of the 2025-2026 Strings and More series with "Echoes from the Past". Presented by Prof. Yoel Greenberg (music director and a member of the Carmel Quartet since 2003), together with Carmel Quartet violinists Rachel Ringelstein and Tali Goldberg and 'cellist Tami Waterman, the quartet hosted Shuli Waterman (viola) and Hillel Zori ('cello). This writer attended the (English language) explained concert on June 10th 2026, at the Jerusalem Music Centre, Mishkenot Sha'ananim.

 

Somewhat unexpectedly, the evening's program opened with a piece from the vast legacy of the golden age of viol consort music in England (1575-1650) - William Byrd's Fantasia III à 6. Seated in a circle, as did viol (and other) players of the upper classes for their social entertainment of music-making, the artists presented the piece's initial dark and mellifluous sound world. Moving seamlessly from section to section, their playing underscored the play of motifs tossed from one instrument to another, also drawing one's attention to the occasional "clash" of false relations (a characteristic of English music from this period), as the sonorous sections gave way to a series of rustic dances. Not performed on period instruments, the players, however, did away with the use of vibrato, producing a clean, candid, informed and pleasingly convincing reading of the piece.

 

The evening’s discussion led to the viola and its bleak plight - its role in symphonic- or string quartet settings to provide middle harmonies, to the fact that there is not much solo repertoire written for viola and to the unfortunate situation of the viola and viola players being the target for many jokes! It was flautist/composer Johann Joachim Quantz who referred to the viola as "unimportant in the music world" as "the instrument…often played by people who are either beginners in music or do not have the talent to distinguish themselves on the violin..."  J.S.Bach himself was an excellent performer on both violin and the viola. According to his son, Carl Philipp Emanuel, Johann Sebastian's interest in harmony meant he was partial to playing middle parts, i.e. the viola. In Brandenburg Concerto No.6 BWV 1051 (Greenberg refers to it as "Bach's social protest against the lowly status of the viola"), the score does not call for violins. Instead, two violas play the leading roles, supported by two violas da gamba, a 'cello, a violone and harpsichord (here, adjusted to suit the ensemble.) With his employer, Leopold, Prince of Anhalt-Cöthen a reasonable gamba player, Bach was able to enjoy playing one of the viola parts in this concerto. At the Jerusalem concert, Yoel Greenberg and Rachel Ringelstein performed the leading viola roles, with Hillel Zori undertaking the gamba part on 'cello. Following the opening Allegro, its main theme in close canon, with the two viola parts entering right on the heels of each other, the second movement (Adagio) was played only by the leading violas and 'cellos, the violas spinning out long lines rising into the violin’s usual register, as they enlisted some attractive ornamenting. Then, to the hearty Allegro (3rd movement), with the soloists elaborating the main theme with florid passages of sixteenth-notes. Altogether, a splendid reading of the work, music unique in its glorious, mellow tapestry of string textures.

 

Another work in which the viola is well represented is Johannes Brahms' String Sextet No.2 Op.36 in G major. From the pen of the 30-something-year-old composer, Sextet No. 2 reveals Brahms as having honed the elements of his craft, with emphasis on his skill as a contrapuntalist. The work’s instrumentation (two violins, two violas, two 'cellos) invites tonal richness and depth that seems to defy the chamber music genre. Here, we are aware of a measure of austerity, the sextet's climate of resignation foreshadowing many of the composer’s more mature works. Who could have imagined that G major could feel this melancholy and unsettled? The players gave the work a dedicated, polished performance, one carefully paced, their ensemble playing communicating a sense of shared purpose. Beginning with the opening Allegro's ghostly murmur in the first viola, moving on to the movement's drama and sublime moments, to the Scherzo's poignant-, bittersweet- and Hungarian-inspired aspects, the Adagio  emerged impressive in its variations, the latter encompassing the full range of the string sextet's sonorities, the variations ranging from the introspective to the ebullient. In the hide-and-seek of the final movement, an exhilarating contrapuntal tour de force, the players' virtuosity and freshness were engaging throughout. Yoel Greenberg expressed that he wanted the audience to sense their enjoyment in playing. I believe it did.

 

Referring to the works, to performance practice of their times and to writings of the composers' contemporaries, Prof. Greenberg's talk was lively, informative and convivial, enriched by texts beautifully read by Carmel Quartet members and by some interesting illustrations shown on a screen. 

Prof. Yoel Greenberg (Courtesy Carmel Quartet)

The Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra closes its 36th concert season with "David's Lament" - works of Jeremiah Clarke and William Boyce. Conductor: Andrew Parrott (UK)

Maestro Andrew Parrott © Yoel Levy

 

Each concert of the Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra's 2025-2026 subscription concert season visited a different European city, presenting works of its major composers. David's Lament, the final concert of the JBO's 36th season, took the audience to London, but with a different approach: the program consisted of works of Jeremiah Clarke and William Boyce - two composers not necessarily familiar to members of the JBO's listening public. The concert was conducted by the orchestra's honorary conductor Maestro Andrew Parrott (UK). Soloists were Tatiana Levin (soprano), Yonathan Suissa (haute-contra/tenor), Itamar Hildesheim (tenor) and Daniel Ze'ev Ben Baruch (baritone), with Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra founder/music director Prof. David Shemer at the harpsichord. This writer attended the event at the Jerusalem International YMCA on June 7th, 2026.

 

Henry Purcell’s untimely death in November 1695 elicited many musical- and literary tributes. Several composers wrote odes in his memory, one of the more elaborate being that of Jeremiah Clarke (1674-1707), one of Purcell’s younger colleagues. Holding prominent positions in turn at Winchester College, St. Paul’s Cathedral and the Chapel Royal, Clarke's output was not limited to church music: he wrote songs, incidental music for theatre, works for harpsichord, and, as mentioned, courtly odes. Taking Clarke's Come, come along for a dance and a song, Ode on the Death of Henry Purcell (1695), Maestro Parrott put together a suite of instrumental pieces. Delightful items, they were given a colourful, zesty reading, some suggesting just a few folksy elements, the pieces offering vibrant roles for the JBO's impressive line-up of wind players. Included was a delicately ornamented harpsichord solo of "Mister Purcell's Farewell" (Shemer), the suite signing out with Alon Melnik's hearty trumpet solo in Jeremiah Clarke’s best-known composition - the Trumpet Voluntary (originally called The Prince of Denmark’s March) - a piece formerly attributed to Purcell.

 

David’s lament over Saul and Jonathan has inspired centuries of musical adaptations, one celebrated Renaissance setting of this passage (Samuel 1:19–27) being Josquin des Prez' Planxit autem David, other notable polyphonic settings including works of Nicolas Gombert and Orlando di Lasso. A later work, Thomas Weelkes' sublime When David Heard, explores the depths of David's grief and emotion. Moving into the 20th- and 21st centuries, one might mention Yehezkel Braun's extensive vocal work David's Lament over Saul and Jonathan (2009) Eric Whitacre's When David Heard (1999) and Canadian composer Kai Leung's When David Heard (2022). William Boyce (1711-1779) wrote David's Lamentation over Saul and Jonathan in 1736 at age 24, revising it for performances in Dublin during the mid-1740s. Maestro Parrott directed the JBO players and four singers in the earlier London version, (libretto: John Lockman, based on Samuel 1). This was the first performance of the elegiac work to be heard on Israeli concert platforms. Following the profoundly poignant two-movement Overture in G minor, each gesture addressed with punctilious shaping, we were transported to the melancholy, at times darkly intense character of the "dramatic scene" (This is not really an oratorio). As to the choral sections, the four fine young singers joined to produce a rich, consolidated, coherent vocal ensemble sound, their treatment of the texts indicative to the recountal. Boyce's work has no dramatis personae: the soloists undertake roles as narrator or protagonist as the drama progresses. Yonathan Suissa (in tenor voice) reads into the text via his direct, unmannered singing, his narration and presentation of dialogues transparent, convincing and engaging.  Itamar Hildesheim's vivid story-telling and word painting highlight the work's dramatic aspects and contrasts. The two singers then join to deliver the musical and emotional crux of the work - "Sad Israel, thy beauty's pride" - a duet of sublime beauty, the solo violin (Noam Gal) delicately underscoring the duet's noble, intimate expressiveness. Baritone Daniel Ze'ev Ben Baruch's vibrant, buoyant singing and Tatiana Levin's well- anchored and full-bodied soprano  made up the well-chosen vocal team. In this eloquent and insightful performance, indeed, a fine vehicle for the singers and JBO instrumentalists, Maestro Parrott sheds important light on a composer of an era traditionally dominated by the figure of Handel. The event brought the Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra's 2025-2026 concert season to an exhilarating and majestic end.