Embarking on its 77th season, the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra opened the Classical/Vocal Series on October 23rd 2014 in the Henry Crown Hall of the Jerusalem Theatre. Under the baton of Frédéric Chaslin, the JSO’s musical director, the orchestra was joined by the Ramat Gan Chamber Choir (Hannah Zur, conductor) and the Israel Kibbutz Choir (Yuval Benozer, conductor) and soloists soprano Anastasia Klevan and mezzo-soprano Anat Czarny.
The program opened with a work by the JSO’s composer in residence, Moscow-born composer and pianist Aviya Kopelman “Between Gaza and Berlin”. Having composed the piece in the summer of 2014, Kopelman’s personal reference to Jerusalem and to Israel is as “eternally torn between the two”. Kopelman’s belief is that the artist is inseparable from society and that he/she plays an active role in shaping it. Having first decided on the title of the work, Kopelman writes that “recent events” (the war taking place in the summer of 2014) “added extra weight” to the work’s meaning. Having said that, she dismisses the idea of our approaching it as program music, offering the listener the option of allowing to the work to take the listener wherever his imagination would lead him…hopefully to “new and better places”. “Between Gaza and Berlin” consists of several short untitled movements, pieces of different moods and, indeed, of different styles. The work opened with a menacing, almost overpowering drum scene, punctuated by chimes and introducing a violin melody of long phrases as well as moments of fragmented dialogue - certainly a powerful and uncompromising opening movement. Having grabbed her audience by the scruff of their collars in the first movement, Kopelman opens the second movement in a dreamy, otherworldly vein, somewhat thoughtful, yet painful, with woodwind and violin melodies set over a chordal accompaniment. But then, all hell breaks loose on a stark, confrontational background, with a somber melody placed against a repetitive, syncopated and disturbing backing. In a loose ABA form, the movement takes the listener back to the first idea, to end suddenly. The third movement, more tonal in concept, presented a downcast, wistful melodic line over a slow waltz rhythm accompaniment: a sadly comforting utterance, colored with some loaded harmonies and the sweetness of the harp. Movement no.4 was a feisty, whimsical and short, an intense piece of bristling with short utterances, offering different timbral ideas due to their constantly changing instrumental combinations. The final movement painted a fraught cheerless canvas, one of the deathly knell of tubular bell, deep brass and dark screens of sound, with a repetitive woodwind motif adding melodic content. Aviya Kopelman, an interesting, confident artist with a wide, eclectic scope and strongly independent in expression, paints with large brushstrokes. In her hands, the full symphony orchestra does not afford the audience an opportunity to ignore the matter at hand, to look away. Her orchestra is a powerful, expressive and emotional tool and she wields it convincingly. Maestro Chaslin was with her and the score all the way.
Another intense work, also scored for large orchestra - Mahler’s Symphony no.2 “Resurrection” (not Mahler’s title) in c minor - provided the second half of the program. For Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) the symphony was to present the death of the hero of his Symphony no.1, but, for the listener, it might just as well promote reflection on death in general, its apocalyptic Finale no less than a resurrection of the dead, a merging of a German folk song and a somewhat altered form of Klopstock’s Resurrection Ode, providing the vocal content of the symphony. Chaslin, orchestra and singers re-created the work’s canvas of emotional and timbral dimensions, of which Mahler himself was convinced that it could “no more be explained than the world itself”. With freshness of color, articulacy and transparency, we were presented with the symphony’s tumultuous, tragic text versus tranquil and fragile nostalgia and naïve scenes, bursts of evocative solo instrumental playing and sensitive, well-coordinated choral singing. The two young vocal soloists - soprano Anastasia Klevan and mezzo-soprano Anat Czarny - were impressive in their involvement, beauty of sound and poise. Frédéric Chaslin addressed the work’s finely shaped musical gestures as articulately as he addressed its weighty expressive issues.
The Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra opened the 2014-2015 Classical- and Vocal Series with a bold statement, offering those present in the packed Henry Crown Hall an evening of the indulgences of vivid, living orchestral color and two weighty works sympathetically paired.
Embarking on its 77th season, the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra opened the Classical/Vocal Series on October 23rd 2014 in the Henry Crown Hall of the Jerusalem Theatre. Under the baton of Frédéric Chaslin, the JSO’s musical director, the orchestra was joined by the Ramat Gan Chamber Choir (Hannah Zur, conductor) and the Israel Kibbutz Choir (Yuval Benozer, conductor) and soloists soprano Anastasia Klevan and mezzo-soprano Anat Czarny.
The program opened with a work by the JSO’s composer in residence, Moscow-born composer and pianist Aviya Kopelman “Between Gaza and Berlin”. Having composed the piece in the summer of 2014, Kopelman’s personal reference to Jerusalem and to Israel is as “eternally torn between the two”. Kopelman’s belief is that the artist is inseparable from society and that he/she plays an active role in shaping it. Having first decided on the title of the work, Kopelman writes that “recent events” (the war taking place in the summer of 2014) “added extra weight” to the work’s meaning. Having said that, she dismisses the idea of our approaching it as program music, offering the listener the option of allowing to the work to take the listener wherever his imagination would lead him…hopefully to “new and better places”. “Between Gaza and Berlin” consists of several short untitled movements, pieces of different moods and, indeed, of different styles. The work opened with a menacing, almost overpowering drum scene, punctuated by chimes and introducing a violin melody of long phrases as well as moments of fragmented dialogue - certainly a powerful and uncompromising opening movement. Having grabbed her audience by the scruff of their collars in the first movement, Kopelman opens the second movement in a dreamy, otherworldly vein, somewhat thoughtful, yet painful, with woodwind and violin melodies set over a chordal accompaniment. But then, all hell breaks loose on a stark, confrontational background, with a somber melody placed against a repetitive, syncopated and disturbing backing. In a loose ABA form, the movement takes the listener back to the first idea, to end suddenly. The third movement, more tonal in concept, presented a downcast, wistful melodic line over a slow waltz rhythm accompaniment: a sadly comforting utterance, colored with some loaded harmonies and the sweetness of the harp. Movement no.4 was a feisty, whimsical and short, an intense piece of bristling with short utterances, offering different timbral ideas due to their constantly changing instrumental combinations. The final movement painted a fraught cheerless canvas, one of the deathly knell of tubular bell, deep brass and dark screens of sound, with a repetitive woodwind motif adding melodic content. Aviya Kopelman, an interesting, confident artist with a wide, eclectic scope and strongly independent in expression, paints with large brushstrokes. In her hands, the full symphony orchestra does not afford the audience an opportunity to ignore the matter at hand, to look away. Her orchestra is a powerful, expressive and emotional tool and she wields it convincingly. Maestro Chaslin was with her and the score all the way.
Another intense work, also scored for large orchestra - Mahler’s Symphony no.2 “Resurrection” (not Mahler’s title) in c minor - provided the second half of the program. For Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) the symphony was to present the death of the hero of his Symphony no.1, but, for the listener, it might just as well promote reflection on death in general, its apocalyptic Finale no less than a resurrection of the dead, a merging of a German folk song and a somewhat altered form of Klopstock’s Resurrection Ode, providing the vocal content of the symphony. Chaslin, orchestra and singers re-created the work’s canvas of emotional and timbral dimensions, of which Mahler himself was convinced that it could “no more be explained than the world itself”. With freshness of color, articulacy and transparency, we were presented with the symphony’s tumultuous, tragic text versus tranquil and fragile nostalgia and naïve scenes, bursts of evocative solo instrumental playing and sensitive, well-coordinated choral singing. The two young vocal soloists - soprano Anastasia Klevan and mezzo-soprano Anat Czarny - were impressive in their involvement, beauty of sound and poise. Frédéric Chaslin addressed the work’s finely shaped musical gestures as articulately as he addressed its weighty expressive issues.
The Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra opened the 2014-2015 Classical- and Vocal Series with a bold statement, offering those present in the packed Henry Crown Hall an evening of the indulgences of vivid, living orchestral color and two weighty works sympathetically paired.
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