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| The PHOENIX Classical Orchestra. Ricardo Rapoport (left),Myrna Herzog (right) Photo:Ami Shamir |
A
unique event of the 51st Abu Gosh Vocal Music Festival (May 30th
– June 3rd 2017) was Ensemble PHOENIX' “A Brazilian Requiem for a Portuguese
Queen”, taking place at the Kriyat Yearim Church on June 3rd. PHOENIX is known for its performance of Renaissance-,
Baroque- and South American music on authentic instruments. This program,
researched and conducted by Brazilian-born PHOENIX founder and director Myrna
Herzog, offered festival-goers a totally new listening experience, with the
ensemble transformed into a full orchestra performing on period instruments
from the Classical period. Overseas guest artists soprano Sofia Pedro
(Portugal), violinist Lilia Slavny and Brazilians - violinist Luis Otávio
Santos (Brazil) and Classical bassoonist and cavaquinho player Ricardo Rapoport
- were joined by Israeli soloists: mezzo-soprano Anne Marieke Evers
(Holland-Israel), tenor Oshri Segev, baritone Yair Polishook and clarinettist
Gili Rinot. Making up the playbill were the PHOENIX Ensemble instrumentalists and
the Upper Galilee Choir (director: Ron Zarchi). Myrna Herzog expressed her
appreciation to the Portuguese- and Brazilian Embassies for their support in
bringing the four overseas artists.
From
the opening sounds of José Maurício Nunes Garcia's (1767-1830) orchestral overture, featuring virtuosic playing on the part of
clarinettist Gili Rinot, one becomes aware of the downy, smooth
textures of the Classical orchestra. It was followed by Damião Barbosa de Araújo’s (1778-1856) “Memento
Baiano” (a prayer traditionally recited in the house of a person recently
deceased) for choir and orchestra. The composer was Chapel Master in the Cathedral of Bahia, before moving
to Rio, where the whole of this program takes place, around 1816. As to
the work itself, the choir's careful diction and bracing tutti, colored with
much highly expressive presence of the clarinet (Gili Rinot) highlighted its
moods, its style indicative of the European influence on Brazilian church- and
court music, both genres embraced by de Araújo.
Marcos
Portugal (1762-1830) was not only the most prolific Portuguese-born composer
ever, but also the most successful, both in Portugal and abroad (he died
a Brazilian citizen). For Sofia Pedro's warm and
appealing singing of Portugal's "Cuidados, tristes cuidados"
(Worries, Sad Worries), featuring all four overseas guest artists, Herzog
joined the players to play the 'cello in this tender and unabashedly
sentimental modinha (traditional Brazilian love song). We also heard Pedro in
"Qual piacere e qual diletto" (What pleasure, What Enjoyment) from
Portugal's opera buffa "Oro non compra amore" (Gold Does Not Buy
Love). Her luxuriant, easeful and substantial voice reached all corners of the
Kiryat Yearim Church, as she eyed her audience, teasing it with the
word-painting of the love-struck aria. Gili Rinot's playing of the clarinet
obbligato role was suave and richly shaped.
Creating the flavor of Afro-Brazilian traditional dance, a smaller
all-Brazilian ensemble of bowed and plucked instruments – Baroque violinist
Luis Otávio Santos, accompanied by Ricardo Rapoport on the cavaquinho, with Herzog
herself playing the rabeca (north Brazilian fiddle) – played a lundu, a
flirtatious couple dance of typical Brazilian propulsive rhythm, its backing
typified by alternating tonic-dominant harmonies.
With
2017 the 250th anniversary of the birth of the most important
Brazilian colonial composer José Maurício Nunes Garcia, it was Myrna Herzog's
aim to introduce his music to the Israeli public, with the Israeli premiering
of his "Requiem for the Portuguese Queen Maria I, the Mad" (1816). Of
this Afro-Brazilian composer and organist, the grandson of slaves, 240 works
survive. When the Portuguese Royal Family took refuge in Brazil in
March 1808, clerics who accompanied them tried to remove Garcia from his
position because of his race. However, Padre
José Maurício Nunes Garcia was one of
the greatest exponents of Classicism in the Americas. Nunes Garcia's music was strongly
influenced by Italian opera from the beginning of the 19th century. His
membership in a literary society brought him into contact with a leader of the
Brazilian struggle against Portuguese rule, and led him to add Brazilian
popular music and folk music to his liturgical compositions. Nunes Garcia put into practice all the techniques and
coloristic possibilities of the large orchestra he conducted. He also explored
all the virtuosic possibilities of the excellent singers he had at his
disposal. This Requiem is considered to be one of his most outstanding
works. The composition, in the key of D minor, shows parallels in several places to Mozart’s Requiem, which Garcia himself directed two years later (1819) for the
first time in Brazil. Myrna Herzog's performance of Garcia's Requiem
presented its genesis and the rich possibilities of the work. Her large orchestra
(although not numbering the 100 players Garcia had in his court orchestra) highlighted
the score's vibrant colors. It included natural horns (Alon Reuven, Ruti Varon)
still a rarity in Israel; no less rare were the presence of two Classical
clarinets (Gili Rinot, Nurit Blum), two Classical bassoons (Ricardo Rapoport,
Alexander Fine), Classical flute (Moshe Aron Epstein) and natural timpani
(Nadav Ovadia). The result was an orchestral canvas of great richness and
subtlety, offering as much interest to the players as to the audience. The
Upper Galilee Choir gave a most impressive, finely detailed, well blended and
meaningful performance, its choral sound fresh and flexible. The vocal quartet’s teamwork (Pedro, Evers,
Segev, Polishook) produced a sympathetic and sensitive blend. Tenor Oshri
Segev's full and mellow timbre and musicality were well suited to the work.
Especially imposing was Yair Polishook's performance – his vivid mix of bass
timbres, careful pacing and compelling dramatic sense drawing the listener with
him into the work’s emotional fabric.
Myrna Herzog's production of Garcia's Requiem was electrifying. Once again, she has introduced Israeli
audiences to repertoire not previously heard in this country and in the most
uncompromising and authentic
manner. In this ground-breaking event of
great interest and beauty, the audience was swept into the excitement experienced
by the artists involved in the performance.
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