The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra hosts pianist Martha Argerich in a program of 20th century music at the Jerusalem International Conference Center; conductor: Lahav Shani

Martha Argarich (ipo.co.il)

There was magic in the air at Subscription Concert No.3 of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra’s 84th season. Conducting the orchestra was the IPO’s conductor designate Lahav Shani; guest artist was Argentinian pianist Martha Argerich. This writer attended the concert on January 6th 2020 at the Jerusalem International Convention Center. 

 

Preceding the concert itself, there was a short film in which Lahav Shani spoke of the oriental music influencing (German-born) Israeli composer Paul Ben-Haim (1897-1984), an immigrant in a new culture, who became the most prolific of the founding fathers of Israeli music. Ben-Haim’s aim in Symphony No.1 was to bring Israelis together culturally and not just socially. Shani also mentioned that, apart from the middle movement which has had several performances, the IPO has not played the complete symphony for many years. Ben-Haim emigrated to Palestine in1933. Symphony No.1 (1940) was the first symphony composed in Eretz-Israel (British Mandatory Palestine). It was premiered by the Palestine Orchestra (which would become the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra). Under Shani’s zesty baton, the IPO’s playing highlighted Ben-Haim’s well-structured writing in the compelling, uncompromising and forthright orchestral textures of the first movement, its soundscape at times dark and velvety, at others, a bright, optimistic awakening, always returning to full orchestral textures. The third movement, intense, urgent and daunting, clearly reflects the general mood engendered by the tragic events and destruction in 1940 Europe. Sandwiched between the outer movements, and in  total contrast to them, is the “Molto calmo e cantabile”, its long phrases quoting- and hinting at the oriental melodiousness that so fascinated Ben-Haim on hearing the microtonal singing of Jews from Arab countries; following  a passionate central climax, the movement returns to the idyllic, rapturous and dreamlike expression. This is music ideally suited to the substantial sound of a large orchestra and still as relevant and important to Israeli audiences as it was in 1940. Shani also invites the listener to delight in the more individual utterances of the woodwinds, violin, violas and harp.

 

Completed in 1931, Maurice Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G was intended to be a “frivolous” work, “in the spirit of Mozart and Saint-Saëns” - the composer’s own words, its light-hearted nature present from the first sound we hear in the opening movement - a whimsical percussive whip-crack. However, the performance at this concert gave expression to the work’s sophistication, its many musical aspects and layers and to the elements making the work such a fine concert piece. Maestro Shani and pianist Martha Argerich (one of today's greatest pianists) have clearly weighed up all the concerto’s micro- and macro aspects to produce a superbly balanced collaboration of orchestra and piano, brimming with joy, delightful French transparency and jazzy musical elements. The opening movement, an outstanding piece, made for energizing listening, its mood at times vivid, at others, pensive, also including a rich offering of solos, its almost-vocal, trilled melodies under Argerich’s fingers seeming to defy gravity. As to the unique Adagio assai movement, its harmonies coloured with an occasional, flavoursome dissonant tinge, Argerich takes the listener into the weave of its long, serene piano monologue in moving, personal expression wrought of beautifully sculpted melodic lines, finally to be endorsed by lyrical orchestral playing. An exquisite moment in this movement was the restatement of the first theme, its subject  played by the cor anglais while accompanied by gossamer-filamented ornamentations on the piano. Even in the dazzling and unrelenting final movement (Presto), a celebration of fast-flowing rhythms and textures, with a smattering of humorous gestures thrown in, each piano utterance, however delicate, emerged with articulacy and presence. And then there was a treat awaiting the audience: seated together at the piano, Argerich and Shani performed two movements of Ravel’s Mother Goose Suite in its original 1911 setting for piano four hands, their playing crystalline, imaginative and unhurried, fragile, strategically timed and subtly flexed. 

 

The concert concluded with Igor Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite, music written for Sergei Diaghilev's Paris-based "Ballets Russes". In their first collaboration, Diaghilev engaged 27-year-old Igor Stravinsky, who had already worked for the Ballets Russes as an orchestrator, to write the music for Michel Fokine's new ballet. It was later made into a five-movement instrumental suite. Lahav Shani brought to life Stravinsky’s rich musical canvas, the composer’s writing moving beyond traditional tonality, incorporating chromatic- and sometimes dissonant extended harmonies, off-beat rhythms and folk-melodies into an otherwise familiar tonal landscape, its musical style also stemming from an indigenous Russian tradition. The IPO’s playing emerged incisive, lush, gregarious and with much attention to strong dynamic contrasts, the many solos offering an opulent display of timbres and shapes. But also, vividly portraying the emotions surrounding the fantastical tale of a prince, a magical firebird, a wicked sorcerer and an enchanted princess, Shani’s rendition held the work’s tension throughout as the IPO’s playing gleamed with the mysterious, the wicked, the exotic and the otherworldly.