Te Deum - The Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra hosts Ensemble Caprice, music director: Matthias Maute (Montreal, Canada), at the opening concert of the JBO's 33rd season

 

Noam Schuss (violin),David Shemer(harpsichord) (Yinon Fuchs)

Maestro Matthias Maute (Yoel Levy

The Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra's 2021-2022 season opened with a flourish!  The plan to perform "Te Deum" together with Ensemble Caprice (Canada) had finally become a reality, having twice been shelved due to Covid-19 restrictions. The auditorium of the Jerusalem International YMCA was alive with excitement and anticipation on October 14th 2021, with members of both ensembles seated together on the stage. Joining them for two of the works was the Shahar Choir (music director Gila Brill). Soloists were sopranos Daniela Skorka and Tal Ganor, mezzo-soprano Maya Amir, tenor Yonatan Suissa, bass Yair Polishook, Noam Schuss-violin, Andrea Stewart-'cello and Alexis Basque (trumpet). Maestros Matthias Maute (Caprice) and David Shemer (JBO) each conducted works. 

 

No less festive was the line-up of works on the program. As in most concerts of works by great Baroque composers, Georg Philipp.Telemann was well represented here. First up was Telemann's prestigious Latin setting of Psalm 72 "Deus judicium tuum" TWV 7:7 (Give your judgement, O God, to the king) a work associated with the composer's sojourn in Paris in 1737, during which time he celebrated musical triumphs in the French metropolis. Among the finest vocal works in Telemann’s oeuvre, the motet is written in a French-influenced style (hence the text here sung in the French pronunciation of Latin) with a highly varied mixture of full instrumental accompaniments and graceful smaller instrumental complements, the latter catering to the vocal solos. Conducted by Maute, the three resplendent choral movements frame a richly-coloured succession of demanding solo movements, the latter performed with insight, fine detail and distinctive expression by Skorka, Ganor, Suissa and Polishook, the Shahar Choir's mellow signature sound and blend subtle and agreeable. A rarely-performed work, possibly never performed before on these shores, is Telemann's Concerto for trumpet, violin, 'cello and strings TWV 53:D5. Strange bedfellows? Indeed, Telemann does not claim that the solos in a triple concerto are necessarily equal in timbre or volume, let alone similar in character. Some authorities today regard the work, probably composed before 1715, as really a violin concerto, with trumpet and 'cello obligato parts. In fact, the 'cello (Andrea Stewart) has only two solo passages. In keeping with the fact that the valve trumpet was only invented in 1813, it was a real treat hearing and seeing Basque performing the role on a natural trumpet with ease and good intonation, indeed, creating the illusion that playing this instrument is a breeze!  As to the highly challenging violin part, abounding in double stops, high-passage-work and fast, long passages, JBO leader Noam Schuss handled it with good judgement and aplomb, its unrelenting virtuosity stemming from the fact that much of the work was strongly influenced (or perhaps written!) by Johann Georg Pisendel, the leading German violinist of his day and concertmaster of the Dresden Hofkapelle.

 

With David Shemer conducting from the harpsichord, the Caprice-JBO instrumentalists performed the Chaconne for orchestra which concludes Jean Philippe Rameau's opera "Les Indes galantes" (The Amorous Indies). Festive, varied and grand, the piece showcased the rich timbres of the ensemble, including its fine assembly of winds, as Maestro Shemer's direction called attention to the fact that Rameau was a revolutionary in dance, not just  in music.

 

This concert was also the setting for a unique world premiere - three songs from Jaap Nico Hamburger's "Songs in Times of Honour" to poems of Else Lasker-Schüler. In the past, Hamburger has written works for Caprice, but for this commission, he was requested to compose the work to a Jewish text. Having perused many texts, from ancient to modern, Hamburger chose those of German-Jewish poet Lasker-Schüler.  Lasker-Schüler moved to Jerusalem in 1940, where she became a prominent figure on the local cultural scene. The three songs we heard are scored for soprano and Baroque instruments. (Some of the remaining four of the cycle call for symphony orchestra.)  Soprano Daniela Skorka and the instrumentalists displayed close teamwork in presenting these three thought-provoking-, indeed, disquieting mood pieces. Opening with the eerie sounds of violin and percussion, "Meine Mutter" (My Mother) reflects the poet's pain and longing for her mother, "the great angel who walked at my side". In "Abschied" (Leave-taking), a woman awaits her lover, her anguish intertwining with the rhythms of a dance that will not be danced, an effective and sinister collage of sound, with Skorka adding a few touches of tambourine sound to the effect. "Ich Weiss" (I Know), coloured in tranquil, veiled dissonances, shows Lasker-Schüler ruminating on her own death, the death of a poet. She died in Jerusalem in 1940.

"Pale and paler my dreams grow

 In the volumes of my rhymes" (English translation: Robert P. Newton).

In this third haunting and powerful piece, Hamburger gives its final say to a solo viola. A fine choice of texts, Lasker-Schüler's poems speak in a direct and articulate voice. No less articulate, Hamburger's music, modal in language, is not overloaded, not opaque, as he paints with delicate brush strokes. Skorka addresses each notion with finely-shaped gestures and sensitivity, her outstanding performance reflecting deep enquiry into each of the poems. Born in Holland, Jaap Nico Hamburger today lives in Canada. After spending many years working as a cardiologist, he now devotes his time to writing music. In attendance at the premiere, the composer, it seems, still addresses matters of the heart.

 

Concluding the event was Marc-Antoine Charpentier's "Te Deum" in D major H146, c.1692. The "Te Deum" (We praise thee, O God) text was usually enlisted for works written to celebrate some military victory. In fact, Charpentier set the text six times. The H146 “Te Deum” is unquestionably Charpentier's best known work, especially since its “Prélude en rondeau” was made the Eurovision signature tune. The grand motet proved highly suitable for the combined forces offered by the Caprice-JBO ensemble: Charpentier here uses a much larger instrumental band than had any previous French composer of church music, this being his only setting employing a “military band”, i.e trumpets and kettledrums. Maestro Maute took fullest advantage of the work's contrasting of ceremonial brilliance of full orchestral and choral forces with the pleasing blend of the solo voices accompanied by just a few instruments, integrating the work's daring harmonies and conflicting dramatic elements with its devotional dimension. The audience delighted in the performance's moments of delicately restrained lyricism, both in vocal sections and in instrumental duetting. It also delighted in the joyous extravaganza of first-class brass playing. 

 

Born in Ebingen, Germany, Matthias Maute has carved out an impressive international reputation  only as one of the great recorder and baroque flute virtuosos of his generation but also as a composer and conductor.

Jaap Nico Hamburger (Brent Calis)