Beethoven's Triple - the Israel Camerata Jerusalem performs at the Jerusalem International YMCA, its new home venue. Conductor Dmitry Yablonsky; soloists Hagai Shaham, Hillel Zori, Arnon Erez

Maestro Avner Biron presents a baton to Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Leon (Yael Ilan)

The Israel Camerata Jerusalem's concert on December 2nd 2021 was a festive affair.The second concert of the current La Tempesta dei Solisti series celebrated the Camerata's move to the Jerusalem International YMCA's auditorium, the Mary Nathanial Hall of Friendship. Words of greetings were given by Ms. Rana Fahoum, the Jerusalem YMCA's chief executive officer, by Adv. Yair Green, chairman of the Camerata board of directors, Maestro Avner Biron, the Camerata's music director, and by Jerusalem mayor Moshe Leon, all of whom talked of the Jerusalem YMCA as a centre of co-existence in the capital. Indeed, the hall itself is rich in historical, religious and artistic features, those of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Mayor Moshe Leon lit the Hanukkah candles, his fine singing voice resounding through the hall, after which Maestro Biron presented him with a conductor's baton, drawing parallels between the post of mayor and that of the orchestral conductor. "Beethoven's Triple" featured Moscow-born conductor Dmitry Yablonsky and soloists Hagai Shaham-violin, Hillel Zori-'cello and Arnon Erez-piano. 

Felix Mendelssohn wrote his twelve String Symphonies between 1821 and 1823, then adding a final 13th, the "Sinfoniesatz". The string symphonies were written when Mendelssohn was a pupil of Zelter. They reflect the conservative leanings of the teacher and Mendelssohn's own clear debt to earlier classical models. The opening work at the Jerusalem concert was Mendelssohn's String Symphony No. 10 in B minor. Rediscovered only after  World War II, among twelve similar opuses, it was written by the gifted 14-year-old as a composition exercise to be played at one of his family’s reunions. Whether the single surviving movement was followed by two others is not known. Following its first somewhat Haydnesque slow B minor introduction, the dramatic dash that follows is, indeed, pure Mendelssohn, showcasing the passion and sophistication of the young composer. Yablonsky's reading of the work gave expression to its contrasting moods, sparkling melodies, innovative orchestration and vibrant dynamics. Too seldom heard in Israeli concert halls, Mendelssohn's String Symphonies make for appealing, accessible concert fare.

Here's a strange fact: despite its special qualities, Beethoven's Concerto for violin, 'cello and piano in C major Op.56, "Triple", has never enjoyed the success of the composer's other mature concertos. Early critiques were unfavourable, the work being referred to as a "piano trio with orchestra". Well, this is not entirely incorrect, since there is not the dialogue between the orchestra and the soloists to the extent that there is in other concertos, and the three soloists carry virtually all of the musical argument themselves. But how brilliant it is that the trio itself becomes the soloist in a concerto, a role in which has not been cast by any other great composer before, nor has it been since, and the concerto is probably performed less frequently due to the extraordinary requirements for three virtuosi. The reason Beethoven took on the daring venture is said to have been to provide Archduke Rudolph, then a 16-year-old student of the composer, with a setting that would "not be as demanding as a solo concerto"... but whether the duke ever managed to play the ambitious role is unclear. Much of the success of performing this work depends on the soloists. This was clear when hearing it in the hands of Hagai Shaham, Hillel Zori and Arnon Erez, all soloists and chamber musicians (Shaham and Erez perform as a duo), all musicians of the same generation and all professors at the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music, Tel Aviv (as is Dmitry Yablonsky). Each gave individual, personal expression to the fine details and gestures of Beethoven's writing, not just because of the different nature of each instrument, the latter, however, also being an interesting aspect of the work. The soloists took on the extraordinary bravura and grandeur of the outer movements with pizzazz, but also with refinement and good taste, as they attentively tuned in to each other, avoiding the excesses sometimes heard in performances of the Triple Concerto; their playing wove delicacy, lyrical beauty and affecting expressiveness through the brief slow movement. With these unconventional forces, Yablonsky maintained a poised balance between orchestra and soloists. Completed in 1803, the Triple Concerto, a work radiant with joy, is a concerto to hear, to observe and to experience together with the musicians performing it.

For an encore, the soloists performed the second movement of Anton Arensky's Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor Op. 32 (1894), a peppy, light-headed, whimsical Scherzo, its sparse string textures played against a running piano part, with a warmly affectionate Slavonic-type waltz as a Trio.