Magic Carpet
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| Myrna Herzog, Mahan Esfahani (Yoel Levy) |
The Felicja Blumental
International Music Festival was founded in 1999 by Annette Céline to honour
the memory of her mother, acclaimed 20th Century pianist, Felicja Blumental. In
Tel Aviv’s longest-running classical music Festival, Céline served as artistic
director until her death in 2017. Today, under the directorship of Avigail
Arnheim and Idit Magal (Felicja Blumental Music Center), the festival, taking
place annually at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, continues to honour the memory of
both Felicja Blumental and Annette Céline. At a cocktail party prior to two concerts featuring harpsichordist
Mahan Esfahani on March 24th 2022, we had the pleasure of meeting guests of
honour - Brazilian Ambassador to Israel, his wife and members of his office -
as well as Arnheim and Magal.
"Magic Carpet''
took place in the gallery of the Mizne-Blumental Collection, a room that
has housed a permanent comprehensive exhibition of early 20th-century
European art since 1993, and in which a portrait of Felicja Blumental hangs.
Performing together for the first time, harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani
(Iran/UK/Czech Republic) and Myrna Herzog (Brazil/Israel) - viola da gamba. -
played a program of works from the 17th- to 21st centuries. Opening the event
was guest-of-honour, Gerson Menandro Garcia de Freitas, Brazilian Ambassador to
Israel. The Ambassador spoke of Herzog and Esfahani as upholding the high
artistic standards set by Felicja Blumental, a pianist and composer who had
made Brazil her new home.
The program began with
François Couperin's 9th Concert - 'Ritratto dell'Amore" (Portrait of
Love) - from the composer's Concerts Royaux. Herzog and Esfahani gave expression to the work's elegance and
good humour - the energetic (even rakish) playfulness of the livelier
dances, graced with the gamba's rippling inégal passages, with the refined
discourse of the more tranquil movements rich in harpsichord spreads.
Delivering the work suggesting the charms of an imaginary beloved, the artists'
suave performance of this chamber music, written for the enjoyment of Louis
XIV, was most pleasing, as it intimated French taste on a more private, human
scale.
The evening's
Brazilian content was represented by "Five Brazilian
Miniatures" by Edmundo Villani-Côrtes, the performance of which was
dedicated to the memory of Annette Céline. Considered one of the most
important Brazilian composers of the 20th century, Villani-Côrtes (b.1930)
imbued his works with the blend of popular- and classical music that has become
his trademark. Esfahani and Herzog gave a sensitive, finespun reading of the
piece, rich in infectious, toe-tapping rhythms and humorous touches. Presenting
the audience with the "Brazilianness" of late 20th century
compositional aesthetic, Herzog's convincing playing of the work's strongly
melancholy and tender modal melodies was complemented by Esfahani's enriching
and evocative rendering of Villani-Côrtes' keyboard score.
Mahan Esfahani's
connection to the Czech Republic stems from the fact that he studied in
Prague with the celebrated Czech harpsichordist Zuzana Růžičková. Today, he makes his
home in Prague. At the Tel Aviv concert, his performance of Bohuslav Martinů's
"Two Pieces for Harpsichord" (1935), a pair of miniatures of
contrasted mood straddling tonality and its boundaries, was fresh and
intriguing, a small work indicative of how Martinů combined different elements
to form his own eclectic, indeed, uniquely cohesive musical language.
Haim Alexander's
"Improvisations on a Persian Wedding Song" (1974) reflects the aim of several
European-born Israeli composers to engage in writing of an Eastern or oriental
style (Alexander immigrated to Palestine {Israel} in 1936 from Germany) to create a
locally-influenced style of composition here in Israel. Esfahani's playing of
Alexander's harpsichord piece was zesty, intense and flexed, its insistent
melodic, dance-like motifs carefully evading western harmonic associations, as
the melody found its way in and out of a constantly spiralling, repetitive,
uninterrupted accompaniment, then winding down to a single unison.
After studying and
performing in Russia, Germany and Holland, Moscow-born pianist/composer Uri
Brener (b.1974) made his home in Israel. Brener dedicated "Magic Carpet" for viola da gamba and harpsichord to Myrna Herzog and Mahan Esfahani. This performance was the world premiere of the work (the concert taking its title from this piece). Herzog and Esfahani gave refined, dedicated, in-depth expression to the rich,
exotic hues of Brener's oriental musical canvas, to both its mystery and
intensity, a journey taking the listener through the piece's wide range of
textures and timbres, evoking from eerie, otherworldly sensations to busy,
"crowd scenes" and wild, unrelenting dances. Brener's writing for the
two instruments is sophisticated, informed and impactful. A truly multifaceted
musician, the composer has previously transcended boundaries to probe various different
musical worlds, here delving into the world of orientalism via his own sensibility, his
refined and subtle musical language.
J.S.Bach's Sonata No.
2 in D major BWV 1028 for harpsichord and viola da gamba was intended for the
7-string viol, an instrument of which Bach was especially fond, and may very
well have been composed with virtuoso gambist Carl Friedrich Abel in mind. Infusing
the imitative dialogue of the opening Adagio with tranquillity and inquiry, the
artists then chose not to take the brisk, tightly-constructed Allegro at
breakneck speed, as they invited us to follow the abundance of interest they
were displaying. Then, the solemn (indeed, meditational), lilting Andante,
played by them with personal feeling and fragility before launching into the
final Allegro (here, Bach entrusts the harpsichord and the viol witha short cadential
episodes) its weave of delightful rhythmic figures rich in energy and
articulacy.
The gallery of
the Mizne-Blumental Collection made for an atmospheric setting for this memorable concert, indeed, a major event of the 2021-2022 concert season.
—-------------------------------------------
Bach
- Preludes and Fugues, 300-year Celebration
The same evening, the
Felicja Blumental Music Festival hosted a unique Bach concert in the Tel Aviv
Museum's Recanati Auditorium. Information put together by Aviad Stier on
J.S.Bach's "Well-Tempered Clavier" was presented to the audience by
Avigail Arnheim.
Three artists each
performed four (different) pairs of preludes and fugues from the WTC (Books I,
II) on different keyboard instruments. In correct historical order, the program
began with Mahan Esfahani playing them on a two-manual harpsichord. This was
followed by Zvi Meniker (Israel-Germany) on fortepiano and Robert Markham (UK)
on the modern piano. With no aim to pronounce which of the three keyboard
instruments was superior (or the most authentic) for the repertoire, this was a
fascinating event, with each of the three outstanding artists offering profound
readings of the pieces in playing that was personal, intelligent, sensitive, articulate
and aesthetically pleasing. How was such an extraordinary event going to end?
Literally, by taking the listener's breath away: in the same historical order,
each artist then performed Prelude No. 1 from the WTC I, signing out with his
own powerful, unspoken gesture of respect and humility.
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| Zvi Meniker (Yoel Levy) |
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| Mahan Esfahani (Yoel Levy) |
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| Robert Markham (Yoel Levy) |
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