The Israel Contemporary Players opened
their 2022-2023 Discoveries Series with "Lied in Fall" (Song in
Autumn) in the Zucker Hall of the Tel Aviv Culture Center on October 22nd 2022.
ICP artistic director Ilan Volkov conducted the players, with 'cellist Hillel Zori as
soloist.
The program opened with
"Schlammflocke II (Sludge Flakes) by German composer Carola Bauckholt
(b.1959). Composed in 2010 for the Cologne-based Ensemble Musikfabrik,
the curious trigger for this ensemble piece was the operation of water purification
installations, in which sludge flakes (micro-organisms of dead and living
material) play an important role. To produce the unique piece, the composer
uses a wide range of resources, with the musicians playing their own
instruments conventionally, but also generating a variety of animal sounds with
such instruments as nose whistles and conventional instruments played in unconventional ways. The score shows accurately-notated pitch-, rhythm-,
timbre- and dynamic signs, yet invites each player to give them his own
meaning. What emerges is a tranquil background against which a dynamic scene
emerges, a rich and exhilarating sound world of independent animal sounds and
varied bird calls, from the most minute and delicate of gestures to nature's
grand tutti. The listener is swept into the vivid scene, into a work that is
experiential both aurally and visibly, beautiful and captivating,
Sarit Shley
Zondiner (b.1984), a prominent Jerusalem composer, refers to her music as
"ambiguous dramatic situations" that "find their expression in
different combinations of sound, that fluctuate between normalcy and
insanity." "Shoudu '' for ensemble and electric guitar is not the
first work of hers to explore the darker, ambiguous nature of the inner world
of the child. The composer refers to two Israeli writers of children's
literature who address the subject - Miriam Yalan-Stekelis and Ronit
Haham. Shoudu, a devil wielding magical powers, a figure both
fearful and humorous (even nice), appears in Haham's writings. In Shley Zondiner's
work, unrelenting texture are strewn throughout, with finely-chiselled,
chilling-, spectral- and otherworldly effects, melodic fragments and glissandi
that surface and subside; but the core texture of the piece consists of wispy
percussive effects, breathy sounds and even some disturbing effects of an uninvited guest gently knocking on
a door. There is no mistaking that the piece evokes a child's most nightmarish
imaginings. Volkov and the instrumentalists gave a detailed and fine-spun
reading of the piece, one demanding much skill and delicacy. Kudos to Oded
Geizhals on his very fine handling of the percussion role.
Then to Anton Webern's
1920 chamber ensemble setting of his Six Pieces for large orchestra Op.6. The original version
of the Six Pieces was premiered in Vienna in 1913, conducted by Arnold
Schoenberg. The average length of each piece is 25 bars; the longest (No.4)
having 41, the
shortest (No.3), presented in just a few brushstrokes, a mere 11 bars in
length. Volkov and the players addressed the fine detail, shades of meaning and
emotion of each of the pieces. The Funeral March (No.4), opening with what must
be one of the most chilling percussion sequences ever written, the instruments
mostly shrouded in shadows of sotto voce, the haunting, penetrating clarinet solo,
with the snare drum leading fatefully to the movement’s shockingly abrupt
conclusion, was compelling. Altogether, the ensemble's warmth of sound and
attention to such elements as pauses gave poignant expression to Webern's
remarkable sensibility and ground-breaking musical syntax. Indeed, autumnal in
mood, the work, according to the composer himself, describes episodes connected
with his mother’s death.
And to the piece offering the concert its title - "Lied in Fall" (Song in Autumn) - by
Danish composer Hans Abrahamsen (b.1952), a work for large chamber ensemble and
'cello solo commissioned by the London Sinfonietta, which also premiered the
piece in January 1988. "Lied in Fall" is dedicated to prominent Danish
composer Per Nørgård (b.1932). Abrahamsen describes the work thus: "In an
autumnal landscape of falling lines, the 'cello moves about with delicate
lyricism, almost singing its Lied. It is surrounded by shadows of what has been
and what has yet to come, coexisting with melodies between these lines…"
In this work, typical of the evocative narrative and nature imagery of the
early period of Abrahamsen's career, the ensemble creates a vivid,
dynamic screen of sound, against which Zori expounded the work's sweeping,
songful melodies with bold delivery. Throughout the lush soundscape, wrought of
two totally different and seemingly independent agendas, Volkov held both
components in delicate and precisely-hewn balance, leaving the listener
questioning himself as to where to direct his own personal spotlight at any
given moment.
Established in 1991, the prestigious Israel
Contemporary Players have added much to the country's musical life, enriching
its audience's appreciation of contemporary music. The ensemble regularly
commissions, performs and records works by Israeli composers, besides
performing an international repertoire from the 20th- and 21st centuries. It
collaborates with European and Israeli conductors and soloists and performs in
Europe and Asia. The ensemble consists of 14 players.
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