The Dormition Abbey of Jerusalem opens its doors again with a concert performed by the Cologne Cathedral Boys' Choir. Conductor: Eberhard Metternich

Following three years of closure of the Dormition Abbey Jerusalem, due to extensive renovations, the faces of people entering the Mt. Zion church once again conveyed curiosity and exhilaration. The occasion was a concert on March 22nd 2023 to celebrate the reopening of the Dormition Abbey. The concert featured the Cologne Cathedral Boys' Choir (Germany), joined by a small group of young adult singers from Cologne Cathedral and conducted by Prof. Eberhard Metternich. The audience was welcomed by Fr. Simeon Gloger. 

 

The Cologne Cathedral Boys' Choir, the only boys’ choir in Cologne, is the oldest of the four choirs of the Cathedral, re-established in 1863 to continue the centuries-old Cathedral choral tradition. The choir sings for services and concerts in the Cathedral, performing repertoire that spans from Renaissance- to contemporary works. Appearing in national- and international competitions, it has toured Europe and  the Americas. As of 1987, Eberhard Metternich has been Master of  Cathedral Music, conducting the Cathedral Choir and the Cologne Cathedral Vocal Ensemble.

 

Opening with Melchior Frank's canonic "Da pacem Domine" (Give peace, Lord), the Jerusalem program  gave a representative selection of the choral works and styles in the choir's repertoire. We heard well-defined, articulate readings of the interplay of voices and complexities in works by Palestrina, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy's lush, dynamic settings of sacred texts, and the choir's singing of Anton Bruckner's spectacular but prayerful "Locus iste" (This place was made by God), also Bruckner’s seven-voiced "Ave Maria" (1869), giving expression to the composer’s rich palette of Romantic colour and contrasts. There were several late-19th century and early 20th century pieces: a nicely varied performance, including some solo singing, of a setting of Psalm 130 by the eminent (but today little-known) German composer Heinrich Kaminski and an imposing performance of Darius Milhaud's setting of the Psalm 121 for a cappella men's choir, in which the composer depicts a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, its blend of resonant male chorus textures with modal scales indeed striking, with the piece culminating in a thrilling bitonal chord. Contending well with English texts, the choir sang a number of works from the British Isles: George Rathbone's vibrant, forthright anthem "Rejoice in the Lord Alway", Hubert Parry’s "I was glad when they said", Parry's festive, celebratory setting of words from Psalm 122 composed for the coronation of Edward VII, here, so aptly including "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee. Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces"; and the touching simplicity and innocence of "Look at the world", John Rutter's harvest anthem composed to his own lyrics.

 

As to works of the 20th century, we heard two tonal pieces - the hymnal-styled "Singen von Gottes Wegen" (Sing in God's ways) by Christian Matthias Heiss, head of the Regensburger Domspatzen, and a fresh, energetic presentation of Norwegian orchestral and choral composer Knut Nystedt's "Laudate Dominum" (Praise the Lord). For their performance of "Lux Aurumque" (Light and Gold), American composer Eric Whitacre's a cappella Christmas piece composed in 2000, the singers were positioned around the walls of the church and in the chancel, creating a shell of scintillating sound to transfuse the space with Whitacre's glorious and haunting hallmark timbres of pure harmonies and clusters, here set against a sustained note, creating a slowly evolving otherworldly wash of colours and light. Metternich and his singers gave eloquent statement to the guidelines appearing on Whitacre's score, advising that " if the tight harmonies are carefully tuned and balanced they will shimmer and glow." 

 

In addition to conducting a few of the works, choir assistant Simon Schuttemeier performed verses and the Canzona in C major by Domenico Zipoli from the "Sonate d'Intavolatura per Organo e Cimbali".ture. The festive concert closed with a contemporary arrangement of "O little town of Bethlehem", the warmth and sincerity of  Bob Chilcott's setting of the "Irish Blessing" and the full, swaying, hearty canvas of Cologne cantor Oliver Sperling's "Am Dom zo Kölle", the latter piece painting a vibrant musical scene of the life and sounds of the Cologne Cathedral.

 

Under the dedicated guidance of Prof. Metternich, the young singers, aged 10 to 29, displayed competence, fine intonation and an understanding of musical styles and colour, making for an evening of polished performance, beauty of sound and genuine pleasure.

 

 

Opera North (Israel) presents its first production - Aviram Freiberg's setting of Federico Gracia Lorca's "The House of Bernarda Alba"

Photo: Aviram Freiberg

 

Opera North (Israel) has set its sights at encouraging opera creativity, composers and performers in Haifa and in the northern region of Israel. "The House of Bernarda Alba" was the company's first production. Completed in 1936, two months before the death of its author Federico García Lorca, this drama was the third and last of what has often been referred to as the "rural trilogy" - "Bodas de sangre" (Blood Wedding), "Yerma" and " La casa de Bernarda Alba" (The House of Bernarda Alba).. Abridged and translated into Hebrew by Rivka Meshulach, the text has been set to music by Aviram Freiberg. Stage direction was by Jonathan Szwarc, stage design - Dorota Biales, lighting - Yoni Tal; Tom Karni conducted with Alyssa Kuznetsova at the piano. This writer attended the performance at the Khan Theatre (Jerusalem) on March 14th, 2023.

 

Opening with the stark singing of "Requiem Eterna", followed by elements of Jewish mourning liturgy, the action takes place in the home of Bernarda Alba after the funeral of her second husband. Authoritarian, unbending and bound to the stringencies of Spanish tradition, Bernarda announces to her five daughters that there will be a mourning period of eight years, during which time they must stay in the house and do needlework. Her authority is not to be questioned. La Poncia (Iris Brill), Bernarda's maid and confidante, challenges Bernarda's authority, but the daughters are to submit to her will in spite of their unhappiness.  Lilach Tolnai-Turcan was well cast as the controlling Bernarda, her eyes never moving from her daughters. In the production, the daughters' individual personalities were excellently portrayed - Angustias (Carmel Ben-Ephraim), whose name means "anguish" or "torments", the weeping Magdalena (Shira Shaish), the gossipy Amelia (Mor Rosenfeld), the unhappy, sickly and manipulative Martirio (Elinor Greenberg), and Adela (Tom Ben Ishai), the youngest, most beautiful and passionate of the daughters, who openly disobeys her mother. Adela has been having a secret affair with Pepe el Romano. At the climax of the play, she hangs herself after Pepe was (mistakenly) rumoured to have been shot. Throughout the opera's streamlined three-act continuum, we were presented with some fine, articulate singing. The acting was natural, subtle and convincing, never excessive, allowing the dramatic course to spiral to its conclusion with puissance, the singers' body language, in particular their facial expressions, indicative of each turn and gesture of the scenario. On the bare stage, save for the symbolic red needlework thread wound in and out through the chair legs, symbolically incarcerating the daughters, the performance gave expression to all the elements of Lorca's play - the stringency of tradition, authority, the oppression of women, family dynamics, jealousy, anger, despair, love and death, and emotion versus reason. With Tom Karni conducting and Alyssa Kuznetsova's attentive, spirited and dependable playing, Freiberg's music, moving between modal, atonal and even folk-based styles, in keeping with the dramatic developments, flows well. His musical language is accessible and meaningful. A highlight of the performance was the solo scene of Maria Josefa, Bernarda's demented mother, poignantly presented by Dalia Treibich, its content telling of dreams and yearning, her words filled with truth and wisdom. Another touch was Flamenco dancing by Maayan Yagil. 

 

Opera North is off to a promising start. Kudos to all involved!

 

Birds in Music - the Melzer Consort on recorders with soprano Yeela Avital perform at the Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies

 

Prof. Michael Melzer (Courtesy JAMD)

It was Olivier Messiaen who said: "In artistic hierarchy, birds are the greatest musicians that exist on our planet." In fact, he considered himself as much an ornithologist as a composer, organist and pianist. Birdsong has played a significant role in Western classical music for hundreds of years. Among the birds whose song is most often imitated in music are the nightingale and the cuckoo. "Birds in Music" was the theme for a concert performed by the Melzer Consort at the scenic venue of the Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies (Mormon University) on February 26th 2023. Recorder players Michael Melzer, Yael Melzer and Ezer Melzer were joined by soprano Yeela Avital.

 

In keeping with the nature of the recorder and the times in which the it flourished, many of the pieces on the program were from the Elizabethan- and Baroque periods -  the anonymous Elizabethan "This Merry Pleasant Spring", graced with the calls of several birds and evocatively presented by Yeela Avital, then a jolly dialogue between alto recorder and Avital in "The Cuckoo" by Richard Nicholson, to be followed by the sober, bitter-sweet "Venus' Birds"  lullaby by John Bennet. As to the dialogue between Joan and John in Nicholson's "Wooing Song", whether or not the repetition of "every hour to woo" refers to the owl's nocturnal cry is arguable. For their performance of "There Were Three Ravens", its grim scene devoid of any joyful bird song, the ensemble chose a deliberate, languid tempo to set the bleak scene. Avital sustained the almost leaden pace impressively, as the strophic song concluded with the somewhat comforting message that every person should hope to be as lucky as the knight in the poem whom God had blessed with hounds, hawks, and a loyal woman who cared for his body after death. Sweeping aside any gloom and doom in the air, there was no mistaking the joy and abandon of  Thomas Morley's ever popular and gently risqué "It was a lover and his Lass", its refrain speaking of bird songs in Morley's setting for Shakespeare’s "As You Like It". The song, to be sung and danced, draws together pastoral love and spring, wooing and the promise of new life 

 

And to two solo pieces played by Michael Melzer. Jacob van Eyck (c.1590–1657), a Dutch nobleman and blind musician of the Golden Age, was a carillon player and technician, organist and composer. He was also a virtuoso recorder player, well known for his improvisations. Many recorder players are familiar with "Der Fluyten Lust-hof" (The Flute's Pleasure Garden), an extensive collection of soprano recorder pieces, mostly variations on psalms and popular songs. Of these some 150 pieces, Melzer chose to perform "Engels Nachtegaeltje" (1644). Addressing the song's increasingly complex variations, Melzer performs it with spontaneity, imagination and a touch of humour, ornamenting generously and incorporating such techniques as flutter-tonguing to create a twittering effect. Not merely virtuosic, his playing was most evocative of the lively calls of the English nightingale. A more sober, nostalgic mood pervaded François Couperin's "Le Rossignol en Amour" (The Nightingale in Love), played with tenderness and French courtly elegance, enhanced by the richly mellow, caressing timbre of the Baroque transverse flute. 

 

The nightingale appeared in yet another piece - in "Ma tredol rossignol", a 14th century virelai performed on recorders with the pleasingly clean articulacy pertaining to the style, with Michael Melzer singing the song's opening lines.

 

Franz Anton Hofmeister (1754-1812), a German composer and publisher residing in Vienna, is known as one of the founding fathers of music publishing. His compositional oeuvre, all very much in the accepted style of his time, covers many genres of music. His widespread reputation stemmed from the original content of his works, several of them composed with Vienna's growing number of amateur musicians in mind, for whom the flute was one of the most favoured instruments. One such work is “La Gallina, il Cucco, e l'Asino” (The Hen, the Cuckoo and the Donkey), the piece "staging" a dispute between the three, with the individual parts representing each creature. Making no changes to the work originally scored for three flutes, save transposing it, the Melzer Consort players gave an entertaining reading of it on recorders. 

 

The program included two Israeli songs for voice and three recorders in arrangements by Michael Melzer - "I saw a bird of exquisite beauty" (lyrics-Natan Zach, melody-Misha Segal) pensive, plaintive and sprinkled with some unconventional harmonies, to be followed by a somewhat hybrid, no-less-original setting of "Spring", (lyrics-Thomas Nashe, melody-Shlomo Gronich), complete with copious bird calls, reminding the listener of how well suited recorders are to imitating birds!

 

Spring, the sweet spring, is the year’s pleasant king,

Then blooms each thing, then maids dance in a ring,

Cold doth not sting, the pretty birds do sing:

      Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-we, to-witta-woo!

The palm and may make country houses gay,

Lambs frisk and play, the shepherds pipe all day,

And we hear aye birds tune this merry lay:

      Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-we, to-witta-woo!

The fields breathe sweet, the daisies kiss our feet,

Young lovers meet, old wives a-sunning sit,

In every street these tunes our ears do greet:

      Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-we, to witta-woo!

            

T  The audience in the auditorium of the Mormon University was presented with an evening of varied, polished, finely-detailed and stylistically-informed ensemble playing at the hands of the Melzer Consort and attentive, sensitive singing by Yeela Avital. Under the direction of Prof. Michael Melzer, the Melzer Consort was formed some twenty years ago.