Leonard Sanderman (UK) performs English organ repertoire and an original work at the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in Jerusalem's Old City

 

© 2022 Leonard Sanderman 

It is rare to hear English organ music of the late 19th century-early 20th century on these shores. In his recital on July 23rd 2023 in the Jerusalem Lutheran Church of the Redeemer's annual July International Organ Festival, Leonard Sanderman (UK) presented works of this very repertoire together with a work of his own. The Right Rev. Joachim Lenz of the Redeemer Church welcomed the audience, commenting on the fact that the evening's program would be well suited to the church's Karl Schuke organ.

 

Prof. Sanderman spoke of English organ music as having gone through periods of popularity and times when it was less so. He spoke of the late 19th century as having produced a surge of organ music in Britain - not necessarily church music, but several ceremonial works and those written for entertainment. Opening the program with "Marche Héroïque" (1915) by Gloucester Cathedral organist Sir Alfred Herbert Brewer (1865-1928), Sanderman gave bold expression to the composer's most highly-favoured organ piece (possibly written as wartime propaganda!), its forthright opening section giving way to attractive cantabile moments, as the artist highlighted the work's antiphonal effects and Brewer's rich use of harmony. Although Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry (1848-1918) had a lifelong love of the organ, an instrument he had played from childhood, his most significant solo organ works for the instrument were written in the last few years of his life. Parry's most substantial organ work, the Toccata and Fugue "The Wanderer" (1912), of which we heard the Toccata at the Jerusalem concert, was named by Parry after his yacht. Sanderman's playing of the piece gave prominence to the work's  rich "orchestration" and sudden changes of mood and texture, indeed, to music suggesting the unsettled nature of wandering. It was also a reminder of the beauty, power and emotional content this forgotten English Romantic composer had incorporated into his fine compositional style. And to the opening Allegro Maestoso movement of Organ Sonata in G (1895) of Sir Edward William Elgar (1857-1934), a work that has been referred to as one of the most outstanding works of English Romantic organ repertoire. Sanderman met the high challenges of the piece, his performance not only portraying its vivid canvas and the scale and dexterity of the pipe organ, but also offering touching moments in his playing of its finely-shaped high-register personal melodic utterances. A felicitous opportunity to hear a movement of this far too-little-known masterpiece.

 

Moving into the 21st century for a short hiatus, the program included a composition of the artist himself - "An Harrogate Fanfare" for organ solo (2014) - commissioned and published by De Orgelvriend, a Dutch journal. Brimming with radiant organ timbres, this hearty, tonal piece spoke of joy and positive energy.

 

Of the program's works of a decidedly light-hearted nature, we heard A.H.Brewer's appealing and delicate (at times mysterious) arrangement of the Prelude to Act 3 of Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan's incidental music to Shakespeare's "The Tempest". Composed when Sullivan was 20, his Op.1 a set of movements for the play, its success quickly brought him to the attention of the musical establishment in England. The name Berthold Tours (1838-1897) does not ring British. The Netherlands-born violinist/organist and music editor, however, moved to London in 1861. Sanderman bedecked the various sections of Tours' charming, up-beat "Allegretto Grazioso" with a variety of delectable timbral hues. Originally written for piano and violin, Elgar's "Chanson de Matin" was arranged for organ by Herbert Brewer. Sanderman's uncluttered reading of it was sensitive, beautifully contrasted and poetic. For an encore, the artist played a delightful improvisation in appreciation of the young woman who was his page-turner at the recital!

 

Initially taught the organ by his father, Leonard Sanderman (Holland, 1991) performs internationally. He is a prize-winning, commissioned composer and a published author on church music and the organ. His PhD focuses on issues in the historiography and canonisation of liturgical music in high church parishes between 1827 and 1914. A senior lecturer in Organ and Historical Musicology at Leeds Conservatoire, he also teaches Harmony and Counterpoint at the University of York. This was Prof. Sanderman's second visit to perform at the Jerusalem Redeemer Church.

 

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The Chaos String Quartet (Austria) performs works of Mozart, Beethoven, Henriëtte Bosmans and Diego Conti at the American Colony Hotel, Jerusalem

 

The Chaos String Quartet (©Andrej Crilc)

Under the auspices of the Austrian Cultural Forum, the Chaos String Quartet (Austria) - violinists Susanne Schäffer and Eszter Kruchió, violist Sara Marzadori and Bas Jongen (violoncello) - performed at the American Colony Hotel (Jerusalem) on July 9th 2023. Seemingly contradictory, the quartet's enigmatic name surely raises some questions (and perhaps a few eyebrows). However, it is based on Italian theologian and philosopher of religion Vito Mancuso's theory that "chaos plus pathos equals logos", from which the four artists understand chaos as the “original form of all creative”, by which art, science and philosophy can be joined in one artistic synthesis.  

 

Director of the Austrian Cultural Forum Tel Aviv, Arno Mitterdorfer welcomed the audience to the event. He spoke of the American Colony Hotel as a multicultural Jerusalem venue, as a suitable location for such concerts. Referring to the Chaos String Quartet as "an excellent shooting star", he promised those gathered in the ACH’s Pasha Room a journey taking the listener from works of Classical repertoire to music of a more contemporary European landscape.

 

Violinist Eszter Kruchió briefly explained the works to be performed. The concert opened with W.A.Mozart's String Quartet No.1 in G major, K.80, the composer's first string quartet effort, composed at age 14 in a tavern when he was on a vacation in Lodi, Italy. The work is written in the style of Italian chamber sonatas of the time, originally only comprising the first three movements. The French Rondo (final) movement was added two years later. From the very first sounds of the opening Adagio, one is drawn into the vibrant, rounded and full-bodied signature sound of this ensemble as the artists give expression to the work's charm, lyricism and interest, its majestic moments, its playfulness and whimsy, in playing that was effortless and beautiful. 

 

Then to a work of Henriëtte Bosmans (1895-1952), considered one of the most important Dutch composers of the first half of the 20th century. Her works are presently enjoying rediscovery. Bosmans was already enjoying a well-established reputation in Dutch musical life prior to World War II. As a pianist, she was affiliated with various chamber music ensembles in Amsterdam; her works were performed under such conductors as Willem Mengelberg, Ernest Ansermet and Pierre Monteux. However, being half Jewish, she fell into disfavour with the Nazi occupiers, who banned her from all public performances and she was forced to support herself with underground house concerts. Henriëtte Bosmans' parents had influenced her in the German Romantic style but her own musical bent took her in the direction of French Impressionists in an ongoing quest to find her own independent compositional language. Her String Quartet (1927), reflecting her sharply modernist bent, is an early product of this experimentation. Performed at the Jerusalem concert, it carries imprints of Debussy and Ravel, its polytonal, modal colouring, its dissonant elements and moments of exotica providing the nuts and bolts for the Chaos musicians' candid and intense reading of the work. As to the melancholic theme of the Lento movement (introduced by Schäffer) followed by the high-register 'cello utterance (Jongen), the artists provided reflective, albeit eerie relief from the mostly robust, uncompromising message of the work, as its final movement bowed out with a series of glissandi. 

 

The program at the American Colony Hotel also came with a premiere - "Une étoile dansante" (A Dancing Star) commissioned from Italian violinist/composer Diego Conti (b.1958). Typical of Conti's idiom of freely incorporated styles, the short work takes the players through a wide range of string-playing techniques - spiccato and con legno bowing, flageolets and more - to create a vivid and varied canvas of jagged gestures, of busy soundscapes, also intimate moments and heartfelt solos, inviting the players to indulge in Conti's mix of the harmony of dissonances, of Classical harmony, and to dip into in their large palette of dynamics. Not to be ignored is the fact that Conti came to his musical style via progressive rock, after which he immersed himself in 20th-century concert music, finally moving backwards through music history to study earlier styles. Taking the work's host of demands on board, the instrumentalists led the "dancing star" on a committed, impressive and vivid journey.

 

The quartet's final piece took audience and players back to Vienna, the Chaos String Quartet's nerve centre. Stemming from his first years in Vienna, Ludwig van Beethoven's Opus 18 needs little introduction as his initial step into the Classical string quartet genre, this opus being the only quartet contribution from his first period, the collection, however, providing the listener with proof that the composer was already a master of the form. The players' auspicious choice of the Op.18 No.3 Quartet in D major gave the stage to their fresh, sincere playing and to their comprehension of the work's delicate melodiousness and charm, as they highlighted each gesture of the first three movements with spontaneity, a sense of wellbeing and a touch of wistfulness. As to the Finale - galloping, virtuosic and richly contrapuntal - they juxtaposed its technical demands with its exuberance and (Haydnesque) wit as it exited with a teasing, quiet whisper. We tend to hear many late Beethoven works on today’s concert platforms. The artists’ performance of this quartet was a welcome reminder that the young Beethoven had produced music that was brimming with energy and variety, youthful optimism and passion, with invention and enthusiasm.

 

Remaining in Vienna, the quartet chose to perform Bas Jongen's arrangement of a Schubert Lied - "Nacht und Träume" (Night and Dreams), with Susanne Schäffer taking on the vocal line (text: Matthäus von Collin). The result was enchanting as the artists created the song’s otherworldly mood of night "floating down, Like your moonlight through the expanses of space"  

 

The evening's performance highlighted the exemplary and polished performance of each of the young instrumentalists, also their excellent teamwork. Add to these 1st violinist Susanne Schäffer's outstanding qualities of leadership and suave musicianship. Established in 2019, the Chaos String Quartet is rapidly establishing itself on the international concert scene. Winner of prestigious competitions, the quartet has been selected for the New Austrian Sound of Music sponsorship program. This was the quartet’s first concert tour of Israel.

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"Dolce e Coraggioso" - Gabriela Galván (traverso) and Isidoro Roitman (liuto attiorbato) record sonatas of Corelli, Barsanti, Platti, Vivaldi and Locatelli

 

Cover design Horacio D'Alessandro

Recently issued, "Dolce e Coraggioso" (Sweet and Brave), comprising works of Italian Baroque composers, is the third disc issued by Argentinian artists Gabriela Galván (traverso) and Isidoro Roitman (liuto attiorbato). Smaller than the archlute, the liuto attiorbato can be tuned to G and A, enabling the lutenist to play in sharpened keys, as are the works on this recording.

"Dolce e Coraggioso" opens with Arcangelo Corelli's Sonata Op.5 No.4 in G major. Written originally for violin, the Twelve Violin Sonatas, Op. 5 (Sonate a violino e violone o cimbalo, 1700) were the best-known instrumental sonatas during much of the 18th century (indeed, Corelli was feted by the aristocracy, cardinals, and royalty) and have been arranged for many different instruments. Playing from a score appearing on "Editorial Paris: Le Clerc le cadet, Le Clerc l'ainé, Boivin" (1754), the artists gave poignant expression to the contrasts dictated by the sonata da chiesa form, with Galván's playing at times elegant, poised and fragile, at others, vivid and energetic, ornamenting suavely and adding just a touch of the inégal. Reading from figured bass notation, Roitman's resourceful treatment of it abounded in interest, creativity and imagination. Here, one is reminded of Geminiani, who referred to Corelli as possessing "a nice ear and most delicate taste… pleasing harmonies and melodies…to produce the most delightful effect upon the ear”.

 

Francesco Barsanti is well known to recorder players for his highly idiomatic 6 Solo Sonatas for alto recorder Opus 1. Galván and Roitman's inventive, exhilarating and eloquent playing of Sonata No.2 in B minor from the composer's 6 Sonatas for German [transverse] Flute and Continuo Op. 2 (1728) shed light on the excellence of this less frequently heard collection. Once again, the figured bass allows Roitman's fantasy to take flight, to explore the lute's potential. Not to be ignored is the fact that Barsanti (1690-1772) was one of several extraordinary Italian instrumentalists, virtuosi and composers travelling across Europe, contributing decisively to the definitive success of instrumental music and the formation of an international musical language. 

 

No household name today, Giovanni Benedetto Platti (1697-1763) was known in his day as an exceptionally fine singer, instrumentalist and composer. He left his native Italy in 1722 to take up a position in Germany at the court of Prince-Bishop Johann Philipp Franz von Schönborn.  Straddling the late Baroque and early Classical eras, his "Sonatas for Transverse Flute" paint a vivid and engaging portrait of the 18th-century musician/composer himself. Galván and Roitman's playing of Platti's Sonata No.3 Op.1 was candid, fresh and charming, as they presented the composer's refined melodiousness with the timbral and tonal qualities that are an extension of the Italian Baroque style.

 

It seems that Antonio Vivaldi wrote as few as four sonatas for the transverse flute (RV48-51). Interestingly, none of these is characteristically Vivaldian and none brings to mind sonatas for other instruments. Performing Vivaldi's Flute Sonata in E minor RV 50, Galván and Roitman chose to call attention to the poésie common to all four movements - Andante, Siciliano, Allegro, Arioso - rather than effecting strong contrasts between them. The intimate soundscape they produced took shape via the cantabile character of its melodies, interesting use of motifs and of inégal- and extemporary rhythmic shaping on the flute, as Roitman added interest with such devices as spreads and with some melodic soupçons elegantly linking one passage to another.

 

The artists choose to sign out with Sonata Op.2 No.2 in D major of Pietro Antonio Locatelli's "Dodici Sonate", 12 Sonatas for transverse flute and bass (first published Amsterdam 1723). In playing that was strategically paced, genial, entertaining in its surprising turns of phrase and variety of expression, punctuated by the occasional coy and mysterious  gesture and enhanced with tasteful, fanciful ornamenting, Galván and Roitman drew attention to the composer's colourful personality (Locatelli was known to have  performed at the Prussian court wearing a blue velvet coat with silver trim,  precious diamond rings and carrying a sword), to the emerging style galant of the time as well as to  the increasing importance of the solo sonata genre, as they subtly highlighted the versatility of Locatelli’s writing.

 

For the recording of "Dolce e Coraggioso" Gabriela Galván plays a Baroque flute made by Martin Wenner, Singen, Germany (2018) a copy of an original by Carlo Palanca (c.1750.) Made by Paolo Busato, Padua, Italy, 2021, Isidoro Roitman's liuto attiorbato is a copy of an original by Matteo Sellas, Venice (1638.) Recorded in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in February 2023 (recording engineer Ariel Gato), "Dolce e Coraggioso" sounds natural and true, creating the intimate ambience required for this genre of chamber music. Once again, Gabriela Galván's informed approach, her unique signature timbre and sensitive musical shaping, joined by Isidoro Roitman's deep scrutiny of the composers' manuscripts and styles and his response to detail and gestures of the flute role, make for a rewarding listening experience to the discriminating listener.

The Embouchure Duo (Ariel Gato)