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| Daniela Skorka (Michael Pavia) |
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| Maestro Alexandre Bloch (alexandrebloch.com) |
When it comes to interesting programming, the Israel Camerata Jerusalem (music director: Avner Biron) is always at the forefront. "On Wings of Song", Concert No.3 of the Camerata's 41st season, was no exception. This writer attended the concert in the Henry Crown Auditorium of the Jerusalem Theatre on December 24th, 2024. Conducting the concert was Alexandre Bloch (France). Soprano Daniela Skorka (Israel) was soloist.
Composer/organist/improvisor Thierry Escaich (b.1965) is a
distinctive figure on the contemporary music scene and one of the most
important French composers of his generation. A virtuosic performer, he is
known to combine works from musical repertoire with his own pieces and
improvisations in the same recital. In 2024, he was appointed titular organist
of Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris. The Jerusalem concert opened with "Baroque
Song" (2007), an instrumental work of three movements, with Bloch wasting
no time in summoning the audience to join him and the orchestra for a
high-energy, unpredictable musical journey, the work's Bach quotations always
ending up derailed and engulfed by massive dissonant brass- or string
utterances. Escaich's orchestration is thrilling and imaginative as he evokes
moods from the bombastic to the otherworldly. Solo melodies are interlaced
throughout - flute, cor anglais, etc. - the central 'cello solo, contemplative,
insistent and brooding, handled splendidly by Zvi Orliansky. Maestro Bloch and
the Camerata players gave it their all!
Luciano Berio's "Folk Songs", appearing in 1964
for female voice and small ensemble (in 1973 for voice and symphony orchestra), were
created specifically for the composer's then-wife, mezzo-soprano Cathy
Berberian (1928-1983), a pioneer in the devising and employment of extended
vocal techniques. The title of the collection is somewhat misleading: the first
two songs, “Black Is the color” and “I wonder as I wander” were, in fact, written
by singer/ folklorist John Jacob Niles (1892-1980), while songs Nos. 6 and 7
are settings by Berio himself of traditional Italian lyrics. Taking her cue
from the melancholy motif played on viola (Netanel Lavsky) issuing in the work,
Daniela Skorka launches into the songs, presenting the content and character of
each - no small feat, with texts sung in English, Armenian, various French- and Italian
dialects and in Azerbaijani. Following her articulate, pure rendition of the
two American songs, we hear Skorka's tender, gently rubato singing of “Loosin
yelav” (composed in honour of Berberian’s Armenian heritage), the words
describing the rising of the moon over the top of a hill. Songs from France -
the appealing, modal "Rossignol du bois" (Nightingale of the Woods),
rendered in fine French enunciation, and two songs from Auvergne (taken by Berio
from Joseph Canteloube’s collection "Songs of the Auvergne") - “Malurous
qu’o uno fenno” -“Wretched is he who has a wife, wretched is he who has
not" - graced with beautiful flute playing (Esti Rofé)
and Skorka's coquettish presentation of “La fiolaire,” now with the original
viola motif sounding on the 'cello (Zvi Orliansky), the song telling of the girl at
her spinning wheel who gives two kisses to the shepherd who has asked for only
one. From Italy, “A la femminisca” (Sicily), sung in an earthy, folksy
manner, is followed by Skorka's return to the operatic style of singing in “La
donna ideale,” the text listing what a man should seek in a wife — a good
family, good manners, good figure, good dowry. “Ballo” (Sicily),
unrestrained and vehement, portrays the lover as a fool, then “Motettu de
tristura” (Sardinia), another nightingale song but, this time, with a sorrowing
theme — “Sing this song when I am buried.” Vivacious and communicative, Skorka
shifts from the wistful to the exuberant, from cantabile singing to rapid-fire
patter, concluding with the dancelike Azerbaijan love song, which she performs
with relish, her small, suspenseful pauses adding a playful touch. Performing hand
in glove, Bloch and Skorka produce exciting music. The ensemble's attentive and
committed playing highlighted Berio's scintillating instrumental writing.
Auvergne is France’s most rural and least populated region.
Composer Marie-Joseph Cantaloube de Malaret was born there in 1879. From his
childhood, he was familiar with the dance couplets in the villages, the songs
and pastoral melodies of the region. Canteloube took more than thirty years
(1924-1955) to complete the compilation of "Chants d'Auvergne", his
most famous work, its texts in Occitan, the local language and one of the
Latin-based dialects spoken in medieval France. To Canteloube's lush, richly-varied orchestration, Daniela Skorka performed three of the songs, all flirty, teasing dialogues between rustic characters. In the third, "Lou
Boussu", the instrumental score's humour underscores Skorka's performance
of the cheeky Janette! For her encore, Daniela Skorka performed “Tonada de luna
llena” (Full Moon Tune), bold and unaccompanied, by Venezuelan singer/actor/composer
Simón Díaz.
The concert concluded with Ludwig Van Beethoven's Symphony No.1 in C major, Op.21. Maestro Bloch's fresh approach and attention to the smallest of details, all expressed in his intuitive, pizzazzy conducting language, invited the audience to revisit the symphony, to appreciate its forthright moments, its surprises, its suspense, its charm, Beethoven's idiosyncrasies and his good humour. Following the symphony's premiere on April 2, 1800 at the Burgtheater in Vienna, the critic of the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung wrote that "the winds were overused, so that it was music for band rather than for the orchestra." Indeed, Beethoven here creates a different orchestral balance from that of his predecessors, giving the wind instruments far greater parity with the strings. Here was an opportunity to enjoy the crisp, high-quality playing of the Camerata's wind sections.
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