LA ESCONDIDA - Michael Tsalka's recent recording of Schubert's First Waltzes Op.9 and Piano Sonata in B flat major D.960

 

La Escondida! How does one explain the curious title of Michael Tsalka's recently-issued disc of Schubert piano works? Here is the explanation: Prof. Tsalka and his wife, musicologist Dr. Angélica Minero Escabar, were on a concert tour of New Zealand in March 2020, when Covid broke out. Musician friends invited them to stay at La Escondida (The Hidden/Concealed One), their beautiful property on the South Island. Tsalka writes: "For the first time in ages, I had the rare gift of time to spare…Cherished projects, long forgotten or set aside by the rigours of our regimented schedules, found their way back into my mind and soul." It was during his time at La Escondida that the unique program for this disc crystallised in Tsalka's mind. The idyllic time, spent there, surrounded by nature, music and good company, came to an end in June 2020, when commercial flights finally resumed. 

 

Franz Schubert's Originaltänze op. 9 (D 365) were the composer's first dance publication (although not Schubert’s first waltzes.) The 36 dances appeared in 1821, published by Cappi & Diabelli. Schubert was 24. The title was probably given by the publisher. Schubert might have labelled them Walzer, Ländler or Deutsche Tänze (despite their origin being more Austrian than German), those terms, in those days, being more-or-less interchangeable. The original manuscript is lost, but it is known that some of the pieces were written in 1818 (or earlier) and that nine of them (Nos. 5-13) were composed in a single day! Probably the best-known, Trauerwalzer (No.2) (Sadness Waltz) was (outrageously) published by Schott under Beethoven’s name in 1826, only to reappear two years later with a new title, “Sehnsuchtswalzer” (Waltz of Longing). What spring to mind on hearing these pieces are the convivial pictures we have seen of Schubert at the piano, surrounded by friends listening, dancing and joking, the kind of get-togethers that formed the basis for the long tradition of Schubertiardes, one which continues to this very day. Austrian lawyer, musician and writer Leopold von Sonnleithner, one of Schubert’s closest friends and a passionate advocate of his music, wrote that Schubert never danced at these soirées, but that, inspired by his friends' enjoyment, he was always ready to sit down at the piano for hours and improvise the most beautiful waltzes. On hearing a recording of Schubert's 36 Originaltänze played on a Romantic historic fortepiano when visiting Berlin-based historic keyboard builder Sebastian Niebler, Tsalka talks of the "curious, hypnotic effect" of the work. In the disc's liner notes, he mentions "the process of recreating on a modern Steinway the vibrancy and naive grace of the Biedermeier salon…" I, myself, have always been fascinated by miniature forms in music, or, rather, by how to play and listen to them, and the effect resulting from how they stack up. Tsalka's reading of the 36 dances goes far beyond addressing Schubert's extraordinary gift for melody, the composer's attention to voice-leading and changes in texture, register, dynamics, metre and rhythm. One hears how the artist probes each piece to connect with its character, be it wistful, melancholy, yearning or majestic, or to address the dances of a more folk-like nature, the hearty, weightier textures of those arising from German peasant dances from the Middle Ages. Indeed, Ländler melodies were fashionable in 18th- and 19th-century Vienna. With the first 13 dances all in the key of A-flat major, monotony plays no part here. The only dance in a minor key is No.22 in G-sharp minor, its first curious section wavering puzzlingly between the major and minor modes, a paradox to be met again in later works of Schubert. Tsalka's playing is clean, intimate, subtle and free of overuse of the sustaining pedal. His lightness of touch allows for the tiniest filigree details of this uncluttered style to be heard, as he flexes tempi and engages in some discerning embellishment. Drawing the listener into the charm and magic of these small jewels, each dance seems to whisk the listener's curiosity onto the next.

 

Composed in September 1828 only weeks before his death in November of the same year, Schubert's Sonata in B-flat major D.960 was the last and lengthiest of the composer's final three piano sonatas. An expansive, large-scale composition, it has constituted an ongoing and evolving part of Prof. Tsalka's musical repertoire and thinking, from performing it at his final doctoral recital in Philadelphia in 2008, to playing it on various historic- and modern pianos, a "cross-fertilisation process…a profound, familiar friend who keeps sharing new secrets and altering one's worldview", in the artist's words. As to describing the strokes of genius existing in this sonata and how they are dealt with by the artist, words tend to become banal and inadequate. Always judiciously paced, always eloquent, Tsalka's reading of it recreates the sonata's large canvas and its "players", giving expression to the work's pianistic wellspring, to the composer's exceptional melodic writing and, of course, to Schubert's vivid palette of emotions. Never thick or over-pedalled, Tsalka's playing takes the listener into the work's many layers, into the depths of the mind, into the final sum and substance of Schubert's existence via the fragility, the otherworldliness, the lyricism, the playfulness, the urgency and the buoyant optimism woven through the final B-flat major Sonata.

 

Brilliant, short-lived and incredibly prolific, Franz Schubert remains one of the most intriguing figures in music history. While his music attracts a wide audience, some of his private life remains shrouded in mystery; significant portions of his works have been overlooked. Michael Tsalka has chosen two works that bookend Franz Schubert's creative life. Inspired and inspiring, this disc makes for a profound listening experience.  

 

In late July 2025, Prof. Tsalka returned to New Zealand's South Island to prepare for the recording sessions of this disc. La Escondida was recorded on a Steinway grand piano on August 2nd 2025 at the Nelson Centre for Musical Arts (New Zealand) for the RATTLE label. Michael Tsalka has dedicated the disc to his teacher, the late Prof. Harvey Wedeen (Temple University) and to Margarita and Miles Jackson, who hosted him and his wife at La Escondida. The project was funded by the School of Music, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen CUHK-SZL. 

 

 

Michael Tsalka (GVAGAIN Studio,Shenzhen)

 

 

Celebrating 20 years of Sounding Jerusalem, Erich Oskar Huetter('cello) and Armin Egger (guitar) perform a program of short works at the Redeemer Church, Jerusalem

 

Erich Oskar Huetter (Courtesy EOH)

Armin Egger (Courtesy AE)

Sounding Jerusalem is celebrating 20 years of fine music-making and collaboration between musicians. Established and directed by Austrian 'cellist Erich Oskar Huetter, the festival has brought string quartets, soloists, jazz musicians, early music specialists and artists of diverse musical traditions to its audiences at a variety of venues in Jerusalem and further afield. This writer attended a festival concert at the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in Jerusalem's Old City on August 4th, 2026. It featured Erich Oskar Huetter himself and Armin Egger, one of Austria's leading classical guitarists, in "A Distillation of Twenty Years". On November 14th, 2026, this very concert will be performed by the same artists at the Campo Santo Teutonico in Vatican City.

  

Welcoming the audience on the festive occasion were a representative of the Redeemer Church and Marian Alexander Wrba, Austrian Representative and Head of Mission. Huetter himself spoke of the festival's history, its supporters and of its certitude - that "music can cross borders, create encounters…and remind us never to stop reaching out to one another…". In keeping with the festival's wide scope of repertoire, the program at the Redeemer Church offered a selection of pieces from different countries and of different communities. Opening the event, we heard prayers from the Syrian Orthodox liturgy in Aramaic, sung with beauty and conviction in the rich, bass voices of Deacons Andraus Bassous and Michel Zanbil.

 

The instrumental program commenced with some solo pieces. Erich Oskar Huetter opened with a personal, emotionally powerful reading of the Prelude from J.S.Bach's Cello Suite No.1 in G major, BWV 1007, followed by the opening piece of late-Baroque composer Giuseppe Maria Dall'Abaco's set of 11 Capricci for violoncello solo, his playing of this both rigorous, spontaneous and expressive. Armin Egger performed two pieces of Francisco Tárrega (often referred to as the father of modern classical guitar technique) - first, the Capricho Árabe, Egger's subtle playing of this serenata emerging warm, charming and suggestive of the Moorish and Arabic sounds that had shaped the composer's Spanish cultural landscape; then, the Recuerdos de la Alhambra, with the artist giving the stage to the small masterpiece's beguiling melody and to its rapid, mesmerizing, filigree-fine tremolo figure. 

 

What then followed was a stream of small duets from classical repertoire, many of the items well-known to the audience - Edward Elgar's Salut d'Amour Op.12, the Méditation from Jules Massenet's opera Thais, Enrique Granados' Andaluza·Danza española No. 5 and his Oriental, the Adagio from Joaquin Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez, and, finally, Aria by the legendary Austrian pianist and composer Friedrich Gulda. Egger and Huetter's playing was polished, subtle, strategically paced and beautifully shaped, their arrangements faithful to the original scores, each setting, however, bearing the personal hallmark of the long-established duo, with the artists’ engaging in textures, timbres and attentiveness creating their own specific uniquely interwoven modus vivendi for two instruments of very different styles of sound production.

 

The duo then performed Insirab by Palestinian composer/oud player Marwan Abado (residing in Vienna), a mood piece characterised by drones and gentle percussive effects, with Huetter's playing of its melodies emerging stylistically convincing. Also bridging the rich heritage of traditional Arabic music with western classical music, we heard Shattered Tent (this piece originally scored for guitar and 'cello) by Mahmoud Abuwarda (today living in Istanbul). The artists gave poignant expression to the piece's narrative of pain and struggle. Performing the Prayer, from Ernest Bloch's suite From Jewish Life (1924), one of the most emotional pieces written for 'cello and piano, the artists gave an impassioned, songful reading of the work. They also played two pieces of Austrian cantor/composer Salomon Sulzer (sometimes referred to as the father of modern synagogue music), their energetic and exuberant presentation of Schalom Aleichem suggestive of Hassidic dance music.

 

For their encore, Egger and Huetter performed the traditional Catalan Christmas song/lullaby El Cant dels Ocells (Song of the Birds), made famous outside Catalonia by Pablo Casals' ‘cello version. Following his self-imposed exile, Casals would begin each of his concerts by playing this song. Nostalgic and touching, Huetter and Egger's setting was exquisite, so imaginative in the delicate, shimmering fluttering effect of birds' wings, as evoked by Egger on the guitar.  

 

As suggested by the title of this year's festival, Erich Oskar Huetter has referred to Sounding Jerusalem 2026 as a "distillation: intimate, transparent and essential - music reduced to its core, where every sound carries weight and every silence has meaning."  A superb concert, a unique experience created by two outstanding artists. 

Armin Egger, Erich Oskar Huetter (Nicolas Galani)

 

"Hear My Voice" - Assaf Benraf conducts the A-Capella Jerusalem Vocal Ensemble, the Jerusalem Oratorio Chamber Choir, the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra and soloists in a program of sacred music

Maestro Assaf Benraf (Uri Elkayam)

The Henry Crown Auditorium (Jerusalem Theatre) was filled to capacity on the evening of July 30th, 2026. For the third concert of a choral series directed by Assaf Benraf, each with a different theme, "Hear My Voice" was a program of sacred works. The A-Capella Jerusalem Vocal Ensemble, the Jerusalem Oratorio Chamber Choir and members of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra were joined by soloists - Nir Gavrieli (oboe), Rinatya Nessim (soprano), Maya Amir (mezzo-soprano) and Dmitry Negrimovskii (baritone). Conducting the event was Maestro Benraf - director of both the choirs - with Dor Gidon Amran at the keyboard (organ/piano).

 

The first part of the program consisted of various short choral pieces. Opening with Anton Bruckner's 1886 motet Locus iste (This place), written for the dedication of the votive chapel at the New Cathedral Linz, Austria, where Bruckner had been an organist, the joint choir's clean, sensitive choral sound reflected the piece's sublime, hauntingly beautiful writing. Then to Gabriel Fauré's Cantique de Jean Racine (Chant by Jean Racine), Op. 11, the 20-year-old composer's elegant choral miniature (indeed, a precursor to the Requiem) its intensity fragile and lush. We heard Hallelujah (1989) by Israeli composer Tzvi Avni (b.1927), Avni's 1989 a-cappella setting of Psalm 150 fresh, bold and energetic, its harmonies both pungent and lush. In strong contrast, issued in with Dor Amran's meditative playing of the prelude, we enter into the aura of Enosh, one of Louis Lewandowski’s most moving compositions, the text (Psalm 102) describing the ephemeral nature of human life. This was a beautiful, carefully paced and profound reading of the piece, with Benraf's direction laying emphasis on the text, its connection to the harmonic course and on the alternation of forthright- and tender moments. Harry Burleigh, a forgotten hero of American music, was the composer/singer most responsible for turning spirituals into art songs, his devout arrangement of Deep River (1915) becoming a sensation in its day. The joint choir's articulate, lush rendition of the spiritual highlighted its yearning and beauty. Buena Semana (A Good Week), sung in Ladino, concluded the first part of the concert. The singers did justice to the splendid arrangement by the late Eyal Bat (the performance here dedicated to his memory) to the song's warmth and vivid, lilting dancelike quality (with a touch of the oriental), enhanced by Nir Gavrieli's uplifting playing of the oboe part.

 

Johann Sebastian Bach composed Cantata No.82 Ich habe genug (It is enough/I am content) for the Feast of the Purification on February 2, 1727, at the church of St. Thomas, Leipzig. Scored for bass singer, solo oboe, strings and continuo, the work conveys how mortality was viewed in the 18th century. It is based on the biblical words of Simeon, who, having seen the infant Jesus, said that he could now die in peace. At the Jerusalem concert, the soloist was young Russian-born baritone Dmitry Negrimovskii, a singer of fresh, bright vocal timbre and articulacy.  From the opening aria, "Ich habe genug," to the consoling lullaby "Schlummert ein, ihr matten Augen" (Go to sleep, you weary eyes), to the triumphant, buoyant performance of "Ich freue mich auf meinen Tod" (I rejoice at my death), with its spirited sixteenth-note melismas on the word "freue" ("rejoice"), Negrimovskii's engagement with the music and words gave expression to the cantata's magnitude and seriousness with an immediacy that underscored its essence. The elaborate oboe part testifies to the pool of talented players available to Bach in Leipzig. Initially plaintive, then mellow and finally bristling with optimistic joy, Gavrieli's playing, beautifully shaped, reached out to the vocal line throughout.

 

Antonio Vivaldi wrote several versions of his G minor setting of the Magnificat canticle, one of his masterpieces. He scored the RV 610 version for vocal soloists, four-part choir, oboes and string orchestra. This first version is dominated by the choral concept. In the second version, several movements were given new and extended solo arias, these tailored to voices of girls from the Ospedale della Pietà, the educational institution with which Vivaldi was affiliated for much of his adult life. For "Hear My Voice", Assaf Benraf chose movements from different versions. Commencing with a solemn, majestic performance of the choral "Magnificat anima mea" (My soul proclaims the greatness), the "Et exultavit" (My spirit has rejoiced) was rendered with charming lightness by Maya Amir, with Rinatya Nessim, her voice well-anchored, handling the "Quia respexit" (He has looked upon the lowliness) with aplomb. Together they delivered the "Esurientes" (Those hungry) with elegance and fine passagework. As to the choruses, "Fecit potentiam" (He has shown strength) was performed with fiery drama by both choir and orchestra. Following another grand choral moment in "Suscepit Israel" (He has helped his servant Israel), the three soloists (Amir, Nessim, Negrimovskii) gave a characterful "Sicut locutus est" (As He has spoken), graced by the two oboes, before the final choral movements' conclusion with a lively fugue.  

 

Maestro Benraf understands the potential and beauty of the human voice and its repertoire. He opened the event with some information on the works to be heard. It was an evening of interesting programming and of splendid, high-standard musical performance. Adding to the evening's excellence were Dor Gidon Amran's tasteful, attentive accompaniments throughout. 

Two spirituals - Daniel  Servant of the Lord and Rock-a My Soul - made for a hearty end to the evening.

The Gary Bertini Israeli Chamber Choir (music director: Ronen Borshevsky) performs sacred works of J.S.Bach, J.A.Hasse and Mozart at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art

 

 

Maestro Ronen Borshevsky (ronenborshevsky.com)

It was "Masterpieces of the 18th Century" that concluded the 2025-2026 subscription series of the Gary Bertini Israeli Chamber Choir (music director: Ronen Borshevsky). This writer attended the performance in the Recanati Auditorium of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art on July 7th, 2026. Soloists were Neta Flomen (soprano), Nitzan Alon (mezzo-soprano), Nevo Weiner (tenor) and Yoav Weiss (baritone). Established by Haggi Goren and Maestro Borshevsky in 2009, the Gary Bertini Choir, numbering some 26 singers, performs repertoire from Renaissance- to contemporary classical works, also folk music, music of Jewish- or Israeli content and world music. Joining them were members of the Israeli Chamber Ensemble.

 

The event opened with J.S.Bach's Cantata BWV 106 Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit (God's time is the best time), also known as Actus Tragicus, a funeral piece composed in 1707 when the 22-year-old composer was employed as church organist in Mühlhausen. One of Bach's earliest cantatas, its unusual instrumentation calls for two recorders, two violas da gamba and continuo section, vocal soloists and choir. Although not performing on period instruments, members of the Israeli Chamber Ensemble provided the soft-grained detail and comforting (sometimes almost heavenly) sound evoking the work's intimacy, intense expressiveness and meditation. From the quiet longing of the Sonatina, one of the loveliest, most soulful openings in any Bach cantata, recorder players Inbar Solomon and Leora Vinik evoked the duet's extraordinary beauty and devotion, the recorder roles' sharp seconds and unisons possibly symbolising earthly suffering. As to the soloists, Nevo Weiner gave a richly resonant reading of the mournful Arioso; Nitzan Alon, her voice mellow and even in all registers, shaped the text's meaning throughout "In deine Hände" (Into your hands); Neta Flomin wove the proclamation of the coming of Jesus into "Es ist der alte Bund" (It is the ancient law) with gossamer-fine beauty and ease. With the recorders in unison propelling the music forward, Yoav Weiss, gave "Bestelle dein Haus" (Put your house in order) a sense of divine urging, his voice buoyant, avoiding the muscular approach taken by some singers in this aria. Performing one of the pinnacles of Bach’s sacred music with emotional restraint, delicacy, transparency and subtlety, Borshevsky, players, choir and soloists showed listeners through the work's phases, from fearful death to joyful afterlife, from worldly complacency into uncertainty and on into the light.

 

Based on Psalm 51 (Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love), Johann Adolf Hasse's Miserere in C minor was composed in 1735 for the Ospedale degli Incurabili, one of several institutions in Venice dedicated to caring for- and educating orphaned and abandoned children. Originally written for women’s choir, this Miserere was later revised by Hasse himself to include the more standard vocal ensemble of SATB, soloists and choir,  adding a larger orchestra. He also added two final movements to the piece, the eight contrasting sections sharing the message of comfort, devotion, and mercy. The revised version was that performed at the Tel Aviv concert. The work is cast in a relatively compact structure. Hasse's musical language covers a broad stylistic and emotional range, bringing the dramatic flair of Neapolitan opera music to the penitent and pleading Miserere text. Setting the scene was the choir's majestic, clean and unmannered singing of the opening Miserere chorus. Solos, duets and ensembles followed, the solos and duets free of excessive vibrato. In the tranquil Libera me (Deliver me), recorder players Solomon and Vinik imitated and commented within the weave of Flomen and Alon's natural, unforced singing of the movement. Hasse spent much of his career as an opera composer in Dresden. His choral music is little known but, on the evidence of this performance, it is worth uncovering.  Borshevsky's rendition of the Miserere in C minor captured Hasse's refined juxtaposition of solemn grandeur and graceful beauty.

 

And to W.A.Mozart's Missa Credo in C major K.257, its title explaining the acclamations of “Credo” that constantly punctuate the so-named movement. Composed in Salzburg in 1776, this Mass is remarkable for its density of invention and for its keeping within the narrowest of confines, showing the 20-year-old Mozart's adherence to Count Hieronymus Colloredo’s preference for concise services. Even by the standards of the Salzburg church, however, this Mass is unusually eventful: jubilant ceremonial sonorities consist with sudden contrasts that feel almost operatic in their timing. Professor Borshevsky addresses the work's wealth of beautiful melodies, its rhetorically vivid and structurally decisive style, its drama, its assertive energy and dynamic contrasts, also addressing the work's "vehemence" (with few exceptions), in which the music does not always support the words. (Indeed, with Mozart known to have been irreverent at times, might it be that the Credo Mass comes across as a work of largely secular defiance and independence?)  One fascinating feature of the work is the existence of two distinct choral bodies. For the solo singers, who generally function as a quartet, Mozart writes in a filigreed and more ornamented manner than for the larger choir. The Tel Aviv performance offered much interest in both the exchanges and separateness of the two choral groups. “Benedictus qui venit” (Blessed is he), its exquisite writing providing introspective, meandering songfulness for the soloists, was moving (indeed, supportive of the words in every way!) Altogether, the singers were splendidly supported by the ICE's players, the instrumental score's chamber-music quality sometimes rising to almost symphonic proportions.  

 

"Shattered Dreams" - the Nari Baroque Ensemble performs European and English vocal music at the Dormition Abbey, Jerusalem

 

 

Yotam Haran, Guy Pardo, Liron Givoni, Naomi Hassoun (Noam Livay)

"Shattered Dreams" was the somewhat enigmatic (indeed, thought-provoking) title given to the Nari Baroque Ensemble's recent concert of Baroque (mostly) secular music performed in the Divan hall of the Abbey of the Dormition, Mt. Zion, Jerusalem, on June 22nd 2026. Fr. Simeon Gloger welcomed the audience to the event. Members of the award-winning Nari Ensemble are Liron Givoni (soprano), Naomi Hassoun (recorders), Yotam Haran (Baroque 'cello) and Guy Pardo (harpsichord).

 

Each of Nari's concerts tells a story. Falling into three sections, this program presented musical works interspersed with original texts, the latter recited by Liron Givoni and Yotam Haran in fine, articulate English and with much emotion. The program comprised mostly da capo arias, with Pardo and Haran forming the continuo section and Hassoun taking on all the solo obbligato roles on the various recorders, from sopranino to voice flute. The concert offered a representative selection of Baroque arias and art songs by German, French, Italian and English composers.

 

Of course, the subject was love and its many aspects. There were a number of idolised, blissful love songs, always cast against idyllic, pantheistic nature settings, as in George Frideric Handel's Flammende Rose, Zierde der Erden (Flaming rose, adornment of the earth), in Handel's beautifully crafted Meine Seele hört im Sehen (My soul hears through seeing) and in the ensemble's wonderfully embellished reading of the composer's Endless pleasure, endless love. There was Alessandro Scarlatti's Quel venta che d'intorno (That wind which constantly plays around you), Pietro Torri's Son rosignolo (I am a nightingale), the latter abundant in bird calls, both vocal- and on the sopranino recorder, and The Midsummer Wish by Henry Carey, with its references to the lush natural English surroundings of the Thames.

 

However, so very many of the beautiful, bittersweet love songs from the 17th century are infused with longing, doubt, disappointment, refusal, jealousy, and farewell. Effectively performed, Handel's Brillava protetto (His radiance endured) speaks of grief endured and lingering sorrow. We experience the "enchanting pain" referred to in John Christopher Pepusch's Who, from his Heart securing and the efforts to "try to regain or quit the Cruel fair" in Pepusch's Why shou'd I love, the longing and word painting applied in the "beautiful, silvery tears" of Alessandro Scarlatti's Onde chiare che spargete (Clear waves, which scatter) and the predominance of happiness (yet hinting at "rebellious hearts" and "jealous fears") in Joseph Bodin de Boismortier's Règne, Amour (Reign, Love), its pastoral ambience fashioned by the velvety sounds of the voice flute, the work's French style suggestive of dance.  

 

Georg Philipp Telemann, who left one of the most extensive and celebrated legacies of recorder music of the Baroque era was, himself, a virtuoso recorder player. The program featured three Telemann pieces. In Nein, du wirst mich nicht versäumen (No, you will not forsake me) from Wer sehnet sich nach Kerker, Stein und Ketten (Who longs for dungeons, stones, and chains) a sacred cantata, the text celebrates the believer's spiritual and moral freedom from earthly trials. Here, Hassoun's virtuosic playing and Givoni's zesty reading of the vocal line were delightfully interwoven. From Telemann's collection of Easter and Pentecost cantatas, in the vehement Du bist verflucht! (You are accursed!), a da capo aria with recitative, the artists give masterful balance to the work's melodious element and counterpoint via their vocal- and instrumental finesse, the continuo instruments adding textural weight to the piece's all-consuming subject matter. Of an interesting genre, created in response to the growing popularity of works with moralizing texts, we heard a fiery, intense performance of Du bist ein tolles Ungeheuer (You are a wild monster) from the composer's Six Moral Cantatas (c.1739). For the program's only instrumental piece, Haran, Pardo and Hassoun (on soprano recorder) gave an evocative reading of L'hiver (Winter) from Telemann's Der getreue Musikmeister (The Faithful Music Master). 

 

Liron Givoni's enunciation of the relevant languages was excellent. Altogether, the Nari Baroque Ensemble presented an evening of informed, polished and moving performance. 

Conducted by Omer Arieli, the Jerusalem Opera performs Jules Massenet's "Cendrillon" (Cinderella). Libretto: Henri Caïn. Stage director: Daniel Lasry

 

Nadezhda Gaidukova, Mima Millo (Elad Zagman

Cinderella is one of the most beloved fairy tales of all time: A young woman of unmatched grace and goodness overcomes the abuse of her stepfamily, receives the help of a fairy godmother and wins the heart of a royal suitor, to live happily ever after. For almost 2,000 years, versions of the Cinderella story have been told across the globe, inspiring settings by authors, playwrights, musicians and filmmakers. The Henry Crown Hall of the Jerusalem Theatre seemed to be bursting at the seams on June 18th 2026 to accommodate the large number of people arriving to attend the Jerusalem Opera's latest production - Cinderella (in the original version, Cendrillon) composed by Jules-Émile Frédéric Massenet. An opera in four acts, Massenet uses the French libretto of Henri Caïn, one based on Perrault's 1698 version of the Cinderella fairy tale. Daniel Lasry was the stage director, with Omer Arieli (Jerusalem Opera musical director) conducting the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra and singers. The cast included soloists, a small choir, actors (the Spirits) and dancers (choreography: Yasmin Gariv).

 

Jules Massenet was the most prolific and successful composer of French opera in the late 19th- and early 20th centuries. Cendrillon premiered at the Opéra-Comique on May 24, 1899, at the height of Massenet’s career. It was an immediate success, soon to be performed across the world, becoming popular again in the latter half of the 20th century. The opera offers a mature and insightful recounting of the Cinderella story, without sacrificing humour or glamour in doing so. Massenet's score is constantly inventive, with much French post-Wagnerian writing, especially when the dramatic action is amorous. And while the major tunes are not catchy, the wide range of brilliant, even exotic music makes for excellent listening. The Jerusalem audience was presented with an impressive and well-cast line-up of soloists. Cendrillon’s father, a weak, inconsistent and conflicted man, objects to the indignities the step-mother inflicts on the young girl. With his warmth of timbre and fine dramatic presence, bass baritone Ivo Yordanov (Bulgaria) made for a compelling and kindly Pandolfe. In her uninhibited  portrayal of the outlandish stepmother, mezzo-soprano Noa Hope Sion (no new face to Jerusalem Opera productions) and the two grabby step-sisters (Shlomit Kovalsky, Yahav Dagan Gersht), formed a well-matched trio, united in their perception of the world, in their polished obnoxiousness, their vocal outbursts and droll buffoonery. Another exemplar of the distinct voice Massenet assigns to female characters is the role of the fairy godmother, here performed by soprano Nofar Yacobi. She delivers Massenet’s quirky coloratura part with glittering ease and brilliance, conveying all the charming authority demanded for the part. With no pumpkin carriage or mice-turned-valets, this is Cinderella for the adult audience, the sombre quality of the emotions of Cendrillon and the Prince (as dictated by the libretto’s heavy drift and Massenet’s lugubriousness) adding a more psychological dimension to the story. Both characters perform extended arias in which they bemoan their fates: Cendrillon is lonely and downcast; the prince is lonely and depressed. Mezzo-soprano Nadezhda Gaidukova, in the opera's trouser role, engaged her bold, richly-timbred vocal palette, her theatrical know-how and emotional depth to create the brooding character of the Prince, her voice adding distinctive colour to the love duets. Articulate, expressive and versatile, using the stage (and the Henry Crown Hall) to advantage, soprano Mima Millo reads into the persona of Massenet's Cinderella, taking the audience into the world of her emotion and passion with natural, vibrant vocal ease. So here, despite the fairy-tale aspect of the Cinderella story, the title character and her prince are recognizably human, "two lost people searching for love and meaning", in the words of stage director Daniel Lasry. As a last touch, the Jerusalem Opera production makes a point of reminding us that Cinderella is indeed a rags-to-riches princess, finally decking Millo out in an evening gown made of large, brightly-coloured raglike squares of fabric rather than a dreamy, white ball dress! 

 

With no orchestra pit in the Henry Crown Auditorium, Maestro Omer Arieli and the JSO instrumentalists occupied the back of the stage, with singers and the few props at the front. And there were some appealing staging effects, as in the dream scenes. In Act III, the chorus of fairies appears wearing their own tall, forest-type head-dresses, arranging themselves in a line down the centre of the stage for Cendrillon and the Prince's dream-like meeting in the woods. The dancers did a fine job throughout, reminding the audience that dance has always been an integral part of French opera. Keeping the music light on its feet, Maestro Arieli led the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra through the pizzazz and colour of one of Massenet’s most irresistible scores in a seamless ride of silvery, vivacious music, highlighting and incorporating the composer's humour and wit. 

 

 Another glittering and memorable Jerusalem Opera production!

 

Maestro Omer Arieli (Elad Zagman)

 

Hosting Shuli Waterman (viola) and Hillel Zori ('cello), the Carmel Quartet (music director: Yoel Greenberg) performs works of Byrd, J.S.Bach and Brahms

Yoel Greenberg,Tami Waterman,Hillel Zori,Tali Goldberg,Rachel Ringelstein,Shuli Waterman

The Carmel Quartet signed out of the 2025-2026 Strings and More series with "Echoes from the Past". Presented by Prof. Yoel Greenberg (music director and a member of the Carmel Quartet since 2003), together with Carmel Quartet violinists Rachel Ringelstein and Tali Goldberg and 'cellist Tami Waterman, the quartet hosted Shuli Waterman (viola) and Hillel Zori ('cello). This writer attended the (English language) explained concert on June 10th 2026, at the Jerusalem Music Centre, Mishkenot Sha'ananim.

 

Somewhat unexpectedly, the evening's program opened with a piece from the vast legacy of the golden age of viol consort music in England (1575-1650) - William Byrd's Fantasia III à 6. Seated in a circle, as did viol (and other) players of the upper classes for their social entertainment of music-making, the artists presented the piece's initial dark and mellifluous sound world. Moving seamlessly from section to section, their playing underscored the play of motifs tossed from one instrument to another, also drawing one's attention to the occasional "clash" of false relations (a characteristic of English music from this period), as the sonorous sections gave way to a series of rustic dances. Not performed on period instruments, the players, however, did away with the use of vibrato, producing a clean, candid, informed and pleasingly convincing reading of the piece.

 

The evening’s discussion led to the viola and its bleak plight - its role in symphonic- or string quartet settings to provide middle harmonies, to the fact that there is not much solo repertoire written for viola and to the unfortunate situation of the viola and viola players being the target for many jokes! It was flautist/composer Johann Joachim Quantz who referred to the viola as "unimportant in the music world" as "the instrument…often played by people who are either beginners in music or do not have the talent to distinguish themselves on the violin..."  J.S.Bach himself was an excellent performer on both violin and the viola. According to his son, Carl Philipp Emanuel, Johann Sebastian's interest in harmony meant he was partial to playing middle parts, i.e. the viola. In Brandenburg Concerto No.6 BWV 1051 (Greenberg refers to it as "Bach's social protest against the lowly status of the viola"), the score does not call for violins. Instead, two violas play the leading roles, supported by two violas da gamba, a 'cello, a violone and harpsichord (here, adjusted to suit the ensemble.) With his employer, Leopold, Prince of Anhalt-Cöthen a reasonable gamba player, Bach was able to enjoy playing one of the viola parts in this concerto. At the Jerusalem concert, Yoel Greenberg and Rachel Ringelstein performed the leading viola roles, with Hillel Zori undertaking the gamba part on 'cello. Following the opening Allegro, its main theme in close canon, with the two viola parts entering right on the heels of each other, the second movement (Adagio) was played only by the leading violas and 'cellos, the violas spinning out long lines rising into the violin’s usual register, as they enlisted some attractive ornamenting. Then, to the hearty Allegro (3rd movement), with the soloists elaborating the main theme with florid passages of sixteenth-notes. Altogether, a splendid reading of the work, music unique in its glorious, mellow tapestry of string textures.

 

Another work in which the viola is well represented is Johannes Brahms' String Sextet No.2 Op.36 in G major. From the pen of the 30-something-year-old composer, Sextet No. 2 reveals Brahms as having honed the elements of his craft, with emphasis on his skill as a contrapuntalist. The work’s instrumentation (two violins, two violas, two 'cellos) invites tonal richness and depth that seems to defy the chamber music genre. Here, we are aware of a measure of austerity, the sextet's climate of resignation foreshadowing many of the composer’s more mature works. Who could have imagined that G major could feel this melancholy and unsettled? The players gave the work a dedicated, polished performance, one carefully paced, their ensemble playing communicating a sense of shared purpose. Beginning with the opening Allegro's ghostly murmur in the first viola, moving on to the movement's drama and sublime moments, to the Scherzo's poignant-, bittersweet- and Hungarian-inspired aspects, the Adagio  emerged impressive in its variations, the latter encompassing the full range of the string sextet's sonorities, the variations ranging from the introspective to the ebullient. In the hide-and-seek of the final movement, an exhilarating contrapuntal tour de force, the players' virtuosity and freshness were engaging throughout. Yoel Greenberg expressed that he wanted the audience to sense their enjoyment in playing. I believe it did.

 

Referring to the works, to performance practice of their times and to writings of the composers' contemporaries, Prof. Greenberg's talk was lively, informative and convivial, enriched by texts beautifully read by Carmel Quartet members and by some interesting illustrations shown on a screen. 

Prof. Yoel Greenberg (Courtesy Carmel Quartet)

The Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra closes its 36th concert season with "David's Lament" - works of Jeremiah Clarke and William Boyce. Conductor: Andrew Parrott (UK)

Maestro Andrew Parrott © Yoel Levy

 

Each concert of the Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra's 2025-2026 subscription concert season visited a different European city, presenting works of its major composers. David's Lament, the final concert of the JBO's 36th season, took the audience to London, but with a different approach: the program consisted of works of Jeremiah Clarke and William Boyce - two composers not necessarily familiar to members of the JBO's listening public. The concert was conducted by the orchestra's honorary conductor Maestro Andrew Parrott (UK). Soloists were Tatiana Levin (soprano), Yonathan Suissa (haute-contra/tenor), Itamar Hildesheim (tenor) and Daniel Ze'ev Ben Baruch (baritone), with Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra founder/music director Prof. David Shemer at the harpsichord. This writer attended the event at the Jerusalem International YMCA on June 7th, 2026.

 

Henry Purcell’s untimely death in November 1695 elicited many musical- and literary tributes. Several composers wrote odes in his memory, one of the more elaborate being that of Jeremiah Clarke (1674-1707), one of Purcell’s younger colleagues. Holding prominent positions in turn at Winchester College, St. Paul’s Cathedral and the Chapel Royal, Clarke's output was not limited to church music: he wrote songs, incidental music for theatre, works for harpsichord, and, as mentioned, courtly odes. Taking Clarke's Come, come along for a dance and a song, Ode on the Death of Henry Purcell (1695), Maestro Parrott put together a suite of instrumental pieces. Delightful items, they were given a colourful, zesty reading, some suggesting just a few folksy elements, the pieces offering vibrant roles for the JBO's impressive line-up of wind players. Included was a delicately ornamented harpsichord solo of "Mister Purcell's Farewell" (Shemer), the suite signing out with Alon Melnik's hearty trumpet solo in Jeremiah Clarke’s best-known composition - the Trumpet Voluntary (originally called The Prince of Denmark’s March) - a piece formerly attributed to Purcell.

 

David’s lament over Saul and Jonathan has inspired centuries of musical adaptations, one celebrated Renaissance setting of this passage (Samuel 1:19–27) being Josquin des Prez' Planxit autem David, other notable polyphonic settings including works of Nicolas Gombert and Orlando di Lasso. A later work, Thomas Weelkes' sublime When David Heard, explores the depths of David's grief and emotion. Moving into the 20th- and 21st centuries, one might mention Yehezkel Braun's extensive vocal work David's Lament over Saul and Jonathan (2009) Eric Whitacre's When David Heard (1999) and Canadian composer Kai Leung's When David Heard (2022). William Boyce (1711-1779) wrote David's Lamentation over Saul and Jonathan in 1736 at age 24, revising it for performances in Dublin during the mid-1740s. Maestro Parrott directed the JBO players and four singers in the earlier London version, (libretto: John Lockman, based on Samuel 1). This was the first performance of the elegiac work to be heard on Israeli concert platforms. Following the profoundly poignant two-movement Overture in G minor, each gesture addressed with punctilious shaping, we were transported to the melancholy, at times darkly intense character of the "dramatic scene" (This is not really an oratorio). As to the choral sections, the four fine young singers joined to produce a rich, consolidated, coherent vocal ensemble sound, their treatment of the texts indicative to the recountal. Boyce's work has no dramatis personae: the soloists undertake roles as narrator or protagonist as the drama progresses. Yonathan Suissa (in tenor voice) reads into the text via his direct, unmannered singing, his narration and presentation of dialogues transparent, convincing and engaging.  Itamar Hildesheim's vivid story-telling and word painting highlight the work's dramatic aspects and contrasts. The two singers then join to deliver the musical and emotional crux of the work - "Sad Israel, thy beauty's pride" - a duet of sublime beauty, the solo violin (Noam Gal) delicately underscoring the duet's noble, intimate expressiveness. Baritone Daniel Ze'ev Ben Baruch's vibrant, buoyant singing and Tatiana Levin's well- anchored and full-bodied soprano  made up the well-chosen vocal team. In this eloquent and insightful performance, indeed, a fine vehicle for the singers and JBO instrumentalists, Maestro Parrott sheds important light on a composer of an era traditionally dominated by the figure of Handel. The event brought the Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra's 2025-2026 concert season to an exhilarating and majestic end. 

 

Conducted by Maestro Ingo Metzmacher (Germany), the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra performs Bruckner's Symphony No.8 in C minor

 

Ingo Metzmacher © feliXbroede

The prospect of hearing Anton Bruckner's Symphony No.8 in C minor seemed to take some audience members of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra out of their comfort zone. Or did it, at the same time, draw and challenge listeners to experience the epic work in all its sweeping radiance?  Bruckner's Symphony No.8 was conducted by  Maestro Ingo Metzmacher (Germany). This writer attended the performance in the Sherover Theatre, Jerusalem, on May 31st, 2026.

 

Bruckner was in his sixties when he wrote his monumental Eighth Symphony, informed by Bach, Beethoven, Wagner, and Bruckner’s own earlier works. The making of Symphony No.8, the composer's last completed symphony, however, got off to a rocky start. Writing it occupied Bruckner for three years. Finishing the first version in 1887, Bruckner sent the score to conductor Hermann Levi., who rejected the piece, claiming it was basically unperformable. Over the next few years, Bruckner effectively recomposed the work. In the 1887 version, for example, the first movement ends in major-key triumph. The revised version ends the first movement (Allegro moderato) with "sighs" from the violas in minor-key dejection, melodramatically described by the composer himself as " when one is on his deathbed, and opposite hangs a clock, which, while his life comes to its end, beats on ever steadily: tick, tock, tick, tock". The other movements were also subtly but profoundly revised, resulting in heightened focus of Bruckner's musical ideas. Many Bruckner symphonies exist in more than one version. The Eighth exists in four. The version performed at the recent IPO concert was the scholarly edition of Leopold Novak, published in 1955 and based on Bruckner’s 1890 version. The work is scored for a large orchestra, with 15 brass instruments, including eight horns, four of which double on Wagner tubas. 

 

Symphony No.8 was premiered in December 1892, with the Vienna Philharmonic performing it at the Musikverein (Vienna) and conducted by Hans Richter. The audience included Brahms, Hugo Wolf and Johann Strauss. The critic Eduard Hanslick spoke of the work as having a "nightmarish hangover style - a future we therefore do not envy!" Indeed, Brahms had previously described Bruckner's works as "symphonic boa-constrictors". 

 

Offering more explanations as to extra-musical ideas behind the symphony, Bruckner himself suggested that the Scherzo, (he places it before the slow movement) was "a portrait of the figure of German Michael" (a bucolic rustic from German folk tradition), the languid, radiant, harp-ennobled trio section of the Scherzo depicting Michael dreaming. The composer added that the opening of the Finale was inspired by the Cossacks, the Russians having visited the Austrian Emperor not long before. Whether today's listener wishes to rely on- or relate to such associations raises some questions. What is imperative to all hearing the work, however, is the fact that Bruckner was a spiritual composer, and that his spirituality as a person is certainly present in Symphony No.8. Bruckner was also a renowned organist. The brass section of Symphony No.8 often functions as an organ, a direct connection with Bruckner’s deeply religious nature. From the unsettling darkness sounding right at the start of this symphony, building up power repeatedly and then letting it subside, to the Finale's coda, in blazing C major, Ingo Metzmacher's direction was one of commitment, transparency and musical precision, of structural comprehensibility and precise ensemble control. Relinquishing the use of a baton, he shows the audience through the symphony's vast, grand canvas, through its dark sonorities and moments of shattering drama, also leading us through such uncanny moments as that at the centre of the first movement, where Bruckner paints one of the emptiest, most desolate musical landscapes ever - a single flute sounding over tolling, funereal trumpets and chromatic "gasps" in the basses. As per usual, the IPO's outstanding instrumentalists, both sections and individual players, provided some memorable moments, too many to mention here. Hearing and watching the players in the huge wind sections was a stirring experience. From the Scherzo on, all eyes were on timpanist Dan Moshayev, his playing punctilious and sensitive. Metzmacher and the IPO players joined in profound, mutual elucidation of the music, in.an organic inevitability that comes when orchestra and conductor find a synergetic union. Not only exposing the music’s darkness and pain, but also its optimistic, spiritual ecstasy, Ingo Metzmacher's conducting was both passionate and eloquent, never manic. Born in Hanover in 1957 (where his father was a well-known 'cellist), this was his first appearance with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. In an interview with Colin Anderson in TWENTIETH-CENTURY REFLECTIONS, Maestro Metzmacher makes reference to "the German tradition" which he clarifies as "clear, forward music-making, very honest, not a big show for yourself."  

 

Sharon Prushansky performs early 19th-century European works on the Graf fortepiano of the Eden-Tamir Music Center, Jerusalem

 

Sharon Prushansky (Courtesy Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra)

At the Eden-Tamir Music Center, Ein Kerem, Jerusalem, on May 23rd 2026, Sharon Prushansky performed "Between Classicism and Early Romanticism". Ms. Prushansky played a selection of early 19th-century works on the center's recently-acquired 1819 Graf fortepiano, an excellent instrument made by historic piano builder Paul McNulty (US), based on pianos played by Beethoven, Schubert and Chopin.

 

The program opened with Ludwig van Beethoven's Sonata No.15 in D major Op.28 "Pastoral". Although from the beginning of the composer's so-called middle period, the sonata follows the traditional fast-slow-scherzo-finale pattern. Addressing its easy-going and genial character, Beethoven's Hamburg publisher gave the sonata the title of "Pastoral", a soubriquet that becomes particularly clear in the final movement (Rondo: Allegro ma non troppo.) From the opening movement (Allegro), its "heartbeat" providing an air of mystery, Prushansky's playing is stylistic, carefully shaped, tasteful and understated. Via the direct sound world of the fortepiano, she reads into the score's fine detail, also pointing out Beethoven's small surprising turns. In the Andante, the sustained melody set over a staccato, broken-chord bass (one of the work's idiomatic effects), she allows gentle hesitations to shape the movement's course. Following the Scherzo, negotiated with the wink of an eye, Prushansky’s playing of the final movement, with its drone-like opening figure, emerges clean and vivid, indeed, suggestive of rustic charm.

 

In 1805, Irish poet Thomas Moore wrote a short poem titled “The Last Rose of Summer” This was later set to a traditional tune, the poem and the tune published in 1813 in Volume 5 of Moore’s Selection of Irish Melodies. Several composers have created their own arrangements and fantasies based on the tune. How exactly Felix Mendelssohn came across “The Last Rose of Summer” is unclear; he composed a fantasia on that tune in 1827, published as Op.15. The melody is presented in plain and unadorned Adagio passages contrasted by intense presto utterances. Prushansky makes a good case for the attractive and somewhat curious Last Rose of Summer Fantasy. 

 

Despite his short life, Friedrich Theodor Fröhlich (1803-1836) is nevertheless regarded today as Switzerland’s most significant early Romantic composer. He was also a brilliant pianist. Leaving behind over 700 compositions, Fröhlich's choral works and songs, all in the Romantic vein, are impressive. He also composed two symphonies, overtures and much chamber music, as well as piano pieces. Of the latter genre, Sharon Prushansky performed 3 Elegien (Three Elegies) for solo piano from Op.15 (1833). She gave rhapsodic expression to the pieces' pianistic, personal, highly melodious and fetchingly Romantic moods, so suited to the congenial attributes of the fortepiano. The second piece she played, (with the puzzling title of) Andante: Nicht an Alexis (Not to Alexis), is characterized by the unusual time signature of 5/8 (the first piece in history using the signature of 5/8 throughout?). It is quirky and quite lovely. Altogether, this was a fine opportunity to hear music of the mostly-forgotten composer.

 

Frédéric Chopin composed mazurkas virtually throughout his life. Boasting nearly 60 of them, these miniatures form a pivotal body of the composer's most personal musical utterances, a constant reminder of the cultural ties he held to his native Poland, as well as of the memory he retained of the mentality of his people. The Jerusalem recital included three of Chopin's early mazurkas. Playing Mazurka in F minor Op.7 No.3, its pianissimo opening suggesting  bagpipes, then the much-loved hearty, jauntily dancing Mazurka in B-flat major, to the Mazurka in C-sharp minor Op.6 No.2, the latter’s rustic atmosphere introduced by the contrarily accentuated fifths drone in the bass, Prushansky addresses the unique character of each (including curious, deviant motifs appearing in several of the mazurkas), freely shaping and flexing gestures, presenting the wealth of melodic invention and of harmonic-, rhythmic- and expressive nuances of each dance with spontaneity.

 

As part of the broad musical education given to her by her father, Clara Wieck learned to compose. From childhood to middle age, she produced a considerable body of works. Her six Soirées musicales Op.6 (1835-1836), written at age 16 or 17, remain one of her most notable works in the solo piano repertoire. Composed in her distinctive lyrical style, the pieces (suggesting the influence of Mendelssohn and Chopin), reflect her ability to combine elements of Romanticism with Classical structures. Her husband, Robert Schumann, spoke of the Soirées musicales as boasting a "wealth of unconventional resources, her ability to entangle the secret, more deeply twisting threads and then to unravel them." Prushansky's exquisitely delicate rendition of the Notturno in F major transported the listener into the beauty, delicacy and Romantic freedom of Clara Schumann's musical world, the artist's hearty, radiant playing of the Mazurka in G major and the Polonaise in A minor conjuring up the grand ambience of the glittering concert halls in which Clara would have appeared throughout Europe and England. Performing the (largely forgotten) Impromptu in E Major (1844), Prushansky highlighted its wistful flow of melodies with supple phrasing, subtle dynamics and a warm tone.  How inspiring it was to hear these splendid pieces of Clara Schumann!

 

Born in Israel in 1987, Sharon Prushansky attended the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music (Tel Aviv), earning a bachelor's degree there in piano and organ, then attending the Schola Cantorum in Basel, Switzerland, where she studied harpsichord, organ and fortepiano. A specialist in historical performance as well as in historical keyboard instruments, she mostly focuses on music of the Romantic era, also performing on modern pianos and the organ. Since 2009, Sharon Prushansky has resided in Switzerland.

 

 

Schubert and Brahms performed at a concert at the Eden-Tamir Music Center, Jerusalem, commemorating 20 years of Prof. Bracha Eden's passing

Alexander Tamir,Bracha Eden (Courtesy Eden-Tamir Music Center)

A concert commemorating 20 years of Prof. Bracha Eden's passing took place at the Eden-Tamir Music Center, Ein Kerem, Jerusalem, on May 19th, 2026. No venue could have been better suited to the event - the centre duo pianists Alexander Tamir and Bracha Eden founded in 1968 (originally, the Max Targ Music Center) which they directed, and in which they and many local artists performed. Set in tranquil, leafy surroundings, this unique music centre continues to serve as a busy hub for chamber music performance. Eden and Tamir met in 1951 as students of Prof. Alfred Schroeder, then to perform together for over 50 years as soloists with orchestras, in recitals, on television and radio, and in various festivals. They made their debut in Israel in 1954 and appeared in New York (1955) and Rome (1956), where they won the 1957 Vercelli Competition. Eden and Tamir taught as senior professors at the Rubin Academy of Music (today, the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance.). During the 1990s they went to perform and teach in China, Russia and Poland and, in 1997, they became directors of the International Duo Piano Seminary.

  

Prof. Yoram Eden, Bracha Eden's son, opened the event with some amusing reminiscences from the duo's performing experiences. Dr. Dror Semmel, today artistic director of the Eden-Tamir Music Center, was a student of Bracha Eden. He spoke of her as a musician and teacher and of their close friendship, also making mention of the Eden-Tamir Piano Duo's punctilious performance standards, characterized by both precision and a sense of freedom. 

 

Franz Schubert's oeuvre for four hands formed a significant part of the Eden-Tamir Duo's repertoire. No other great composer has written as many works for piano duet. The program opened with Schubert's Fantasie in F minor D.940 for piano four hands (a favourite item of the Eden-Tamir Duo's repertoire), here performed by the Jerusalem Piano Duo (siblings Dror Semmel and Shir Semmel.) Indeed, making music with others constituted a meaningful pastime among Schubert's circle of friends. With the Fantasie in F minor D 940, however, Schubert completely leaves the sphere of social gatherings and pedagogy in the final year of his life, creating a work of almost symphonic form. This piece, its four linked sections marked Allegro–Largo–Scherzo–Tempo 1, gave Schubert the structure upon which he could showcase the sweep of potential the "Fantasie" concept offered him and one that permitted him to apply non-standard transitions. The work was dedicated to Karoline Esterházy, one of Schubert's summer students on the Esterházy estates in Zseliz (1818,1824), the dedication possibly indicative of a romantic attachment between teacher and student. Following the Jerusalem Piano Duo's' elegiac delivery of the Fantasie's haunting opening, the implacable second theme soon arriving to challenge it in giant blocks of sound, the artists (Dror playing the primo, Shir the secondo) show the listener through the work's rich canvas, one of wistful introspection, of  moments of dancelike verve and general spirit of bonhomie, of quicksilver changes of mode (often alternating between major and minor in successive phrases) and intensity, then to challenge with a commanding, defiant fugue. Each return to the poetic first melody emerged more affective than previously, as the work concluded with the uncompromisingly bleak tone of the closing bars, exceptional to the works of Schubert. A carefully-detailed, personal and moving performance of this monumental work.

Johannes Brahms' Liebeslieder Waltzes for piano four hands and vocal quartet Op.52 was another work central to the Eden-Tamir Piano Duo's repertoire. Moving from Hamburg to Vienna, Brahms was now writing a large body of music set in more intimate forms, among those being the Liebeslieder Walzer, composed in the common music-making style for domestic salons. The original score calls for "piano four hands and voices ad libitum”. The texts of the Liebeslieder are East European folk poems, translated into German by Georg Friedrich Daumer.  In a letter to his publisher, Brahms dismissed his set of 18 Liebeslieder Walzer as “trifles”. Yet, despite their popular appeal, their brevity, their characteristic rhythms, and their typical pattern of 4-line texts in which each couplet is sung and then repeated, these pieces are highly sophisticated. The miniature Lieder display a variety of jolly- and light-hearted moods, of ironic, introspective, or sad feelings, some incomplete in sentiment or unexplained, with Brahms' writing elegant, elaborate and rich in word painting. Performing the collection were Shir Semmel and Dror Semmel (piano), with vocal students from the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music (Tel Aviv University) - Karni Malloul (soprano), Shulamith Lvovsky (mezzo-soprano), Nevo Weiner (tenor) and Tal Aharonovich (baritone). With the pianists placed behind them and no conductor (a conductor only if performed by a choir), this was no easy task for the young singers. Negotiating the different emotions of each of the Liebeslieder's fleeting vignettes, they joined the pianists in creating Brahms’ musical language, one intertwining popular- and art music, in presenting its Romantic gestures, its charm and its small dramas. In this quintessential Brahms work for "quick change artists", the vocal ensembles were interspersed with some lovely vocal solos. I believe Professors Eden and Tamir would have appreciated the choice of vocal students for the performance.

 

Back to 1828, to the last year of Schubert's much-too-brief life, when he composed his three last sonatas for piano, these generally seen as the culmination of the composer's lifelong occupation with the piano sonata genre. The Ein Kerem concert concluded with Schubert's last sonata - Piano Sonata in B flat major D.960. Towards the end of Bracha Eden's life, Dror Semmel talked to her about his study of the sonata, but the opportunity of his playing it to her did not eventuate. At the Jerusalem concert, Dror chose to perform it on the Eden-Tamir Center's recently-acquired 1819 Graf fortepiano, a marvellous instrument modelled by historic piano builder Paul McNulty (US) after instruments played by Beethoven, Schubert and Chopin. One of the towering masterpieces not only of the solo piano genre, but of all musical repertoire, the D.960 is an expansive composition. Schubert is thought to have performed it at least once in his last months, but it was not published until more than a decade after his death. From the exalted opening measures to those of the exuberant ending gestures, Dror Semmel's performance of it on the fortepiano was personally expressive and profound. Engaging the instrument's four pedals in order to create different timbres, he juxtaposed the work's intense aspects with its mysterious moments, highlighting Schubert's kaleidoscope of gestures with carefully chiselled phrasing and discretely-poised timing. I talked to him about playing the work on fortepiano. He believes that as modern listeners and audiences, "we are compelled to hear those instruments in comparison to the modern Steinway", adding that the distinctive action of the fortepiano " transforms the core essence of this music into a different realm of sound and expression. For example, there are many layers and nuances of piano and pianissimo."  From the almost heartbreaking tenderness of the opening movement, to the remote, austere and poignant calm of the Andante sostenuto, to the buoyant, humorous B-flat-major course of the closing Allegro non troppo, Semmel combines the imagination and pianistic colour of the past with scholarship of the present, 

"Dresden & London - The Golden Age". The Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra led by Noam Schuss. Soloists: Noam Schuss (violin), soprano Einat Aronstein

 

Noam Schuss (jbo.co.il)

Einat Aronstein (www.einataronstein.com)

In "Dresden & London - The Golden Age". Concert No.5 of the Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra's 37th subscription series on May 3rd 2026, at the Jerusalem International YMCA, JBO concertmaster Noam Schuss both led and soloed. She also provided the audience with some interesting background information, explaining the Dresden-London connections as to  composers and works on the program. We heard soprano Einat Aronstein performing music of Handel. At the harpsichord and organ was JBO founder and music director Prof. David Shemer.

 

The concert opened with Francesco Geminiani's Concerto Grosso No.7 in D minor after Corelli's Violin Sonata No.5. Vibrant and attractively ornamented, the performance brought out the music's variety of forms and colours, its musical language straddling the 17th- and 18th centuries. The JBO's playing was exuberant and moving, with Geminiani's choice and exploration of emotions remaining accessible to today's audiences. And here was the first strand of the connection between works on the program. Having studied under the celebrated Corelli, Geminiani moved to England in 1714, where his brilliant violin playing immediately met with great success, winning him much support from the aristocracy and leading figures at the Royal Court. There, he was invited to play the violin before George I, accompanied at the harpsichord by Handel himself.

 

Born in 1667 in Hanover, Antonio Lotti was a major opera composer of his time, reaching a high point when his operas inaugurated the opera house in Dresden. In 1717, Lotti took his wife, noted soprano Santa Stella, castrati Senesino and Matteo Berselli, the bass Giuseppi Boschi and a complete opera troupe to Dresden. There, Teofane, the composer's 23rd opera, formed part of the sumptuous wedding celebrations of Crown Prince Friedrich Augustus and Maria Josepha, Archduchess of Austria. The new 2000-seat opera house was built for the occasion. Another connection: Handel attended a performance of Teofane in Dresden, then taking the libretto back with him as the basis for his opera Ottone.  The JBO musicians put together a small selection of melodies from Teofane, just enough to whet the audience's appetite to hear the complete work.

 

And to Bach’s celebrated Orchestral Suite No.2 in A minor after BWV 1067…but in a less familiar setting to most of the audience. This was the first time the original violin version (reconstructed by Joshua Rifkin) was performed in Israel. Schuss led and soloed in this setting for violin solo. It was for the audience to undertake the task of putting aside the very familiar sound world of Suite No.2, in which many a flute soloist has been required to prove his worth with no respite in a work opening in the 17th-century Lully style, to close with the extremely galant final section. Known for her fine solo playing and distinctive good taste, Schuss took fellow players and audience through the work with elegance, vision and attention to fine detail. I imagine I was not the only person at the YMCA auditorium missing the sound of the traverse flute contending with the high-spirited Badinerie.

 

The program featured soprano Einat Aronstein in a selection of G.F.Handel's vocal masterpieces. She performed two arias from Handel's opera seria Radamisto - the subdued tragedy imbued in "Qual nave smarrita" (The vessel storm-driven) and the anguished "Barbari! Partiro" (Barbarian! I will leave). Radamisto was first performed at the King's Theatre, London in April 1720, a performance attended by King George I and his son, the Prince of Wales. One of Handel's most substantial and elaborate Latin motets, Silete venti (Silence, ye winds) was also probably composed in London. Aronstein delivered the devotional work with appropriate, rapt intensity, her voice even and pure, as she engaged in the careful use of vibrato to impart urgency, her diction precise. Unmannered, unforced and warm, her singing of the motet displayed refinement and technical ease in all registers. Aronstein, Schuss and the JBO string players highlighted the unmistakable dignity of Handel's music.

 

A concert of excellent performance and interest, it was splendidly led by Noam Schuss.  

 

Bach à Deux Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach Trio Sonatas. A new recording in which Emer Buckley and Jochewed Schwarz - DuoChord - perform these works on two harpsichords

 

 

Much of the interest in works of C.P.E.Bach, the fifth child and second surviving son of Johann Sebastian Bach and Maria Barbara Bach, revolves around a certain number of compositions for solo keyboard and his orchestral works. His vocal works and a large part of his chamber music have received surprisingly little attention. Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714–1788), a renowned keyboard player himself, was an extremely prolific composer, enjoying a prestigious reputation during his lifetime, with the result that his music became known far and wide. Unlike his father Johann Sebastian, who primarily concentrated on sacred vocal settings for the church, Emanuel, unburdened by cantorial responsibility, composed mostly chamber music for the court. He was particularly attracted to the trio sonata form, to which he devoted some of his finest writing. Highly experimental, composed at a time of change, these works span from the Baroque trio sonata model to the accompanied keyboard sonata, to the Classical keyboard trio…and beyond!  As to the trio sonatas written in a style closer to that of Johann Sebastian, C.P.E. revisited and revised those later in his life in order to distance himself from the Baroque style as much as possible, his own approach becoming stylistically more akin to the lighter, more florid manner of his father’s contemporary, G.P. Telemann.  Indeed, it is in his trio sonatas, now written in a lighter style, free from the complex counterpoint and harmony of his father and independent of contemporary fashions, that we follow Carl Philipp Emanuel developing his own style. Some sonatas are revisions of older compositions. Most of the originals are lost. Indeed, in a letter from 1786, Emanuel wrote that he had burnt a large number of older compositions. Concurrent with revising some early trio sonatas (in the 1740’s, when in Berlin, in the employ of Frederick the Great) he composed some new trios which were much more personal in style and clearly different from his older pieces. Performing on two harpsichords, "Bach à Deux Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach Trio Sonatas", DuoChord artists Emer Buckley and Jochewed Schwarz perform a representative selection of these unique works, offering examples of earlier- and later trio sonatas.

 

Trio sonatas Wq71 and 72, as well as Wq143, performed here, were written in 1731 when Emanuel was 17, dating back to the years of study with his father. Emanuel revised them in 1746 and 1747. They exhibit his remarkable creative will, such as in the placement of sudden pauses, the use of surprising harmonic successions, melodic embellishments, continuous transformation of a particular motif and abrupt dynamic transitions. Schwarz and Buckley's playing calls attention to J.S.Bach's influence on the works, at the same time, giving expression to Emanuel's typical fluidity of style, contrasting ideas, hearty dance rhythms and introspective slow movements. The artists' inclusion of ornamentation (some written out, some their own) adds much allure to their playing. The full-blown distinctive stylistic hallmarks of the C.P.E Bach style – the language of feeling, the essence of the north German aesthetic of Empfindsamkeit, with the application of the principles of rhetoric in his works and new ventures into the realm of harmony is obvious in the four Sonatas of Wq75-78. Here was music that catered to a new public eager for personal expression. Performing Trio Sonata in C minor Wq78 (1763), Buckley and Schwarz take on  board its conversational dialogue and the composer's personal idiom with its stylistic daring. They maintain the intensity of the large opening Allegro moderato with vibrancy and feeling, weaving the Adagio's different wandering melody and chordal motif elements into one entity of poignancy, then to give a fiery, vigorous rendering of the challenging Presto, a movement wrought of long, dovetailed phrases. Their affection for the music is evident throughout.

 

And no less affection filters through the artists' reading of Trio Sonata in D-major Wq151 (1747), originally scored for flute, violin and continuo. Schwarz and Buckley's playing of the opening Allegro is exciting, as they maintain the tension of its lively course throughout, to be followed by a well-disposed, finely balanced reading of the Largo and culminating with the joyful, playful energy they infuse into the final Allegro. Wq162 in E major (1749) marks a particularly exemplary case of Emanuel's mature sonata style and of the fact that he had, indeed, discarded any and every concession to the then-ruling musical taste, yet still retaining his ability to compose under the restraints of the court. Buckley and Schwarz's playing addresses the "otherness" of C.P.E's personal expression, from the Allegretto's unpredicted twists and turns, through the chromatic odyssey of the Allegro Di Molto and winding up with the infectious mirth and cheerfulness of the Allegro Assai.

 

In his Essay on the True Art of Playing a Keyboard Instrument (1778), C.P.E. Bach writes: “Play from the soul, not like a trained bird! …. A musician cannot move others unless he too is moved…" Jochewed Schwarz and Emer Buckley's articulate playing of Bach's trio sonatas is bold, articulate, tasteful, intelligent and discerning. It endorses the growing importance of the composer's personal feelings and emotions, displays his light, florid and imaginative style and fulfills the music's call for opulent embellishment. Engaging their undeniable technical prowess, the artists' playing invites the listener to join them on this journey through Bach's array of shifting moods, their performance reactive, conversational and moving.

 

"Bach à Deux Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach Trio Sonatas" was recorded at the Paris atelier of Reinhard von Nagel in 2023. Playing from the online edition of the Complete Works of C.P.E.Bach, the artists perform on two double-manual harpsichords built by Reinhard von Nagel, each instrument reflecting a distinct historical model and sound world. One is after an instrument by Christian Kroll, a German-born maker active in Lyon in the 1770s; it offers a clear, bright and slightly incisive sound. The other, inspired by two early 18th-century instruments by the German builder Michael Mietke, features a warmer, rounder tone and a more blended resonance. Together, the instruments create subtle contrast of colour and character, shaping the dialogue between the two parts.

Jochewed Schwarz, Emer Buckley (Reinhard von Nagel)

The harpsichords (J. Schwarz)