Israeli Music > Reviews

Musical Dialogues of East and West. 28 November 2004.

Review by Malcolm Miller

An uplifting performance of Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus formed a thrilling climax to East-West Musical Dialogues, an exciting day of concerts, dance and discussion at the South Bank Centre on 28 November 2004 presented by the Jewish Music Institute. Handel’s oratorio, based on the Book of the Maccabees, was intended as an allegory for the victory of the Protestant English over the Catholic Jacobite rebels, yet has a universal message of faith and rededication of the spirit, associated with the Jewish festival of Hanukah. Handel’s tuneful treasures were projected with virtuosity by the young soloists, Ashley Catling, tenor, as Judah, John Lofthouse, bass, as his bother Simon, and the Israelite man and woman, Canadian soprano Gillian Keith and Israeli mezzo Ruti Halvani, whose beautiful duets include the lilting O lovely Peace and famous See the Conqu’ring Hero, familiar both as a Hebrew Hanukah song and Christian hymn! Ronald Corps’ brisk baton well conveyed the optimistic mood of this evergreen masterpiece, and elicited lively singing from the London Chorus in their many varied choruses, with colourful playing from the New London Orchestra, particularly the brass.

Amongst the day’s highlights were chamber and vocal masterpieces by Paul Ben-Haim (1897-1984), a pioneer of Israel ’s ‘Mediterranean Style’ who died twenty years ago, leaving a legacy of masterly works in almost every genre. His atmospheric solo sonatas for piano and violin, composed in the 1950s for Menachem Pressler and Yehudi Menuhin, were projected with panache by the Israeli-born artists Gila Goldstein, piano, and Ofer Falk, violin, who also gave a ravishing account of the impressionistic Improvisation and Dance, a duo from 1939. Mezzo-soprano Ruti Halvani sang Ben-Haim’s beautiful songs alongside arrangements by Menachem Wiesenberg, the JMI Visiting Israeli Composer, of folksongs by the iconic Israeli songwriter Naomi Shemer. Ben-Haim’s choral Psalms setting featured in the Zemel Choir’s Queen Elizabeth Hall concert the centrepiece of which was the premiere of a Klezmer concerto by Rohan Kriwaczek, with the She’koyokh Klezmer Band in dialogue with the Wallace Ensemble under their director Ben Wolf. Wolf also conducted the Zemel Choir in beautiful Hebrew settings by Paul Ben-Haim’s contemporary Mordecai Seter, whose Sabbath Service was delivered with richness by a well-blended team of Alice Woodbridge, Ann Sadan, Robert Brody and Benjamin Seifert. Yehezkel Braun, a major Israeli composer born in the 1920s, was present to receive applause for the premier of a new strong orchestra version of his Psalm settings To the Chief Musician Upon Gittith (1995), with its attractive evocation of oriental and Yemenite melodies. More middle-eastern flavours flowed in the Semitic Suite by Ben-Haim’s contemporary Boskovich, part of an outstanding recital by piano duo Anthony Goldstone and Caroline Clemmow, who brought dazzling dexterity to the ‘Yiddish Dances’ by British composer Adam Gorb, newly arranged from the wind ensemble original. Their exotic programme continued imaginatively with Hans Gal’s Serbian Dances and Rimsky Korsakov’s Sheherezade and an evocative encore, Borodin’s In the Steppes of Central Asia. The synthesis of Arabic, Jewish and European styles and sounds had formed the topic of a fascinating and friendly panel discussion I was privileged to chair in the morning with Menachem Wiesenberg, veteran Israeli composer Yehezkel Braun, Adam Gorb and the Israeli-Arab composer and performer George Samaan. The ideal of harmonious coexistence through musical dialogue was summed up in the effervescent final world music concert in which Samaan joined Israeli bassist Daphne Sadeh and the Voyagers, a truly creative and fruitful partnership, and distinctive dialogue of East and West.

Malcolm Miller (first published in Musical Opinion)

Read Malcolm Miller's introduction to the programme