Program

 

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 – 1791)

String Quintet No. 3 in C major K. 515 (April 19, 1787)
Allegro
Menuetto
Allegretto
Andante
Allegro

String Quintet No. 4 in G minor K. 516 (May 16, 1787)
Allegro
Menuetto & Trio
Allegretto
Adagio ma non troppo
Allegro

 

On the Program

On the program by Brian Robbins

By fairly common consent, Mozart's supreme examples of the genre are the two quintets he composed in close succession in 1787, those in C major, K. 515, and G minor, K. 516, works unchallenged as the twin peaks of the repertoire.

All five of Mozart's numbered string quintets are composed for a combination of two violins, two violas, and cello, an unusual disposition that varies from the more customary quintet that calls for viola and two cellos (the ensemble used, for example, by Boccherini and Schubert). Mozart's choice of two violas undoubtedly reflects his great love for the instrument, and its use profoundly affects the color and structure of all his string quintets.

The String Quintet No. 3 in C major, K. 515 (1787) is the first of a pair completed in the spring of 1787. Why Mozart should have returned to the genre fourteen years after his previous effort, the Quintet in B flat major, K. 174, is unclear. Having recently explored the potential of the string quartet in the six works dedicated to Haydn and the "Hoffmeister" Quartet, K. 499 (1786), perhaps he felt the need to seek a new challenge in the chamber medium. Mozart entered the Quintet into his thematic catalog on April 19, 1787, shortly after returning to Vienna from Prague, where the triumphant reception of Le nozze di Figaro had resulted in a commission for a new opera. He likely worked on the Quintet while waiting to receive the libretto for Don Giovanni from his collaborator Lorenzo da Ponte.

There seems to be little doubt that Mozart planned the C major Quintet and its successor, the Quintet in G minor, K. 516 as a contrasting pair, in much the same manner as the Symphonies Nos. 40 and 41 (interestingly, also in G minor and C major, respectively). Indeed, in its elevated character, breadth, and scope, the C major Quintet inhabits a world very close to that of the "Jupiter" Symphony. The opening Allegro of the Quintet is one of Mozart's boldest and most substantial conceptions, a truly noble movement that includes a development section of exceptional richness and diversity. The Minuet, more customarily the third movement in such works, follows; its nearly symphonic construction is far removed from a typical stylized dance. The Andante flows with a heart-easing tranquility that is hardly dissipated by the glowing harmonies of the finale, a movement of deceptive simplicity that was once characterized by Mozart's biographer Alfred Einstein as "godlike and childlike."

The Quintet in G minor, K. 516 is the second of two string quintets Mozart completed within a month's time during the spring of 1787. Prior to that year, he had contributed but a single example to the genre, nearly 15 years earlier: the Quintet in B flat major, K. 174. Mozart's choice of two violins, two violas, and cello for all of his string quintets is unusual in the Classical era; composers like Boccherini generally opted for the use of viola and two cellos. A precedent for Mozart's choice may be found in a number of light Austrian divertimento-type works, including a Notturno by Michael Haydn, active at the Salzburg court and well-known to Mozart and his family.

Mozart entered the G minor Quintet in his thematic catalog on May 16, 1787, on the heels of the Quintet in C major, K. 515. While there is no documentary evidence to explain why Mozart returned to the medium after so many years, there seems to be little doubt that K. 515 and K. 516 were composed as a contrasting pair in much the same manner as the Symphonies Nos. 40 and 41. Indeed, while the C major Quintet may be seen as directly analogous with the "Jupiter" (the Symphony No. 41 in C major, K. 551) in its breadth and elevated Olympian utterances, the G minor may be seen as counterpart to the Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550.

The use of minor modes was comparatively rare during the Classical era, and for Mozart, G minor was perhaps the most deeply personal of all keys, one in which he expressed not only powerful passions but also tragedy. The prevailing combination of melancholy and sometimes violent drama in the G minor Quintet is underlined by Mozart's extraordinarily skillful exploitation of the dark sonorities inherently possibly within this instrumentation.This is particularly evident, for instance, in the vivid contrast drawn between the prevalent somber coloring and passages that highlight the violin's topmost registers.

Efforts to escape to the major mode in the opening Allegro are resolutely denied by the prevailing darkness. As in the C major Quintet, the Menuetto is placed second in the work, though it does little to lift the mood. The Adagio non troppo is a lonely, despairing hymn. Though the finale finally turns to the parallel major key of G, it is not a "happy" major but one that occupies an ambiguous terrain, a characteristic common in Mozart's late works. A year after completing the C major and G minor Quintets, Mozart advertised them for sale, along with his string quintet arrangement of the Serenade in C minor, K. 388.

 

 

The program

 

Padre José Maurício Nunes Garcia (1767-1830) - Missa Pastoril para a Noite de Natal
I. Kyrie - II. Gloria - III. Laudamus Te - IV. Gratias Agimus Tibi - V. Qui Tollis - VI. Qui Sedes -
VII. Cum Sancto Spiritu - VIII. Patrem omnipotentem - IX. Et Incarnatus - X. Crucifixus -
XI. Et Resurrexit - XII. Sanctus - XIII. Hosanna - XIV. Benedictus - XV. Agnus Dei

Marcos Portugal (1762-1830) Overture Il Duca di Foix

D. Pedro I, de Alcântara e Bragança (1798-1834) - Credo in C Major (1829)
I. Credo – II. Et Incarnatus – III. Crucifixus – IV. Et Ressurexit/ Confiteor – V. Sanctus –
Hosanna - VI. Benedictus/Hosanna – VII. Agnus Dei/ Dona nobis pacem

 

Anonymous, early 19th century - Lundu da cachaça

 

 

 

Artists

 

Monica Schwartz (soprano), Noa Hope (alto), Itamar Hildesheim (tenor), Gili Rinot (classical clarinet).

 The Madrigal Singers directed by Itay Berckovitch

Ensemble PHOENIX on period instruments:

Noam Schuss, Nahara Carmel - violins
Dafna Ravid, Amos Boasson, Cesare Zanfini, Hila Heller – violins & violas
Miriam Fingert, Rona Tavior – violas
Marina Katz, Hamoutal Marom – celli
Evie Bloom – doublebass
Guy Pardo - organ
Genevieve Blanchard - classical flute
Gili Rinot, Nurit Bloom – classical clarinets
Gilat Rotkopf,  Alexander Fine – classical bassoon
Barak Yeivin, Shlomi Eini – natural horns 
Evgeny Karasik – timpani

Conductor, musical director: Myrna Herzog

On the program

 

In 1808 the Portuguese Royal family fleeing from Napoleon arrived to Brazil. Scattered in several ships, the whole court,  their servants and the Royal Chapel, 15,000 people bringing a library with more than 60,000 books, landed in the port of Rio! Their stay, which lasted until 1821, brought about a true cultural revolution. In 1822, it was the Portuguese king's son, Pedro de Alcântara, who proclaimed the Brazil's Independence from Portugal. 

Emperor Pedro I of Brazil and Pedro IV of Portugal, was nine years old when he arrived to Rio. There the Portuguese boy would have a a refined education, which included extensive musical studies, with teachers such as Sigismond Neukomm and Marcos Portugal. He played 12 instruments, including clarinet, cello, bassoon, and as a composer, was strongly influenced by Rossini, whom he came to know personally in Paris. The Credo is regarded as his most important work.

Considered the most important Brazilian composer of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Father José Maurício Nunes Garcia stood out for the great quality of his work. With the arrival of the Portuguese court in Brazil in 1808, he impressed the Portuguese king D. João VI with his talent, and was accordingly named Master of the Royal Chapel.  His Missa Pastoril para a Noite de Natal written for the Christmas of 1811 has an interesting scoring of violas and celli (no violins!); its naive atmosphere, with enchanting clarinet solos pervading the whole work, often in dialogue with the first cello, transports us to another world. 

Born in Lisbon, Marcos Portugal had immense success as an opera composer, achieving international fame still unsurpassed in thehistory of Portuguese music. He came to Brazil in 1811 at the request of King John VI and remained in Rio de Janeiro when the Portuguese court returned to Portugal, in 1821, continuing to serve his pupil, the king’s son, Pedro, as he became the first Emperor of Brazil. Marcos Portugal died a Brazilian citizen in Rio de Janeiro in 1830. The composer wrote the first official national anthems of both Portugal and Brazil and left a major mark in Brazilian music. Representing the lighter side of the life in Rio de Janeiro at the turn of the 19th century, we present one of his opera overtures.

The lundú or lundum was a popular sensuous African dance brought to Brazil by Bantu slaves. Closing the program, a delicious lundu from the early 19th century, the Lundu da Cachaça, praising the virtues of the Brazil's national hard drink. 

 

The Glory of Venice

 

The Glory of Venice: Caldara, Lotti, Vivaldi

The extraordinary music of Venetians Lotti, Caldara and Vivaldi influenced some the most important composers of the 18th century: Bach, Haendel, Mozart.

To the ones familiar with Mozart's Requiem, to listen to Antonio Lotti's Requiem written in 1704 (so, before Mozart was born) will be an experience – making one wonder why we do not hear more Lotti in our concert halls. Mozart employ's one of Lotti's Dies irae themes  twice in the Requiem: in the Kyrie and in the " cum sanctis tuis" part of the Communio.

Bach admired so much Vivaldi's music that he made arrangements of several of his works.  Bach admired the music of Antonio Caldara as well, and arranged the Suscepit Israel movement (BWV 1082) from the Magnificat in C major, which he had copied in the early 1740s.

It is interesting to note how Stravinsky refered to Vivaldi and Caldara: «Vivaldi is greatly overrated […],  Caldara, I respect».

 

Ensemble PHOENIX on early instruments
The Madrigal Singers directed by Itay Berckovich

Soloist singers: Monica Schwartz, Rona Shrira, Yonathan Suissa, Hagai Berenson
Violin solo: Noam Schuss
Conductor, musical director: Myrna Herzog

 

With the support of  

Istituto Italiano di Cultura Haifa

Istituto Italiano di Cultura Tel Aviv

      

            

Reviews

 

 

"In The Glory of Venice. Dr. Myrna Herzog and the musicians joining her in this concert paid homage to the golden age of Venice, shedding light on its wealth of sacred and popular music, in performance that was enlightened, exciting and masterful."
Read Pamela Hickman's full review here. 

 

 

Program

 

PROGRAM

Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767), Trio-sonata in g minor, TWV 42:g7
Siciliana - Allegro - Adagio - Allegro assai

Telemann - Sonata for cello and basso continuo in D Major "Der getreue Musikmeister" No. 16 TWV 41:D6
Lento - Allegro - Largo - Allegro

 J.S. Bach (1680-1750) - Trio-sonata in G Major , BWV 1027 for flute, viola da gamba and continuo
Adagio/ Allegro ma non tanto/ Andante/ Allegro moderato

J.S. Bach – Prelude and fugue in e minor WTC I, BWV 855

 J.S. Bach – Trio-sonata in D major, BWV 1028 for viola da gamba and harpsichord
Adagio/ Allegro/ Andante/ Allegro

Telemann – Trio-sonata in a minor, TWV 42:a7
Andante – Allegro – Adagio - Allegro

 

Program

François Couperin (1668-1733) – Ninth Concert, Ritratto dell’amore (The portrait of Love)
The Charm – Enjoyment – Gracefulness – The “I-don’t-know-what” 

Uri Brenner (1974) – Magic Carpet (2021) 

Haim Alexander (1915-2012) - Improvisation on a Persian Wedding Song (1974) 

Edmundo Vilani Côrtes (1930) - Five Brazilian miniatures (1978)
Prelúdio – Toada – Chorinho – Cantiga de ninar (Lullaby) - Baião 

Bohuslav Martinů (1890-1959) - Deux pieces pour clavecin (op posth.)
Lento - Allegro con brio

J.S. Bach (1680-1750) - Sonata in D major, BWV 1028 for viola da gamba and harpsichord
Adagio/ Allegro/ Andante/ Allegro 

 

Review

 "Myrna Herzog and Mahan Esfahani gave refined, dedicated, in-depth expression to the rich, exotic hues of Brener's oriental musical canvas, to both its mystery and intensity, a journey taking the listener through the piece's wide range of textures and timbres, evoking from eerie, otherworldly sensations to busy, "crowd scenes" and wild, unrelenting dances. Brener's writing for the two instruments is sophisticated, informed and impactful". 
Read Pamela Hickman's full review here. 

Some reactions via facebook:

– Ricardo Tacuchian (Brazilian composer): Spectacular: sensational work and performers.
– Aharon Shefi (Israseli composer) - Bravo. Moving.  The power of the "intimate" instruments is expressed strongly, loudly and defiantly.
– Guenter Krause (German composer) - Listening in the morning took me central european to Sheherezades 1001 nights dreamland again . Great piece and recording.
– Shlomo Israeli: Fascinating and intriguing
– Eduardo Camenietzki (former musical producer at TV Cultura, TV Educativa and TV Globo, Rio),:  What a wonderful creation!!!!!!! And what a sound!!!
– Marina Katz: Bravissimo!! Very beautiful performance of very special composition with the Middle East accent!
– Tal Arbel: Bravo Myrna Herzog! This is a very meaningful addition to the contemporary repertoire for viol and harpsichord!
– Giomar Garcia Sthel: LOVED IT
– Oren Perlin: How beautiful! Bravo!
– Naama Lion: Beautiful piece, great performance!

 

.

On the Program

 

"Leonora Duarte, Palazzo and Synagogue" is a glimpse into the musical world of Marranos and Jews in the Low Countries in the 17th century: from the house concerts at the Duarte palazzo, attended by Antwerp's elite, to the songs chanted at the Portuguese synagogue in Amsterdam (known as 'HaMakom’ for its openness and tolerance of Jews).

– The Duartes were a Portuguese Marrano family of jewellery and diamond merchants who settled in Antwerp in the early 1600s, fleeing the Inquisition. Cultivated people, art collectors (friends of Ruckers, Vermeer, and possibly Rubens), Gaspar Duarte and his six children played many instruments, composed, and held prestigious concerts at their home on the Mier,(Antwerp’s main street) featuring music by contemporary composers such as Frescobaldi, Salomone Rossi, Nicholas Lanier and John Bull.

– Leonora Duarte (1610-1678) had an excellent musical education, with instruction on the viol, lute, harpsichord and in composition and it was probably for this domestic circle that she composed her 7 polyphonic sinfonias for 5 viols (surviving in Oxford’s Christ Church College Mus. ms. 429). This is the only known viol consort music written by a woman in the 16th and 17th centuries. It is influenced by English and Italian consort music, most especially Frescobaldi's 1615 Recercari (his Recercar settimo is quoted in her sinfonia 6).

– Among the guests at Duarte’s musical evenings were exponents of the Dutch letters, traveling diplomats and literati, such as Constantijn Huygens, Dutch poet Anna Roemers Visscher, composer Nicholas Lanier, and singer Anne de la Barre and the influential English aristocrat, William Cavendish, Duke of Newcastle.

– Constantijn Huygens was a diplomat at the service of the Princes of Orange and also a poet, philosopher, musician and patron of rising talents such as Rembrandt. He was enthusiastic about the Duarte sisters' voices, and sent them his music . He corresponded with Gaspar Duarte, and also with Descartes and Corneille.

– Nicholas Lanier descended on his father side, from a French Huguenot family of royal musicians (the Lanière family), and on his mother side from a Jewish Venetian family of royal musicians at the Tudor court (Galliardello). His aunt, Emilia Bassano, might have been the famous Dark Lady of Shakespeare's sonnets.

– John Bull (1562/3–1628), was an English organist and one of the most famous composers of keyboard music of the early 17th century. In 1616 he became the organist of the Cathedral of Antwerp and is supposed to have been Leonora's tutor.

– The 10 songs from the Portuguese synagogue in Amsterdam are part of a collection notated by the conductor of the synagogue choir David Ricardo, son of the congregation's chief rabbi Dr. Benjamin Ricardo and grandson of the cantor Eliakim Alvarez Vega. Ricardo left Holland to Israel in 1933, when the Nazis rose to power. When the Nazis invaded the Netherlands in May 1940, Ricardo understood in depth that the tradition dating from 1675 was in danger of perishing, and started to notate from memory 170 piyyutim - some of them in four voices he had written himself. The collection is being kept the National Library Library, and we are indebted to Rachel Thaller Ricardo for having revealed it and shared it with us.

In the photo, the Duarte residence on the Meir in Antwerp, 1898, shortly before its demolition. Photograph Antwerp, City Archives.

Myrna Herzog

Reviews

 Ensemble PHOENIX presents "Leonora Duarte, Palazzo and Synagogue", a concert of Duarte's music, that of her circle and of music sung at the Portuguese Synagogue of Amsterdam 
by Pamela Hickman

“Leonora Duarte, Palazzo and Synagogue” was a joint event of Ensemble PHOENIX and the Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra of the “Witches?” Festival (July 5-31, 2021, artistic director: David Shemer), a festival produced by the JBO, celebrating women and femininity in Baroque music. The program, researched, directed and assembled by PHOENIX director Myrna Herzog, took place at New Spirit House, Jerusalem, on July 20th 2021.  
 

 JBO founder and director Prof. David Shemer provided the audience with some information on Flemish composer and musician Leonora Duarte (1610-1678). She was born in Antwerp to a wealthy Portuguese-Jewish family of prominent merchants and art collectors. They were members of the Converso community (outwardly acting as Catholics while secretly maintaining their Jewish faith and practices. The Duarte family had left Portugal, settling in Antwerp to escape the infamous Inquisition.) Leonora received a superb musical education that included instruction in playing the viol, virginals and lute, as well as lessons in composition. The Duarte home was a nexus of music-making and the visual arts, the musical evenings, with Leonora and her siblings performing in them, becoming a port of call for traveling diplomats, literati, thinkers and composers, among the latter, Nicholas Lanier, the influential Constantijn Huygens, John Bull (1562/3–1628), and more. 

Duarte wrote music for viol consort. All her surviving compositions - seven beautiful Fantasias - were performed at the festive concert in Jerusalem by Myrna Herzog, Tal Arbel, Marina Katz, Sonia Navot and Shmuel Magen (viols), Ophira Zakai (theorbo). and Marina Minkin (organ). Having some similarities to works of English Catholic keyboard player and composer John Bull, who was director of music at Antwerp Cathedral at the time (was he perhaps Duarte’s teacher?), the fantasias display Duarte’s familiarity not only with Tudor consort music but also with the Italian fantasia style of the late Renaissance as well as other Continental styles. In playing that was both articulate and poetic, the artists presented Duarte’s thought processes, her sophisticated free contrapuntal writing and the different moods possible within each piece, giving the audience a rare opportunity to experience the composer’s formidable compositional skills and elegant musical language, also her sense of quietude and introspection. Offering a glimpse into Baroque music-making within the domestic sphere, these fantasias are the only record of music written for the viol by a woman in the 17th century. 

As to the music sung in the Portuguese Synagogue of Amsterdam, it was saved from oblivion by the last choral conductor working there - David Ricardo (1904-1982) - who, on foreseeing the future destruction of the Amsterdam Jewish community, emigrated to Israel in 1933. He then set about notating 170 synagogue songs from memory, many of these Sephardic liturgical melodies arranged for 4-voices. Herzog was fortunate in receiving a copy of this important collection from Ricardo’s daughter, Rachel Thaller Ricardo, who was present at the Jerusalem concert. Thaller Ricardo spoke about the tradition of singing these very songs at family gatherings. Herzog chose some of the songs from the collection to be performed at the concert, several opening with a vocal solo, to proceed with the vocal ensemble, a familiar set-up in Central European synagogue music. Herzog’s order of performing the (mostly major) vocal pieces was in logical modulating sequence, with the result that each of the two groups of songs hung together, forming a musical whole. Myrna Herzog‘s preference for the 1/6 syntonic comma meantone temperament here, one well suited to 17th and 18th century music, was due to its highly coloured temperament, enhancing the contrasts between consonance and dissonance. What emerged was a lush fusion of instrumental and vocal sound combinations, inspiring the artists to highlight the textual, musical and emotional content of each song. Joining the ensemble made up of some of Israel’s most established Baroque instrumentalists, the three young singers, shining in both solos and ensembles, were clearly moved by the experience, as was the audience.

From music written by members of Duarte’s artistic circle, we heard “Love’s Constancy”, Nicholas Lanier’s quintessentially English ostinato-based setting of a Thomas Carew poem, this love song attesting to the composer’s sophisticated integration of text and music. Accompanied by harpsichord, bass viol and theorbo (Lanier frequently accompanied himself on the lute) Sharon Tadmor's singing of the evocative, ground bass ayre, with its many references to the natural world, was fresh and vibrant. Dutch diplomat and poet Constantijn Huygens, prominent in the fields of scholarship, music and science, was known to have performed and enjoyed music exclusively within circles of close friends belonging to the cultural elite of refined musical taste. From his 1647 collection of compositions in the Italian Baroque style comprising compositions for voice and basso continuo, tenor Itamar Hildesheim performed “Graves tesmoins de mes délices”, a love song of a less optimistic nature than Lanier’s. Following a stately viol solo (Herzog) introducing the piece, Hildesheim gave a sensitive enactment of the song, his presentation convincing and expressive, his well-anchored voice sculpting the piece’s rich shaping and emotional gestures in a piece typical of Huygens’ refined and expressive personal style.

Throughout the event, Marina Minkin divided her time between playing virginal and organ. Performing John Bull’s In Nomine XXXVII from the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book on the virginal (an informed choice) her playing was a reminder that Bull was one of the leading keyboard virtuosos of his time.  Minkin drew the audience into the workings of the plainchant-based piece and its motifs in delivery that was alive, technically assured and musically very interesting.

G. Frescobaldi’s “Si l’aura spira” closed this pivotal musical event on an exuberant note. Originally written for solo voice and continuo, Herzog had added two inner voices to it for the occasion. It was editor David Pinto who claimed that "four of the parts of Duarte’s Sinfonia 6 are taken well-nigh wholesale from a work in Frescobaldi’s 4-part Ricercari (1615), Ricercar Settimo, in which she {Duarte} contributed a second treble line and shortened Frescobaldi’s text.” A warm rousing, heady farewell to the evening’s music, the song opened with Liron Givoni's animated singing of the melody, the song's dancelike course coloured with gentle percussion (Herzog) and  interspersed with recorder- (Arbel) and virginal solos (Minkin), all resulting in a vocal-instrumental weave that was robust and joyful.

“If the breezes blow ever charming,

The budding roses will show their laughing faces,

And the shady emerald hedge

Need not fear the summer heat.

To the dance, to the dance, merrily come,

Pleasing nymphs, flower of beauty!”

Throughout the program, the high-quality of performance, offering each artist the opportunity to shine, was the result of Myrna Herzog's profound groundwork and inquiry into the music and of thorough and painstaking preparation under her guidance.

  

 

 

 

Program

 

Stephen Storace (1762-1796) - Piano Trio No. 3 in B flat major (1789)
Allegro - Adagio - Rondo

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) - Piano Trio KV 542 in E major (1788)
Allegro - Andante grazioso - Allegro

Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) – Piano trio no. 40 in f# minor, Hoboken XV : 26 (1795) 
Allegro - Adagio cantabile - Tempo di minuetto

Stephen Storace - Piano Trio no.2 in C major (1789)
Allegro Con Spirito - Largo Con Espressione - Rondo: Allegretto

 

 

 

 

Program

 

Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart (1756 -- 1791)

Overture from the opera Don Giovanni K 527 (1787) 

Aria Vedrai, carino from Don Giovanni Act II, No. 18 

Parto, ma tu ben mio (with  clarinet obbligato) from La clemenza di Tito KV 621/ Act 1 (1791)

Antonio Salieri (1750-1825) 

Overture from the opera Les Danaides (1784) 

Aria "Misera abbandonata" (with  clarinet obbligato) from Palmira, Regina di Persia (1795) 

Aria Dopo pranzo addormentata from Il Rico d’un giorno (1784)

Mozart x Salieri -  A MUSICAL QUIZ. Can you really tell who wrote what?

Salieri - Suite from Les Danaides  (Un poco adagio - Allegretto - Allegretto - Allegro brillante)

Sacred works:

Salieri – Aria Vorrei dirti il mio tormento from La passione di Gesù Cristo (1776)

Mozart - Aria Alleluja from motet Exsultate, jubilate, K. 165 (1773) 

Mozart - Andante in C for flute and orchestra  KV 315 (1778)

                 Marcia: Maestoso from Serenata notturna KV 239 (1776)

Mozart – Aria Voi che sapete from Le nozze di Figaro, K.492 / Act 2 - (1786)

Salieri – Aria Son qual lacera tartana (Renoppia, Atto II, Scena X) from La Secchia rapita (1772)

"The danger of the word “genius” is that it implies an almost biological category—an innately superior being, a superhero. It is probably no accident that the category of “genius,” an obsession of the nineteenth century, coincided with the emergence of the pseudoscience of race, which held that certain peoples were genetically fitter than others. At the same time, “genius” easily becomes a branding term used to streamline the selling of cultural goods. The perils of the term become clear when the authorship of a work is uncertain. In 1987, the musicologist John Spitzer published an amusing and edifying article about the Sinfonia Concertante for Winds, K. 297b, which was long thought to be by Mozart. In its heyday, the Sinfonia was said to be “truly Mozartean” and as “monumental as a palace courtyard.” Once uncertainty about the attribution set in, the piece was called “cheap and repetitive.” The notes themselves had not changed."  Alex Ross, “Antonio Salieri’s Revenge”, The New Yorker.

On the Program

The music of this opera, as always with Salieri, is outstanding: its wealth of ideas and its perfection of declamation put it on the same level as Mozart’s". E.T.A. Hoffmann, 1795, upon hearing Axur Re d’Ormus.

“There is astonishing richness and variety. And everything is handled with very refined taste.” Goethe on Salieri’s “La Scuola de’ Gelosi”

"Every one of his [Salieri] works, the largest as well as the smallest, bears the stamp of the philosophical composer, who was able to choose a fitting style for every poem, consider every situation in an opera to a nicety, sketch every character properly and express every feeling . . . as nature intended." lgnaz von Mosel

 

Very few people are nowadays acquainted with the works of the "philosophical composer", and many of his works have not been published modernly and lay dormant at the Austrian National Library. It is our aim to inspire you to keep on cherishing Mozart's music, adding to it a fondness for the music of his contemporary Salieri, and a context upon which to understand both outputs. For instance, we believe that after hearing Salieri's overture to Les Danaides (1784), one will appreciate differently Mozart's overture to Don Giovanni (1787). 

Salieri's music has of course a common ground with Mozart's, but quite a different personality and styles. Due to his cosmopolitanism, Salieri was a true camaleon: he is very deeply Italian, amazingly French (almost like a spiritual disciple of Rameau) and so Viennese that Empress Maria Theresa refers to him as one of "our composers" as opposed to the Italians.  His music has a drama, a brilliance, a pathos very typically Salieri's,  allied to a profound, heartbreaking lyricism.  "I shed tears ten times; it was too strong for me", wrote the poet Heinrich Von Gerstenberg, after hearing Salieri's opera Armida.

In the late 18^th century, musical works were perceived dynamically by composers and public alike. Operas were periodically revised and could received alternative instrumentations, be cut, enlarged or altered more or less heavily according to public taste, the composer’s artistic development, available performing forces and market requests. The adaptation of operas and symphonies to chamber ensembles was also rather common, either performed by the composer himself or by a trusted party (as Haydn’s 12 symphonies entrusted to Salomon, who published them as flute quintets), or simply done by enterprising individuals in response to the demands of the market. Ensemble PHOENIX on period instruments performs this program in chamber setting, employing a string quintet, classical flute, classical clarinet, classical bassoon and natural timpani. Its recent performance of Storace's opera The Pirates in the same setting was recently described as “a carefully balanced ensemble playing of genuine beauty and lushness”.  

 

Ensemble PHOENIX on early instruments: Ya'akov Rubinstein & Lia Raikhlin (violins), Daniel Tanchelson (viola), Lucia D'Anna (cello), Ron Veprik (double bass), Genevieve Blanchard (classical flute), Gili Rinot (classical clarinets), Alexander Fine (classical bassoon), Evgeny Karasik (early tympani).

Vittoria Giacobazzi (Italy)

Vittoria Giacobazzi is a soprano lirico/leggero with a brilliant but warm voice, especially suitable for music from the 17th and 18th centuries. She studied baroque music with Italian mezzo-soprano Romina Basso and Belcanto with tenor William Matteuzzi.

A versatile artist, Vittoria performs a lot of baroque and classical music, having often worked with La Venexiana and with Jordi Savall in La Capella Reial de Catalunya, and also collaborates with contemporary music groups such as as the “AltreVoci” ensemble.

 

She has recently participated in the making of several CDs : “Jephte” by Carissimi with San Felice Ensemble (“Opera Network” association in Florence), “Il Martirio di Santa Caterina d’Alessandria” by P. Tosi (“Cosarara” Consort and Association in Naples),“Voces de Sefarad” (with Romina Basso and guitarist Alberto Mersica, Brilliant Classics edition). In March 2019 she has participated in the recording of a CD of unpublished music by the female composer Francesca Campana with Ricercare Antico Ensemble (Brilliant Classics edition).

 

A winner of the Italian Opera-studio “Primo Palcoscenico” in 2012 in Cesena with the role of Belinda in Dido and Aeneas by H. Purcell, Vittoria Giacobazzi has sung a plethora of roles from the baroque and classical music periods, such as: Amore in “La purpura de la rosa” by T. Torrejón y Velasco; Fortuna, Virtù and Damigella in “L’incoronazione di Poppea”; Fortuna and Giunone in “Il Ritorno di Ulisse in Patria”; the Ingrata solista in “Il ballo delle ingrate” and Lamento di Arianna by C. Monteverdi; Speranza and Obbedienza in the oratory “Giona” by D. Bassani; Filia in the oratorio “Jephte” by Giacomo Carissimi; Belinda in “Dido and Aeneas” by Purcell; Amor Divino in the oratory “La Conversione di Maddalena” by G. Bononcini; Piacere in “Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno” by G. F. Haendel; the Angel in the serious drama “Li prodigi della Divina gratia nella morte e nella conversione di S.Guglielmo duca d’Aquitania”; Serpina in “La serva padrona” by G. B. Pergolesi; Barbarina in “Le nozze di Figaro”, Zerlina in “Don Giovanni” and Mademoiselle Silberklang in Der Schauspieldirektor by W.A.Mozart; She has also playedSerafina in the 19^th century intermezzo buffo “Il Campanello di notte” by G. Donizetti, and as Suor Maria in the 20^th century opera “Mese mariano” by Umberto Giordano.

She has been a frequent presence in baroque festivals such as “Grandezze & Meraviglie” (Modena), “Spazio&Musica” (Vicenza), “Reate festival” (Rome and Rieti), “Sounding times”(Siena), “Reate” festival, “Sagra Musicale Lucchese” (Lucca), “Rassegna internazionale di musica per organo” (Grottammare), “Oude Musiek” Festival (Utrecht, Nl), Festival “Opera Barocca” 2017 (Prague-Cz, with the performance on Monteverdi “Zefiro, Zefiro Torna” directed by G.Capuano), “Musica Cortese” (Slovenia), “Stuttgarter Festspiele” (Stuttgart, De), “Thüringer Bachwochen” Festival (Weimar, De), “Schwetzinger Festspiele” (Schwetzingen, De), Klangvokal Musikfestival (Dortmund, De);, She has been a guest with ensembles “Lautten Compagney Berlin”, “La Venexiana”, “Cosarara”, “Bologna Baroque Ensemble”, “Ricercare Antico”, “La Capella Reial de Catalunya” (direction J. Savall), “Il Rossignolo”, “Bachakademie Stuttgart” (direction Hans Christoph Rademann), “Bachakademie Weimar” (direction Helmut Rilling).

 

She collaborates also with musicologists and institutions of early music research in Bologna, to promote musical study initiatives as “Cimes - tesori ritrovati del ‘600 emiliano” and the “International Museum of Music”.

 

Program

 

1. Luigi Boccherini (1743-1805) – Flute Quintet in G Minor, Op. 19 No. 2  G426

I.Allegro con un poco di moto II. Minuetto con moto

 

2. Boccherini – String Quartet op 32 No. 2 in E

Largo sostenuto - Minuetto Largetto - Comodo Assai – Rondeau

 

3. Boccherini – Flute Quintet In D Major, Op.17 No.1 (G419)

I.Allegro Assai - II.Minuetto: Amoroso

 

4. Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809), arranged by Johann Peter Salomon (1745-1815) – Symphony No 94 in G Major “Surprise"

Adagio – Vivace assai – Andante - Menuetto: Allegro molto - Finale: Allegro molto

 

 

On the Program

 In his article "Haydn, Boccherini and the Rise of the String Quartet in Late Eighteenth-Century Madrid", MIGUEL ÁNGEL MARÍN points out that "the list of contemporaries who made comparisons between Haydn and Boccherini is very long, and these comparisons are almost always expressed in antagonistic terms: " light-dark, comic-tragic, male-female, inteUect-sensibility, introverted-extraverted".

There was a general consensus at the time that each composer represented a different aesthetic world, and music commentators extolled one or the other depending on their training, ideology or simply personal taste. Various Spanish theorists also shared this view. For Tomás de Iriarte and, especially, Antonio Eximeno, Boccherini and Haydn were the best representatives of two different compositlonal tendencies: "one ltalian, with a melodic and pleasant nature and the other German, of a contrapunta! and intricate nature.

However, historiography has not been completely fair when telling this story. While Haydn has eamed a well-deserved central role in the rise of the string quartet, Boccherini has long remained in the shadows, treated as a uncomfortable figure that didn't quite fit into the established account. This probably has something to do with the fact that Boccherini settled in a peripheral country like Spain. But it certainly has more to do with the historiographical view forged in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries regarding "classicism" - largely identified with the "Viennese" triumvirate of Haydn, Mozart and early Beethoven - as a model of perfection in detriment to other contemporary composing styles.

By implication, all other composers of this period were measured against these idealised models; the further away their technique was from them, the more "immature" or "imperfect" they were considered. Boccherini has been one of the notorious victims of this Austro-Germanic-centred view. lt is only in recent years that he has received the same recognition that he was unanimously given in his time for the central role he played in the creation of the quartet".  

 

Boccherini wrote an immense number of chamber works, divided according their scope into opera grande (four-movement full-scale work) and opera piccola (two-movement miniatures). Our  program presents both types, the kind of works comissioned to Boccherini by Friedrich Wilhelm II of Prussia during more than 10 years, during the whole time of his government.

Postdam,  October 1, 1783: "Nothing could give me more pleasure, signor Boccherini, than to receive some of your compositions from your own hands and just at a time when I have begun to perform your instrumental work. It alone gives me full satisfaction and every day I enjoy that pleasure. So that I am willing to believe that the pleasure you find in composition will not shortly come to an end and that we may hope to see something new from your pen, in which case I shall be most grateful if you will communicate it to me. Meanwhile please accept, Signor Boccherini, this gold box, in memory of me and as a mark of the esteem in which I hold your talents in an art which I particularly value, und be persuaded of the consideration with which I remain, Signor Boccherini, your most affectionate, Frederick William, Prince of Prussia."

 

In his edition of ‘XII GRAND SYMPHONIES , By HAYDN, arranged as Quintets, by J. P. SALOMON’, Christopher Hogwood informs us that, just before leaving London for Vienna in August 1795, Joseph Haydn signed over the rights on the first six of the London symphonies to the impresario and orchestra leader J. P. Salomon. In late February of the following year Haydn despatched from Vienna the contract for the remaining six, handing over to Salomon the right to exploit all twelve as he saw fit. Salomon made reductions of the entire set for chamber performance, ‘for five Instruments, vizt. Two Violins, a German Flute, a Tenor, and a Violoncello: with an Accompaniment for the Piano Forte ad libitum. ... ", announced in The Times on 19 June 1798.

“As a vehicle for orchestral transcription this scarcely precedented combination proved immediately successful. Salomon’s autograph score, used for the first engraving, is instrumental to illustrate his procedures and experiments, and garner evidence of that collaboration between author and performer which was so much part of eighteenth-century musical practice. With Salomon we have the contribution of a performing musician who worked alongside Haydn from the conception of many of these symphonies, and saw them through first (and consequent) performances and eventually into print in a variety of forms.

The manuscript is written on English paper 9 1/2 x 11 3/4 inches, watermarked with a crown over fleur-de-lys in shield and ‘GR 1794’. The date (if any indication of the year of composition) is surprisingly early; Salomon had no contract with Haydn until the following year, and yet the hasty script, particularly in the later symphonies, is obviously under pressure — as if to suggest performances of the quintettos in MS before publication, maybe even before Haydn’s departure.”

For a fuller study see Christopher Hogwood’s “In praise of arrangements: the ‘Symphony Quintetto’”, in Studies in Music History presented to H. C. Robbins Landon (ed. Otto Biba and David Wyn Jones), Thames & Hudson, London, 1996, p. 82ff.

 

On the program

 

The Pirates, a comic opera in 3 acts by Stephen Storace and J.Cobb is considered as Storace’s masterpiece. First staged on 21 November 1792, The Pirates “created quite a furore” being performed 23 times during the season 1792-93 and mounted for King George III in 1794.

The plot revolves around a Spanish Don Altador who is in love and would like to marry a Spanish lady, Dona Aurora, an orphan, who is also in love with him. But she has a guardian, the Italian pirate Don Gasparo, who has other plans for her: he brings her to Naples to marry her to his nephew, Guillermo, the commander of a pirate ship. With the help of  his servant Blazio and Aurora's maid Fabulina, Altador hopes to rescue the Spanish lady  from this unkind fate. 

The composer, Stephen Storace (1762-1796) , was born in England of a British mother and Italian father, the double-bassist Stephano Storace. Stephen was sent at age 12 to receive a musical training in Naples, at the famous Conservatorio di San Onofrio. This stay would have a significant impact on the composer's life, and not by chance he would choose the city as the scenery for The Pirates. Storace was also a talented painter, and “the picturesque scenery [of The Pirates] was from designs made at Naples by the composer himself”.  

During the years  1785 -1787 Storace lived in Vienna, where he met Mozart and had his first two operas successfully performed. He returned to London and enjoyed growing fame as a composer for the King's and Drury Lane theatres. The most popular of his 15 English operas were "The Haunted Tower" (1789), "No Song, No Supper" (1790), "The Siege of Belgrade" (1791), "The Pirates" (1792), "The Cherokee" (1794), and "The Iron Chest" (1796). 

 

Considered Storace's finest work for the stage, "The Pirates" is credited with introducing the "grand finale" to English opera. It stood out also for the excellence of the writing for voices, "indebted to the vocalization of Stephen's sister, the famed singer Anna/Nancy Storace", who created the role of Susanna in Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro" and appeared in a number of her brother's operas.

Another innovation, this time in the visual concept of the opera, was the use of the inventive 18th century technology of the lanterna magica (an early type of image projector that dazzled audiences), with some characters disguised as travelling lanternists (named Savoyards for coming supposedly from the Savoy region in France). 

Soloists of the Israeli Opera’s Meitar Opera Studio: Efrat HaCohen - Liat Lidor - Nika Brook - Pnini Grubner - Shaked Stroll - Tom Ben Ishai - Yuli Rorman

Ensemble PHOENIX on early instruments: Ya'akov Rubinstein & Lia Raikhlin (violins), Daniel Tanchelson (viola), Lucia D'Anna (cello), Ron Veprik (double bass), Genevieve Blanchard (classical flute), Gili Rinot (classical clarinets), Alexander Fine (classical bassoon), Evgeny Karasik (early tympani).

Transcribing & editing of the Storace original score: Uri Dror & Edition Prima Vista

Conductor: Myrna Herzog

Reviews

"The Jerusalem audience delighted in dedicated, polished performance on the part of the Meitar Studio members - Efrat HaCohen Bram, Liat Lidor, Veronika Brook, Pnini Leon Grubner, Shaked Stroll, Tom Ben Ishai, Yuli Rorman - their splendid voices and natural musicality reflecting understanding of 18th century voice production and offering much to enjoy from the arias, duets and choruses. Neither did the PHOENIX Ensemble players (concertmaster: Yaakov Rubinstein), conducted on stage by Herzog, disappoint the audience, as they presented us with suave, informed and carefully balanced ensemble playing of genuine beauty and lushness. So, the hero of the evening was indeed Storace’s music - graceful and melodious - inviting the listener to indulge in its refinement and allure.."  Pamela Hickman

 Read the full review here.

the Meitar Opera Studio

 Meitar Opera Studio

The Young Artists Program of the Israeli Opera

Il Conservatorio di S. Onofrio

Naples, the music capital of Europe

During the baroque period, Naples was considered the music capital of Europe: as Blazio, a character in Storace's The Pirates says, "sir, the people here are all born musicians. The little children cry in tune!".

This was thanks to the huge number of talented musicians born in the city - and thanks to its four excellent music conservatories which gave them an outstanding musical education. It is for this reason that in 1774 Stephano Storace sent  his 12 year old English son Stephen all the way from from London to study at Sant'Onofrio a Porta Capuana, one of those four conservatories.

Sant' Onofrio dates from 1578, and among the composers who learned or worked there, we find Don (Nicolò) Francesco (de) Rossi (Bari 1627 - ca 1699) and Cristofaro Caresana (c.1640-1709) who at some point were also its directors;  Pietro Andrea Ziani (1616-1684),  Niccoló Jommelli, Giovanni Paisiello, Niccolò Piccinni,  Antonio Sacchini (four of the great names in the 18th century Neapolitan music) andof course Stephen Storace (1762-1796).  

 The original building still stands, very near to Porta Capuana, just across the street on the north side of the old Vicaria, the tribunale, the Naples Hall of Justice. It is presently occupied by the Police, which does not allow visitation.

Charles Burney (1726-1814) described a day in S. Onofrio, Wednesday, 31 October 1770:

"...This morning I went with young Oliver to his Conservatorio of St. Onofrio, and visited all the rooms where the boys practise, sleep, and eat. On the first flight of stairs was a trumpeter, screaming upon his instrument till he was ready to burst; on the second was a french-horn, bellowing in the same manner. In the common practising room there was a Dutch concert, consisting of seven or eight harpsichords, more than as many violins, and several voices, all performing different things, and in different keys: other boys were writing in the same room; but it being holiday time, many were absent who usually study and practise there together.

The beds, which are in the same room, serve as seats for the harpsichords and other instruments. Out of thirty or forty boys who were practising, I could discover but two that were playing the same piece: some of those who were practising on the violin seemed to have a great deal of hand. The violin-cellos practise in another room: and the flutes, hautbois, and other wind instruments, in a third, except the trumpets and horns, which are obliged to fag, either on the stairs, or on the top of the house.

 

The only vacation in these schools, in the whole year, is in autumn, and that for a few days only: during the winter, the boys rise two hours before it is light, from which time they continue their exercise, an hour and a half at dinner excepted, till eight o’clock at night; and this constant perseverance, for a number of years, with good teaching, must produce great musicians."

 

 

Program

 

Andreas Romberg (1767-1861) - Clarinet Quintet in Eb Major 
Allegro - Minuetto: Allegretto - Trio 1 - Trio 2 - Larghetto - Finale: Allegro vivace 

Franz Joseph Haydn (1732 - 1809): String quartet in D minor op.42, Hob III: 43 
Andante ed innocentemente - Menuet - Adagio e cantabile - Finale: Presto

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart  (1756-1791) - Quintet in A major for Clarinet and Strings, K. 581 (1789)  
Allegro - Larghetto - Menuetto /Trio I /Trio II - Allegretto con Variazioni

On the Program

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Quintet for basset-clarinet and Strings, K. 581, was written for the clarinetist Anton Stadler, a virtuoso of the instrument.  It was completed on 29 September 1789 and Mozart referred to it as “the Stadler Quintet”. At this time, the clarinet itself was still a relatively new orchestral instrument, and Mozart in Mannheim was especially fond of it, writing in a 1778 letter to his father:“Oh, if only we too had clarinets!”

Stadler’s playing was certainly remarkable, and extremely appreciated, as attests a contemporary report in Johann Friedrich Schink's Litterarische Fragmente:

“My thanks to you, brave virtuoso! I have never heard the like of what you contrived with your instrument. Never should I have thought that a clarinet could be capable of imitating the human voice as it was imitated by you. Indeed, your instrument has so soft and lovely a tone that no one can resist it – and I have one, dear Virtuoso; let me thank you. I heard music for wind instruments today, too, by Herr Mozart, in four movements, viz. four horns, two oboes, two bassoons, two clarinets, two basset horns, a double bass, and at each instrument sat a master – oh, what a glorious effect it made – glorious and great, excellent and sublime!"

As Alfred Einstein observes, in his book about Mozart, the clarinet quintet is "chamber music work of the finest kind" and while the clarinet "predominates as primus inter pares" (first amongst equals), the roles are distributed more equally than they would be in a more concertante quintet for wind and strings. It is certainly one of Mozart's most cherished pieces until this very day, having been used as sound-track in films and TV series.

_

H. Voxman‘s preface to his edition of Romberg’s quintet tells gives us some information on the composer and the work: "Andreas Jakob ·Romberg was one of the sons of Gerhard Heinrich Romberg (1745-1819), clarinetist, violinist and music director of the orchestra of the Prince-Bishop of Munster.  Andreas, born in Vechta (near Munster) on 27 April 1767, studied violin with his father and appeared in public for the first time at age seven with his young cousin, Bernhard, a cellist. The boys accompanied their fathers on concert tours to Frankfurt am Main in 1782 and to Paris in 1784 and 1785, where they made successful appearances at the Concert Spirituel. From 1790 to 1793, they played in the Electoral orchestra in Bonn, whose members included the young Beethoven. Later the cousins served in the Hamburg opera orchestra, left that in 1795 for a two-year tour of Italy, and visited Vienna, where they were friendly with Haydn and Beethoven. Andreas was active in Hamburg 1801-1815 and then was engaged as court Kapellmeister in Gotha, where he died destitute 10 Nov 1821.

Around 1810, Romberg made acquaintance with Johann Simon Hermstedt, the celebrated clarinet virtuoso of the Schwarzburg-Sondershausen court, for whom the quintet may have been intended. Romberg is known to have written an early quartet (ca. 1784) for clarinet, violin, cello and bassoon, a double concerto for violin and clarinet, and a number of flute quintets."

Completed on 2 June 1818, the quintet was published by C. F. Peters in Leipzig. Its title page read: QUINTETTO /per il /Clarinetto/ Violino, due Viole et Violoncello /composto e dedicate I A Sua Altezza Serenissima/ IL PRINCIPE REGNANTE/di/Schwarzbourg-Sondershausen/DA/ ANDREA ROMBERG op. 57. We perform it in an alternative verson for two violins instead of two violas.

 _

John Palmer writes about Haydn’s dramatic String Quartet No. 35 in D minor, Op. 42, H. 3/43:

“In one of his letters, Haydn refers to a commission from Spain for a set of short quartets, each to be in three movements.  Haydn never completed it, but it has long been assumed that the Quartet in D minor, Op. 42, was composed for Spain, despite the fact that it is in four, rather than three, movements. The quartet was printed alone by Artaria in 1786.

It is tempting to equate the relative brevity of this work with simplicity, but the austere D minor quartet is anything but simple. Haydn increases the apparent size of the work by employing the old-fashioned "church sonata" style, opening with a profound slow movement. Haydn "modernizes" the work, however, by departing from the practice of writing each movement in the tonic key. Its unusual features prompted Haydn biographer Karl Geiringer to describe the quartet as "a foreign body in the firm suite of quartets up to now."

Opening with a slow movement, marked Andante ed innocentemente, the D minor quartet instantly establishes an air of ominous depth. The Allegretto Minuet and Trio, in D major, provides some relief from this bare-bones intensity, but it is over so quickly its effect is minimal. Remarkable is the extremely high register in which Haydn asks the first violinist to play several times in this movement. Some have suggested that the composer thought Spanish violinists were generally capable of playing comfortably in this register; others have pointed out that during this period Haydn tended to write high parts for the first violins in his chamber works.

The third movement, an Adagio cantabile, has confused commentators since it was published. A seductive melody begins in the first violin and continues for a much longer time than one would expect; it does not become the basis of variations, does not go through development and does not lead to a contrasting second theme. It broadens across the span of the entire movement, rounding itself out at the conclusion. Its purpose seems to be to provide lyric contrast in a work of intense dramatic action. Haydn infuses the Finale with an incredible intensity by employing the short theme in fugato passages, similar to what we hear in the Finale of his Symphony No. 77, of 1782.”

Reviews

Mozart: the clarinet quintet on period instruments

"They gave explicit expression to the sense of well-being prevailing in Romberg’s music, maintaining diligent balance between strings and clarinet, giving attention to motifs and the individual colour of each key visited. How warm, amiable and well-shaped Rinot’s playing of the Menuetto melody was, with the minor-key Trio given a suave reading by Dagan...
Then, to Joseph Haydn’s String Quartet in D minor, Hob.III:43 Op.42, 13 minutes of pure beauty... all four artists “breathed” the music as one in a radiant ensemble blend, giving meaning to its gestures and small silences.
Mozart’s wealth of sublime themes and their development emerged via the unique magical sound world created by Mozart’s mix of the five instrumental timbres. Add to that the first movement’s string solos graced by a variety of appealing clarinet comments and ornamenting, sensitive melodiousness passed from Dagan to Rinot in the tranquil Larghetto fashioned with punctilious coordination, the appealing Menuetto with its two Trios - the first for violin, with Dagan’s gentle flexing pulling at the heart strings, the second, a Ländler-type dance for clarinet - and the Allegretto with its set of variations - good-humoured, reticent, serious and moving - with the fourth showcasing the virtuosic ability of the clarinet.
PHOENIX members play on period instruments, on gut strings and with early bows, stimulating a warmth of sound and natural timbral beauty that go hand-in-glove with Classical works of the kind performed at the Tel Aviv concert. Clearly delighted by the evening’s program, the festival audience sensed it was in the hands of five outstanding musicians, their renditions of the three works the result of deep, detailed and informed enquiry enmeshed with emotional involvement."

Read the full review here.

 

The program

The Lewis viol come-back!

Myrna Herzog (Brazil/Israel) & Gio Sthel (Brazil/Germany)

on 2 twin viols made by Edward Lewis in the late 17^th century

Marina Minkin – harpsichord

 

 

William Corbett (c.1670-1748) – Sonata Prima

Preludio adagio – Corrente vivace – Adagio – Gigue Presto

וויליאם קורבט (1670-1748) – סונטה פרימה

פרלודיו אדאג'יו – קורנטה ויואצ'ה – אדאג'יו – ג'יג פרסטו

 

Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1713) – Ciaccona

ארקאנג'לו קורלי (1653-1713) - שאקונה

 

August Kuhnel (1645-c.1700) - Sonata in E minor

אוגוסטה קוהנל - סונטה במי מינור

 

Boris Yoffe (b.1968) – Commentary upon Domenico Gabrielli's Ricercar I (1689)

בוריס יופה (נולד 1968) – הערות על ריצ'רקאר I מאת דומניקו גבריאלי (1689)

 

Antoine Forqueray (1672-1745) – Suite for two viols - dm

Allemande – Courante – Sarabande

אנטואן פורקריי (1672-1745) – סוויטה לשני ויולים

אלמנד – קוראנט - סרבנד

 

Gϋnter Krause-Westen (b. 1952) – Broken Wings (for Myrna)

Flying – Broken Lewis – A blue state of mind

גינטר קראוזה-ווסטן (1952) - כנפיים שבורות (למירנה)

טיסה - לואיס שבור - מצב רוח עצוב

 

Dina Smorgonskaya (דינה סמורגונסקאייה (1947
Two dances for harpsichord (2007) שני ריקודים לצ'מבלו

Andantino - Allegro Barbaro אנדנדינו - אלגרו ברברו

 

Giomar Sthel (b. 1961) - Fragilité

ג'יו שטל (1961) - שבריריות

 

Pixinguinha (1897-1973) – Carinhoso

פישינגיניה (1897-1973) - המחבק

 

John Jenkins (1592-1678) - Pavan for 2 bass viols

ג'ון ג'נקינס (1592-1678) - פאבאן עבור שניוִיוֹלים בס

 

Christopher Simpson (c.1605-1669) - Divisions in G

כריסטופר סימפסון (c.1605-1669) - חלוקות בסול

 

Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1763) – Suite
arranged by Ludwig Christian Hesse (1716-1772) for Frederick the Great

Air Lent - Minuets - Musette en rondeau - Tambourin en roundeau

ז'אן-פיליפ ראמו (1683-1763) – סוויטה
שהורכבה בידי קריסטיאן לודוויג הסה (1716-1772) עבור הקיסר פרידירך הגדול מפרוסיה

אייר לנט – מינואטים – מיוזט בסגנון רונדו – טמבורין בסגנון רונד

 

Midia

 The story of the accident is told through music in this video:

On the program

The main piece of the program is a southern Italian oratorio by Don Francesco Rossi  (Bari 1625 - ca 1690), named LA CADUTA DELL' ANGELI  (The Fall of the Angels), a 6 voices.It describes the War of Angels referred by the biblical apocryphal book of Enoch:  before the Creation, two armies of angels competed for power: that of Adonai, led by the Archangel Michael and that of Lucifer, commander of the rebel angels. The first is victorious and the demons are thrown down from heavens into the abyss. As an angel of light, Lucifer's character is allocated to a soprano; after the fall he becomes a bariton! Choirs of demons and angels opposing each other, exuberant dances and poignant chromaticism make this a colorful work.

The composer, Don (Nicolò) Francesco (de) Rossi (Bari 1627 - ca 1699) is thought to have studied in Naples at Conservatorio di Sant'Onofrio a Porta Capuana, where he worked as chapel master from 1669 to 1672. Some of his sacred works are preserved there, including LA CADUTA DELL' ANGELI.  Returning  to Bari, he was elected canon of the catedral and appointed chapel-master in 1677. Rossi later traveled to Venice where he composed operas (1686), and was elected choirmaster of the Ospedale dei Mendicanti in 1689, retiring in 1699.

Also in the program,  the Neapolitan cantata LA VITTORIA DEL INFANTE, a 6 singers  by Cristofaro Caresana (c.1640-1709) -  who during 1667- 1690 happened to be the director of the same Sant'Onofrio Conservatory where Rossi worked.  Caresana was born in Venice, where he studied under Pietro Andrea Ziani, before moving to Naples late in his teens. In Caresana's cantata, Lucifer wishes once more to wage war on Heavens, and is again defeated. Caresana music is full of exuberant energy, beauty, with lots of Neapolitan sentiment. It has great dynamic contrasts in the interplay of soloists and vocal ensemble, all supported by wonderful instrumental writing. 

 The program is complemented by 17th century Italian instrumental music by Bernardo Storace (c.1637 – c.1707), probably a Neapolitan  who worked as vicemaestro di cappela to the Senate of nearby Messina in Sicily, then an important cultural pole; and by musicians who were all interconected: Giovanni Battista Vitali (1632 -1692), one of the most interesting Italian composers in the field of instrumental music before Corelli’s era, worked in Bologna and Modena, and was a student of Maurizio Cazzati (1632 -1692), who in his turn worked as maestro di capella in the musical chapel of Santa Maria Maggiore in Bergamo -  one of the most outstanding of the North-Italian ecclesiastical institutions – where he was succeeded by Pietro Andrea Ziani (1616-1684); Ziani, on his side had been Caresana’s teacher, and spent the later phase of his life in Naples, working as organist and maestro di cappella at the Naples court,  and  after 1677 as a teacher at the same Sant' Onofrio Conservatory  where Rossi studied and worked, and that Caresana directed.

 

Our partner in the first production of the oratorio was the Ludovice Ensemble, represented by its founder, musical director and early keyboard specialist, Fernando Miguel Jalôto and the percussionist Rui Silva. The Ludovice Ensemble is Portuguese early music group, based in Lisbon, that focuses on the research and historical performance of Baroque chamber music on original instruments. It was founded in 2005, and it has since become a reference in the Portuguese Early Music scene. It all could happen thanks to  the support of The Embassy of Portugal in Tel Aviv , the Camões Institute and the Italian Cultural Institute in Haifa

                

 

We are indebted to Silvia Allessandra Giummo and Giacomo Contro for their help regarding Rossi's Caduta dell'Angeli. 

Videos

Reviews

 

"The present gift we received from Herzog - she promises that there will be more - is the oratorio "La Caduta dell Angeli" by the 17th century Italian composer Francesco Rossi...
First impression: "Wow!"... an exciting encounter with the oratorio... the work is particularly nice and captivating at once, to say the least.... The most important: we hope that concert organizers in our area first of all will invite Myrna Herzog and the team to perform again the "Fall of the Angels" and soon. This is a must, it is worthwhile." Hagai Hitron, HaAretz                                     
Read the full review here or in the next tab.

"Making for a unique concert of Italian music, the recent PHOENIX program offered performance of outstanding quality and interest....the evening’s instrumental playing was stirring and inspiring...  a work that could only be deemed as “theatrical”! ... one cannot help being amazed by its universality, its lively, natural dialogue and emotions, all accessible long after being penned...  it concluded with resplendent choral singing...  . As to the young student vocalists, their diligent work under Myrna Herzog’s guidance (this early music style being a totally new musical experience for them) resulted in singing that was unencumbered by heavy vibrato without sounding forced, showing the primacy of the words; within a short period of time they had, in fact, achieved a vocal timbre authentic in style and tuning for 17th century Italian music. 

Founded and directed by Myrna Herzog, the ensemble’s performances have changed the Israeli music scene, encouraging Israeli musicians to embrace music of all periods and in the appropriate authentic manner.  Above all, PHOENIX is known for its performances of an uncompromising, high level." Pamela Hickman

 Read the full review here.

 

מ"הארץ " בעברית

Il Conservatorio di S. Onofrio

Naples, the music capital of Europe

During the baroque period, Naples was considered the music capital of Europe: as Blazio, a character in Storace's The Pirates says, "sir, the people here are all born musicians. The little children cry in tune!".

This was thanks to the huge number of talented musicians born in the city - and thanks to its four excellent music conservatories which gave them an outstanding musical education. It is for this reason that in 1774 Stephano Storace sent  his 12 year old English son Stephen all the way from from London to study at Sant'Onofrio a Porta Capuana, one of those four conservatories.

Sant' Onofrio dates from 1578, and among the composers who learned or worked there, we find Don (Nicolò) Francesco (de) Rossi (Bari 1627 - ca 1699) and Cristofaro Caresana (c.1640-1709) who at some point were also its directors;  Pietro Andrea Ziani (1616-1684),  Niccoló Jommelli, Giovanni Paisiello, Niccolò Piccinni,  Antonio Sacchini (four of the great names in the 18th century Neapolitan music) andof course Stephen Storace (1762-1796).  

 The original building still stands, very near to Porta Capuana, just across the street on the north side of the old Vicaria, the tribunale, the Naples Hall of Justice. It is presently occupied by the Police, which does not allow visitation.

Charles Burney (1726-1814) described a day in S. Onofrio, Wednesday, 31 October 1770:

"...This morning I went with young Oliver to his Conservatorio of St. Onofrio, and visited all the rooms where the boys practise, sleep, and eat. On the first flight of stairs was a trumpeter, screaming upon his instrument till he was ready to burst; on the second was a french-horn, bellowing in the same manner. In the common practising room there was a Dutch concert, consisting of seven or eight harpsichords, more than as many violins, and several voices, all performing different things, and in different keys: other boys were writing in the same room; but it being holiday time, many were absent who usually study and practise there together.

The beds, which are in the same room, serve as seats for the harpsichords and other instruments. Out of thirty or forty boys who were practising, I could discover but two that were playing the same piece: some of those who were practising on the violin seemed to have a great deal of hand. The violin-cellos practise in another room: and the flutes, hautbois, and other wind instruments, in a third, except the trumpets and horns, which are obliged to fag, either on the stairs, or on the top of the house.

 

The only vacation in these schools, in the whole year, is in autumn, and that for a few days only: during the winter, the boys rise two hours before it is light, from which time they continue their exercise, an hour and a half at dinner excepted, till eight o’clock at night; and this constant perseverance, for a number of years, with good teaching, must produce great musicians."

 

 

 

Program

HAYDN: THE SUN QUARTETS

Version with flute - on period instruments

היידן: רביעיות השמש
גרסה עם חליל - בכלים תקופתיים

 

 

 

משה א. אפשטיין חליל קלאסי	Moshe Aron Epstein classical flute
יעקב רובינשטיין כינור	Ya'akov Rubinstein violin
רחל רינגלשטיין וִיוֹלָה	Rachel Ringelstein viola
מירנה הרצוג צ'לו	Myrn Herzog cello

 

 

Flute quartet Op. 5 No. 2 in G major רביעיית חליל אופ. 5 מס '2 בסול מז'ור
Presto assai - Menuetto - Adagio - Presto assai פרסטו אסאי - מינואט – אדג'יו – פרסטו אסאי

 

String Quartet, Op. 20 No. 4 in D major “Sun” (arr. for flute and string trio)

רביעיית מיתרים, אופ. 20 מס '4 ב רה, "שמש" (בעיבוד לחליל ושלישיית מיתרים)

Allegro di Molto – Affetuoso - Menuetto alla Zingarese – Trio – Presto e Scherzando

אלגרו די מולטו - אפטוזו - מינואט בסגנון צועני - טריו - פרסטו וסקרצנדו

 

String Quartet, Op. 20 No. 5 in g minor “Sun” (arr. flute and string trio)

רביעיית מיתרים, אופ. 20 מס '5 ב סול, "שמש" (בעיבוד לחליל ושלישיית מיתרים)

Moderato - Menuetto - Adagio - Finale: Fuga a 2 soggetti

מודרטו – מינואט – אדג'יו – פינאלה: פוגה עם 2 נושאים

 

String Quartet, Op. 20 No. 2 in C Major “Sun” (arranged for flute and string trio)

רביעיית מיתרים, אופ. 20 מס '2 ב דו, "שמש" (בעיבוד לחליל ושלישיית מיתרים)

Moderato – Adagio – Menuetto – Allegro Fuga a 4 soggetti

מודרטו -- אדג'יו – מינואט - אלגרו פוגה עם 4 נושאים

 

Reviews

"The PHOENIX artists’ playing of Op.20 Quartets 2, 5 and 4 was indeed a celebration of Haydn’s “new-found freedom”, as they gave conviction to the intensely individual roles woven throughout. In the Adagio movement of No.2 in C-major, Herzog’s hauntingly beautiful ‘cello solo, Epstein’s almost unaccompanied flute solos and some robust ensemble “comments” create a kind of Baroque-style drama. Or are we indeed experiencing a  concerto when presented with a flute cadenza? Probably the most remarkable aspect of the Op.20 quartets is their engagement in counterpoint, immediately discernible in No.2’s opening movement. This quartet and No. 5, which followed, both have final movements cast as elaborate fugues; these were played at the Ein Kerem concert with committed personal expression... 

The string-players, performing on 18th century instruments with gut strings with historic bows and Epstein playing an original Classical flute built in 1780, produced a natural sense of balance, a soundscape in which Haydn’s wealth of ideas pervaded the quartet texture at every opportunity... 

Joining Moshe Aron Epstein's outstanding playing, Ya'akov Rubinstein, no longer a new face on the early music scene, gave a performance of fine musicality. Violist Rachel Ringelstein's splendid interpretation of each melodic line never fails to impress   As to the ‘cello’s newborn role in the chamber music genre, Myrna Herzog enticed a warm-toned stream of finely shaped sound from the ‘cello, expressive but always within the line and contour of good taste. With Haydn’s music characterized by directness and accessibility to the listener, it nevertheless presents a myriad of challenges to the performer. The PHOENIX players offered the audience the pleasure of listening to playing that is committed to musicianship of the highest order.

Read the full review here.

 

Program

 

When Louise burned her lover's letters…

Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven and Scottish Love Songs 

 

קארין שיפרין סופרן	Karin Shifrin soprano
משה א. אפשטיין חליל קלאסי	Moshe Aron Epstein classical flute
מירנה הרצוג צ'לו	Myrna Herzog cello
מרינה מינקין צ'מבלו	Marina Minkin harpsichord

 

 

 

 

 

Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) יוסף היידן

Second Trio for the Harpsichord or Piano Forte, German Flute & Violoncello in G, Hoboken XV:15 - Allegro  טריו בסול - אלגרו

English Canzonetts, lyrics: Anne Hunter  [1742-1821] שירים אנגליים, מילים: אן האנטר

The wanderer  הנווד

The Mermaid's song  שירה של בת הים

The Sailors song  שיר המלחים

 

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) וולפגנג אמדאוס מוצרט

Das Veilchen (The violet), KV 476 הסיגלית

Als Luise die Briefe ihres ungetreuen Liebhabers verbrannte, K520

כאשר שרפה לואיז את מכתבי מאהבה הבוגדני
Wiegenlied  שיר ערש

 

Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) יוסף היידן 

Second Trio for the Harpsichord or Piano Forte, German Flute & Violoncello in G, Hoboken XV:15, Andante - Finale: Allegro Moderato

טריו בסול - אנדנטה - פינאלה: אלגרו מודרטו

 

Ludwig van Beethoven   (1770 - 1827)   לודויג ון בטהובן

Scottish Songs   שירים סקוטיים

Dim, dim is my eye   חסרת צבע, היא עיני

Sunset   שקיעה

Sympathy   אהדה

Bonny laddie, Highland laddie  בחור נאה,בחור מההרים

On the Program

Our program starts with Haydn’s trio for keyboard, flute and cello in GM.
This is one of the three fine trios for keyboard, flute and cello published by the composer in 1790, just before his first London visit.
He arrived in London on January 2nd, 1791 (aged 59), and writes to a friend: “My arrival caused a great sensation throughout the whole city, and I went the round of all the newspapers for 3 successive days”.
During his stay in London he frequented the most distinguished British salons, and wrote a lot of chamber music for them: solo sonatas, trios and songs with keyboard.
Of particular importance was his friendship with the poet Anne Hunter, widow of the great surgeon John Hunter, who wrote the beautiful texts set to music by Haydn that we will present.

 

Mozart and Haydn met in Vienna, very much admired each other, and occasionally played together. As the singer Michael Kelly recounts:
“Storace [the composer of The Pirates]  gave a quartet party to his friends. I was there, and a greater treat, or a more remarkable one, cannot be imagined.
First Violin: Haydn, Second Violin: Baron Dittersdorf, Violoncello: Vanhal , Viola: Mozart.”

Haydn was an influential personality in Mozart's life, and his Sun Quartets, are thought to have inspired Mozart's six early string quartets K.168–173.
Mozart  dedicated to Haydn another set of quartets (K. 387, 421, 428, 458, 464 and 465) - an unusal gesture, for usually dedicatees were members of the aristocracy.
Mozart’s songs, however, have a character of their own, often theatrical and dramatic, as you shall hear in Das Veilchen and Als Luise. 
The third song of this group, the magical Wiegenlied, was for long time attributed to Mozart. Presently its authorship is under dispute, considered by some the work of Johann Friedrich Anton Fleischmann.

 

Beethoven masterful arrangements of Scotish songs were made upon the order of George Thomson.
Thomson was a Scottish publisher and collector of Scottish songs. He "employed many leisure hours in collating and collecting the most favourite of our national melodies, for publication.... we are desirous to have the poetry improved wherever it seems unworthy of the music...."..  and to  provide artful accompaniments as well. 
Between 1799 and 1818 he published five volumes of those songs, many with new lyrics ordered from important writers such as Burns, Walter Scott and Thomas Campbell, and with arrangements by  Haydn, Beethoven and Johann Nepomuk Hummel. 
The four songs we present in our program come from Beethoven's op. 108, Twenty-five Scottish songs, from 1818. They were comissioned  by George Thomson, who requested the top part to be written to be played by a violin or flute.In 1822 the composer would write another set of Twelve Scottish songs, WoO 156.

Reviews

 

"Enlisting her vital and substantial vocal resources, Shifrin’s singing of the bitter-sweet melodies and texts, was real and touching. While adding flute- and ‘cello roles to the songs throughout the concert, a joint effort of the part of the PHOENIX musicians, the artists’ playing remained faithful to the original texts, was lush and offered the addition of some beguiling solos. In their typically scrupulous and  profound enquiry into the works on all levels, the PHOENIX artists gave an inspired performance of some of the Classical period’s most splendid and immortal music."  Pamela Hickman

Read the full review here.

On the program

The programs takes its title from the aria Gott, man lobet dich in der Stille zu Zion from Cantata BWV 120, on the text of Psalm 65:1: “God, You are praised in the stillness of Zion, and vows to You shall be fulfilled.”

It gathers arias for countertenor from some of the most beautiful Bach cantatas and his Passions, presented in a chamber version. The texts express the Christian devout’s faith in Jesus,  in whom “the seed of all people is blessed and redeemed”(Cantata BWV200); they describe “the night of sorrow” preceding the crucifixion (St. John’s Passion), “weep bitterly with heart and eyes and ask for mercy” (St. Matthew Passion), admonish “an unblemished conscience of clear faith and goodness [that] makes us beautiful before God and mankind”(Cantata BWV24) and long for “sweet peace and quiet rest” in the world to come (Cantata 82).

The program is complemented by two trio-sonatas: BWV 1028, for viola da gamba and obbligato harpsichord, and BWV 1019 for violin and obbligato harpsichord.

The performers Alon Harari, Rachel Ringelstein, Marina Minkin and Myrna Herzog are among Israel’s finest musicians in the early music field.

 

Program

 

A Praise to God in Zion                                              תְהִלָּה אֱלֹהִים בְּצִיּוֹן

 

Aria Bekennen will ich seinen Namen (I shall acknowledge His name) BWV 200

Aria Gott, man lobet dich in der Stille ( God, we praise you in the stillness) from Cantata BWV 120 

Sonata in D major for harpsichord and viola da gamba BWV 1028
Adagio – Allegro – Andante – Allegro

Aria Es ist vollbracht (It is accomplished) from Johannes-Passion BWV 245

Aria Ein ungefärbt Gemüte (An unblemished conscience ) from Cantata BWV24

Aria Erbarme dich, mein Gott (Have mercy, my God) from Mathew Passion BWV 244

Sonata in G Major, BWV 1019 for violin and obbligato harpsichord

Allegro-Largo-Allegro-Adagio-Allegro

Aria Schlummert ein hr matten Augen ( Fall asleep, you weary eyes) from Cantata BWV 82 

Artists & Program

Moshe Aron Epstein - flute

Lilia Slavny, Noam Schuss  - violin

Myrna Herzog - cello, musical director

Marina Minkin - harpsichord

 

PROGRAM             תָכְנִית

 

 

Carl Philip Stamitz (1745-1801) - Trio in g
Allegro Moderato – Andante - Rondeau Allegretto
קרל פיליפ שטמיץ טריו בסול
אלגרו מודראטו - אנדנטה - רונדו אלגרטו

Joseph Haydn (1732 – 1809) - Trio in G Major Op. 38 n.4
Adagio
 - Scherzo Allegro
 - Finale Presto
יוזף היידן טריו בסול מז'ור אופ. 38 מס' 4
אדאג'יו - סקרצו אלגרו - פינאלה פרסטו

Joseph Haydn - Harpsichord sonata in D major (Hob. XVI: 37)
Allegro con brio - Largo e sostenuto - Finale: Presto, ma non troppo
יוזף היידן סונטה לצ'מבלו ברה מז'ור (XVI הובוקן: 37)
אלגרו קון בריו - לארגו וסוסטנוטו - פינאלה: פרסטו, מה נון טרופו

Carl Friedrich Abel (1723-1787) - Sonata No. 2 in C Major for Violin, Cello & Continuo, Op. 9 n. I. Moderato – Vivace
קרל פרידריך הבל (1723-1787) - סונטה מס '2 בדו מז'ור לכינור, לצ'לו קונטינואו, אופ. 9 מס' 1
מודראטו – קצבי

John Stanley (1712-1786) – Solo in D for a german flute, Op. 1 No. VII
Largo – Allegro – Siciliana – Gavot Allegro
ג'ון סטנלי (1712-1786) - סולו בר עבור חליל גרמני, אופ. 1 מס' 7
VII לארגו - אלגרו - סיציליאנה - גבוט אלגרו

Thomas Augustine Arne (1710-1778) - Trio Op.3 No. 6 in b minor
Largo – Allegro – Larghetto – Allegro
תומאס אוגוסטין ארנה (1710-1778) - טריו Op.3 מס '6 בסי מינור
לארגו - אלגרו - לרגאטו - אלגרו

Johann Christian Bach (1735-1782) – Concerto for harpsichord Op. 1 no 6 in D "God Save the Queen"
Allegro assai - Andante - Allegro moderato
יוהן כריסטיאן באך (1735-1782) - קונצ'רטו לצ'מבלו אופ. 1 מס '6 ברה, "אלוהים נצור את המלכה"
אלגרו אסאי - אנדנטה - אלגרו מודראטו 

A salon experience

 

The chamber music repertoire of our program was delivered usually in the intimate atmosphere of the London salons.

In the late 18th century, Londoners kept weekly salons at their homes.  
Several salons became famous, such as the one maintained by the poet and intellectual Anne Hunter (1742-1821) and her husband, the renowned surgeon and anatomist Dr. John Hunter (1728-1793).
Haydn's music was often performed there, and Haydn himself was among the frequent guests at the Hunters' salon. 
He wrote some of his songs to be performed at the Hunters' salon, and those received lyrics from Anne's pen.

 

To perform this repertoire in a salon adds another dimension to it, and it is great fun, both for the public and the musicians.

 

Artists

 

 Myrna Herzog  pardessus de viole by Louis Guersan 1755 (formerly belonging to Thurston Dart), quinton attributed to Nicolas Augustin Chappuy (c.1750), bass viol by Andrea Castagneri, Paris 1744

Tal Arbel  pardessus de viole by Benoît Fleury c. 1750, recorder, bass viol by François Danger, copy of Nicolas Bertrand

Marina Minkin  harpsichord

 

 

Reviews

"The Ra’anana house concert offered maximal conditions for hearing the finest details of Corelli’s Opus 3 No.2 and Opus 4 No.8 trio sonatas in all the text’s articulate detail, highlighting the imitative interaction between Herzog and Arbel and much elegant shaping of phrases... Marina Minkin performed with verve and inventive ornamenting. Making this event unique was seeing and hearing two beautifully crafted French pardessus viols built by Louis Guersan and Benoist Fleury and a quinton made by Nicolas Chappuy, heard in performance, in my opinion, for the first time in Israel.
Myrna Herzog’s musical ventures bring together ideas and fine playing. Her concerts never fail to take the listener into other worlds of sound, of fantasy and of interest, revealing so much about the essence of early music, its background and the people who created it."  Pamela Hickman

Read the full review here.

 

A salon experience

 

 

 

 "That was a 200% historically justified performance like the idealistic pioneers in years ‘60 – ’ 70 had in mind: playing baroque music in appropriate style, on period instruments like yours, in a ‘salon’, for a selected audience of lovers."   Fred Lindeman (Dutch luthier, expert restorer, responsible for the restoration of the Stradivarius of the Metropolitan Museum of New York back to its baroque condition, and for the restoration of the quinton and the 2 pardessus de viole played at the concert).

 

"There is no concert hall that can reproduce the atmosphere of closeness and the intimacy of a concert privé in a true salon. It is wonderful to play those little pardessus de viole in the environment for which they were conceived. Not only all feels completely right, but the exchange between people, the warmth, the sound, all accounts to an unforgetable experience for all the ones involved. We hope to perform this wonderful voyage to Cythera many more times".  Myrna Herzog

 

A video about Watteau's painting

 

The fascinating story of Nabucco

Little is known about Michelangelo Falvetti (1642–1695).  The composer was born in Melicuccà  (a tiny town in the province of Reggio Calabria) on December 29, 1642, and as many artists, went to work in Sicily, where he was considered a "great virtuoso" and occupied the prestigious post of chapel master in the cathedrals of Palermo and Messina successively.

One of the most admired librettists in Palermo at the time was Vincenzo Giattini (1630-1697), and he provided Falvetti with the librettos for Il Diluvio and Nabucco. Those were ordered by Falvetti in connection with his move to Messina in 1682, and made cut to size by Giattini with the obvious aim to reach the city’s heart. The subject of the first oratorio, Il Diluvio Universale (The Great Flood), written in the same year, could not be more suitable for a city subjected to periodic flooding.

The subject of Nabucco, written in the following year, 1683, seems also to have been carefully chosen: the defeat of arrogance and idolatry, expressed in the biblical story of three Jewish youths condemned by King Nebuchadnezzar to be thrown into a fiery furnace for refusing to worship the king’s golden statue. Giattini based his text on chapters 2 and 3 of the book of Daniel, which he merged into one, as he merged the two different statues of these chapters, the one in the king’s dream, and the other representing the king. The opposition and defiance to this single statue embodying arrogance and idolatry becomes the main subject of the plot.

Why would this be so suitable? Because, as points out Falvetti’s editor and researcher, Fabrizio Longo, with the arrival of the Spanish Viceroy Francisco Benavides to Messina after the rebellion of 1674-78, the city was deprived of ancient privileges and experienced harsh repression: in addition to summary executions, the new Viceroy “razed to the ground the Senate building, and, even more humiliating, melt the bell of the cathedral in order to erect a statue to the King of Spain, to be placed on the site of the Senate building, just opposite the cathedral... For years, the people of Messina would continue to seek the fusion [of the statue] to create a new bell of the cathedral made of the original material.”

This explains also why the text and above all, the music assigned by Falvetti to the three youths is not only defiant, but mocking. And also why Falvetti, in spite of being himself a Catholic priest, discards Giattini’s last verse about the immortality of Christ , to end Nabucco with the verse before, in a clear message: “where innocence fights, it knocks down the idols and overthrows the arrogant ones”.

Paraphrasing Goethe who said that "to have seen Italy without having seen Sicily is not to have seen Italy at all”, one could say that without hearing Sicilian music, it is impossible to have a good grasp of Italian music. The syncretism of Sicilian culture, which embraced the many civilizations which ruled successively over the isle, can certainly be felt in the music, which is unique, free, colorful, sensual. Michelangelo Falvetti is certainly a most accomplished representative of such wonderful music.

                                                                                                                                                          Dr. Myrna Herzog

Synopsis

 

 

Vincenzo Giatini’s libretto of Nabucco is based on the Book of Daniel, Ch. 2-3.

The Prologue opens with the arrival to Babylon of the allegorical characters Arrogance and Idolatry, carried by the Euphrates river to conquer King Nabucco (Nebuchadnezzar). 

In the first scene, Nabucco is greatly disturbed by his dreams of a statue with golden head, breast of silver and feet of clay. Fearful, he orders Arioco, leader of the Royal Army, to summon the magicians and men of wisdom of Babylon.

Scene 2 introduces Prophet Daniel, who comments the discrepancy between Nabucco’s arrogance and fears, and states that monarchs are made of dust. Together with the three Jewish youths Anania, Azaria and Misaele (Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego) Daniel sings hymns of praise to the God of Israel.

In Scene 3, Arioco announces that Nabucco is a god among deities and his statue must be adored, by royal decree. This is reiterated by Nabucco himself and by a choir who proclaims him God, while Daniel calls him a “king of dust”.

In Scene 4 the three youths laugh at Nabucco and his statue, which they refuse to adore: ”the image is of gold, the original of dust...”. The king is furious and threatens to throw them into a fiery furnace to be burned alive. In spite of Arioco’s attempts to scare and convince them, the youths continue to mock and defy the King, who finally orders them to be thrown to the flames.

In the last scene, the three youths enjoy themselves among the flames, renew their fate, and are helped by an angel, that toys with the fire. The youths escape unscathed, sing to God, and the last chorus tells us that “when innocence combats, it knocks down the idols and overthrows the arrogant ones”.

                                                                                                                                                     

Artists

Conductor, musical director: 

Myrna Herzog

Soloists:  

Einat Aronstein - Anania, Idolatria

Liat Lidor - Misaele, Superbia

Yuval Oren - Azaria

Anne-Marieke Evers - Arioco

Oshri Segev - Nabucco

Guy Pelc - Daniele

Ensemble PHOENIX on early instruments :

Fabrizio Longo (special guest) - baroque violin

Smadar Shidlowsky - baroque violin  

Tal Arbel - viola da gamba 

Sonja Navot - baroque cello

Dara Bloom - violone

Alma Mayer - cornetto & recorder

Gili Rinot - scialumò

Inbar Navot - baroque bassoon

Ian Aylon - baroque guitar

Aviad Stier - organ

Oded Geizhals - percussion

Media

 

Reviews

 

"I listened to the music only, and how was I enchanted! The two most notable features, in my opinion, in Falvetti: he had a wonderful ability to create melodies as if they grow on trees and one should only pick, and had a sense of proportion. The singing was delightful, led by Einat Aronstein and Guy Pelc. We owe thanks for the introduction to Falvetti to PHOENIX‘s musical director Myrna Herzog, who was the conductor. The pleasure bestowed by this piece of Falvetti, justifies a quote from Myrna Herzog in the program. "To paraphrase Goethe," she writes, "according to whom “to see Italy without seeing Sicily is not to have seen Italy at all”, one could say that without knowing Sicilian music, one cannot have an understanding of Italian music. Sicilian culture, which embraced the many civilizations which ruled successively over the isle, can certainly be felt in the music."  Hagai Hitron, HaAretz

"This was an auspicious, ground-breaking event in the history of performance of Italian Baroque music. Michelangelo Falvetti’s “Il Dialogo del Nabucco” is an extraordinary work, its musical canvas as rich instrumentally as it is vocally, one of both high drama and personal expression.  Myrna Herzog’s deep enquiry into the work and her exhilarating direction of it were meticulous and uplifting, resulting in Baroque performance of the highest order. Deeply moved, the audience showed its enthusiasm in lengthy applause, shouts and whistles". Pamela Hickman's Concert Critique Blog

 "The reaction of the audience leaving the concert was: 'Wow!! One of the best and most interesting concerts in the history of the festival'!" Gershon Cohen, director of the Abu Gosh Festival

 

 

“Dear Myrna,
We just loved your performance of Falvetti's Nabucco, today at Haifa. So beautifully rendered, so joyous and full of hope - for not only was the music delightful but the message is just as relevant today as ever. The rich orchestral backing and the beautiful voices were enchanting. I felt great pride that most of the artists and soloists were young Israeli talent. We try to get to as many of your concerts that reach Haifa as possible. Dear Myrna - I can only wish you the continued enthusiasm, passion and well being from every point of view to keep inspiring us with your varied and exciting musical programs. Thank you!” Coral Navon  — feeling inspired.  (facebook posting on the ensemble's page)

 

 

Fabrizio Longo

 

Fabrizio Longo is a musician and musicologist from Messina, and it was his reserch that brought back to life the fabulous music of Michelangelo Falvetti, his oratorios Il Diluvio Universale and Il Nabucco.

Longo studied “historically informed violin” with several famous musicians, including Luigi Rivighi, at the historical Accademia Filarmonica in Bologna.  He is one of the most experienced Italian violinists of Italian music of the ' 600 and ' 700 and in particular of the ' 600 Sicilian music. He plays a violin built by from the second half of the 18th century, attributed to an anonymous luthier from the Cremonese school, which is in it's original condition.

As a musicologist, Longo has dedicated many years to the Sicilian sources, contributing with his studies to books, in articles, particularly on Falvetti and Pandolfi Mealli and their time, but also in interpretive essays on aesthetics in the different phases of the Baroque, and also participating as speaker in congresses and conferences.  He has published academic papers, essays and critiques on 17th and 18th century music for Di Nicolò Libri, SMSP, Walhall, Ut Orpheus, Arcana, Ambronay's and Treccani, and has recorded for SMSP, Raidue, Raitre, Mediaset, MTV, Teatro di Messina, Radio Classic, Ambronay’s and Tactus. 

Artists

 

 

Alexander Simpson (guest artist, U.K.) countertenor & actor

Rachel Ringelstein  baroque violin

Tali Goldberg baroque violin

Myrna Herzog  viola da gamba, musical director                

Marina Minkin harpsichord

 

 

    Photo of PHOENIX by Maxim Reider - photo of Alexander Simpson by Robert Workman

 

Reviews

"Passion & Madness” is a musical theatre piece by Myrna Herzog, combining texts and 17th century English music. You might call a 17th century English case study of insanity, designed by Herzog along the lines of the English masque.

Harari’s performance was dramatic, volatile and moody....  In precisely crafted performance and flawless communication between the instrumentalists, the PHOENIX players brought out the beauty of the instrumental pieces which threaded through the program providing dramatic relief, connecting with the songs on different levels and providing interludes of elegant- and superbly crafted chamber music... Another treat was Marina Minkin’s hearty playing of John Blow’s “Mortlake Ground”.

In one of the current season’s most exciting and unique concerts, Dr. Myrna Herzog and her team of select artists have once again presented the public with a new and inspiring program, one stamped with PHOENIX Ensemble’s signature high quality performance. Not to be missed." Pamela Hickman

Read the full review here.

Videos of the Hebrew premiere

Maxim Reider: A Labor of Love

 

A labor of love
An article By MAXIM REIDER
at the occasion of the premiere of the Hebrew version of the play
Thu, 19 May 2016, 11:02 AM

Myrna Herzog presents a 17th-century musical program, ‘Passion and Madness.’

 

“My first plan was to make a concert of English songs dedicated to madness,” explains Herzog on the eve of the concert series. “In the 17th century, the English wrote an immense amount of such songs.

To express the weird and ever-changing inner world of a mentally ill person, extremely rich music tools are essential.

Wondering why so many songs were written on this theme, I came to the conclusion that it was due to Bedlam, a familiar name for the Hospital of St. Mary of Bethlehem in London. Bedlam was located in the same area as the city’s major theaters and served as one of London’s tourist attractions. Guests of the capital visited it just as they visited the Tower of London, and this probably gave a push to poets and composers. But I never knew where would it lead me to,” she continues.

“Granted, with this amount of fine music at your disposal, you can just perform a selection of songs and instrumental pieces.

But this is so much against what I believe in.

In my early music Phoenix Ensemble, I try to give the audience a new experience, to take the listeners to a different world. It was obvious to me that I had to create a story, to find story that will link the songs together, to mold them into something solid.”

Herzog invented the story of a man who falls madly in love and gradually loses his mind to the extent that he calls for “daggers, poison, fire” as a song of the period goes.

She says that the story, which goes crescendo, has a beginning, a culmination and quite a surprising end. The play is created in the style known as English Mask, which was popular at the time and includes vocal, instrumental and spoken fragments.

While doing research for the concert, Herzog came across the plays of Thomas D’Urfey and used his vocabulary for writing narrative fragments of her play. The remarkable portraits of each stage, bridged by idiosyncratic instrumental music, are painted by Purcell, Locke, Blow, Eccles, Finger, Draghi and Wilson.

“But I needed texts to bridge the songs, and you can’t put together 17th-century songs in contemporary English, can you? It would have been ridiculous!” she says. “So I wrote texts using D’Urfey’s vocabulary and style. So from the audience’s point of view, this sounds like an authentic play written at the end of the 17th century. As a result, this is more than a concert, since the elements of the play interact, and each song receives a new dimension. You start to realize what it meant to be a mad person at the time, what people thought about it.”

Hezog sums up, “For a long period of time, I was completely immersed in this project, and I hope that people will come to listen. For me, it was a true labor of love.”

Hezog has nothing but praise for the concert participants.

“This is a dream team,” she says.

“Counter tenor Alon Harari a singing actor, is the mad lover. He is blessed with a fantastic voice and the ability to deliver the emotions.

He will sing and also present the texts. As for the instrumentalists, we have two top violinists - Racheli Ringelstein and Tali Goldberg - as well as harpsichordist Marina Minkin, who is one of the most intriguing artists of the local early music stage.”

Herzog adds that she will play an English viol, “which was built around 1680 by Edward Lewis, exactly at the time of our program.”

 

Read the whole interview HERE
 

Michelangelo Falvetti

 Little is known about Michelangelo Falvetti (1642–1695), an Italian Baroque composer and Catholic priest. 

 

He was born in Melicuccà  (a tiny town in the province of Reggio Calabria) on December 29, 1642, of Antonio Falvetta and Francesca Crisafi, but spent most of his life and musical career in the Kingdom of Sicily. Falvetti worked in Palermo, Catania, Messina and, after 1695, in Palermo again.

 

In 1670 he became maestro di cappella in Palermo, where he must have made the acquaintance of Vincenzo Giattini, who at the time was an admired librettist there. In 1679 founded Palermo’s Musicians Union (‘Unione dei musici sotto il titolo di Santa Cecilia’).

In 1682 Falvetti was appointed maestro di cappella of the cathedral in Messina, a city ravaged by earthquakes and tidal waves, where he died around April 1695. The connection between Messina's floods and the powerful Biblical story of the Great Flood must have struck Falvetti, inspiring him to write his masterpiece oratorio Il Diluvio Universale in the very same year he was appointed, with a libretto by Giattini.

Falvetti wrote several oratorios, polyphonic Masses, Vespers, concertato psalms, motets for one or more voices with continuo. Unfortunately, most of his works are lost, the only ones preserved at the moment are Il Diluvio Universale and Il Nabucco (also with a libretto by Giattini - PHOENIX performed the world premiere of the complete Nabucco in 2016!).

Artists

 

 

Conductor, musical director: 

Myrna Herzog

 

Soloists:  

Tal Ganor - Rad (Noah's wife) and Acua

Yuval Oren - Natura Humana & Aria

David Feldman -  Giustizia Divina & Morte

Oshri Segev - Noah & Fuoco

Yair Polishook - Dio & Terra

 

 

Ensemble PHOENIX on early instruments :

Noam Schuss & Noam Gal - baroque violins  

Miriam Fingert - baroque viola

Tal Arbel - viola da gamba

Myrna Herzog - baroque cello

Dara Bloom - violone

Alma Mayer - cornetto & recorder

Liron Rinot - sackbut

Alexander Fine - baroque bassoon

Ian Aylon - baroque guitar

Marina Minkin - organ

Media

Reviews

Il Diluvio Universale

"Making History at Abu Gosh: Ensemble PHOENIX brought Il Diluvio Universale.

A piece of history in the history of baroque concerts in Israel: "Il Diluvio Universale",  the wonderful Sicilian baroque oratorio by Michelangelo Falvetti, on the story of Noah and the Flood, composed at Messina in the end of the 17th century (perhaps due to an earthquake and tsunami), appeared for the first time in a public concert in Israel.

The precedent was signed by five of the finest Israeli singers and the musicians of Ensemble PHOENIX conducted by Myrna Herzog (who also occasionally played the cello), who presented an interesting Israeli premiere of the Sicilian baroque oratorio". Hagai Hitron, HaAretz.

"A major event of the 2015 October Abu Gosh Vocal Music Festival was the Israeli premiere of Michelangelo Falvetti’s “Il Diluvio Universale” (The Great Flood), to a libretto of Vincenzo Giattini, a work of exceptionally fine quality, its originality and inventiveness fired with fine melodic, harmonic and polyphonic writing. Performing the work were singers and instrumentalists of Ensemble PHOENIX conducted by the ensemble’s founder and musical director Myrna Herzog, who has once again thrilled festival audiences, introducing them to a rare Baroque treasure that recounts a well-known Bible story with freshness and magic." Pamela Hickman

 

"I really like it, it's a performance musicologically cared for and yet full of passion and emotion with (rare thing) an excellent Italian pronunciation!” Fabrizio Longo, editor of Il Diluvio Universale

Fabrizio Longo

 

 The editor of Il Diluvio Universale is Fabrizio Longo, a musician and musicologist from Messina. 

Longo studied “historically informed violin” with several famous musicians, including Luigi Rivighi, at the historical Accademia Filarmonica in Bologna.

He has published academic papers, essays and critiques regarding 17th and 18th century music for Di Nicolò Libri, SMSP, Walhall, Ut Orpheus, Arcana, Ambronay's and Treccani, and has recorded for SMSP, Raidue, Raitre, Mediaset, MTV, Teatro di Messina, Radio Classic, Ambronay’s and Tactus.

He plays a violin built by from the second half of the 18th century, attributed to an anonymous luthier from the Cremonese school, in it's original condition.

Artists

 

Na'ama Lion -flute

Noam Schuss - violin

Myrna Herzog - viola da gamba, musical director

Marina Minkin - fortepiano 

 

Artists

The audience is Myrna Herzog's partner in this show, wecome to ask questions, interact, even have a go at some of the instruments in the end.

At the Blumental Center, the presentation is hosted by Meir Wiesel, and is part of his wonderful series of concerts introducing the different instruments to children.

 

 

 

Reviews

SHAKESPEARE