Tue Feb 18th, 2025

New seasons in classical music

November 19th 2024
Avni and the symphony

The orchestras open the season with festive concerts: the Rishon Symphony with Bar Avni, the Philharmonic with Asher Fisch, the Baroque with Kati Debretzeni and the Israeli Chamber with Gazarian.

By Chiquita Levov

Bar Avni at the Israeli Symphony

The Rishon LeZion Israeli Symphony opens the “Symphonic Series” with the concert entitled 

“Beethoven and Dvorak” under the baton of the Israeli host Avni Bar and the violinist Michael Shaham, which will play Beethoven's Violin Concerto. In the second part, the orchestra will perform Dvorák's Symphony No. 8. Between the two pieces, the piece “Secret Gale” (Ruah Beseter) of Joao Isaac Marques, born in Rio de Janeiro, a PhD student in composition in Israel. The Symphony in collaboration with the Jerusalem Academy of Music, is starting this year a special project in which composition students will present 4 miniature pieces, which are related to the main works. The project opens with Marques' piece inspired by Dvorák's 8th Symphony. It can be heard until 23.11 in Tel Aviv and Rishon LeZion. More information: https://isorl.smarticket.co.il/

The Israeli director Bar Avni (1989) She has been the first female chief conductor in the 120-year history of the Bayer Philharmonic since 2021. She began to devote herself to music at the age of 8, and after completing her military service in 2009 she began studying conducting at the Buchman-Mehta Academy in Tel Aviv with Yoav Talmi. She works with various orchestras and takes part in international concerts. She recently received the first prize at the “La Maestra” competition in Paris awarded by an international jury along with 4 other prizes.

Brands

Joao Isaac Marques He tells us about his work: “When the Israeli Symphony Orchestra honored me with an invitation to compose a piece inspired by the “eighth” symphony of 

Dvořák resonated deeply with me, for he composed his Symphony as a step towards his admission to the Bohemian Academy of Arts. And it also marks my entry this year as a student at the Jerusalem Academy. Moreover, Dvorák's symphony is called “optimistic” and contemplating its motifs filled me with enthusiasm. Delving deeper into the symphony revealed, in addition to “positivity”, also the hidden anxieties that tormented the composer before his departure for the “New World” and his fear of the events that the new life would bring. Here, too, I was afflicted by such feelings, in the solitude of the first mysterious nights, on the summit of Mount Scopus where I live today. The tension and excitement that came over me because of my ambition to bridge the water separating the Academy in Rome from that in Jerusalem. I prepared many drafts in which I tried to hide my true feelings. 

feelings under a thick layer of intellectualism. The piece found its voice only when I let the currents of that “secret spirit” flow unhindered. The title could not be more appropriate.”

Asher Fisch in The Israel Philharmonic 

Chen Reiss

The orchestra is proud to host Israeli conductor Asher Fisch and soprano Chen Reis for a series of concerts with a program exclusively of Richard Strauss. The concert program brings together three works from the pinnacle of Strauss’s oeuvre, which indicate his creativity in writing for an orchestra as well as his impressive intellectual personality. The program allows an in-depth look at one of the most complex and fascinating composers in the history of music. The last piece to be performed is actually the one written first, and is the epic piece “Thus Spoke Zarathustra,” which was inspired by the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche and became so famous not only because it was a sweeping piece, but also thanks to director Stanley Kubrick, who used it in the film “A Space Odyssey.” From 19 to 24.11 in Tel Aviv and Haifa. More information: https://www.ipo.co.il/

The orchestra

The programme is completed by “Metamorphoses” and “Four Last Songs”, two works written in the years following the Second World War. Strauss wrote after composing Metamorphoses in 1945: “The most terrible period of humanity is coming to an end, these were years in which the greatest criminals ruled through ignorance, anti-civilisation and animalism.” 

The next concert of the Israeli Philharmonic will be with Tamir Greenberg, following the success of the first show last year. He will be conducted by Yaron Gottfried, the author of the arrangements, in a particularly exciting joint show, with extraordinary interpretations of the songs from the best repertoire of this popular singer. Since Tamir arrived from the United States, he has appeared on the most important stages in Israel and does not stop releasing music that conquers the hearts of the audience and the playlists. On 26.11. 

The Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra

Kati Debretzeni

Opens its 36th season with a festive concert entitled “Opening” in which the renowned violinist Kati Debretzeni Kati returns from London to the orchestra to perform virtuoso music by the great Baroque composers Bach and Handel, festive orchestral overtures, a violin concerto and also Bach's Suite No. 3. One of the leading names on the world's early music scene, Kati is a particularly favourite guest of the Israeli public, having begun her journey in the Baroque field in the ranks of the Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra. The relationship with her has been maintained ever since, and each of her visits always becomes a celebration, both for the audience and the musicians. She will perform from 23 to 27.11 November in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa and Rehovot. More information: www.jbo.co.il

Debretzeni She is an Israeli violinist of Romanian origin, fourth generation of musicians.

She began playing the violin in Romania and after emigrating to Israel at the age of 15 she completed her studies in Tel-Aviv. Her passion for historical performance took her to London, where she studied baroque violin and where she currently resides. The program directed by and starring Debretzeni has the familiar and the unfamiliar, from the bright and festive to the

more intimate chamber music. As befits the season’s opening concert, the programme includes numerous overtures: Bach’s cantata symphony, the opening of Handel’s “Occasional Oratorio” and the opening of Bach’s Suite No. 3. And Handel’s Sonata for 5 Instruments.

“Giant Classics” at the Chamber Orchestra

The Israeli Chamber Orchestra The orchestra opens the season with the concert entitled Classical Giants, which is a unique opportunity to hear 3 masterpieces in one unique evening. With this program, the orchestra offers spectators “a powerful and exciting musical experience with three masterpieces by the great composers of the Viennese classical style.” The challenging masterpieces by Beethoven, Mozart and Haydn. The conductor is Ruben Gazarian, (Armenia – Germany) who is the current musical director of this orchestra. The pieces are: “Große Fuge” by Ludwig van Beethoven, Symphony 38 “Prague” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Symphony 104 “London” by Joseph Haydn. It can be heard on 20 and 21.11 at the Tel Aviv Museum. More information: https://www.ico.co.il/show/2067

Harlap

At the next concert the Bertini Choir directed by Ronen Borshevsky will join the

Chamber Orchestra in a programme with pieces by Chopin, Giovanni Gabrieli, Bach and Harlap. Six famous soloists will participate in this concert. The “Magnificat” prayer by the Israeli composer Aharon Harlap for two soloists, choir and orchestra is an integral part of the Catholic evening prayer and has been the subject of many compositions since the Middle Ages. It is a prayer of thanksgiving, full of joy and strength that Mary offered after the good news that she was carrying the Son of God in her womb. Among the many compositions, three magnificent pieces were also chosen to be performed: the first from the Venetian Renaissance by Giovanni Gabrieli, for three choirs. From the Baroque of the early 6th century, the most famous is Bach’s “Magnificat”: a short, virtuosic and majestic work, for five soloists, a five-voice choir and an orchestra including three trumpets and timpani. Between 18 and 28.11 in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

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