The 24th season opens with a concert entitled “Masa Haadama”, a vocal celebration featuring well-known songs for voice and orchestra and a piece by Alex Wasserman with text by Tsvika Nir.
By Chiquita Levov
The Tel Aviv Soloists Ensemble opens its 24th season with the concert “Haadama dough”, with a program that combines Schubert songs with Israeli songs by Argov, Zaira, Naomi Shemer and Idan Reichel, in arrangements by top composers including Wiesenberg, Sheriff and others. At the center of the concert, the new work by the Israeli composer Alex Wasserman, with moving texts by the poet Tsvika Nir, which are more current than ever. This concert will feature the highly appreciated soprano Keren Hadar and the Moran Ensemble under the artistic direction of Naomi Faran, with whom the “Soloists” frequently collaborate. Throughout the evening, these artists will perform in various combinations: choir with orchestra, choir “a capella”, singer with orchestra, soloists with choir and orchestra, etc. The concert will take place on 28.11 in Tel Aviv and 30.11 in Haifa. More information and tickets: https://www.soloists.co.il/
Keren Hadar
Barak Tal, founder and music director of the Tel Aviv Soloists Ensemble states: “It is very exciting for me to open the 24th season approximately one year after the events of 7.10/XNUMX, with a powerful piece that describes so well what is happening here and now. The ensemble often performs Israeli works at every concert throughout the years, but precisely now, it is important for me to also bring works that are related to our situation here in Israel today.”
The centerpiece “Masa Haadama” (The Burden of the Earth) is a composition of Alex Wasserman, inspired by the moving and powerful texts of Tsvika Nir, who defines it as “A secular cantata for soprano, choir and orchestra”, with 5 chapters. Alex Wasserman, composer and conductor, originally from Sao Paulo Brazil. He studied composition and cello at the Rubin Academy of Music, and completed his studies with a doctorate at Juilliard. He won awards and numerous scholarships. Wasserman, who conducted most of the important orchestras in Israel, is today the director of the Choir of the prestigious music school “Rimón” and as a professor of composition, he teaches at the music department of the Ono faculty. He was the founder and musical director of the Ramat Gan Symphony Orchestra for 16 years.
Wasserman
Tsvika Nir, Israeli writer, poet, lawyer and former politician, he is currently the president of the Association of Hebrew Writers in Israel. He states: “I wrote the prose poem “Masa Haadama” even before the attempted legal revolution and of course before the events of October 7. I used it in the form of a “prophecy” that has no prophet, but I chose the title: “Masa Haadama” based on the verse from Isaiah “The Burden of Babylon” and combined verses and images from various prophets. The burden took on a strong and relevant meaning after the war. For many years I have lived with the feeling that something bad is happening to the State of Israel and that the future of the country is in doubt.”
Tsvika Nir
Nir adds: “Unfortunately, my younger brother fell in the Yom Kippur war. Since then his blood has been crying out to me from the ground. This song is a protest against wars in general expressed in a military march. It is written like a prophecy that comes out like a kind of stream of consciousness from the mouth of some oracle without punctuation and with an intensity that is born from the rhythm itself. The text written several years ago refers to the reality we live in. But at the same time it seems to predict what is to come.”
It is interesting to note that the conductor Roit Feldenkreis will conduct in Barcelona the work composed by Alex Wasserman, in its European premiere with the Saint Coget Symphony Orchestra and the text by Tsvika Nir translated into Catalan. The concert will be recorded and broadcast on national radio. Feldenkrais, who lives in Barcelona and works there with various orchestras, including the Chamber Orchestra of Catalonia, is committed to the realization of innovative works with world premieres.