Dichterliebe - Die Rose, die Lilie     Otčenáš - Ob přijd'

 

 

Janáček's Otčenáš in final production stages, we bring you a critic's awed response at the premiere performance of the piece in Israel, back in 1997. Ora Binur has been - and still is - a respected music critic, covering classical music concerts and festivals for "Ma'ariv", one of Israel's national newspapers.

 

Hana Tzur's Ramat Gan Chamber Choir will be performing at Slalom's upcoming studio production of Janáček's Otčenáš, with Mr. Levine as tenor solo; thus there will be closure to a magical circle, spun eight years ago.

 


 

A Wonderful Concert

 

[Last Night at the Concert. By: Ora Binur. Ma'ariv, July 1997]

 

The Abu-Ghoush Festival: The Ramat Gan Chamber Choir with harpist Tali Glazer, conducted by Hana Tzur

 

If we agree that a festival is mainly supposed to bring unique programs that are not taken from the everyday repertoire, then the Ramat Gan Chamber Choir's concert can be seen as a fine example. The jewel in the program was the premiere performance in Israel of a magical cantata by Janáček: "Our Father" for choir, tenor, harp, and organ.

 

Tali Glazer played the harp solo, which comprises an important part of the piece, musically and emotionally; the tenor David Levine sang a beautiful, warm solo, with a cantor's touch that is becoming of this piece's nature; and above all the choir sang clear and sensitive, full of musical shadings.

 

The choir, lead by Hana Tzur, also performed a Motet by Brahms, opus 74, along with accapella pieces by Bruckner, in which the most phenomenal was "Ave Maria". Beyond this unusual program, all of which was newly discovered beauty, we also heard sensitive singing, which truly resembles the singing of Lieder, like musical sculpting. In that same vain was a very musical performance of Schubert's Mass in G Major, with an ensemble of players from Israel's various orchestras, as the concluding offering in this concert.

 

The Ramat Gan Chamber Choir proves itself as the most unique vocal body flourishing in Israel today. How very wonderful is the Abu-Ghoush Festival, a wonder in itself, bestowing upon us such a magnificent concert.

 

From the Hebrew: Eitan Kasspi, Language Services and Translations [LST], Slalom SDL Ltd.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"...The tenor David Levine sang a beautiful, warm solo, with a cantor's touch that is becoming of this piece's nature..."