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