Tzvi Avni - Israeli composer and teacher

Tzvi Avni is one of Israel’s foremost composers, whose works are performed worldwide. A central figure of Israeli music, he is the recipient of the Prime Minister’s Prize for Life Achievement (1998), the Saarland State Prize for Life Achievement (1998) and the Israel Prize (2001). On July 12th 2010 I had the pleasure of talking to composer and teacher Professor Tzvi Avni in Tel Aviv.

PH: Tzvi, when and where did your involvement with music begin?

Tzvi Avni: I see it all as somewhat of a miracle. At the age of seven, I arrived in Israel from Germany with my parents in 1935. When I was eleven, my father was abducted and killed by Arabs. Till today, I do not know where he was buried. At age 13, on my bar mitzvah, my mother wanted to buy me a present. Interested in music, I requested a musical instrument. We went to the large Kowalsky music shop in downtown Haifa where she bought me a Hohner hand harmonica. This simple, non-chromatic instrument, similar to a mouth organ but richer in musical possibilities, became an important means of musical expression for me and I started composing melodies on it. Not having learned to read music, I devised my own simple form of musical notation. At age 14, I began working and, with my savings, bought myself a mandolin. Again I devised my own notation, this time, a form of tablature. I then bought a Baroque soprano recorder. Playing these instruments by ear, there was always the fervent need to compose. When I joined a youth group, I played for the other members who danced – that is why I have never learned to dance. The youth leader was a kibbutz member, a man who had originally come from Berlin; he started to take me to concerts and was adamant that I should go to study music seriously. This was a new concept for me: I viewed people who played the piano as princes, as higher beings! Well, in our building, we did have an elderly, German-born piano teacher whose pupils all played Mozart’s Rondo Alla Turca for all to hear. As the result of the youth leader’s suggestion, at age 16 I was sent to learn to play the piano and to learn to read music with a teacher at whose home one could also practise; we had no piano at home. The piano teacher was impressed with my progress. With the compensation money for my father’s death, I went out and bought my first piano at age 18. I went on to study piano with a Mr. Neumann, a serious piano teacher in Haifa, taking music theory lessons with various other teachers. My dream was to become a concert pianist, but I was beginning to understand that I had started too late to make a concert career. However, I was still busy composing intuitively – a sonatina, a rondo, variations, etc.

PH: Your interests also lay in the plastic arts.

TA: Most definitely. In my youth in Haifa I did much drawing and painting and had considered studying art. But the moment came when I needed to choose the medium that was more important to me and I chose music. I continued painting for a while. However, I found music a more emotional expression.

PH: So you were moving more in the direction of composing.

TA: It was not so simple. When composer Abel Ehrlich came to teach in Haifa, I began studying music theory more seriously with him. However, my formal studies with him were one thing and my own compositions entirely another. I went on to study at the Tel Aviv Academy of Music and there took composition with Mordecai Seter for three or four years. It was clear then, as it still is today, that Seter was the most influential and important teacher of my life. Despite my late start, it was he who drew together all the threads of what I had been learning. I should also mention that I studied orchestration with Paul Ben Haim, leading me, among other things, to write many song arrangements for Israeli radio. In the meantime, I had left practicing the piano, completed my military service and was married at 22. My wife was very encouraging of my composing aspirations.

PH: How did you earn your living at that time?

TA: In 1958, I accepted the job of director of the Lod Music Conservatory. However, that same year, on completing my studies at the Tel Aviv Academy of Music, Odeon Partos informed me I would not be receiving my diploma as I had no school matriculation certificate. So I went and completed my matriculation studies. I then took the position of directing the library at Heichal Hatarbut (the Mann Auditorium).

PH: Did you study overseas?

TA: Yes. In 1962, I decided to travel abroad. My wife, Pnina, and I went to the United States for two years. There I approached Edgard Varese, requesting to study with him. Varese, having heard works of mine, insisted I was already a composer, adding that, anyway, he was not willing to teach me his “tricks”; but he did advise me to go and study electronic music. Then and there he picked up the telephone and called Otto Luening at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center, gave me a glowing recommendation and arranged for me to receive a bursary for studies. Vladimir Ussachevsky was the main teacher there. During my two years in the USA, I also spent two months in Tanglewood studying with both Aaron Copland and Lukas Foss. These were very avant-garde times in America and my compositional style was much influenced by what I was hearing and experiencing .

PH: So your writing was to undergo a number of drastic changes.

TA: Yes. Before traveling to America, I was busy furthering the previous generation’s style of writing “Mediterranean” music. I was writing works in classical forms. But in America I was faced with a myriad of new ideas and different approaches as well as with the possibilities offered by the medium of electronic music. I made a great effort to free myself of classical forms, I distanced myself from tonality and modal thinking; my approach became more abstract. On my return to Israel at the end of 1964, I needed time to see where my own style was going. “Meditations on a Drama”, composed in 1965 and premiered in 1966, a much performed orchestral work, was the first work that took me into a new phase of composition. I received the ACUM Prize for it. (ACUM is the Israeli non-profit organization administering the rights assigned to it by its members – authors, composers, lyricists, poets, arrangers and music publishers.) My approach had become more abstract in its harmonic combinations; use of color and timbre were gaining more importance for me. These changes are paramount in “Five Pantomimes”(1968) for chamber ensemble, each piece of this work taking inspiration from celebrated paintings. This work was first performed at a workshop for young composers at Beit Lessin (Tel Aviv) an event I had organized. And, of course, there have been new developments since then. My writing has gone from Impressionistic to more Expressionistic; it has become less oriental and was beginning to be somewhat more influenced by elements of Jewish music. My interest in Jewish mysticism is expressed in Epitaph-Sonata no. 2, for example, which derives its inspiration from the writings of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov.

PH: Have you written for theatre or ballet?

TA: I have composed several works for ballet….for the Bat Dor Dance Company. I love dance and connect easily with it. I have also written music for radio dramas and a little for art films.

PH: And vocal music?

TA: Yes. I have composed a lot of vocal music, much of it on biblical texts.

PH: What about music for children?

TA: Here I should mention “The Three-Legged Monster” (1994) for narrator, piano and small orchestra , a musical story that takes children and adults on a tour of orchestral instruments. The story was written by my late wife Hanna Yaddor-Avni, mother of our children, Shiran and Eylon.

PH: Where do you see your style at the present?

TA: My style today is a continuation and development of my writing of the 1970’s…let’s call it “post modern”. It focuses on expression of emotions. Take the work written for the Offenburger Streichtrio (Offenburg String Trio)- "Credo" - a soul-searching, brooding piece whose ending is, nevertheless, optimistic.

PH: Would you like to talk about your career in teaching?

TA: I began my teaching career in elementary schools. For eight years I taught school music – no easy task in a classroom of 40 children. In fact, for one year I taught Hebrew songs in an Arabic school! When directing the Lod Music Conservatory I taught theory as well as teaching in a school in Ramat Gan. I was bent on finding interesting ways of teaching music theory to children. At a concert a few years ago a man approached me – he had studied theory with me at the Lod Conservatory and today is now a professor at the Weizmann Institute; and he still remembers the theory lessons he learned with me! After my return from America, Mrs. Yocheved Dostrovsky-Kopernik, then director of the Jerusalem Academy of Music, asked me if I would be willing to teach electronic music in the Academy’s new laboratory. Happy at the prospect, I spent time familiarizing myself with the newly acquired Arp synthesizer there, took on teaching a number of subjects, yet still directing the music library in Tel Aviv. Conductor Mendi Rodan consequently offered me a full-time teaching job at the Jerusalem (Rubin) Academy of Music and Dance. I was made a professor as the result of works of mine being sent to other universities.

I have always enjoyed teaching. In a one-semester course I teach called “Introduction to 20th Century Music” I talk about its roots in Romantic music – Impressionism and Expressionism –referring to painting and the arts in general. I, myself, am fascinated by how and where new styles spring up. And giving composition students musical- and meaningful direction gives me much satisfaction, as does hearing their compositions performed. Today the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance boasts a fine theory and composition department, some of its own most gifted graduates being among its teaching faculty. Its composition students enjoy many opportunities to have new works performed.

PH: What have you been writing recently?

TA: I have just completed a concerto for piano and chamber orchestra – my first and last! It was an exhausting job. Even checking it for errors has been a huge undertaking. It was commissioned and will be premiered September 1st 2010, opening the Duisburg Philharmonic’s new concert season. I will be present to hear my concerto sandwiched between Mendelssohn’s “The Hebrides” Overture and Mahler’s Symphony no. 1, in a program of Jewish composers! By the way, when earlier on I mentioned freeing myself of Classical forms, here I have composed the first movement in sonata form, the second an ABA form and the third, a rondo…but have used the forms loosely.

PH: Is today’s Israeli music characterized by specific tendencies?

TA: No. Composers are each writing in their own individual styles and I think this is a good thing. This post-modern age is like a children’s playroom – each of us visiting it chooses the "toys" he/she wants to play with from the selection there. Many of the younger composers are using minimalistic elements. But there is Impressionism, Expressionism, also post-modernism (for better and for worse.) However, there are many talented Israeli students and composers writing much music.

PH: Do you think today’s young composers have more courage to try new ideas than those of previous generations?

TA: This is a mine-field. The avant-garde is passé and one problem is that everything “new and different” has already been tried and done; having that kind of “courage” could mean “imitating” rather than “creating”. What really counts is relevance, is whether the composer writes music that has impact, music that is expressive and personal, music that presents ideas or a different way of looking at things.

PH: So where is music going?

TA: Who knows if we are not approaching the breakdown of the use of musical instruments. The public is now so conditioned to hearing electronic sounds! Technology is taking over our lives at a frantic pace. A Mozart symphony at a concert might end up being performed with microphones magnifying the sound! On the other hand, there is the search for authenticity, as we see in early music, for example.

PH: Tzvi, back to you. Apart from music, what interests you the most?

TA: As mentioned earlier, the visual arts are the second passion of my life. I love to look at art works and spend time in galleries. I have brought my love for music and the visual arts together in several works that have been inspired by works of 20th century artists – Picasso, Klee, Kandinsky, Chagall, Dali, Miro, Ardon, and others. In works such as “Program Music 1980” and in solo pieces for flute, oboe and clarinet called “Anthropomorphic Landscapes” I focus on “music painting”.

PH: Tzvi, many thanks for your time and for sharing so many interesting ideas.

Austrian 'cellist Erich Oskar Huetter directs fifth "Sounding Jerusalem" Festival

On June 25th 2010 I met with ‘cellist Erich Oskar Huetter, here to direct the 5th “Sounding Jerusalem” Festival. Born in Austria in 1973, E.O.Huetter studied with Hildgund Posch at the University of Music in Graz, with Reinhard Latzgo at the City of Basel Music Academy, also with Antonio Lysy (Montreal.) Further studies were taken with Janos Starker (Indiana University, USA), Ralph Kirschbaum at the Royal Northern College of Music (UK) and with Mischa Maisky at the Accademia Chigiana, Siena (Italy). E.O.Huetter performs widely, conducts master classes at various universities and at the Stift Admont International Summer Academy (Austria). A member of the Arcus Ensemble (Vienna) and the Hyperion Ensemble (Salzburg), Huetter plays recitals with Austrian pianist Paul Gulda and is the founder and director of the “Styrian Chamber Music Festival” and the “Sounding Jerusalem” Festival. “Sounding Jerusalem” is a chamber music festival providing an intercultural platform for musicians from Israel, Palestine and Europe.

PH: Erich Oskar Huetter, what were your earliest musical experiences?

EOH: I grew up in a musical family. My mother is a musician – she taught recorder and guitar - and music was always part of our family life. I began playing the recorder at age four. I attended concerts from a young age and, at a string orchestra concert, my mother, keen for me to play a stringed instrument, asked me which instrument I would like to play. I chose the ‘cello and started lessons at age five. Generally speaking, in Austria there is a strong musical tradition, with children attending music schools. I come from Graz, a small city, where music is very much a part of the cultural life. There was, however, a time in my youth when playing music did not seem “cool” to me and I set my sights at becoming a car racer; at that time I earned my living from playing music in order to realize my dream of becoming a car racer! However, at age 15 or 16, I remember the very moment (I was performing a Respighi work at a concert) when I realized that music was what I really wanted and needed to be doing; it was a powerful and decisive moment, one of feeling totally “alive”. I had been studying at a music high school, but stopped attending as my musical activities were becoming too time consuming.

PH: After higher studies, in which you studied under several great ‘cellists, what was your next move?

EOH: I returned to Austria, living in Vienna for a short while. My parents took upon themselves to support me during my studies and for some time after them, allowing me the freedom and luxury to establish myself as a performing musician, to start a festival in Austria and to play with other musicians; this gave me time and space to develop my career.

PH: So how do you work now?

EOH: I do much performing, playing 60 to 80 concerts a year, many recitals with pianist Paul Gulda and some ‘cello-guitar recitals - I love the possibilities of the sensitive, hair-thin delicate sounds of the guitar. With my very compatible colleagues of the Hyperion String Sextet we perform all over the world. Yes – I play in duos and various chamber music groups, but performing as a soloist with orchestra is not my milieu. And then, of course, there are the festivals in which I am involved. Traveling as frequently as I do, I feel I can not take on teaching at this stage of my career. The music student and learning process interest me and I see myself staying more permanently in one or two places at a later stage of the future and teaching. At this time in my life, I am totally independent, am not employed in any institution. This has its great advantages, but means a very long work day. Now that I have a family, I will need to rethink my daily schedule in order to have time set aside for family and not just for work.

PH: Do you have time for other interests?

EOH: I am a very curious person and interested in almost everything. I run around with open eyes. Performing feeds my soul – I could not leave that to just organize festivals. The little free time I have at the moment is for family. However, I do want to have more peaceful time for myself, time to think many things through deeply, to make decisions. This is best done in idyllic locations such as the Austrian Alps. Till now, I have had the need to do as much as possible but that need is changing.

PH: You put much energy into running festivals. “Sounding Jerusalem” is certainly a very unique project.

EOH: I love these projects. It seems I have the knack of bringing people together. In “Sounding Jerusalem” I need to bring artists together as well as organizers. Not just seen through the eyes of the performer or the manager who makes all the decisions, one sees the many aspects and levels of producing a concert. I am very interested in the whole picture - why and where one is organizing a specific concert, the logistics of it and the social background of all involved, thinking things out, often rethinking them, guiding players, programming. This demands much more than just being a musician. And there are many traps to avoid – the Middle East is full of traps. Running “Sounding Jerusalem”, I am getting to know many of the dimensions of this region – political, cultural, religious and social. All of these aspects are concentrated here in this small place. “Sounding Jerusalem” concerts take place in various and very different places, from a concert in a Palestinian village one day to one in Ein Karem (Jerusalem) the next. The diversity here is incredible and we need to be sensitive to all the people with whom we come into contact, to respect their thoughts and feelings. This awareness is indeed a learning process. We want to do something for the people, but this, after all, is the mission of all performing artists.

PH: Having spent two and a half years teaching for the Barenboim-Said Foundation in Ramallah and then founding and directing the “Sounding Jerusalem” Festival has certainly given you insight into life in this region.

EOH: It has been a process, from starting out in Ramallah in 2003 at the time of the second “intifada” (uprising), to then getting to know the Israeli point of view, leading on to a stage of asking myself so many questions about the situation…and also even trying to answer them! I am very clear on my own principles of right and wrong, but now no longer plague myself with all the questions I once did and, anyway, the situation in this region is so complex that I feel incapable of coming up with any kind of clear idea or solution! However, I think it is fair to say that I have spent enough time here to understand the situation on a deeper level than that of a tourist. Well, of course, I return to Austria to the peace and quiet of my life in an Austrian village. Creating a festival “without borders” means taking no one side and it has no political allegiance; our mission is to provide concerts for many people. We do, of course, question inhuman behaviour and its blind acceptance by some people and would like to see a new reality. I think all artists should have respect for humans living together.

PH: “Sounding Jerusalem” brings chamber music concerts to village people who have never been exposed to western music.

EOH: Yes. We are about to perform concerts in villages near Hebron and Nablus and we do not really know how it will work; the people there do not know us and we do not know them. But the atmosphere will be a “concert atmosphere” and we are very professional about what we do. The artists have plenty to say through music….in the same way as they do at a concert they might play in the Kennedy Center! The audience picks this up and respects the artists for their sincerity and musical capability. Over the years our programs have begun including oriental music: not exclusively Arabic music but also oriental Jewish music, Armenian music, etc…a mix of styles. So we offer these village audiences music with some elements familiar to them as well as works that will be new for them. The concerts are a challenge to both performers and audience. It is simplistic to think that chamber music should be performed only in acoustically fine concert halls to people who understand the medium and, consequently, feel the need to pass judgement. Some of my most powerful performing experiences have been when playing for people who have never before attended classical music concerts.

PH: How did you make your own personal connection with oriental music?

EOH: I must say that I myself am not an oriental musician at all, but, having spent so much time in this region, I have got to know people who are. In “Sounding Jerusalem”, we have concerts we call “Melange Oriental” (Oriental Mix) where players of different backgrounds form an ensemble to explore oriental music. Jazz musicians find the transition to improvisation in oriental styles easier than classical players do. Each player adds his own ideas. Although we have some oriental players in the group, you could say that European chamber music players will not create an interpretation typical of that of an authentic oriental orchestra; but we are open-minded and curious and we try our best to adjust and adapt to the style. With excellent, curious and enterprising musicians taking part in this experiment, one can have great success. After all, being a fine musician means being sensitive, open and flexible.

PH: “Sounding Jerusalem” is a totally different kind of chamber music festival. How do you choose your players?

EOH: Actually, for artists who play concerts in conventional venues and concerts in Europe and all over the world, this festival is refreshingly different and fascinating. However, I need to take care to choose artists who are easygoing personalities: we face daily inconveniences and delays. So I look for high quality players who are realistic and “grounded”. The problem is not in finding suitable artists, but in financing the festival. Each country supports its own artists, so I am limited in my artistic freedom. We are guests of the Austrian Hospice in the Old City but are much supported by the Representative Office of the Federal Republic of Germany (Ramallah). Most of the festival’s financing comes from Germany.

PH: Erich Oskar Huetter, many thanks for your time and for sharing so many interesting thoughts and ideas.

Polish pianist Karol Radziwonowicz in Tel Aviv to perform as part of the Chopin Year in Israel

Maestro Karol Radziwonowicz, the renowned Polish pianist, has arrived in Israel to perform a solo recital of music by Polish composers June 26th 2010 at the Einav Cultural Center (Tel Aviv.) Under the auspices of the Polish Institute, the concert is one of the festive “Chopin Year in Israel” events. I spoke to Karol Radziwonowicz June 24th.

Pamela Hickman: Maestro Radziwonowicz, welcome to Israel.

Karol Radziwonowicz: Thank you. This is my first visit here. My wife and I are looking forward to meeting the people, to seeing the concert halls, the country, its historical sites and its nature.

PH: What were your earliest musical experiences?

KR: I was born into a musical family, where both parents were professional pianists. At the age of five, I began piano lessons with my father. My mother was a concert pianist when young but stopped her performing career in order to raise us three children. She turned her energy to teaching piano and continues to teach piano in Warsaw today at age 86!

PH: Where did you continue your music studies?

KR: I went through music schools, graduating from the Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music (Warsaw) and in 1986 won a Fulbright Scholarship to study under George Sebok at the School of Music of Indiana University at Bloomington. Sebok was a great among piano teachers and the artist’s degree I took with him meant much performing in different universities; I enjoyed having the opportunity to travel around the USA.

PH: What are your current professional activities?

KR: I perform in recitals and concerts with orchestras all over the world and, of course, in my native Poland. In addition to the gamut of concert repertoire, I specialize in the performance of Polish music - Chopin’s music of course, but also the works of composers such as Juliusz Zarebsky (1854-1885), Carl Mikuli (1819-1897) and Ignacy Jan Paderewski (1860-1941), whose music might be less familiar to the concert-going public than that of Chopin’s. I was the first pianist to have recorded all of Paderewski’s piano works – they comprise of two piano concertos and many solo piano pieces. As a result, many other pianists are now performing his music. After Poland won its independence, Paderewski became its third prime minister: a public figure, he had become known to the Poles through his music!

PH: Your have also performed with your brother, violinist Tomasz Radziwonowicz.

KR: Yes. A graduate of the Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw, he is a composer, arranger and chamber musician but he mostly conducts nowadays. In 1990 Tomasz formed the “Solisti di Varsavia”, a string quintet which I joined in order to record all of Chopin’s works for piano and orchestra. My brother arranged these works for this combination. Of course, the effect is different to that of a full orchestra, more the spirit of chamber music; but we do know that Chopin himself often played his works with chamber ensembles for lack of an orchestra, so there certainly is a measure of authenticity in the project.


PH: Talking of Chopin, what is Fryderyk Chopin’s music for you?

KR: Of course, it is international music, but, for me, it is typically Polish in its moods. Understanding its message is more direct to Poles. The Polish word “zal” could be translated as something like “sorrow” in English. Chopin claimed his music described “zal” and this mood is very familiar to the Polish people. Chopin’s very essence was Polish – his first composition was a Polonaise, his last, a Mazurka (both Polish national dances.)

PH: What works will your Tel Aviv recital include?

KR: With 2010 celebrating the 200th anniversary of Chopin’s birth, I will, of course, be playing several of his works. But the program will include a mix of pieces by other composers who had admired Chopin, their music finding its roots, inspiration or influence in his music. So the audience will have much to compare and think about while listening! Choosing a program means knowing for whom I am going to play in order to have feedback between myself and the people seated in the auditorium. It is most thrilling to the performer to sense that his/her audience is very focused on the music.

PH: Do you teach?

KR: I do not have time to teach, with such a busy performing schedule, but I do serve on piano competition juries and I hold master classes in many cities where I perform. I will be giving one day of master classes at the Israel Conservatory of Music here in Tel Aviv. I will also give a lecture on the interpretation of Chopin’s music in Poland. Throughout the lecture we will be listening to some historical recordings; technically they may be of poor quality, but musically they are magnificent! The old masters were true musicians who played several instruments, and one hears this versatility in their piano recordings.

PH: What are your future plans?

KR: I go back to Poland for recitals. One very interesting event will be a concert in the Atma mountain village, at the Karol Szymanowski Museum, a pre-1910 wooden building in which composer, pianist and author Karol Szymanowski (1882-1937) lived and worked from 1930 to 1936. A far cry from a modern concert hall, the building, however, breathes atmosphere and history. And it must not be forgotten that 2010 is also the 150th anniversary of Paderewski’s birth and his music will be addressed in concerts.

PH: Let’s leave music for a moment. How do you spend your leisure time?

KR: I am a very keen photographer. My father also was and I learned much about it from him. I take many photos on my travels and, in Poland, have had exhibitions of my work. I love to take pictures of landscapes - views without signs of civilization. One of my exhibitions was called “Chopin’s Impressions” – it focused on landscapes from all over the world; there were, in fact, no photos of places where Chopin had been, but the mood of the exhibition was that of Chopin’s music, that of “zal”. And I am looking forward to taking photographs here in Israel when we tour around. My wife is a graphic designer; our artistic tastes meet both in music and in the visual arts!

PH: Maestro Radziwonowicz, many thanks for your time and for sharing so many interesting ideas. I wish you much enjoyment on your visit here in Israel.

Talking to conductor, singer and teacher Carlos Fernandez Aransay

Photo:P.Hickman

On March 30th 2010 I had the pleasure of talking to Carlos Fernandez Aransay in Buitrago del Lozoya, Spain. A singer, accompanist, teacher and choral, orchestral- and opera conductor, Maestro Aransay has published several articles, translates, has been assistant secretary of the Iberian and Latin American Music Society (ILAMS) and has taught vocal- and operatic repertoire at the City Literary Institute, London.

PH: Carlos, what are your first musical experiences?

CFA: I was born in Tarragona in Catalonia (Spain). My mother was a very fine pianist, winning first prize for her playing at the Murcia Conservatoire (where I was later to win first prize for Harmony studies.). So my first musical experience was hearing her play the piano. She played a lot of Chopin. At the age of 8, I began studying piano and solfege.

PH: And where did you continue your studies?

CFA: I went on to graduate from the Royal Conservatoire of Music (Madrid) in Piano, Theory and Composition. By then I was studying singing at the Escuela Superior de Canto de Madrid, where I was also working as an accompanist. I took post-graduate studies at the Royal College of Music (London) in Orchestral Conducting and Composition and sang solo recitals and in opera. I then went on to study conducting privately with Jacques Delacote in Vienna, becoming his assistant for two years in performances of “Carmen” with Jose Carreras in Munich, Zurich and Berlin.

PH: Would you like to talk about Coro Cervantes?

CFA: Yes. I founded the Coro Cervantes chamber choir in 1995 in London, where we performed our first public concert in 1996 at the Spanish Embassy. Under the auspices of the Instituto Cervantes, the ensemble’s mission is to bring Iberian and Latin American music to British audiences. In 1998, the Coro Cervantes became a professional choir, traveling to Mexico, Spain, Latin America - we performed in Mexico at the Guanajuato Festival, the biggest arts festival in Latin America – and to Russia. Singing in a reconsecrated cathedral in Moscow was a very moving experience for us.

We have 16 singers in the ensemble, two thirds of whom are British and one third, Hispanic. There is a core group of 10 singers, with others joining them to perform specific repertoire. All are professional singers. Our repertoire is varied, including both sacred and secular music, spanning from music of medieval times to much Renaissance music, right through to contemporary music, such as the works of one of Spain’s most distinguished contemporary Spanish composers, Anton Garcia Abril (b.1933).

Although we are often supported by the Spanish Embassy and the Spanish Institute of Culture, it is financially difficult to run a professional group in these times. We do, however, have a loyal following in Britain. London offers wonderful opportunities for the choral conductor

PH: Would you like to mention some of the different programs Coro Cervantes has presented as well as future plans?

CFA: Yes. We have performed a complete program of music from the Habsburg court - of the time of Philip II and Charles V - and music from the time of Catherine of Aragon. The concert focusing on the latter took place in Peterborough, where Catherine is buried. We also sang the London premiere of Spanish composer Bartolome de Escobedo’s (c.1500-1563) 6-voiced “Missa Philippus Rex Hispaniae”. In addition to works in Spanish, Coro Cervantes sings in Quechua (the Inca language), Nahuatl (the Aztec language), medieval Galician, Catalan, Basque and in other languages.

Another interesting project consisted of two programs in connection with literary works of Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616), one accompanying a play and another, a lecture. There is mention of many songs both in “Don Quijote” and in Cervantes’ short novels. The music is either anonymous or by composers contemporary to Cervantes or before his time, composers such as Luys de Navaez, Luys de Milan, Enriquez de Valderrabano, and others. The Globe Theatre was an inspiring venue for these events.

In October 2009, we sang in the opening of “The Sacred Made Real: Spanish Painting and Sculpture, 1600-1700”, an exhibition at the National Gallery, London.

PH: What about recordings?

CFA: We have recorded several discs. To mention just three, “O Crux”, our first disc, which presents Spanish sacred music of the 19th century, was chosen by Gramophone Magazine as one of the CD’s of the year.

“Oratio” – our disc of 20th century music from Spain and Latin America – was awarded 5 stars by the BBC Music Magazine. This disc includes Ginastera’s “Lamentations”.

“Yanomami” (the Yanomami tribes live in the rainforests of northern Brazil and southern Venezuela) is a disc of choral music accompanied by guitar. The disc, presenting music of Spain and Latin America, supports “Survival International”, a movement helping tribal peoples in defending their lives and protecting their lands.

At the end of 2010 in Madrid, we may be recording sacred Spanish- and Basque music from the 19th century, the choice of these much-neglected works being the result of collaboration between musicologists and myself.

PH: You mentioned that you studied Composition.

CFA: I obtained both a post graduate drgree and an Associateship from the Royal College of Music in London in Composition. I do compose now and then but hope to have time to do more in the future. I have a few songs and choral pieces I would like to perform. Most recently, I wrote two arrangements for our Epana CD.

PH: I understand that teaching is close to your heart.

CFA: Indeed. A great deal of my work in London is as a vocal coach and I work much with young opera singers in Latin America. I also direct an important singing competition in Peru. I divide my time between choral work and teaching vocal technique. In addition to Coro Cervantes, I have a new choir focusing on opera – The London Lyric Chorus. Am guest conductor of choirs in Latin America and of the National Choir of Spain and guest lecturer teaching choral- and orchestral conducting at the National Conservatoires of Lima, Peru and Celaya, Mexico. And then I enjoy working with and conducting singers in international choral workshops, such as the Lacock courses. All the vocal work I do is based on my firm belief that high quality vocal- and choral performance must come from sound vocal technique.

PH: What about opera?

CFA: I love opera. Am off to Cuba soon to direct a gala of opera highlights with the Cuban National Symphony Orchestra and two wonderful singers.

PH: And when you are not working, how do you like to spend your time?

CFA: Reading…reading fiction and history. I go to theatre, of which London has so much to offer. The world of art interests me: among my friends there are some painters, and I attend exhibitions in venues on the London-Madrid circuit. As mentioned earlier, I love opera and try not to miss an operatic performance! I also love wildlife, travel and to spend time with my friends and family.

PH: Carlos, many thanks for giving the reader a glimpse into your professional life and ideas.

How to buy a Baas fortepiano over the Internet!

Fascinated to hear the story of Myrna Herzog’s new acquisition – a square fortepiano – I spoke to her February 24th 2010 to hear more about this wonderful instrument. Harpsichord player David Shemer spoke about the fortepiano from the point of view of a player. Dr. Myrna Herzog is the founder and musical director of the PHOENIX Ensemble; Dr. David Shemer is the founder and musical director of the Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra.

P.H: Myrna, where does the story begin?

M.H: It started by chance. My husband – an amateur Baroque violinist – is an early instrument enthusiast. He was aware of the fact that the PHOENIX Ensemble was performing Classical programs using the harpsichord – early Haydn trios and, recently, preparing for our latest program - “Mozart the Freemason”. He was also aware of my dream to play this repertoire on fortepiano, a seemingly hopeless dream. Actually, I had checked out the few fortepianos available in Israel, but they were beyond our reach for a variety of reasons. At home, for lack of a better option, we had begun playing Classical repertoire on modern instruments, but we were feeling frustrated about it. Then my husband, surfing the net, discovered a fortepiano being offered for sale at a furniture auction in Bayeux, a small town in Normandy (France)…and the auction was to be in two days time! According to the measurements in the auction information, this instrument would fit into our elevator, our apartment and the Mazda Five. Wasting no time in getting information on the square fortepiano, we found out that it was an original instrument built in 1800 in Paris by a keyboard instrument builder called Baas and that its table had a crack in it (a normal occurrence in these delicate instruments); the crack would, however, not affect the sound. We had not actually seen the instrument and the auctioneers could not tell us anything about its playing condition.

P.H: How could you know if the instrument would be playable?

M.H: There was no way we could! However, I contacted Alex Rosenblatt, an expert on early keyboard instruments, and sent him the only available photo of the fortepiano. Matching the photo with the scant information offering, we concluded that it would be the ideal instrument for playing music up to the early 1830’s – Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven. The auction was November 11th, we sent in a bid by email and bought it. We were thrilled.

P.H: So it was sent to you here in Israel.

M.H: Easier said than done! We were having it brought here through an Israeli transporting company, but their French counterpart did not agree to make a case in which to fly the fortepiano. A French company agreed to bring it to Paris, but not in a case. I knew this would be highly risky. Fortunately, I speak very fluent French. On the net I found a carpenter in Bayeux, contacted him and sent him a sketch of the case needed with all is measurements. The carpenter would be able to check the measurements of the instrument in loco! He agreed to do the job and managed to get the case completed right before the Christmas season; he even provided us with a fumigation certificate for the case (necessary for bringing it into Israel.) The carpenter packed the fortepiano into the case, screwed down the lid and it was sent off. It arrived in Israel December 24th 2009.

P.H: So the square fortepiano had found a new home.

M.H: Yes, and we were relieved to find that it did, indeed, fit into our elevator, the apartment and the Mazda - we want it heard in concerts all over Israel.

P.H: Would you like to tell me more about the instrument.

M.H: Yes. It is a square fortepiano, of the kind people would have had in their homes. (Mendelssohn owned a similar instrument.) Fortunately, it is in very good condition. Thanks to a signature inside it, I was able to find the person who had restored it in 1972 – fortepiano restorer Johannes Carda (who today still works at restoring early keyboard instruments.) He informed me that the instrument had been part of a collection in Normandy for the last 38 years. It has 120 strings. We had to order a tuning key for it and we have had a cover made; we also came up with a special device to make for smooth transportation. It originally had four pedals – a sustaining pedal, a moderating pedal, a lute stop and a bell. The bell was gone so Alex Rosenblatt removed that pedal, but not before photographing it carefully should we wish to reassemble it at a later stage. Alex spent much of four days on it, checking the felts and working on regulation and solving some problems caused by the natural distortion process of the wood. He needed to raise its pitch very gradually from below 392 Hertz, and the question was how the fortepiano would react to this change after so many years of no action. It is now pitched at 415 Hz. The restorer said it would take the fortepiano’s tuning four months to stabilize, as it would need to adjust to our dry climate after the damp climate of Normandy. Alex added two bars below it to make it safer to transport. By the way, the original legs are attached with wooden screws!

P.H: How did it perform on its first Israeli concert run – “Mozart the Freemason”?

M.H: It went well. Its characteristic sound is an interesting mix, evoking its clavichord origins, but also the piano- and harpsichord sound. What an interesting timbre it has – I would call it “wild” – quite a new reality, tempting the player away from a “well behaved” approach. On a fortepiano you can play forte in both hands, giving a clear and thrilling effect. Pianists and piano teachers were fascinated hearing it. At our concert at the Felicja Blumental Music Center in Tel Aviv, someone in the audience said they were experiencing the pleasure of hearing music performed “in a private salon”. Jerusalem Post music critic Uri Epstein referred to its “exquisite, delicate sonorities”. When we use the square fortepiano for playing Haydn trios, the audience will be able to hear why Haydn wrote his ‘cello parts the way he did, reinforcing the left hand role of the piano, and it will sound so right!

P.H: David Shemer, you played it in the Mozart concerts. What were your impressions of the Baas fortepiano?

D.S: I have spent many years playing harpsichords and have only played a few notes here and there on a fortepiano. The experience of playing it was amazing! It was like reliving history. I felt I was experiencing what a musician at around 1750-1760 would have sensed playing a new kind of instrument. It is somewhat familiar, yet it presents a completely new set of possibilities. Playing Mozart on it makes so much sense when it comes to dynamics, articulation and lightness of touch, even if the specific instrument does not always oblige.

P.H. Myrna Herzog, what are your plans for future performances with the fortepiano?

M.H: There are several. The first is a program of Beethoven trios and his arrangements of Scottish songs (opus 108). I fell in love with those Scottish songs in my teenage years and have been dreaming of performing them ever since. They will be sung by soprano Karin Shifrin, with Alex Rosenblatt playing the fortepiano. Another program will be of Haydn flute trios and a third will focus on the two Mozart piano quartets.

P.H: Myrna, thank you for sharing the exciting adventure of buying an historical instrument with us. How would you sum it up?

M.H: The issue of historical instruments is a controversial one. The question is whether we should play on them or leave them in museums. My opinion is that they are to be heard. They are “the real thing”. If this Baas fortepiano has a soul, it is surely happy at having been brought back to life and being heard. Luck was on our side. We were fortunate it was in good condition, considering its age; and what a privilege it is to have the original instrument and not a copy! As to how we went about purchasing it, what is life without risk??

An interview with Israeli soprano Revital Raviv

On February 22,2009, I interviewed Israeli soprano Revital Raviv.

Pamela: Did you begin singing as a child?

Revital: Yes. I grew up in Moshav Hogla in Emek Hefer and began singing in the Moran Children’s Choir at age ten. I was attracted to singing jazz, Israeli songs and songs from musicals. But as I slowly became more familiar with classical music, I developed a taste for it. When I was 15, I started taking voice lessons and became a soloist with the choir. Then, in the army, I sang with the Israeli Army Orchestra.

Pamela: After completing your army service, where did you study?

Revital: I enrolled to study voice at the Jerusalem Academy of Music, studying with Marina Levitt. At the end of my first year at the Academy, David Shemer formed a Baroque music ensemble which was to take part in an early music festival in Slovenia. That was my introduction to Baroque music, opening up a whole new window of opportunity. I went on to perform with the “Meltzer Consort”, the “Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra” and in the “Arcadia Ensemble”. I would say that Baroque opera is what I most enjoy doing at the moment.

I then spent a year in the Young Artists’ Program of the Israeli Opera, taking part in a number of projects, after which I left for London.

Pamela: I understand you spent some five years in London.

Revital: Yes. I took two years of post-graduate study at the Royal College of Music there, with Marie McLachlan as my vocal coach. I had also auditioned for Philip Pickett and this resulted in my joining his and Jonathan Miller’s production of Monteverdi’s “L’Orfeo”. With Pickett, I took part in a recital with “The Musicians of the Globe”, a group that explores a wide repertoire, much of it English and much of it inspired by Shakespeare’s works. I am still performing in Pickett’s production of Purcell’s “Dido and Aeneas”, which premiered last June.

In England, I also took part in the recording of a disc with the “Lieder Theatre London” whose aim is to present song repertoire with emphasis on introducing both its poetry and its music. This CD “Engel Lund’s Book of Folk Songs” is a unique collection of folk songs from 14 countries, it was first performed by Lund herself in 1936 and has now been revived by a number of young singers all singing in their native languages. I sing the Yiddish songs on the disc. It was both exciting and sad to be learning these wonderful melodies of a language and culture that have almost disappeared. My mother-in-law was of great help to me with learning Yiddish diction. I would really like to see this wonderful group perform in Israel.

London offers so much in the way of concerts and I found myself going to hear concerts and opera three times a week, gathering much listening experience and learning from other artists.

This coming May I will be returning to London to perform a concert of Victor Ullmann’s songs. Born in 1898 in Silesia, Ullmann was deported to Auschwitz in 1044, where he perished in the gas chambers.

Pamela: Hearing and seeing you perform, one is aware of your background in theatre.

Revital: In Emek Hefer, I performed in amateur theatre playing Mika in Moshe Shamir’s play “He Walked in the Fields” and in “Utzli Gutzli”, the Hebrew version of “Rumpelstiltskin”, the latter being a musical for children.

England has a rich musical tradition and at the Royal College of Music much of our training was a very thorough preparation for an opera career: we studied movement and acting and we performed scenes from operas, working under many different directors.

Pamela: So you are now back in Israel. What are your plans?

Revital: Yes. My husband and I returned six months ago. I plan to sing and perform as much as possible. The concert “Handel the Entertainer” I recently performed with the PHOENIX Ensemble was my first appearance since the birth of our son. It was a wonderful start to many more concerts to come. I loved playing the different characters in the arias from so many of Handel’s works. I am also interested in teaching voice and passing my own experience on to young singers.

Pamela: Do you enjoy performing to Israeli audiences?

Revital: Very much. Israeli audiences are warm and communicative. In London, I sang in large halls. In Israel, I enjoy performing chamber concerts in smaller venues and seeing the expressions on people’s faces.

During the Second Lebanese War, I performed three concerts here of “Songs of the Gondola”, works of pre-Baroque music from Venice, and was moved to see people taking time out from the tensions and anxiety of what was happening here to enjoy an hour and a half of music, to smile and relax. There is no greater satisfaction to the performer than that!

Pamela: Revital Raviv, thank you for giving us of your time. We, at Living in Harmony, and I am sure our reading audience too, look forward to hearing you in recitals and concerts and warmly welcome you back to the Israeli concert scene.

Talking to conductor and musicologist Leon Botstein

On January 12th 2010, I had the pleasure of interviewing American conductor and musicologist Leon Botstein in Jerusalem. Born in Switzerland in 1946, Maestro Botstein edits The Musical Quarterly, is president of Bard College (New York), and is musical director and principal conductor of the American Symphony Orchestra and of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra.

PH: Maestro Botstein, what were your earliest musical experiences as a child?

LB: I was the youngest child growing up in a multi-language home and we moved to America; I was a left-hander but, as was a practice in those days, was made to change to writing with my right hand, the result of all these changes being that I became a stutterer. The problem actually had the result of rendering music as a natural outlet for me, a non-verbal language. So my entering the world of music was via my hearing experiences. Coming from a well-to-do, Eastern European, assimilated home, we were provided with a “good education”, meaning Hebrew school and after-school lessons in languages not taught at school – in our case, German – and, as a child, I also expressed the desire to study the violin. I then developed an ambition to be a composer and spent my teen years composing, this continuing on into my early college years. Improvisation also interested me and, as a first year student in college, I made some extra money playing piano improvisations for dance classes. By now, I also had my eye on conducting but had no training until later on.

PH: Not the usual way into a conducting career.

LB: Certainly not. I did not follow the conventional career track. I was not a “Wunderkind” virtuoso moving into the world of conducting. And, to add to that, since the destruction of European Jewry, it has become unfashionable for musicians of that background to be intellectuals, pursuing a comprehensive academic education and joining performing careers with academic work. (Mind you, it still exists in early music.) I feel that performing has become “Hollywoodized”, with emphasis often on the athletic ability of the performer. Of course, there are exceptions – Andras Schiff, Alfred Brendel, Ernest Ansermet, to name just a few.

PH: You have been the musical director of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra for some seven years now. Would you like to speak about developments that have taken place in the JSO over that time?

LB: Well, the JSO is basically a state orchestra and this is the first time in its history any private money has been channeled into it, enabling it to buy instruments and music and to tour - last year, for example, opening the Bach Festival in Leipzig. Despite that, the orchestra does not get enough state support and it has become a political battleground since my arrival. There is also, in some quarters, a belief that one has to “dumb down” the musical agenda for the public: the Discovery series has been cancelled and so have the pre-concert talks, despite the fact that these were enjoyed by large enough audiences! The public needs a larger choice of works in concerts, just as museums show a variety of art! There is a “masterpiece syndrome” here, preventing us from performing a host of excellent works less known. This is the Jewish state – culture and education should be of highest priority, unimpeded by constant controversy. I had never anticipated one could make enemies by doing the right thing! As an outsider, a non-Israeli working with the JSO, my duty is to the musicians themselves, to improve the quality of performance and I can say that the orchestra has never sounded better. At last week’s Schubert concert, the players – somewhat flabbergasted at first - showed flexibility, adjusting to different tempi that were new to them. We have performed some excellent Copland and Mahler on tour and there have been many JSO concerts broadcast in the USA over the last five years. I see all these as triumphs.

PH: You have touched on Israeli audiences. How do you find them as listeners?

LB: I very much like the audiences here. They are very attentive, they seem very thoughtful and are far more interested in seldom-performed works than one would think, considering the “bourgeois Musikkultur” in certain circles of Israeli society. In fact, I find Jerusalem audiences are wildly curious to hear different repertoire! I would like to see more publicity in the field of more ticket sales and to see more young people in the audiences.

PH: We generally associate you with orchestral conducting. How about the realm of early music?

LB: Actually, I played violin and vielle in the Collegium Musicum, the first early music ensemble in Chicago, conducted by the distinguished musicologist Howard Brown. As to early music performance today, I feel we have entered a better phase, whereby there is much improvisation. There was a period when the whole practice of early music was extremely rigid. One issue is that of period instruments, but the unsolved issue is a perceptual one, whereby how we hear sounds is conditioned by the acoustic environment in which we operate, in which our concept of balance, speed and quality of sound within the acoustics of our concert halls can not be equivalent to those of people of the 16th- and 17th centuries.

PH: So the reading of a score and its message is more complex than many concert-goers might imagine.

LB: Yes. This brings me back to 19th century music where we must ask “what was the expressive intent of, for example, metronome markings” in 1820, for example, when life was so much slower, when time was not standard, with every clock inside one particular city being different. So what would the perception of “allegro” or “allegro con fuoco” mean for people then? And how do we replicate the impact of Beethoven? By using the same tempo markings or not? As you get closer, how do you render the expressive gestures?

PH: Where does the audience come into the interpretation process?

LB: Well, we are about to perform Tchaikovsky’s Manfred Symphony, not often performed here; in Israel; most of the Israeli audience has not read Byron, whereas the composer and most of his audience would have. The symphony is narrative but the expressive rhetoric has changed, meaning that if I take the first movement “lento lugubre”, as Tchaikovsky marked it, the audience would be asleep in their seats. So our job as interpreters for the present day audience is indeed a complex task.

PH: On a totally different subject, would you like to talk about Bard College and Al-Quds University’s joint program?

LB: Yes. Partly as a result of my being here all these years, I thought, as an American, that creating a combination of culture and education would be a constructive gesture. Sari Nusseibeh and I created a three-pronged joint program, an honors course at Al-Quds for 500 students – a liberal arts education in the Anglo-American style, giving two degrees – the first dual degree program between an American- and Palestinian university. There is also a teacher training program for high school teachers in order to improve their quality of education and, thirdly, to build a high school under the jurisdiction of the university. I am not a politician: education will not cure anything but it will definitely not harm.

PH: Let’s move to your work in Musicology. What are you working on at the moment?

LB: I am writing a chapter for a book on Alban Berg. Another large project is a collection of my essays to be published by Yale University Press but I am not sure that that is worthwhile. I gave up on a project that I would like to return to - a book on the history of listening as a historical activity. And then I have been invited to give the Tanner Lectures at Berkeley; I need to write those as they are for publication. I am publishing a piece for a collection of a colleague at Cambridge - a speculative analysis of what I call “the end of the age of recording”. The golden age of the master recording has come to an end. We have lived through a period of time when technical advances in sound transmission allowed us to think that the recording was an adequate surrogate to live performance, or even better! The worst psychosis if this was Glen Gould who believed the studio was the perfect environment for the sanitized, clean, edited recording. We are now witnessing the death of the “high fidelity fetish”, greatly to the benefit of the revival of live performance. Unfortunately, so many conservatory students have been accustomed to learning a piece not by reading the music but by listening to a recording of it, and they end up adopting only one way of performing it! There is a wonderful story of a Jewish journalist by the name of Soma Morgenstern who, in a Vienna streetcar, first met Alban and Helene Berg sitting there, both reading a score of Mahler’s 2nd Symphony; the making of music begins from reading the score. If you perform a Mahler symphony nowadays, the audience is much more familiar with it than were audiences in the 1920’s and this is through their having listened to their favorite recording of it over and over. I have written an outline of this argument and called it “The Eye of the Needle” (the needle referring to the gramophone needle).

PH: Maestro Botstein, I am most grateful to you for giving of your time and for sharing so many ideas.