Tonight, June 16, 2013, the Israel Chamber Orchestra will grace the stage at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, in a concert featuring works by Mozart, Haydn and Israeli composer Aharon Harlap. Enjoy an evening of wonderful singing and, best of all, a pre-concert lecture by pianist and musicologist Anat Sharon.
Aharon Harlap’s song cycle “Pictures from the Private Collection of God” is based on the poetry of Yaakov Barzilai, a Holocaust survivor from Debrecen, Hungary. A number of his poems have been set to music by Harlap, a prolific composer whose compositions for voice are often performed in Israel and abroad.
The two Mozart works will be the Kyrie in D minor (K. 341) and the Vesperae solennes de confessore (K. 339). Both works were composed in 1780. Also on the program is Haydn’s Symphony 44 in E minor, also known as “Trauer”, “Mourning”. Haydn wanted the third, slow movement to be played at his funeral.
The stars of this concert make it especially worthwhile. If you haven’t heard of her, get used to saying the name Gan-Ya Ben-Gur Axelrod. This year, the Israeli soprano took first prize in the prestigious Hilda Zadek competition in Vienna. I first heard her last summer at the International Summer Opera Program, in a masterclass given by the great American baritone Thomas Hampson. She will be joined by mezzo-soprano Anat Czarny, who is on this year’s roster at the Israel Opera’s Meitar Opera Studio, where she’s sung Cherubino and Hansel. Yair Polishook, bass, performed with the Israel Philharmonic in their 2011 production of The Barber of Seville and has sung in several Israel operas such as “The Bald Soprano” by Israel Sharon and “The Crook” by Menachem Avidom. Yoav Talmi, the Israel Chamber Orchestra’s musical director, will conduct.
Tickets can be purchased via 03-5188845. The concert begins at 20:30, and the lecture one hour earlier at 19:30.
