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Something for Everyone
An evening with the
Zemel Choir
reviewed by MALCOLM MILLER
One of the exciting and
distinctive aspects of Jewish music as a genre,
whether of art or religious music, folk or
popular, is its colourful diversity, which
reflects the wide ranging diasporic experiences
of its producers and consumers, and their
inherently multi-cultural identity. And there
was something for everyone in the Zemel Choir's
recent concert at Belsize Square Synagogue,
London NW3, UK, on Sunday 12 November 2006,
conducted by ebullient musical director Benjamin
Wolf, with star appearances by three cantorial
soloists. The programme ranged from traditional
Hazzanut (cantorial singing), through Israeli
choral and folk music, to a stimulating
selection of 20th century European synagogue
music, lighter barbershop quartets and 'Hanuka'
songs.
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Benjamin Wolf conducts the Zemel
Choir |
Perhaps the highlights were
the two Yiddish works in which the choir
previewed their forthcoming South Bank
appearance on 26 November (details given below).
The first was a chorus from King Ahaz,
the first ever Yiddish opera, composed in 1911
by Samuel Alman, based on an Old Testament
story. Alman, originally from Russia and
choirmaster at the Hampstead Synagogue, is best
known for his liturgical compositions, one of
which was sung by the promising young tenor
Eliot Alderman and the choir; its lilting melody
reminiscent of Italian opera. The King Ahaz
chorus from Act II began as if a Yiddish folk
song, full of buoyancy and lively rhythms, then
settled into a rich bloc-textured harmony. The
choir urges an idolatrous sacrifice to music and
text which evokes the different notes of the
shofar or ram's horn. The Zemel Choir's
intonation was excellent here, with homogenous
articulation contributing to a powerful and
expressive effect; the young baritone Benjamin
Seifert was a noble and strong soloist. He was
also in superb form as the soloist in the
Yiddish version of the famous 'Policeman's Song'
from Pirates of Penzance, in which each
verse in English was followed by its Yiddish
version, with the audience in enthusiastic
participation as an echoing chorus and singing
the refrain: it was surely a first of its kind!
This translation, by the American Al Grand, has
seen recent 'off Broadway' productions, while
Yiddish G&S in general has quite a remarkable
tradition in the USA.
The concert had begun with a bang in the
energetic robust textures of the Israeli
composer Paul Ben-Haim's Roni Akara, a setting
of Isaiah Chapter 54, the second movement of
which is a repeated ground bass, sung by a
confident bass section, overlaid with ever
intensifying strands from tenors, altos and
sopranos, all woven into a thrilling climax.
Benjamin Wolf's own setting of Ma Tovu ('How
Goodly Are Thy Tents') that followed, received
an impressive world première. Its
well-proportioned ternary form allowed the
melodic inventiveness full rein, the melismatic
outer sections enveloping a more sustained
central section, with appealingly bright harmony
that took some delightfully unexpected twists
and turns along the way.
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The Barbershop Quartet. From left to
right: Marc Finer, Benjamin Wolf, Elliot
Alderman, Ben Seifert |
The other main fare of the first half was a
selection from Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco's
Sabbath Eve Service, sung in turn by tenors
Eliot Alderman and Marc Finer. Challenging for
the choir on account of the many imitative
textures and intriguing modally inflected
harmony, the pieces were progressively more
finely coordinated, and contrasted by the
reflective Shiviti, a psalm setting from the
memorial prayer, in which the pure tonal harmony
is tinged with plangent dissonance. A surprising
moment came when conductor Benjamin Wolf
announced his own participation in a newly
formed Barbershop ensemble ... which then gave
suavely flowing accounts of two Lewandowski
settings, Tsadik Katamar ('The Righteous will
flourish' -- Psalm 92) and Halleluja, a wedding
favourite. The vocal quartet returned at
the end to sing some lighter selections from the
Yale Song Book, a standard, and a Flanders and
Swann witticism. There was a touch of
traditional chazanut in Eliot Alderman's
stirring renditions of beautiful settings by A
Bernstein and Shalom Secunda of prayers recited
before and after the reading of the scriptures
in the Sabbath service, for which the Zemel took
on the role of a humming synagogue choir.
Especially entertaining was Ben Seifert's
imposing performance of Go Down Moses in a
compelling Gordon Jacob arrangement that allowed
the basses plenty of action, and in Copland's
evocative version of The Boatmen's Dance, a 19th
century minstrel song ingeniously re-arranged
for choir and soloist by Irving Fine.
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Benjamin
Wolf conducts the Zemel Choir
A seasonal Hanukah medley rounded off
a highly colourful and varied programme,
the Sephardi Ocho Kendelikas and a witty
rock'n'roll version of the children's
song, I have a little Dreidl, with the
tenor Marc Finer in Elvis-style dark
sunglasses. The warm reception from the
capacity audience was amply rewarded by
the exuberant encore, a Sephardi version
of Yom Ze Le'Yisrael, a Sabbath table
hymn, sung by the solo trio and chorus.
The concert augured well for the Zemel's
forthcoming South Bank appearance, in
the Purcell Room on 26 November 2006
(details at
www.jmi.org.uk),
to commemorate the 350th Anniversary of
Jews in Britain, where the programme
will include more extracts from Alman's
Yiddish opera King Ahaz and the Yiddish
Pirates of Penzance. An event not to be
missed! |
Copyright © 18 November
2006 Malcolm Miller, London UK
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