The Chorale in Israel - July 13-16

July 13 was our first concert in Tel Aviv. Our hotel is so close that almost everyone walked over—we must have been an interesting sight in our all-black dresses or tuxes (depending on gender). Since the temperature is around 100 degrees (and steamy) even a short walk in all black is a bit of a challenge; personally I stopped at the wonderful gelato place on the corner and ate grapefruit gelato while I walked, to keep cool.
The concert was tremendously exciting. Zubin Mehta communicates more with his hands than with words. And as I said, he is very easy to follow, and very compelling, so he really gets results. (Although he’s pretty good with words too. He wanted the oboe soloist to end a phrase with a bit more of a flourish, so he told him, "Put a dreidel on it." Which he did.) The whole chorus kept our eyes glued on him, and we sounded wonderful (if I do say so myself). Before the intermission a small chorus composed of mostly the professional singers sang Bach’s "Wachet Auf," and managed, after working very hard, to attain the nimbleness and clarity Mehta was looking for. The tenor recitative was taken by our own Doug Purcell from the chorus, who did a beautiful job. I saw Zubin Mehta mouth at him "Bravo!" when he finished.
After intermission came the main attraction, Bloch’s "Sacred Service," a rendition of the Jewish Sabbath service, which the Israeli Philharmonic had actually never performed before. So it was quite an event in this country. The auditorium, which seats 3,000 was pretty close to sold out for all three concerts. Having the full orchestration instead of the organ adds a real emotional depth, especially when the orchestra is as wonderful as the IPO. All the instrumental soloists play as though they have a special understanding of this piece, which, in a way, I suppose they do. Thomas Hampson was extremely moving. I heard someone remark that he could become a cantor tomorrow if he wanted (except of course he’d have to convert). The whole chorus was inspired and sang with real passion, and so did our two choral soloists. Thomas Hampson was heard to remark that he had never heard a voice like that rise out of a chorus before. And Hai-Ting again turned quite a few heads in the orchestra when she sang. So from all angles, I’d say the chorus did itself proud. The audience certainly thought so. The ovation for the Bach piece had been warm, but for the "Sacred Service" it was quite rapturous, and went on and on.
The next two concerts went just as well, despite the fact that before one of them, many of us had been all the way to the Sea of Galilee—which is extremely beautiful but not very near by—and back, and had only reached our hotels, sweaty and exhausted, an hour before the concert call. The last concert had a bit of added solemnity because it was performed on the evening of the day that Israel received back the bodies of the two hostages kidnapped by the Hezbollah. Zubin Mehta spoke quite movingly and called for a minute of silence before the Bloch, and afterwards I think the piece, with its timeless evocation of hope and of sorrow, had a special resonance for much of the audience.

- Janet Pascal