Bringing it home

Orchestra features local talent this season.

By MAXIM REIDER
Dan Ettinger 311 (photo credit: courtesy)
Dan Ettinger 311
(photo credit: courtesy)
In a praiseworthy decision, The Israel Symphony Orchestra Rishon Lezion (ISO) has announced that its 2010/2011 season will feature only Israeli musicians. The orchestra’s artistic director, Dan Ettinger, has opted to enlist 24 soloists and conductors, some who appear regularly on the world’s most prestigious stages, as well as younger colleagues who on the brink of breaking out. Five Israeli choirs will also participate in various concert programs.
Ettinger, who in addition to his position at Rishon Symphony is also the artistic director of Mannheim Opera Theater and the Tokyo Philharmonic, will himself conduct three symphony series and participate in the Friday Noon chamber series as a pianist. For the season’s opening offering, Ettinger will conduct Mahler’s monumental Symphony No. 2, with Hila Baggio and Noa Frenkel as soloists.
Later in the season, Ettinger will conduct Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante for Violin, Viola and Orchestra with Michael Gurfinkel, Vladimir Gru, Gabriela Bukovski and Chezi Nir performing the solo parts. He will end the season with Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle with soloists Gal James, Edna Prochnik, Motti Kaston and Jeffry Francis.
Violinist Guy Braunstein – the concert master of the Berlin Philharmonic – playing Sibelius’s Violin Concerto under Yoav Talmi will arguably make for an evening no music lover can afford to miss. The same can be said regarding the performance of the amazing US-based pianist Alon Goldstein, who will play Chopin’s Second Concerto with young Israeli maestro Daniel Cohen on the podium.
HARPSICHORD PLAYER and conductor Shalev Ad-El, leading the ISO through the world premier of Benjamin Yusupov’s Concerto for Two Clarinets (with twin brothers Daniel and Alexander Gurfinkel) is another of the season’s highlight. And last but not least is renowned Israeli violinist Shlomo Mintz, conducting and performing Vivali’s Concerto for Four Violins with his younger colleagues – a moving and undoubtedly rewarding musical event.
The ISO’s chamber series concerts, traditionally scheduled for Friday at noon, comprise familiar pieces by Brahms, Schubert, Mozart, Prokofiev and Liszt, as well also the more contemporary Sofia Gubaidulina. Many talented musicians – orchestra members and guest artists – will participate in the eight-concert series, including pianists Matan Porat, Yulia Gurevitz and Michal Tal, clarinet player Chen Halevi, cellists Raz Cohen, Tami Waterman and Hilel Tzori, violinists Eckart Lorenzen, Galina Glushkin.
PercaDu and the Carmel Quartet will also be among the artists featured – to name but a few.
The Family Series, which features four concerts, sounds very intriguing, offering encounters with such openminded and creative artists as Idit Shechtman and her Bells Ensemble, young singers from the Opera Studio, choir Moran Beit Izhak, directors Dani Ehrlich and Niv Hoffman; conductors David Zebba, Naomi Faran and Aviv Ron promise an unforgettable musical adventure for the young and the young in spirit.
In addition, the orchestra will be running, for the seventh year now, a special education project for the generation of future concert goers. This year, some 6,000 school children will participate in more than 180 encounters with the ISO and its various ensembles.
As as if that were not enough, the ISO will also find the time to run matinees for senior citizens and travel abroad (this time to Italy, under maestro Daniel Oren), all the while serving as the orchestra for the Israeli Opera.