This work was the program’s centerpiece, performed brilliantly by German violinist Antje Weithaas, clarinetist Tibi Cziger and pianist Assaff Weisman.
By URY EPPSTEINPaternostro conducts the Israel Chamber Orchestra(photo credit: Michael Dalder / Reuters)
The most recent work in the Israel Chamber Project’s last concert presented by the Jerusalem Music Center was Yinam Leef’s Triptych for Five Instruments (1997). The piece abounds in contrasts, no less than the preceding Contrasts by Bela Bartok, though different, more modernist in style. These are full of surprises and unexpected phenomena that contribute to the piece’s particular attractiveness.However, if every three-movement work deserves to be called “Triptych,” there must be plenty of triptychs in classical music.Bartok’s Contrasts, though composed in the 20th century, sounds today almost classic. This work was the program’s centerpiece, performed brilliantly by German violinist Antje Weithaas, clarinetist Tibi Cziger and pianist Assaff Weisman.As a curtain raiser, Mozart’s Clarinet Quartet, written for one of the composer’s favorite instruments, was performed rather indifferently and mechanically. Mozart deserves better. As a conclusion, Brahms’s super-romantic Piano Quartet No. 3, though performed impressively and sensitively, sounded as though it had strayed in from another concert. The subtle art of well-balanced programming seems not yet to have been learned by the Israel Chamber Project.
