Jerusalem Chamber Music Festival

One owes gratitude to the festival for presenting Ernö Dohnányi’s Sextet in C Major, Op.37 for Violin, Viola, Cello, Clarinet, Horn and Piano.

By URY EPPSTEIN
Chamber music 521 (photo credit: Dan Porges)
Chamber music 521
(photo credit: Dan Porges)
Final concerts
YMCA, Jerusalem
September 6-7
Much diversity was provided in the Jerusalem Chamber Music Festival’s final concerts. Paradoxically, the 20th century Horn Trio by György Ligetis sounded more emotional than the contemporary Tears of the Muses by Jörg Widmann. The Horn Trio ended with what sounded like a dying lament, while Widmann’s clarinet wept ostentatiously during Muses over the horrors of war.
One owes gratitude to the festival for presenting Ernö Dohnányi’s Sextet in C Major, Op.37 for Violin, Viola, Cello, Clarinet, Horn and Piano. Though living in the 20th century, his work sounds altogether romantic and listener-friendly. A medley of Viennese waltzes might be amusing and nostalgic, but hardly be called chamber music. A “chamber music festival” should present chamber music such as, for example, a Haydn quartet.
As has become a tradition of this festival, the final work was the Mendelssohn Octet in E-Flat Major, Op. 20. The piece was played enthusiastically, though somewhat under-rehearsed. Melodious passages that should be slowly played on the strings were rushed breathlessly into each other. There will be enough time for rehearsal before next year’s festival if the work will be played by the same musicians.