The fourth edition of the Pianos Festival will focus on the late Hungarian-born
Israel Prize winning composer Andre Hajdu, who died in August at the age of 84.
By BARRY DAVISSinger-songwriter Aharon Razel studied with Andre Hajdu and will perform in the festival together with his brother Yonatan(photo credit: YOSSI AFLALO)
The fourth annual Pianos Festival is due to take place at the Jerusalem Theater December 22 to 24.You may find the event title a mite confusing – there is, after all, the Piano Festival (sans “s”), which takes place each year in Tel Aviv, and has been around for far longer, But there is a much wider conceptual and artistic contrast between the two musical events than just an extra “s” in the Jerusalem shebang.While the Tel Aviv festival is basically a pop-rock offering with the piano acting as a sort of instrumental centerpiece for the various gigs, the Jerusalem Theater event is an altogether different and, one could say, more diverse affair. Mind you, the variety aspect is not at all surprising when one catches the name of Prof. Michael Wolpe in the role of artistic director.“For the fourth time we will realize the vision of quality and of direct dialogue, without divisions, in which a wide range of statements is interwoven into a daring mosaic, with the piano and Jerusalem at its heart.”Anyone who has ever attended one of musicologist, educator and conductor Wolpe’s concerts or events he oversees – such as the annual Tzlilim Bamidbar (Sounds in the Desert) festival that takes place at his home base of Kibbutz Sde Boker every December – will know to expect an eclectic lineup of genres, styles and creative intent.The fourth edition of the Pianos Festival is no different, although its principal focus is on the late Hungarian-born Israel Prize winning composer Andre Hajdu, who died in August this year at the age of 84.“I do my best to like all kinds of music, without discriminating between them,” states Wolpe, “although this year we do have a specific theme, because we are dedicating the festival to Andre Hajdu.”Wolpe is not just an admirer of the late great composer, ethno-musicologist, and revered and beloved teacher. They both shared divergent musical interests.“He was a very eclectic character,” says Wolpe, adding that Hajdu helped him to carve his own professional niche. “He was very close to me and influenced me greatly. And there are many others who learned from him and looked up to him, and for whom he was a sort of father figure.”Wolpe spent many years by the great man’s side, feeding off his vast musical knowledge and appreciation, and all-embracing ethos.“I worked with Andre for 25 years.I was a teacher cadet alongside him. I feel, in that respect, that I am following in his educational footsteps, that I am continuing his pedagogic doctrine.I feel very privileged to have been able to work so closely with Andre, and for so many years. We are all extremely blessed to have had the great merit of learning from Andre.”There is a suitably glittering roll call of artists on the three-day roster, many of whom owe much of their artistic progress to Hajdu.Venerated 79-year-old pianist, composer and educator Prof. Aryeh (Arik) Vardi, who worked alongside Hajdu on the teaching staff of the Buchmann- Mehta School of Music at Tel Aviv University, will be front and center on the first evening of the festival.Vardi and Ariel Halevy – who benefited from Hajdu’s tutelage and is half Vardi’s age – will be the pianists in the gala closing concert, on December 24 (9:30 p.m.), which also includes the heavyweight presence of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra IBA. The finger- licking-good repertoire for the evening includes the second movement of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 12 in A major, with Vardi in the soloist spot, and one of Hajdu’s most beloved pieces, Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in F minor with Halevy as pianist.The program also features five songs composed by singer-songwriter brothers Yonatan and Aharon Razel, who studied under Hajdu and performed with him on many occasions.Hajdu revered the works of both Mozart and Chopin. Wolpe says that his late teacher viewed the former as “a son of angels who descended from Heaven, the perfection of whose music is simply impossible grasp.” The artistic director adds that Wolpe related to Chopin as “a second Mozart. He saw him as a great genius, possibly the most important [composer] of the 19th century, by virtue of his contribution to shaping the Romantic style of piano playing, and his unique use of folk styles within his oeuvre.”As a close friend of Hajdu for many years, Vardi is a natural choice for the job. Vardi is also known as the soft-spoken presenter of the Intermezzo with Arik TV show, which began life in 2003, and on which Hajdu was a guest on several occasions. The closing gala concert will kick off with a screening of an Intermezzo program about Chopin.Venerated pianist, composer and educator Prof. Aryeh (Arik) Vardi will be front and center on the first evening of the festival (photo credit: DANIEL PELEG) After he made aliya in 1966, Hajdu settled in Jerusalem and taught at the Tel Aviv Music Academy for 25 years, with a similarly long stint at Bar-Ilan University, where he established a composition department. The long list of the department’s students who have made their mark in the music business over the years, in addition to Yonatan Razel, includes feted pianist, composer and conductor Gil Shohat, pop pianist and composer Yoni Rechter, composer Matti Kovler and now Berlin-based pianist composer Matan Porat.Hajdu escaped from his native Hungary shortly after the Soviet-led Communist takeover in 1956 and made his way to Paris, where he studied under such 20th century giants as Darius Milhaud and Olivier Messiaen. He also benefited from the highly stimulating artistic ambiance in the French capital and encountered Nobel Prize laureate Irish-born playwright, novelist and poet Samuel Beckett, and musicologist Israel Adler, who was instrumental in Hajdu coming to Jerusalem 10 years after leaving Hungary. Naturally, Hajdu’s formative musical nutrition was a heady broth of European classical music – his teachers in Budapest included iconic composer and ethnomusicologist Zoltán Kodály. But halfway through his Parisian sojourn, Hajdu got an opportunity to learn about a very different area of musical endeavor.“Andre took a great interest in folk music and gypsy music,” says Wolpe, “and that comes across in his writing.”That non-classical line of thought and creation was complemented by Arabic-influenced forms when Hajdu took up a post in Tunisia in the early 1960s, where he taught piano, composition and music history at the local conservatory.“The Tunisia period was certainly an important and formative chapter in his musical life. It greatly influenced his development and the way he later taught music. The whole thing of music without written scores, and improvisation, all that came through in Hajdu’s subsequent work.”That Arabic element in Hajdu’s oeuvre and mind-set is marked by the appearance of the Jerusalem Andalusian Orchestra in the fourth slot of the festival – “Celebrating Andalusian” – at noon on December 23, with pianist and arranger, and former Hajdu student, Nizar Elkatar very much in evidence. The roster for the concert includes works by leading 20th-century Egyptian composer Mohamed el-Qasabgi, late 19th- and early 20th-century Spanish composer Isaac Albeniz and Israeli composer Elyahu Avichezer, who will play on qanun, with the program also taking in festive songs in Ladino and Arabic. The Jerusalem Andalusian Orchestra will anchor the ‘Celebrating Andalusian’ concert at noon on December 23 (photo credit: YACHATZ)“Celebrating Andalusian” will also pay due tribute to Hajdu’s far-reaching musical and cultural interests, with Elkatar presenting a selection of classical Egyptian works, alongside Western items, as well as jazz standards and material taken from the Maghreb musical tradition of northwestern Africa.The second day of the festival is largely devoted to spotlighting Hajdu’s community-oriented artistic work, and his great interest in street-level Jewish and Arabic music, as well as his strong bond with religious Jewish Jerusalemite music. Each of the day’s three concerts will be preceded by a short video excerpt of an Intermezzo with Arik show that references the central theme of the show in question.Hajdu was an avid admirer of Italian composer Domenico Scarlatti, and fed off the great spiritual forces he sensed in the music of Romantic German composer Robert Schumann. Alexander Scriabin was another source of inspiration for Hajdu, who was drawn to the Impressionist elements of Scriabin’s output.Next Friday’s 10:30 a.m. slot, which goes by the name of “From Scarlatti to Leonard Cohen,” features a trio of pianists – Ora Rotem, Omer Arieli and Ronen Shapira – and incorporates a wide-ranging repertoire of works that Hajdu felt a particularly strong affinity with, including two Scarlatti sonatas, Schumann’s Kinderszenen, and a piano prelude by Scriabin, as well Hajdu’s own Mishnayot, Pontito and other pieces.The program also takes in a more contemporary commercial slant with Shapira’s Fantasy in Memory of Andre and arrangements of songs by rocker Berry Sakharof and poet and folkie Leonard Cohen, who died last month. The concert will open with a screening of a short film in which Hajdu talks about Scarlatti and Scriabin.The last pre-Shabbat offering, at 1:30 p.m., naturally called “Kabbalat Shabbat,” features the Ha’oman Hai Ensemble, under its artistic director Baruch Brenner, with Hajdu noted as musical director.The ensemble worked under Hajdu’s guidance for 14 years, and created and performed original music inspired by the roots of Jewish tradition. This will be the group’s first concert without its original mentor. The concert will be preceded by a short video of the ensemble performing together with Hajdu.There will be a spotlight on Hajdu’s own work in the penultimate performance of the festival, the Andre Hajdu Tribute Concert, which includes Hajdu’s Piano Concerto for an Ending Century for piano and orchestra, as well works by Mozart and Saint-Saëns, and a set of orchestrated songs by veteran pop-rock icon Shlomo Gronich.The show also features stellar pianists Michal Tal and Dorel Golan as well as conductor Sivan Albo.Dorel Golan will perform works by Franz Liszt (photo credit: SERGEY DEMYANCHUK)The three-day program is littered with star names. Wolpe says, basically, all he had to do was wave Hajdu’s name around and the offers came flooding in.“The fact that I was able to organize a festival in his memory, on such a grand scale, is testament to his greatness. It was very easy for me to arrange it. Andre was greatly loved in Jerusalem, and everyone was enthused about joining in. I am sure there will be more tribute events down the line.”For tickets and information: (02) 560-5755 and www.jerusalem-theatre.co.il
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