Concert number 3 of the 2012-2013 season (the 47th season) of the Israel Chamber Orchestra is a delightful series of works by Felix Mendelssohn; two grand piano concertos, and after the intermission, a symphony composition. We attended the concert at the Recanati Auditorium of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art on Thursday 14th March (the date is important – see below), and we expected it would be a fine performance. Little did we know just how fine.
Conductor Yoav Talmi was in excellent form, coaxing the orchestra to refined “Mendellssohnian” summits. Alon Goldstein at the piano gave a definitive interpretation that had the audience roaring with applause after each piece, including two encores. Could it be that the performance turned out so special because of Conductor Talmi’s plea before the concert to the audience to “not cough, not rustle candy wrappings and make sure telephones don’t ring” because the concert was being especially recorded for a disc to be released in New York later this year, and also reminded the players of their special task?
Whatever. The audience sat spellbound (and silent) and the orchestra was in its element. (Talmi, in a moment of black humor, had reminded the audience of another world renowned conductor who once remarked: “All over the world, when people have a cough, they go to the doctor. In Israel, they go to my concerts”.)
The grand surprise came after the intermission and after a fine rendition of Symphony #1 in C Minor opus 11. A brief few words kept the audience seated when to everyone’s surprise (and delight), in marched the entire Israel Defense Forces Orchestra, resplendent in their uniforms, and who took their places on the stage behind and adjacent to the Chamber Orchestra players. The explanation came soon: when Conducter Yoav Talmi was just a 19-year old soldier, he entered a competition sponsored by the army to create an “Army March”. Of over 200 entrants, Talmi’s composition won. That was exactly 50 years ago this month. Talmi’s army march remains the official musical composition of Israel’s Defense Forces.
Talmi conducted the March, played in unison by the two orchestras. It was a stirring moment in musical history, one that is unlikely ever to be repeated. The audience that night included former Brigadier General and Knesset member (serving as Minister of Internal Security) Avigdor Kahalani. If the military march finale moved us as muchas it did, we can only try to imagine what it did for Mr. Kahalani.
The next concert series in the Israel Chamber Orchestra season begins in early April. For information and tickets:
www.ico.co.il or (03) 518-8846.
( friends of www.diplomacy.co.il have a discount)
