Desert Sounds Festival brings new notes to the Negev

The 27th edition takes place down South December 24-28 and features several spanking new works.

By BARRY DAVIS DECEMBER 23, 2024 00:09 Updated: DECEMBER 23, 2024 00:10

THE ATAR Trio will be performing for free on Wednesday. (photo credit: Tal Gluck)

The world of classical music accommodates an expansive palette of sounds, styles, and cultural baggage, seasoned by the relevant zeitgeist.

Broad sonic spread notwithstanding, we normally relate to the works of such icons as Beethoven, Bach, and Mozart with inalienable reverence. 

We also like to see them and other members of the classical music pantheon listed in our concert repertoires before we fork out our hard-earned cash on tickets.

That is fully understandable, but we should also recognize the incontrovertible fact that, back in the day, the aforesaid venerated composers were the new kids on the block before they gained marketing traction and, more often than not, were discovered by some well-heeled patron who allowed them to get on with their creative efforts without having to worry about paying the rent or putting food on the table.

Prof. Michael Wolpe is keenly aware of that. As founder and perennial artistic director of the Desert Sounds Festival at his homestead of Kibbutz Sde Boker, which is produced by the Ramat Hanegev Regional Council, he has slotted some cutting-edge fare into his programmatic rollouts for the past 26 years.

The Negev Desert (credit: Wikimedia Commons)

The 27th edition takes place down South December 24-28 and features several spanking new works. Wolpe, a celebrated composer, pianist, and educator in his own right, also subscribes to the line of thought that eschews categorizing works of art as high or low culture. As late modern jazz drummer Max Roach once sagely and plainly told me, “music is music.”

As such, Desert Sounds invariably sports a wide-ranging lineup. 

That is reflected in this week’s itinerary with pop-rock stalwart Miki Gavrielov joining forces with the Ra’anana Symphonette Orchestra, 32-year-old singer-songwriter Bar Tzabary fronting his own band, and the ever-enterprising Revolution Orchestra putting in a shout for songs created in this part of the world in pre-state times, in conjunction with an ensemble from the Rimon School of Music. 

That is in addition to a salute to late Yemenite-rooted Israeli singer Ahuva Ozeri, who helped to kick-start Tzabary’s career, and a presentation by the Tel Aviv Soloists Ensemble of orchestrated readings of popular Israeli songs.

The most emotive and pertinent part of the festival program takes place on the first two days and is devoted to new Israeli music, predominantly written by youngsters taking their first professional steps. 

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On the second day there is a heartfelt tribute to one young composer, and to another composer’s friend, both tragically lost to us in Gaza. 

The In Their Memory slot is overseen by evergreen octogenarian US-born conductor Stanley Sperber, who is a fan of Wolpe’s work and credo, and his ability to draw culture consumers out to the desert.

'A particularly special concert' 

“This is a particularly special concert,” Sperber notes of the free admission program he conducts on December 25, at 8:30 p.m., which goes by the name of Tru’ot U’shevarim – Fanfare and Lamentations. “It is dedicated to these young composers. There will be eight new works in this program, and all of the composers are Michael’s students, except one.”

Two of the charts are particularly poignant. “One was killed in the war, that’s Uri Bar-Or, and another piece was written by Amos Grunstein, who wrote it in memory of his friend Lavi, who was also killed in the war. I’m sure it will be a very emotional experience. I’m sure the families will be there.”The “shevarim” in the concert header is a play on words referencing the pain of the young men’s grossly untimely death, and the staccato sound made with the shofar during the High Holy Day prayer services.

It is not just about laying on a respectful homage to someone who left us far too early. Sperber says the works are in the program by rights. “He was a very talented boy, Uri. I am conducting his piece, and I am absolutely bowled over by the fact that a young guy in his twenties could write like that. It’s a loss, a huge loss – an unnecessary loss, the way I see it.”

Bar-Or was just 21 years old when he was killed in action in Rafah last May, and one more family joined the ever-growing list of those grieving for their loved ones.

They and the rest of us can, possibly, get some degree of comfort and healing from music and the offerings of our many gifted artists. Even so, Sperber says it can be hard going. “I think that music is therapy for a lot of people, but the fact is there is a little bit less joy in everything we do these days, including music.”

THAT SAID, Sperber, who turns 83 soon, has lost nothing of his zest and joy at discovering new exciting works and artists. 

One such is Bar Zemach who, besides earning a crust as a Berlin-based French horn player, is gaining growing attention around the globe for his exploits on the shofar. 

The conductor is full of admiration for Zemach’s work in opening up the musical horizons of the ram’s horn, which, traditionally, is used in a ritual role in the synagogue on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, while, in the purely musical sphere, it has been employed as a mostly percussive wind instrument reprising the sounds produced in a liturgical context.

Zemach takes the shofar far beyond that. “I am looking at this piece that Michael wrote [Tru’ot Ve’nigun – Fanfare and A Tune] and I can hardly believe that it can be done on the shofar,” Sperber exclaims.

That is not just an – albeit – technical observation. The conductor knows the lay of the intricate, nuanced land firsthand. “In my younger days, when I was a hazan (cantor), I also used to blow shofar. The fact is it is so difficult to blow the shofar. And the fact that Bar can play all the notes of the scale – that blows my mind.”

Sperber is right behind any effort to get the works of budding composers out there, and has been for some time.

“As a conductor I always felt an obligation to perform as many Israeli works as possible,” he notes, adding that that continues to be an uphill struggle. 

“Unfortunately, the flagship orchestra of Israel, the Israel Philharmonic, does very little about that. Zubin [Mehta] was never really into Israeli music. That’s a huge stain on the Philharmonic.”

Sperber also had to push against resistance to promoting the fruits of local creators. “When I was the director of the Haifa Symphony, from 1985 to 2000, I was doing a lot of contemporary works, and my board of directors, which was made up of judges and lawyers and all kinds of people who think they know what’s going on [musically], said ‘Why are you doing so much modern Israeli music?’ The [Israel] Philharmonic doesn’t do it, and people don’t like it so much.’ If Zubin had done more, it would have made life easier on the rest of us to do it.”

We have, he feels, much to be proud of and to tout. “We have a wonderful young generation of composers coming up. I wish we had that in tennis players,” he chuckles. 

Besides his baton-wielding endeavor, Sperber also qualified as a professional tennis umpire and still manages to play a match or two every week.

The Fanfare and Lamentations set list also features works by Ido Shirom, Yuval Freibach and Tommy Guedj, son of acclaimed rock musician Aviv Guedj. The latter is all of 14 years old, which presents its own challenges. “He is the only one not coming to rehearsals because he can’t get out of school,” Sperber laughs.

Age-related logistics aside, the Atar Trio’s free concert on December 25 (4 p.m.) includes contemporary charts by Sasha Argov, Haim Alexander, Benjamin Yusupov and Omri Gilad as well as another score by Bar-Or. 

On the more commercial side of the programming tracks, rockers Knesiyat Hasechel host Mizrachi-leaning singer-songwriter Amir Benayoun.

Naturally, the Hamas massacre continues to inform numerous artistic projects these days, and the Hope Dies Last free concert on December 25 (7 p.m.), with the Meitar Ensemble, cites the words of Nadav Goldstein, who was murdered at Kibbutz Kfar Aza, together with his daughter Yam, on October 7.

The group’s website notes that the multimodality performance “tells the stories of October 7 survivors through monologues, poetry, and spoken word.” Meitar pianist Amit Dolberg met with five survivors from the kibbutz over several months “The resulting texts,” the project credo material continues, “were edited into a poetic monologue, not only as a testimony but also as an artistic expression of their essence.”

For more information, tzlilimbamidbar.co.il