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There were quite a few Anglos in the jam-packed audience. The pianist parried the protest with aplomb, and a winning smile, before getting back to the musical business at hand.
By BARRY DAVIS JANUARY 16, 2025 03:11
JAN VOGLE wows them at Eilat’s Royal Garden Hotel auditorium.
(photo credit: DAVID EDRI)
It’s events like the Isrotel ClassiCameri Festival that give the term “entertainment” a good name. How many of us consider that epithet when describing a performance of, say, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony or Paganini’s Violin Concerto no. 1, and would pass judgment of such a rendition as “entertaining”?
Well, anyone who attended last weekend’s festival down in sunny Eilat and, for example, caught the mind-boggling virtuosity of celebrated Russian-Italian violinist Sergei Krylov in full breakneck speed flight on the Paganini work would certainly have been blown away and – yes – thoroughly entertained.
That, by and large, was the prevailing tone of the vast majority of the three-day program at the Royal Garden Hotel auditorium. In terms of raw energy and robust delivery, acclaimed German-American cellist Jan Vogler was not far behind Krylov, particularly in his opening slot when he dropped anchor and soared into stratospheric realms for 20th-century Austrian pianist and composer Friedrich Gulda’s powerful crossover Concerto for Cello and Wind Orchestra.
Krylov and Vogler also appeared in the Gala denouement on Saturday evening with Vienna-based conductor and perennial festival music director Omer Meir Wellber at the helm for a program that took the concept of eclecticism to new heights. In addition to the crowd-pleasing classical fare, there were emotive readings of Israeli pop-folk nuggets by vocalists Tom Cohen and Daniela Skorka.
Both in the finale and an earlier show, the singers made brave attempts to proffer convincing covers of songs famously performed by preeminent stars of the Israeli songbook, Esther Ofarim, and Shoshana Damari. Whether they managed to fill those illustrious shows is another matter.
The festival itinerary generally roams across the broadest stylistic and genre domains around, and this year’s edition was no different.
Raanana Symphonette house conductor David Sebba put in quite a few shifts over the three days, on piano, the conductor’s podium, and support vocals, and he even shared a comic skit with Cohen. Wellber joined in the comedic fun when he and Sebba performed a touching 70th-birthday salute to orchestra management chair Orit Vogler-Shafran. It was all, as my late Viennese-born mother would have put it, delightfully gemütlich.
Vocalist Shimon Buskila
With the all-embracing, non-discriminatory ethos firmly and admirably in place, the Gala cast also took in veteran Mizrachi-leaning vocalist Shimon Buskila. Buskila certainly possesses impressive vocal abilities, and his delivery is as emotive as it is entertaining, but one felt that two or three numbers from him would have done the variegating trick.
Had he wound down his gig with hit number “Ya Mama” he would have left the stage on a high and the audience wanting more. Five songs felt like a couple of numbers too far. Then again, the ticketholders did applaud loudly and lengthily after each and every song.
Yaron Gottfried made the most of his opening festival berth by promoting the work of young arrangers from the Ono Academic College’s School of Music, which he heads.
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He also shared the stage with three recent vocalist graduates from the school. This country has never lacked for musical talent, and the youngsters on show, and their counterparts behind the scenes, augur well for a continuing bright future here. That said, the singers will probably do a better job when they have accrued a little more street-level experience, further down the line.
In terms of skill, artistry, disciplinary breadth, sheer brilliance, and compelling stage presence no one on the festival roster came close to Omri Mor. The 40-something pianist has gained a name for himself, here and abroad, over the past decade or so for his deft delivery of his singular Andalujazz material which, as the name suggests, blends jazz with Andalusian music.
But there was so much more to classically-trained Mor as he effortlessly reeled off white hot arpeggios before seamlessly dropping two or three gears into more tranquil lyrical climes, then darting off in some other unsuspected direction.
Whether soloing in Mozart’s Piano Concerto no. 20, or producing a peerlessly crafted version of Thad Jones’s jazz standard “A Child Is Born,” Mor always kept us at the edge of our seats and open-mouthed. He even dealt with a dissenting voice in the audience when a woman was clearly and vociferously incensed as he began to introduce a number in English before he managed to switch to Hebrew.
There were quite a few Anglos in the jam-packed audience. The pianist parried the protest with aplomb, and a winning smile, before getting back to the musical business at hand.
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