Liturgical sounds from Nazareth and beyond head online
Ticket prices for all the events in the festival program range from NIS 10 to NIS 150, and offer the public access to the Zoom-broadcast concerts as well discussions with the artists.
By BARRY DAVISYAGEL AND URIAH Harosh, backed by a four-piece choral lineup.(photo credit: TAMAR TZIMMERMAN)
If liturgical music is your thing, regardless of the style or cultural baseline, you’d do well to get yourself over to the website of the relevant thematic festival of Nazareth between December 17-20.The event, which is the brainchild of 44-year-old Nazarene pianist and educator Nabeel Abboud Ashkar, who also heads the Polyphony Association for Musical Education Western classical music venture, takes in numerous artistic intent and cultural baggage across the half dozen concerts that will be available online during the festival, and through to December 26.The program opens on December 17 (8 p.m.) with a rendition of the Orpheus and Eurydice opera by 18th century Czech-born composer Christoph Willibald Gluck with a stellar roster of performers lined up for the slot. Internationally celebrated countertenor Yaniv D’Or and soprano Hila Baggio take on the lead roles, with Nazarene soprano Nour Darwish as Amore, the God of Love. The three soloists will be underpinned by the Galilee Chamber Orchestra and the Tel Aviv Collegium Singers, with Yishai Steckler conducting.Unsurprisingly, the program takes in some Baroque fare, including a rendition of Stabat Mater by early 18th century Italian composer Giovanni Battista Pergolesi on December 18 (8:30 p.m.). The concert was recorded at the Sophienkirche in Berlin, which hosted a speech by civil rights leader Martin Luther King in September 1964. Abboud Ashkar will be on the conductor’s podium for the occasion, with German soprano Lydia Teuscher and Irish mezzo-soprano Niamh O’Sullivan filling the soloist spots, supported by members of the Galilee Chamber Orchestra.Programmatic matters take a more locally-oriented turn with the Eldrawish concert on December 19 (6 p.m.), which is described as “a breathtaking musical journey into the world of the Sufis.” The performance features three Sufi dancers and four instrumentalists, including an oud player and qanoun player, all of whom come from the Sufi community in the Galilee.Later the same evening (8:30 p.m.) the Fantasy for Kamanche and Oud: Songs for Midnight will be performed by sibling instrumentalist-vocalists Yagel and Uriah Harosh, backed by a four piece choral lineup. The concert feeds off the spiritual ambiance and sonority of the centuries-old Jewish custom of singing prayers at midnight in synagogues.The festival closes with a recital of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4, by Abboud Ashkar, as part of the Mythology and Spirituality in Beethoven’s Music event. The slot also includes a discussion about the composer, musician, and man of letters, the inspiration he drew from Greek mythology, and the connection with the tale of Orpheus and Eurydice featured in the festival curtain raiser.Ticket prices for all the events in the festival program range from NIS 10 to NIS 150, and offer the public access to the Zoom-broadcast concerts as well discussions with the artists.For more information: https://liturgicalnazareth.co.il/en/
