The IPO came up with a genius marketing plot to offer a first rate concert for the bargain price of 85 NIS as part of their 85th anniversary celebrations. The absurdly low price guaranteed a packed house and an eclectic crowd. On this night, the Bronfman Auditorium may have been the hippest spot to be seen in the city.
I took immediately to "Prayer For String Orchestra", feeling the music's drawn out, solemn passages in my bones. The composer of the work, Tzvi Avni, walked on stage for a bow at the conclusion of the piece in a very touching moment. The next piece, Alphons Diepenbrock's "Im grossen Schweigen" (with Matthias Goerne performing the baritone solo), didn't connect with me in the same way, the lyrics cry out against to the loneliness of nature, but the music leaves me with little of that intended desperation or passion.
Gustav Mahler's "Symphony No. 1" was beautifully played and elegantly conducted by Lahav Shani, but I found it underplayed in many key moments. The third movement should alternate between a funereal lullaby and a folksy, slightly absurdist dance, but Shani played it as a rather straightforward slow movement. I felt the symphony nearly ground to a halt around this point, although he did manage to pull things back together nicely for the second half of the fourth movement, leading to a suitably spectacular finale.
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