by Mike Telin
Currently on
view at The Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage is Bezalel on Tour, an exhibition that celebrates the 106th anniversary of Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Israel’s oldest institute of higher education and a leading international academy of art, design and architecture. In conjunction with the exhibit, the museum will also present films, an artist talk, and on Wednesday, December 12th beginning at 7 PM, members of the No Exit New Music Ensemble will present a concert program inspired by Bezalel on Tour.
“There are all sorts of interesting objects included in the exhibit, so the idea behind the concert is for it to be an exhibit in itself,” No Exit’s artistic director Timothy Beyer told us by telephone. The program includes works by Shulamit Ran, Morton Feldman, Miklós Rózsa, Andrew Rindfleisch and Corey Rubin, all of whom are Jewish and/or Israeli composers. “We want to create an intimate and ‘singular’ experience for the listener with each piece being very much it’s own thing — a standout in it’s own right.” The only non Jewish composer represented on the program in Maurice Ravel, whose setting of Kaddish, will be performed by vocalist Corey Rubin and pianist Nick Underhill. Ravel’s arrangement of the work for cello and piano will also be performed by Underhill and cellist Nick Diodore.
Beyer points out that finding pieces by Israeli composers that suited their programming needs was not an easy task, but after viewing the exhibit they came away with ideas of compositions they thought would work. “We knew we wanted to program something by Israeli composer Shualmit Ran, but her music tends to be very difficult. Fortunately, during a discussion with guest flutist Sean Gabriel, we realized he already had Ran’s East Wind for solo flute in his repertoire.” Another guest artist will be clarinetist Luke Gorman, who will perform Corey Rubin’s Party Lines for solo clarinet. “This concert also affords us the opportunity to delve into some great solo repertoire,” Beyer adds, “and it’s given us the chance to work with some people who we’ve been wanting to work with for a long time.”
Additionally, No Exit regular, violist Tom Bowling will be featured in Hallucinations, by Cleveland State University faculty member Andrew Rindfleisch. Audiences will also have the opportunity to hear some chamber music by Miklós Rózsa, who is best known for his nearly one hundred film scores. “Most people think of him as a film composer but his chamber music is really quite good. And his Toccata capricciosa for cello solo was dedicated to the memory of cello great Gregor Piatigorsky.”
“We tried to capture the spirit of the philosophy of the exhibit, and we think the program works very well” Byer said. Morton Feldman’s Piano Piece (to Philip Guston) is profoundly expressive, and so perfect for this concert – a concert about an exhibit, that features a piece about a piece. That’s just great.”
Published on ClevelandClassical.com December 4, 2012
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