The Felicja Blumental International Music Festival

The Felicja Blumental International Music Festival set out its eclectic stall a full 25 years ago. From the off, the programming tended towards a multifarious approach, culling ever more expansive ripples of music from across the globe and a broad spectrum of eras and cultures. The 26th edition of the predominately popular classical music event maintains that multi-pronged school of thought at the Tel Aviv Museum, March 25-30.

The forthcoming run-out takes in the likes of popular singer-songwriter Shlomi Shaban, who joins forces with high-octane fusion outfit Pinhas and Sons, while Israeli vocalist Bat Ella teams up with longtime sparring partner Israeli-born New Yorker cantor Azi Schwartz in a wide-ranging repertoire that spans a century and a half of liturgical material. That will be beefed up by scores from some of the Jewish leading lights of the American music arena, such as Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, and Kurt Weill. The front stage pair will be supported by bassist Gilad Ephrat and a whole host of instrumentalists.

The classical fare follows variegated suit, arching across broad tracts of styles and sonic sensibilities, from romantic chamber music with works by Fauré, Hindemith, and Schumann to the Ensemble Finale’s readings of Schubert’s String Quintet in C major and Nomads by 31-year-old interdisciplinary composer Shahar Regev, and In C by now 88-year-old American composer Terry Riley, one of the pioneers of minimalism in Western classical music, performed by the 17-strong Castle in Time Orchestra led by multidisciplinary artist Matan Daskal.

Early music lovers will, no doubt, get a kick out of the appearance of Swiss-based Israeli countertenor Doron Schleifer and lute and theorbo player Ophira Zakai in – as the festival program info has it – a showcase recital of “the best of the English and Italian repertoire from the 17th century.”

The composer roster features Italian composer and virtuoso keyboard player Girolamo Alessandro Frescobaldi, compatriot composer, singer and instrumentalist Giulio Caccini, and a fellow early Baroque composers, organist and violinist Tarquinio Merula and virtuoso theorbo player Giovanni Girolamo Kapsperger. The English side of the recital is represented by the venerated Henry Purcell whose quintessentially English oeuvre nonetheless incorporated some Italian and French seasoning.

Harmonious fusion: cross-cultural program

Schleifer believes that the cross-cultural programmatic offering, which takes place at 7:30 p.m. on March 30, makes for a comfortable bedfellow arrangement. “They are not exactly identical styles but they go well together,” he posits. “They have similar features which can be worked into the program.”

Schleifer and Zakai, who have collaborated several times in the past, settled on a core element that neatly conjoins works from both countries.

“One of the features we chose for this occasion is basso ostinato,” says the countertenor, referencing the use of a bass line motif that not only provides a rhythmic and textural anchor, it also serves as a springboard for complex and thrilling variations.

“That gives you a repetitive bass theme on top of which you can sound more improvisational. I sing written scores, but Ophira can improvise because, for her, only the bass line is written down. She can improvise in different ways with the higher notes. The character of these [Italian and English baroque] works gives a more improvisational impression. I find that enchanting.” All of which suggests an exciting and emotive listening experience is in the offing for the museum audience.  “Purcell is considered the king of basso ostinato,” adds Schleifer. “He could do amazing things with this technique.”

With that self-confessed fascination with musical extemporization, I wondered whether he had any surreptitious designs on one of the more freewheeling sonic disciplines. “I like listening to jazz, and I admire jazz musicians. I’m actually jealous of them. I very much enjoy improvising but I haven’t managed to perform actual jazz myself as yet,” he admits.

Even so, my line of inquiry was not far off the mark. “I often like to relate to my performances as sort of jazz concerts,” Schleifer says. “I want the music to sound not too different from that. I think there are a lot of parallel areas between baroque and jazz music.”

That sense of shared stylistic continuum spills over into other artistic fields. “There is also common ground between that and another part of my musical life – synagogue music. There is a lot of improvisation in that so, for me, there are numerous similarities between them.”

Schleifer has accrued plenty of experience during his sojourn in Switzerland. “I have served as the conductor of the choir in our synagogue in Basel for the past 15 years,” he notes. “I am very proud of the choir.” And with good reason, if only for historical reasons. “It is the only choir in German-speaking Europe that survived the Holocaust. It has worked, uninterrupted, throughout its lifetime and I am doing my best to keep it going.” That is no easy task. “The Jewish community here is shrinking,” he observes.

The Great Synagogue of Basel was built in 1868. To put that in local historical terms, that was around 30 years before the first Zionist Congress was held in what is often referred to as the cultural capital of Switzerland. The choir itself is closing in on its centenary.

For Schleifer, his Baroque performances and synagogue activity form a pretty homogenous area of his professional endeavor. “They share improvisation, which I find very appealing,” he explains. This is not just a matter of taking musical flight in the face of the composer’s original intent.

“This is not merely about improvising. This is improvising from within a framework and based on certain rules, like with jazz – from something with a stylistic pattern.”

As in life, in creative domains, the more solid and well-rooted the bedrock the freer the artist is to head off in unexpected directions. “The more stringent the constraints the more you can take risks when it comes to improvisation,” Schleifer suggests.

The sonic underpinning, as far as he is concerned, comes fittingly from the nether regions of the musical register. “I always try to work off the bass,” he states. “I always try to work out what the bass is doing and work off that. I think that anyone who plays a melodic instrument or sings has to relate to that. You have to work with the progressions and harmony in order to understand what you are supposed to do.”

There may be some mines to sidestep on the way to achieving the desired quality of rendition. “There may, for example, be some dissonance that I have to solve. Of course, the text is also very important but, primarily, when you are talking about Baroque music, the bass plays a very important role.”

There is also plenty in the way of contemporary entertainment on offer in the festival program, including a rare tribute to Freddie Dura – aka the king of the cabaret scene in Nahariya in the 1950s. The Be Kind to Me show, with internationally renowned Israeli jazz pianist Anat Fort who, with guitarist Eran Weitz, serves as joint musical director for the occasion presents songs based on texts by members of the national poetry canon such as Rachel, Tirza Atar, and Avot Yeshurun, and scores by the likes of Sasha Argov, Miki Gavrielov, and Shlomo Gronich.

Fans of local ethnic music should enjoy the Albi Dalili (My Heart Is My Guide) selection of classics of the Egyptian and Lebanese repertoire, while the Tremelo Ensemble will add some quality percussive sounds and rhythms to the festival proceedings.

For tickets and more information: (03) 620-1185 and www.fbmc.co.il