★★★½☆ A genuine warmth and love of music from first note to last.

City Recital Hall, Sydney
September 20, 2016

The sound of the Israel Camerata Jerusalem Orchestra was more earthy warmth than piercing brightness as they opened their second concert in Sydney with Bartók’s Divertimento for String Orchestra – the last work the composer wrote in Hungary before emigrating to the United States during the outbreak of World War II.

Led by founder and conductor Avner Biron, splashes of colour – dresses and ties – lit up the orchestra, Concertmaster Matan Dagan’s smooth, burnished violin sound tracing details across the ensemble. Dark, liquid strings and stinging accents characterised the second movement while the third was jovial and dance-like following the jagged opening.

Zvi Plesser joined the group as soloist for Haydn’s First Cello Concerto, composed early in Haydn’s tenure at the Esterházy court when the orchestra was still quite small. A ‘recent’ Haydn, the concerto was thought lost until it resurfaced in 1961 when parts were discovered by the archivist of the Prague National Museum. Plesser’s bronzed, characterful cello lines highlighted the cheeriness of the first movement, his double-stops neatly executed and his fingers nimble. While intonation issues tarnished some of his moving passages, Plesser’s repeated bass notes were vivid and rich in overtones. The Adagio was sedate, the orchestra swelling and receding, and the finale thrummed, Plesser leaning into the dissonances.

For the encore, Plesser explained, “I will stay in C Major” eliciting a pleased noise from the audience when he revealed he would be playing the Sarabande from Bach’s third Cello Suite, which he dispatched with simple elegance and sparing vibrato.

Plesser returned after the interval as soloist in Mark Kopytman’s 1981 composition Kaddish. One of the Israeli composer’s better-known works, the title Kaddish refers to the Jewish prayer or hymn associated with the rituals of mourning. Kopytman’s work is almost programmatic, the cello representing the eldest son reciting prayers for the dead, the orchestra the departed father. The work opened with a dissonant chord from the celli and basses, introducing a haunting modal recitative from Plesser. The soloist’s bass smouldered in the cadenza that introduced the fiery final movement and his resonant sound filled the recital hall before coming to rest on a delicate, smoky harmonic.

Schubert’s concise, optimistic Fifth Symphony capped off the concert, conductor Avner Biron driving the ensemble up the hills and letting them coast on the descents, the performance brimming with joy and life. For an encore, the orchestra pulled out the third movement of Haydn’s Symphony No 85, the fourth of the ‘Paris’ symphonies, nicknamed ‘La Reine’. The quirky Menuetto provided plenty of opportunities to show off individual players from both the winds and the strings.

While absolute precision may have been lacking in some of the Israel Camerata Jerusalem Orchestra’s performances – entries and cut-offs were occasionally frayed – the ensemble more than made up for it with the genuine sense of warmth and love of music that infused the concert from first note to last.