570259bk USA 15/5/07 8:15 pm Page 5 Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra The Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1929 as the first professional musical ensemble fulfilling the needs of radio broadcasting in Slovakia. The first conductors already placed particular emphasis on contemporary Slovak music in their programmes, resulting in a close connection with leading Slovak composers, BLOCH including Alexander Moyzes, Eugen SuchoÀ, Ján Cikker and others. The original ensemble was gradually enlarged and from 1942, thanks to Alexander Moyzes, the then Director of Music in Slovak Radio, regular symphony concerts were given, broadcast live by Slovak Radio. From 1943 to 1946 the Yugoslavian Kre‰imír Baranoviã was Four Episodes • Two Poems the chief conductor of the orchestra, to which he made a vital contribution. His successors were ªudovít Rajter, Ladislav Slovák, Václav Jiráãek, Otakar Trhlík, Bystrík ReÏucha and Ondrej Lenárd, whose successful Concertino • Suite Modale performances and recordings from 1977 to 1990 helped the orchestra to establish itself as an internationally known concert ensemble. His successor Róbert Stankovsky continued this work, until his unexpected death at the age of Noam Buchman, Flute • Yuri Gandelsman, Viola 36. Charles Olivieri-Munroe held the position of chief conductor from 2001-2003, with the current principal guest conductor Kirk Trevor. Oliver von Dohnányi was appointed chief conductor of the orchestra in 2006, and regular Soloists of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra live concerts have continued also under the new second conductor Mario Kosik. Through its broadcasts and many recordings the orchestra has also become a part of concert life abroad, with successful tours to Austria, Italy, Slovak Radio Symphony Germany, The Netherlands, France, Bulgaria, Spain, Japan, Great Britain and Malta. Atlas Camerata Orchestra • Dalia Atlas Atlas Camerata Orchestra The Atlas Camerata Orchestra was established by the conductor Dalia Atlas in 1998/1990, its members drawn mainly from new immigrants to Israel from the former Soviet Union. The orchestra made its début in a concert tour in France during the Gulf War, when evening concerts in Israel were impossible. Dalia Atlas dedicated to the orchestra her orchestral arrangement of Schubert’s String Quintet, Op. 163, recorded for international distribution and winning much critical praise. Some Israeli composers have written specially for the orchestra and there have been recordings, particularly of less usual repertoire. The orchestra has toured with Dalia Atlas all over Israel, France, and the USA. Dalia Atlas Dalia Atlas was born in Israel, graduated from the Music Academy of Jerusalem, and studied conducting with the most distinguished teachers abroad. She won seven prizes in international conducting competitions, the first woman conductor to achieve this. Her wide repertoire includes about 750 scores, among them hitherto unknown music, some of which are her own discoveries, and also arrangements of her own. She has conducted some seventy orchestras in concerts, festivals and recordings, and broadcasts in 29 countries, among them the Israel Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Philharmonia in London, Helsinki Philharmonic, ABC orchestras in Australia, Warsaw Symphony, Brazil Symphony, Buenos Aires Philharmonic, Maggio Musicale in Florence, the Slovak Philharmonic and the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, Czech Radio Orchestra, and the Berlin Symphony Orchestra. In Israel she has founded many musical and cultural organizations, orchestras and choirs, both professional and educational, serving as Music Director and Principal Conductor for many years. In pursuit of her philanthropic ideals, Dalia Atlas has travelled widely with her orchestras, the Israel Pro Musica and Atlas Camerata, at her own expense, in order to promote music education for children in schools and concert halls. Her research on the music of Ernest Bloch resulted in her undertaking the promotion and recording of the composer’s neglected compositions. To date, she has recorded about 20 of his orchestral works for ASV and Naxos. In 2005 Dalia Atlas decided to terminate all her permanent positions in order to share her wide Dalia Atlas repertoire and experience as a guest conductor all over the world with orchestras, operas and festivals. Photo: Clive Barda 8.570259 5 6 8.570259 570259bk USA 15/5/07 8:15 pm Page 2 Ernest Bloch (1880-1959): Four Episodes • Two Poems • Concertino • Suite Modale modern’ and absolutely unfit for making a sensation…” bringing the work to a sudden and surprising conclusion. Noam Buchman This was Bloch’s modest opinion about his music. It is important to mention that Bloch allowed the option Noam Buchman, Israel’s highly-acclaimed flautist, was born in Tel Aviv. He studied at the Tel Aviv Academy of Ernest Bloch was one of the most interesting, inventive grotesquerie and enthusiasm. Although Bloch had Perspectives, however, are always changing with time, of using a full symphony orchestra in the last fourteen Music with Uri Shoham, and later with William Bennett in London. As principal flute with the Jerusalem and successful composers, recognised and appreciated probably in his mind a certain narrative programme and now after 102 years, one can appreciate their true bars. For the present recording, however, the original Symphony Orchestra he has recorded and performed, in concert, most of the existing repertoire for flute. As a during his lifetime as a successor to Bach, Beethoven, while composing, it is a piece in which each listener value. He continued: “They are the expression of an scoring for string orchestra was chosen. soloist he has appeared throughout Israel and in important musical centres throughout Europe, North and South and Brahms. While these three giants developed and may imagine something different. inward necessity”, something that is true of all the Suite Modale for flute and strings is one of Bloch’s America, and at the Bloch Festival directed by Dalia Atlas. He performs and records with various chamber music established their own definite style within their own In the second episode, Obsession, the same five-bar compositions of a great genius such as Ernest Bloch. last works, written in 1956, three years before his death. ensembles and is a founding member of the Israel Contemporary Players ensemble. In 1995 Noam Buchman gave respective historical period, Bloch was unique. He was tune is repeated, with 24 continuous variations. Like the In Winter, sadness and the pain of nostalgia slowly The title indicates the style of his musical language in the world première of Flute 3000, a concerto for flute and orchestra by the Israeli composer Shlomo Gronich, a wanderer and explorer, caring nothing for the fashions bass of a passacaglia, or Ravel’s orchestration of his develop into a cry of desire, before falling back into his later years, which centered on modal melodies and commissioned by the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra and dedicated to him. Noam Buchman’s extensive repertoire of the time. He possessed the supreme qualities of a Bolero, the theme starts with one instrument, the piano, despair, expressed brilliantly by the orchestration and polyphonic writing, as in his last symphony, the E-flat ranges from the Baroque and classical periods to more contemporary ones. A major part of his musical activities is great creator in each of the varied styles in which he and in each variation a new instrument is added. A short the interplay between the various instruments. The of 1955, which combines these characteristics with the devoted to performing and promoting Israeli music and in recognition of his achievements in this area he was wrote throughout his whole life. strict Bach-style fugue appears at the centre of this music conveys a wide spectrum of intimate feelings and use of modern thematic material. In many of his works awarded the Prize for Excellence in Performing Israeli Music by the Arts and Culture Council as well as the Oedeon Music was Bloch’s most authentic language for the movement. The general humour and spirit of the imagination. Bloch referred to the sound of the flute as the voice of Partos Prize, given by the Minister of Culture. His discography includes a rendering of Visions by Oedeon Partos, expression of his individuality, ideas, philosophy, episode is similar to that found in music by Jacques Spring brings a joyful, youthful and colorful the soul. This very same element is also found in his coupled with the Ibert and Nielsen concertos, a recording with the Van-Leer Chamber Players featuring works by Ben-Haim and Richard Strauss, a disc of Israeli music, with the Israel String Quartet, a CD with the Jerusalem profound intellect, truthfulness and ethnicity, all Ibert and Darius Milhaud, who belonged to the same awakening of nature after the solitude of winter, Two Last Poems for flute and symphony orchestra, Symphony Orchestra featuring Flute 3000, a flute recital disc of Bach works and new Israeli music especially perfectly balanced. At the same time he carried within circle and were subject to the same influences of the embroidered by songs of birds, green trees and leaves. which are a meditation on death and after-life. written for him and a CD in which he plays three sonatas for flute by Schubert (originally for violin). A new himself and passed on his feelings of Weltschmertz, period. The obsessive rhythmical melody long haunts In the middle section a new spirit of pure romance Bloch dedicated the Suite Modale to the flautist recording was recently issued in which he plays, together with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, new love and hope. the memory. appears, progressing towards a climax of true Elaine Schaffer, whose beautiful sound he greatly arrangements, especially written for him, of Israeli songs. Alongside his intensive performing career, Noam For several years during World War II he wrote In Pastoral the peaceful flow of nature starts with happiness. This is followed by the serenity of a admired.