Sound Box

Quietly, almost imperceptibly, a new Israeli symphony orchestra is emerging. Given the minuscule government budget allocated to local musical ensembles, there will surely be some people who will be unhappy about this: Many advocate the "divide and conquer" ideology that seeks to close down orchestras or at least combine a few together, so that the meager funding available does not have to be spread among too many. Who needs another orchestra here, they say, when the existing ones are starving to death? On the other hand, some people are skeptical about the assumption that reduction of the number of entities will actually increase the share allocated to the remaining bodies - because who can guarantee that the budget will remain at its original level should the number of institutions it supports drops?

In Ramat Gan, it turns out, there has been no such speculation. Indeed, the mayor, Zvi Bar, together with the director of the city's education department, Moshe Bodega, have set about to establish a symphony orchestra with full funding from the municipality. This is how the Ramat Gan Symphony Orchestra came into being, first as a youth ensemble, then an amateur orchestra, and now a budding professional orchestra.

The Yahalom Theater, which was filled to near capacity around a week ago, reflected the kind of demand there is for such an orchestra: "The Ramat Gan audience is thirsting for culture," said Alex Wasserman, the conductor and musical director who took charge of the orchestra in 2003 when it was just starting out.

"In the morning, we performed at the Ramat Gan Theater , and people were almost wrestling to get a seat. We are not the Berlin Philharmonic, and still the auditorium was full and people fought to get tickets. In Tel Aviv, I felt I was getting a bit lost," adds Wasserman, who at one point created the Tel Aviv Chamber Music Association, but had to stop the concert series he was performing with them.

"The association was not significant in the Tel Aviv context, as opposed to the place we have here [in Ramat Gan] for musical endeavor, which will soon include chamber music as well," he explains. "Most of the people you saw in the auditorium were ticket purchasers; we limited the complimentary tickets to just two for each musician."

The Ramat Gan ensemble is a full symphony orchestra with 60 musicians, including three percussionists, four French horn players and a harpist.

"A significant number of the musicians receive grants from the municipality, which is in essence a salary, and most are professionals on the level of music academy graduates and above," Wasserman explains. "And there are also three lawyers, an economics student who is the concert master, and graduates of the youth orchestra."

The recent concert featured works clearly intended for an orchestra in its beginning stages, such as Rimsky-Korsakov's "Capriccio Espagnol" and the prelude to a Glinka opera, but also some genuine, grand symphonic pieces - Beethoven's "Concerto for Violin" (with Jonathan Sali as the soloist ) - plus one surprising work: Piano Concerto No. 1 by one of the fathers of Israeli music, Marc Lavry.

Lavry composed the concerto during the British Mandate period, for pianist Penina Salzman, in a style that was inspired by Zionist ideology, including musical elements from different Jewish communities and composition that attempts to turn away from the European mainstream and define Israeliness in music. This particular piece was actually performed in Ramat Gan by an Arab/Palestinian/Israeli soloist and resident of Lod, Nizar Al-Khater. It was a pleasure to listen to and watch this gifted pianist (a student of Zecharia Plavin at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance ), full of virtuosity and confidence, who, with his broad hands engulfs and dominates the piano instead of sitting in its shadow.

Alex Wasserman, a composer who has degrees in composition from the New School's Mannes College (a master's ) and Juilliard in New York (doctorate ), has won prizes and fellowships in the United States and Israel, lectures at the Rimon School, also holds another position in Ramat Gan: director of its music conservatory.

"The conservatory reflects another side of municipal investment in music," he says, "because it is the 'address' for children who want to pursue their musical studies in the schools."

Ramat Gan, it seems, has adopted the community-based model instituted by the Ministry of Education and in an exceptional way offers music classes in five local elementary schools as part of the curriculum: Now 1,300 students are studying in this program, financed by the municipality and free of charge. Grades two and three are learning to play the string instruments and grades four and five are focusing on woodwinds.

"Within two years, six woodwind ensembles were formed in the city," notes Wasserman, "and we're still working on playing the strings."

Along with a pilot project that provides instruction and concerts in these schools and orchestra concerts for children, Ramat Gan is gradually realizing a dream of music education.

"We want to develop a challenging music program and not a commercialized one," explains Wasserman, "to have a pluralistic repertoire and not to create 'ghettos' of contemporary or Romantic music."

It is hard to remember when the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra audience was witness to what happened at one of its concerts last week: Just before the second piece, after the opener by Beethoven the likes of which the orchestra can already play with eyes closed, the stage emptied almost completely and only a few musicians remained. Two unconventional objects were brought on stage: a small electric harp and a music stand for the conductor - Zubin Mehta. This was most surprising given that the Philharmonic's entire repertoire, including operas and huge symphonies, is stored in full in the phenomenal memory of the conductor and ready for retrieval - but lo and behold: He needed the score for a little chamber music piece. What music could possibly exist beyond his memory?

The answer was apparent as soon as alto singer Sara Mingardo came on stage. Mingardo is one of the leading singers of early music using the historical performance method, and her performances of Baroque music are popular around the world and also heard in many homes, thanks to her recordings. She was brought to Israel as a substitute for a Mahler program and the Philharmonic decided also to include a sample of the repertoire at which she so excels - arias from Bach's "St. Matthew Passion" and "St. John Passion," and from Handel's opera.

The concert sounded as if it were taking place in a time warp. Given that there is no real need for a conductor for a Baroque ensemble, the concert master was leading the musicians; Mehta, meanwhile, seemed a little disconnected from the event.

Mingardo also seemed out of place, relative to the musicians and the vocalists, who are so different from her and usually fill the solo roles throughout the year. Even the orchestra members apparently felt like fish out of water, bringing the aesthetic of Romantic music to the Baroque repertoire. And even the audience suddenly seemed a little out of place.

The ones who really did not find their place at all between Beethoven and his Leonore Overture, and Schubert's Ninth Symphony, which was played later on, were Bach and Handel. Today it can be acknowledged that these two composers, and their early 18th-century colleagues (and predecessors ), are just no longer there. They have disengaged from the symphonic mother ship," from any elements of the tone, phrasing and instruments themselves, as well as the mood on stage and even the historical, stylistic context - and are now demanding special treatment.

The concert highlighted the absence of such separate treatment by the Philharmonic of Baroque and early classical works: How nice it would be to hear performers like Mingardo and others, who share her historical approach to singing, playing and conducting, sparking a real revolution in the orchestra: The musicians would experience new methods of expression in terms of their instruments, the audience would once again enjoy its Baroque composers, as well as even Haydn and Mozart, who are almost completely left out of concert programs - and Bach and Handel would have found a home at the Heichal Hatarbut Performing Arts Center.