Concert with the Tel Aviv Quintet and Pianist Alon Goldstein

The WBC hosted the Tel Aviv Quintet and Pianist Alon Goldstein at the Austrian Hospice in the old city of Jerusalem

On Thursday, February 13th 2020, the Willy Brandt Center Jerusalem hosted in cooperation with the Austrian Hospice a performance by the celebrated Tel Aviv Wind Quintet, together with world renowned pianist Alon Goldstein from New York.

The concert took place at the heart of Jerusalem’s Old City, in the Austrian Hospice’s Imperial Salon, which was filled up to its last seat. The program featured pieces by Ludwig van Beethoven, marking the 250th anniversary of his birthday, as well as works by Barber, Bernstein and Françaix. A theatrical performance of Luciano Berio’s „Opus Number Zoo“ was also included, and the socio-critical poems by Rhoda Levine, upon which this contemporary composition is based, were performed in Hebrew. As the audience in Jerusalem’s Old City included Israelis and Arabs, as well as a number of international guests, we decided to offer in addition a written English translation and an Arabic version that was created especially for the occasion by the Willy Brandt Center team member Rima Shahin, and was very much welcomed by our Arabic-speaking audience.

Before each piece, one of the artists briefly explained the historical and musical background of the composition. Unfortunately, Oboe player Yigal Kaminka fell ill a few days prior to the concert, but was replaced on short notice by the wonderful principal oboist of the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra, Dudu Carmel, who joined the other members of The Tel Aviv Wind Quintet: Roy Amotz (flute), Danny Erdman (clarinet), Itamar Leshem (horn) and Nadav Cohen (bassoon).

We are looking forward to continuing our collaboration with the Tel Aviv Wind Quintet, and to reach out together to our young audience and present another „out of the box“ classical music program in the near future: a theatrical version of Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf”, especially arranged and staged for the members of the quintet.