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CONCERT ROUNDUP
A piano recital by Daniel Barenboim has, regrettably, become a rare event, so this one was especially appreciated.
He played three Beethoven sonatas: an early one - No. 7, in D, Op. 10, No. 3; the highly popular one of his middle period - No. 21, in C, Op. 53 (the Waldstein); and, finally, No. 32 in C minor, Op. 111, which leads us into the abstract world of sound.
Barenboim is no longer the perfect technician, but he is all the more the perfect musician. His profound interpretations penetrate to the deepest layers of spirituality. Yet he still leaves something to ponder, and it is perhaps this withholding of ultimate understanding which makes Barenboim's interpretations so unique and great.
Mann Auditorium, Tel Aviv, February 28. Benjamin Bar-Am
BACH'S B minor Mass is a very long work and only an excellent performance can do it full justice.
This performance by the Kibbutz Chamber Orchestra, the Windsbacher Knabenchor, and the soloists - soprano Efrat Ben-Nun, mezzo Ruth-Maria Nicolay, tenor James Taylor and bass Ulf Bastlein - with conductor Karl Friedrich Beringer on the podium, was a triple disenchantment.
Neither choir, soloists nor the conductor seemed to be truly involved and what we heard was strictly conventional. The conductor Beringer must take responsibility for the debacle. He has neither imagination, charisma, nor understanding and he...