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18th December 2011

15th December 2011

7th November 2011

17th October 2011

Tour to Israel

17. - 20.May 2000

In Beer-Sheva, a town in the midst of the Negev, the first International Plectrum Instruments Festival took place. Shmuel Elbaz, the artistic director of the festival, did a great job in organizing all activities including everything from having the artists picked up at the airport to presenting the concerts. His selection of different musicians and ensembles from Spain, Russia, Italy, Germany and Israel provided a most multifarious programme.

The opening concert was played by the Kerman Quartet (Israel) with Shmuel Elbaz (1.mdl.), Aharon Kabilis (2.mdl.), Avi Avital (alto) and Lev Haimovich (mandoloncello), Ensemble Vivace (Israel) and Ugo Orlandi (Italy). The quartet got its name from Arik Kerman who is the leading mandolin maker in Israel. The programme contained concerts by Antonio Vivaldi, Johann N. Hummel and Budashkin and one movement of the quartet in A by Francesco Giuliani. The evening had three clear highlights. First was the Roumanian Folk Dances by Bela Bartok in a great adaption for the Kerman Quartet (mandolins I-II, mandola and mandoloncello) who with their first mandolinist Shmuel Elbaz played it in a lively manner seldom to be heard on stage.

Next was the first-performance of the composition "Dialog" for String quartet, Mandolin quartet and tape written for the opening concert by Asaf Kleinman. This partly neo-baroque sounding piece was performed by the Kerman Quartet, Ensemble Vivace and the composer at the tape. It was very impressing to hear how the two different ensembles merged to one homogeneous sound. The biggest surprise was to learn that the composer is only 13 years old.
Last item on the programme was the well known Israelian tenor Yotam Cohen who presented Italian songs and arias with accompaniment of the Vivace Ensemble (now strings and flute) and Shmuel Elbaz (mandolin). Cohen with his wonderful voice and charisma kept the whole audience under his spell.

We opened the second evening in the always crowded hall of the municipal conservatory of Beer-Sheva with compostions by Jean-Philippe Rameau, Raffaele Calace and Jaime Zenamon followed by the Israelian "Duo Dinamica" with Orit Shiloach, voice and Oded Shuc, guitar. They performed pieces by Federico G. Lorca (very nice guitar-transcription), Joaquin Rodrigo, Francisco Tarrega and Enrique Granados. Third ensemble in this evening was the Quarteto Assai (Spain; José Ramon Garcia, Ruth Izquierdo, Jaime del Amo, Javier Garcia) ) with bandurria, laúd contralto, laúd tenor and guitar who played works by Spanish composers from different times.

On Friday the members of Quarteto Assai gave a lecture on plucked instruments and their history in Spain. This day's concert already started on 2 p.m. because of the preparations for Sabbath (the early Friday evening is traditionally reserved for the family). First we listened to an Israelian guitar-duo (Yehuda Schreier and Uriel Atlas). Next item were the Cassation by Joseph Haydn played by Yehuda Schreier and the 2nd and 3rd movement of Mauro Giuliani´s first guitar-concerto performed by Yoram Zarbiv. Both were sovereignly accompanied by the Beer-Sheva String-Quartet. The audience´s favorite of the day was the Russian Master Quartet (bayan, bass, balalaika and domra). As expected they played popular songs and pot-pourries with great virtuosity and pleasure.
On the last evening the artists of the festival performed in the first part of the programme while the second was done by the Mandolin Orchestra of Beer-Sheva . Before the completely overcrowded Hillman-Hall they mostly played transcriptions of pieces by Joseph Haydn, Georges Bizet and others. This orchestra of mainly young players which already exists for 28 years performed with precision and musicallity.