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Tempestuous Tchaikovsky sends audience into ecstasy
by Olavi Kauko

Searing fate theme sends shudder through Finlandia Hall

Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra at Finlandia Hall, cond. Gisèle Ben-Dor, sol. Martin Gabriel, oboe. – Haydn, Mozart, Tchaikovsky

The Uruguayan-Israeli_US conductor Gisèle Ben-Dor took her Finnish audience by storm last summer with her cool, original interpretations bursting with strength of will. This concert strengthened the impression that this fiery iron lady really comes into her own when given a chance to extract every ounce of effect from her orchestra: the more and the more varied the better. The fifth symphony by Tchaikovsky was a fine opportunity to do just this.

As if the emotionalism, the torment, the yearning, tragedy and pathos of Tchaikovsky’s music were not enough in themselves, everything had to be enhanced, underlined, slowed down, speeded up, toned down, but above all the orchestra had to be driven to ever wilder and wilder ecstasy. The maestro seemed to get most satisfaction out of making Finlandia Hall shudder again and again at the ever more searing call of fate.

Ben-Dor was superbly successful in setting the Philharmonic on fire and making it give its all. The wild spontaneous applause at the end was proof alone of the large audience’s ecstasy.

Ben-Dor once again proved herself to be a musician capable of entering into a dazzling partnership [in the Mozart oboe concerto].

Belfast News
February 22, 1993

The game is up for male posers on the rostrum – on Friday evening in the Ulster Hall, Maestra Gisèle Ben-Dor gave one of the finest displays of detailed conducting I have ever witnessed – and with far less playing to the gallery than is the norm.

While one could have pride that the home team in the shape of the Ulster Orchestra responded so splendidly to her demands, I was left with the feeling that Ms. Ben-Dor had much more to give than could be delivered with less than a full symphony orchestra and only four days of rehearsal.

Within those continuous limitations, the Ulster Orchestra has rightly won a reputation far higher than should reasonably be expected from a relatively small provincial orchestra, not least because of the first-class players who have chosen to settle here and devote their musical lives to it.

On Friday evening, both in Copland’s Appalachian Spring, and Dvorak’s Symphony No. 8, they played above themselves under Ms. Ben-Dor’s brilliant guidance, every single section delivering the colours and textures demanded in near perfect ensemble. Here was concentration without pain, under the joyful application of musical intelligence by a conductor who is an artist down to every last purposeful flick of her elegant fingers.

One could see the effect in the players’ faces: they paid far more attention than is sometimes the case, and it was the concentration of musicians taking their full part in an ensemble performance, not the hunted anxiety of section leaders fearful of being plunged into a scramble.

Even players well behind their principals were keeping an eye on the conductor. Perhaps most telling of all, there was a virtual absence of that distressing tendency of some, when temporarily uninvolved, to slouch, or even to whisper to a colleague, as if they were in the rehearsal room instead of the concert hall.

As to the heralded glamour of Ms. Ben-Dor’s appearance, well yes, she was obviously all of that, attractive, intelligent, elegant, poised, vivacious – but that was entirely secondary from the slow, controlled opening of Copland’s balletic Appalachian Spring onward.

The fine bassoon of Charles Miller, the piccolo skill – and breath stamina – of Elizabeth Bennett, the perfect timing of percussionist Malcolm Neale were among the usually overlooked talents whose contributions were clearly realized.

And the trumpets, evident obviously in the Dvorak fanfares, had a rare chance to demonstrate their capacity for subtlety in their expansive, yet restrained, pastoral colouring of the Copland piece.

Colin Fleming’s golden flute can rarely have been busier, with a variety of leading roles and in dialogue with woodwind colleagues, and it was he whom Ms. Ben-Dor singled out in the end for particular appreciation.

The one disappointment of the evening, and it hurts to record it, was the Barber Violin Concerto with Paul Willey as soloist. It can be a gripping piece, but requires a depth of attack to ensure that the soloist is never overwhelmed by either the virtuostic demands or the huge forces pitted against him in waves. Mr. Willey, popular ex-leader of the UO, now leading the BBC Welsh, is a fine violinist, but on this occasion, I fear a lack of attack and of fullness of tone left him indeed overwhelmed at times by his former colleagues.

The triumphant return of Gisèle Ben-Dor
June 11, 1996

… Ben-Dor, who has now made a name for herself internationally and whom we have not heard conducting for a very long time, emerged with flying colors from this program of Bartok’s Dance Suite, Grieg’s Piano Concert and Dvorak’s Eighth Symphony. She has the ability to interpret convincingly, and to convey the most accurate and clear instructions to the orchestra.

… both emerged as tightly knit logically developing pieces. The accuracy with which orchestral parts come together and merge under Ben-Dor is remarkable. Ben-Dor combines, in her conducting movements, both the beat and the musical phrase, thus fusing the technical and the musical dimension in a most impressive way.

… The concert was enhanced by Gisèle Ben-Dor’s meticulous accompaniment.

The Jerusalem Post
By Eli Karev

The setting at Tel Aviv’s Mann Auditorium is a customary one. The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, in full force but casually dressed, is set for rehearsal. The young conductor raises his baton, and the musicians plunge into the sparkling score La Mer by Debussy.

“Okay, okay!” interrupts a husky voice from within the orchestra. “You have been through two sections already. Now rehearse them. Don’t just perform.”

The voice is a familiar one. The IPO’s music director and chief conductor, sitting among the players, has crossed the lines. His expressive face, adorned with a newly-acquired beard, projects intense interest and a wide range of reactions: anger, disagreement, bemusement and obvious approval. Once in a rare while, he looks happy and shouts “bravo,” and the orchestra bursts into applause. Other times, he jumps on to the podium and shapes the conductor’s motions.

The event has, in fact, little to do with the orchestra’s daily routine. For the first time, Israel’s leading musical body is hosting an international master class in conducting, conceived and directed by Zubin Mehta.

Five young conductors are taking part. Three are Israelis working abroad: Gisèle Buka-Ben Dor, 27; Israel Edelson, 31, and Motti Meron. The other two are Mark Gooding, 30, from London, and Felix Kruglikov, 29, originally from Odessa, but who now lives in New York.

During five days of intensive work – two three-hour sessions a day – five compositions are studied with two orchestras; the IPO and the orchestra of Tel Aviv University’s Rubin Academy of Music. Each conductor gets a try at every work and is assigned one for the concluding concert at Mann Auditorium tomorrow night. The entire affair, open to the public, will be videotaped by the Jerusalem Music Centre. The film has already been sold to the BBC.

“There are lots of conductors in the world today,” says Mehta. “Why is it that there are so few good ones? This is not a rhetorical question, and I haven’t got an answer.”

He views this workshop as a unique opportunity for the young conductors, most of whom were picked by him. In the workshop, they can work out professional problems with a top orchestra. “To try out Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring with an orchestra of the IPO’s calibre is, for them, an invaluable experience,” says Mehta. “They make mistakes, and under different circumstances, a great orchestra could have shouted them down. On the other hand dealing with a younger, less experienced group from the academy will demand more artistic initiative. This has its rewards, too, for young people are easier to convince.

“I am not trying to impose my outlook on the participants, which is impossible anyway in so short a time. “It is more an exchange of ideas. I give them the benefit of my experience and of my mistakes. I do not insist when we disagree, and they are welcome to prove me wrong. It doesn’t happen too often, though,” the maestro adds with a smile.

“There are, however, many matters they absolutely must be in control of while facing an orchestra, and it is these points that I try to strengthen.”

Although this class is a first of the kind for Mehta, he cherishes the original meaning of the Italian word maestro – the teacher, and he is keeping in mind an offer of a conducting chair at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia.

The young conductors, tense and somewhat confused, what with their every movement on the podium being recorded, the hour-long closed sessions with Mehta before each rehearsal, the endless interviews and encounters with players and the public. They try to put up a brave front.

“Mehta’s knowledge, experience – his ‘octopus ears’ that catch just everything happening anywhere in the orchestra – are overwhelming,” says Gisèle Buka-Ben Dor. After each session she feels a need to sit quietly for a few hours in order to recall, to absorb and to reconsider everything. “His every word is a lesson. It is not specific places, but principles that you take with you.”

How does it feel, we ask Gisèle, who is expecting her first baby in January, to conduct uninterrupted a long section of the Rite of Spring and then receive Mehta’s bravo ?

“It is an ambivalent feeling. You are happy, for technically he gave his okay. You also know it was not all that perfect. How will it be in professional life?”

Mark Gooding, a bassoon player with experience from within the orchestra ranks, says the situation is something like what an infant might feel were he tossed into a swimming pool. It can crack you, but if you survive, you are better off. Gooding feels a bit intimidated by the limelight, the TV cameras and the need to rearrange one’s interpretations on the spot. Still, he appreciates the experience of working with a truly great international orchestra: “It enhances your knowledge and boosts confidence, and if somebody sees me and likes what he sees, well, that’s an icing on the cake.”

The members of the IPO, having the rather thankless task of repeating one movement for three hours in a row, appear supportive and patient. “When the conductor is in any way exciting. It is fascinating to follow the lead,” says Eli Eban, a clarinet player. “And Mehta’s comments provide insights about the art of conducting we would hardly gain otherwise.”

Michal Haran, the principal cellist and an aspiring conductor, concurs. “Sure we help the conductors, but we also learn a great deal. In our orchestra, to work on so few works for a while is a rare blessing.”

On the second day of the class, we request some preliminary conclusions from Zubin Mehta. “One thing I know already: at the next such class, whenever it happens, there will be no TV. It is sometimes awfully hard to hold back – I get so angry. But you just can’t show it in front of a camera.”

Ginastera’s Beatrix Cenci, European Premiere
Le Temps

“Leading the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Gisèle Ben-Dor went well beyond the inflated approximations to which so many conductors reduce this type of score. Hers is a perfect precision, a great sonic refinement, and she has the ability to make the most complex things appear as clear and logically organized as Beethoven.”

– Le Temps

Ginastera’s Beatrix Cenci, European Premiere
Le Monde

“Energetic and decisive, she surely had no intention of allowing the slightest doubt regarding the quality of the score, in which she has every reason to believe. Her resolution paid off.

– Le Monde

Ginastera’s Beatrix Cenci, European Premiere
Le Figaro

“The sinister evening was dominated by Gisèle Ben-Dor’s iron fist. The Uruguayan conductor offered a white hot approach to this difficult score, constantly maintaining an ideal balance between the stage and the pit.

– Le Figaro

Ginastera’s Beatrix Cenci, European Premiere
Tribune de Genève

“Gisèle Ben-Dor is a master conductor. Rarely has the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande sounded at once so sensitive and powerful. The ability to reveal clearly the slightest nuance of the text and unchain the utmost sonic violence at the same time is the mark of great musicians. The Uruguayan conductor set Ginastera’s opera on fire.”

– Tribune de Genève

“Gisèle Ben-Dor’s conducting calls for every superlative. The conductor interprets with genius Ginestera’s difficult score. At work, the Uruguayan chef reveals a solid professionalism which elicits the unanimous admiration of the musicians of the Orchestra de la Suisse Romande.

“… In her first invitation to the Grand Thêatre, unanimous admiration for her command of the Orchestra de la Suisse Romande and mastery of Ginastera’s masterpiece.

“Pure talent at work … in the pit, Gisèle Ben-Dor imparts the same feeling one experiences during her work in rehearsal: command. No useless gestures, no show-off. Petite, massive, blonde of harmonious features, she imposingly takes her place. Opening the voluminous score, she concentrates before signaling the beginning with the intensity of her extended arms … the severity in her eyes and her pursed lips suffice to impress on the orchestra a whispering rage, building to an explosion. Every word, silently articulated like a poisonous spit, guides the chorus on the stage. In a few seconds, the musicians forget the rest of the world with her. The ability to eliminate all unnecessary fuss from orchestral conducting is gripping. Ben-Dor does not play to the house. Or to the musicians. She plunges into the musical flux and does not resurface until the end of the evening, with an equally imposing ease. The baton is vertical, simple, ample. The hand’s expressiveness, carnal and inviting. The gaze is direct, the instructions clear. The conductor punches, slashes, and caresses the sounds … she signals her appreciation and encouragement with a thumbs-up gesture throughout the performance. And it is worth emphasizing to which extent her confidence is shared. Such comforting charisma is not given to all.”

– Tribune de Genève

A Totally Different Musical League
By Noam Ben Zeev

Ensemble Meitar in a special concert: The 100th Anniversary of Gustav Mahler’s Death. Ohad Shachar, narrator; Yuval Zorn, piano; Gisele Ben-Dor, conductor; The Song of The Earth ( Das Lied von der Erde ), Noa Frenkel, alto; Howard Haskin, tenor. Promoter, producer, and program notes editor: Dan Yakir. The Enav Center, 18.6. (Next concert: 21.6)

“Ensemble Meitar presented an excellent concert that opened with a lamentation – a lullaby by Brahms, in memory of a member of the ensemble, the violinist Matan Givol; and finished with an outburst of joy ending in tragedy, with the Song of the Earth in the chamber arrangement by Arnold Schoenberg and Rainer Riehn. Alto Noa Frenkel , who sang marvelously, and Howard Haskin, who also sang beautifully, performed the six songs together with the rich ensemble under the precise conducting of Gisele Ben-Dor – even if they were not entirely successful in coping with Riehn’s spare arrangement, whose clarity and precision were sometimes discordant to the ear. The program notes, which will be preserved as a bibliographical source on the life and works of Mahler, are also testimony to this evening, which sounded like a representative of a totally different musical league. “

Emotionally charged exhilaration with the Hong Kong Philharmonic
By Alan Yu

It is bold for an Asian orchestra to tackle a programme of works with a strong and vibrant ethnic character. We got far more than we bargained for in the concert titled “Bravo! Piazzolla” by the Hong Kong Philharmonic on Friday, not only in terms of the generous encores but more so of the quality of performance. Under the baton of visiting conductor Gisèle Ben-Dor, the orchestra delivered a punchy sound of fire from the guts. Moments of lyrical languor augmented the racy stream of clear texture, vibrant colour, and throbbing pace.

Opening the programme was La noche de los Mayas by Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas, who lived a tragic life between 1899 and 1940 beset by unbridled idealism. Although he is considered to be an important figure in Mexican music, his output was curtailed by his multiple activities as conductor, teacher and political activist. Revueltas composed La noche de los Mayas (The Night of the Mayas) as the score for the movie of the same name. Conductor José Ives Limantour edited parts of the score to produce a symphonic suite he premièred with the Guadalajara Symphony Orchestra in 1961. Featured in the Hong Kong Philharmonic programme was this condensed version consisting of two movements.

The angst-ridden percussion in the first movement soon gave way to restrained lyricism on strings and winds, hinting at mild repression, followed by an elegant dance melody that led to a beautiful lament on cellos. Lilting flute solos and rhythmic vibrancy in fast passages on the xylophone built to a breakneck crescendo in conclusion. The principal cellist, Richard Bamping, smiled broadly throughout, swinging his head to the rhythm, obviously enjoying himself.

The centerpieces of the evening were The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires and Concerto for Bandonéon by Argentinian composer Ástor Piazzolla. A virtuoso bandonéon player, Piazzolla spent his early years with orchestras in tango clubs. It was during his tutelage with the French teacher Nadia Boulanger that he began to find his own voice in composition based on the tango, abandoning his early work that borrowed from Stravinsky, Bartók and Ravel. “And I took all the music I composed, ten years of my life, and sent it to hell in two weeks,” he wrote in his memoir.

Piazzolla began “Summer” of The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires in 1965, and completed the rest of the work in 1970, scoring it for bandonéon, violin, electric guitar, piano and string bass. Russian composer Leonid Desyatnikov arranged it for violin and string orchestra. As violinist Karen Gomyo launched into the opening bars of “Summer”, for a very brief moment I thought jazz violinist Stéphane Grappelli had come alive. She slid her fingers deftly up and down the strings in a slur, the musical equivalent of melting ice, and played the fleeting references to Vivaldi’s Four Seasons with vehemence. Principal cellist Richard Bamping came to his own in the mournful solo at the start of “Autumn”, with soloist Gomyo making jagged whipping sounds in forceful pizzicatos and bowing between the bridge and the tailpiece of the violin.

“Winter” began with a sojourn on the low strings, making way for an animated imitation of Vivaldi and hypnotic sobbing by the solo violin. A bouncy fugue involving violins and violas opened “Spring”, the last movement of the suite. As the slow section of the movement went through a few jazzy iterations, soloist Gomyo brought the movement to a close with Vivaldi-like variations rapidly alternating between fast and slow paces.

The sound of a bandonéon can be best described as a harmonica with lungs. In the hands of the towering figure of Carel Kraayenhof, it was an instrument of versatile sonority. With a nod to each other, conductor Ben-Dor and soloist Kraayenhof lunged into the animated introduction of Piazzolla’s Concerto for Bandonéon, which the Banco de la Provincia de Buenos Aires commissioned in 1979. Following a bandonéon solo that sounded like a piece from cabaret, the movement ended with a romantic serenade.

The middle slow movement opened with the soloist playing a long-winded sigh on the
bandonéon, soon forming a quartet with violin, harp and cello. After the full orchestra paraded the main theme, the movement settled again on a wistful melody on the solo bandonéon.

The final movement, with the hallmark of a scherzo, began with syncopated rhythms. Basing part of the movement on an impish tango he had written for the soundtrack to the film Con alma y vida, Piazzolla apparently wondered how to end the work and decided to adopt a “weighty” conclusion, going out with a bang. No wonder his publisher Aldo Pagani gave it the nickname “Aconcagua”, the name of South America’s highest peak, to signify its standing as the pinnacle of Piazzolla’s oeuvre.

The evening closed with the Estancia (The Ranch) suite, Op.8 by Piazzolla’s compatriot and teacher Alberto Ginastera. Derived from a ballet commissioned by New York’s Ballet Caravan, which collapsed before it could perform the work, Estancia is a collection of dances inspired by Argentina’s rural landscape.

“Los Trabajadores Agrícolas” (The Land Workers) started with brash assertions on brass with the woodwinds belting out a jagged rhythm in a subdued but brooding tone as the movement continued. “Danza del Trigo” (Wheat Dance) was a slow drawl on the flute and horns. As the full strings burst into song, a solo violin gradually brought the temperature down.

In “La Doma” (Rodeo), roaring timpani and a pitter-pattering xylophone in staccato made clear references to the Rodeo suite of Aaron Copland, who tutored Ginastera briefly in Tanglewood in the 1940s.

“Idilio Crepuscular” (Twilight Idyll) opened on strings only in a melody that suggested the rolling expanse of Argentina’s pastoral landscape. The “Danza final, Malambo” (Final Dance, Malambo) was a contest of will between wind and brass on one side and strings on the other, simulating one between gauchos on the ranch. Explosive percussions brought the dance to a decisive close, and the house down.

Those who didn’t make it to the Cultural Centre for Hong Kong Philharmonic’s concert on Friday missed an evening of emotionally charged exhilaration sprinkled with romantic lyricism. Bravo! Piazzolla.