Omer Meir Wellber conducts the revival performances of Wagner's Tannhäuser on Sunday, 17 February
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18.12.2012 06:50
There is something in Mark's music that is for sure particular. I am referring to a very special ability his scores has. There are very few composers, even from the most important ones, who have written music that can educate an orchestra. As a conductor, it is a great experience to watch an orchestra grow while working on a certain piece. Verdi requiem, Dvorzak strings Serenade, Beethoven symphonies, Eliot Carter's symphony in three movements and some others are all pieces that change the way an orchestra thinks and plays. It must have something with the composer's methodic talent but also shows he understood something about the deepest mechanism of the orchestra and the musician's way of thinking. Working on Mark’s pieces, gave the musicians and me the impression of dealing with something that educate us, a musical experience that will make a difference.
The effect of his music on me remained the same also when I conducted "lekol Hazichronot". The score is one of my favorite scores. It is a very complex work full of controversial ideas: the heterophony-advanced harmonies, layers-melodies, immigrant from Russia-immigrant from Yemen, new Israeli? Mark's score took me directly to the core of someone leaving his land, his home in order to be part of something else, hopefully bigger. His personal story was maybe more easily expressed through the eyes of another immigrant. Like Alterman or Shlonsky he manages to be the immigrant and the Israeli at the same time, to create and criticize at the same moment, to scream and listen.
I am about to conduct this piece again in few months on my concerts with the Israeli Philharmonic. I chose to do this piece long time ago since I wanted to do it again, obviously this upcoming performances has now gained a different significance.
Omer Meir Wellber