SAN DIEGO — I felt blessed to experience the extra-ordinary talent of the young Israeli cellist, Nahar Eliaz last Saturday evening in the sanctuary of Congregation Beth Am.
Her’s was meaningful music-making of the highest order, music that touched the heart and replenished the soul. There was no awareness of technique. Every pitch was perfectly in tune, every dynamic, judiciously observed, every phrase, fluently expressed with natural ease. But it was more. The music had excitement, passion, and beauty.
The 13-year old Israeli cello prodigy included three selections of Jewish music. She opened her program with Max Bruch’s Kol Nidre. Although Bruch (1838-1920) was not Jewish, he was the son of a German lawyer in Cologne, Germany, his composition teacher introduced him to the Lichtenstein family, whose father was Berlin’s famous Cantor Abraham Jacob Lichtenstein. The cantor acquainted the composer with Jewish liturgical melodies and Jewish folk music. Bruch is quoted as having said, “Even though I am a Protestant, as an artist, I deeply felt the outstanding beauty of these melodies.”
The other two Jewish works were written by Jewish composers: Prayer by Ernest Bloch (1880-1959) and Yizkor (Remembering 9/11) by the Israeli-born composer, Ayala Asherova-Kalus (1968).
Bloch’s Prayer foreshadows Schelomo, his Hebrew Rhapsody for cello and orchestra, played earlier this season by the San Diego Symphony with Alisa Wallerstein as soloist. It is the final work of Bloch’s Jewish cycle. I hope to hear Nahar play that some day.
Ayala Asherova-Kalus, composer of Yiskor, completed studies at the Rimon School of Music in Tel Aviv before earning her BA in composition and film score writing from the Berklee School of Music in Boston. She went on to receive an MA from the South Carolina School of the Arts.
Her short three movement work for unaccompanied cello, opened with a solemn Andante, reflecting the shock and sadness of 9/11. It was written in 2001. Eight years later, she created the last two movements, a frenetic Allegro, and a reflective Lento, mirroring the stages of mourning.
Two of Nahar’s selections were by Johann Sebastian Bach, the Prelude from his Cello Suite No. 2 for unaccompanied cello and the Arioso from the Cantata BWV 156. Nahar spun Bach’s lovely melodies, processing through his modulations and reaching the climaxes with awesome skill.
The Cello Sonata No. 2 in G minor, opus 5, by Ludwig van Beethoven, confirmed why she was given the recent prize in a Vienna competition for the best performance of a work by the great master. There was such excellent ensemble between her and her gifted piano collaborator, Tal Haim Samnon.
He proved to be a formidable soloist in his own right, performing three solo works on the program, Frederick Chopin’s Etude opus 24, No. 12, Edvard Grieg’s Wedding Day at Troldhaugen, and Franz Liszt’s Paraphrase on Rigoletto. He has played with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra under Zubin Mehta and is a graduate of the Buchmann-Mehta School of Tel Aviv University.
The first movement of Grieg’s Cello Sonata in A minor contributed impressive weight to the second half of the program, and Nahar and Tal completed the recital with David Popper’s Hungarian Rhapsody, a Hungarian-spirited virtuosic romp.
The audience’s standing ovation was rewarded with a short encore by Tschaikovsky.
The sanctuary of Congregation Beth Am proved to be a wonderful venue for this program. The acoustics were excellent and the bima was elevated enough to allow for good sight lines from the raked hall.
July Galper deserves our gratitude for arranging to bring this remarkable Israeli talent to San Diego.
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Eileen Wingard, a retired violinist with the San Diego Symphony, is a freelance writer who specializes in coverage of the arts
My son and 18 year-old grandson agreed to bring me to this concert as a present for my 78th birthday. We were all mesmerized by this exquisite performance by a young Israeli cellist. MY grandson had to have her autograph. He recorded some of the pieces on his phone and said he was taking this back to play for his high school band members if any of them complained about the difficulty of their music, he would play Nahar for them and say..and, “she is only 13.” He had to get her autograph on his program because he said: ‘I will keep this so I can say,’I saw her when…’
Thank you July Galper for bringing this to us in San Diego. Extraordinary! Thank you Eileen Wingard for publicizing this event on San Diego Jewish World.