(Photo courtesy of the conductor)
By Eileen Wingard
SAN DIEGO — The Ha’aretz headline of November 5, which my daughter Tamara Schiff forwarded to me, stated:
“Yoav Talmi named new director of Israel Chamber Orchestra.” I was excited to read the news.
Tamara and I had just returned from a nine-day trip to Israel where we saw the Talmis, first at the Zichron Ya’akov home of their daughter, Dana, and her family, and then, at their apartment in Kfar Saba, where we spent the night.
Yoav Talmi, previously principal guest conductor of the Israel Chamber Orchestra (ICO), was particularly happy and animated, speaking about his recent four-week, sixteen-concert tour with the ICO in eight Latin American countries. His blue eyes sparkled as he told about the two programs the orchestra performed, which included his own composition, Elegy for Strings, Timpani & Accordion, inspired by a visit to the Dachau concentration camp in Germany. [The work was performed by the San Diego Symphony Orchestra in 2006 under the direction of the composer].
Audiences demanded three encores at each concert. Once, in fact, after exhausting all three encores, the audience applause continued endlessly although the orchestra already left the stage! On the spur of the moment, Talmi decided to repeat the third encore: Fuga y misterio by Piazzolla. However, at that point, some of the musicians had already shed their concert garb for more comfortable apparel. Talmi re-entered the stage with several musicians still in concert clothes, and started to conduct the Piazzolla piece again. Those musicians who begin the Fugue were on stage to perform the beginning. From this point on, the other players quietly took their place on stage one by one. By the time the entire orchestra needed to play – they were all there and the exciting conclusion brought the house down. “It was like Haydn’s Farewell Symphony in reverse” – said Talmi.
Critics in the eight countries, Mexico, Guatamala, Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Argentina and Uruguay – unanimously lauded the Israel Chamber Orchestra.
The Argentine music critic of La Nacion was particularly moved by Talmi’s composition, Elegy: …“The work is impressive for its transparent structure, deep emotional weight and transcendent expressive honesty,” he wrote. He praised the young Israeli piano soloist, Alon Goldstein, who performed Beethoven’s Second Piano Concerto, for his ”irreproachable articulation and his remarkable ability to achieve refinement and brightness.”
The music critic in Mexico City was impressed by Puccini’s The Chrysanthemums, transcribed for string orchestra by Talmi: …“The elation of the beautiful melodies put the hall on edge….Seven minutes in which God was present on the main floor of Bellas Artes.“ About Mozart’s Symphony #40, he continued: “exuberance, pain, passion, amazing beauty…God was still present!”
The tour’s management, GRAPA in Buenos Aires, signed up Talmi and the Israel Chamber Orchestra for a return engagement in 2014.
The evening Tamara and I were with the Talmis, they took us to a chamber music concert at the Tel Aviv Art Museum. The Tempest Trio, a newly-formed ensemble, played a delightful program of works by Bloch, Dvorak and Brahms. The pianist for the group was Alon Goldstein, piano soloist with the ICO for their Latin American tour. Many members of the ICO were in the audience and they greeted the Talmis with warmth and affection.
It is no wonder that the ICO Board, aware of the great affinity between the Israeli conductor and the musicians of the ICO, decided to offer the position to Yoav Talmi.
San Diego audiences remember the brilliant, inspiring conductor from his seven-year tenure with the San Diego Symphony between 1989 and 1996.
After leaving San Diego, Talmi became music director of the Quebec Symphony in Canada and Chief-Conductor of the Hamburg Symphony in Germany – posts which he held simultaneously (13 years at the helm of the Quebec Symphony!). He continues traveling the world as a sought-after guest conductor while serving also as the Head of the Conducting Department at Tel Aviv University’s Buchmann-Mehta School of Music.
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Wingard is a freelance writer and former violinist with the San Diego Symphony. She may be contacted at eileen.wingard@sdjewishworld.com