HIDDEN TREASURES OF THE HEBREW BAROQUE
Hidden Treasures of the Hebrew Baroque:
A concert 400 years in the making
2023 celebrates the 400th anniversary of the publication of Salomone Rossi’s Hashirim Asher L’Shlomo, the first Jewish Music ever notated. The African Renaissance Ensemble, in collaboration with The Lewandowski Chorale, presents a programme of selections from this momentous work alongside some of Rossi’s instrumental works and two other major Hebrew baroque compositions composed for the communities of Venice and Provence respectively.
This is the largest production ever undertaken by The African Renaissance Ensemble, featuring 11 instrumentalists, 5 vocal soloists and a 20+ chorus, The Lewandowski Chorale. Our Johannesburg concerts were a sell-out sensation and we are bringing the programme to Pretoria and Cape Town.
It’s like nothing you’ve ever heard before.
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CAPE TOWN
28 OCTOBER- 19:00
29 OCTOBER – 15:00
General: R230 – Door: R250
BOOKINGS
Hidden Treasures of the Hebrew Baroque (CAPE TOWN) –
A concert 400 years in the making
28 and 29 October, Cape Town
Temple Israel, Wynberg
R230 – General
R250 – Door (Subject to availability)
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CONCERT PROGRAMME
Salomone Rossi (Mantua, Italy, 1570 – 1630)
- Barechu (Hashirim Asher L’Shlomo) – Sinfonia Seconda – Brando Secondo (il Terzo Libro de varie Sonate)
- Cor Mio deh non Languire (il Primo Libro Madrigali a cinque voci)
- Keter (Hashirim Asher L’Shlomo)
- Sonata Prima detta la Moderna (il Terzo Libro de varie Sonate)
- Baruch Haba (Hashirim Asher L’Shlomo)
- Sonata Settima sopra l’Aria d’un Balletto (il Quattro Libro de varie Sonate)
- Elohim Hashiveinu (Hashirim Asher L’Shlomo)
- Sonata Sesta in Dialogo “Detta la Viena” (il Terzo Libro de varie Sonate)
Claudio Monteverdi (Italy 1567 – 1643)
- Lamento Della Ninfa (il Ottavo Libro, Madrigali Guerrieri et Amorosi – Madrigals of Love and War)
INTERVAL
Carlo Grossi (Venice, Italy, 1634 – 1688)
- Cantata Ebraica in Dialogo – voce sola e choro
Ludovico Saladin (Provence, France, 1605 – 1675)
- Canticum Hebraicum Notis Musicis Illustratum
Salomone Rossi (Mantua, 1570 – 1630)
- Yitgadal (Kaddish) (Hashirim Asher L’Shlomo)
PERFORMERS
Adam H. Golding – Musical Director
John Reid Coulter- Harpsichord
African Renaissance Ensemble Instrumentalists
HIlton Anspach – Contrabass,
Isabella Bonnet – Baroque viola,
Kabir Budlender – Baroque violin (Pretoria)
Dillon Davie – Theorbo (long-necked lute),
Jens Eggers – Baroque violin (Cape Town)
Adam H. Golding – Recorders,
Handri Lootz – Traverso (baroque flute),
Este Meerkotter – Traverso (baroque flute),
Tanya Spiller – Baroque violin,
Margot Smythe – Baroque cello,
Ute Smythe – Baroque violin
African Renaissance Ensemble
Vocalists
Glynnis Kanar – Soprano,
Leigh Nudelman – Soprano,
Joao Ribeiro – Countertenor,
Doron Kanar – Tenor,
Adam H. Golding – Tenor,
Andrew Gould – Bass
The Lewandowski Chorale
SOPRANO: Leigh Crymble, Laura Dube, Di Golding, Glynnis Kanar, Jeannette Menasce, Kecia Rust, Penelope Satikge
ALTO: Gillian Berkowitz, Martina Griller-Mushel, Itta Roussos, Carol Slabolepszy, Kate Wheeler
TENOR: Dave Britany, Michael Golding, Rodney Katzew, Anton Klein, Mark Lephoto, Marc Shapiro
BASS: Lyall Chazen, Phillip Gordon, Adam Midzuk, Robbie Potenza
HISTORY
The Mantuan Court
The city-state of Mantua was an important centre in Renaissance Italy, ruled by the powerful Gonzaga family. Duke Vincenzo Gonzaga, a patron of the arts, attracted some of the finest musicians in Italy to his court, including the Cremonese composer, Claudio Monteverdi. It was here that Monteverdi’s first operas were premiered, including L’Orfeo, the first opera ever written and still performed today. Along with his colleagues, Wert, Gastoldi and Rossi, Monteverdi was one of the composers who took Renaissance music into the Baroque with what became known as Practica Seconda.
Salomone Rossi
Rossi was born in Mantua in 1570 and quickly became one of the most respected musicians in the city, both as a violinist and composer. It is likely that he led the orchestra as concert master for Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo. Little is known about Rossi’s life, but it is recorded that he had a sister, the virtuoso opera singer known as Madame Europa. Little is known about her either, and some sources indicate that Salomone and Madame Europa may in fact have been the same person as men regularly took female roles in early operas. What we do know, is that Rossi was so respected, that he was exempted from living in the Jewish Ghetto and from wearing the mark imposed on Jewish at the time. Despite living at court, he never lost touch with his roots and made a decision to never compose for the church; even with the knowledge that this would have repercussions for his advancement. In 1630, Mantua was invaded by Habsburg mercenaries, following the Mantuan Wars of Succession and Rossi was likely murdered or died from the plague that they brought with them. This also marked the end of the golden age of Mantua.
In 1616 following much correspondence with Rabbi Leon of Modena, Rossi began composing musical works for synagogue, in the polyphonic musical language of his day. With Modena’s encouragement, Rossi published a full collection of his Synagogue music in 1623 as Hashirim Asher L’Shlomo, or The Songs of Salomon. There are records of this music being used in Synagogues during Rossi’s lifetime in Venice and Ferrara.
These performances were met with very mixed responses and the idea of Synagogue music did not really take off for another 200 years. The music quickly fell into obscurity, until it was rediscovered by Baron Edmund de Rothschild who commissioned the 19th-century Jewish liturgical composer Samuel Naumbourg to rearrange the collection for modern audiences and to publish a new edition. Slowly, this led to much interest in the music of Salomone Rossi and a resurgence of his works in the late 20th century.
GALLERY
ARTICLES AND PRESS
Fine Music Radio – Baroque Bonbon with Anna Stoddard
Fine Music Radio – Interview with Philip Todres and Adam H. Golding
The Cape Jewish Chronicle
The Jewish Report
Ensemble plays hidden treasures of Hebrew Baroque
The Jewish Report on Mar 9, 2023
By Hanna Resnick
Johannesburg-based Jewish music aficionado, Adam H. Golding, has a passion for music, but in particular what’s known as Early Music, which includes Renaissance and early Baroque compositions.
His passion is so strong, he set up a full Renaissance instrumental and vocal ensemble in 2017 by seeking out a select group of musicians. Today, the African Renaissance Ensemble performs regularly for a variety of audiences in Johannesburg and Pretoria. Its aim is to share its love of scarcely performed music, written between 1400 and 1750.
This month, it’s performing a unique concert, Hidden Treasures of the Hebrew Baroque, dedicated to early Hebrew music. “It will be a journey of discovery of the birth of synagogue music,” says Golding. “There has never been a concert like this before in South Africa.”
“We had the first rehearsal in my flat with all modern instruments and musicians who weren’t familiar with the style or music at all,” said Golding. “Slowly, over the next few years, we started attracting specialists, and now the group is made up of people who are all absolutely passionate about Renaissance and Baroque music.”
The group began with just one violin, one guitar, and a cello. Today, it has more than 10 instrumentalists and five vocalists. “We’re also really lucky to work with harpsichordist and multi-instrumentalist John Reid Coulter,” said Golding, whom he referred to as “the absolute authority on early music in South Africa”.
Golding said he decided to form the ensemble after conducting a choir at a festival in Berlin that was dedicated to the music of Salamone Rossi, an Italian Jewish violinist and composer (1570-1630).
This year marks 400 years since the publication of Rossi’s Hashirim L’Shlomo, the first published collection of choral synagogue music, as well as the first music to be notated in Hebrew. The group will commemorate Rossi’s work as well as a selection of other Hebrew music from the Baroque period.
The African Renaissance Ensemble has collaborated with the Lewandowski Chorale (also founded by Adam Golding in 2012) for this concert. The concert will involve six vocal soloists and a choir of about 20, accompanied exclusively by reconstructed period instruments, including three baroque violins, a baroque viola and baroque cello, along with two traversos (a wooden baroque flute with a beautiful and mellow tone), a theorbo (a long neck lute – one of only two in the country), as well as harpsichords, recorders, and a mandolin.
“Rossi worked as court composer to the Gonzaga dukes of Mantua,” said Golding. “He was highly respected as one of the great composers of his time and one of the major composers to transition from the Renaissance into the Baroque.”
As a proudly Jewish composer living in Italy during the Renaissance period, Rossi didn’t compose church music instead composing Jewish liturgical music in a similar style. In 1616, he began setting traditional Jewish prayers and hymns to contrapuntal music in the vocal style of his time, according to Golding.
Synagogal music, up until this point, had been forbidden in shul services, as a form of mourning of the destruction of the Temple. Rossi was encouraged by Rabbi Leon Modena to publish his works in 1623.
Rossi’s music, however, fell into obscurity sometime after his death, and it was only about 200 years later that composers like Salomon Sulzer and Louis Lewandowski began composing choral music for synagogue that became the music we are familiar with today.
“The musical language of the early 17th century predates so many of the norms that we take for granted in music today,” said Golding. “It predates the concept of major and minor scales, and the tuning systems that were used at the time were different to ours. The instruments were different, and the way musicians thought about harmony was completely different. In fact, it even predates the concept of a chord. The music is intricate, light, joyous, deeply moving, and fresh.”
Golding believes early music is more accessible to a modern audience than classical music, resembling a folk style that’s enjoyable for audiences of all ages. The pieces are relatively short – usually less than 10 minutes – and are interspersed with explanations and anecdotes from Golding about the history of the pieces.
“Our concerts aren’t simply performances, rather, we use the music to weave together a story,” said Golding. The concerts are usually held in small, intimate venues to allow the audience to be fully immersed in the music.
“The music that will be performed in this concert bears no resemblance whatsoever to the music anybody is likely to have heard in a synagogue, aside from it being in Hebrew,” he said. The first half of the concert celebrates the music of Rossi, whilst the second part will feature the works of two non-Jewish composers, Carlo Grossi and Ludovico Saladin, who were commissioned by the Jewish communities in Venice and Provence to compose music to celebrate the occasion of Hoshana Rabbah and the ritual of a Brit Milah, respectively.
The concert will take place on 25 and 26 March at the state-of-the-art Wits Chris Seabrooke Music Hall, the only purpose-built concert hall in Johannesburg.
To find out more or book tickets, got to: earlymusic.co.za/rossi