Review: CLASSICAL EXCITEMENT Series Excites Israel's North at The Kiryat Motzkin Theatre Hall

This past Friday night the Kiryat Motzkin Theatre Hall opened its 9th season of the successful classical series "Classical Excitement", led by music director Gil Shohat, which truly lived up to its distinguished reputation.

Wearing many hats as the series' artistic and music director, conductor, pianist and host, Gil Shohat opened the concert with him playing Aram Khachaturian's Sabre Dance on the grand piano accompanied by pianist Tal Samnon on a second piano. Following this most fitting opening to the evening they were then joined by the Polyphony Ensemble, a string quartet from the Polyphony Ltd. music content company which Shohat founded in 2003, as well as Bass player Haya Yosha and continued with the first movement of Maurice Ravel's most unique and jazz influenced Piano Concerto in G major, Allegramente. From the moment the Concerto began and throughout the entire evening these five extraordinary musicians were truly magnificent, each of them standing out on their own but all professionally collaborating as one united ensemble.

At this point Shohat invited to the stage the main guest of the concert, the internationally acclaimed Israeli singer, songwriter and guitarist David Broza. The first song they performed together was Ha'isha She'iti (The Woman by My Side) which is also the title of the concert. Despite the wonderful arrangement, the sound balance didn't allow it to be heard given how Broza's guitar and voice were much too loud in such a way that the other instruments were not heard as much as they should have been. Nonetheless, after giving a taste of the unique collaboration between all the musicians on the stage with this song, Broza then addressed the audience: "Kiryat Mozkin, it's so fun to be here. This is one of the most spectacular halls that truly give the best respect to music and theatre, thank you very much".
He also added that thanks to the theatre hall's general manager, Dafna Zuri, for the first time he and Shohat were joined together on a stage. After telling the audience a bit of his life story he then continued with a fantastic guitar solo that led directly to his next song, Violets, where the sound quality was much better and the other instruments blended beautifully with this famous song. "It's a dream come true to play between two pianos which are doubling the music I'm playing with two other octaves", said Broza while the string quartet was leaving the stage before he continued with his next song, Bikur Moledet (Homecoming). Afterwards he continued with his blues song, Daniela, with what was a very Spanish type of Blues, a surprising mix which he brilliantly managed to combine.

As Broza left the stage the quartet returned for the second movement of Ravel's Concerto, Adagio assai. With such a peaceful and stunning piece the only problem was the impatience of the audience due to the lack of an intermission. It's also worth mentioning that there wasn't a single person under the age of 50 in the audience, a sad fact given how musically multi-genre and impressive this concert was.

After David Broza returned to the stage for the second part of the show he once again gave an exquisite guitar intro to his next song, Mitachat Lashamayim (Under the Sky). Unfortunately both in this song and the next one, Thunders and Lightnings, the members of the quartet were not included in the orchestration even though both songs are almost begging for a string ensemble accompaniment. Thankfully they were included in the next song, A Bedouin Love Song. Following this superb arrangement, Shohat and the musicians continued with the final and most rapid third movement of Ravel's Concerto, Presto.

With such an impeccable conclusion for the concerto Broza provided the perfect finale for the event, Yihye Tov (Things Will Be Better), which is the first song he ever wrote (with Yehonatan Geffen) and is considered the unofficial anthem of the Israeli peace process. This song may have been written nearly 40 years ago but with the combination of David Broza's performance talent and Gil Shohat's arrangements it still sounded new and fresh, just as all the other songs that were performed that evening did.
Finally, if this repertoire wasn't enough the theatre hall invited the audience for wine and dancing in the hall's entrance lobby, a perfect encore for this great night.

If this opening concert of the Kiryat Motzkin Theatre Hall classical series' 9th season is any indication for the rest of the season, there's no doubt this is a series not to be missed.

For tickets and more information about the upcoming events in this series: http://www.mozkin-theater.co.il

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