Concert Summary
On November 5, 2009, Pro Musica Hebraica presented the Apollo Ensemble from Amsterdam performing rare Jewish musical treasures from Baroque Italy and the Netherlands. The concert included the American premiere of Dio, Clemenza e Rigore (Hoshana Rabbah in Casale Monferrato, 1733), an anonymously composed oratorio for an 18-century Italian Jewish holiday service. The piece was performed by the group’s eleven-piece chamber orchestra under the artistic direction of David Rabinovich with mezzo-soprano Hanna Kopra, tenor Immo Schröder, and baritone Ken Gould. The Apollo Ensemble also performed two Trio Sonatas for two violins and basso continuo by Salamone de Rossi, the premier Jewish composer of the Italian Renaissance; Abraham Caceres, “Le-el elim,” a cantata for two voices and basso continuo composed for the Portuguese Synagogue of Amsterdam, and eighteenth-century Italian Catholic composer Benedetto Marcello’s Salmo Decimoquinto (Intonazione degli Ebrei Tedeschi), a setting of Psalm 15 for voice and instruments that incorporates a rare Italian Jewish melody to the Hanukkah song, Maoz Tzur.
Concert Program
- Salamone De Rossi (ca. 1570 – ca. 1630)
- Sonata quinta sopra un aria francese (ca. 1620)
- Abraham Caceres (late 1600s-mid-1700s)
- Le-el elim (To the Mighty God) Cantata for 2 voices and basso continuo (1738)
- Benedetto Giacomo Marcello (1686-1739)
- Salmo 15/ Ma’oz Tzur (Intonazione degli Ebrei Tedeschi)
- (Psalm 15/ O Mighty Stronghold – a German Jewish Chant) (1724-1727)
- Salamone De Rossi (ca. 1570-1630)
- Sonata sopra l’aria di ruggiero (ca. 1620)
- Intermission
- Anonymous
- Dio, Clemenza e Rigore (God, Defender, and Accuser)