Yoni Rechter and the Philharmonic

I went to concerts held in what was the Mann Auditorium (and is now the Charles Bronfman Auditorium) several times in the 1980s. I remember concerts by Randy Newman, Leonard Cohen and Don McLean, as well as one by Matti Caspi. There may have been more, but if so, they have been washed away from my memory by time. I saw most Israeli acts at the concert hall at nearby kibbutz Kfar Menahem, but again, I haven't been there for years.

By chance, I happened to hear on the radio a few weeks ago that Yoni Rechter is playing two concerts at the Charles Bronfman Auditorium along with an orchestra. I wasn't too sure that I heard correctly (I wasn't exactly listening to the radio, but I heard it) so I checked on the maestro's facebook page, and sure enough, two concerts were listed, on the 7th and 8th of February. After a small amount of dithering, I booked seats (which are very expensive, as far as I am concerned: 350NIS each, which these days is equivalent to nearly $100 each); I haven't got tickets but rather a QR code on my telephone which I hope can be bartered for seats. I suppose that the price can be explained by the orchestra and also the few special guests who will be appearing: all of these people have to be paid for their time, both in rehearsal and in performance.

We left home early for the concert (which is to start at 8pm) so that we could collect tickets and have something to eat at a nearby cafe. The box office is well organised, having about eight queues, each for two or three letters of the alphabet. I approached the 'N' queue, stated my name and waited for the tickets. The box office girl couldn't find them, so I repeated my name. Again, she searched but to no avail. After a few minutes of hopeless searching, a supervisor came over. I showed him the receipt on my telephone, but still no tickets. After some searching with a computer, the supervisor told me that my tickets had been for the previous night's concert (Wednesday)! Too say that I was taken aback would be an understatement. I wasn't bothered so much about the loss of the money as to the fact that I would miss the concert. Fortunately, the supervisor was able to find a pair of tickets for the Thursday concert, at a 20% discount (and paid over three months), seating us almost at the same place as we would have sat the night before. The evening was saved!

After a small pre-concert meal in a nearby cafe (which actually took reservations), we made our way into the concert hall. This time, there was a merchandise table but I didn't have to buy anything (as I already own most of the products displayed). Our seats were towards the back of the second floor, but this hall is very well designed such that we had a good view of the stage, and of course we could hear well. Two large screens had been erected on either side of the stage which showed close-ups fed from at least one camera. I think that I spotted one camera but I couldn't figure out where the others were.

The picture on the left gives an idea of what the stage was like (the screens can be seen on both sides). This picture was taken before the concert started, so there are only a few musicians warming up.

The concert opened with what might be termed an orchestral overture, which wove several tunes into one. The sound of a full orchestra is amazing: I think that I have never been to an orchestral concert in my life. The tune of 'Atur mizhech' (a song which several years ago was voted the best Israeli song of all time) emerged from the overture which is when Yoni took the stage. He played the tune whilst the orchestra played the accompaniment: this was breath-taking. This was the only non-vocal piece of the evening, which is possibly a shame.

Then the songs started: the first few were slightly obscure pieces from the repertoire, but as the show progressed, more and more familiar songs were played. The guest vocalists helped but didn't necessarily make a huge contribution. To be honest, I found the orchestrations to be conservative: they added but not as much as they could have done. As we say in Hebrew, the enemy of the very good is the excellent; here, Rechter and Ilan Mochiach (the conductor and arranger) played safe in order to achieve the very good.

Whilst looking for some background material, I came across this interesting interview with Yoni about progressive rock. The interviewer had picked up - as had I - what sounded like influences from progressive rock on a sequence of songs from Yoni's 2004 disc, "Another story". It seems that he does not listen very much to this genre, although he singles out Gentle Giant as an example.

Yoni also mentions that Danny Sanderson - the brain behind the first Kaveret album - also had progressive tendencies, which could be heard on "Despite everything" on their debut album and "Crowded in the ear", the title of their third album but only released on a collection from 2014. It was very interesting to read a little about the process of arranging material for Kaveret.

It would have been intriguing to hear that 'progressive' sequence of songs from "Another story" played with the orchestra: this would have been more challenging and more successful. But it seems that the organisers were conservative with the selection of tunes and resisted the opportunity to stretch out. One of the encores - "She's here again" - was played without orchestra, which is ironic as the original recording from 1979 features strings!

I wonder whether the performances were recorded, as it would be a shame not to enjoy them again and save them for posterity.

[SO: 4692; 5, 22, 44

MPP: 1165; 1, 6, 7] 

Edit: Someone posted a clip filmed (with a smartphone, so don't expect high quality) at this concert. Each singer sings in a different language: Russian, English, Polish, and of course Hebrew. I can't identify in which language Yoni is singing. Here's another song from those concerts.