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Shostakovich
Mahlers 5. Sinfonie war der Hauptact. Aber die erste halbe Stunde mit Gilad Karni, der an der Viola Schostakowitsch interpretierte, war für mich das eigentliche Highlight des Abends: ein fesselnder Ausflug in Russlands Seele.
(cix)
Neue Zürcher Zeitung
Schostakowitsch-Erstaufführung
Durch die spektakuläre Interpretation der Mahler-Sinfonie gerät der erste Teil des Konzerts etwas in den Hintergrund. Mit Dmitri Schostakowitschs Bratschensonate op. 147 in einer Bearbeitung von Vladimir Mendelssohn konnte man aber nichts Geringeres als das allerletzte vollendete Werk des russischen Komponisten in einer Erstaufführung des Tonhalle-Orchesters hören. Dass das Arrangement die Klavierbegleitung des Originals durch Streicher und Celesta ersetzt, ist nicht unproblematisch. Der Streicherklang ist aber sehr durchsichtig und oft in tiefer Lage gesetzt, so dass die Solobratsche problemlos daraus hervortritt. Gilad Karni, Solobratschist des Tonhalle-Orchesters, berührt mit seinem zurückhaltenden, bald zerbrechlichen, bald beseelt leuchtenden Spiel zutiefst.
Thomas Schacher
Community Concerts at Second
On Sunday afternoon, Community Concerts at Second presented a recital by violist Gilad Karni, who holds the principal viola chair in the Tonhalle Orchester Zurich.
Given the relatively slender repertoire for the instrument, many a violist steals from the other string instruments, and that's what Karni did here, starting with a cello suite by Bach -- delivered with a burnished tone and expressive articulation (being St. Patrick's Day, the concluding Gigue seemed extra fitting).
For the rest of the program, the violist was joined by pianist Michael Sheppard, a partnership that produced potent results.
Stravinsky's Suite Italiene got a bright and breezy workout (Sheppard's bravura in the Scherzino proved especially notable).
Franck's Violin Sonata made a smooth fit for Karni, whose viola conjured something of the sweetness of a violin, as well as the dark glow of a cello. His playing was unabashedly passionate, technically pristine, and he was matched every step of the way by Sheppard.
Highlights included a taut, breathless dash through the coda of the second movement, and a terrifically intense account of the finale. The sonata's audacity and poetic power could be freshly appreciated at every turn.
By Tim Smith, The Baltimore Sun
CD Reviews – Music by Max Bruch
Gilad Karni (viola), Orchestre Symphonique Bienne, Thomas Rösner (conductor)
Bekannter und unbekannter Bruch
... Gilad Karni, Solobratscher des Tonhalle-Orchesters Zürich, interpretiert die Romanze für Viola und Orchester op. 85 mit Wärme und grossem Ton...
Neue Zürcher Zeitung
Musical Opinion
... Gilad Karni matches up to this high standard as soloist in the undervalued romance for Viola, tackling the challenging middle section with great aplomb and producing a rich, telling tone throughout...
Aliye Cornish
MusicWeb International
This is a fascinating disc, both in choice and execution of repertoire... The Romance for the viola has been beautifully recorded by Gérard Caussé (Warner Apex) but this is also a touching account by Gilad Karni, and one which inspires the Orchestre Symphonique Bienne to full-toned playing.
Christopher Fifield
Intenational Record Review
Gilad Karni (viola); Orchestre Symphonique Bienne/ Thomas Rösner.
Guild GMCD7338 Website www.guildmusiccom Producers/ Engineers Michael Ponder, Johanne Goyette.
.....The viola Romanre is utterly lovely, with Gilad Karni a persuasive advocate, while the five succinet and varied movements that comprisc the Serenade an Swedish Folk Melodien also make pleasing listening.
Colin Anderson
Musik & Theater
Neuer Bruch aus Biel
«Scherz, List und Rache» hiess die erste Oper des 20-jährigen Max Bruch. Nur der Klavierauszug ist erhalten, der Südafrikaner Stefans Grové instrumentierte die Ouvertüre. Eine Ersteinspielung, ebenso wie die von Bruch selbst arrangierte Geigenfassung seines Cellostücks «Kol Nidrei». Lohnende Entdeckungen, wie auch die Bratschenromanze aus Bruchs späten Jahren.
Reinmar Wagner
Radiomagazin
AUSGEWOGEN
Das Bieler Sinfonie Orchester zeigt sich in Hochform und hat Werke von Max Bruch eingespielt. Es ehrt damit einen Komponisten, dessen Schaffen seit Lebzeiten im Schatten des OEuvres seines übermächtigen Freundes Brahms steht. Nebst dem berühmten g-Moll Violinkonzert entpuppt sich die selten gespielte Romanze für Bratsche als besondere Perle. Fazit: Eine ausgewogene Mischung von Altbekanntem und Neuentdecktem, hervorragend interpretiert.
Andre Scheurer, Radio Swlss Classic
Bruch’s lyrical gifts are undeniable, and this disc presents us several aspects of his effusive personality.
BRUCH: Kol Nidrei for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 47; Romance for viola and Orchestra, Op. 85; Overture to “Scherz, List, und Rache,” Op. 1 (orch. Grove); Serenade on Swedish Folk Melodies; Violin Concerto No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 26 – Alexandre da Costa, violin/Gilad Karni, viola/Orchestre Symphonique Bienne/Thomas Roesner – Guild GMCD 7338, 64:41 [Distr. by Albany] **** :
As “academic” as Max Bruch (1838-1920) often appears next to the more naturally fluent melodists Mendelssohn, Schumann, and Brahms, his lyrical gifts remain undeniable, and this disc, recorded in Switzerland in 2008 and 2009, presents us several aspects of his effusive personality.
The lesser known Romance for Viola (1911) extends Bruch’s capacity for cantabile outpouring, the viola part rendered by Israeli Gilad Karni.
Gary Lemco
Es gibt CDs, die machen einfach Freude. Das geht los bei ansprechender und vorbildlicher Cover- und Bookletgestaltung, geht weiter über die Werkzusammenstellung und endet auch nicht mit den Interpretationen. Die Summe der einzelnen Teile ist mehr – sie ist ein gelungenes Gesamtpaket.
...Gilad Karni ist Solist in der ‘Romanze für Viola und Orchester’ op. 85; der Gewinner des Tertis-Violawettbewerbs ähnelt klanglich da Costa, so dass die ‘Romanze’ wie ein weiteres Gegenstück zu Kol Nidrei erscheint; die beiden Werke ergänzen einander und erweisen, was für ein großartiger Orchesterkomponist Max Bruch war.
Dr. Jürgen Schaarwächter
CD Reviews ROZSA, M: Viola Concerto / Hungarian Serenade (Karni, Smolij) Naxos Catalog No. 8.570925
Audiophile Audition, June 2010
Gilad Karni plays the viola with a combination of virtuosity and heartfelt emotion. The Budapest Concert Orchestra, although not a major group, plays competently. The recording favors the viola slightly, but the orchestral details are clearly present…this recording will convince you that he also was a significant composer of concert music.
Robert Moon
Gramophone, March 2009
Two fine works rich in Magyar colours spanning the bulk of Rózsa's career. The recording industry's sustained interest in Rózsa's concert music is heartening and this new disc from Naxos is its latest manifestation. Both works exhibit fully the strengths and appeal of the composer's output as a whole, from its impeccable craftsmanship to its lilting Hungarian accent. The personal voice—close stylistically at times to Kodály and Bartók—is recognisably that of the film composer whose music graced the silver screen for so long. The Hungarian Serenade started Life in the early 1930s as his Op 10 for strings but Rózsa's senior colleague Erno von Dohnányi (who conducted the premiere in 1932) persuaded the young composer to recast it for a larger orchestra with a punchier finale. The work underwent several further revisions before emerging as the work given here…A fine player and former Lionel Tertis Competition prize-winner, Karni audibly relishes the work's dark colours and rich writing. The Concerto had a difficult genesis (for Rózsa), taking four years to complete with several interruptions by film work which the composer later claimed ruined the flow. Yet the finished result does not betray this, its four movements holding together as if written in a single burst of inspiration. Karni proves a fine advocate and the Budapest Concert Orchestra provide excellent support.
Guy Rickards
Fanfare,
To say that Gilad Karni’s performance is accomplished would be an understatement; his playing exhibits sensitivity and moments of rare, arresting beauty, as in the ethereal harmonics towards the end of the Adagio…Rózsa’s Viola Concerto is an imperative for any serious collection…Sound and recording are up to Naxos’s usual standards of excellence, as are the Budapest Concert Orchestra and its conductor, Mariusz Smolij. Recommended, especially for the Viola Concerto, which you are bound to find a deeply satisfying work.
Jerry Dubins
American Record Guide, May 2009
The Viola Concerto, written in 1979 for Pinchas Zukerman, is a magnificent work. While it feels like a giant lament, each of its four movements is written in dramatic sonata-allegro form (even the second movement Giocoso is, in shortened form), which raises it far above a morose experience. For anyone familiar with the music of Bartók and especially Kodály, this work literally drips with Hungarian ambience, though its poignant harmonic sixths, rhythmic kick, and modulations are very akin to Walton’s Viola Concerto.
This performance is magnificent too, as is the engineering. Karni’s depth of emotion, tone color, and line make each movement a unified whole. Smolij’s orchestra is an equal partner in creating the involuted drama in I and III, while maintaining a tight pace with subtle relief in the Giocoso. He also makes sure that the darker orchestral colors never cover the soloist. In fact, the first movement would be a completely satisfying concert experience just by itself. And are those low harmonics I hear in the viola at the end of I? They’re as haunting as the glass harmonica in Lucia di Lammermoor
Gil French
Classical Net, May 2009
This disc fills a decided gap, because there appear to be no other currently available recordings of these works. The Viola Concerto is a late work, dating from 1979, and composed for Pinchas Zukerman…at the suggestion of Gregor Piatigorsky. (At any rate, Zukerman never recorded it, although he did give the premiere performance in 1984) Unusually, it is in four movements. Rózsa did not think highly of it, and it is the least immediately appealing of his concertante works. It is tense and dark, and whatever humor it displays is of the grotesque variety. One also hears hints of the composer’s earlier film scores. The first movement, for example, reminds me of the music that Rózsa composed in 1947 for the Edward G. Robinson thrillerThe Red House. This is a worthwhile score, but one can understand why it hasn’t caught on. Violist Gilad Karni makes a good case for it, applying his rich tone liberally, and relishing the score’s all-pervasive Magyar colorings…The Hungarian Serenade is quite an early work…Originally for strings only, the Serenade eventually was reconfigured for full orchestra, and this is how it is performed here. In keeping with the genre, it opens with a March (but does not close with one), which is followed by a Serenata, a Scherzo, a Notturno, and a Danza. Despite the Italian movement titles, this work is Hungarian through and through—perhaps in the style of Kodály, who knew how to dress Hungarian folk music up without making it relinquish its true character…The orchestra heard here is, believe it or not, the official orchestra of the Hungarian railroad system! It has been in existence since 1945 and plays with know-how and enthusiasm…Smolij, who seems to have conducted more orchestras than I have had hot dinners, has built a good rapport with the orchestra, and his reading of these two scores is honest and sympathetic.
Steve Arloff
MusicWeb International, April 2009
Miklós Rózsa was a truly remarkable composer. He left Hungary at the age of 18 in 1925 and, apart from a brief visit in 1974, never set foot again in his native country. Even so, his music carries an absolutely genuine and immediately identifiable Hungarian imprint. To quote the composer himself “the music of Hungary is stamped indelibly one way or another on virtually every bar I have ever put on paper”. When no feature work appeared in Paris where he’d gone from his studies at Leipzig Conservatoire he took up writing music for films at the suggestion of Arthur Honegger. He first tried his luck in London where his debut score was for Knight Without Armour for Sir Alexander Korda in 1937. By 1940 he had become Korda’s “one man music department”. He went to Hollywood, as he thought for a month or so, to put the finishing touches to his score for The Thief of Baghdad. He ended up remaining there for the rest of his life, dying in California 55 years later.
This disc presents two works from each end of his composing career, the viola concerto of 1979 being his last orchestral work. It has an overall dark feel to it more akin to Bartók than to Kodály whose music the other work here, the Hungarian Serenade, more closely resembles. Opening with a brooding theme almost immediately taken up by the soloist, who is called upon to play virtually without a break throughout. The concerto has a sweeping momentum that demands attention and passionate themes that are full of emotion. Lovers of Hungarian themes will particularly enjoy the concerto as they are very much to the fore here as they are in all his works. Peasant dances and folk-style fiddling abound. Gilad Karni is a great soloist who obviously relishes his role here. The orchestra give committed support. This concerto proves yet again that the viola does not deserve the reputation it has for being second rate in comparison with the violin. Here it is called upon to perform beautiful phrases and heart-felt ideas.
Jeff Hall
ScreenSounds, January 2009
Naxos has released yet another volume of Miklos Rozsa concert works, one, the Hungarian Serenade, from quite early in his career and his Concerto for Viola and Orchestra, from 1979, which was in fact not only his last concerto, but also his last orchestral work.
Recorded in Budapest in 2007, the music is performed by the Budapest Concert Orchestra MAV and conducted by Mariusz Smolij, with Gilad Karni featuring on the viola.
The disc begins with the later work, and consists of four movements: the brooding and dramatic Moderato Assai which Frank K. DeWald in his booklet notes likens to Rozsa's scores for the likes of Providence and Fedora, is followed by the energetic Allegro Giocoso, which reminds considerably of plenty of action cues written by the composer for films over the years. No one wrote a nocturne quite like Rozsa and his last one features next in Adagio. It is, as one would expect, filled with warmth and passion. The concluding Allegro Con Spirito returns us to the energetic territory of before, though there is also a vaguely familiar oboe-lead theme.
David's Review Corner, December 2008
The world of classical music is unforgiving to those who sell their musical soul to Hollywood, and any thought of returning to their roots has been hastily dismissed. The Hungarian, Miklos Rozsa, was one of the few to keep working in both fields through much of his long life, though it was more by accident than choice that he had found himself in California at the onset of the Second World War. He was to offer his talents in creating scores of epic quality for the MGM studios, becoming one of cinemas most highly regarded composers of his time. In the classical world he never moved much away from his Hungarian roots, and though his output was more commercially orientated than Bartok, they shared much in common. Indeed in Rozsa’s Viola Concerto there are distinct similarities in style and melodic content to Bartok’s unfinished concerto for the instrument. Only in the orchestral scoring do we hear the wide vistas of the silver screen. Completed when he was seventy-two, it was intended for the young Pinchas Zuckerman who gave the first performance in 1984. Gilad Karni, principal viola of the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra, here gives a most persuasive performance. Full of spiky brilliance in the second and fourth movements, he captures the dark melancholy of the third movement adagio. The Hungarian Serenade was an early work composed while a student in Leipzig and originally for strings. It did pass through several changes, and in 1952 emerged as a score for small chamber orchestra. Opening with a jolly melody for bassoon, it retains its original string format in the second movement, the work ending with a boisterous dance. The Budapest Concert Orchestra, with conductor, Mariusz Smolij, sound much more comfortable in their full format for the outgoing concerto accompanimen
David Denton
2021
CONCERTS
15-22 August
ISA Strings Soloist Masterclasses - Semmering Austria
19 August - Burg Feistritz 7:30 pm
Feistritz am Wechsel, Burg Feistritz, Alte Reitschule
Große Romantik auf der Burg
Eugenia Grauer, Violine
Gilad Karni, Viola
Wenzel Fuchs, Klarinette
Gottlieb Wallisch, Klavier
und ausgewählte Studierende der isa21
Alexander Zemlinsky: Klarinettentrio d-Moll op. 3
Robert Scumann: Klavierquartett Es Dur op. 47
22 August – Schloss Rothschild
Across All Borders
Brian Ferneyhough: Cassandra’s Dream Song für Flöte solo
Kersten McCall, Flöte
Ernst Toch: Serenade (In Spitzwegs Art) op. 25
Eugenia Grauer, Violine
Gilad Karni, Viola
Alexander Glasunow: Streichquintett A-Dur op. 39
Selini Quartet, Österreich
Nadja Kalmykova, Violine
Ljuba Kalmykova, Violine
Loredana Apetrei, Viola
Loukia Loulaki, Violoncello
Vida Vujic, Violoncello
15/16 September
Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich - Opening Night
7:30 pm
Paavo Järvi Music Director
Wiebke Lehmkuhl Alt
Damen der Zürcher Sing-Akademie
Florian Helgath Einstudierung
Zürcher Sängerknaben
Konrad von Aarburg Einstudierung
Alphons von Aarburg Einstudierung
Gustav Mahler Sinfonie Nr. 3 d-Moll
21 November
Chamber Music Matinee
11:15 am Small Tonhalle Hall
Julia Becker Violine
Gilad Karni Viola
Paul Handschke Violoncello
Dmitri Demiashkin Klavier
Ludwig van Beethoven Serenade D-Dur op. 8 für Violine, Viola und Violoncello
Antonín Dvořák Klavierquartett Nr. 2 Es-Dur op. 87
29 November
Moscow
Tchaikowsky Hall
Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra
Gilad Karni Viola
Bruch Romance for Viola and Orchestra Op.85
16-17 December
Festival Concerts at the Red Sea
4 pm & 8 pm
Raanana Symphonette - Israel
Festival Concerts at the Red Sea
Gerald Karni Conductor
Eugenia Grauer Violin
Gilad Karni Viola
Works by Dvořák, Hummel & Mozart, Brahms
2022
3 March
Chamber Music Lunch
12:15 pm Small Tonhalle Hall
Klaidi Sahatçi Violine
Gilad Karni Viola
Sasha Neustroev Violoncello
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Divertimento Es-Dur KV 563 für Streichtrio
12 March - Porrentruy / 13 March - Le Noirmont
Mozart's Concertante
8 pm & 5 pm
Musique Des Lumineres
Klaidi Sahatçi Violine
Gilad Karni Viola