Monday, March 30, 1936, was a festive day in the Land of Israel. The headlines blazed across the newspapers: "Today: The Opening of the Palestine Radio," "Listen! Jerusalem Is Speaking," and at 5:05 PM, the first musical notes were broadcast over the airwaves.
About a quarter of the young station's broadcasts were devoted to music. Alongside English broadcast records and an Arabic music ensemble, a small orchestra of 11 musicians also began operating, most of them Jewish musicians who had immigrated from Central European countries.The ensemble's members, working under modest conditions and with a pioneering spirit, did not merely meet the needs of broadcasting, they laid the foundation for the development of professional musical life in Jerusalem. Every two weeks, the orchestra performed works from the classical repertoire, gave a platform to compositions by Jewish composers who had immigrated to the country, and hosted the finest soloists and conductors active here during the 1930s and 1940s.
Marking 90 years since the founding of the Chamber Orchestra of the Palestine Broadcasting Service, a special concert performed by the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance's Mendi Rodan Symphony Orchestra will revisit the sounds and the soundtrack of art music in the Land of Israel at the dawn of the radio era.
Musical Director and Conductor - Yevgeny Bushkov
Clarinet Soloist - Moshe Ben Shimon
Daniel Kvari and Yana Lazorenko - Cello
Nour Ammar and Anna Vorontsov - Mezzo-Soprano
Concert Program:
A. Vivaldi — Arr.d'Indy – Cello Sonata in E minor for cello and orchestra, RV.40
A. Tansman — Triptych for strings (1930)
Two folk songs orchestrated by P. Ben-Haïm
1. "Calm"
2. The song of Spagnioli jews for voice and orchestra
Three pieces for string orchestra by student composers:
A. Berry "Weaving sounds"
E. Alfassi "All the sreams"
S. Znati "Prism"
A. Copland. Clarinet concerto
Moshe Ben Shimon, soloist
Tickets: ₪45 | Special price for senior citizens, soldiers, and security forces: ₪35 upon presentation of valid ID
