Israel Phil has a new #1 bass
NewsThe German-American double-bassist Alexander Edelmann will join the Israel Philharmonic in October.
He is 31 and has been working with leading German orchestras.
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Hopefully Lahav Shani is going to seriously raise the quality of the IPO. But Zubin Mehta did not leave Shani with an orchestra in particularly good shape based on the 2 live concerts I heard, and Shani has his work more than cut out for him. It’s a bit curious why Edelmann would choose to be a part of a rebuilding project unless there are some personal connections involved that are unclear.
I disagree. At least prior to the corona lock down the IPO was in top form. On a par with top European orchestras. The problem with ZM was the mainstream banal repertoire. This season with Shani it already looks much more promising. And he also invited excellent Israeli conductors such as Volkov and Welber who have been overlooked by the orchestra. I see a promising future.
What rebuilding? The orchestra is phenomenal, especially the string section.
Mehta was respected but not loved by members of the orchestra. Miriam Hartman, the principal violist, constantly clashed with Mehta.
Shani is loved and admired by the orchestra who consider him one of them. Edelmann’s challenge would be to learn Hebrew as Shani does sometimes switch to Hebrew in rehearsals.
When the ipo had guest conductors they
Usually sounded better than under mehta.
Great news!! Congrats to him and IPO! Now Teddy Kling’s and Peter Marck’s 1st chairs are both filled and I believe that duo Alexander Edelmann and Nina Bernat will do exellent work supported by long time assistant principal Nir Comforty
So now the IPO has a German as their principal bass and the BPO has an Israeli as their principal violist. Nice exchange
Do they ever hire non-Jews in the Israeli Phil? Is there diversity?
Most of the players are Israeli but there are quite a few foreigners. To name two examples: The principal horn and principal cello are not jewish. Auditions are open to musicians of every nationality/religion.
The pay doesn’t match American orchestras so they don’t get that many foreign applicants.
Yes. Yes.