It may have seemed at first that attending this concert would require special security checks, but none were needed. Except for a brief moment when a voice unexpectedly broke the silence, the audience remained attentive, the atmosphere as warm and orderly as in any other evening at the Elbphilharmonie. It is hard to imagine that since the Elbphilharmonie’s opening, the hall had never hosted an orchestra of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra’s international stature. Yet the orchestra arrived fully prepared, offering a carefully curated musical ‘dessert’ to open the evening. Conductor Lahav Shani arranged three of Mendelssohn’s Lieder ohne Worte for chamber orchestra, the performance revealing both thoughtfulness and clarity. Verlorenes Glück unfolded with gentle melancholy, Venetianisches Gondellied floated with restrained grace and the playful sparkle of Spinnerlied brought the opening to a quietly joyful close.
Then came Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto in A major, with Swedish superstar Martin Fröst as soloist, a work that may seem almost too familiar for him, yet he turned it into something freshly alive. On stage, Fröst was a whirlwind, physically expressive, coaxing the orchestra with gestures and eye contact, dancing through phrases with irrepressible energy. The concerto’s usual twilight melancholy was replaced by a sense of youthful improvisation and joy. Shani set brisk tempi in the outer movements, quicker than the norm, but Fröst filled them with inventive transitions, glissandi and spontaneous embellishments. Despite the speed, his breath control and tone across registers remained flawless, the line always singing. His own cadenzas, while inventive and rhythmically alive, added a touch of introspective calm unusual for this work. When the final applause erupted, Fröst returned with an encore: a tender, jazz-inflected Love Song called Nature Boy, supported by the gentle drone of three double basses, a closing benediction of warmth and light.
The second half featured Paul Ben-Haim’s Symphony no. 2, rarely heard in Europe and a striking choice for the orchestra’s debut. Composed at the end of World War 2, it blends Austro-Germanic symphonic structure with a strong inclination of French impressionism or pre-war Soviet clarity. The opening Molto moderato was dense and authoritative, the IPO delivering layered textures under Shani’s careful shaping. The Allegretto vivace was energetic but elusive, alternating rhythmic drive with fleeting lyricism, while the Andante affettuoso offered calm, pastoral woodwinds. The finale surged with open-voiced harmonies and intensity, culminating in a brilliant, resolute coda that strongly recalled Vaughan Williams' wartime symphonies. Yet beneath its turbulent surface lay a deep sense of hope – a quiet yearning for renewal and a more luminous future.
The evening concluded with a spirited encore of Dvořák’s Slavonic Dance in E minor, its rhythmic vitality and folk-inflected warmth igniting the hall. The orchestra played with unforced joy, its buoyant phrasing and crisp ensemble turning the dance into a celebration of shared humanity, a reminder that, even in uncertain times, music remains a universal language of energy, grace and connection.
