ABU GHOSH MUSIC FESTIVAL Kiryat Yearim Church, October 24

Bach’s “Mourning Cantata” was performed by the Bach Ensemble and the Galil Ha-Elyon Choir, conducted by Ron Zarhi, as part of the Abu Ghosh Music Festival.

The festival, claimed erroneously in the program notes to be celebrating its 25th year, was in fact founded 59 years ago, in 1957, by conductor Sigi Stadermann, whose name is not even mentioned in the program notes, discontinued in 1972 due to objections by the Kiryat Yearim Curch authorities and revived 25 years ago, in 1992, by Gershon Cohen, its present director.

Bach never wrote a “Requiem.” This, however, is the mistaken title of the work in the program notes. Far from resembling the text and structure of a requiem, the work is a mourning cantata, composed for the funeral of Koethen’s Prince Leopold, Bach’s employer.

Though a rarely performed work, some of its passages sound familiar, because Bach had “stolen” them from himself – from some of his own earlier and better known works.

The church’s strongly reverberating acoustics caused the choir at first to sound shouting, unbalanced and non-transparent. A more experienced church-conductor would have reduced volume and tempo to avoid voices getting distorted and mixed up with each other. As the work went on, though, the choir – and the audience – got used to the acoustics’ caprices and settled down to a full-blooded, rich and thoroughly enjoyable performance of the impressive work.

Among the soloists, Yair Polishook was outstanding for his powerful, resonant dark bass, and Eitan Drori for his soft, caressing and appealing lyric tenor. Einat Aronstein displayed a bright, fresh-sounding soprano when her lower notes were not overshadowed by the orchestra. Avital Deri’s alto was warm and friendly, though somewhat strained on the higher notes.

The orchestra featured some enchanting instrumental soli that sang duets with the singers.