arts & entertainment
Classical Keys
Israel-born pianist plays Mozart concertos with
Birmingham Bloomfield Symphony Orchestra.
Suzanne Chessler
I Contributing Writer
p
ianist Shai Wosner made many
visits to Michigan before he
visited its stages. He spent time
with his sister, Dafna Kaufman, who lives
in Grand Rapids and works at a scientific
research institute.
Wosner, a classical artist who has per-
formed in Adrian and Kalamazoo with
conductor John Thomas Dodson, has been
invited to play two works of Mozart as
Dodson leads the Birmingham Bloomfield
Symphony Orchestra.
The program, consisting of Piano
Concerto 14 and Piano Concerto 19, as
well as Nielsen's Little Suite, will be pre-
sented Saturday evening, Feb. 8, at Christ
Church Cranbrook in Bloomfield Hills and
Sunday afternoon, Feb. 9, at the Berman
Center for the Performing Arts in West
Bloomfield.
"It's fascinating how different the two
pieces really are although they are both
toying with seriousness and lighthearted-
ness:' says Wosner, 37, in a phone conver-
sation from his New York home.
"In the first, the musical content is big-
ger than the framework of the piece. The
orchestra is small, and Mozart signified
that the winds are optional.
"It can be done with a chamber quin-
tet of strings and piano and yet has big
gestures and a dramatic, slow movement.
There is an ambitious last movement that
shows the influence of Bach, whose music
Mozart was then discovering."
The influence of Bach enters into the
second piece as well.
"The second piece is for a bigger orches-
tra, and it's a little longer; the pianist says.
"The actual material is often lighthearted.
"There's a lighthearted first movement
and no slow movement as in the other mate-
rial. The last movement is very fast, and it
has a lot of passages that are very contra-
puntal showing that influence of Bach:"
Although Wosner has not worked with
the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, he has
played Mozart as conducted by Leonard
Slatkin, DSO music director. The two were
at the Hollywood Bowl in 2006, marking
the 250th anniversary of the composer.
The pianist, who received his early
instrumental training from private teach-
ers in Israel and moved on to the Juilliard
School to study with Emanual Ax, early on
taught himself on a home piano.
"Initially, I resisted lessons because I
thought they would spoil the fun, but I
came to enjoy them:' he explains.
Professional work happened after Wosner
moved to the United States, and he has
traveled the world to present concerts.
His appearances in America have placed
him with the symphony orchestras of
Atlanta, Baltimore, Cleveland and Dallas
among many others. In Europe, his work
has included programs with the Barcelona
Symphony, Frankfurt Radio
Shai Wosner
Symphony and the Orchestre
National de Belgique.
says. "That can include songs, books and
The pianist has been in residence with
games:'
the BBC as a New Generation Artist and
With family still in Israel, the Wosners
played frequently with the BBC orchestras, try to return at least once a year. That
including appearances conducting Mozart
includes time for concerts, most recently
concertos from the keyboard with the BBC with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra.
Scottish Symphony Orchestra.
Wosner's next concert will be
His recordings are on the Onyx label
in February with the Hamburger
and most recently have been devoted to
Symphoniker in Germany. He will repeat
the music of Schubert.
the Mozart pieces.
"I've felt drawn to Schubert's music
"I try to do Mozart concertos as often
because of its combination of emotions:'
as I can:' he says. "They're fascinating
Wosner says. "I feel his view of life in
and so musically rich that I feel incredible
every piece.
rewards doing them.
"There's always space around his pieces,
"The two pieces I'll be playing in
and there's a grand structure. He has a
Michigan are new to me, but at some
particular sense of time that is expansive.
point, I hope to do all the Mozart con-
"In this current period of time with
certos. I always love to practice them and
everything so fast, short and condensed in
discover new things:'
sound bites, I feel that Schubert's music is
a welcome antidote
Wosner decided to remain in New York
because he believes it feels like home
Shai Wosner performs with the
Birmingham Bloomfield Symphony
regardless of a person's original hometown
Orchestra at 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb.
and because of the many performance
8, at Christ Church Cranbrook, 470
opportunities it provides.
Church Road, in Bloomfield Hills;
Wosner and wife, Roni, a physician,
and 3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 9, at the
have two children and speak Hebrew in
their home.
Berman Center for the Performing
Arts, 6600 W. Maple, in West
"We have a substantial circle of friends
Bloomfield. $25. (248) 352-2276;
who are Jewish-Israeli, and we try to
bbso.org .
complement whatever is experienced at
school with what we had growing up:' he
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ews
Nate Bloom
emi
Special to the Jewish News
I. At The Movies
A
The film Labor Day is based on a
(1) critically acclaimed 2009 novel of
the same name by Joyce Maynard,
di 60. Jason Reitman, 36, directed the
movie and wrote the screenplay.
He says this film, a complex drama,
is much different from his other
films, and he "just hopes he nailed it"
(his three previous
films, all box-office
and critical hits,
were Thank You for
Smoking, Juno and
Young Adult).
Labor Day stars
Kate Winslet as a
Reitman
reclusive woman
with a 13-year-old
son. Their lives drastically change
when they meet and decide to harbor
an escaped convict (Josh Brolin). The
film opens Friday, Jan. 31.
6
56
January 30 • 2014
JN
TV Notes
Billy Joel, now 64, performs at the
Palace of Auburn Hills on Saturday,
Feb.15. A new documentary, Billy
Joel: A Matter of Trust: A Bridge to
Russia, premieres at 9 p.m. Friday,
Jan. 31, on Showtime. It recounts how
Joel traveled to the former Soviet
Union in 1988 and become one of the
first big Western acts to play the then-
Communist country.
Also on Showtime:
Quality Balls, a docu-
mentary on the life
of comedian David
Steinberg, 71. It pre-
mieres at 9:30 p.m.
Monday, Feb. 3.
Steinberg
Super Bowl
This year's Super
Bowl will be played on
Sunday, Feb. 2. It will be aired on Fox,
with a kick-off time of 6:45 p.m. This
is the first time a Super Bowl will be
played outdoors in a cold-weather city
(East Rutherford, N.J., a New York sub-
urb), and no doubt the NFL is praying
another polar vortex doesn't descend.
Neither team (Seattle or Denver)
has a Jewish owner, player or coach,
but there are a few Jewish Super Bowl
connections of interest.
Super Bowl ads usually feature clever
copy or big-name endorsers, or both.
SodaStream, an Israeli company
that makes and markets a carbonation
system that allows you to make your
own carbonated beverages at home,
has seen its sales rise, but it still isn't
an American household name.
So it's turned to celebrity spokes-
person Scarlett Johansson, 29, to
promote it on TV. Her first ad will air
during the Super Bowl. Johansson
has been a longtime ambassador for
the worldwide charity Oxfam, which
opposes Israeli presence in the West
Bank. Oxfam has criticized her involve-
ment with SodaStream, even though
the company provides well-paying jobs
for hundreds of Palestinians in its West
Bank facility. But to
her credit, Johansson
refuses to back down.
Seattle and Denver
both have interesting
Jewish ties that date
back to pioneer days.
F
J ohansson
Bailey Gatzert
(1829-1893), a co-
founder of the city's
first synagogue, was elected mayor of
Seattle in 1876.
Denver was the home of Colorado
native Dr. Florence Sabin (1871-1953),
a top medical researcher and public
health physician. Each state can place
two statues in National Statuary Hall
in the U.S. Capitol in
Washington, D.C., and
Sabin is one of the
two persons Colorado
selected (the "Sabin
Health Laws" modern-
ized the public health
system in Colorado
Sabin
and other states).
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