Elli Jaffe: Ner Mitzva

wednesday, sept 23, 7.30 pm
jerusalem (formerly jubilee) synagogue (jeruzalémská st.)

Elli Jaffe: Ner Mitzva
Anonymus: Musical ceremony at the Cathedral of Casale Monferrato (1732)

Ensemble 18+ – art. director Vojtěch Spurný
Kühn Choir
Jana Lewitová, Petra Kohoutová, Hasan El-Dunia – singing
Elli Jaffe – conductor (Israel)

photo: Zdeněk Chrapek

Festival concert marking the Jewish New Year, organized under the patronage of H.E. Mr. Yaakov Levy, Ambassador of Israel and the Jewish Community of Prague.

The world premiere of the oratorio Ner Mitzva for chamber orchestra, male chorus, tenor, baritone and narrator, by the conductor and composer Elli Jaffe, represents a musical response to the work of one of Judaism's greatest thinkers based in Prague, Rabbi Jehuda Löw ben Becalel (1525 – 1609), the quadricentenary of whose death is being marked this year, whose name has been associated with the legend of the Golem, and who is believed to have actually created the mythical artificial being. In the Jewish world, he is also frequently referred to as the Maharal of Prague, and his tomb in this city ranks among the most visited sites of Prague's Jewish Town. For its part, the work portrays the four great empires of the antiquity, drawing on various original Jewish liturgical melodies, and climaxes by quoting the best-known Hebraic prayer, Shema Yisrael. The oratorio was written on special commission from the Saint Wenceslas Festivities, and it will be first performed on the occasion of the Jewish New Year.

The programme also includes the modern-time premiere of a newly discovered composition dating from 1732, found in manuscript form in Moscow, in 1964. A musical ceremony for 5 – 6 voices, strings, oboes and continuo, it was written by anonymous composers for the celebrations of the feast of Hoshana Rabbah (the nocturnal vigil extending the Feast of Tabernacles, or Sukkot) in the cathedral in Casale Monferrato, Italy, at a time when the ceremonies related to this particular feast in centres of the Jewish community in Italy were reaching a remarkable scale. The cantata ends by the psalmic quote: “Sing praise to the Lord who has elevated his people, praise him in the heights, sing songs for his glory, praise his name.