On Friday, June 4th, at 5:00 PM, Kan Kol Hamusica radio station will premiere Josef Bardanashvili’s Children of God, with countertenor David d’Or and the Raanana Symphonette Orchestra (comprised mainly of immigrants from the former Soviet Union) under the baton of Yuval Zaliouk.
The work was written at the initiative of the orchestra’s CEO, Orit Fogel, to commission a work that expresses all the things that bind together the various religions and nations. Fogel approached David d’Or and composer Bardanashvili, who recently arrived at Israel form Georgia (he was vice minister of culture in his native country).
Texts from the scriptures of the three monotheist religions have been carefully chosen: Judaism, Christianity and Islam, namely from the Bible, the New Testament and the Koran in Hebrew, Arabic and Latin. Those text convey the essential and universal belief that all humankind are children of god. God loves us all. Bardanashvili’s work conveys the message in a language understood by all human beings wherever they are, and it treasures within it the absolute message, which is based on the most primitive and primeval desire – the desire to live together in peace and tranquility.
Several months before the work’s premiere saw the tragic death of a Raanana native, Gadi Notes, killed in a
Ben Raanana’s Gadi Knots was killed in a plane crash, TWA’s 800 flight over New Jersey. Gadi was a graduate of Columbia University with a master’s degree in business administration and accounting and worked for the investment bank DLJ. The orchestra decided to dedicate Children of God to the memory of Gadi Notes. Accordingly, texts from the Babylonian Talmud and the Jewish prayer cycle were added to the work.
The premiere took place in 1998. At that time, a delegation from New Jersey arrived in Israel to sign a city alliance with Raanana. This delegation was joined by the founder of the NJPAC Center for the Arts in New Jersey, Lawrence P. Goldman. He attended the premiere of Children of God and immediately decided to invite the Raanana Symphonette Orchestra to perform at the new center.
The orchestra went on a successful tour of the United States with the work and won plaudits from critics and audiences alike. The tour ended with a gala concert held at the NJPAC Center in New Jersey.
Josef Bardanashvili: Children of God
David d’Or and the Raanana Symphonette Orchestra
Conductor: Yuval Zaliouk
Kan Kol Hamusica, Friday June the 6th 2021 at 5:00 PM.
