About the creation

Great importance is attributed to angels in the Jewish tradition, especially those angels whose main task is to sing before the Creator the prayers of mankind. As I see it, the angels are expected to prepare all the prayers of distress, sorrow and even those of enthusiasm and ecstatic joy into communicative language which would sound pleasing to God's ears. I see a great similarity in the role the angels play to that of us flesh-and-blood creative artists. I wrote Angels in 1989. The work was first performed in Luxembourg and in Belgium by the Radio Luxembourg Orchestra. In Israel it was performed by the Haifa Symphony Orchestra, at a special concert during the 1993/94 season. The work is written in one movement and is in the main monothematic. It develops from a melodic kernel which spreads at the outset and reaches a climax in clusters of great density. Except for the opening and the finale which are basically played as tutti, the piece relies mostly on the twenty string players individually. From a certain point, the instrumental groups enter a series of frequent divergence and each and every player fulfills a different task. It is therefore necessary that in these particular parts every player develops his own dynamic and expressive scale of values to which he must adhere. Angels is dedicated with great appreciation to Arlette Avraham.