The Atar Trio
Instrumentation: Violin, cello, piano
Duration: 6:30
Commission: The Atar Piano Trio
Premiere: The Atar Trio, Studio Annette in the Fleicia Blumenthal Music Center
Tel Aviv, IL
Performers: Violinist Tanya Beltser, Cellist Anton Andreev and pianist Ofer Shelley
Program Note:
To the Bird from the Distant Land was composed in response to Hayim Nahman Bialik’s poem To the Bird (El HaTzipor) on commission from the Atar Trio. When pianist and director Ofer Shelley approached me about a piece for an upcoming Bialik program, I was particularly drawn to this poem. Written when Bialik was just nineteen and had recently moved to Odessa, there is a strong undercurrent of homesickness for the Biblical land of Israel he imagined. The poem, addressed to a bird that serves as a bridge between the distant land and his current home, is episodic – variously referring to Bialik’s imaginings of the distant land, the Biblical Israel, in both its beauty and difficulties, while contrasting it again and again with his current perilous situation. His ruminations move back and forth, taking flight like the winging bird he calls to, yet also crashing down on his current reality. My response to the poem became a song without words, with the flight of the bird sometimes soaring, while at other times caught in the darker net of Bialik’s musings before taking wing again. To the Bird from a Distant Land was premiered by the Atar Piano Trio at Studio Annette in the Felicia Blumenthal Music Center in Tel Aviv on 6/2/2023.–JS