Concert at Central Synagogue
in honour of Bob Borowsky. 3pm Sunday, 4
September 2016
This concert was a
vast pleasure in all respects. A local,
community and family audience created a delightful and positive ambiance in the
beautiful Central Synagogue with its natural light and great acoustics. Both opera and chazzanut require the greatest
vocal power and technical abilities. For
the amateur both can be a mine field but we were treated to not one but three
consummate professionals, chazzanim Shimon Farkas and Yehuda Niasoff and the
long standing choir member and soloist Bob Borowsky. If singing is natural for all of us, opera is
the Olympics of singing - and Bob Borowsky at age 87 has still ‘got it’ which is quite
remarkable. His early musical training
was in his native South Africa and he spent some years in Italy in the 1950s
learning opera and languages. He settled in Sydney in 1994.
And it was baritone
Bob's day emotionally and vocally. He
sang solo and in concert, demonstrating his beautiful natural velvety voice and
his technical mastery of the art. The
Central Synagogue Choir was also showcased, mostly in repertoire they know only
too well from weekly Shabbat services as well as Yontif fare (the High Holiday ‘season’ kicks off at Central with
Selichos at 10pm on Sat 24th September). The Central Synagogue Children’s Choir was another
bonus.
After both National
Anthems, Shimon Farkas was introduced by master of ceremonies Rabbi Levi Wolff,
starting with my all time favourite cantorial piece Shehecheyanu. Chazzan Shimon used his splendid lyric tenor
voice and relaxed showmanship in the Yontif blessing to thank HaShem for
renewal and good tidings. Despite the
profound sentiments, the melody goes from devotional to ‘rollicking’ and almost ‘jazzy’. Accomplished pianist Shirley Politzer played
an accurate and sensitive accompaniment to each and every item.
Bob Borowsky then
gave a wonderful rendition of the Mozart favourite ‘No piu andrai’, followed by a Verdi duet
with Yehuda Niasoff from Force of Destiny.
They also did the students’ duet from Act 4 of La Boheme after which Bob sang his theme song from
La Traviata, showing his professionalism and prodigious talents one more
time. Bob received his first standing
ovation even before starting to sing!
Shimon Farkas
expressed his delight at singing outside of the Shabbat and Yontif time frame,
allowing him to sing one of his favourite popular songs, Granada by Mexican
composer Augustin Lara.
Meantime we heard
some cantorial pearls interspersed from the men’s and boys’ choirs including Psalm 150; Moshe v’Aharon; Tzadik katamar yifrach (psalm 93); Mi sheberach tzahal; L’dor vado; Ki lekah tov;
Adon olam (naturally) to end proceedings.
There was a fitting
tribute to musician and teacher Mr Roy Joffe z’’l who died recently during preparations for this
very concert. The tribute from Rabbi
David Freedman could not have been more appropriate.
Another special item
was a rendition of Mimkomo featuring a trio of bass Len Mahemoff and tenor John
Tintner with Bob Borowsky, all three are regular soloists with the Central
choir.
Rabbi Levi Wolff
also gave us a brief talk about the shofar and the custom of sounding it in
shule from the first of Elul until Yom Kippur.
As we are already in the month of Elul Rabbi produced a magnificent
helicoid ram’s
horn from which he provided a most proficient demonstration of the varying
tones, glissando, pulsing and pitch moves sounding the appropriate shofar calls
of tekiah, shevarim, and teruah. The
shofar has some parallels with the didgeridoo, and is held in similarly high
esteem by the two ancient creeds. This
reminds me that we did not have a welcome to country which might be a
suggestion for next time as the synagogue is situated on Aboriginal lands of
the Gadigal People.
Adam Majsay was a
suitably energetic and engaged conductor, as was Yehuda Niasoff in addition to
his cantorial duties. The men’s choir sounded
magnificent, even without Mr Borowsky’s usual contribution. The
versatile musicologist Dr Joseph Toltz arranged some of the pieces, conducted
through the rehearsal period and sang with the choir on the day. Long time choir member retired Judge Frank
Marks conceived the idea of honouring Bob and carried it though many hurdles -
so mazel tov to him especially.
But nothing could
detract from the joy of the Borowsky family and it was their day indeed. I thought all of the compliments and tributes
were nicely expressed and well deserved.
So all in all a great success for the shule and kehillah of (what used
to be called) ‘Eastern
Suburbs Central Synagogue’.
Written by Andrew
Byrne ..
YouTube
worth a search under Bob Borowsky will reveal some operatic pearls. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJp8TVfwnWc
This
review was sent to the Australian Jewish News who are publishing an edited
version after checking back with me about Bob’s actual age.
