I like to think of myself as a bridge builder. I love to build bridges between the past and the present, between cultures, between concepts and most of all between people. My trip to Moscow in June was a vast complex of bridges. Historically speaking we spanned a bridge over three thousand years, connecting Torah with the 18th Century and on to the present. Another bridge across oceans and continents with connecting points in the USA, Mainz  and Moscow. An American patron made it possible for me to travel to Moscow from Mainz to join my friends of Moscow Baroque to perform this compelling cantata which in itself is a bridge across cultures. The cantata to Hoschan'ah Rabbah was an attempt of the Jewish community in Casale Monferrato, Piémont in the 1730's to expand its own musical horizons within the Jewish context and at the same time to reach out to its non-Jewish neighbors by incorporating musical styles of the latter with the liturgical content of the former. The performance in Moscow was the same once again. For the very first time in the history of the Choral Synagogue, built in the late 19th C., instrumental music was sounded. Not just any music but sacral Jewish music of the 18th C. never before heard in Russia, peformed by an ensemble of exceptional musicality, technical prowess and artistic fearlessness. A bridge across several frontiers all at once. The most important bridge of all though, remains the bridge of friendship, unhindered by seemingly impossible hurdles of burocracy, finance, communication, time and distance. A friendship that began between Mark Vainrot and myself over ten years ago and despite the great distance and long years of silence, remained intact. When the possiblity arose for me to go to Moscow, not only did our friendship bloom but it expanded to embrace Igor, Elena, Nicolai,  Olga, Andrei, Michail, Konstantin and Vladimir....oops!!! And PHILIP too!! Many thanks to Prof. Utkin of the Moscow Conservatory for his kind help in making sure that someone special recieved that special gift. And many thanks to the Maymonedes Jewish Academy Consevertoire and Dr. Yankelika I. Sushcova-Irina who made the burocratic difficulties simply disappear.  

Thanks to you all! 

Matthew