Israeli-Australian composer and concert pianist Yitzhak Yedid is acclaimed as one of the world’s leading composers of the Third Stream: a synthesis of jazz and classical music. Inspired by literature, philosophy, art and landscapes, Yedid’s compositions form a narrative of pictures, textures and colours.

The album “Angels’ Revolt”, was exclusively recorded live and denotes the most radical, uncompromising wraparound between Orient and Occident in Yedid’s discography. The composer uses traditional Arabic harmony, Jewish ritual song forms, a touch of free jazz, European classical music and improvisation, makes them collide directly, but interlocks them from one second to the other in such an organic way that a new style is germinated.

The Temple Mount of Jerusalem, which is holy for both Muslims and Jews and therefore a highly explosive place, served as inspiration for the orchestral piece Kiddushim ve’ killulim (which means “blessing and curse”). Together with conductor Christian Lindberg and the Israel Netanya Kibbutz Orchestra, it premiered in the Tel Aviv Museum of Art in November 2017. Yitzhak Yedid succeeded in bridging the traditions of the controversial poles with a daring, but sometimes quite unsettling bridge, in which the sound colours of Béla Bartók served as an amalgam that was incredibly resilient.

Yedid composed Chad gadya for clarinet, violin, cello and piano. The Concerto for Piano and Strings is composed of three parts and is dedicated to Australian composer Michael Kieran Harvey. The piece highlights more radically than ever the affinity of the multicultural composer for contemporary classics, for composers such as Sofia Asgatowna Gubaidulina or Alfred Schnittke as well as avant-garde and baroque harmonies.

Finally, the Aufstand der Engel (trans: “Angels’ Revolt”), which was composed for the prestigious Lev Vlassenko Piano Competition, covers almost his entire musical range. A chaconne (dance) with rhythmic, Messiaen-like patterns, tremolos and patterns, which reveal the appeal to the Arabic hammered dulcimer santur, lyrically, passionately and in large parts freely improvised.