he musical reading of The Ecclesiastes was born of the desire Sami Frey and I had to collaborate on a project together and of Sami’s love for this text, which was soon to be shared by both of us. We decided to ask André Hajdu, a composer I had met in Israel just before then, to write the music for us. The composition is based on 12 Preludes for solo cello and 3 celli, each Prelude alternating with each of the 12 chapters of the text.

At that point, we constructed this reading like a work of chamber music, where the timbre and rhythm of the narrator’s voice becomes inseparable from the ‘voice’ of the cello, which in turn serves as a continuation of a thought, a pause, or a punctuation. André Hadju’s Preludes were commissioned by the “Concerts of the Cours Denis” where The Ecclesiastes was premiered in July 1994.

We toured with this work in 40 towns throughout France and abroad, performed it at the Theatre des Bouffes du Nord in Paris, and recorded it at the Opera in Vichy.