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Introducing the World
of American Jewish Music
Featuring music from current and future
Milken Archive releases
Dave BRUBECK
Gates of Justice, IIIa (excerpt)
Leonard BERNSTEIN
Hashkiveinu
ANONYMOUS
Hudl Mitn Shtrudl
Darius
MILHAUD
Etudes on Liturgical Themes, III
Julius
CHAJES
Old Jerusalem
Paul
SCHOENFIELD
Viola Concerto, III
Israel
SCHORR
Sheyibbaneh Beit Hamikdash
Joseph
ACHRON
The Golem, IV
Abraham
KAPLAN
Psalms of Abraham, VII
Ernst
TOCH
The Bitter Herbs op. 65, VII
Joshua
LIND
El Melekh Yoshev
Yehudi
WYNER
The Mirror, I
Darius
MILHAUD
Service Sacré, I
Mario
CASTELNUOVO-TEDESCO
Genesis Suite-The Flood (excerpt)
Robert
STERN
Adon Olam
Bruce
Adolphe
LADINO
Songs of Love and Suffering, IV
Sholom
KALIB
and Meyer
MACHTENBERG
Arr. Simon
SPIRO
Sheva B'rakhot (excerpt)
Joseph
RUMSHINSKY
Mayn Goldele
Kurt
WEILL
The Eternal Road, scene 20
Performers: BBC Singers, Dave Brubeck
Trio, Czech Philharmonic, Tovah Feldshuh,
Eliot Fisk, Juilliard String Quartet,
David Krakauer, Yoel Levi, Ana María
Martínez, Cantor Benzion Miller,
Cantor Alberto Mizrahi, Elmar Oliveira,
Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Gerard
Schwarz, Cantor Simon Spiro, Richard Stoltzman,
Robert Vernon, Vienna Boys Choir, Fritz
Weaver, and many others.
NAXOS AMERICAN CLASSICS 8.559406 [79:13]
To see full details of the series please
look at http://www.milkenarchive.org/cds/cds.taf
This sampler draws tracks
from the CDs issued as part of the Milken
Archive initiative. The propulsive and
dynamic Brubeck is powered along
at full tilt crossed with a typically
swaying Jewish accent. The Bernstein
is more intently devotional - the other
side of the coin. The down and dirty Hudl
mitn shtrudl is the equivalent of
a racy song by George Formby - saucy and
with a clarinet played scatty Chassidic
for all it is worth as slippery as oil.
Not such a great step away is the Berber
accented wildness of Wyner’s The
Mirror. This contrasts with Milhaud’s
grave solo violin-led Etudes on Liturgical
Themes. Milhaud appears again
with an extract from his Sacred Service
- this is more joyous but controlled
and somehow distant from a full surrender
to the passions. The piece by Schorr
for cantor and orchestra is similarly
devout. Chajes' Old Jerusalem
(for alto and orchestra) is more closely
related to the devout Bernstein track
and to the collection of Jewish songs
recorded years ago by Netania Davrath
(Vanguard). The same can be said of the
Ernst Toch track in which the solo
singer is clearly under too much strain.
The Chajes song and the Rumshinsky
seem to take us into an echt Wienerisch
musical tradition - Lehár meets
Kurt Weill - a gem of a duet. The darker
devotions of the Lind track also
reflect the prayerful stream of music-making
as does the Kalib song (tr.17).
Schoenfield’s concertos have been
recorded before but not the Viola Concerto
which at first is not as obviously Jewish
as some of the other music here. Soon
however it gratefully assumes the mantle
of a Jewish celebration. The Achron
I have already written about when
reviewing the complete Achron disc - it
is music of the utmost inventive resource
- full of colourful technicolor rivalry
among the instruments of the orchestra.
Kaplan’s Psalms of Abraham in
unison singing for young people has a
simple line which at least superficially
relates to the writing of Carl Orff in
its unadorned iterative insistence. The
Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s Genesis
has a Hollywoodian temperament with
the voice of the orator drifting between
that of Charlton Heston and Walter Cronkite.
A female voice is accompanied by Californian-serene
string writing. A Biblical epic in sound.
Robert Stern breaks free from previous
conventions with its crystal shiver-clear
singing for female voices - with only
the slight twist in the tune proclaiming
the Jewish heritage. Bruce Adolphe’s
Ladino Songs could easily suit
Ute Lemper in its darkly occluded mood.
The last track is an excerpt from Weill’s
The Eternal Road in whispered serenity
from the choir and a pianissimo solo violin
rise to the disturbing suggestion of disillusion.
Serenity reflects the God of the Israelites
while the wilder beat reflects the followers
of the golden calf. Eventually the joyous
‘calf tune’ is taken over by the Israelites
to reflect an excited joy.
Rob Barnett
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Great Songs of the
Yiddish Stage - Volume 1: Abraham
ELLSTEIN (1907-1963) and Other
Songwriters of His Circle
ELLSTEIN
Der Nayer Sher (1940)
Simon Spiro, tenor
ELLSTEIN
Oygn (1934)
Elizabeth Shammash, mezzo-soprano
ELLSTEIN
Ikh Vil Es Hern Nokh Amol (1946)
Amy Goldstein, soprano
Simon Spiro, tenor
ELLSTEIN
Ikh Zing (1939)
Robert Bloch, tenor
ELLSTEIN
Abi Gezunt (1939)
Amy Goldstein, soprano
ELLSTEIN
Zog Es Mir Nokh Amol* (1931)
Bruce Adler, tenor
Abraham SCHWARTZ
(1881-1963) Di Grine
Kuzine (1921)
Joanne Borts, mezzo-soprano
David MEYEROWITZ
(1867-1943) Vos Geven
Iz Geven Un Nito (1926)
Simon Spiro, tenor
ELLSTEIN
Oy Mame, Bin Ikh Farlibt (1936)
Elizabeth Shammash, mezzo-soprano
Ilia TRILLING
(1895-1947) Zog, Zog, Zog
Es Mir (1942)
Nell Snaidas, soprano
YABLOKOFF
(1903-1981) Der Dishvasher
(1936)
Robert Abelson, baritone
TRILLING
Du Shaynst Vi Di Zun (1941)
Nell Snaidas, soprano
Robert Bloch, tenor
ELLSTEIN
Vos Iz Gevorn Fun Mayn Shtetele?
Benzion Miller, tenor
Mazl (Ellstein)
Elizabeth Shammash, mezzo-soprano
Reuben DOCTOR
(c.1880-1940) Ikh Bin A
"Boarder" Bay Mayn Vayb (1922)
Bruce Adler, tenor
ELLSTEIN
Der Alter Tsigayner (1938)
Simon Spiro, tenor
Vienna Chamber Orchestra
*Barcelona Symphony/National Orchestra
of Catalonia/Elli Jaffe
NAXOS AMERICAN CLASSICS 8.559405 [62:33]
To see full details of the series please
look at http://www.milkenarchive.org/cds/cds.taf
Sheer delight! Adherents
of music theatre must hear this glorious
revival of music from a little known milieu.
American Yiddish musical theatre flourished
among the Jewish immigrant population
and beyond during the period 1920-1949.
While full orchestrations have in many
cases disappeared or never existed the
music has survived in fragmentary form.
Full scores and parts have been reconstructed
with every appearance of authenticity
and loving care. In some cases the work
has been done by reference to 78s and
early LPs - much the same route has been
taken by Morgan and Stromberg to revive
lost film scores. Here six composers are
showcased in a series of showstoppers
from Lower Manhattan (Second Avenue) New
York operetta.
These songs are saucy,
smiling, swooning, sexy, sentimental and
yes schmaltzy. Stylistic streams flow
freely ... interacting with each other.
Weimar decadence, Viennese operetta voices
of Lehár and Robert Stolz, Klezmer,
folk song, Brahmsian lullaby they collide,
inter-breed and metamorphose. The music
also reminds us that the early shows of
Stephen Sondheim owed not a little to
this genre. Try listening to A Funny
Thing Happened on the Way to the Circus
after hearing this disc.
In Ikh Zing (tr.4)
which I have played at least fifteen times
already for sheer pleasure, Robert Bloch
knows how to use that yearning slightly
nasal tone of voice so ringingly close
to Dermota and Wunderlich. If Classic
FM do not pick up this track they lack
their much-vaunted ear for a winner. This
song is a sure-fire recipe for goose-flesh
and the prickle of hairs on the back of
the neck.
Klezmer woodwind in Abi
Gezunt and in Zog Es Mir Nokh Amol
clarinet wheezes and wheedles.
In fact the VCO’s clarinet deserves some
sort of special award for getting his
instrument to act, laugh, chuckle, caper
and leer. Voz Geven - starts tense
with gypsy paprika soon gives way to Straussian
Danube an insinuating waltz. Zigeuner
meets Klezmer in the hushed tension of
the start of Oy Mame - however
it is only a scene-setting foreword -
this is really about a ducking and diving,
swaying and sliding main section complete
with the consummately idiomatic VCO clarinet.
A supremely sweetened Brahmsian orchestration
(think Hungarian Dances) crowns Nell Snaidas’s
triumphantly lilting Zog Zog Zog Es
Mir and the same flavour comes across
in Mazl. The tragedy of Der
Dishvasher presents a strain on Robert
Abelson’s baritone which asks a lot when
Abelson is asked to slip and curve the
melodic line sauntering along the muezzin
sway. Abelson nicely handles the few words
of speech crowning the sad song of pride
lost in squalor. The oily suggestive humour
of Ikh bin a Boarder is slyly done
by Bruce Adler - yipping and crooning
- a tour de force of character singing.
This is an all or nothing performance.
The only reaction is Wow! Cimbalom underpins
the gypsy haze in Der Alte Tsigayner.
Campfire smoke gets in the eyes and at
the back of the throat all to set up a
wilder friss section with oompah
brass, cantabile violin line - part Weimar
part Budapest. These composers may have
been Schmalz.
Recording is of the very
best. Orchestra and singers have been
extremely well chosen. It is divisive
to choose but choose I will. Robert Bloch
and Nell Snaidas are my current favourites.
The words are given in
English only so there’s no chance to sing
along - and believe me you want to. You
can however get hold of the transliterated
Yiddish and translations at: http://www.milkenarchive.org/cds/yiddish_transliterations.pdf
This well documented
and superbly recorded winner opens a door
onto a piteously neglected area of the
repertoire. If this is anything to go
by this CD (and its successor will spell)
the sort of revival symphonic film music
made during the 1970s and Broadway shows
made during the 1980s. We must hope for
some complete score recordings as well.
Rob Barnett
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Klezmer Concertos
and Encores
Robert STARER (1924-2001)
K'li Zemer
David Krakauer, clarinet and bass-clarinet
Barcelona Symphony/National Orchestra
of Catalonia/Gerard Schwarz
Paul SCHOENFIELD
(b. 1947)
Klezmer Rondos
Scott Goff, flute
Alberto Mizrahi, tenor
Seattle Symphony Orchestra/Gerard Schwarz
Jacob WEINBERG (1879-1956)
The Maypole; Canzonetta
David Krakauer, clarinet
Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin/Gerard
Schwarz
Co-production with Deutschland Radio and
the ROC GmbH-Berlin
Abraham ELLSTEIN
(1907-1963)
Hassidic Dance
David Krakauer, clarinet
Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin/Gerard
Schwarz
(Co-production with Deutschland Radio
and the ROC GmbH-Berlin)
Osvaldo GOLIJOV
(b. 1960)
Rocketekya
David Krakauer, clarinet
Alicia Svigals, violin
Martha Mooke, electric viola
Pablo Aslan, contrabass
NAXOS AMERICAN CLASSICS 8.559403 [67:05]
To see full details of the series please
look at http://www.milkenarchive.org/cds/cds.taf
K'li zemer means "instrument
of song" in Hebrew. A traditional klezmer
was an wedding musician who played an
important role at these events and at
other festive occasions in Jewish life.
The Starer has
the lonely clarinet of Robert Krakauer
musing in loneliness the temperature gradually
rising. Strings slither and smoke and
dream romantically ((3.11, tr. 1) in the
prayers movement. That romantic dream,
returns in serenity for the third movement
Melodies where the clarinet plumbs
the depths of its range. The Dances
movement tramps wildly with a jazzy
propulsion and a hairy cackling wildness
to the solo clarinet line. The same full
tilt feral impetus drives the Dedication
finale. Affirmatively stomping melodrama
ends the movement in an explosive statement.
It dates from 1988.
Schoenfield’s
two Klezmer Rondos for flute, tenor
and orchestra (1989 rev. 1995) were written
for flautist Carol Wincenc. The first
is uproariously oily sometimes sounding
similar to Weill. The second is cool,
confiding, intimate and rising to a wailing
clarinet accompanied bolero at 5.01 and
then onwards to a dizzy csardas. Sousa
bowls into the picture for a few minutes
before bowling out. This is some of the
most ethnic music on the disc. The appearance
of a very accomplished tenor singing the
Yiddish song Mirele works very
well.
Weinberg’s two
encore pieces are wildly hyper-active
in the case of The Maypole while
the Canzonetta is suave and tender.
Ellstein’s Hassidic Dance adopts
a dignified gait punctuated with some
hairily virtuosic Yiddish elements along
the way. Golijov’s Rocketekya
has a predominance of jazz influence sorting
its way through the by now familiar dizzy
and confidently feral clarinet line. The
composer’s notes place the sounds of the
shofar (the Jewish instrument used by
Elgar in his The Apostles) in a
rocket. The electric viola adds a synthetic
electronic burble. There is one moment
at 4.01 where the wind instrument is left
alone to play as if distantly but with
what sounds like a crackling 78 shellac
background.
David Krakauer plays
to the manner born as well he might as
one of the world’s leading advocates of
Klezmer.
The notes are very full,
as is the standard for this densely documented
series. Sung words are given in English
translation - never in the original sung
language unless it happens to be English!
The notes themselves are only in English.
Rob Barnett
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Kurt
WEILL (1900-1950): The
Eternal Road (Highlights)
Play by Franz Werfel, English translation
by Ludwig Lewisohn - Sung in English
From Act I: "The Patriarchs": Scene 6:
Abraham and Isaac; Scene 7: Jacob and
the Angel; Scene 8: Jacob and Rachel;
Scene 16: The death of Jacob
From Act II: "Moses": Scene 17: In Egypt/Miriam
and Moses; Scene 20: Moses receives the
Commandments/Dance around the golden calf;
Scene 21: The Beam, Moses; Scene 22: Moses
addresses the people; Scene 23: Moses
gives the Commandments/The death of Moses
From Act III: "The King": Scene 24: Naomi
and Ruth; Ruth and Boaz
From Act IV: "The Prophets": Scene 32:
Isaiah and Jeremiah; Scene 33: The streets
of Jerusalem; Scene 34: Jeremiah; Scenes
35 and 36: Chananiah the false prophet/the
mob attacks Jeremiah; Scene 40: Transformation/Finale
Constance Hauman, soprano
Barbara Rearick, mezzo-soprano
Hanna Wollschläger, mezzo-soprano
Ian DeNolfo, tenor
Karl Dent, tenor
Vale Rideout, tenor
Ted Christopher, baritone
James Maddalena, baritone
Rundfunk-Kinderchor Berlin/Manfred Roost
Ernst Senff Chor/Sigurd Brauns
Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin/Gerard
Schwarz
NAXOS AMERICAN CLASSICS 8.559402 [73:00]
To see full details of the series please
look at http://www.milkenarchive.org/cds/cds.taf
This is the world premiere
recording of scenes from Kurt Weill's
rediscovered oratorio-style The Eternal
Road. Seemingly it created a sensation
during the 1937 New York season after
which it largely slipped from sight.
The style seems almost
completely alien to what we usually expect
from Weill. There is little of the distinctively
Jewish ethnic sound heard in most of the
other Milken volumes. An exception can
be heard in the wickedly worldly catchiness
of the Chananiah track from Act
4 (tr. 15). It is instead in an idiom
that is romanticised big-band Handelian.
It would fit like a custom-made glove
in a Three Choirs festival season. The
storyline is Biblical and is very ambitious
spanning the prophets and other Old Testament
figures: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Rachel,
Miriam, Moses, Naomi, Ruth, Boaz, Isaiah,
Jeremiah and Chananiah.
Overall this work is
thoroughly English or Anglo-Saxon in its
aural ‘signature’. It takes little imagination
to see this as ‘bread and butter’ repertoire
to Sargent, Goossens or Beecham. It is
gratefully singable even if the words
are not always a perfect fit to the melody’s
phrasing. It is gratefully sung by a roll-call
of singers many of whom who would make
a fine line-up for Handel’s Messiah
or Mendelssohn’s Elijah or
St. Paul. This calling is blended
with Brahmsian romance, Verdian sentiment
and a flaming operatic volatility (try
the My Idols track - tr. 13). Tracks
3 and 7 include some spoken passages seamlessly
woven into the picture. There are many
sweetly comforting passages including
the start of Moses receives the commandments
(tr. 6) where the solo violin weaves
its nectar around the introspective musings
of the choir. The same track also includes
completely unHandelian music of dynamic
and driving fervour blasted to silence
by a slammed impact on the tam-tam. Just
once in Naomi and Ruth I caught
a momentary shadow of the Weill of racy
Weimar disillusion in the pattering accompaniment
and the sung melodic line. Is Ruth going
to turn from the alien corn and launch
into Surabaya Johnny? The mournful
Isaiah and Jeremiah (tr. 12) occasionally
echoes Tippett’s Child of our Time.
I understand that all
of this sounds scarcely credible but I
can assure you that I am faithfully relaying
my impressions to you. It may perhaps
be counted in the company of other fine
but neglected Biblical-themed choral festival
works from the 1930s and 1940s: Cecil
Effinger’s Paul of Tarsus, Randall
Thompson’s Testament of Freedom,
Nathaniel Dett’s The Ordering of Moses.
Across the Atlantic we find somewhat similar
works in the shape of Havergal Brian’s
Symphony No. 4 Siegeslied (1933),
and much later Maurice Jacobson’s The
Hound of Heaven (1954). It ends in
Aida-like magnificence with horns
ringing out in a Shofar-blaze of magnificence.
A surprising and very
agreeable discovery. If you like the works
I have mentioned as reference-parallels
you should hear this urgently. Such a
pity that the whole work could not have
been recorded. I hope that opportunities
will now be made for the revival of other
pageant works from this composer: We
Will Never Die (1943) and A Flag
is Born (1946). If so perhaps not
far behind will be a revival of Alan Bush’s
secular flag-waving works of the 1930s
and 1940s. Altogether a fascinating experience.
Rob Barnett
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Leonard
BERNSTEIN (1918-1990): A Jewish
Legacy
Israelite Chorus; Invocation and Trance
(from Dybbuk); Psalm 148; Reenah; Three
Wedding Dances; The First Waltz (Canon);
Cha-cha-cha; Hora; Yevarechecha; Halil;
Simchu Na; Oif Mayn Khas'ne; Vayomer Elohim;
Yigdal; Four Sabras; Ilana, the Dreamer;
Idele, the Chassidele; Yosi, the Jokester;
Dina, the Tomboy Who Weeps Alone; Silhouette
(Galilee); Hashkiveinu
BBC Singers; Rochester Singers/Samuel
Adler; Jean Barr, piano; Hans Peter Blochwitz,
tenor; Christopher Bowers-Broadbent, organ;
Bonita Boyd, flute; Jack Gottlieb, piano;
Patrick Gnage, baritone; Avner Itai, conductor;
Aaron Miller, organ; Angelina Réaux,
mezzo-soprano; Jason Smith, bass baritone;
Barry Snyder, piano; Michael Sokol, baritone;
Cantor Howard Stahl.
NAXOS AMERICAN CLASSICS 8.559407 [55:47]
To see full details of the series please
look at http://www.milkenarchive.org/cds/cds.taf
On the evidence of this
collection there was a wide and various
vista of answers to Bernstein’s self-questioning:
"What are the Jewish roots I long for?".
This shortish collection
of short pieces and groups of short pieces
encompasses a bewildering but usually
enjoyable and sometimes provocative range
of responses. Bernstein runs the gamut
from shofar-announced defiance through
to delicate Bartók-style dances.
Psalm 148 is a song for piano and
soprano where the piano foreword quotes
from Tannhauser and where the song
slides easily between Grieg and drawing
room Victoriana. The Reenah and
Israelite Chorus use flute, trumpet,
harp and a range of percussion. Reenah’s
chorus is touched with playground rhythmic
games of the sort relished by Carl Orff
but with a Stravinskian Pulcinella
accent. The hammer pecking Orff choral
style is also unmistakable in Simchu
Na; even the choir and piano ensemble
specification matches. The Three Wedding
Dances for solo piano are playful
microscopic pieces - all three less than
a minute individually. The final Hora
has a catchy Bartókian rhythmic
bark. Halil in this case is for
flute and chamber ensemble. It is querulous,
not specially ethnic in sound, rather
recalling in many defiant passages the
Nielsen Flute Concerto which Bernstein
had recorded for CBS with Julius Baker.
At other times (2:32) the flute limns
a luscious melody apparently escaped from
one of Bernstein’s music theater pieces.
However in Oif Mayn Khas’ne,
for a Pierrot piano and tenor, the
drifting tonality takes us very close
to Schoenberg. Vayoner Elohim is
amongst the most Jewishly ethnic of the
pieces with its swaying vocal line peppered
up by a Schoenbergian piano. The Yigdal
is for chorus, flute, horn and harp.
At times this sounds remarkably like Holst’s
Rig Veda hymns. The Four Sabras
are for solo piano - here the skilled
and sensitive pianist is Jack Gottlieb
who also wrote the encyclopedic liner-notes.
The material of these pieces delicately
shades atonality into the romance of West
Side Story (Ilana), encompasses
shattered rhythmic impetus, as well as
an feint towards a Beethovenian heroism
(Dina). Silhouette, a
charming character song for piano and
soprano, trots along with a return to
the melisma and disarming acting. The
disc ends with the Hashkiveinu -
a crashing call to attention from the
organ is followed by an eclectic mix of
choral singing from Stravinskian clamour
to Vaughan Williams style polyphony. It
was written in 1945 and here receives
its premiere recording.
Bernstein shows himself
an eclectic musician. Much that is here
is musically stimulating, succinct and
inspirational. I would expect this disc
to gain a major following especially amongst
the many who are enthusiasts of Bernstein
as composer.
Rob Barnett
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Jewish Voices in the
New World: Chants and Prayers from the
American Colonial Era
Barukh Habba (Psalm 118:26-29); Shira
Hadasha (Morning liturgy); Chants and
Elegies for Tisha B'av ; From the Evening
Kinot; Eikha-Book of Lamentations excerpt:
2:1-5; Aleikhem Eda K'dosha; Al Heikhali
Ev'ke; From the Morning Kinot; Eikha Tzon
Haharega; G'rushim; Ev'ke V'al Shod Z'vulai;
Heikhal Adonai; Bore Ad Ana; Shirat Hayyam-Exodus
14:26-31; 15:1-10; Ahot K'tanna (Rosh
Hashana morning); Aseret Haddibb'rot-Exodus
20:2-17; Haftarat Vayikra-excerpt; Preliminary
Benediction; Isaiah 43:21-26; Et Sha'arei
Ratzon (Rosh Hashana morning); Haftarat
T'tzave-excerpt: Ezekiel 43:10-15; Shabbat-From
the Kabbalat Shabbat; (Welcoming the Sabbath)
and Sabbath evening liturgy; Mizmor l'David
(psalm 29); Mizmor shir l'yom hashabbat-tov
l'hodot (psalm 92); Hashkivenu; Kaddish
shalem; Torah Reading: Parashat Emor (excerpts);
Leviticus 22:26-33; Leviticus 23:33-44;
Ein Keloheinu (High Holy Day melody);
Hazzan Ira Rohde
Schola Hebraeica/Neil Levin
Donald Barnum, chorusmaster
Jonathan Fluker, choral preparation
NAXOS AMERICAN CLASSICS 8.559411 [62:50]
To see full details of the series please
look at http://www.milkenarchive.org/cds/cds.taf
We are told that this
CD ‘offers a rare and fascinating collection
of synagogue melodies and biblical chants
as they were sung in the early American
Colonial period, throughout the Revolutionary
War, and up through the early years of
the new republic.’
Neil Levin, who is also
the conductor, provides a learned but
engaging commentary. These pieces often
juxtapose the leading solo role of the
cantor with the congregational voice of
the choir. Hazzan Ira Rohde is the cantor
whose fluid and fast-moving style keeps
things dynamic. His voice is slightly
nasal but very appealing. Only in Aseret
(tr. 13) did I notice the voice coming
under great strain. Many of these tracks
are touched with a North African or a
Spanish wand but one occasionally discerns
a British (Holst) and French (Canteloube)
folk-song influence. The sound of the
choir (usually men only) is very strong
and rounded. This choir is clearly very
adept at subtle colouring and dynamic
contouring. Similar accomplishments are
shown by the children’s choir.
Mr Levin reminds us that
the imported traditions that flourished
in "New Amsterdam" (later New York) were
Sephardic in origin. We are told that
these pieces continue to enjoy an active
life in America's oldest synagogues, Shearith
Israel, established in 1654, and Mikve
Israel, founded in 1782.
Sincere and unassuming music sensitively
performed.
Rob Barnett
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A
Hanukka Celebration
Raymond GOLDSTEIN
(b. 1953)
based on melodies by Joshua
LIND (1890-1973); Solomon
ANCIS (1873-1945); and Zeidl
ROVNER (1856-1943)
B'rakhot L'hanukka
Cantor Simon Spiro
Coro Hebraeico/Neil Levin
Hugo ADLER
(1894-1955)
Hannerot Hallalu
Carolina Chamber Chorale/Tim Koch
Zhou Jin, piano
Aaron MILLER
(1911-2000)
Ma'oz Tzur
Arrangement: Neil Levin
Cantor Benzion Miller
Abba Bogin, piano
Samuel ADLER
(b. 1928)
To Celebrate a Miracle
University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory
of Music Wind Symphony/Rodney Winther
Leo LOW (1878-1960)
arr. Larry Moore
Likhtelekh
Coro Hebraeico/Neil Levin
Zavel ZILBERTS
(1881-1949)
Di Khanike Likht
Cantor Benzion Miller
Abba Bogin, piano
Herbert FROMM
(1905-1995)
Hanukka Madrigal (Mi y'mallel?)
Rochester Singers/Samuel Adler
Samuel ADLER
(b. 1928)
The Flames of Freedom
New London Children's Choir/Ronald Corp
Solomon ANCIS
(1873-1945)
Mizmor Shir Hanukkat Habbayit
Cantor Benzion Miller
Schola Hebraeica/Neil Levin
Judith SHATIN
(b. 1949)
Nun, Gimel, Hei, Shin
New London Children's Choir/Ronald Corp
Alexander OLSHANETSKY
(1892-1944)
Adonai Z/kharanu
Arrangement: Neil Levin
Cantor Moshe Haschel
New London Children's Choir; Schola Hebraeica/Neil
Levin
Michael ISAACSON (b.
1946)
Aspects of a Great Miracle
Southern Chorale, University of Southern
Mississippi/Tim Koch
NAXOS AMERICAN CLASSICS 8.559410 [73:01]
To see full details of the series please
look at http://www.milkenarchive.org/cds/cds.taf
Hanukka (also known as
the Festival of Dedication) is celebrated
by Jews to commemorate the Maccabean victory
in 165 B.C.E. over the Greco-Syrians.
Their religious freedom was at stake.
The Festival marks the re-dedication of
the Temple in Jerusalem and the legend
of the miraculous eight-day life of the
light in the candelabrum.
Raymond Goldstein’s B'rakhot
L'hanukka has the style of the best
Scandinavian tradition admixing the romance
of The Bluebird (Stanford). The
writing for choir and cantor soon gives
place to a piece for chorus and piano
from Hugo Adler. The Miller piece sounds
positively Russian - heroic and darting
along. Then comes Samuel Adler’s To
Celebrate a Miracle, a bright purely
orchestral fantasy with a really Christmas
‘signature’ rather like the seasonal pieces
by Geoffrey Bush and David Cox. At 13:36
this is the longest piece on the disc.
Judith Shatin’s Nun, Gimel, Hei, Shin
gradually accelerates the tempo to a welter
of notes and then relaxes. Samuel Adler’s
The Flames of Freedom is an eight
song sequence which includes writing for
a jewelled piano and female chorus. This
is often dreamy reverential, glittering
- the piano often high in its starry upper
registers and accommodating more dissonance
than we are used to. The women’s voices
take the high ground in the smoothly singable
Likhtelekh by Leo Low.
Traditional Hanukka songs
both favourites, familiar over the years,
as well as new works adding fresh life
to an ages-old tradition.
Rob Barnett
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Darius
MILHAUD (1892-1974)
Service Sacré, pour le samedi
matin-Sabbath Morning Service (1947)
avec prières additionelles pour
le vendredi soir (with additional prayers
for Friday evening) (1949-1950)
Yaron Windmueller, baritone
Rabbi Rodney Mariner, reader
Prague Philharmonic Chorus
Czech Philharmonic Orchestra/Gerard Schwarz
NAXOS AMERICAN CLASSICS 8.559409 [64:15]
To see full details of the series please
look at http://www.milkenarchive.org/cds/cds.taf
Mme Madeleine Milhaud,
the widow of Darius Milhaud, said of Milhaud’s
Service Sacré that "It is
a work of love, it is the voice of a creature
communicating with his God ... I hear
that when I hear the Service Sacré".
Milhaud was born in Marseilles.
He was widely travelled and spent time
in London and Brazil amongst many other
places. In the L’kha Dodi of the
Service Sacré, written many
years afterwards, one can hear the influence
of Rio’s street festivals. The surrender
by France to the Nazis in 1940 saw Milhaud
depart France and move to the USA. There
he spent his last 34 years prolifically
productive to the last. His final work
was Ani Maamin, premiered at the
Carnegie Hall in 1975 by the Brooklyn
Phil and other forces including the soprano
Roberta Peters all conducted by Lukas
Foss.
This Naxos CD is the
premiere recording of the complete version
of the Service Sacré. Naxos
have done well by Milhaud’s memory and
the generation of listeners who will now
be able to hear this estimable devotional
work. The vocal parts, especially the
solo here sung by Yaron Windmueller, are
more touched with Jewish ethnic accents
than the orchestral line; take the Va’anahnu
(tr. 16) as an example. The orchestral
style is a sort of mélange of Copland
(tonal), Roy Harris (listen to Mi Khamokha
at tr. 4 and tr. 23), Vaughan Williams
(Dona Nobis Pacem), Tippett (A
Child of Our Time) and Randall Thompson.
It is not tough but neither is it bland.
The Vaughan Williams ‘edge’ can be heard
in the barbaric splendour of S’u Sh’arim,
the athletic healthy brusqueness of Returning
the Scroll to the Ark and the dancing
restfulness of K’dusha. Must be
coincidence but the explosive version
of Mi Khamokha at tr. 23 sounds
astonishingly similar to the colossal
tectonic upheavals of the Icelandic composer
Jón Leifs. At tr. 26 the folk magnificence
of the little march gesture points surely
towards French pastorals in the composer’s
native Provence and further afield to
Joseph Canteloube’s Auvergne.
Rabbi Rodney Mariner
has an appealing and plaintively reassuring
voice in the spoken Kaddish (tr.
18), Prayer and Response (tr. 8)
and The Law of the Lord is Perfect
(tr. 13). The orchestration around
him is perfectly judged by Milhaud and
by the Naxos engineers.
This is a work which
has the facility to grip your affections.
Of course there is at least one other
Sacred Service. Bloch’s Avodath
Hakodesh is certainly more exotically
flavoured but in the various performances
I have heard (the composer’s and the one
recorded in the late 1970s by Chandos)
strikes me as hard-going and not consistently
inspired. By contrast Milhaud’s Service
Sacré is singable, speaks directly
and accessibly to all and is memorable.
I wonder whether the proximity of the
end of the Second World War also added
intensity.
This is very cleanly
and athletically recorded ... producing
an open impression. The artists are excellent.
This should do very well. I happily recommend
this disc of a major devotional work.
The Sacred Service
is presented with the settings for
the Friday evening liturgy, which were
composed after the work's commission and
premiere at Temple Emanu-El in San Francisco.
Rob Barnett
see also
Joseph
ACHRON (1886-1943)
Violin Concerto no. 1, Op. 60 Elmar
Oliveira, violin Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester
Berlin*/Joseph Silverstein Rec. Jesus-Christus-Kirche,
Berlin July 1998. DDD Co-production with
Deutschland Radio and the ROC GmbH-Berlin
The Golem (Suite): Creation
of the Golem; The Golem's Rampage; The
Fatigued Wanderer (Lullaby); Dance of
the Phantom Spirits; Petrifying of the
Golem Czech Philharmonic Orchestra/Gerard
Schwarz Rec. Rudolfinum, Prague, Czech
Republic, Sept 2000. DDD Two Tableaux
from the Theatre Music to Belshazzar
Barcelona Symphony/National Orchestra
of Catalonia/Gerard Schwarz Rec. Centre
Cultural de Sant Cugat, Barcelona, Spain.
Jan 2000. DDD world premiere recordings
NAXOS AMERICAN CLASSICS 8.559408 [65:28]
[RB]
It
is a real pleasure to hear Achron’s music
beyond the clutch of violin solos. He
is much more than a pyrotechnician for
violin aspirants. ... see Full
Review
Mario
CASTELNUOVO-TEDESCO (1895-1968)
Naomi
and Ruth, Op. 27 Ana María
Martínez, soprano Academy and Chorus
of St. Martin-in-the-Fields/Sir Neville
Marriner Sacred Service for the
Sabbath Eve, Op. 122 Ted Christopher,
baritone Jeremy Cohen, tenor Rabbi Rodney
Mariner, speaker Hugh Potton, organ The
London Chorus/Ronald Corp Prayers
My Grandfather Wrote (excerpts)
Barbara Harbach, organ Memorial
Service for the Departed (excerpts)
Cantor Simon Spiro, tenor McNeil Robinson,
organ New York Cantorial Choir/Neil Levin
Rec. no dates given. 2000s? DDD
NAXOS AMERICAN CLASSICS 8.559404 [69:40]
[RB]
Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s
musical sincerity and integrity shines
through untarnished by Hollywood’s allure
and materialism. ... see Full
Review
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