Beyond a striking cover, the accompanying booklet surprises
for its many photos of the Silesian Chamber Quintet (SCQ), both individually
and collectively. Too many, really, especially with no possibility of
a 'photogenic' plea: twelve full sides and two half sides in a twenty-side
booklet, with yet another portrait waiting under the CD in the jewel
case. Is it beneficial to the listener to see the musicians lurking
on dilapidated staircases or in dingy back-alleys? More space might
instead have been given over to information on the composers - there
is none, not even dates of birth/death; or on the music - again, nothing.
Even what sparse facts
are given are not always correct. For
instance, Samuel Cohen was not as implied the original composer of 'Hatikvah',
but the arranger; and the song 'If I Were a Rich Man' from the Broadway
musical 'Fiddler on the Roof' was composed by
Jerry (or Jerrold)
Bock, not
Jeremy.
Sifting through the photos, the patient reader learns merely that "you
will find everything [on the album]: the national anthem of Israel and
a children's song, the Psalms of David and a wedding song, a klezmer
piece and a prayer." Alas, no full chamber work by an Israeli composer.
Incidentally, the last two items are rather cheekily listed as 'bonus
tracks'. Yet without them the running time would not even reach 45 minutes,
thus it appears unlikely that many listeners will feel overwhelmed by
treats - that is, the 'Mecyje' of the album title. Acte Préalable
seem almost to specialise in sub-fifty minute playing times in a way
that recalls the DGs and IMPs of the 1980s - six out of twelve CDs currently
listed as 'new releases' on their website fall short of this already
very ungenerous threshold, with another scraping over it by a few seconds.
More's the pity, because this label offers much that is unavailable
elsewhere.
Despite the short timing, however, this CD itself is a very good advert
for traditional (or quasi-traditional) musics as done in a tasteful
way - that is, without drumkit, amplification, crooning vocalist, background
singers and the like. The SCQ play well and with warmth, humour - a
well-placed human sigh in 'Fiddler on the Roof'! - and an enthusiasm
for the tradition which does not sentimentalise it. Their programme,
with an average track length of three-and-a-half minutes, leans heavily
towards
Unterhaltungsmusik, but there is plenty of variety, with
typically lively dances inter-threaded with double-edged melancholy.
All arrangements are by lead violinist Dariusz Zboch, who certainly
has a knack for this kind of thing, even if he sometimes fritters it
on projects like the SCQ's first album for Acte Préalable four
years ago - a collection of pop 'classics' "as seen through the eyes
of the great composers of the past" (AP0233). There is an element of
the group's desire to be seen as populist in the inclusion in their
programme of 'Fiddler on the Roof', John Williams's lovely but threadbare
'Schindler's List' theme and something from Israeli 'world' music guru
Yair Dalal.
Sound quality is good. Credit to Acte Préalable and the SCQ for
their bold choice of CD cover, which courts controversy in a still strongly
anti-Semitic world.
Byzantion
Contact at artmusicreviews.co.uk
