From Jewish Life
Helene Schneidermann (mezzo-soprano)
Jascha Nemtsov (piano), Wolfgang Meyer (clarinet), Tabea Zimmermann (viola), Ingolf Turban (violin), David Geringas (cello)
rec. 1999-2004
No song texts provided 
SWR Classic SWR19434CD [5 CD: 329]

These five discs were released over a five-year period between 1999 and 2004 and have now been reassembled in a sturdy box. There’s a booklet note but it’s just over four pages long and discusses the subject of Jewish Music with brief reference to a number of the composers whose works are represented but without specific reference to any of their works. Therefore, if you need compositional dates you won’t find them here and if you want the texts of the songs on the fifth disc you’ll have to request them by email.

I assume that the original releases contained a lot more information about the composers and works, and though you’ll find reference in the notes here to the existence of the New Society for Jewish Music and other organisations that were set up its propagation, it’s hard to orientate yourself without fuller help. There is a reference, however, to a post-facto quotation from pianist Jascha Nemtsov, the central figure in this series of releases, who wryly laments that despite the existence of the discs ‘the composers have remained as unknown as ever’. Maybe it seems so to him but some ground has been made; the music of Achron, the Kreins and Joachim Stutschewsky, certainly, has been explored on disc, so all is not lost. Nemtsov should be congratulated for his sensitive and authoritative music-making and for ensuring the success of the music on a recital-by-recital basis. 

Rhapsodies and songs, Freilachs and chants, canzonettas and dances, folk songs, meditations, poems and cabaret songs; these are some of the themes of the music, interspersed throughout the discs. Joining Nemtsov are, in disc order, Wolfgang Meyer (clarinet), Tabea Zimmermann (viola), Ingolf Turban (violin), David Geringas (cello) and Helene Schneidermann (mezzo-soprano). The first disc is a clarinet one dominated by the Kreins, Grigori and his son Julian, as well as featuring a suite assembled by the great clarinettist Simeon Bellison from disparate pieces from the pens of Grzegorz Fitelberg, Jakov Weinberg and Boris Levenson, which together form a suite of ‘Four Hebrew Melodies’. Israel Brandmann’s unusual Variations on a Popular Theme devotes its first five minutes (of 11) to the piano at which point the clarinet breaks in vibrantly.  Amongst the most sophisticated composer here, and throughout, is Julian Krein whose regular infusions of Gallic elegance are always welcome, as in his Three Hebrew Songs Without Words.

The second disc features the superbly elegant violist Tabea Zimmermann in a selection of music that plays to her very real strengths. Her echo effects in the Rhapsody of Alexander Weprik are notable as is the intensity she generates in its central slow movement. The light-hearted and outdoorsy Hebraisms of the finale are just as fine. Alexander Krein’s use of Jewish scales in Ornaments draws from her exceptional artistry whilst in his Songs of the Dead she evokes the bleakness of the music and its haunted lyricism. In the Gnessin pieces she draws on the music’s balladry and her tonal warmth and impeccable intonation are perfect conduits for Gamburg’s elegant Two Pieces. I suspect this was her first recording of Bloch’s Suite – Bloch features several times in this set, naturally enough, though he is not central to it and indeed, because of his nationality, stands a little apart from it. She recorded the orchestral version on Capriccio with Steven Sloane more recently. 

That fine violinist Ingolf Turban joins Nemtsov for the third disc and he enjoys the challenges set by Achron whose evocative pieces are still on the periphery of the repertoire. Turban’s playing of the Hebrew Melody is a touch on the cosmopolitan side but none the worse for all that, but there’s real insouciance in the Dance Improvisation on a Hebrew Folk Song, down to the Sarasate-inspired whistling. The less-well-known Joel Engel’s Freilachs offers the violinist some freewheeling bravura and there is a contrasting trio of then-unrecorded pieces by Alexander Krein, all worthwhile and splendidly played by the nuance-conscious violinist. The music from Aleichem’s play Stempenyu the Fiddler is both lovely and lively. 

The fourth CD features cellist David Geringas, recorded in a 2004 recital in SWR’s Stuttgart studios. He, like Tabea Zimmermann, also essays Bloch; Méditation hébraïque and the piece from which the box takes its title, which is played with eloquent reserve. Lazare Saminsky was a folklorist of colouristic panache and his Chassidic Dance, the first piece from his Chassidic Suite, is a ripe example; it’s beguilingly played by Geringas. Stutschewsky was a fine cellist as well as composer and his Frejlachs is fast and fiery but his Israeli Suite is rather bigger in scope, a four-movement piece lasting 18 minutes. Cleverly contrasted it’s at its deepest in the third movement Prayer and at its most joyful in the concluding Sephardic Dance. As this cello selection illustrates, most, if not all the works in the box, are small-scale pieces but though they may be small in scale – and deliberately so – they lack nothing in terms of nuance, vibrancy, melancholy and joy. Sinowi Feldman’s Poème has rhapsodic elements and Solomon Rosowsky’s Rhapsodie accelerates with vigour, and Geringas and Nemtsov prove fully equal to their demands.

The final disc focuses on the voice and a solo piano work, Alexander Krein’s Jewish Dances for Piano, Op.50, a pithy sequence of contrasting terpsichorean charmers that thread their way through the disc. The texts are sung either in Yiddish or German by Helene Schneidermann whose Carus disc of Yiddish songs I reviewed with pleasure a decade ago. Here, once more, one can admire her sense of projection and articulation, her just appreciation of the musical demands, whether cabaret-styled, introspective, reflective or joyful. Vocally, she is excellently equipped for the undertaking, and she is temperamentally utterly assured. So, for example, in Lazare Saminsky’s First Hebrew Song Cycle, Op.12, she balances its meditative as well as its more declamatory moments (try the third setting for the declamatory). One of her most impressive achievements (among many) is her haunting singing of Mickhail Milner’s In Chejder with its subtle vocal effects, a song to which Nemtsov, as ever, brings his own insights. Gnessin’s songs are full of rich vernacular appeal but even in a more serious setting, such as Achron’s Po En-Harod, both musicians find exactly the right tone of expression. Alexander Krein crafts an uplifting Yiddish setting, which co-exists with Saminsky’s Ladino setting of Rachelina, with its light sprinkling of Iberian spice. 

One of the real strengths of this programme is the number of pieces that received their world premiere recordings here and it’s probably the case that many of them can still only be heard in these performances. I make it around 42 pieces in total – which includes the individual movements of suites and cycles – made their disc premieres here, a tribute to the industry, application and ardent appreciation shown principally by Nemtsov.

Fortunately, these discs make an appeal on recital-by-recital basis. Yes, there are generic settings and yes, nothing is developed extensively so that the pleasures here are of a localised, focused and specialised nature. Nemtsov may be disheartened by the relative obscurity of much of this music still, feeling it, perhaps, funnelled to the outlying ethnic borderland where folk, cabaret and lighter classical meet and mingle. He, however, in particular, and his disc confreres, have made a real contribution to the vivacious and continuing life of this music on disc and are deserving of high praise.

Jonathan Woolf 

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Contents
CD1
Grigori Krein (1879-1955) 
Songs without Words (4), Op.23
Israel Brandmann (1901-1992)
Variations on a Popular Theme, Op.12
Grzegorz Fitelberg (1879-1953) 
To the Wedding
Jakov Weinberg (1879-1956)
Canzonetta (Grandmother’s Tale)
Boris Levenson (1884-1947)
Hebrew Dance, Op.68
Jakov Weinberg
Children’s Round
Julian Krein (1913-1996)
Hebrew Songs without Words (3), Op.12
Grigori Krein
Songs without Words (3), Op.38
Berceuse funebre, Op.8 no.1
Rhapsodie
Wolfgang Meyer (clarinet): Jascha Nemtsov (piano)  
rec. September 2002, unknown location

CD2
Alexander Weprik (1899-1958)
Rhapsody, Op.11 
Alexander Krein (1883-1951)
Ornaments, Op.42 arr for viola and piano 
Mikhail Gnessin (1883-1957)
Minstrel’s Song, op.34 arr. for viola and piano
Song of Mariamne, Op.37 No.2 arr for viola and piano
Alexander Weprik
Songs of the Dead (Totenlieder), Op.4
Kaddisch, Op.6
Grigori Gamburg (1900-1967)
Two Pieces for viola and piano from the ‘Song of Songs’, Op.5
Alexander Weprik
Chant rigoureux, Op.9 arr Wadim Borisowskij
Ernest Bloch (1880-1959)
Suite for Viola and Piano
Tabea Zimmermann (viola): Jascha Nemtsov (piano)  
rec. October 1999, Kammermusikstudio, SWR Stuttgart

CD3
Joseph Achron (1886-1943) 
Hebrew Melody, Op.33 arr. for violin and piano
Dance Improvisation, Op.37
Hebrew Pieces (2), Op.35: Hebrew Lullaby arr. for violin and piano
Alexander Weprik
Suite, Op.7
Joel Engel (1868-1927)
Freilachs, Op.20 No.2
Lazare Saminsky (1882-1959)
Hebrew Rhapsody, Op.3 No.2
Alexander Krein
Aria, Op.41
Caprice hébraïque, Op.24
Second Aria
Joseph Achron
Marchen (Fairy Tale), Op.46
Scher, Op.42
Canzonetta, Op.52 no.2
Stempenyu Suite; from the music for Scholom Aleichem’s play ‘Stempenyu the Fiddler’
Ingolf Turban (violin): Jascha Nemtsov (piano)  
rec. November 1999, Kammermusikstudio, SWR Stuttgart

CD4
Ernest Bloch 
Méditation hébraïque
From Jewish Life
Lazare Saminsky
Chassidic Dance, No.1 from Chassidic Suite, Op.24
Leo Zeitlin (1884-1959)
Eli Zion
Joachim Stutschewsky (1891-1982)
Frejlachs (Improvisation)
Lazare Saminsky
Meditation, No.2 from Chassidic Suite, Op.24
Joachim Stutschewsky
Shir Yehudi
Sinowi Feldman (1893-1942)
Poème, Op.11
Joseph Achron
Fragment mystique sur un theme hebraique, Op.43
Solomon Rosowsky (1878-1962)
Rhapsodie
Joachim Stutschewsky
Israeli Suite
David Geringas (cello): Jascha Nemtsov (piano) 
rec. April 2004, Kammermusikstudio, SWR Stuttgart

CD5
Lazare Saminsky
Schir Haschirim
Hebrew Song Cycle, Op.12
Alexander Krein
Jewish Dances for Piano, Op.50 Nos. 1-3
Solomon Rosowsky
Ikh bin a bal-agole
Pesach Lvov (1880-1913)
Wos wet sajn mikojach burikes
Joel Engel
Jeschnah erez
Mickhail ‘Moshe’ Milner (1886-1953)
In Chejder
Tanz, tanz, mejdele, tanz
Alexander Krein
Jewish Dances for Piano, Op.50 Nos. 4-5
Mikhail Gnessin
Jewish Songs (6), Op.37 No.2 Das Liedel von dem Mottele, No.1 Jad anuga hajta la
Das Grabmal Rachels, Op.32 No.2
Jewish Songs (6), Op.37 No.3 Shir Haschirim
Joseph Achron
In a kleiner schtibele
Po En-Harod, Op.69
A kapele konzertisten, Op.64
Alexander Krein
Jewish Dances for Piano, Op.50 Nos. 6-7
Alexander Weprik
Two Jewish Folk Songs, Op.8
Two Jewish Folk Songs, Op.10
Alexander Krein
Two Jewish Songs, Op.39
Jewish Dances for Piano, Op.50 Nos. 8-10
Lazare Saminsky
Second Hebrew Song Cycle, Op.13
Sch’chaw, bni, Op.11 No.2
Helene Schneidermann (mezzo-soprano): Jascha Nemtsov (piano)
rec. May 2001, SWR Studio