A Pianist Explores Her Jewish Heritage
Pola Baytelman (piano)
rec. 2020, Zankel Hall, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York
Centaur CRC4005 [77]
I have to wonder how I had not come across Chilean-born Pola Baytelman and her superb pianism. The commitment in every note makes for a breathtaking experience. As for exploring one’s Jewish heritage, there is so much that one can only speculate about her selection process, but this is an interesting overview spanning some 250 years. She writes in the booklet that these are pieces “that I love that also represent a wide variety of styles”. The range is considerable: just look at the contents list!
The programme begins with Paul Schoenfeld’s masterly Six Improvisations on Hassidic Melodies. A critic wrote spot-on that his works “do for Hassidic music what Astor Piazzolla did for the Argentine tango”. Fun, lively and sometimes sad, these pieces emphasise the folk element in the melodies yet elevate them to high art. There are traces of tunes from Eastern Europe, particularly Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria.
Next, Baytelman delights us with Mendelssohn’s Variations sérieuses, a fabulous example of his genius. His father converted to Christianity when young Felix was seven. The family name became Mendelssohn-Bartholdy in the hope of avoiding persecution that Jews faced throughout Europe. (My family took a gentile name the 18th century, but in the end had to leave Russia for England in 1910.) The composer never embraced Judaism or Lutheranism, but he felt connected to his heritage. He was especially proud of his grandfather, the famous German-Jewish philosopher and theologian Moses Mendelssohn.
The booklet says that we have a publisher to thank for this wonderfully evocative theme with seventeen variations. He commissioned it to raise money for a statue of Beethoven in Bonn. That was an unlikely source of one of Mendelssohn’s finest compositions, “one of the jewels of the Romantic literature”, as the booklet has it. The work reveals more of its fantastic creativity with every new hearing.
Darius Milhaud wrote Saudades do Brasil after his stay in Brazil in 1917-1919 as secretary of the poet Paul Claudel, then French ambassador. The pieces take an affectionate look at various neighbourhoods in Rio de Janeiro. Polytonality gives the pieces a distinct dissonance but they were popular when they were published. That was interesting: such dissonance was cutting-edge then. Milhaud’s orchestration was just as popular.
Schoenberg converted to Lutheranism in 1898, and went back to Judaism in 1933. There is a telling passage in his correspondence with painter Wassili Kandinsky, whom he accused of antisemitism: “I have now fully understood and shall never forget: I am neither a German, nor a European, not even a man. I am a ‘Jew’. I am quite content! I do not object to being tarred with the same brush as others. For I have seen that the other side is no longer exemplary to me…”. Schoenberg’s Zwei Klavierstücke, while dissonant, are not as difficult to listen to as many of his works that follow his dodecaphonic revolution.
Charles-Valentin Alkan insisted on making his Jewish heritage a noticeable element of his music. He was a shy recluse, so success evaded him, unlike his contemporaries Chopin and Liszt, who deeply admired him. Today his music is better known, due to its originality and the musicality of the pianism. Baytelman selected four Esquisses and three Préludes. They are full of character, and brilliantly representative of their titles – see the list of contents at the end of the review. For example, Ancienne mélodie de la Synagogue captures Jewishness magically. Chanson de la folle au bord de la Mer really shows Alkan’s power to describe a state of mind in music, usually a most difficult task. Increpatio (Latin for “rebuke”) is thoroughly descriptive.
One must wonder: what if Erwin Schulhoff, a brilliant composer, survived Nazism? The five studies on this programme represent his fascination with the jazz idiom, which he sought to incorporate in his music whenever he could. They are a perfect example of how he managed to find the wit and freedom in jazz and weave it into classical forms. They are representative of the jazz age, a mix of vital energy with languor and sultriness. Every work of his that I have heard begs the question: how many more great works he may have composed?
Two pieces by the 18th-century composer Louis-Claude Daquin round off the programme. A child prodigy, at the age of six he performed for Louis XIV. He is known for dazzling virtuosity; it comes through in these pieces. The very well-known rondo Le coucou is surely the closest representation in music of a bird – and goodness knows there are many. The other piece, also highly descriptive, presents the titular courageous winds as angry and blowing fiercely. He must have been a formidable performer. Harpsichordist Christopher Hogwood writes: “he thundered in the Judex crederis evoking such real excitement in the hearts of his audience that they all turned pale”. Small wonder that several spectators suffered broken limbs in a melee!
This is a hugely enjoyable recital of fabulous music. Pola Beytelman is a perfect advocate, committed to the music and the composers. I shall enjoy returning to this disc on a regular basis.
Steve Arloff
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Contents
Paul Schoenfeld (b. 1947)
Six Improvisations on Hassidic Melodies (c. 1985)
Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
Variations sérieuses, Op.54, in D minor 1841)
Darius Milhaud (1892-1974)
Saudades do Brasil, Op.67, a selection (1920-1921)
Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951)
Zwei Klavierstücke, Op.33 (1928, 1931)
Charles Alkan (1813-1888)
Esquisses, Op.63, a selection (1861)
Préludes, Op.31, a selection (1847)
Erwin Schulhoff (1894-1942)
Cinq Études de Jazz (c. 1920)
Louis-Claude Daquin (1694-1772)
Pièces de Clavecin (c. 1735)
