Art Songs of the Jewish Diaspora
Ian Pomerantz (bass-baritone)
Byron Schenkman (piano)
Sarah Freiberg (cello)
rec. 2023, Futura Productions, Boston, USA
Texts and translations included
Acis APL54155 [51]
This beautifully documented disc traces art songs in the Jewish diaspora from the late nineteenth century to the music of today. The two living composers are Lori Laitman and Yehudi Wyner, still with us at the time of writing, aged 94. Six languages are used in these settings and one can perhaps forgive the typically excited booklet blurb for speaking of ‘stunningly diverse works.’
Each song is compact and no composer is allowed to dominate the programme. This process of democratisation ensures that different traditions are represented, from the arrangement of Mark Warshawsky, born in 1848, to Laitman’s 2004 setting. Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s Three Sephardic Songs are sung in Ladino and are expressive, dextrous examples of his gift for characterisation in small settings such as these – sonorous Alpine heights, the rippling of rain, the moonlit night. Léon Algazi was a near-contemporary of Castelnuovo-Tedesco and though himself also Sephardi was born in Romania. The two selected songs from his Six chansons populaires are well contrasted; one utilises Yemenite melodic material and accelerates excitingly whilst the other is a love song rooted in the nineteenth-century.
The Warshawsky setting was arranged by Sidor Belarsky and is one of the most touching, and engagingly lyric pieces here, allowing bass-baritone Ian Pomerantz to roll his ‘r’ with great vigour as well as to slow and soften affectingly. Elsewhere, some of the narrative or strophic settings tell uneasy narratives such as the burning shtetl evoked in Lazar Weinberg’s setting Es brent, briderlech, es brent! His other setting here, Unter dayne vayse shtern, is a hauntingly concise lullaby with an unsettlingly vivid third stanza – conveyed with immediacy by both performers. Other pieces are adaptations of Jewish folk melodies for the recital platform. One example of the last category is Joel Engel’s Nigun, a solo piano piece of which there are some scattered throughout the programme, and which provide contrast. Though it’s a ‘recital’ adaptation it doesn’t feel formalized out of all recognition.
Laitman and Wyner are programmed one after the other. Laitman’s setting develops like a habanera, the piano joining with the cello, played by Sarah Freiberg; a strong example of her song setting. Whereas Wyner’s setting of Psalm 119 has a focused, quietly conversational tone, quite shaded and dark.
Milhaud is represented by one song from two of his cycles. Chant de Sion is gently hypnotic despite the lyrics – tears, lamentation, loss – whereas its companion is faster and splendidly lyrical; Milhaud, as ever, privileges melody. A composer whose reclamation continues is Henriëtte Bosmans, who is represented by the second of her Three Impressions for cello and piano, Nuit Calme, which is suffused with frankly Debussian yearning.
The disc ends with two songs by Ilse Weber, who was killed in 1944. Her best-known setting is Ich wandre durch Theresienstadt which has here been arranged by Winifried Radeke to allow a full, somewhat florid piano accompaniment. The more ad hoc, spare piano-and-accordion accompaniment to Anne Sofie von Otter’s DG recording provides a more expressive experience, but not simply for the fact that it’s sung by a woman, as Weber would have sung it. A man’s voice is too robust. Wiegala is sung with the accompaniment of obbligato cello.
There are full texts and translations and fine booklet notes about the composers, their songs and their cultural backgrounds. Ian Pomerantz and pianist Byron Schenkman are the primary mediators of this fine project.
Jonathan Woolf
Availability: Acis
Contents
Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (1895-1968)
Three Sephardic Songs; Montañas altas: Ven y veras: Una noche (1949)
Léon Algazi (1890-1971)
Six chansons populaires: Hinné ma tov! Shur, dodi!
Sidor Belarsky (1898-1975)
Papir iz dokh vays
Mark Warshawsky (1848-1907)
Dem Milners Trern arr. Sidor Belarsky
Shmaryahu Kaczerginski (1908-1954), Abraham Sutzkever (1913-2010) and Sidor Belarsky
Zol shoyn kumen di Geule
Joel Engel (1868-1927)
Five Pieces for Piano, Op. 19; No. 1, Nigun
Lazar Weiner (1897-1982)
Es brent, briderlech, es brent!
Unter dayne vayse shtern
Lori Laitman (b.1955)
The Seed of Dream: No.4. Beneath the Whiteness of Your Stars (2004)
Yehudi Wyner (b.1929)
Psalm 119 (1950)
Joel Engel
Three Pieces for Piano, Op. 12 No. 2, Mazurka in F sharp Minor
Darius Milhaud (1892-1974)
Poèmes Juifs, Op. 34, No. 2 Chant de Sion (1916)
Six Chants Populaires Hébraïques, Op. 86 No. 3 Chant Hassidique (1925)
Henriëtte Bosmans (1895-1952)
Trois Impressions, No. 2, Nuit Calme (1926)
Ilse Weber (1903-1944)
Ich wandre durch Theresienstadt (c.1943-44) arr Winifried Radeke
Wiegala (c.1943-44) arr voice and cello
