Bringing Jewish music to the concert hall

From The Wall Street Journal interview:

 “I don’t like the idea that artists should keep out of politics,” he said. “The more you know and understand art, the more you have to defend values. You should speak up—and early enough to matter.”

Read the rest here.

Ilona Oltuski  review our latest concert on her blog, GetClassical:

When Charles Krauthammer, The Washington Post’s longtime political columnist and co-founder of the evening’s host organisation, Pro Musica Hebraica, introduced Evgeny Kissin at his recent Washington concert in co-production with the Kennedy Center, it was clear from the start that this evening would turn out to be very special.[…]

“The series tries to establish that there is more to Jewish music than the obvious pick of Hava Nagilah or Klezmer,” says Krauthammer. “There is an abundance of works that deserve exposure. It is our hope to continue to disseminate these works by charismatic young performers, who carry them on to their next performances and assure these works’ visibility and continued inspiration.”

Who better to fit the bill than star pianist Evgeny Kissin whose personal mission coincides with what the Krauthammers want to achieve?

Kissin made sure that the artistic merits of the evening’s musical part were in no way compromised. As James Loeffler, the series’ director of research explains, Kissin took the plunge into a repertoire that was, in large parts, as new to him as it was to the audience.

Read the rest here.

The editor of Commentary, John Podhoretz, on last night’s concert:

This interweaving of music and poetry was emotionally overwhelming, because what they share was an astonishing lack of sentimentality—and a startling modernity.

There was no yeidel-deedle-deidel charm here, limited sweetness, little light. These were anxious musical pieces and anxious poems, startlingly self-aware and sophisticated. Through both melody and verse, there ran that indelible Jewish blend of skeptical irony and pained humor. But what proved so devastating was how they (and the music especially) seemed to herald in their frightening dissonances and determined lack of satisfying resolution the destruction soon to come.

Read the rest here.

The ARC Ensemble in Pro Musica Hebraica’s Fall 2010 Concert. (click to enlarge)

The Globe and Mail reports on plans by the Toronto-based Royal Conservatory of Music to establish an institute to help retrieve suppressed works:

“It’s striking to me how much of this music is simply unknown and unexplored,” says Simon Wynberg, artistic director of the RCM’s ARC Ensemble, which over the past decade has championed works by suppressed composers through concert tours and recordings, two of which were nominated for Grammy awards…..

Ideally, the institute, which Wynberg expects to open “within six to 12 months,” would help uncover works that could be revived and performed by opera companies, orchestras and chamber groups such as the ARC Ensemble…..

“There are people who have dedicated their lives to this, and who are eminent musicologists, and who feel that they’re only scratching the surface,” he notes…..

RCM’s institute would identify and finance projects that need financial help, based on recommendations from an expert international panel.

“You really have to play these works for the public for them to realize what happened,” says Wynberg. ARC’s Grammy-nominated 2006 recording of music by Polish composer Mieczyslaw Weinberg was followed by a spate of new recordings by other musicians of the composer’s works, he notes.

The institute’s annual budget would be around $500,000 with around $120,000 dedicated to research.

Read the rest here.

On March 23, Bachanalia — a conductorless string orchestra led by Russian émigré violinist Nina Beilina — will perform a Jewish-themed concert in Congregation Ansche Chesed on the Upper West Side of New York City (map). The program includes works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Dmitri Shostakovich, and George Gershwin. Bachanaliaʼs composer-in-residence, Steve Cohen, will present a set of songs in Hebrew, based on Psalms, which will be heard for the first time in new arrangements for voice(s) and string orchestra. For the full program and to purchase tickets ($15-20 each), visit Bachanalia’s website. Click here to download the press release: (PDF).