Bringing Jewish music to the concert hall

University of Chicago professor David Nirenberg reviews Ruth HaCohen’s new book, The Music Libel Against the Jews, a study of how Christian and Classical music developed in relation to ideas about Jews and their music: “The idea that Jewish music (or noise) was un-harmonious, insincere, manipulative, materialistic, or in some other way morally and spiritually dangerous: this idea helped to produce (and was also produced by) the Western musical tradition.”
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Allan Nadler reviews From Psalm to Lamentation: A Concert of Cantorial Masterpieces:

It was especially good to be reminded of hazzanut, our own equally magnificent treasury of classical composition for the synagogue, which for too long has been spurned and scorned by Jews of all denominations.  It was comforting and inspiring to be moved not by Handel’s “Messiah,” Bach’s “Weihnachts Oratorio,” or Schubert’s “Ave Maria,” gorgeous as they are, but by selections from our own classical liturgy, which have been lost or forgotten not as the consequence of pogroms or the Holocaust but on account of the low-brow musical predilections of most American shul-goers.

Read the rest here.

Missed our special cantorial concert last week? Listen to it on the radio this Saturday at 9 PM (EST) on Washington DC’s WETA 90.9 FM. Wherever you are, can also listen live on their website by clicking here.

Here’s what the Washington Post said about From Psalm to Lamentation: A Concert of Cantorial Masterpieces: “A superstar cantor opens Pro Musica Hebraica with strength and agility…. The program ranged from music for the liturgy to music for the theater, but all of it embodied that potent combination of sinuous, Eastern modality and heart-on-the-sleeve 19th-century romantic operatic drama that can convey both sorrow and exultation with so much dramatic juice.”

Joan Reinthaler reviews From Psalm to Lamentation: A Concert of Cantorial Masterpieces:

The program ranged from music for the liturgy to music for the theater, but all of it embodied that potent combination of sinuous, Eastern modality and heart-on-the-sleeve 19th-century romantic operatic drama that can convey both sorrow and exultation with so much dramatic juice.

Read the rest here.

The Jewish Week profiles Cantor Netanel Hershtik and previews PMH’s cantorial concerts next week:

Given that he is a 14th-generation cantor — no, that is not a typo; his family can trace its history of hazanut back that far — the idea of singing Jewish music as a “mission” may not seem incongruous, but the intensity with which he speaks of it informs you instantly that Hershtik is not merely paying lip service. He firmly believes in it.

His impassioned and immensely skilled singing, which will get a much-deserved showcase at the Museum at Eldridge Street on Dec. 2, further proves his point.

“Standing in that synagogue [at Eldridge Street], it’s a mission for me,” Hershtik said in a telephone interview last week. “I have a job to do in this world, to bring [classical hazanut] to the world. I don’t know if there is a music in the world that has more ancient roots.”

Doing so in a concert venue is, he admits, a slightly different experience than he faces as cantor for the Hampton Synagogue.

“For me to stand in front of an audience is a challenge,” the 34-year-old Hershtik said. “The most natural place for me is the amud [prayer leader’s desk]. I was raised singing in synagogue and this is the way I’m used to doing it, facing the ark, with my eyes closed. I don’t look at the people [praying] but I’m aware of them. Everyone is thinking the same thought and I’m trying to evoke that emotion for everyone. I’m not performing, I’m praying.”

Read the rest here. For ticket information for the NY (12/2) and DC (12/6) concerts, click here.