Bringing Jewish music to the concert hall

Anne Midgette of the Washington Post reviews “The Enigma of Paris: Charles-Valentin Alkan, Frédéric Chopin and the French-Jewish Romance:”

Hamelin also did an outstanding job bringing across a lot of unfamiliar music to the audience. Alkan was once a star performer and later a recluse, long associated with the spurious but dramatic story that he died pulling the Talmud from a bookshelf that collapsed on him (Charles Krauthammer, the columnist who founded Pro Musica Hebraica with his wife, Robyn, said in his introduction from the stage that this accorded perfectly with his own impression of the Talmud, “beautiful but deadly”). His work is technically difficult and quintessentially romantic, making it an ideal vehicle for Hamelin, who certainly made a case for getting to know it better.

Read the whole thing.

The Washington Examiner previews tonight’s PMH concert, “The Enigma of Paris:”

Marc-Andre Hamelin, one of the world’s most honored pianists, will delve into the creativity of Frederic Chopin and Charles-Valentin Alkan, the two greatest piano virtuosos and composers of 19th century France. The occasion is Pro Musica Hebraica’s program focusing on the composers’ remarkable accomplishments and friendship. Despite being outsiders in their community, Chopin a Pole and Alkan a Jew, they thrived in the world of music centered in Paris.

“Chopin’s music never disappeared but has been part of our culture since his time,” Hamelin said. “Alkan, however, slipped into obscurity until he was rediscovered by two people during the 1950s and 1960s.

Read the rest here.

On Monday, March 26, at 9 PM, WETA’s Front Row Washington will broadcast the first of two programs of PMH’s Fall 2011 concert, “The Last Romantics: Jewish Composers of Interwar Europe.” In the first program of the concert (see below), Russian-Jewish pianist Jascha Nemtsov joined violinist Frank Reinecke, and cellist Julian Arp to explore the lost generation of European Jewish composers who sought to forge a Jewish Romantic style of classical music in 1920s and 1930s Central and Eastern Europe. WETA will broadcast program the second program of the concert (which includes clarinetist Alexander Fiterstein) on Monday, April 9, at 9 PM. Visit WETA’s website to listen.
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The Israeli Chamber Project is a group of young, first-rate Israeli musicians who recently played to a full house in Carnegie Hall — with a spillover crowd outside. But these musicians do not save their talents for high-profile performances. As Haaretz reports, the musicians (including the Project’s founder, Tibi Cziger), are deeply committed to involving a broad audience in their projects, which include everything from chamber music concerts to private lessons for high school students:
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Today, Yiddish music is usually associated with the klezmer genre. But from the early to the middle of the 20th century, Yiddish music was was the basis of a vibrant literary culture. At its center was the Ukrainian-born composer Lazar Weiner (1897-1982). Writing on the occasion of Boston Jewish Music Festival (March 1-11), Jeremy Eichler of the Boston Globe explores Weiner’s largely forgotten legacy:
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