Itzhak Perlman - Perlman Plays Klezmer (2008) {2CD+1DVD}

Posted By : Virginia Plain | Date : 04 Feb 2010 21:57:07 | Comments : 4 |

Itzhak Perlman - Perlman Plays Klezmer (2008) {2CD+1DVD}
Flac (tracks)+CUE+LOG - 845 MB | DVD5 Untouched - 3.58 GB | NTSC (29.976 fps) | LPCM Stereo | English
Covers (300 dpi PNG)

“

Album Liner Notes:

Klezmer: From the old world to the new

Over the course of a thousand years, the Jews of Eastern Europe forged a unique civilisation in the territorial and cultural expanse between the Baltic and the Black Sea, from eastern Germany to the steppes of the Ukraine and beyond. Its vernacular was Yiddish, a uniquely Jewish fusion of Middle High German with elements of Hebrew/Aramaic, Old French, Old Italian and the Slavic languages. Described as an empire with neither king nor army, this Jewish veltele ('world within a world') was home to the majority of world Jewry for much of the past millennium. Born of the confluence of diverse cultural streams and nourished by a wellspring of traditional Judaism, its spiritual, intellectual and expressive sensibilities continue to influence both Jewish life and the world at large to the present day.

Among East European Jews, the occupation of the klezmer (plural: klezmorim) or professional folk musician, has been an ongoing profession for centuries. The word derives from Hebrew kley-zemer – literally 'vessels of song', i.e. 'musical instruments', 'musicians'. Strictly defined, klezmer music is the folk instrumental music of East European Jews, performed at weddings and other family or community celebrations. Comprising dance tunes as well as music for listening at wedding ceremonies and banquets, it is one part of a rich totality of Eastern European Jewish music that includes liturgical and Hasidic music, folksong traditions, Yiddish theatre music, art music, and popular song.

In contrast to folk musicians in most European cultures, however, klezmorim have always formed a professionalised caste within East European Jewish society and as such developed a high level of virtuosity as well as a repertoire of great formal complexity. Like most genres of Jewish music worldwide, klezmer music combines elements from specifically Jewish contexts like synagogal or home religious practice with elements of local non-Jewish music and the popular music of the day, all performed with uniquely Jewish styling and expressivity. Klezmer music shares with Jewish cantorial tradition a system of modes related to the Turkish makam system, and encompasses what ethnomusicologist Walter Zev Feldman terms a 'core repertoire' for specifically Jewish contexts, as well as a diverse body of melodies reflecting the non-Jewish environment. Like the Yiddish language, Yiddish musical traditions are a metaphor for centuries of cultural interaction between Jews and non-Jews. Though klezmer music is a distinctively Jewish form, its performers as well as 'consumers' in multi-ethnic Eastern Europe included non-Jews as well. Klezmorim both collaborated and competed with non-Jewish musicians, especially Roma (Gypsies), and performed for Jews and non-Jews of all social classes.

Although musical traditions flourished throughout Jewish Eastern Europe, the Ukraine and the adjacent East Romanian areas of Moldavia and Bessarabia can be considered a 'heartland' of Yiddish folk music, much like the Appalachian Mountains for American folk traditions. Most of the great klezmer virtuosi in both Europe and America had roots in these regions and much of the klezmer repertoire has a marked Eastern Romanian flavour. Romanian-derived forms like the doing, hora and bulgar were so popular at the turn of the century that they formed the basis of a pan-Yiddish style in klezmer music and the Yiddish theatre on both sides of the Atlantic.

Changing cultural and economic contexts are mirrored in the instrumentation of klezmer ensembles over the past 150 years. Through much of the 19th century, a favourite Jewish instrument in Eastern Europe was the tsimbl or hammered dulcimer, often played in conjunction with violin or flute. Late in the century the violin (or several violins) played the leading role in bands that might also include bass or cello, flute, clarinet, trumpet or cornet, trombone, low brass, and bass drum (with cymbal), snare drum or tambourine. Harmonic accompaniment was provided by the tsimbl or by violins or violas playing chords, later by piano or accordion.

By the early 20th century, the demand for louder ensembles to play in ever larger venues, as well as the rise of the recording industry, whose technology favoured louder instruments, were among those factors that contributed to the supplanting of the violin by wind instruments like the clarinet and trumpet. Although the clarinet has become the pre-eminent voice in 20th-century Yiddish instrumental music, the violin's once-quintessential role is still visible today in nostalgic popular images like Yidl mitn fidl ('Yidl with His Fiddle', a hugely successful 1930s Yiddish film musical), as well as the more recent Fiddler on the Roof.

From the 1910s to the 1950s, the American recording industry produced 78rpm discs by the thousands for the burgeoning ethnic market. Arriving as immigrants, klezmer musicians distinguished themselves in the studios as well as at weddings and in the Yiddish theatre. Prominent among these were violinist, arranger and composer Abe Schwartz (1881-1963) and clarinettists Naftule Brandwein (1889-1963) and Dave Tarras (1897-1989). As Yiddish music adapted to the increasingly commercialised American milieu, the influence of jazz and other popular forms grew. At the same time, the music made its contribution to the American popular repertoire: hits like Eddie Cantor's 1921 Leena from Palesteena or the Benny Goodman Orchestra's 1939 And the Angels Sing came straight from the klezmer tradition to reach the ears of millions worldwide.

The 1950s and '60s saw the decline of the traditional klezmer repertoire as a functional music for acculturated North American Jews. Growing middle-class sensibilities demanded a smoother, less 'ethnic' sound, and in the wake of the Holocaust and the birth of the State of Israel, Israeli music increasingly supplanted the older klezmer repertoire after 1948. Most North American Jewish musicians entered the world of classical music or the generic 'music business' rather than remaining exponents of a traditional immigrant style. Yet all was not lost...

The future of a tradition

A Yiddish proverb says 'Oyb di velt vet vern oysgeleyzt, iz nor in zkhus fun kinder' – 'If the world is to be saved, it will only be on the merits of children.' In the mid-1970s, a number of second- and third-generation American-Jewish musicians, with our roots in rock and roll, jazz and classical music as well as other ethnic styles, began to explore the music of our own heritage. Some had family connections to Yiddish culture: immigrant parents, Yiddish in the home, a klezmer, cantorial or Yiddish theatre background. Most were motivated by the desire to reclaim a tradition little known or rejected as backward-looking or just plain 'un-cool'. For many with a sense of an Eastern European Jewish heritage, the gap between our world and that of our parents and grandparents was thrown into relief by the political and cultural strivings of minorities worldwide. We were ready to seek a place for ourselves within Jewish musical tradition, and to seek a place for that tradition in the broader spectrum of world musics.

With repertoire deriving from old recordings, songbooks, and learned from family and community members, pioneering klezmer bands were founded. Close contact with immigrant and second-generation performers enriched our knowledge, reintroducing a personal immediacy to a heritage once obscured by 78rpm surface noise and the abyss of the Holocaust. In taking a musical tradition from wedding hall to concert stage, we augmented the instrumental klezmer repertoire with related Yiddish song traditions and brought our diverse musical sensibilities to bear on it. Soon prestigious concert halls, folk and arts festivals and major motion pictures had become venues for this new incarnation of old sounds – a participatory and culturally affirming art form for a new generation.

In the nearly 30 years that have passed, klezmer music has again become a vibrant part of the American cultural mainstream.
A multitude of new recordings, compositions and interpretations of the music have appeared, and more than a hundred bands now perform klezmer music throughout the world – in Europe, Israel and Australia as well as North America. Old sounds are heard anew, and new forms are carrying the tradition forward. Those of us making this music indeed feel blessed – after all, the opportunity to get up and play, sing along or dance to hot, soulful music which joyfully links our global-village present and our East European Jewish past doesn't come along every century... Fargint zikh! – Enjoy!
© MICHAEL ALPERT, 1995

”

CDs Tracklisting:
Disc 1 - In The Fiddler's House (72:16):
1. Reb Itzik's Nign (with Brave Old World) (6:06)
2. Simkhes-Toyre Time (with The Klezmatics) (3:25)
3. Flatbush Waltz (with The Andy Stratman Klezmer Orchestra) (6:15)
4. Wedding Medley (with The Klezmer Conservatory Band) (5:08)
5. Dybbuk Shers (with The Klezmatics) (4:49)
6. Basarabye (with Brave Old World) (6:59)
7. Firn di Mekhutonim Aheym (with The Klezmer Conservatory Band) (5:37)
8. Tati un Mama Tants (with The Andy Stratman Klezmer Orchestra) (5:52)
9. Fisherlid / Klezmatics Khosidl (with The Klezmatics) (6:28)
10. Der alter Bulgar & Forshpil (with The Andy Stratman Klezmer Orchestra) (5:55)
11. Ale Brider (with The Klezmer Conservatory Band) (3:45)
12. Honga (with The Klezmatics) (2:51)
13. Doyna & Skotshna (with Brave Old World) (3:34)
14. Der heyser Bulgar (with The Klezmer Conservatory Band) (3:55)
15. Di Gayster (with The Klezmatics) (1:37)

Disc 2 - Live In The Fiddler's House (76:31):
1. Bukovina 212 (with Brave Old World) (4:31)
2. Lekho Neraneno (with Brave Old World) (5:00)
3. Doina Naftule (with Brave Old World) (2:44)
4. A Hora mit Branfn (with Brave Old World) (3:26)
5. Healthy Baby Girl Hora (with The Klezmatics) (2:16)
6. Golem Tants (with The Klezmatics) (1:49)
7. Honga Encore (with The Klezmatics) (1:35)
8. Nigh (with The Klezmatics) (5:32)
9. Bulgars / The Kiss (with The Klezmatics) (5:09)
10. Meron Nign / In the Sukke (with The Andy Statman Klezmer Orchestra) (6:02)
11. Sholom Aleykhem (with The Andy Statman Klezmer Orchestra) (4:34)
12. Khaiterma (with The Andy Statman Klezmer Orchestra) (2:55)
13. Andy's Ride (with The Andy Statman Klezmer Orchestra) (2:57)
14. A Heymisher Bulgar / Wedding Dance (with the Klezmer Conservatory Band) (3:14)
15. Kale Bazetsn / Khusidl (Khasidic Dance) (with the Klezmer Conservatory Band) (4:30)
16. Fun Tashlikh (with the Klezmer Conservatory Band) (3:02)
17. A Yingele fun Poyln (A Young Man from Poland) / Di Mame iz Gegangen in Mark Arayn (Mother Went to Market) (with the Klezmer Conservatory Band) (5:00)
18. Finale - Processional / Klezmer Suite / Ale Brider (We Are All Brothers) (12:15)

Total Time: 148:47

DVD Details (click to enlarge)